Check Out Kayla Beckmann Barnhart’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kayla Beckmann Barnhart. 

Kayla, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Let’s start from the beginning! I grew up in Atlantic Beach, Florida and started surfing competitively at the age of 12. Though the goal was never to be a professional surfer, I had a successful competitive career, winning the U.S Championships in 2008 while I was a sophomore at the University of North Florida. I knew I wanted to leverage the connections I had made through surfing into a career so I studied Electronic Media and Journalism and interned at FuelTV (an extreme sports network owned by Fox Sports). 

When I returned from my internship, I had some guys I knew in the community starting up a lifestyle magazine that would cover surfing, skateboarding, music, and more and they invited me to be involved. I started with one column and eventually worked my way up to Editor at the age of 23. At this same time, I convinced the guys to let me start a local TV show that was the “living, breathing” version of the magazine. I wrote, directed, and produced the show and w had two successful seasons. 

Feeling like I had hit peak opportunity at that career I left that job to pursue an opportunity at a regional ad agency. It wasn’t as exciting, but I worked with Fortune 500 brands and learned about the systems and structure of an agency and how to work with clients. Eventually feeling stuck there and bummed out on the 9-to-5 schedule, I quit to become a freelance TV/film producer, which was the beginning stages of Small Fox. Myself and a crew of super talented guys went on to make some pretty magical stuff, even winning AP awards along the way. 

However, I soon realized that I was spending a good amount of time doing work that wasn’t making me money, i.e.: responding to RFPs and submitting bids to jobs I wasn’t getting. I began to shift into handling social media for local businesses before getting my “big break” with landing Sanuk as a client – one I still work with today! 

My husband and I eventually moved from Florida to Denver where I began to niche my agency into the “adventure brand” space, working with the clients I work with now. Small Fox is no going on its eighth year of business! 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Oh man. It definitely has not been the smoothest sailing. When I started small fox, I was 25 and didn’t know shit. I honestly didn’t even mean to start a business. I just wanted to do cool, fun work and dictate my own schedule. So, the business aspect was definitely a learning curve at first. Additionally, I had no systems or structure in place so was just truly flying by the seat of my pants for years. 

When I started Small Fox, social media management was still a fairly new concept so convincing brands to let me handle it for them was a challenge. But once I did, I started to grow fast and soon had too much work to handle myself. That’s when I decided to invest in business coaching and grow my team by bringing on my first employees. Again, I had to learn to be a boss on the fly. 

Once things finally started feeling automated is when I had a baby and then COVID hit. That March I lost 75% of my business. I had to lay off and/or cut down the hours of my team. I was struggling to support my family but also feeling like I had a responsibility to support my team and their families as well. Fortunately, one of my bigger clients came back and thanks to the Outdoors industry booming during COVID times, I was able to expand retainers with my remaining clients. 

Current struggle includes being an FT working mom with a toddler. My husband is extremely involved but also works FT as well. Though our daughter is in school half-day, and both my husband and I have flexibility in our schedules, it’s still completely unsustainable to do it all. It’s in my nature to try to do it all, but I’m currently working on creating balance in all aspects of life. 

One thing I’ve learned in business and life is that you have to be nimble and know when to pivot. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a social media agency owner and with that comes specialization in strategy, content creation, and more. I work with brands in the adventure/outdoors space and there’s one golden rule I always follow – start with storytelling. 

I believe that brands should be living, breathing things, and every brand has a unique story to tell. I work to cultivate those stories through building the brand’s community and bringing in brand customers, fans, and followers into the mix. What better way to feature a product than showing real people doing real things while using it? Consumers are so savvy nowadays and know when they’re being advertised to, especially on social media. It’s my job to create an authentic experience on social and I think that’s what I’m really great at. 

In addition to that, alongside my clients, we look at who is not currently a part of the conversation and why not. The outdoors has an accessibility and equability problem and we work to bring awareness to that and bring in voices and faces that have not been a part of the conversation for way too long. I’m proud of the work we’ve done here and though I could report on plenty of metrics of how we’ve accomplished this on our social channels, those metrics are not what it’s about. It’s about creating a space for all. On social. In the outdoors. In the world. And that takes consistent work. 

I’m proud of a lot, but the thing I’m most proud of is the online communities I’ve helped my clients create. There’s so much negativity on social media nowadays, but I feel like within my client’s brand communities we’ve created really magical spaces. That ROI is hard to measure, but I believe the most valuable. 

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
My husband calls me ruthlessly efficient. I think I’ve always been this way. I’m direct, efficient, and have always felt most comfortable being a leader. Yes, I was the girl who always ended up doing the group project by herself. 

I low-key love when shit hits the fan because it gives an opportunity to go into “fix-it mode” and figure out a solution on the fly. I’m the reliable girl. It’s often that I’m pulled in when brands or even other agencies are stuck and just need someone to fix the thing. 

I have an extremely high capacity for stress and chaos which is exactly what’s needed to do what I do, but also the reason why I keep my therapist on speed dial. Ha! 

Contact Info:

• Website: smallfoxmedia.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smallfoxmedia/