English alumna Carelyn Tiburcio relied on her marketing agency work experiences to co-found and build her own company

By Miranda Daubar

Since graduating from Florida State University in 2019, Carelyn Tiburcio has built an impressive resume through her experiences at several marketing companies. Despite that success, she wanted a work environment she could call her own.

“I worked in the corporate space at various jobs for various marketing agencies, and during those times as I was learning these skills, I thought, this is something that I really like and can get creative with,” says Tiburcio, who earned her bachelor's degree in English-Editing, Writing, and Media, with a second major in humanities.

In September 2022, she and her friend Esmeralda Sierra co-founded Pika Media, a social media management and marketing agency for companies and influencers worldwide. Sierra graduated from FSU in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in Communications and Digital Media and International Affairs.

The idea for Pika Media was developed during a trip the two took to Colombia, where Tiburcio and Sierra discussed beginning their own company. Sierra’s confidence in the idea gave Tiburcio the boost she needed to agree to start the process, and that summer, the co-founders talked about logistics, such as setting up a limited liability company (LLC) registered under Florida.

In September, they were officially open for business.

From the beginning, they knew they wanted their company to operate differently from the experiences they shared at previous marketing jobs. So, with Pika Media, they paved their own path.

Tiburcio says that even though she loved her former corporate jobs, she felt limited in what she could do. She now has the freedom to run a company as she sees fit, and she has the flexibility to do so because she works remotely.

She currently lives in Valencia, Spain, where she spent the final four months of 2019 working for FSU’s International Programs as a program assistant for the FSU-Valencia Program.

“I feel like you can learn quite a few things being abroad for an extended period of time, but something that I loved about Valencia was the fact that I became less anxious,” Tiburcio says. “I was able to take things at a different pace and I loved meeting that version of Carelyn.”

Thanks to her work arrangement, Tiburcio can travel and work from wherever she wants. She says she prefers to work in cafés, which she regularly visits to network Pika Media with possible new clients.

“I wake up earlier than the typical U.S. times,” Tiburcio says, describing how her day-to-day life looks different from when she worked in the U.S. “I’ll do some busy work like writing captions or designing or editing, and then when my clients are awake, I'll usually have calls.”

Her time on the job does range in responsibility: some weeks Tiburcio is busy with calls from potential clients and other weeks there is a light load of work. As a co-founder of a company, Tiburcio says highs and lows come with the position, which she explains as she talks about the realistic details of her job.

“I think the high moments for having your own company is you’re in charge of your own schedule, which is so important, having control of your time is such a key to happiness,” she says.

Another high for Tiburcio is interacting with many new people.

“You never know who you’re going to meet,” she says, “and I think that is one of the loveliest parts of my job.” “And for the lows,” she chuckles a bit, saying, “I would say some of the lows would be since I travel my time frames for my clients are a little bit all over the place.”

For example, because she lives in a different time zone from her clients and her colleagues— Valencia is six hours ahead of Tallahassee—she must accommodate their schedules. She adds that as head of a business, “you’re going to work beyond the 9 to 5 hours,” which is not something that people prepare you for when you start a new business.

Tiburcio still looks back fondly on her experiences at FSU, and she acknowledges how the university prepared her for the future as a Chief Executive Officer for her own company.

“I absolutely loved my time at FSU; I am so sad I have not visited since I graduated,” she says. “For my time at FSU I honestly changed my majors so many times,” she says, laughing at this fact, “but when I became an English major, I thought, ‘this is what I was destined to do realistically.’”

“English is a subject I loved so much in school,” and when she talks about her teachers in middle school and high school, she adds, “I looked up to them with such amazement and awe. They were such huge inspirations in my life.”

Tiburcio praises the English department as well: “The best part of the English department is the staff. So inspiring.”

As an English major, with a double major in humanities, Tiburcio was a member of several student clubs, and she participated in the Center for Global Engagement’s Beyond Borders program. She and nine other FSU students hosted visitors from Studentenwerk in Dresden, Germany, for two weeks on FSU's campus. A few months later, Tiburcio and the U.S. students traveled to Dresden.

For my time at FSU, I honestly changed my majors so many times, but when I became an English major, I thought, ‘this is what I was destined to do realistically.'

— Carelyn Tiburcio

That experience and her time as a program assistant in Valencia, “sparked my love for travel, and is one of the reasons I love living abroad,” she says.

Tiburcio’s suggestion to current FSU students and those who have already graduated is to “try as many things as you’re able to do. It’ll help a lot, especially during post-grad.”

Tiburcio has learned a lot from her time at FSU and in the jobs she had before starting Pika Media, and she is excited for what the future has in store for her and the company, which includes building its reach.

“The way we’re trying to do it is trying to go to these cafés or going to networking events for English speakers in Spain,” she says. “Everywhere that we travel we try to basically meet people face to face, have a coffee, and then try to expand that way. We’re constantly looking for opportunities, anything that comes up from our previous connections.”

With more than a year of experience running Pika Media, Tiburcio and Sierra and their team have gained new clients, experience, and invaluable business insights. With time their company could grow into a brand they have hoped for and more.

Miranda Daubar is an English major in the Creative Writing Program, with a minor in history.

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