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Getting To Know You: Emily Jeffrey-Barrett, Co-founder of Among Equals

August 27, 2024

We recently got to delve into the entrepreneurial journey of Emily Jeffrey-Barrett, the co-founder of creative agency Among Equals.

With a decade of experience in creative agencies, Emily saw a disconnect between brands and their audiences—one that often led to advertising efforts falling flat. Fueled by a desire to create work that truly resonates, she launched Among Equals, an agency built on the principle that no one inherently cares about a brand—until it makes them care. From her inspirations to the lessons learned along the way, Emily shares the insights that have shaped her approach to business and life.

What was the inspiration behind Among Equals?

I had been working in creative agencies for a decade when I started Among Equals. I’d worked with incredibly talented creatives, ambitious clients, visionary founders and NGOs on powerful missions and I’d spotted a pattern: they assumed people cared as much as they did. The CMOs and founders assumed people cared about their brand or product as much as they did. The charities assumed people were as invested in issues as they were. And the creatives assumed the general public was as passionate about design and advertising as them. The reality is very different. People simply do not care as much as our industry assumes they do, and that assumption leads to work that doesn’t work.

This isn’t just something I felt as a consumer and citizen, it’s something that’s been proven by research time and time again. The vast majority of advertising isn’t loved or hated; it’s just ignored. I wanted to build an agency that would work with this reality – creating genuinely impactful work that would make people care about issues, change behaviour and drive results. So our philosophy is grounded in this reality: ’Start with no one cares. Build brands that change that.’

Who do you admire?

I firmly believe the phrase ’never meet your heroes’ exists for a reason, so I’ve never put anyone on a pedestal. Instead, I admire anyone who DOES things. It’s easy to have ideas. It’s easy to talk about things you’re going to do. The hard part is actually doing it – taking the leap, writing the book, starting the business, making the move.

So I admire anyone who recognises that the world isn’t happening to them. They can happen to it. People like my client Emma Horton, who started a prescription skincare business – Uncouth – while pregnant and working as a doctor because she saw an opportunity. Or my colleague Joe Hedinger, who quit his amazing job at the BBC to move to Norwich and realise his dream of working with books – he works at a delightful shop called The Book Hive now. Anyone who really looks at life, understands it’s short, and takes steps to make the most of it.

Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?

On one hand, yes – so many things. Like learning about the financial side of running a business, or the complexities involved in hiring and HR, or understanding the legal aspects of incorporating and trademarking a brand. That would have smoothed a lot of bumps along the way – I’ve had a lot of very, very steep learning curves. But in reality I wouldn’t change anything at all.

If I’d known all the challenges I’d face along the way, setting up the agency would have seemed extremely daunting. But because I didn’t, I just jumped in. It’s taken a lot of energy and work to get here, but I’m so proud of the business we’ve become and everything I’ve learned. It’s made me much more resilient. Today I can honestly stand here and say ‘anything is possible’ – and that’s because of all the challenges I faced, not in spite of them.

What defines your way of doing business?

People are everything. Full stop. You can’t achieve anything without the right team around you. So I only have three rules at Among Equals: 1. Hire people who are better than you. 2. Empower them, then get out of their way. 3. When anyone asks who is responsible for great work, there is only one answer: ‘the team’.

That includes our clients too. We work collaboratively, as equals, with our clients and I’m proud to call many of them friends. Someone once said to me ‘I don’t want to be friends with the people I work with. I’m not like you, I don’t need more friends’ and I’ve never heard anyone miss the point more. Why wouldn’t you want great working relationships with your team and your clients? When has good work ever come from contempt or conflict? Weird.

What advice would you give to someone starting out?

Learn how to wrangle fear. I’d wanted to have my own business for years but I’d been waiting for the perfect time. I was so scared of not having work, or enough money to live. But when the pandemic hit and everything seemed terrifying I realised the perfect time doesn’t exist – if you want to do something, you just have to go for it. I got to a point where the fear of NOT starting a business outweighed the fear of doing it, so I quit my nice, stable job in the middle of a global disaster and set it up. Fear can be paralysing, but it’s also incredibly powerful. So embrace it when it drives you, and when it feels like it’s going to overwhelm you just keep going and don’t look down.