Network News: Community is everything
Your success requires the aid of others
Network News → Network News
It’s because of last week’s Network News person, Robbie, here, that we know the subject of this week’s, Michael Murdoch. Robbie and Michael worked together in agency-land and went on to create Story Cube together.
Post Robbie-moving-to-Glasgow Michael still runs Story Cube but has also done a terrific job of building community and collaboration in that agency world so, as fans of community obvs, we wanted to share some of that with you today.
Over to Michael…
Around September 2022, the UK was tentatively making its way out of the pandemic. At this time, I was very keen to connect with some fellow humans in the agency world as working from home was beginning to drag. I searched for business networking events to join but there wasn't much out there at the time and most were for big conferences with 1000s of attendees, which is not the format I particularly enjoy.
Therefore, I considered the type of event I preferred and decided to host an informal lunch for 20 agency leaders in a central London venue. Sign ups via my network came in pretty quickly and we had a great afternoon together…
I knew I was on to something
That first lunch was the birth of Agency Folk, which, after two and a half years, has hosted 70+ events for 1,000+ agency leaders.
The aim of the events (and the new Sales Club and Ops Club accelerator programmes) is simple: Connect, Collaborate and Celebrate, together.
I've experimented a lot with different formats and offer a whole range of relatively intimate events where people actually get the chance to learn something new, talk to their peers who understand their challenges and come away feeling more invigorated as a result.
Through Agency Folk I’ve hosted online speed networking, interactive webinars, coffee clubs, ‘netwalks’, masterminds, all day gatherings with workshops, a cycle club, safari style away days in the countryside, evening socials, barge trips and more is planned for the future, including an event at a theme park!
It's lots of fun, brings new opportunities for all involved and something that's really helped me and my branding agency too.
Community is everything
A big thanks goes to 9others as I attended a couple of dinners in early 2024. It was a turning point for Agency Folk as things were just starting to become more serious and I was at a crossroad. After sharing my challenge, the general feed back was Just F*cking Do It!. Sounds simple but it was the kick up the bum I needed to take more risks and push things forward. A couple of guests from those dinners even joined my events, so that was an added boost too!
Thanks to everyone who motivated me to keep experimenting, I could have easily stopped and switched to something else, but I'm very glad I didn't.
Talk to Michael
If the above sounds interesting, particularly if you’re an ‘agency folk’, have a look through the following links and chat to Michael to see if you can get involved:
🤝 Connect with Michael on LinkedIn here.
📬 You can email Michael on michael@thehouselondon.com
🔗 Read more on Michael’s website here.
Founders Focus
Founders Focus is a space for you to carve out time to work on the hard things that really matter.
What does it do?
Founders Focus keeps you focused, accountable and connected.
Who it’s for?
Founders Focus will suit Solo Founders, Remote (Co) Founders, and Freelancers, CxOs and Side Hustlers.
FAQs?
Read more and check out the FAQs on the Founders Focus Notion page, here.
We hope you’ll join us.
