Paige Velasquez Budde, Zilker Media: Austin's Open-Book PR Agency Q&A

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Originally published November 2020. Updated July 2026.

Paige Velasquez Budde is the CEO at Zilker Media, an Austin-based agency building people-driven brands. Founded three years prior to this interview, Zilker Media operates on the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and open book management — providing full financial transparency to all team members. Budde has been featured as a speaker on digital marketing strategy at Harvard Medical School, Alamo Drafthouse, Hilton Hotel, and the Women Presidents' Organization.

The Interview

Q: Zilker Media has grown quickly in three years. What do you attribute the success to?

A: It's been fun to be part of Zilker Media's growth. Our success is solely attributed to the dedication of our team members. Everyone has worked together to build a culture that is rewarding and fun. As a team, we review our core values and mission quarterly so we can shift how we live out each value as we grow. This culture has been celebrated internally and extended to our clients and partners. We have implemented transparency throughout the organization with the Entrepreneurial Operating System and open book management.

Q: What have you done differently to keep culture alive during COVID?

A: Our team has been fully remote for eight months. It's been a balance not to overload everyone on Zoom calls but still have personal conversations that would typically happen around the office. We have made a point to get creative with how we celebrate milestones. Recently, we had a big celebration and delivered everyone champagne to their houses to open all together on a Zoom call. Our leadership team also implemented a work-from-home stipend to help team members adapt to their full-time at-home office. Building culture is hard during this time, especially when team members could be going through personal challenges.

Q: What is open book management and why does transparency matter?

A: Open book management is an initiative our CFO Patti Conrad implemented this year. Two reasons we rolled it out: (1) we wanted to provide transparency so we can empower every team member to make decisions that will impact our business, and (2) our goal is to invest in our team members' financial education so they are empowered to grow their personal wealth. It's been so rewarding to see the team become empowered with this information. Everyone has become a leader in determining the best way their function can impact hitting our goals.

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