Elle Taylor (De Freitas) - Founder of Wonderkind

It was the fall of 2019 when Elle realized working for other people wasn’t working.

“I am more of a visionary or dreamer. I am not great when I have a set list of things to do or a specific role. I wanted to do more. I wanted to have more independence.”

She had worked a series of sales and marketing jobs, both in-house and as a contractor, in the food and beverage industry. On the side, she had started a small business hosting food events to merge consumers and brands.

“I found myself, at the time, getting uninterested in the companies I was working for quite quickly because I was in a small box. I had more ideas than what my role could be.”

She had never worked for an agency or had even heard of an agency for that matter.

Sitting down with her husband, Ed, she made a list of things she thought she was good at and the things that could make money. What do I like to do? What do people actually pay for?

The common denominator between the two became social media.

She loved working with food brands, taking photos, and helping build their communities. So, the first thing she did was tap her network of food brands she had worked with previously.

It was a hard pitch to sell. With no track record of experience and only her personal Instagram to show for herself, she asked to run these brands’ social media.

“I had to price myself really low just to make it an easy yes,” Elle remembers.

One thing going for her was her consistent, organic support of these brands on social media. At the time, it was a turmeric brand she would tag on her personal Instagram. She then would see them at her events, and they had almost become friends. Ultimately, this trust gave her a few “yes”s.

As she began building her portfolio, the services required of these small food brands exceeded what she could offer. Things like professional images and packaging design were outside of Elle’s realm, but not of her best friend Cally’s.

Elle self proclaims she is “not creative.” Everything Elle was selling to brands, Cally could execute. Cally became the creative arm of the duo.

Most often, working with your best friend should be a scary thing to do. Yet, Elle and Cally seem to do it with grace.

Elle describes the secret to their success as being that “Cally has no ego. She just wants the business to do well. I have an ego and opinion and I like to control things. If there were two people like that, it would not work.”

The dynamic between all three partners, Ed being Elle’s husband, is Ed and Elle make higher-level decisions for the company, while Cally gets ultimate creative freedom. The trio support each other’s decisions, valuing the other’s skillset.

Elle could self-identify what she needed help with early on. While Cally became the creative arm of Wonderkind, Ed became the business admin. He handled all billing, contracts, invoices, etc., and became very crucial to the brand’s growth.

“At the time, I was never like ‘Where are we going to be in five months?’ or mapping out our goals. We were just rolling with the punches,” Elle reflects.

Elle and Cally worked out of the common space at Elle’s condo until the management shut it down. Office spaces didn’t feel right and were very expensive, so they rented a new Airbnb every week. The small team worked from these Airbnb’s for about 6 months.

In July 2020, Wonderkind started hiring out of need. The demand for their social media services became so high that they would evaluate the lowest-level, tedious task they could outsource and then add to the team. The first hire was an intern who answered DM’s and comments. They continued to use this hiring structure until their team grew to 50+ girls, handling 500+ brands.

For the next three years, Elle worked very hard. She built one of the most reputable creative agencies in the industry, working with brands like Kroma, SkinnyDipped, Unreal, Yasso, SuperCoffee and many more. Despite this, Elle says it “was only for the girls.”

“What I enjoyed most about the job was hiring young girls that had never done the role they were applying for, but they wanted to learn. They care about Wonderkind and they care about the work that they create.” Elle says. “Whatever they didn’t know, we should be able to teach them.”

Working in person in a fun office, being prepared to slow down and coach, and open to having honest conversations about performance are key factors to making this structure possible. That, and nurturing when someone is crying over their boyfriend.

Elle credits most of Wonderkind’s success to the way they manage their accounts, their attention to creative, and the company culture.

“Most agencies don’t prioritize updating their website, having a newsletter, or having a well functioning Instagram,” she explains. “Brands will look at what we are doing online and say ‘I want that.’”

Looking at Wonderkind’s website and Instagram feed, it is eye-catching, color-blocked, and trendy. “People love the aesthetic, it is very colorful and cool. That can be attributed to Cally,” Elle claims.

“The youngness of the team radiates through calls. We are happy and excited and I think other brands want to be a part of that,” Elle talks about the agency’s culture. Emails from the Wonderkind team may be addressed as “Hey Gal!” or “Howdy!” with a cowboy emoji.

Gen Z girls are the target audience of so many brands on social media. By structuring the team as the target audience, they can fully get into the brain of the consumer.

As the brand grew, more and more girls would apply for open positions. To stand out, girls would send cookies to the studio, or hand deliver their resumes. One applicant, Marah Lopez, sat down with Elle after DMing the Wonderkind Instagram “I WILL DO ANYTHING TO GET THIS JOB” and came to the meeting with 5-10 examples of what she would create for each account she knew Wonderkind ran. She is now the TikTok manager.

Anyone ambitious will succeed at Wonderkind. Halle Nelson is the COO at age 24.

This was the kind of work environment Elle had always wanted.

While Wonderkind is Elle’s passion project, her biggest dream has always been to be a mom. When the @wonderkindco Instagram account announced Ed and Elle are expecting a baby girl in June 2024, hundreds of fans and friends alike flooded the comment section with excitement for her. With this, Elle knows her work structure will have to look different, as she won’t be in the office every day of the week.

“The things I do well are Wonderkind brand and sales. Those will always be things I am a part of. We have hired in a way that allows me to step back,” she explains. “Ed, Halle (COO), and Nadia (Business Development) have structurally built foundations to let Wonderkind run without me,” Elle mentions.

Elle is so proud of Wonderkind. She is even more proud it is in a place where it can stand alone.

“The brands we have worked with today are brands I never thought we would be in the same room with, and they’re coming to us organically,” she says.

When asked about her favorite project, Elle mentions a recent big project with General Mills’ innovation department. They worked with the biggest agency in food and beverage, Red Antler, on designing “Plate of Plenty.” Red Antler came to Wonderkind for photography work.

“I love being in the room with some of those big dogs because I never thought I would be,” Elle says. “We are so different from them. We are so untraditional. We may look like a bunch of dumb girls (I actually don’t mind when people assume that), but when we get in the same room with people they’re very impressed. I love surprising people.”

The team today stands with 50 girls (+ Ed) working with 500+ brands on design, Instagram, TikTok, and photography for consumer brands, continuing to “wow” the world with their content.

With Elle as a founder, are we surprised?