For many people working in the creative industries, the pandemic has been a time of uncertainty; and for just as many, a time to actually have a think about what you do for a living and why. Without things like pints in public places, and community, there’s been more time to mull over what you really want to do, and whether or not you’re actually doing it. It takes a brave person to use that time to do something that’s scary at the best of times: set up your own studio. But that’s exactly what Emily Jeffrey-Barrett did, launching her own studio, Among Equals, in September 2020.
Jeffrey-Barrett, a creative strategist and copywriter by trade, had previously worked as a creative and creative lead at agency behemoth Radley Yeldar, and most recently as a creative strategy director at Onwards, before deciding to take the plunge. We spoke to her about making that big decision, her advice for others considering doing the same, and how nice it is to “feel like you’re actually doing something decent with your life.”
Why did last year feel like the right time to set out on your own?
I always knew that I wanted to have my own agency but I was a bit scared to do it: not having a paycheck is frightening. What if nobody wants to work with me?
Last year, I found lockdown really difficult and depressing, so I just worked all the time because I had nothing else to do. Because of that, I started to kind of reevaluate what I really wanted to get out of work.
Onwards was an amazing place to be, the clients were great, it was really interesting, and the team was brilliant. I’ve come from a culture where everybody was friends at work, and it gave you a lot of social interaction. People always talk about a work life balance, [during lockdown] I quickly found that actually, I didn’t need a work life balance. So I had that push in a way. I was getting a bit frustrated, because I had all this extra time and like nothing to distract me. It made me think that maybe starting a business wasn’t so frightening, because what’s the worst that could happen? If it doesn’t work, and after a year, I don’t have a job, and I’ve got no income, and I need to go get another job, you’ll be a better candidate just from having tried to set up your own thing.
A mate lent me a book which had this quote in which was a lightbulb moment for me, which might sound really trite… “change happens when the fear of not doing something outweighs the fear of doing it.”
I didn’t want another ten years regretting the fact I never did it. So I worked my notice, and my boss at Onwards was amazing: he obviously ran his own small business, so he taught me all the things you need to know, like invoicing and stuff. I had a three month notice period, so that gave me time to properly get the basics in place that I needed to get going.
How have you found it? Are you glad you made that move?
Yeah, I’m super happy. I found it really exciting and fulfilling. And even the things that are typically boring—the aforementioned invoices, or doing a project plan, even those things have taken on a new level of excitement. I’m doing it all myself, so I know that every bit of time and effort that I put into the business is something that I’m doing to build something for myself.
I’ve also found that the anxiety about salaries and stuff has kind of gone away as well, because I’m in control of my life in a way that you’re not I think when you’re employed. I know that if something good happens, it’s because I’ve made something good happen. And if I really fucked something up, it’s because I’ve done something wrong. I’m not dependent on anybody else. So yeah, I’ve found it really great and exciting.
So for those other people who are considering doing something similar, what would you say are like the most important things to have in place?
I think feeling confident in yourself that you have at least the basic skills needed to make it happen. I know that sounds kind of ridiculous, but for a long time, I didn’t feel able to pick up and do it on my own. It’s only over the last couple of years I think I’ve really felt that. The other thing is just to surround yourself with as many people who have got useful experience and knowledge and insight to bring to the table as possible. I was absolutely shameless in just contacting anybody and everybody— old clients, old mentors, friends of friends who have businesses… I just went for it and wasn’t afraid to ask for favours. And I think that has really paid off.
Do you think the design industry as a whole is generally quite friendly in that way?
In general, people have been quite open. When people are unhelpful, I think it’s not that they’ve been deliberately unhelpful, or that they don’t want to support you, it’s more just that they’re stretched for time to be perfectly honest. Everybody’s been really happy to share experiences and share knowledge.
Have there been any tools or books or websites or anything that you’ve found to be really good in terms of practical advice?
What I’ve done more is just talked to loads of people rather than reading stuff. I’ve spent a lot of time in my career reading books. There was an amazing book called How Not to Plan that came out a couple of years ago, which was really helpful from a strategy point of view. And of course, there’s all the Hegarty and the Ogilvy stuff, I devoured those.
I’d read a lot of interviews with people who set up successful agencies, but it’s more about listening to people. For example, when we made our website, which is super simple, really basic, I just asked loads of people to spend two minutes on it and tell me what they think: Does it make sense? What do you take out of it? It’s really seeking opinions and input from the beginning.
On a more practical level, project wise, was there anything that you were particularly keen to do? I don’t know, maybe in terms of the scope of a project, or the kind of clients that you take on?
Part of the reason for setting something up was earlier in my career, I did a lot of sustainability work, and found that really rewarding because you feel like you’re actually doing something decent with your life.
I didn’t realise how much I’d missed that, actually. When I started Among Equals, a big thing I wanted to do was do more for good work. We’ve got this line that we talk about, “we work with people who make more than just money”. Every project that we do has got some kind of positive angle to it.
Beyond that, I don’t think I’ll ever be particularly fussy about who we work with.
How did you go about getting your first clients?
I spent like the first two or three weeks just combing the internet for any charities or startups who were doing things that I thought were particularly kind of useful or interesting, but maybe their campaigns and brands didn’t quite match up to the work they were doing. So one of those charities was the Girls Network, who we’ve done a few different campaigns for.
I reached out to them via a friend of a friend, and just dropped them a note saying I’d set up an agency, I really liked what they did, and asked if they wanted to chat. That quite quickly turned into like few different projects. But again, I was just quite shameless and unafraid.
I suppose it does mean that you’re specifically going in there with an eye for what they need; not just approaching anyone that might need some design work.
That’s a really good point. And we have had quite a few things that we’ve turned down; even in some cases where the money was quite big, because we didn’t think that we were the right people to help them and could make the biggest difference for them. All the projects we’ve taken on, we’ve genuinely felt that we could do a really good job for them.
How do you know that a project feels right for you?
Partly, it comes down to the challenge. And the ask. Things that are specific to ecommerce, for example, we turned one of those down as we don’t have a lot of experience in it. It really comes down to our experience and passion for the project; and the client and what they’re like to work with, the vibe we get from them, or whether we think we can have a really good enjoyable working relationship.
Tell me a bit more about the name…
The name came from our desire to do something that was positive in the world, I think this sense of levelling the playing field. I really felt this when I was looking at some of the smaller organisations I reached out to at the beginning: there are so many people out there who are doing an amazing job, they just don’t have the time or the budget or the knowledge to do really powerful communications. I think a lot of the time, they just don’t know where to start. So part of what we wanted to do was bring big agency, strategy and big agency creative, but in a smaller, more agile, and frankly, cheaper way for people who maybe couldn’t afford the massive ad agencies of this world.
It’s also just looking to actually further some important causes: gender equality, environmental stuff… also, it was just a really practical iteration around needing a name that felt distinctive and interesting.
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