Launching a business in lockdown: In conversation with Emily Jeffery-Barrett
We all think our work wife is no.1. But my first really takes some beating.
Emily Jeffrey Barrett welcomed me into my inaugural internship at a creative agency four years ago with her Yorkshire charm and perfect eyebrows. Brains the size of Britain and ideas coming out of her ears, I immediately wanted to learn everything from this creative guru that I could. And luckily for me, EJB was as generous with her time as anyone I’d ever met. In a team which was almost all male bar her and I, she was (and remains) a huge inspiration; the manager everyone dreams of and the work wife of a lifetime. So, you can imagine my devastation when EJB informed me she was off to pursue a new venture. A short while after walking out of the workplace we shared, EJB launched her own agency, Among Equals, in the midst of a global pandemic. (No biggie).
From September 2020 to now, Among Equals has been making headlines, delivering powerful work for brands who want to make more than *just* money. Last week, I had the pleasure of catching up with EJB about launching a business in lockdown and being a woman in the creative industry.
Read on for a large slice of inspo.
Meg: I know a bit about this already, but our readers won’t. So, tell me how you started out in your career and what made you want to get into the creative world.
Emily: Would you like the honest answer or the sounds good, kind of thing you should say answer?
Meg: The honest one!
Emily: Actually, there are still two answers to this. The least sad one is, I’ve got two aunties, one of them worked in marketing and every time we had to do work experience in school, I used to go there [to Elmwood]. And I’d think, what is this place where people get paid to have a nice time and come up with ideas? This can’t be a job. So, I was immediately interested in working in agencies. And then the really sad answer is when I was at university Mad Men came out and I was obsessed with it. And beyond all of the relationship dramas and the people, the things I really loved was seeing the responses they came up with for the briefs and watching the presentations. So I saw that and put it together with my experiences at Elmwood and realised that’s what I wanted to do.
Meg: So you always wanted to get into this world, was it the same with launching your own business?
Emily: I always kind of knew it was something I wanted to do. But for a long time, I didn’t think I’d do it. It was always kind of a pipe dream. [I’d think] imagine what it would be like to own an agency and do whatever you wanted. But it’s probably only in the last three years, I started to think seriously about really wanting to do it. …. For a long while, I just had no concept of how you would even go about it. And then I realised I just needed to do it, I just needed to get started. [I was] super lucky I was able to save some money during the pandemic.... It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough that I knew I had a couple of months before things were going to go really wrong, so at that point I was like - I’ve just got to do it. I don’t want to wake up and regret not doing it, fucking go for it. What’s the worst that can happen?
Meg: (Laughs). I guess when there’s a global disaster going on, it does kind of put things into perspective! Which brings me onto the next question, even though lockdown has obvious challenges, would you say it’s bought any positives?
Emily: Mmm, yeah. I guess there’s two things. There’re the practical things. I was able to start a business without feeling the pressure to get an office. All I needed was a laptop…There was no expectation to have a really glossy office to be taken seriously, because everyone was just at home in their pyjamas…And I’m quite causal in my, not in how I take work I take that very seriously, but my approach is very open and friendly and not very stiff and polished. So, I think maybe that’s helped, because I was already kind of primed for that.
Another really good thing has been the opening up of international opportunities. We’ve worked with clients in Portugal, in Barcelona, in Brooklyn and there hasn’t been the sense of ‘oh well, they should work with local agencies they can go to see’, because they can’t go to see anyone…So that’s definitely opened up the possibilities of people we can talk to. I hope it will continue in the future, because I think it’s reframed how people approach agencies… So yeah, a few really practical things. And then emotional as well, because to your point around putting things into perspective…I guess it’s [the pandemic] the kind of global version of you might get hit by a bus tomorrow, so you might as well do it today.
Meg: At Ganter our focus is obviously very much on womxn. And, as I’m sure you know, there’s a well-documented gender imbalance in our industry. Women make up half the industry but only 17% of creative directors. You said earlier it felt like a pipe dream almost to have your own place, do you think being a woman ever played into this feeling? Maybe you hadn’t necessarily seen many women in senior leadership or other female agency owners?
Emily: It’s a really good question. But it’s really hard for me to say whether being a woman played into me feeling like it was a pipe dream, or whether it just wasn’t something I’d seriously considered. I think partly because I was bought up by a father who was very, you’d probably call him progressive, but I didn’t see him that way, he just thought women were as good as men and wanted to make sure I knew that…So, I’ve always had quite a lot of confidence, I’ve never felt particularly intimidated by or worried about authority figures. And my first boss at RY was a woman, Isabel Collins, a brilliant strategist, I worked with her for a year and a half at the start of my career. And even in my internships, I worked with a lot of great women, they weren’t necessarily the board directors, but they were certainly my bosses. Plus, I have female friends who’ve done really well in their careers. I know it’s a huge issue and I’ve seen it. But I don’t feel like it affected my feelings around having an agency or not. There’ve definitely been ways I’ve been affected in my career by being a woman. Many, many, many of them. But I’m not sure that that was one of them.
Meg: Any you feel comfortable talking about? Or not? It’s fine if not, I completely understand!
Emily: Probably a couple I definitely wouldn’t. And then there’s a few where you couldn’t really prove it, you know?
There’s one actually, one of those where you think, why didn’t I have a better response to it at the time? It was one of my first job interviews I ever did… For an advertising agency in Canary Wharf. I got there, and I was like, what is this place? Because I’d never been there [Canary Wharf] before. Trotting in in my little trousers, like this place is awful. Went into the office and had the interview and she [the interviewer] was asking questions I just did not know the answer to. She literally asked me three questions and then decided I wasn’t right for the job, which was correct I clearly wasn’t right for it. What she could have said to me was, are you sure you want this job? Or maybe if you do want this job, you should go away and learn a bit more about it. What she said to me was, ‘hmmm, I don’t think this is going to work. But don’t worry, we’re in Canary Wharf so there’s load of rich men out there, you can just go and find yourself a husband.’ Can you imagine being a woman and saying that to a 21-year-old girl that’s coming into interview? What a thing to say to somebody else. And I think that realisation that you can’t even always rely on other women to help you was really disappointing and stayed with me for some time. Just such a bleak thing to hear. She didn’t think I had any value at all in the workplace. And even if she was joking, which I really don’t think she was, what a shit joke? That’s probably the first big one that I encountered.
Meg: Unbelievable, thank you for sharing that story. Onto more positive things and Among Equals. You’ve delivered some amazing work so far, is there a project you’re most proud of?
Emily: Am I allowed two?
Meg: (laughs) Yes, you are.
Emily: One of them has got to be The Empowerium, which is a project for The Girl’s Network, a little online store. I’m really proud of that because we did it relatively quickly and had a great relationship with the client. They were very trusting and helped us steer it in terms of credibility and building the substance into it but were pretty happy for us to have free rein. It just worked so well for them, it started as Christmas campaign but it’s staying up now and they’re going to keep it as an ongoing online donation and partnership tool.
The other one is Just Ask Max, which is a brand that we did for a family online safety platform. And I think, partly, I’m proud of it because it surprised me in a way. When you hear it [the brief] on the surface, you think is it going to be that exciting? But the client was well up for doing something different. Really wanted to be pushed. But also so decisive. In the naming meeting, I think ‘Just Ask Max’ was the second name we presented. And literally as soon as we got off the call he was like I’ve called the trademark lawyers, we’re trademarking it. He was just brilliant, and I think we managed to get to something with so much personality that felt so different for that sector. So, I’m really proud of where that ended up, verses where it could’ve gone.
Meg: And what are you most excited about for the next 6 months?
Emily: I’m very excited about getting an office. Oh my god, so excited.
And work wise, we’re working on some really interesting projects at the moment. We’re doing a couple of environmental campaigns, including a litter behaviour change campaign; our ideas are quite funny, so it’ll be interesting to see if they have an impact. We’re also working with a really great ocean conservation charity at the moment that partners with organisations to help them become more sustainable. They’ve got an incredible story about how the ocean is the source of all life on earth therefore we need to protect it, they’re brilliant. And yeah, got loads going on! All sorts.
Meg: Finally, do you have any end of chat advice for any fellow women out there wanting to start their own thing, be it small and personal, or a business like yourself?
Emily: So, they’re probably two quite different things. If you’re thinking about doing something that you think would be fun, but your livelihood doesn’t depend on it – just go for it!
But if you’re thinking of quitting your job and starting your own thing…I think surround yourself with the right people but make sure you’re at a point where you’re comfortable and confident. If the risk feels too big for you and you’re worried and panicked that’s where things go wrong, for me anyway. You need to come at things from a position of confidence in order to be able to take the risks that mean it will go well. Do it because it’s amazing but make sure it’s the right time and you’re in the right space to do it. Don’t do it as a knee-jerk, fuck you reaction to something else. Do it because you genuinely feel like you can and it’s the right thing to do.
Also don’t get a puppy when you’re in the first stages of starting a business. That’s a stupid idea. You don’t want an 8–12-week-old puppy when you’re trying to get a business off the ground. Unless you have very forgiving clients, which luckily, I do.
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To discover more about Among Equals visit their website.
And follow @weareamongequals on Instagram for more of their amazing work.