Flat Shoes:
The premise of Craft is to plug in and get shit done where it is needed.
Often when putting timelines together you are told it will take 6 weeks to deliver the output of a task.
The reality is it doesn’t take 6 weeks – it takes 2 weeks and the rest of the time is needed to co-ordinate across multiple agencies to get a meeting in.
When we first started Craft we decided to live the value of physical availability and be everywhere at all times.
It meant our new business approach was to pretty much walk the streets of Soho knowing that we would bump into someone we knew – who would ask what we were up to, so we could then immediately buy them a cup of tea and tell them and extract a brief from them.
Even though we are nearly 2 the principle still applies, and we go to where we are needed. Rather than sitting behind a screen in an agency we are out and about popping up at other people’s agency to steal Wi-Fi, drink their coffee but most importantly be there to get shit done.
Chemistry:
Sally Weavers invited me to join her on the adventure that is Craft nearly 2 years ago.
We left big jobs, to do our own thing, but we had never worked together before.
But we had chemistry.
We had met a number of times before being women in strategy, and had decided we liked each other so did the thing that boys struggle to understand which is we immediately became friends.
We are very different but our core values are utterly identical.
We wanted to build an agency that was the total opposite to what existed.
One where we were paid for thinking not buying.
One built on collaboration not competition.
One where creativity is imbedded not added on.
Where flexibility is mandated not negotiated – no one works 9-5 5 days a week.
That’s built to be fair – everyone who works at Craft owns a bit of Craft.
And is an agency that celebrates the Craft of our industry whether it happens by us or by others (we hate twitter haters).
And so far, it’s working, because we think the Universe will deliver.
We have experienced the generosity of this industry.
All our projects and clients have come from recommendation. And it’s not recommendation from your closest friends – it’s the power of loose connections.
The person we did a favour for a while ago, a client we worked with 10 years ago that now sits on an industry board and a media owner we have known since being a grad: All people who we have a degree of ‘chemistry’ with.
It’s all these people who have met a client or business and told them they needed to speak to the Crafty ladies.
It’s the Universe delivering on you not being a Tit.