Today we’d like to introduce you to Monique DeLeo.
Hi Monique, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I went to college for fashion marketing, and right after graduation I landed a job at a digital marketing agency in Center City. A few months in, I already knew working for someone else wasn’t for me. I loved the work. I just wanted to do it my way.
Creating, designing, and being on social media were always the things I couldn’t stop doing, even when no one was paying me to. So in the middle of Covid, when everything felt uncertain anyway, I decided to bet on myself and started Aligned Social Co.
It began with social media, website design, and strategy. And along the way, I found my people. Being a business owner is hard. Being a woman who owns a business comes with its own weight. We’re juggling everything under the sun, often while being underestimated for it. So getting to work with women-owned businesses, taking their social and digital marketing off their plate so they can focus on what they do best, is what makes all of it worth it. These women are incredible at what they do, and they deserve a brand that shows it.
But a lot of them didn’t have that yet. And you can’t fix a brand one post at a time if the foundation underneath it isn’t right. So I kept building. Branding, photography, and digital marketing campaigns. Not because I wanted a long service list, but because my clients needed it all to come from one place and tell one story.
It’s still me at the center of every project. I’m the strategist, the designer, the copywriter, and usually the one behind the camera too. I keep my roster small on purpose. I’d rather do fewer things at a really high level than spread myself thin.
Where I am today feels like the payoff of that bet I made on myself. I’m working with businesses I genuinely admire, here in Philly and beyond. And the moment I live for hasn’t changed: when a client sees her brand come together and finally feels like it matches who she is. That’s what makes every hard day worth it.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not even close. Starting a business in the middle of Covid meant I was figuring everything out at once, with no roadmap and a lot of uncertainty about whether businesses would even invest in marketing.
The creative side always came naturally. The business side didn’t. Nobody teaches you how to price your work, write a contract, or say no to a project that isn’t the right fit. In the beginning I said yes to almost everything, and I undercharged for a long time. I was so focused on proving myself that I forgot I was allowed to set the terms.
Being a solo founder is its own challenge too. I’m the strategist, the designer, the photographer, and the person sending invoices. There were seasons where I was so deep in client work that my own brand was the last thing getting attention, which is a little ironic given what I do.
What changed everything was getting clear on who I actually wanted to serve and building my business around them. I raised my prices, tightened my process, and started saying no more often. The roster got smaller and the work got so much better.
So no, it hasn’t been smooth. But every hard season taught me something I now build into how I work with clients. I know what it’s like to build something from scratch without a playbook, and so do most of the women I work with. That’s exactly why I care so much about getting it right for them.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m the founder and creative director of Aligned Social Co., a boutique creative agency that builds brands from the ground up. That means branding, website design, and social media management.
I specialize in service-based businesses, mostly women-owned. Think med spas, aesthetic studios, interior designers, and wedding and event pros. Businesses where the experience is everything, so the brand has to live up to it.
I’m known for making marketing that looks beautiful and actually works. Pretty isn’t enough on its own. I pair strategy with scroll-stopping design to build brands that get noticed for all the right reasons and give my clients the confidence to own their space.
That’s what sets me apart. No copy-and-paste strategies. No creating just to keep up. I get close to every business I work with, figure out what makes it worth choosing, and build every piece with the bigger picture in mind. And because I keep my roster small, every client gets my full attention, not a fraction of it.
When strategy, design, and marketing are guided by one clear vision, nothing gets lost in translation. That’s the alignment advantage.
What I’m most proud of is the change I see in my clients. They stop apologizing for their marketing. They stop saying “don’t look at my website yet.” They start sharing their brand with confidence because it finally reflects the level of work they do. Watching that shift happen never gets old.
How do you define success?
For me, success isn’t about how big my business gets. It’s about whether I built it on my own terms.
When I started, I thought success meant more clients, more projects, more everything. Now it looks a lot different. It’s working with people I genuinely believe in. It’s having the time to do every project at the level it deserves. It’s waking up excited about what’s on my calendar instead of dreading it.
On the client side, success is when the work keeps working long after I hand it off. When a client’s bookings go up, when people walk in already knowing who she is, when she gets compliments on her brand from someone she’s never met. That’s when I know we got it right.
And personally, success is freedom. I left a traditional job because I wanted to create something that was mine. Every day I get to do that, on my own schedule, for clients I chose, feels like success to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://alignedsocialco.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alignedsocial_co/
