Agency Collective Tales

We were joined by Anthony Chapman and Paul Crump, founders of Fellow Studio, who talked us through how they started Fellow after leaving their old job, knowing that they could do it better. Find out about their growth, their culture and how they, as creatives grapple with sales!

In the finale of this season of The Agency Collective Tales, Ellie speak to Tom Smith, Founder of Complete Online. They chatted about moving from using freelancers to permanent staff, how self enrichment and personal goals are just as important as professional ones and making the move to working abroad.

This month, Ellie spoke to Charles Sladdin, founder and MD of Purple Banana. We talked about finding the balance between carving a niche that makes you unique but making sure that it's one that you love, why B Corps are the future of business and why stepping back from the day to day can be so difficult.

This month Ellie talks to Joe Perkins, Owner & MD of Chaptr. They discuss how Chaptr began, the benefits and downsides of working with (and developing) interns, how and why they chose their niche and what's next in 2023!

Ellie spoke to Ben Thomson about his journey, starting from pioneering cloud-based printing solutions to pivoting from a product based company into his current serviced based company, Full Metal Software.

Zara Deegan, founder of EXT MKTG talks all about going from working in house at agencies across the globe to going it alone and why she wants to work with other mums, the importance of the work / life balance, why less is often more and some of the exciting plans for EXT MKTG in 2023 and beyond!

Stewart talks about how he went from creating online forums for fun as a teenager to taking this specialism into a successful agency working with medium / large scale media clients, via a degree in Human and Mammalian physiology! He also shares how his adulthood diagnosis has shaped the way Powered by Coffee is run so that it compliments neurodiversity, rather than using a cookie cutter business model, as well as the agency's exciting future projects.

In this episode of the Agency Collective Tales, Ellie spoke to Rea Averill, founder and Managing Director of Agency A about making the choice to start out on her own, much earlier than she anticipated and using the skills she picked from one industry brought to a standstill by the pandemic to pivot into a different one altogther. Rea started Agency A in 2022, a social media savvy team who build online communities, creatively.

In this episode of the Agency Collective Tales, Ellie spoke to Pete Heslop, founder and Managing Director of Steadfast Collective about leaving the agency he helped to co-found to start a new agency rooted in his passion for digital products, being able to holiday & live the life he wants and how his love of all things community shaped Steadfast Collective. Pete Heslop is Managing Director at Steadfast Collective, his passion is working with smart creatives to craft digital applications that bring people together.

In this episode of the Agency Collective Tales, Ellie spoke to Tony Hallett, founder of Collective Content about founding an agency following on from a successful career in journalism, his policy of openness, honesty and upfront information about staff wages and about keeping the balance between growth and retaining your ethos. After working for a number of years in tech journalism, following the fallout from the 2008 crash, Tony started Collective Content and used the wealth of relationships he had formed over the years to establish and grow it into a thriving business.