#83 The Making Of Affinity Collective
This issue is a whole lot of behind the scenes – I'm going to share everything that went into my decision to launch an agency + all the help I had to make it happen.
If you nerd out on business strategy, this issue is for you.
Let’s get into it –
First let's dial back the clock to December 2023. For months I had debated if I should keep working as an individual consultant or build an agency.
I "grew up" at an agency so I know the business model.
I started as a Product Designer and worked my way up to a Principal Strategist with my own multi-million dollar portfolio of clients, a team of 30 developers and designers, and a whole lot of responsibility.
I knew everyones salaries and who to staff on what in order to hit my target project margins.
I knew how to build relationships with clients so that they renewed and referred us more work.
I knew how to close new projects and was often brought in as the closer in the sales process.
My boss joked that I could "find money" when we needed to hit a bonus target. My colleague joked that I knew how to "play the game".
So I know this business. But I also know all of its downfalls.
I know profit margins can be slim.
I know there's never enough overhead roles.
I know the grind of landing new projects.
I know the ebbs and flows of staffing. People were generally overworked or underworked and there felt like no middle-ground.
Just thinking about my calendar during that period of my life makes me want to keel over... something like 40 hours of meetings and another 40 of time-blocks for getting shit done.
I was instituting things within my practice (my projects teams) that I learned from this woman I was following on Instagram, Anna Nassery.
She was always talking about systems to streamline things within an agency to get your time back and make for a more seamless client experience. For example, creating videos and templates for new clients to onboard. Her tips, via social media, helped me 3x my portfolio.
Years later I met Anna through bossbabe when we collaborated on a masterclass about web design. Anna has a web design & branding agency called Lumina.
When I left bossbabe Anna reached out and she became a mentor of mine (formally this time) and an advocate for my consulting work.
At this point I knew I could build a successful agency, I had the receipts and I knew the business. But I didn't think I wanted to... for all the aforementioned reasons.
Then Anna told me to read the book Built To Sell.
So it's December 23, 2023. I'm doing last minute Christmas shopping bopping around local shops (because last minute + local are my vibe) and I listen to the entire book in one day.
The premise is that an agency owner refined his services from anything creative under the sun ... to logos ONLY.
What I learned from that book is that I could build a really different agency than the one I used to work at.
Instead of constant custom projects with bespoke proposals, pitches, and team makeups... I could sell a repeatable process. I could package my services as productized offers. This blew my mind.
And with what I know now about digital products and digital marketing, I knew that we could create something special.
One of our core services we've productized is our Transformative Product Sprint. We follow the exact same process which we have templatized with each client to help them build the right thing.
Kickoff – Set research plan
Research Phase – Write survey, 1:1 Customer interviews
Data Analysis – Review existing data
Affinity Mapping – look for patterns amongst data for insights
Design Workshop – Community journey mapping & product ideation
Product Strategy – Deliver final recommendations for offer details, pricing, ascension strategy, platform, etc.
8 weeks. Repeatable. Templatized.
Before launching the agency we've been fine tuning each stage for the past year and now this process is working SO well.
Now I'm not going to pretend like I have it all figured out... but I'll continue to share here as I work toward building an agency to sell.
You can follow along the launch posts (I've got 6 weeks planned!) on Instagram or our LinkedIn page.
Speaking of 6 weeks of social media content... I wanted to give some shoutouts for all the people that have helped me along the way because I certainly did not do all of this myself.
It takes a village
Anna Nassery – Agency coach + helped me decide on the name. If you have an agency I highly recommend Anna's mastermind.
Lumina – Brand kit & custom color palette
Frame Agency – Social launch templates & grid plan
Keeping Up Social – Launch content creation (LinkedIn & Instagram)
Cheyenne Buttrey – Website copy edits
Affinity Team – We have worked together to refine our processes and serve our clients and I'm so grateful for my community managers, researchers & product strategists supporting us.
My Husband – Justin is running our agency operations and has built out a CRM and lead pipeline that I'm obsessed with.
I designed and built the website myself... and we have some more content coming to the site soon... including some digital products! I'll share more about that in a future issue.
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