Today we’d like to introduce you to Casey Long and Jesse Hebner.
Hi Casey and Jesse, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Our story starts on opposite coasts of the country. Casey is a marketing director and graphic designer from a small town in New Jersey, just a short bus ride away from Manhattan, New York. Jesse is a creative director and photographer born and raised in Portland, Oregon. We both moved to Southern California at different times for different reasons, but the universe aligned for us to meet each other in the spring of 2020. While the world around us was falling apart because of the pandemic, we chose to look at it all in a different light. To us, it served as a wake-up call that life is short and that American culture is all about living to work rather than working to live. We wanted to change that, so we took the opportunity to travel and get inspired during a time of uncertainty. Jesse dove into film photography, building an impressive following and landing features in film magazines. Casey has always had a side freelance business offering graphic design and marketing consulting but never felt secure enough to go full-time. Sharing our life together was easy, with the same values and a passion for helping others, so joining creative forces only came naturally. With some help from the universe and timing, we were pushed to take the leap.
By The See Creative was born in the summer of 2022, a play on words inspired by our life together right off Pacific Coast Highway. As a new small business, we’ve been lucky enough to work with an amazing list of clients right from the start. This is only the beginning to our story, and with this new year, we have plans for bigger and better in 2023 and beyond.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When you put two different creatives together, there are bound to be ups and downs. Working as lead through many industries with varying-sized teams, Casey is constantly striving for “perfection” and Jesse is a more laidback “go-with-the-flow” type. Although sometimes challenging, these perspectives balance each other in our work together.
This fast pace digital age has also been an obstacle for us as a new small marketing agency. As we help several new businesses get off the ground, designing full brands, websites, and photo campaigns, we’ve struggled to focus on our own marketing presence. The internet and social media move so fast these days we recognize it’s hard to keep up. As a small team, we put our partners first, therefore, our own brand has been pushed to the side on social and on our website. At the moment, we post and share what we feel, but are also optimistic about expanding our team outside of freelancers in the future.
We don’t consider ourselves experts in every area of business, but we are constantly learning, adapting, and growing in ways we feel are important.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about By The See Creative?
By The See Creative is a boutique marketing studio specializing in creative services. We like to think of ourselves as a “one stop creative shop,” offering anything from full-service photography to brand and website design. In a world overflowing with endless empty content, we pride ourselves on an authentic and intentional approach. We encourage clients to stay true to themselves, creating relatable material and building connections on and off digital screens. We only work with “feel good” people and offer discounts to women-owned and small business partners. As a woman-owned small business ourselves, we understand building something new is intimidating, and we want to provide our clients with the tools to move confidently into the world.
As a recently engaged couple, we use this same approach when it comes to personal photo and design. We offer our services for engagements, elopements, and weddings. The traditional wedding industry seems to be taking a turn, with couples letting their personalities show through photoshoots and unique invites. With this fresh and fun perspective, working with couples in love is quickly becoming some of our favorite experiences.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Currently, we are sitting in the coffee shop where we decided on the name “By The See” to get some inspiration for this interview. With the hustle and bustle over the last few weeks of holiday time, traveling, and celebrating the new year, we’ve been struggling to get back into the swing of things and put pen to paper. Walking up to Humblemaker Coffee Co. in Seal Beach, there’s a closed-down theatre next door that always has quotes on the marquee. Today it reads “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. – Aristole.” Messages like this, both physical and symbolic, are what we consider luck. This sign is exactly the inspiration we were looking for and didn’t even know it. As cliche as it is, we both believe in continually being inspired by the universe and its magic. We’ve been through our own personal challenges along the way, but trusting in the what’s meant to be, seems to be the answer. Building a business with this mentality reduces the stress of trying to control all the aspects of our multitasking lives.
With that said, we are lucky enough to have the positive support of our friends, families, and clients. We are lucky that the universe put us together, on the right (left) coast, at the right time and helped us build a beautiful life together. We are lucky to find “pleasure in the job,” loving and being creatively inspired by what we do, therefore, providing our clients with our version of “perfection in the work.” We consider ourselves amongst the lucky ones every single day.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.bytheseecreative.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/bythesee.creative
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bythesee.creative
- Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/company/bytheseecreative/
- Other: http://www.tiktok.com/@bythesee.creative
