Avoid becoming the ‘Accidental Agency’

How to gain control of your destiny.

It’s a tough ride out there at the moment as a creative studio. You can feel the turbulence in the industry and the ’squeeze’ is real: running costs are going up and client budgets are going down. I hear this a LOT at the moment.

In times like these it becomes more and more tempting to say yes to those briefs that you once would have laughed at. You need the cashflow, so it can’t hurt to take this one on, right? You just won’t show it on your folio. So you say yes to a How-to video brief. You do a good job on it (of course you do, you’re better than this). Then the client comes back with more How-to video briefs. Well, why not? The money’s good. Then they refer you to another brand they know who needs How-to videos. And you start getting inbound enquiries for How-to videos. And before you know it, you’re “the How-to video guys”. And yeah, you’re good at it, but you never ever set out to become this, so how did it happen?

This is a common trap – becoming the ‘Accidental Agency’.

It happens because you’re operating without purpose. Without intention. And because you’re not anchored to your own strong beliefs, it’s easy to say yes to someone else’s purpose and intention.

Here’s how to avoid it:

1. Start with knowing WHO you are, WHY you do what you do and WHERE you are going.

Spend time reflecting on, crafting and perfecting your Values, Purpose and Vision. These three things are the foundations for sustained and authentic transformational growth.

Without these in place:

• It’s just ‘growth for growth sake’ and aimless drifting.

• You’ll find yourself competing on price in a race to the bottom, rather than competing on alignment.

But with these in place:

• You’ll have a “North Star” to build an authentic roadmap towards – a magnetic force to pull you forward.

• Your unique positioning and articulation of who you are will come naturally.

• You’ll find it easy to define your dream clients and dream briefs which align with your goals.

• You’ll gain confidence to say no to the wrong briefs, and the power to go out and get a yes from the people you actually want to work with.

• Overall, you’ll become more intentional, more proactive, more ‘purposeful’ in your lead generation and client conversations. Chasing briefs that align with your purpose, from clients that align with your values. All in pursuit of achieving your vision.

2. Then turn the Who, Why and Where into HOW

With your Values, Purpose and Vision in place, the next step is to create a plan – a roadmap on HOW to reach the vision you’ve set for yourself.

Turn your Vision into strategic objectives for the next 12-24 months and map out the actions you need to take to meet those objectives. Then find your rhythm in making weekly progress against that plan.

This all sounds easy enough in writing, but is much harder to get right in practice. In my next article I’ll talk through my framework of turning your Vision into an actionable roadmap to make weekly progress against.

A final thought on saying no

When times are tough, saying no to a brief sometimes isn’t possible. I get that, and honestly, in the short term, saying yes to those briefs is often the only way to go.

But that should be your trigger moment to force a change towards Purposeful Growth. The best way to be able to say no to the soul-crushing brief is to have a value-led engine that is constantly sourcing the right briefs. That way you won’t be saying no because you’re arrogant; you’ll say no because your dance card is finally full of work that actually aligns with your DNA.

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In coming posts:

• I’ll reveal my framework for defining HOW to reach your Vision (Future Goals)

• I’ll give you a guide to running your own workshops to define your Values, Purpose and Vision.

• I’ll unpack how nailing our Values, Purpose and Vision led to transformational change for us while I was at FutureDeluxe.