What’s your backstory — how did you end up starting (or joining) an agency?

After spending basically my entire career at a few of the big global branding agencies, I realized that they increasingly had less of what I wanted as I began to know more about what I actually needed for my career and in my life. Sure, I was lucky enough to work with some of the largest global brands. Household names. But in reality, most of the work never saw the light of day and the impact we had was pretty muted. Joining a smaller agency – where I had more agency – felt like the next right step for me. It was a risk, but one that ultimately led to much more deeply satisfying work and much more profound impact on the clients I was working with.

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What’s a belief you’ve changed your mind about in the last 3 years?

I was convinced that remote work was going to end my career at one point. I was known as the “workshop guy” and all I knew was delivering fun, insightful workshops in person. When we all went remote, I completely freaked out. How is this going to work? To my surprise, we pretty quickly figured it out and in many respects it actually works better to conduct our workshops virtually. It’s more democratic. It removes a lot of the politics from the room. And there’s much less chance of the loudest voices dominating the session. Plus, we’ve been able to use simple features like chat in fun and meaningful ways that really elevate the experience. It went from game over to much better.

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What’s a personal ritual or habit you credit for your success?

One simple trick I learned early on when I was finding my voice as a strategist is super simple, but extremely effective. I kept starting my work in PowerPoint, reworking slides and the narrative, slide by slide, over and over again. It was incredibly inefficient and also wasn’t telling as powerful of a story as I knew was in my head. So, instead of doing that, I just started writing myself an email which contained the headlines for every side of the deck. My focus was then on story, not slide layout. It freed my mind to think about what I was actually trying to say, and the most logical and convincing to say it. It completely changed how I went about storytelling and I honestly still use that tactic today.

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What’s one mistake you made early on that taught you something lasting?

As I was coming up the ranks as a strategist, I had so many thoughts about different ways of doing things and different things I wanted to try when I eventually became a leader. Then I finally became a leader, and I viewed it as my chance to try out my ideas that I’d been sitting on for years. So over a period of about 6 to 9 months I did it…and it was a colossal failure. But at the same time, it was incredibly liberating. I wasn’t holding into a list of ideas – many from years ago – anymore. I then just started trying new things when I had the idea which proved infinitely more successful because the idea had context, purpose and intent. The idea was suited to solve a real current challenge versus a historic one. Now I never sit on thoughts, I just run with them.

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What’s your definition of “success” right now?

Success to me is pretty simple and straightforward. I could say something generic about growth, but I think that’s just a byproduct of other measures of success. It starts with my pride in our people. Seeing them grow professionally, but also as human beings as a part of our team is truly awesome. The next element is really having joy in the work. Even though I lead an agency now, I’m still quite involved in actually doing the work, by design. I think if I got too far from the work, I would lack credibility to clients – but more importantly – to our team. Lastly, it’s peace of mind in the business. That we’re running it the right way for ourselves, for the work and for our clients.

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What makes your agency different from others in your space?

It’s our focus, our approach and our make up as a team. Our focus is quite clear. We work with complex B2B businesses in tech, financial services and professional services. That’s what we do best, so that’s all we do. Our approach and make up of our team is also a major differentiator. We say we are equal parts business smart and creative heart. What this means in practice is we have a 50-50 split between strategy and creative. But it’s not just about the numbers, it’s about how we actually do the work. Our full team is engaged throughout any work process and has a meaningful role in shaping the work regardless of their actual role – be it strategy or creative.

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What’s a principle or value your agency lives by?

Honesty in everything we do. The work. How we treat each other and our clients. How we price things. How we behave when everyone is looking and how we behave when no one is looking.

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How do you hire? What do you look for in people?

Enthusiasm. I always say that you can teach people almost anything so long as they are smart and hard-working. The only thing you can’t teach is enthusiasm. And I think it’s one of the most critical elements of being successful in this business. Realistically, if you can’t show up enthusiastic about your work and what you’re going to share with clients, why the heck should they be enthusiastic about it?

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How do you foster creative thinking on your team?

Years ago we started this fun practice in brainstorms where the last 15 minutes we call it “let’s get fired.” The rule is you need to come up with 3 to 4 ideas that would instantly get us fired if we ever were to present them to clients. It encourages people to remove bounds and come up with pretty wild things but often leads to some of our best ideas. It’s all based on the premise that the best ideas often start off as jokes. And it really works!

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What advice would you give to someone starting an agency today?

Despite your excitement, things take time. It’ll take at least 3 to 4 years to figure out exactly who you are as an agency and what you do best. Then even more time to actually get it right.

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What is your most controversial or unpopular belief?

Saying no is often much more important than saying yes. Agencies absolutely love saying yes. Believe me, I’ve worked for them. There is often a mindset that you just say yes and figure it out later. But that doesn’t work for me. I’m really good at saying no. When we can’t deliver A+ work for a specific ask or if something is outside of our defined capabilities, we are completely honest with our clients and refer them to someone else.

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What’s your favorite thing about being in this industry?

Working on branding projects uniquely brings people together across all different sorts of levels and roles like few (if any) other types of initiatives at companies. This creates a shared experience and purpose that has a profound impact, not only on just the company itself, but the people involved both professionally and personally. It’s amazing seeing people from all over an organization work together in defining a brand.