Beck Hickey

Founder Zen + Mary

Tell me about your time in advertising. How did you get started and why did you leave?

I knew when I was 15 that I wanted to be an art director. I had a Communications Design class in highschool, and then sought out a college which offered Advertising. I graduated from Syracuse University and moved to Boston. I started my career at Arnold working on Volkswagen. It was a supportive, creative, wild, fun time then so I just assumed that is how it always was. A creative department like a gang helping each other and having a blast. I haven’t really had any awful agency experiences. A bad ECD here and there, but tolerable. Post 9/11 I was laid off from Fallon, and that really tarnished my love for it. I bought into the whole “we are family” idea of agencies, and this was a wake up call.

So the first time I left was because I was let go. While I was sitting in my parent’s house depressed I started making handbags out of old skateboards (long story for another day). I stopped by a couple skateshops in NYC to collect old decks, I guess I told someone what I was doing. They told someone else who happened to run a sales team distributing snowboard gear and clothing. They hit me up and wanted to rep my bags. I needed to send them 50 by christmas. I had only ever made 4. We launched the bags in Vegas during the big apparel trade shows and they had a big underground following. I never paid for advertising, just tradeshows and I got a ton of write ups in magazines. I basically developed the bags like an advertising campaign. They had a story, I designed a collection of 3 styles and branded the crap out of them. Celebs carried them, Tony Hawk gave one to his mom, and I think both his wives. It was a blast that lasted 3 years, but ultimately I needed to pay rent so I went back to freelancing.

What are you doing now? 

Currently I am applying for a cannabis retail license in New York State. I want to open a cannabis-friendly boutique hotel with an onsite retail store in the Hudson Valley/Catskills called Zen + Mary. I’ve been immersing myself in the cannabis legalization laws and learning as much as possible over the past two years.

How did the idea for your new venture come about?

Since the pandemic freelance really slowed down. Partly because most of the recruiters I know left advertising or left NYC, but I think mostly because I’m now over 50 and a lot less appealing to an ageist industry. I had been doing interior design as a side hustle since 2018 (I reached out to some interior designers I follow on IG who just so happened to be ex agency people. I asked them if I could intern for them, and they told me “no, just start doing it” so I did. Started picking up clients for free in exchange for photos.) Anyway.. During the pandemic cannabis was legalized in NY and a friend and I were talking about hating our career paths. We joked about opening a dispensary and then the joke got serious. She and I are no longer working together but I’m moving forward full steam.

What was your first step in starting your new venture?

This cannabis venture requires a lot more planning than I’m used to. I need to get a state license to sell, and I have to raise a lot of money ($2-3 million) to get things built and off the ground. So I have a business plan, a pitch deck, and have spent 2 years patiently planning and learning. It is maddening because I’m not a patient person at all, especially when I can see it so clear in my head. I know where the holes are in the market and I am ready to fill them!

What struggles did you have? Did you have ideas that failed?

I think the only thing I consider a struggle is money. When I was working on the bags I was making each one by hand and had not really factored my time into the cost of the bags so I was earning very little. I loved them, people loved them but it was just not sustainable for me living in NYC. I dont consider it a failure, I just had to put it away. 

This time I’m really nervous because more is at stake. I have a son now, and the cannabis retail store will require me to build a whole team, which I’ve never had to do. My past ventures were more “this is a great idea lets do it!” kinds of projects. 

Did you have help along the way?

With my current project I will need a lot of help. I don’t have a stash of money so I have to find financial backers to trust my vision. 

Did you ever consider giving up?

I sometimes feel like this time I’ve taken on something too big. I can pull off a lot of unimaginable things, for instance, In 2011 some friends and I had an idea for a reality show. We filmed a 3 minute pitch video and actually sold it to MTV who produced and aired a full season of the show. But at times I feel like i’m finally out of my depth. But, if I do give up now I dont know if I can pivot again, and I know advertising is not really interested in a 50-something mom who’s been on hiatus. So I have to keep going.

What would you do differently if you did it again?

If I could do anything differently, I would not have quit Y&R to do the MTV show. I would have kept my job and collected my checks from MTV instead of working with the writing team, and being on set for 26 weeks. It was just not the right timing for me to walk away from a steady paycheck.

What advice do you wish you had before you started?

I’m not good at taking advice on what direction my life should take. I probably wish I had just been more fiscally conservative. Saving money, not cashing in my 401k, and tightening the monthly budget while chasing a dream. But I’m sure my mom was telling me all those things and I ignored it!

What's the single biggest mistake you made in doing this?

What is the single most important thing that contributed to your success?

I think my years in advertising has made all my little ventures successful in their own way. Everything is a pitch. I mean everything. You’re pitching a new landlord when you want to rent an apartment. Pitching a show to a network is exactly the same as a campaign to a client. You need to give them a reason to believe in your idea, a reason to believe in your ability to execute. Same with raising 2 million dollars. I have a killer pitch deck, so i really know it’s just my confidence that I need to work on.

Do you miss your old life?

I miss the teamwork of advertising, the friends I would make at agencies. Working with people who totally get what you’re trying to do and how much it sucks when it sucks. And I miss the paychecks and the health insurance–the safety net.

**This wasn’t asked, but I think advertising creatives are uniquely positioned to jump ship and land on their feet in almost anything they want to try. Maybe they won’t be the best, but we wear so many hats, and have to absorb information so quickly that we have skills we don’t even realize. I see people on linked in asking all the time “how can I leave agency life?” and really just do it. Decide what you want to do, brand yourself and go.