Making brands pop
Milan Clarke is a marketer, photographer, California native, and moment-maker for her team and her clients.
Milan is an explorer. Experimenting and trying new things is exactly how she became the Leader and Founder of Summerset Social. And Milan will be first to tell you: She did not arrive here overnight. (And yes, she is named after the Italian city.)
Self-employed for six years now as the leader of her own social media and photography agency, Milan tried on many other jobs and creative endeavors before finding her fit. She was also fired more than once—something we’re sharing because Milan shared it with us shamelessly, and instead from a place of deep self-understanding and appreciation. Which is rad. And, had things been different, she may not be where she is now. Also rad.
“I think I was fired three times before I started freelancing. I have ADHD and corporate life wasn’t for me, the systems and structures didn’t fit how I work and operate. So I started freelancing in marketing for restaurants because of my background in hospitality, found out [restaurants] really needed [help], and most couldn’t afford a full-time marketing director. So I started working part-time for restaurants, then COVID hit and I lost all my clients in one day, which I’m sure a lot of people did. So I pivoted to consumer packaged goods and branding for lifestyle goods.”
Even within the context of her own business, Milan tries things without hesitation or fear. Like collecting freelance colleagues to help soften the loneliness that solo work can sometimes bring.
“Freelancing or contracting can be really lonely, because you’re kind of on your own. At first I felt really lonely, like I was on an island, but then I found other contractors—we could commiserate and celebrate together. A lot of my friends started dropping off the corporate chain like flies. And so I have a few group chats, we talk every day, and we’re on a little Slack network. So we’re each other’s own coworkers in a way. But anytime somebody says they’re a freelancer, my eyes perk up and I’m like, ‘Let’s hang out.’”
Milan also openly reaches out to potential collaborators digitally, even people she looks up to. And encourages other solopreneurs to do the same.
“On Instagram, I’ve reached out to people that I admire. Either I think they have incredible style, or they’re amazing creative directors, and I’m like, ‘They’re so above my level. They would never want to talk to me.’ But actually, I reach out to them and they’re super open. Everyone I reach out to is super open to have coffee or a call or just meet. Some of them I’ve created professional relationships with, some of them I’m friends with, so I would say don’t be afraid to just reach out and ask a question or just to meet up, because you never know what kind of relationship you could create.”
Bringing their values and identity to work
Milan grew up in Los Angeles, exposed to all walks of life. She credits the geography of her upbringing with her open acceptance of all others, and her ability to see, really see people, in all ways of being. Today, Milan’s personal values influence her work, and how she works with others in every way.
“It took me figuring out who I was to operate a business that is functioning and that I’m proud of. I’ve been able to choose clients that I really care about, and mean a lot to me, and have amazing values. That was a big part of starting my own company—I was working for people that I didn’t necessarily believe in what they did and how they represented themselves in the world. And now I get to choose.”
As part of the LGBTQ+ community, Milan’s personal identity deeply informs her business and working styles.
“When I found who I was, I was able to show up as my most authentic self, and able to do work that I am passionate about. And when you’re doing work you’re passionate about, it’s sustainable. You can keep on doing it, and build it, and build bigger. So once I found out who I am in all areas of life, that’s when things started to really turn—I was getting the clients I wanted, working with people I really liked. The energy of my company was really wonderful, is really wonderful, and safe and awesome.”
Milan’s non-negotiable values are safety and diversity. To foster safety, she creates an environment where every collaborator and client knows that they can always freely share their thoughts, feelings—anything. Milan also nurtures diversity as a way to strengthen her company.
“Bringing on all sorts of different perspectives makes me better. Makes the company better. Makes my clients better. It goes back to everyone being able to be themselves, which is such a beautiful thing, and I don’t take that for granted. If you can be yourself, that’s where we all shine.”
We asked Milan how other businesses, big and small, can lift up the queer community year-round, not just during Pride month.
“I work in social media, and that’s such a big platform for companies. So celebrating year round, whether it’s bringing in somebody monthly who’s queer, doing interviews like this year round, I think is super important. To me, queerness is just showing who you are, and we should be showing that all the time.”
On owning their weird and seeking out more
Some people have limited self-awareness. Milan is not one of them.
“I’ve always felt different. I’m tall, I’m queer, I’m weird. I’m very outgoing. Because I feel like I’m against the grain when it comes to societal standards, I’ve always been open to seeing the weirdness in all and celebrating that. Ever since I was a kid. It was just in me to celebrate the kookiness and the weirdness. So I like to find that in people.”
While Milan grew up in LA, she went to college in the south to play volleyball. For a long time, volleyball was a huge part of Milan’s identity. But there’s always been so much more.
“My dad was an actor and my mom was an artist, a painter. And so growing up, I always felt like I was a creative…something. I also played volleyball and that took a front seat because my dad was a momager in a way. He saw talent in me and really went with it. And so I played volleyball daily, I went to college and played, and I put the creative in the back seat. And I was an elite athlete, it was a wonderful experience, but I didn’t get to really tease out my creative side.”
It was only a literal matter of time. Once Milan no longer devoted entire days to a sport, she had the time and space to discover the rest of herself.
“In my twenties, after playing volleyball, you really have an identity shift because you’re like, ‘Who am I without this?’ I’d been playing this sport every day for seven hours a day, and I didn’t know who I was. That’s when I started to dabble in creativity. And I would go to my mom, because she’s a painter, and ask her things. I tried painting and it didn’t work out, but I just kept trying things. I still love to do all different types of creative things. Also, I believe that creativity is not just a thing you do, like paint or take photos. I’ve learned to live creatively—to be creative in my relationships, in my work, finding different creative solutions. I try to [find] what is the norm and how can I go against the grain and find my own way, and so I’ve always been like that. I think it’s the ADHD in me that doesn’t love rules. I find my own rules. I make my own rules.”
With her open mind on full blast her entire life, Milan still, understandably, had reservations when she first arrived in the south—an entirely different culture from Los Angeles.
“I came in with a lot of judgment. And when I got to be in the south and spent time with people there, I found that they were so beautiful. All my judgments dissolved. I became friends with these amazing people.”
Much like she had to try living in the south to galvanize her inner knowing that people everywhere are, or can be, both strange and wonderful, Milan had to experiment to find a business that felt like her.
“I’ve failed 900 times. I’ve been fired a bunch, like I shared. I’m really grateful for the fails because they helped me learn. My dad always told me to just try things, and I’ve tried a million things. I’ve tried painting. I’ve tried creating a skincare business. I was in hospitality. And now I feel like I’m finally firing on all cylinders. And that’s because I really tried things and figured out who I was. Even if you can just figure out who you are on a personal level, that helps inform what you want to do, and what your passions are.”
Milan’s dad’s advice has become her own. To anyone nervous to start their own business, she encourages you to simply start. To try.
“A lot of people are perfectionists. They don’t even realize it, but they’re like, ‘I can’t do this until I have a company name, or I have all of these things in order to launch.’ And what you need to do is just start. You need to not have anything and just go. And that’s when you’ll really start to learn in real life what you need, and what your business needs, and what works and what doesn’t. You can’t figure it out unless you try.”
As for where she got her weird, Milan’s parents are both artists. Milan, named for the city where her parents fell in love, might be their greatest collaboration yet. Milan’s mom’s art definitely influenced Milan’s style, and it’s clear Milan has both a deep love and respect for every facet of her parents, not just as parents, but as individuals.
“My mom does really bright Pop Art. She lived in New York during the Andy Warhol era, and so she claims that he stole her style, but it’s very similar to Andy Warhol. It’s big pops of people, mostly women. Really cool stuff. My dad was an actor. He was a D-lister. He was in a movie with Marlon Brando called The Formula. He was in a movie with Farrah Fawcett called Sunburn. He was in Spaghetti Westerns in Italy. And he hated it. He hated acting. I was like, ‘I could have been a celebrity kid,’ but he didn’t want to do it full-time. But he was really good at it.”
On trying and thriving in business, nature, and community
Trying things, setting your own rules. Sounds easy enough.
But a sustained try that isn’t resulting in success can be especially difficult. This may be where Milan’s rigorous athletic training comes into play. In the face of failure, or even just stalled momentum, which can feel poisonous to any business owner, Milan is resilient. She stays open to and actively seeks out new possibilities, fresh solutions.
“For five years in my business, I was working and things just weren’t going well. I was trying really hard. I was outputting a lot of energy, and I wasn’t seeing anything come in. And just this past year, I decided to bring in a different part of the business, to diversify. I started learning how to take photos and noticed that my clients needed it. And there was a hole in my small market. It took me months to figure it out, and I’m still learning. But the moment I got a paying client, that was amazing. And then an even bigger success was when I got Camelback as a client. That felt really good. It felt like I had worked really hard for something, and I got it. That was awesome.”
In addition to picking up photography, Milan learned that she didn’t have to do everything alone. Again, maybe it was the athlete in her. Slowly, Milan started building out her dream team.
“My community is everything in my success. I can’t do it on my own. I’ve tried, and it doesn’t work. I think that’s where I had a lot of turmoil with my business—trying to do everything on my own. Reaching out for help, it’s so wonderful to have a community where we share skills. They might do something amazing that I can’t do as well, like graphic design or editing. Just having that coterie of people around to support each other. And also just supporting each other in the trials and tribulations of being on your own as a freelancer, because it can be wild. There are high highs and low lows. And also, you never know if you’re going to make $0 that month or $70,000. Having a community is really helpful with the ebbs and flows of freelancership.”
Milan and Summerset Social primarily work with consumer-packaged goods. Summerset fully manages social from end-to-end, also building, creating and designing rich banks of brand imagery for use across social and other marketing channels.
“My favorite part of my business is content creation. I love creating content, whether that’s lo-fi, user-generated content. It’s so fun. And I have a team of content creators that make such cool stuff. And then photography—I love creating beautiful images for brands. Building out a brand’s visual voice is super important. I know that some people say, ‘Photography is dying and AI can take over,’ but I really think having that specific point of view when somebody comes to your Instagram page or your website is super important for how people feel when they [experience] your brand.”
As a way of further diversifying Summerset’s capabilities, and nurturing her still-new love of photography, Milan and her team developed their own photography studio where they stay busy, creating unique visual moments for their clients.
“I get to work with brands on really fun shoots, and [be] super outside the box. I can see in neon, everything becomes iridescent, so a lot of my work reflects that. It’s really bright and poppy, and so I’ve been able to find a cool style that I think people are really enjoying. It’s really cool to see people pay you for doing art. That’s the dream. I feel like in a way, I’m doing that.”
When she’s not taking photos for clients, Milan is still taking photos. Her partner is also a photographer. Whether they’re exploring together, or Milan is on a solo moment-hunt, Milan loves being in nature, be it camping or going into the mountains. Another love: Stuffed carbs. A new little something Milan is trying out.
“We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, and I’ve just recently found such a new love for the Bay Area. It’s so beautiful. Everywhere you look, it’s so beautiful. I love that. Lately I’ve been on a dumpling tour because I live near amazing dumplings in Outer Sunset, so that’s been a big priority. Stuffed carbs.”
We asked Milan to share what success means to her.
“I feel like, I don’t think I’ve reached the top, but I think I’ve stopped trying to get to the top, because that was not doing any service for me. If we’re talking about aspirations, I wrote down 2023 goals for my business and my life, and none of them panned out. But what panned out was so much greater. I think just release control on what you think you should be doing, and just be open to the unknown. The magic of the unknown is so much greater than what you could have planned sometimes.”
Last and maybe most important, and encouraging words for anyone considering self-employment, Milan shares her favorite thing about the journey, so far.
“My absolute favorite part about being self-employed is the agency. I don’t think you can deny that, the freedom of it. I get to do what I want when I want it. I get to create my own rules and systems, which I think is beautiful, and I wouldn’t exchange that. Even though it is hard and it can be lonely, it is really rewarding to build something by yourself from the ground up and with people you love and a community you love.”
With that, go try. And try. And try again.
Find Milan here:
