Arttia Creative – #AgencyLife

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Verbatim text

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Welcome to the Agency Trailblazer Podcast. This is an Agency Life episode coming to you every Wednesday Friday, where we interview an agency owner from around the world asking them the same questions because we’re all different, but we’re all the same. So let’s listen and learn from each other. This podcast is brought to you by the Agency Trailblazer community. Is agency life stressing you out? Then it is our mission to help you build an agency that you love. We’ve created a community which includes the agency reset roadmap that will allow you to get your agency back on the right track. We also have lots of noble straight to the point, easy to consume workshops. We have a thriving community of other agency owners.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
And we all wrap up every month with a mastermind call with myself and sometimes a special guest where we unpack your questions. For more details, check out agency trailblazer.com. Hello, and welcome to hashtag agency life. This is Lee. And on today’s show, we have Belinda White. Hey, Belinda.

Belinda White:
Hi. Hi, Lee.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
How you doing?

Belinda White:
I’m good. I’m good.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Good. Good. Good. Right. Well, let’s dive in, and we’re gonna learn about your agency. So tell us about your agency, its name, and what you do.

Belinda White:
So, yes, I’m Belinda White, and I run a design agency called ArttiaCreative. And, we specialize in website consultancy for life sciences, science websites, working with them on their website, SEO, branding.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Awesome. And if we were gonna get a birthday present, get a bow on it, and a birthday cake, when would we be celebrating your agency’s birthday and how old are you? Right.

Belinda White:
It would be 1st 1st January 2008. So we’re 10 years old.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Oh, wow. So just after the iPhone was invented. Someone else the on

Belinda White:
on another episode was 2,007. Well, my son was born the year the iPhone was, released. Yeah.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah. So was my daughter. So they’re both 11. That’s amazing.

Belinda White:
Yeah. Yeah.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, we’ll talk about that later. I’m I’m making a list of approved boyfriends for my daughter already. I’ve got 3 on the list. So,

Belinda White:
Oh, he’s a real smoothie. I tell you.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Oh, is he? Okay. Maybe he goes on for a nice smoothie. That might be a bad thing. Well, let’s let’s let’s rather than matchmaking for our children, how about we look at your setup, of the game?

Belinda White:
Okay. Okay.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
And how many people do you have on your team? And if it’s you, do you have, a pool of contractors? How’s that set up?

Belinda White:
Yeah. So, I have something called a, agile agency model, which I set up a few years ago. And I I call it the ArttiaCreative Collective.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Got it.

Belinda White:
And it’s it’s basically, 6 people. So there’s 6 of us in the collective, but we’re all independent, but we all work together a lot on lots of projects. So I’m quite transparent about that. So the team is on the website, but it also talks about their businesses. So there’s a core 6 of us. So there’s myself, 2 developers, front end, back end developers, copywriter, and marketing strategist, and we’ve also got a kind of a business consultant that knows a lot about the life sciences sector. So yeah. And we’ve got other people that we work with as well.

Belinda White:
So there’s a photographer that we use a lot. So, she’s featured on our website as well. So, yeah, we’ve got a kind of collection of people that work predominantly on my projects, but also they’ve got their own things going on. Yeah. So it’s it’s really agile and flexible.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
A a collective of experts.

Belinda White:
Collective. Yeah.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Collective of Each

Belinda White:
with their own kind of skills and experience and qualifications. Yeah. So it’s it’s it really kinda sets the bar high for what we can deliver.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
That’s really good. And do you guys have, like, a physical office, that you would work in together sometimes, or are you more Yeah. From home?

Belinda White:
Yeah. So we’re all, home based. Okay. So have luckily, just up the road from from where I’m based, there’s, some office space, and we can, you know, rent meeting rooms there whenever we need to. So, if if I’m delivering WordPress training, which I do quite a lot. So, example, yesterday, I was delivering training for 5 people, so I needed the boardroom there to deliver that. But sometimes we’ll just use smaller office space for discovery sessions. I’m gonna meet with a client or or we’ll go to the client’s location.

Belinda White:
So that flexibility. Yeah.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
That’s really good. I like the idea of having office space, but also you can all work from home. Now with the collective, because this is quite different, I I like the way you’ve grouped this together as a team of experts. Could you describe the culture that you’ve developed between

Belinda White:
yourselves? So the, yeah, the idea of of the collective is so that well, or the culture I’ve set is transparency and flexibility. Yeah. So I don’t know if you know, but my background is I’ve always worked in design agencies Mhmm. All across the UK, lots of different agencies, and the hours are very long Yeah. Demanding. They want you on-site. So my philosophy was starting out was that I wanted everything to be as flexible as possible for me and the team, so that it’s not 9 to 5. They work whenever they want.

Belinda White:
Yes. We have project deadlines. We have, schedules that we’re working to, but, actually, I don’t mind when they work on their bit. Yeah. So, for example, my copywriter, she sometimes works really late into the evening. Yeah. So that suits her. And then, yeah, the developers can can work whenever they want to.

Belinda White:
So it it’s flexibility. As long as we hit the deadlines for the clients, I don’t mind when they slot in the projects. So, yeah, it’s good for their families. It’s good for their kind of the the way they’re working. But I’m also transparent about that. So it’s transparency in terms of when we’re working with our clients, they know that this is a team, an agile team. They’re not staff members. They’re they’re kind of running their own businesses as well.

Belinda White:
But, actually, they they are under my roof, and, you know, we’ve got a NDA signed. We’ve got, you know, an invoicing system that’s just through my business, but they know that they’re if they ever wanted to, link up with one of those independently, that’s fine as well. So it’s transparency and flexibility is is the culture I’m trying to set.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I really like that. Now you have already given the game away on the next question. We have a mission section, and that is, finding out what your industry or niche is. However, life sciences is very general. A lot of people won’t know what that is. Are you alright to just quickly explain a bit more about the niche that you’re in and and maybe even how you got into that as well?

Belinda White:
Yeah. So life sciences, it covers, biotech, medical devices, lab equipment, health software. So it yes. It is quite broad, but, the bit that we help them with is is their website, their online presence, their visibility. So they’re likely to be doing a range of other market marketing activity, but we help them with that one bit Yeah. Which which sometimes they can have a weakness in. So they might be doing a lot of PR or social media or or, conferences and events, but their website is is not working to the maximum it could. Yeah.

Belinda White:
So that’s that’s the type of businesses we work with.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
And how and with with the next question would have been what problem do you solve? It sounds like it is the website portion of it. How did you get into the life sciences industry, if if that’s the right word? Is it an industry? Yeah.

Belinda White:
Sector.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Sector? There you go. Right word.

Belinda White:
So the yeah. The my agents has been going for 10 years. So over that time, we’ve we’ve worked on lots of different projects for lots of different sectors. Yeah. And I’ve I’ve been even working on web websites longer than that, so 20 years. So I’ve I’ve produced a lot of websites

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Okay.

Belinda White:
A lot of content, worked with a lot of businesses. But with RTR Creative, over the the past few years, we’ve we’ve we’ve got approached by a lot of science businesses. Now in the I mean, based in the northeast of the UK, and there is quite a vibrant science sector, life science. There’s some clusters, in the area where these businesses, start up and grow. So we got approached by 1 or 2 of them, and so we’ve produced websites for them and helped them with their branding, some of their literature, and the feedback was just fantastic. They said they said they hadn’t worked with an agency that that got what they did, that that seemed to understand the complexities of what they were doing Mhmm. That could interpret what they’re doing for what you know, whether it was software or whether it was some kind of medical device or or something to do with the health industry. We seemed to really grasp what they did, and interpret it online.

Belinda White:
So the the feedback was fantastic. And, actually, we really liked working on the projects. So when I was kind of assessing how to take the business forward, I thought, this is a real opportunity. Mhmm. We’ve got a strength here, a natural strength. We’ve got some portfolio pieces already. Let’s really kind of focus on this and really help them make a difference. So that that’s kinda how it happened.

Belinda White:
It evolved naturally, but it seems, the feedback was fantastic, so I thought I’d run with that.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I I think some I think many niches or or many businesses that have niched down, it does tend to happen naturally through working with these particular clients, etcetera. And everything you described is a really good case for any agency that is considering niching down, maybe a bit fearful about the idea of focusing on just one industry. Because you were saying, they say to you that you really get them, and all of these benefits to them are very attractive. They make your agency very attractive to them. Let’s talk about marketing, and I’m guessing referral is gonna be one of your biggest ways that you guys generate leads. But how else may you generate leads in your collective?

Belinda White:
Okay. So, yeah, referral’s a big thing. When When I started out 10 years ago, I went to every networking event I could find

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Okay.

Belinda White:
Everything, and, you know, joined every business group that I could. Some some evenings, I went to 2 or 3 networking events back to back. Mhmm. That’s quite intense. So that’s how we built up, a a client base. But over that time, obviously, that’s not sustainable. That’s quite heavy going. So moving into the niche means I can really focus now on life science events.

Belinda White:
Yeah. And, again, luckily, in the northeast, there there are some clusters that do have active events. So that that that brings in leads. Obviously, they’re collective. We share share contacts and and and any leads that we get. So even if even if I get a a lead that’s just copywriting, I’ll pass on to my copywriter. But I also do a lot of blogging. I like writing blog posts.

Belinda White:
My copywriter writes blog posts. All the team do, really. They’ll add content. So I try and write a really good, helpful article for the life sciences sector at least once a month. Mhmm. I can get 2 in a month. That’s great. I also, write articles on on the separate side of things that I do.

Belinda White:
I do a bit of WordPress training. Mhmm. So I write articles just to help those businesses that wanna get to grips with WordPress because I we use WordPress, and I I really like the community, and I want to give back. Yeah. So that’s my kind of giving back to them. So with life sciences, it’s it’s networking, going to the events, letting people know what we do, writing articles. So when I go to the events, I I chat to them about what problems they’ve got, what what issues, and then I write an article about it. We’ve also started in the past 3, 4 months quite an intensive LinkedIn strategy.

Belinda White:
Okay. A connection strategy. So my other colleague in the collective is a marketing strategist, so we’re focusing on how can we build more connections in life sciences because we we don’t wanna stick to the UK. We’re happy to kinda go globally. Yeah. So we’re slowly building up a connection strategy on LinkedIn. So that’s that’s the focus.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
That’s really good. So we’ve got, obviously, your networking referrals. We’ve got attending events. I can definitely back that up. We’ve made some made some of our biggest jobs and biggest sales through attending events and getting to know the people there. You’ve got content marketing. You’re giving back through training, and you’ve adopted a brand new, well, last few months, LinkedIn strategy, of which I’m intrigued to see how that goes.

Belinda White:
Yeah. Yeah. It’s I think it’s a it’s, a long process, but, yeah, that’s that’s really, you know, a strong focus, and we wanna see how that that that pans out for us.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
That’s really helpful. Thanks for sharing that. Mhmm. Now then, a a question you can answer this either as a as a collective or for you personally, but how would you measure success? What would be a measurement for you to feel success, satisfaction in something?

Belinda White:
Well, I think for me, but also knowing the team, without sounding kinda too businesslike, it’s if the clients are happy. Yeah. If they’re happy, if their if their business is growing, if we typically work with kind of the marketing department or marketing team. You know, if they’re if they’re getting some wins, if they’re doing well, and that’s if my clients are doing well, then I’ve delivered, and, you know, they’ll come back to me for more. They’ll refer me on. So that to me, that’s that’s a measure of success. And also if my accountant’s happy, that’s a measure of success.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
If your accountant’s happy.

Belinda White:
If he’s happy, then I’m happy.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Good.

Belinda White:
But, yes, many clients. If they’re successful, brilliant. They’ll come back to me for more.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Awesome. Alright. Well, it’s only me and you and a few 1,000 listeners. So it’s now confession time. And what would it be what do you think as an agency, as a collective, would be the biggest problem that you may have that you are striving to overcome?

Belinda White:
Well, again, mainly me, but knowing some of the people in my collective, it’s it’s it’s time. It’s juggling family time. If it was just me and you, then I’d I’d say that for me, the biggest challenge is, working around the school times. The education system seems to be stacked in the UK, it seems to be stacked against business owners. Nine two three. Parents. It’s, you know, random school closures and Yep. Constant school holidays.

Belinda White:
It’s a I I I have a spreadsheet based on kids and school and work, so that’s my challenge. Yeah. It’s I’m with you. This is the only real

Lee Matthew Jackson:
and and teacher training days and this the other days, it is

Belinda White:
And I put 2 kids at 2 different schools, and they have different days and slightly different timings. And it’s just, and then, yes, with my collective as well have got kids, and we’re all juggling. So hence, the flexible flexibility.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
The struggle is real. Why can’t they do 9 to 5, and why can’t they, just always be in school? I don’t know.

Belinda White:
But, hey. Brilliant.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
That’d be wonderful. So problem solved. Well, let’s talk about well-being. And first of all, in our industry, as in as web developers, as designers, I I can speak for myself here. I never or hardly ever switch off. So I’m asking this question of a lot of agency owners because I wanna learn the best methods of switching off. And if you are able, how do you switch off to relax?

Belinda White:
Yeah. So that that is quite challenging. Because, again, I’ve always been in this sector, so it’s always in my head.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Yeah.

Belinda White:
I never I never really switch off, but so, yeah, getting away from my desk, sitting in the garden, having a glass of wine. I love gardening. I love taking a break like that, and I used to be an illustrator, so if I can do a bit of drawing with the kids Right. And the kids like drawing. So if I can sit down and just draw, because that really focuses your mind. Mhmm. And it gets away from something digital, so you’re drawing and and kind of expressing yourself that way. So I think they’re my ways of switching off if I’m concentrating on illustrating, whether it’s me or with the kids, or if I can go in the garden.

Belinda White:
I’m quite lucky here. I’ve got quite a bit quite in that big garden, and we’re we’re quite keen gardeners, so that that’s always switching up.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I’ll I’ll echo the doing something not digital. I don’t know if you see behind me, we’ve got some old cameras. So I love doing old film photography. Anything that’s anything that’s manual that does not like, in a lost art or or even drawing. We do a lot of drawing, a lot of painting, stuff like that. Just stuff that’s not what I do all the time. And and my problem is is I’m still thinking about it, so you’ve got it in the back of my mind.

Belinda White:
Even when I was working at the agencies, anywhere I worked across the UK, I’d look for an arts class Yeah. Or a drawing class. Because, obviously, working in an agency, it’s deadlines. It’s specific. I’m entering a brief. But if I could go to an arts class and completely switch off and just draw or paint, then for me, that was yeah. That’s a good way of switching off.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Perfect. Get your pencils out, folks.

Belinda White:
Mhmm.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Right. Next question is, how do you stay healthy? Because a lot of the time, we are chained to our desks.

Belinda White:
Yeah. So I’m I’m quite keen on that. I always have been, again, either hunched over a drawing board or a computer. So I do regular Pilates. I’ve been with Pilates for many years, which is great for for posture Mhmm. Strength. I go to as many fitness classes as I can, so I try and do a regular Saturday morning boot camp fitness class, and then just get get to what I can in the evening. But, again, it’s it’s tricky when you’ve got kids, and they get in, and they want help with homework.

Belinda White:
And

Lee Matthew Jackson:
It sounds like you’re already doing

Belinda White:
3 to 20%

Lee Matthew Jackson:
more than I’m doing, though.

Belinda White:
So pretty impressive. Try and I do try and move, and my my watch tells me to stand up regularly.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Okay.

Belinda White:
So that’s yeah. So it it is really important because, yeah, be it having a desk job, you need to move. And I would recommend Pilates to everybody. Do it. It’s great for shoulders, posture, definitely.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Well, depending when this episode goes out, you’ll either be before or after your AILs episode where we talk about yoga, and we actually have a discussion about Pilates, because we’re comparing, like, the physical exercise of running, which is quite jarring on your bones, etcetera, and you’re always sweating and you’re just exhausted afterwards. It’s not necessarily the greatest thing. Whereas something like Pilates, you don’t have that afterwards, but you are strengthening your muscles Absolutely.

Belinda White:
Yeah. Low impact.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Posture, etcetera. And it’s something that my daughter’s been doing a lot of because she’s got scoliosis. It’s something that they’re they’ve recommended, and we’ve got someone who comes in and, like, a personal trainer that’s actually helping her through it. So it’s something that I’m gonna, I’ve I’ve started with walking. I’ve started with walking, and the next step is probably Pilates. Okay. Tools. This is our last question.

Belinda White:
Okay.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
And that is what tool, that you use do you feel sorry. Let me rephrase that. So what tool do you use as an agency that you feel has been essential in your success?

Belinda White:
Yeah. So thinking about this, it’s actually a collection of tools. So Okay. I can’t live without Adobe Creative Cloud.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Very good.

Belinda White:
I love it. It’s I use all of the tools all of the time. And now they’ve gone to subscription base, which I know they did a few years ago. It’s fantastic. I love it. I get access to everything. It’s all the latest software. I couldn’t run what we do without it.

Belinda White:
So to me, Adobe Creative Cloud is just fantastic.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
And accept that as an answer even though that is at least 22.

Belinda White:
I was just gonna show you here. I you know, I’ve even got a really old version.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Oh, wow. Yep.

Belinda White:
I still keep this. So I state that that’s got a disk in it, and it’s dated from 96. That’s

Lee Matthew Jackson:
why Amazing.

Belinda White:
I just I started using Photoshop just before that. So Yeah. I use it every day, probably. So I Adobe Creative Cloud is my absolute I couldn’t live without it.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
I think one of the best things about Creative Cloud is the fact that, if you are in the Adobe, infrastructure, I guess, is the right word, then it doesn’t matter what device you have. If you’ve got a Mac or a PC because we’ve actually switched from Mac to PC, and we’re still able to use all of the exact same applications. Yeah. Although we have been trying

Belinda White:
though that was quite challenging, but now it’s easy. Yeah.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
That’s awesome. Well, Belinda, you’ve been an absolute legend, and learning about your agency is absolutely fascinating, especially the the idea of a collective. I think there’ll be other people listening who might want to explore that so

Belinda White:
Yeah. I mean I I did it a few years ago and the client feedback’s been fantastic.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Awesome.

Belinda White:
So that’s good as well.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
Well based on that how can people connect with you? Because I’m sure you’re gonna get some questions.

Belinda White:
So, I’m on Twitter. So at Artia, a r t t I a. That’s a great place to connect with me. I’m on LinkedIn as ArttiaCreative. So they’re the best two places. And I am on Instagram as ArttiaCreative. I love Instagram. I’m very visual.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
We we keep commenting.

Belinda White:
I’d rather be on Instagram than anywhere else, so definitely click with me on Instagram.

Lee Matthew Jackson:
She’s she’s quite prevalent on Instagram, as am I. And we keep commenting on each other’s things really, really. I love it. Yes. Awesome. Thank you so much. Have an awesome day.

Belinda White:
You’re very welcome.