Life and Work with Nicole Woods

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Woods.

So, before we jump into specific questions about what you do, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started out with marketing burgers for Jack in the Box corporate in San Diego while I was finishing up my marketing degree in consumer behavior. From there, I moved to LA to start working in Film and Entertainment. I fell in love with it and have been working in it ever since. The best part about my path to where I am now is that I’ve worked on pretty much every side of the business – I started in media, then moved to the client side for the majority of my career before deciding to help build a creative agency which eventually gave me the opportunity to start my own company.

Viking has been a passion that I’ve been primed for since I was little, so it’s a great feeling when clients and others recognize the great work you and your team are doing. In the first year alone, we worked on over 40 campaigns and won four awards.

Great, 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?
It’s definitely not been a smooth road, but nothing worth anything ever is. It’s a lot of hard work and it’s a lot of learning as you go. I’m an overachiever and I’m too nice, so I hate turning any client away, but as we’ve grown I’ve been able to really take a hard look at where I want Viking to go and what it’ll take to get there and saying “no” is something I have to do now.

The biggest piece of advice is – don’t sit and wait for things to come to you. I was out there looking and trying to find what might work for me as my career progressed vs. hoping one-day things would automatically change. Consider letting things fall into place and having the faith that all that you have done to get to this point will work out in the long run as long as you have the courage to go after it. The next piece of advice is more for your mental health, but it’s to surround yourself with people who support you and encourage you to be better. Anyone who says you can’t isn’t worth keeping around.

Please tell us about Viking Social Agency.
Viking works specifically in content creation for social media and digital platforms – whether that means doing special content shoots or leveraging pre-existing assets. Our goal is to deliver the best campaign creatively and effectively for every client no matter the budget.

Our design & motion team is amazing. Our Creative Director and I are constantly pushing them to think outside the box and different, which keeps every campaign feel custom to the client. However, we can’t have great creative without great brainstorming and strategizing which is one of my personal passion points. I think over the last year, one of the things I’m most proud and humbled by is having clients & peers acknowledge the quality work we’ve developed. It makes all the hard work worth it.

Were there people and/or experiences you had in your childhood that you feel laid the foundation for your success?
I definitely think so – I may not look upon all of my experiences growing up as ‘positive’ but I wouldn’t be who I am without them. I think everything happens for a reason, and all of my mom’s and my marketing games growing up lead me to a passion that I know to get to call work.

Contact Info:

• Address: 832 Hermosa Ave
  Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
• Website: www.VikingSocialAgency.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/vikingsocialagency
• Facebook: facebook.com/vikingsocialagency

Image Credit:
Viking Social Agency

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