How Agency Burnout Led Me to Build the Tools I Wished I Had

The Beginning: From Social Media to Agency Life

My career in marketing started in the social media space, where I quickly fell in love with the fast-paced, creative energy of connecting brands with audiences. But I knew if I wanted to truly master the craft, I needed to get into agency life.

That opportunity came when I joined an ad agency down in Seattle. This was my stepping stone into the agency industry, and it completely transformed how I understood marketing at scale. I specialized in paid social media strategy, learning the intricacies of campaign optimization, audience targeting, and performance analytics.

But something was missing.

The Creative Gap

While I excelled at paid social strategy, I realized I was missing some of the creative aspects that first drew me to social media: content creation, influencer partnerships, and organic growth strategies. The analytical side was thrilling, but I craved the storytelling and community-building elements.

Then I got the opportunity to change everything.

I moved to a PR and communications agency, which allowed me to tap into that creative side while keeping my paid social skills sharp and growing. I headed up the influencer program, created content for clients, developed organic social strategies, and even expanded into Google Ads.

It was the best of both worlds—creative and analytical, organic and paid, storytelling and strategy.

The Breaking Point: When Pain Points Became Unbearable

But here's where things got real.

During this time, I found myself constantly hitting the same frustrating bottlenecks:

• Continuous approval delays slowing down campaigns
• Manual reporting that ate up hours every week
• Data scattered across multiple platforms (Facebook Ads Manager, TikTok Ads Manager, Snapchat Ads Manager, Google Ads, Sprout Social, Excel sheets, Google Sheets, Asana, email threads)
• Repetitive daily tasks that I knew could be automated

I spent so much time on these mundane tasks that I had less time for actual strategy and creative work.

I tried to fix it. I integrated workflows into Asana, Looker Studio and even looked into platforms like Power BI and Funnel to try and consolidate our data. I didn't have time to put my all into getting these set up within the agency because I had repetitive work day-to-day.

But the pain points kept growing. Every time I thought I fixed one thing, something else would break or become a bottleneck. It felt like playing whack-a-mole with inefficiency.

The Realization: There Had to Be a Better Way

That's when it hit me:

What if I could build the exact tools I needed—systems designed specifically for how I work?

Not off-the-shelf software that forces you to adapt to its workflow. Not enterprise solutions that cost a fortune and take months to implement. Not generic templates that solve 60% of the problem.

Custom systems that work for YOU.

But here's the thing: building custom software traditionally requires expensive developers, long timelines, and hoping they understand your actual needs. That's when I discovered vibe coding.

The Discovery: Vibe Coding Changes Everything

Vibe coding is a development philosophy coined by AI researcher Andrej Karpathy—it's about using AI to transform natural language descriptions into functional software. Instead of spending months learning to code or hiring expensive developers, you can describe what you need and build it.

This was the missing piece.

I realized that if I learned vibe coding, I could:

• Build exactly the tools I wished I had during my agency days
• Create systems tailored to specific workflows—not generic solutions
• Iterate quickly when needs change
• Help others do the same for their businesses

So I made a decision: I left my position to learn vibe coding.

Not just to build one dashboard, but to master the ability to create any system or tool that makes life easier—for myself and for others facing the same frustrations.

The Leap: Starting Vaib Studio

Vaib Studio was born from this journey. Our mission: Help people in agencies and small businesses identify their pain points and build custom systems tailored to their business—so they can focus on scaling, not repetitive tasks.

The power of vibe coding means we're not limited to pre-built solutions. We can create:

• A unified dashboard that pulls from all your platforms? We can build that.
• An approval workflow that matches how your team actually works? We can build that.
• A custom reporting system that shows exactly what you need to see? We can build that.
• Any system that eliminates your specific bottleneck? We can build that.

This is what makes vibe coding revolutionary—it's not about the dashboard itself. It's about the ability to build whatever you need to solve your unique problems.

How We Actually Help You Scale

At Vaib Studio, we've structured our services to meet you exactly where you are—whether you're just discovering your bottlenecks or ready to overhaul your entire workflow.

Free Bottleneck Scan

Goal: Build trust, get leads, show instant value What you get: A 10-15 minute questionnaire + Loom walkthrough where we identify 1-2 workflow bottlenecks slowing your business down

This isn't generic advice. We show you EXACTLY where you're leaking time, and it naturally leads to our paid offers if you want us to fix it.

Why Vibe Coding Makes This Possible

Traditional software development creates a gap between the person who understands the problem and the person who builds the solution. You explain your needs to a developer, they interpret it, build something, and you hope it matches what you actually needed.

Vibe coding closes that gap.

Because we can rapidly translate business needs into working systems, we spend our time on what actually matters: understanding your specific bottlenecks and building exactly what you need to eliminate them.

This means:

• Solutions implemented in 48 hours for many projects
• Systems tailored to your exact workflow—not generic templates
• Fast iteration when your needs evolve
• Real software that scales with your business

The speed isn't about cutting corners. It's about removing the traditional barriers between identifying a problem and solving it.

Let's Fix Your Bottlenecks Together

If you're spending more time managing tools than doing actual work, we need to talk.

If you're drowning in approvals, scattered data, and repetitive tasks, there's a better way.

At Vaib Studio, we don't just understand your pain points—we've lived them. And now we build systems that eliminate them.

Ready to stop playing whack-a-mole with inefficiency?

Start with a Free Bottleneck Scan and let's identify exactly where you're leaking time.

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Lizzy Hudson is the founder of Vaib Studio, where she helps agencies and small businesses eliminate workflow bottlenecks through custom automation systems and AI-powered solutions.