How do you succeed as a start-up? How do you grow your agency from 20 to 100 people? How can you carve your niche in the market? In our last episode of Agency Growth Stories, Emily Heyward, co-founder of Red Antler – the leading creative agency for startups and new ventures, including Hinge, Prose and AllTrails – shares her insights on these questions and more. Emily was named among the Most Important Entrepreneurs of the Decade, a Top Female Founder and one of the Most Powerful Women of 2019 by Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine.🔥 Here is what we covered in our chat with this creative legend: 00:00:00 - Intro: Who is Emily Heyward? 00:01:15 - Rapid Fire Questions 00:03:30 - Red Antler: How It All Started 00:14:25 - Defining Your Clients & Revenue as a Start-Up 00:18:53 - Growing Beyond 2 People: InHouse vs. Freelance 00:21:50 - Bringing In Clients in the Early Days 00:26:30 - Hiring & Establishing and Effective Team Structure 00:35:34 - Pricing Projects as an Agency 00:40:15 - What You Need to Change as a Leader to Grow 00:44: 22 - Where is Red Antler now? 00:46:05 - The Future of Small & Mid Agencies 00:47:15 - Opportunities in the Current Market 00:50:27 - Transparency within the Agency 00:52:15 - What Keeps You Going as a Founder? 00:56:24 - How a Project-Based Business Works: Hiring vs. Freelancing 00:59:03 - Helping Clients Understand the Importance of Brand 01:04:28 - Marketing and Community as Part of Your Brand Strategy 01:08:08 - AI in the Creative Industry: Uses and Shortcomings 01:12:00 - Key Things to Define for a Client’s Strategy 01:14:02 - How Do You Keep Key People Without Giving Equity Away? 01:17:50 - Can You Growth Without Expanding Your Services? 01:20:10 - Final Thoughts For more leadership insights check our Design Leaders Programme: https://fla.wiki/3TBeTLq Get more inspiration from us on other channels: ➤ Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/futurelondonacademy ➤ Twitter:https://twitter.com/FLondonAcademy ➤ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/school/future-london-academy/

What is the key to rapid growth? When is it time to expand your team? How should you approach a global expansion? In this episode of Agency Growth Stories, Natalie Graeme, Co-Founder of Uncommon – Europe’s fastest-growing start-up in advertising history, answers these questions and more, as she shares her experience of growing Uncommon from 0 to over 200 employees, working with global brand partners – including ITV, WWF, British Airways and SiriusXM – and creating a memorable brand identity through ingenious PR strategies. Here is what we covered: 00:00:00 - Intro: Who is Natalie Graeme? 00:01:11 - Rapid Fire Question 00:06:11 - Early Days: The Formative Years of Uncommon 00:09:55 - Uncommon’s Studio Model 00:14:35 - Uncommon’s Rapid Growth & Secret to Success 00:23:40 - Uncommon’s Global Expansion &The Strategy Behind It 00:32:23 - Growing Beyond 30 People: When to Hire and How to Structure Your Team 00:44:45 - From 70 to 240 People and How Your Role as a Founder Changes Questions from the Audience: 00:52:20 - What are the Most Common Mistakes of Agency Start-ups in The Early Days? 00:53:50 - How do you Control Quality and Production during Growth in a Joint Venture? 00:54:53 - How do you Manage Client-Side Delays and Keep Things Running? 00:56:20 - How do you Balance Hiring Full-Time Vs. Freelance? 00:58:39 - How did you Secure Funds at the Start? 01:01:53 - How do you Select Clients? 01:03:33 - Do you work with Retainers or on a One-off Project Basis? 01:04:29 - What was Uncommon’s PR Strategy at the Beginning? 01:05:34 - What is the difference between your Studio Model and an Advertising Agency? 01:08:28 - How do you Get New Clients without Word of Mouth? 01:12:13 - How Important is the Agency’s Brand? Final Advice 01:15:08 - What Can You Do to Look After Yourself as a Founder? 01:16:50 - If You Could Change One Thing in the World, What Would It Be? For more leadership insights check our Design Leaders Programme: https://fla.wiki/435hkc4 Get more inspiration from us on other channels: ➤ https://www.instagram.com/futurelondonacademy ➤ https://twitter.com/FLondonAcademy ➤ https://www.linkedin.com/school/future-london-academy/

How do you grow from 6 to 1000 people? From £0 to £232 in revenue? When is it time to step down as CEO? Steve Bell, former Iris Co-Founder, and now CEO at Team17 Group managed over 1000 employees in 14 offices around the world and oversaw Iris' work with some of the biggest, most creatively driven and technologically advanced global brands. Here is what we covered in the second episode of Agency Growth Stories with Steve: 00:00:00 - Intro: Who is Steve Bell? 00:02:56 - Fire Round Questions 00:11:50 - Iris’ Early Days and Fast Growth 00:16:14 - Culture over Money: Creating Meaningful Equity & Working with the Right Clients at Iris 00:21:35 - Multiple Founder Dynamic and Hierarchies 00:24:50 - Scaling Iris Globally & Tough Wake Up Calls 00:34:00 - Maturing Iris, Outside Investments, Mergers & Acquisitions 00:59:00 - Stepping Down as Founder and Becoming a CEO at Team17 01:04:50 - How Should You Start an Agency in 2024? 01:09:00 - The Future of Creative Consulting Services in the Age of AI 01:11:24 - Determining Who to Work With in the Early Days 01:13:45 - How to Keep & Grow Clients 01:18:25 - Pitching & Winning Business 01:22:18 - Last Words For more leadership insights check our Design Leaders Programme:https://fla.wiki/4byNd0p Find us on: https://www.instagram.com/futurelondonacademy/ https://www.linkedin.com/school/future-london-academy/ https://twitter.com/FLondonAcademy

How do you design a fail-proof hiring process? How do you balance purpose and profit in the early days? And how do you find your first clients? Get your answer in our first episode of Agency Growth Stories – a series where we talk to the founders of the world's leading agencies about what's on every founder's mind. Our first guest was the wonderful Abi Freeman — Co-Founder of Brink — an international consulting agency which uses Behavioural Innovation to advise on new ways of working to change the world. Here is what we covered: 00:00:00 - Intro: Who is Abi Freeman? 00:02:52 - Fire Round Questions 00:04:54 - Why Abi Co-Founded her Company Brink 00:08:01 - How to Find Your First Clients 00:12:17 - How and When to Grow Your Team 00:20:20 - Services to Keep External Rather than In-House 00:22:05 - How to Hire and Manage an International Distributed Team 00:29:12 - Brink’s Failproof Hiring Process: Hiring for Ways of Being Not Just Doing 00:34:21 - How to Build Intimacy with Your Team 00:39:00 - Purpose Vs. Profit, Finding Balance in the Early Days 00:48:18 - How to Measure the Impact of Your Projects 00:56:32 - Common Blinspots in Founders 00:58:01 - How to Get Clients through Networking 01:04:04 - How to Take the First Step to Start Your Agency 01:06:35 - How to Navigate Procurement Processes 01:14:05 - Behavioural Change and Climate Change 01:17:01 - Last Words For more leadership insights check our Design Leaders Programme: https://fla.wiki/4byNd0p Get more inspiration from us on other channels: https://www.instagram.com/futurelondonacademy/ https://twitter.com/FLondonAcademy https://www.linkedin.com/school/future-london-academy/

Without any computers or a bank loan, Stuart Trevor launched his first collection at the age of 28, reaping £1.5M. Today, the founder and former CEO of AllSaints has three successful brands under his wing, loved by the likes of Beyonce, Gwen Stefani, and Justin Timberlake. Join us for our third episode of Creative Legends to hear all about how Stuart made it and what fashion was like before Zara. Join us for our third episode of Creative Legends, the series where we talk to creative industry icons, and get inspired to continue growing as a design expert. For more leadership insights check our Design Leaders Programme:⁠https://fla.wiki/47PS6j8

Maria Giudice founded the iconic design agency Hot Studio and sold it to Facebook after an unexpected chat with Mark Zuckerberg. Now, Maria shares the top lessons from her time at the media giant, running her own agency and teaching leaders to embrace creativity for maximum success. Join us for our second episode of Creative Legends, the series where we talk to creative industry icons, and get inspired to continue growing as a design expert. For more leadership insights check our Design Leaders Programme:https://fla.wiki/47PS6j8

How can creative leaders thrive? And how does AI come into play? John Maeda is here to answer your pressing questions. In our first episode of Creative Legends, the series where we talk to creative industry icons, we interviewed Microsoft’s VP of Design and AI. He shared his lessons on how to be a great leader, become an excellent communicator and navigate design in the age of AI. 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗝𝗢𝗛𝗡 John Maeda is a world-renowned artist, computer scientist, educator and investor currently serving as VP of Design and Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft. John is a TED speaker, industry influencer and author of books The Laws of Simplicity, Creative Code, and Redesigning Leadership. He was called the “Steve Jobs of academia” by Forbes and named one of the "75 most influential people of the 21st century" by Esquire. For more than a decade, John has worked to integrate technology, education and the arts into a 21st-century synthesis of creativity and innovation. He taught media arts and sciences at MIT for 12 years and served as the Associate Director of Research at MIT Media Lab. He is the first-ever recipient of the White House’s National Design Award for algorithmically-generated visualisations informed by data and AI. For more leadership insights check our Executive Programme For Design Leaders. Learn more: https://fla.wiki/3R7M8Dr

In our last episode of this Design Leadership series, we talked to Tiffany Rolfe, Mom & Global Chief Creative Officer at R/GA. Tiffany shared insights on how to stay relevant in an ever-changing industry, fight imposter syndrome, step out of your comfort zone, get to a C-level position as a Creative and the skills you need to become a successful Chief Creative Officer while also being a parent. Tiffany leads a team of over 200 cross-disciplinary designers, thinkers and makers that create work at the intersection of storytelling and technology. R/GA’s clients include Nike, Verizon, Samsung, Airbnb, Slack, ESPN, and Instagram.   For more leadership insights check our Executive Programme For Design Leaders.  Learn more 👉 https://bit.ly/3wXJox1

In our fourth episode of Design Leadership webinars, we talked to Kate Stanners, Global Chairwoman & Global Chief Creative Officer at Saatchi & Saatchi. She has played a key role in the transformation of the agency post the acquisition of the digital agency Outside Line, successfully combining digital, social and design into the creative offering. She has won numerous awards for clients including Carlsberg, T-Mobile, Pampers, Holsten Pils, Lurpak, Nurofen and Cadbury. She is also part of the committee at the V&A museum and is President of D&AD. Kate shared insights on being one of the first creative women in the Advertising Industry, her journey and tips for getting to the top, the importance of asking for help and coaching, and the skills you need to become a successful Chief Creative Officer and how to get there. For more leadership insights check our Executive Programme For Design Leaders. Learn more 👉 https://bit.ly/3wXJox1

In our third episode of our Design Leadership webinars, we talked to Josh W Higgins, VP, Executive Creative Director for Atlassian leading multi-disciplined Creative, Design, Ops and Production teams who work across all consumer touch points. Previously, Josh was the Global Chief Creative Officer for Reality Labs at Meta and Design Director for President Obama’s 2012 historic political campaign. Josh shared insights on how design can change the world, how to create the role of CCO at global companies like Meta, how to implement users' feedback and how designers can learn about the influence of business has on their work. For more leadership insights check out our Executive Programme For Design Leaders. Learn more 👉 https://bit.ly/3wXJox1 Chapters 00:00 - Welcome to our Design Leadership webinar 02:00 - Josh X Barack Obama: Trust 06:14 - The Value of Design: Design can change the world 10:30 - Josh X Meta: Rebrand, Branding Marketing, Brand Book 15:30 - Dynamics of CCO + CMO: Does your business need both? 19:13 - From Exec Creative Director to First CCO of Meta 23:40 - Creating the role of CCO: How to talk to top management 28:22 - Meta - Oculus Quest: How Design changes Product/Brand Awareness

In our second episode of Design Leadership webinars, we talked to the wonderful Fede Garcia, Global Chief Creative Officer at PR agency BCW Global. Fede shared insights on how to motivate teams to create bold ideas, what is the future of advertising, how cancel culture influenced creativity, what it means to be creative and what are the main qualities of a good leader. For more leadership insights check our Executive Programme For Design Leaders. Learn more 👉 https://bit.ly/3wXJox1 Chapters Welcome to our Design Leadership webinar Social Media, Creativity and Impostor syndrome The infinite game Brand marketing: promoting yourself and the brand on Social media Creative career: from Creative Director to Chief Creative Officer What does a Chief Creative Officer do? How to build a creative culture, empower bold ideas and creativity How to prove the value of creativity and design, taking the risk Balancing high-quality work and mental health Self-awareness, happiness, and enjoying life / how to become happy in life Future of advertising: Transmedia storytelling Power of emotions in creativity Q&A - Qualities of a good leader What is the difference between being creative and being a creative Who can become a good leader? Creativity VS Business How to sell ideas and be a confident leader Being a quick learner and having the growth mindset Time management skills and workload prioritisation Is resilience important? Creating a vision

In this interview, Justine Lançon, CCO at modern jewellery brand Mejuri, will share everything you need to know about being a Chief Creative Officer. What does it mean to be a creative leader? How Mejuri branding was created? What qualities and skills do you need to grow from the creative director to CCO? How to build and hire a design team?    For more leadership insights check our Executive Programme For Design Leaders at bauhaus.futurelondonacademy.co.uk 

Our fourth guest in our Leadership Series was Sinead Keenan, Business Psychologist at SpencerStuart – a global leadership consultancy firm with 57 offices in over 30 countries. We discussed what are the future skills Business Leaders need to have. Sinead also gave advice on how to find your purpose and how to give and receive feedback.  Sinead will also be a teacher on our Executive Programme For Design Leaders. Learn more here

We were super inspired speaking to Ariel Ross, a creative operations expert with over 15 years in scaling agency processes. Her expertise lies in developing operational frameworks for creative agencies, making projects run smoothly and keeping teams happy. We chatted about what three qualities every great project manager should have. Also, the biggest mistake every company makes on creative operations that we can learn from. If you want to see their faces, check out this chat on our YouTube 📺  Ariel has also curated all her tools/frameworks into an online course – Creative Ops 👉 https://bit.ly/3gK3hBB

We loved how honest Max Ottignon was in our chat. Max is the Co-founder of Ragged Edge – a fantastic London-based branding agency working with some of the fastest-growing startups such as Mindful Chef, Bulb, to name a few. We discussed mistakes Ragged Edge made throughout the 14 years it has been running. What makes its company culture so special, and what makes a bad haircut. For those who want to see their faces, you can watch this chat on our YouTube Channel 📺

We were super inspired by our interview with Ilenia Notarangelo, Co-founder, CEO and Creative Director of Illo TV. The Turin-based creative agency specialises in Illustration and motion design and has created some remarkable work for the likes of Google, Airbnb and Samsung. We talked about how Ilenia started her career from a not-so-creative place. Also, the importance of picking the right business partner, and overcoming the psychological struggles of running your own company. For those who want to see their faces, you can watch this chat on our YouTube Channel 📺 

We learnt so much speaking to Aporva Baxi, founder and ECD of branding agency, DixonBaxi. Aporva has an amazing career working as a creative director across the world and is now running the agency for more than 18 years. We chatted about what it was like to drop the career of a creative director in high demand to start your own agency. And how important it is to always stay creative. If you're a visual listener, watch this conversation on our YouTube Channel 📺 

Our final guest in our Leadership Series was the legend that is Buzz Pearce, SVP of Design at checkout.com. Buzz has over 20 years of experience in the design industry, leading teams at Skyscanner, Skype, and Microsoft, to name a few. We discussed how to communicate the value of design to your leadership team. Also, he explained how to build a safe, company culture to give honest feedback.  Buzz will also be a teacher on our Executive Programme For Design Leaders. Learn more here 

Obsessed with branding? Then listen to these great tips from Campbell and Robyn Butler, Co-founders of Lovework Studio. Together they have worked with some of the best brand agencies around. From Wolff Olins, Design Studio, Dragon Rouge and many more. In our chat, they explained why ugly logos are a good thing, and how to present your ideas to clients in an unconventional way. If you're a visual listener, watch this on our YouTube Channel.  Campbell and Robyn also curated The Ultimate Course on Brand Design & Strategy, Branding Now. Learn more here.

The third guest in our Leadership Series was Guy Duncan, Chief Technology Officer at Tide – one of the fastest-growing FinTech companies in the UK. Guy has over 20 years of tech leadership, previously as a CTO of BMW and other large organisations like Valtech and PayU. Be prepared to get really practical insights on how to convince your leadership team to launch your idea, how to reduce your work stress and how to prioritise your time as a C-level executive.  Guy will also be a teacher on our Executive Programme For Design Leaders. Learn more here