Business Insights from Adelaide at a UA Entrepreneurship Panel
Last month, Adelaide returned to her alma mater and spoke on an Entrepreneurship Panel at the UA College of Communication & Information Sciences for APR Day. She talked to students about AMD’s origin story, the riskiest thing she’s done in the 9 years of running the agency, finding joy, and facing discomfort as an entrepreneur.
We’re sharing a recap of the insights she shared. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, freelancer, or someone curious about the business world, keep on reading to discover Adelaide’s biggest lessons.
🌊 Why Adelaide started AMD Creative
Adelaide started AMD Creative in her final year at UA, when she’d applied to about 65 jobs and had heard back from only one. At the time, she had a tutoring business. She was tutoring other students on how to use Adobe. It was small but a successful side hustle.
This got the wheels turning. Her tutoring business, though small, was a business. So why not expand it and make it bigger and better? After consulting with faculty and mentors, they encouraged Adelaide to go for it. With that confidence, she went full-steam ahead and found AMD in her final semester in 2017.
Nine years later, and now she’s running a full agency with a team of 10 women. She has served over 800 brands across the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico.
Her advice on starting your own business? “Never doubt your own power.”
🙌 The biggest risk Adelaide has made in 9 years of business
After six months of running her business, Adelaide made her first hire and signed on her first major project. Very quickly, she realized she needed to make a name for herself in the community. Birmingham is home to several marketing agencies, and being an entrepreneur in her early twenties, she knew she’d have to put in the work to be seen as a respected peer.
So, Adelaide found a hotel rooftop and told the staff she wanted to throw a party. Not just any party– the AMD Bash. She planned to invite every influencer in town and every agency owner.
To cover the costs, she created a pitch deck to secure sponsorships. She pitched her clients and other businesses to speak at this event, and in the end, it was a huge success.
She wound up signing on 10 new clients from this event alone! A testament to how, even if you’re just starting, if you want to make your way, you can.
The lesson here, she shared on the panel, is that “There’s a difference between branding and marketing. Sometimes you have to go heavy on the branding side, and sometimes you have to go heavy on the marketing side. So that was one of those times.”
🐘 The skills Adelaide learned at UA that have stuck with her over the years
With the journey that entrepreneurship takes you on, there will always be something new that comes up that requires you to pull from your toolbox. Whether it’s a random fact or a lesson you didn’t quite understand when you were learning it in real time, some skills you develop in university might be used frequently, whereas others may stay dormant for years and then jump out at you right when you need them.
“When you’re in classes right now, you don’t understand what’s going to affect you later in life.” – Adelaide
For Adelaide, the most valuable skill she learned during her time at UA was public speaking. Being an entrepreneur requires you to share your thoughts articulately and with confidence. These skills allow you to effectively advocate for your products, services, and ideas.
Learning to speak in public in college is hard. Being perceived can be difficult– especially in your college years.
But it’s necessary. And the ‘Oracle of Omaha’ himself, Warren Buffett, agrees. As he advised business students at Columbia University: "You can improve your valueby 50 percent just by learning communication skills—public speaking."
If public speaking terrifies you, you’re not alone. It doesn’t mean you’re a lost cause or unable to build on those skills. You can do it.
“Once you can get over that [fear] and be like, ‘I’m here. I deserve to be here. I have knowledge. I have talents to give the world’ — you can speak to people, and it doesn’t seem so scary.” – Adelaide Matte
🌸 How entrepreneurship shapes your identity
“If you decide to be an entrepreneur, you are committing to completely changing your entire identity,” Adelaide shared with the students.
“You’re always going to have your skill set, you’re always going to have that core base about what you’re passionate about, and from there you will meet a new version of yourself every single time you do something hard.
You get a new client, you fire someone, you create something out of nothing — that is what entrepreneurship is…
Someone could walk up to you, look you right in your eye, and say, ‘I don’t think you’re that great. And I don’t think your business is that great.’”
If you’re not so confident and passionate about what you’re doing… entrepreneurship might be something you get to eventually, but maybe not right away.”
It’s a confidence journey. And it’s an identity journey. Because it’s from nothing.”
🔥 Facing the uncomfortable: firing clients
As an entrepreneur, your well-being has to be your priority. If your mental and physical health are struggling, then you won’t be able to run your business to its fullest capacity.
But like with any growth, there are growing pains every entrepreneur must face. And one of them includes firing clients.
Firing a client is never easy; however, if a client is causing dysregulation in your nervous system and actively disrespecting you, you need to let them go. You’ll know in your gut when it’s the right move.
“My health, my happiness, and my enjoyment of owning my own business are the whole reason why I did it,” Adelaide shared with students. When a client starts making you dread starting your work day because you’re worried about being yelled at or belittled, it’s time to cut ties.
Even though the decision can bring financial worries (especially if they’re a big client), she empowered students to uphold their boundaries and have the confidence that this will only open their pathway to better opportunities.
“When you say no one time to the wrong client, five clients you would say yes to appear.”
🫶 Finding joy in business
There are two key things that bring Adelaide so much joy as a business owner.
The first is on the client side: “When a client comes to me and says someone loves our logo, our brand design, our website.” That’s where she celebrates.
We take so much pride in our work at AMD Creative, and it’s always exciting to hear the real-world impact brands have once they start working with us. After 9 years, it still doesn’t get old. We want the businesses we work with to succeed!
The second source of joy is leading her team: “Watching someone who works for me come in as one person and then over their journey, they blossom. They turn into a totally powerful, confident person. And I think that’s a gift.”
🌊 Where she finds moments of awe and surprise
“On a daily basis, I am surprised at what my team pulls off,” Adelaide reflects, “We’ll see a Pinterest photo, turn that into a mood board, order the props, go to the studio, and create something out of nothing.”
That ability to create something from nothing never gets old.
🤩 Build something worth believing in
Nine years in, and Adelaide is still building, learning, and showing up for her team and her clients with everything she's got. From founding AMD in her final semester at UA to leading a team of 10 women and serving over 800 brands, the through line has always been the same: confidence, creativity, and the courage to bet on yourself.
Whether you're just starting out or somewhere in the middle of your journey, we hope something she shared resonates with you.
