WIN in Business by Doing Things Differently with Macaela Vandermost

Are you ready to learn how to win in business by breaking the mold?

In this episode, Macaela Vandermost, founder of Newfangled Studios, reveals how she built an eight-figure creative agency by doing things differently. From disrupting the traditional agency model to mastering the art of saying "yes, and," Macaela shares the unconventional strategies and leadership lessons that helped her succeed. If you’re ready to think outside the box and create a winning culture, this episode is for you!

Key Topics + Chapter Markers

Introduction  [0:00]

Overcoming Agency Bloat [2:00]

Obsession with Excellence [10:20]

The Turning Point: Learning to Say “Yes, And” [14:15]

Building a Values-Driven Culture [20:57]

What’s next for Macaela?  [30:51]

Connect with Macaela:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macaela

Website: https://www.newfangledstudios.com/

Blogs: https://www.newfangledstudios.com/feed

Download The Free Outbound Sales Playbook:

• Master cold outreach, close more deals & drive revenue to your business using The Outbound Sales Playbook. Battle-tested on over 1,000+ businesses and proven with over 100M data-points, this Free E-book will give you the tools you need for predictability and scalability in your marketing and sales efforts. Disclaimer: Only download if you want more customers!

Join The Takeover Community:

• Sign up for The Takeover newsletter and get the latest marketing tips, sales strategies, and business insights delivered straight to your inbox. Join a community of entrepreneurs & high-performers dominating all areas of Sales & Marketing. Sign up for the newsletter.

About The Hosts:

• Tim & Cindy Dodd are the Co-founders of PEMA.io, based out of Miami, FL. Connect with Tim and Cindy: Instagram

About PEMA.io:

• PEMA.io is a Inc 5000 Outbound Marketing Agency specializing in Enterprise Sales & Appointment Setting. With over 7-years and 1,000+ clients served in the industry, PEMA is the leading agency for cold outreach appointments & systems. Learn more about PEMA.io here: www.pema.io/discover

Transcript

00:00
Just figure out a way to get in the room that isn't the way that everybody else is getting in and you'll just have a much better chance. As the leader, it's our role to say, this is the culture I want, this is the kind of people I wanna attract and the more clarity you have on it, the more you're gonna attract people that's raised their hand and say, yes, I wanna be a part of that. I still never say no, I say yes and, yes and it might cost more, yes and it might take longer, yes and have you considered these other things. It helps you with.

00:28
not saying yes to things that you shouldn't be saying yes to, but it also allows you to grow on other people's ideas. Welcome to The Takeover, where we show you how to dominate every area of life and business. Let's get winning.

00:44
Welcome back to The Takeover. Today we're joined by the creative powerhouse, Michaela Vandermoos, is the founder and executive creative director of Newfangled Studios. Michaela has mastered the art of story selling with a purpose. And now we've heard so many people talk about storytelling and it really is true. Storytelling is such a powerful part of persuasion and marketing and all of that. But Michaela has done it exceptionally well. She's built an.

01:09
very, very lucrative agency working with some of the biggest brands in the world. And she's really challenging stereotypes, spotlighting unheard voices and pushing boundaries for her clients. From late nights as a reality TV editor to founding a studio that combines agency and strategy with production and artistry. Michaela has taken the creative world one bold project at a time. So welcome to the show Michaela. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

01:35
You've actually built a really, really successful agency. So it's almost so nonchalant you talk about your business, but you're doing really great work for huge Fortune 500 companies. You've built an incredible business that only a tiny, tiny percentage of entrepreneurs that start their businesses are able to grow to. So I really wanna jump in today of like how you think about business and what brought you to ultimately what it sounds like to me from our previous conversation, designing a perfect life for yourself.

02:04
versus just trying to follow what everybody else is doing with growth. So let's start off by just talking about when did you start your agency? Started in 2009 when I certainly didn't have enough money or experience to be doing it. What did you think about, cause I know your revenues, I don't wanna leak it too early, but you're doing really healthy revenues. What was your mindset out when you started the business? What was the goal of starting your agency?

02:30
The goal of starting, so back in 2009, the marketing industry or the advertising creative industry was a bit different than it is now, where an ad agency would work with, I don't even know, like 10 vendors to get one campaign done, because they'd have to work with all these different specialty shops, plus their own internal crew. And the amount of bloat was insane. I just looked at that and said, why are there so many people on every call? So many people in every meeting, like.

02:55
Moving the project hand to hand, shop to shop. Like this is ridiculous. There's a better way to do this. And so I started my company in 2009, named it Newfangled, which means different from what you're used to, objectively new. And really with just the goal of like, there's gotta be a better way to do this. And it took some trial and error to sort out that better way. But, you know, with today's technology and the talented creative that's out there, there's a much more streamlined way to achieve great creative results.

03:23
So that was my goal when I first started. I wanted to create a life for myself that I wanted to live. I wanted to have coworkers that I really liked. I wanted to create a brand that I was proud of, but that was the problem I was solving for was like extreme agency bloat. For you as an entrepreneur, was it more so about fixing that problem that you saw with the agency bloat? Was it the lifestyle?

03:45
What was kind of the main starting point? Were you like, I could do this better or was it, hey, I want to live that entrepreneurial lifestyle. You have to have both, right? I've been an entrepreneur since I came out of the womb. I had a paper route, I had lemonade stands. I used to hustle and sell things in fifth grade at school. So I've just always had an entrepreneurial mindset. I come from an entrepreneurial family. My parents owned plastics factory that they started up out of a home garage and grew to a pretty big business. So.

04:12
I've seen them do it and that's just kind of what I knew. I've never considered not being an entrepreneur. It's never been an option for me. I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. And so I also knew that I needed to learn on somebody else's dime. You know, so I went and I worked at some agencies. I've always also known that I wanted to be in video and advertising. I've been super passionate about that since I was young in high school and everything I was always running around with a camera and making fake ads. And like I just have always been into it. So you like the creative part. Oh, yeah.

04:42
For me, it's like I grew up in an entrepreneurial environment. So that's what I knew and I never considered anything else. I'm passionate about advertising and video and have been since childhood. And so that combination of two things was kind of like, all right, get out there, look around, see what the world needs in that category. And then once I felt like I kind of identified the problem and had enough youthful arrogance to think that I could do it better, which it's funny. Cause the older I get, the more I'm like, Oh, I see why they did it that way.

05:10
But I've had enough youthful arrogance to think I could do it better. And that's when Newfangled was born. So were you working at agencies doing video work with them? Yeah. Okay. Tell me about that. What happened there? I was a freelancer. I worked at a number of different agencies, many of which are, you know, extremely well respected on campaigns that I respect. I had the good fortune of coming up as a video editor.

05:36
And when you're a video editor, you actually sit in the room with the creative directors. So even though I was, you know, in my early twenties, I was very young. I was sitting all day long with very senior level creatives and the brand clients because we were in the edit suite and I was the one pushing the buttons. And so I would hear the conversations and I would form relationships. You know, there's a lot of chat and a lot of, Hey, I'm going to render for 10 minutes. And then we chat about our personal lives for a little bit. Sometimes the edit suite too, just turns into almost like a therapy booth. We're like,

06:04
you know, some senior group VP creative directors, like fenting about the problems with the project to this young editor. And I learned just like an unimaginable amount of soft skill business knowledge from being in the edit suite, the relationships I formed in those edit suites are all of the same ones that the foundation of my business is now built on because those creative directors. Yeah. Thank you. Those creative directors went on to be creative directors at major brands. And they took me with them.

06:33
So you're in an editor role and I think a lot of people could think, well, oh, I, you know, they could be striving to get in a higher position, but you're saying you saw the value, like I'm in the room, let me, let me learn, let me listen, let me build relationships. So, I mean, that's just incredible for you to be able to see that at such a young age, the value.

06:56
of just listening and forming and building those relationships versus just trying to focus on getting that slight incremental raise or that slight incremental. I mean, where, where did that come from? And was this, I'm like, I'm kind of blown away. Like, did your parents teach you a lot of, of how to think about life and business? Or I think just by example, I mean, my parents, like we didn't come from money. My parents didn't come from money. And it was a very like, just hustle hard, be resourceful and try to find a side door. You know,

07:25
Nothing in my life growing up, did we ever do air quotes the normal way. We'd always try to have to figure out some other way to do it because we didn't necessarily have the resources to do it the regular way. And I think that gave me the mindset of like, why are ad agencies doing it? There's got to be a better way. But it also gave me the mindset of like, okay, well, you could have a biz dev team and do it the typical way and you have to have funding and all of these things, or you could find side doors. And the edit suite for me was one of.

07:53
many side doors that I've found throughout my career. And so when you say side doors, that seems like a theme that you have in your life. What does that mean to you? Well, actually, I think we're just like in a very therapeutic sense, I'm covering the side door theme in my life right now. But yeah, I think it's like just not defaulting to the traditional path and thinking, all right, I know where I wanna get. What are all the different ways I could get there? And what are the ways that I could get there that probably other people aren't trying? So for example, I work with Google.

08:22
They're my biggest client and I didn't go through a traditional pitch process to work with them. We became experts. There was no RFP that you went through? No RFP. No, there was no RFP. It was like, I knew I wanted to work with that brand, look for side doors, look for being really platform specific. They owned YouTube. So how can I know everything there is to know about YouTube? It's all on the internet. It's free for anybody to figure out.

08:49
become a subject matter expert and start talking to those people and not necessarily pitching any particular service, just really understanding the platform or look for relationships and not in like a using people way, but relationships where you're just asking questions and you're offering mutual value. So if I know somebody who might know how to get in a certain door that I wanna get in, offer them something valuable that I know in exchange, and keep that conversation going, but.

09:16
Yeah. I mean, I know side door is sort of a vague thing, but it's like, just figure out a way to get in the room. That isn't the way that everybody else is getting in and you'll just have a much better chance. Wow. So you're getting in the side doors. You're anybody listening to this, you're probably, there's probably people taking notes like what the heck side doors. I mean, this is really, it seems like in life, in business in general, which is probably why you do so well for your clients is you're always trying to look at things.

09:45
in a different way, a different path than traditional. And it's proved out well for you. And in fact, I, you know, we've talked off camera and I know that you built to an eight figure agency and in very, very healthy, great culture, great team. You guys love what you do and surprise everybody. She punches out at five o'clock. So I don't put you out at five o'clock, but you do. So I'm like, let's learn about this. What was that path from when you started to, you know, now having an eight figure agency for the last four years?

10:12
Sure. So I would say when I started, it was just very one foot in front of the other. And it certainly was not a punch out at five o'clock lifestyle for the first 10 years. It was a make it your entire personality lifestyle and include everybody you love in it so that you can actually see the people that you love. Yeah. Like my best friends painted my office with me. My wife is my business partner. My brother works for the company. Like it's definitely from a lifestyle perspective.

10:40
the people that I love and the things that I love are extremely intertwined with Newfangled as a company. And I think that that naturally just happened because I never stopped working the first 10 years. So I don't want to preach like a false like, oh, you can do all of this and still punch out at five o'clock. I did that once I built a machine for myself that's working. But the first 10 years- So you earned that. Jared. You earned that. I love that. Jared.

11:06
The first 10 years, I worked like a dog. I just was never not working. I didn't take vacations. I didn't take days off. I barely took any time on the weekends. But it didn't feel like work always, because I was absolutely obsessed with it. And I think that that honestly was the key to my success was just like I was so deeply interested in it. It wasn't boring. It didn't feel like work. It felt like I had a manic obsession with something that I was able to work on.

11:35
But in terms of how I built it, I didn't have any startup capital at all. Um, actually, can I pause you for one second? Cause you said something, they're obsessed. Like you're, you just loved it. What was it about it? Was it the more, they're like the mechanics of building the business? Was it the creative? Was it building the people that built the business? What about it was it didn't feel like work? Like what, what was it that you just loved doing? It almost felt like a sport to me. Like I wanted to win. I wanted to figure out.

12:05
how to get in the right room. And then once I got in it, try to connect with the right people. So that part of it was really fun. I'm competitive with myself to try to find those opportunities. Once I found the opportunities, the actual creative would keep me up at night. Like once I was on a project, I couldn't think of anything but that project. And it might've even been to an unhealthy extent where it was all I thought about or all I wanted to talk about. But clients really like it when you're that obsessed with doing a good job for them.

12:32
And I think that that probably has a large part of my success because everything that I built is based on referral. So when you're working for a brand, like once you get in the door and you are that obsessed with their success because you just can't stop thinking about it. And you're like, how could I make this better? How could I do this better? How could I achieve something that maybe isn't realistic within the budget that I have, but I really wanna do it. Those people, they'll like you, they'll say, wow.

13:02
I should refer her. And then that's really how it grew, was just doing a great job. And then as it grew, and it really, it grew one project, one employee at a time, it grew slow, really slowly. Because like I said, it didn't have any startup capital. So I would do everything myself in the beginning and charge next to nothing, just to try to like get my foot in the door, which I actually don't recommend in retrospect. I think what that does is set you up to be the person that

13:30
people go to when they don't have any money. And I think that might've been a mistake that I made, was just like- So you would do that one piece differently? I would do that piece differently because I was so desperate to work on things that in the beginning it was great because I was like, yeah, I'll say yes to anything, which got me a lot of opportunities because I was the yes person. I was the, I will stay up all night. I will work so hard. I will do literally every aspect of it myself. And if I don't know how to do something, I will watch YouTube tutorials until I figured it out.

14:00
I was literally obsessed. And on one hand, that was good because it got me in rooms. I probably otherwise wouldn't have been invited into. But on the other hand, I started to get the reputation of the person who would say no to nothing. Like whatever you want me to do, I'll do it for whatever budget you have. I don't care. I just want to do it. And at a certain point that stopped working for me because it was a race to the bottom. Yeah. So how, how would you do it differently? If you know, you were too.

14:29
do it again, or if you were mentoring somebody and they were going through the same process, what would you tell them to do? I think you have to do that a little bit, unless you have startup, you either have to have money or you have to have just extreme amounts of energy and hustle, and I didn't have money. So I think to some extent I had to do that and I don't really know how I would have done it differently, but I think I would have started saying no sooner than I did. I went a couple of years too long on working on things that maybe I just needed to learn how to say no.

15:00
Subscribing is the easiest way to support the podcast. Plus, you'll never miss an episode. Hit that subscribe button on iTunes, Spotify, Google, or wherever you're listening so that you don't miss a beat.

15:17
So you got this hustle, you're not saying no to anything. What was the transition where you started saying no? For me- Or do you stay no right now or- Oh yeah, I have very fantastic boundaries now. But that comes with time and experience. For me, saying no started, and I don't say no, I say yes and, by the way, say yes, we can do that. And I never say no. I still never say no. I say yes and, yes and it might cost more, yes and it might take longer.

15:46
Yes, and have you considered these other things? So that would be a takeaway if someone is new to entrepreneurship. Yes, and is a wonderful phrase. It helps you with not saying yes to things that you shouldn't be saying yes to, but it also keeps you curious and allows you to grow on other people's ideas. So yes, that's a great idea, and consider this, and then do that back and forth, and you'll grow exponentially. When I started transitioning to, not really transitioning to say no, but transitioning to setting healthy boundaries for myself,

16:16
was once it wasn't just me anymore and it was a company, that was one piece of it that it was affecting and impacting other people when I would just say, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And it's okay, now they have to stay late. Whereas it's a little different when I'm just doing it myself. So that was one piece. And the other piece was actually deeply personal. You know, in the 2000s, I'm a queer woman and this was in the 2000s where advertising was not as inclusive as it is now and diversity was not only not a thing, but could be sort of laughed at.

16:45
if you tried to. And so I had to start setting some boundaries with, if I felt like I was working on something that didn't reflect my values, I would speak up. And I think it was right around the same time that I was like, no, I don't wanna work all night long anymore. I don't wanna make other people work all night long. And also I'm not gonna disrespect myself. It basically came down to when I realized you're disrespecting yourself and you're disrespecting your employees when you say yes to things that you don't actually

17:14
agree with. Would you say it was more seeing you because as entrepreneurs, like we can grind ourselves to nothing and it's like this just may be part of the DNA. I'm hearing it. I'm like, oh my gosh, you're like an energizer bunny. But for you, was it like seeing your employees? Was that where it was sort of being like, I can't do that to them? Or was it just the combination? I think it was largely when it shifted from just affecting me to affecting others. And some of it will just be like disrespectful.

17:44
clients like not holding up their end of the bargain. You know, they say they're gonna get you notes at 9 a.m. and they get you the notes at 6 p.m. and they still expect it that same night, you know, things like that. And they'd be like, okay, and do it with a smile. But now that somebody else is doing it because I'm working on something else, it's like, well, I'm not gonna ask you to do that. So it becomes different when it's not just you and you have a culture to take care of and you don't wanna be the type of employer that burns people out. There's that, and then there's also your personal values.

18:13
It's not always just about, you know, somebody trying to make you do it faster and cheaper. A lot of times it would be clients, you know, asking me to participate in messaging I didn't believe in or being, you know, potentially disrespectful in the way that they're talking to my employees and like having to have to have the guts to say like, Hey, is there another way that we could say that, you know, and defend them? So yeah, that's really what it was. It was like.

18:35
when it's impacting other people. And then when it hit me the hardest was in, not hit me the hardest, but like I would say where my boundaries became more clear than ever was in 2015 when I had a kid. My daughter was born in 2015. And I remember thinking, how am I ever gonna be a good parent and be home enough because I worked so much. And my wife and I had a discussion and we said, you know, we're just gonna tell people this is what we're doing. And if somebody asks us to do something that's outside of that, we'll say like, yep, we can actually do that, but here's when you'll have it by.

19:05
instead of just always saying yes and then saying late. I'm going to use this. I'm seeing this theme. I like this. So if people give you work, let's do that night, but they gave you the things late so you can't hit the deadline anymore, I would always in previous life just be like, OK, and then just work late. Once my daughter was born, I promised myself, and again, it comes back to when it affects other people. Now it's going to affect my relationship with my daughter if I don't come home. I want to be home for dinner. So it's always like, yes, I can do that.

19:34
but here's how I can do that within boundaries that are healthy for me. And you don't need to say that in that way, but you need to think about it in that way for yourself. And what I found, it still shocks me to this day, is that everybody was receptive to it. There was not a single client who ever pushed back. You know, as long as I was doing what I said I would do, I just wouldn't over promise. I would just tell them actually what was reasonable for me to do. And they would say, okay. And if they couldn't say okay, then...

20:02
You know, we would talk about maybe other options, but just kind of like setting those boundaries for yourself and setting those expectations was huge for my own personal life. And then for the culture that we built Newfangled on. It's like almost this whole time where you're like, Oh, I don't want to say no. And then you finally say yes. And you're like, okay, cool. Sure. No worries. Totally good. Yeah. It was like, Oh, I could, maybe I could have done that a while ago. Maybe I could, or maybe I couldn't have. I think a lot of it too came with.

20:28
The confidence of now I am working with big brands. Now I do have cool stuff on my website. Like my confidence is high now. So I'm not scared to say yes. And whereas before I was scared to ever say no, would just say yes. No matter what. Now it's yes. And I love them, by the way, I'm going to use it. I think everybody listening and watching this show is just like, okay, there's a lot of lessons. I think we're going to like, definitely if you're listening to this, you're going to want to rewatch it, re-listen to this. You're very casual and like, yeah, I kind of did this and I built this. You're in.

20:57
incredibly sharp in the way you look at things. I don't know if you realize it's very unique. As one thing that stood out to me and another thing that keeps sticking out to me is you care about people a lot. Like you're two biggest motivators when things were shifting was your team and was your daughter. Like that tells me that like, some of your biggest drivers are those people that you care about in your life. So I just wanna point that out. Like it's always refreshing to talk to somebody who, like you wanna win. Like it's so clear you are driven.

21:26
and obsessed to win and be the best at what you do, but also you're deeply concerned about those who are close in your life. So it's just, it's really refreshing to see people that have both of those qualities. And I respect that about you a lot. And it kind of curious shifting into what is that culture that you built at your company and what does that look like to work at your team? Sure. Thank you very much for recognizing that. I think that

21:52
The key to a good business is relationships. It's the relationships that you have in your life. So you're not feeling burnt out and that you do have those supportive relationships in your personal life and family. It's the relationships with your coworkers and your vendors and all the people who actually make the work happen. And it's also the relationships with the clients. And so if you have those three things, you're personally fulfilled with relationships. You have all the people who actually get the work done, having a positive relationship with them.

22:19
And then also having a good relationship with the people who are currently or in the future might be in a position to give you work. That's really all you need to build a solid business. And so, yeah, I think relationships are, are the most important piece of it. In terms of culture at Newfangled, we took the time to develop a North Star for ourselves.

22:38
You know, over the years we went from saying yes to everything to like, yes, but this and yes, but that, and, and we went through, you know, some phases where we were just really focused on measurable results and getting results for the clients and our Northstar was a little bit all over the place. And so we took time in 2020 actually, when we slowed down because their, you know, work slowed down in 2020. We took some time to reflect on what are all the things that are important to Newfangled, the individual employees, me as a leader, our clients.

23:06
And we just sort of made this like laundry list and then narrowed it down to what now are the four points of the Newfangled North Star. And if you look at the Newfangled logo, the center of it is a star and that reflects our values. And so the top and the bottom of the star, they're a push pole, right? They're like, you wanna have one, but sometimes one comes at the expense of the other. For us, the push pole, the top of it is creativity and innovation. That's the part where it's like, I'm obsessed. I wanna think about this all the time. This is.

23:35
fun for creative people. It's like the jobs that you wanna take on and you don't even care if you make money on them, they're just cool. That's the creativity and innovation, but then at the base of it, the foundation of it is business results because like my clients are gonna come to me unless I actually get them business results. And so I think of those two things as a push-pull between from one to the other. Like if I ground it in business results, sometimes I can only be so creative before I start to get to a point where I'm putting art over business, just trying to make something that looks cool.

24:03
And the flip side too, like sometimes you really want to push the creativity, but you need to make sure that you're hitting those fundamentals, you know, of business results to make sure that you're getting what you need. So for us, the top and the bottom of the star are business results and creativity and innovation. And then the left and the right points of the star, and it's a four point star, by the way, are what I call my non-negotiables. They're like the anchors. There's no push pull. Anything I work on needs to hit these two points. And for us, it is respect and inclusion.

24:32
And I mean, we've talked quite a bit about respect, but if you respect the people who are doing the work for you, you respect the people who are hiring you, and you respect yourself, then that's the key to a good relationship. It also needs to mean that those people respect you back. So respect and inclusion, that's what that's about in creating.

24:52
Inclusion for us in advertising both on the screen is extremely important to me. Our work is extremely inclusive in casting. So yeah, so the left side, that non-negotials respect and inclusion. And then on the right side, it's forward progress. And forward progress can mean anything from as simple as, hey, is there an intern that wants to learn more about this type of thing? Like let's make, let's pull them in and give them that learning opportunity, all the way up to forward progress for the world. You know, are we working on something we're really proud of?

25:20
that we feel like can start to break down barriers in terms of inclusion and representation and advertising. So those are the two non-negotiables for me. We have to be making forward progress on something. It could be an individual person's career, it could be the world, and we have to be respectful and we have to be inclusive. And if we're doing those three things, then we can find our balance between their business results and the creativity and innovation. So that's sort of the culture in a nutshell is that North Star.

25:47
Do you just have such incredible clarity on that? You know, who was it Jim Collins, good at great and then built to last. One of the biggest things he said is the great companies. It wasn't necessarily what values they held, but it was, did they have values that everybody was bought into? And I think as the leader, it's our role to say, this is the culture I want.

26:11
This is where I want to build my business. This is the kind of people I want to attract. And the more clarity you have on that, the more you're going to attract people that's raised their hand and say, yes, I want to be a part of that. I want to be a part of that mission. I want to be a part of that culture. And my word, the clarity that you brought to that is incredible. And do you, I mean, do you find that having that kind of clarity has been a part of you being able to attract the kind of talent and teammates that you have on your team?

26:39
Yeah, the North Star becomes almost like a filter for every decision that we make and everything that we do. One, it's a beacon. There's an entire section on our website about it that I think probably any client who's gonna work with me is looking at and any potential hire is probably looking at as well. And like, if you really don't vibe with that, we probably just won't continue conversations very much organically because you're just, you look at that and you're like, hmm, maybe not right for me. And I've had people who think.

27:06
we're a little bit too woke for them. And that's fine. I think part of being respectful and inclusive is also respecting that that's not like my values are not everybody's values. And that's cool. We've definitely parted ways extremely early with clients because they just, we just didn't have the same values. So that's cool. And then I think in terms of employees, it's attracting the kind of people who I want to apply for the job. And it's also, you know, it's an agreement that you're making when you come on the team. This isn't a surprise. This is part of like our application lists out our North Star.

27:35
And it's part of the job description is to embody the new fangled North star and push it forward. And so if you make really clear what you want your culture to be, it will just happen because that's just who you're going to attract. Yeah. You got me fired up because I had actually built a, an agency, through super fast. I did not set here's the culture I want. And I'm just like, let me just hire, you know, some young fiery people and.

28:01
Culture will always build. The question is, are you directing it? Like your North Star, I love the language you use there because you're setting the North Star, right? And, and when you don't set in a North Star culture, it will build. And generally it's going to build on whoever is the most enthusiastic or the most negative in the company and then you build a toxic culture. So we ended up really having to rebuild in 2020, interestingly enough. And.

28:26
We built incredible culture that is really does attract the right clients. It attracts the right people. So, I mean, I'm resonating with this very, very, very much. And I mean, your, your energy and the clarity that you bring to everything that you have, is that your communication skills? Is that something that you've had always? You've always been able to speak with people, or is that something that you've been intentional about like, Hey, I really need to, with my goals, with where I want to go with communicating with people, I need to intentionally.

28:55
develop those kind of communication skills? Not sure it was either. I think honestly, largely what I do as a creative is take complex topics and try to communicate them in the simplest, most interesting way possible. And because I do that all day for my clients, it becomes easier for me to do it just in my everyday life. I could give you an example. My older daughter has type one diabetes. She wears devices on her body that beep when her blood sugar is high or low.

29:22
And she's in fourth grade and kids are looking at her, like, why are you beeping? Why are you wearing device in your body? So an example of where this type of skill set comes in handy is I was able to go into her classroom and explain to the kids what these are, what they're used for, and just very simple and matter of fact way, and in a conversational way. And I think as an example, that's kind of the same thing that I do for my clients, whether I'm explaining.

29:49
how a home equity line of credit works for Bank of America, or how to activate your Google Fi plan. Like, you know, any of those types of things that I'm doing for my clients, it basically comes down to how do you simplify and make interesting. And you know, then that just turns into the way that I talk, whether I'm in the classroom explaining it to fourth graders or talking to you now. Because I mean, you're taking topics that are, they're not sexy, they're not fun, they're not interesting, and you're creating a flavor and color

30:19
Oh, so we're obsessed with copywriting and how do you use one little word switch to bring color to what you're saying? And so, I mean, I think you and I could chat for a really long, long time. I'm just, and I love your energy. You're just like, you're like a fireball, man. You got me like, you got me like, I don't even need caffeine right now. So where are you headed now? Where's the next phase for you in business?

30:43
The next phase for me and business is to go deeper and wider with social. So when Newfangled first started, I mean, social media was a brand new thing. It was, it was barely there and that was 15 years ago. And, you know, one thing that's really important in business is to stay current and to continue to look for the, what are the needs that are shifting, not just what you want to work on, but actually where is the industry going? And that pointed me more and more and more towards social media.

31:12
And to this day, you know, most of our work is now in the social sphere. So where I see the future of Newfangled is actually all of our creative being social led, whether it is for social media or not, with it's an out of home billboard, still informing it with what's happening on social media, because that's the way that people communicate today. So that's what I'm extremely interested in now is the sociology of social media and the way that people communicate and think.

31:39
And that idea is spreading growth through social and then how, you know, my clients can benefit from that. So that's where we're headed. Where do you go to research that? Are you just consuming the material? Do you have certain experts that you would look up to to find that information? Well, I think it's like anything you are, your feed kind of curates itself based on what you're interested in. And I've mentioned, I've been obsessed with this for a long time. And so, you know, one thing that I do every day is I spend an hour on LinkedIn.

32:05
because I find LinkedIn to be extremely valuable for the two things that are important, which is your own curiosity. I read articles, people post their own newsletters, industry publications, all of that is on LinkedIn. And I look at it every day. So, you know, what are the top five campaigns to know about right now? Like, I'll know what they are because I read the stuff on LinkedIn. And then also relationships, being able to comment on, you know, congratulate people when they did an amazing campaign or answer a question that somebody has.

32:34
or ask a thought provoking question. So that's really where I get it from is my LinkedIn feed has become like a really nice curation of the things that I'm interested in. Well, you know, this has just been a great, great episode. There's just a ton of value. For sure, it's just the energy you bring, the clarity you bring to communication. It's second to none. It really is. This is one of the favorite episodes that I've recorded just because the way you communicate, the way that you're able to bring clarity.

33:02
Your confidence, your energy, I think is just such a great episode. And I'm, I'm excited for people to listen in and I'm sure there's going to be a lot of notes they take. What's the best way for people to connect with you and who would you like to connect with? Well, I'd love to connect with anybody who's interested in marketing or who's in the marketing and creative space. Like I said, I'm on LinkedIn every day and I'm very active. So connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on LinkedIn.

33:26
And then also if you're interested in the work that I'm doing, I have a blog on my website, which is newf And we have a thinking section where we just post our thoughts, articles, and then sort of contribute back to that thought leadership as well. So check out my website and add me on LinkedIn. Awesome. Well, Michaela, this has just been an absolute pleasure to have you on this show. And I'm sure we're going to continue our friendship and communication from here. So we'll talk to you soon. Awesome. Thanks so much. All right. See you soon.

33:55
If you're listening on audio, make sure to follow the show. And if you liked this episode and thought it was awesome, give it a five star. Why not? Again, remember domination is not a destination. It is a way of life. Stay winning.