Inside Creative Parlor How Lo Nelson & Sam Czap Make Running a Values-driven Media Agency Look Easy

It takes more than just an Instagram post and a witty campaign to run a successful creative media agency. Lo Nelson and Sam Czap will be the first to tell you that, with the best-friend duo launching their own story-driven business in 2021. But before the accounts, strategies, and mood boards came the question at the center of it all: What did they want Creative Parlor to be?

After noticing a number of social media agencies prioritizing corporate models tied to premium prices, Creative Parlor’s founder Nelson set out to cater to small businesses. “I wanted to give them the marketing they deserved,” she said.

Executive creative director Czap put it perfectly, emphasizing the need to “meet people—or businesses and brands—exactly where they are,” ensuring their clients (whether start-ups or established labels), received 100 percent of their talents.

Grounded in values over profi t and rooted in Jesus, the joint force has established a relationship-first operation, defining trust through their attitude, character, and deliverables. “We are not in this business just to climb the ladder,” Nelson shared, always eager for growth, but never at the client’s expense. “We’re going to build the right thing that honors God and honors people,” continued a passionate Nelson.

This ethos is rooted in the idea of a “sister shop,” cementing a down-to-earth environment. “You’re going to get the real version of us,” said Czap, “We’re not trying to sleaze our way into any corner.” The result? A media agency that consistently champions individuals across the board, ensuring everyone leaves better than when they first arrived. “Come as you are,” said Nelson, “but we’re going to pull the gold out of you.”

So, if the team isn’t fixated on luxury retainers but integrity and uplifting others, how does the pair take their enterprise to the next level? Through the art of storytelling.

“It’s showing the ‘why’,” Czap said. “What’s the heart behind the brand?” This emotional tug fills in the gaps of a product, allowing “creativity and storytelling to marry each other,” she explained.

What’s more, Nelson and Czap have redefined the meaning of success, plucking it away from a number in a bank account. Instead, the entrepreneurs recognize lasting relationships and increased client trust as the real win. On individual levels, the true achievement is rooted friendship and self development. “We are better people because we’ve gone through ups and downs in this space,” said Nelson. Gratefully, Czap added a view of success shaped by lifestyle: “It’s not lost on me that I get to do what I feel like I’m created to do on a daily basis.”

While discipline and perseverance continues to scale Creative Parlor, the duo believes “God is the ultimate creator” and is responsible for their growth. Still, Czap explains it’s “human nature to question and go into fear” when a client drops or you may need to take a pay cut—making it a “constant surrender” and reminder to “not put God on your own timeline.”

“That concept of trust and not striving to run the business and make it a certain way is very challenging and humbling,” Nelson continued. “But every time we submit to it, it comes through.”

Nelson and Czap have proved running a high-level creative agency takes skill and strategy as much as it does integrity and faith—but none of it would be possible without the right partnership. “Who you work with—who you’re linking arms with—matters,” said Nelson, giving both women the encouragement to keep building and trusting.

By Ruby Ford-Dunker