We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Erik Quigley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Erik below.

Erik, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

My husband and I have a toddler, so this question has come to the forefront several times as he’s gotten older. I was a very loyal W-2 employee in the years leading up to freelancing gigs and then morphing into a creative agency with multiple dba’s.

I remember the security of the ‘regular job’ lifestyle; I also remember COVID, and the layoffs, and the uncertainty. Being a business owner has it’s ups and downs (sometimes minute to minute), especially when you’re in your infancy, but at least I’m in control–I’m not waiting for someone else to pull the rug out.

So, am I happy? Yes, I think so. It helps that I’m always reminding myself that I’m the one steering the ship, and it won’t go down without my permission.

Erik, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As I’ve become more entrenched in business, I’ve started to consider myself an entrepreneur more than anything. I currently operate one main venture with various off-shoots, each with a different audience.

The parent company is Uncommon Crowd, a creative agency for bold brands (www.uncommoncrowd.com). We bring authenticity and creative spark into the branding and business space through art, a dash of magic, and just a smidge of high drama. We are especially adept at taking particularly bland industries (finance, real estate, health and wellness, etc.) and elevating them beyond the norm.

From Uncommon Crowd, a spider effect has taken place whereby Uncommon Talent (www.unctalent.com) was formed–a representation and image agency for production artists (photographers, makeup artists, stylists, etc.)–and, through my TikTok growth, UncommonXCreative which provides community, resources and mentorship for other creatives.

I’ve also recently incepted two smaller ventures: BizmosCEO, a digital astrological calendar designed to optimize your business (www.bizmosceo.com); and Creative Law Lab, affordable contract templates for creatives (www.creativelawlab.com)

Overall, my passion is in helping others and creating–always creating.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

People think social media is about following all the rules–it’s actually about being yourself.

Over the past 9 months I’ve amassed over 20k followers on TikTok, 1k followers on Instagram and added over 1k subscribers to my email list.

TikTok, because of the algorithm, has seen the fastest and most significant growth, but it was hard starting out. I tried for about 6 months, tapping out at about 600 followers. I was posting 7-10 videos per week and got burnt out trying to do what I thought people wanted.

Then 6 months after, I picked it back up again, just doing what felt good to me, and my second video went viral at half a million views. I gained 7k followers in 3 days. Instagram and my email list have followed because of TikTok and I’ve continued to grow since. (Pro tip: TikTok is your top of funnel, Instagram is where you nurture to move to your list)

My best advice for people looking to grow on social is to first be yourself–your tribe will find you, and second, be consistent. If you don’t put out content, you aren’t able to gain the data to see what’s working and what isn’t so you can iterate and create more content that actually works.

Lastly, the overarching theme is about doing it for yourself. Social media has become a digital sketch book for me. I use it to iterate on ideas and recreate videos (social media isn’t linear, people don’t experience you chronologically) and try new things. If you do it for yourself first, to learn about you and your business, it won’t feel like work and regardless of followers, you’ll gain valuable insight.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Owning a business or a brand is about the relationship first. You could be selling complete garbage, but if your customers and clients like you, you’re golden.

One of my favorite things to do is set calendar reminders every quarter or 6 months just to check in with people. I may not be doing any work for them at the moment, but that doesn’t mean I won’t again or they won’t refer me. Besides, the clients I take on, I generally like, so I’m invested in how they’re doing.

Another way I keep brand loyalty going is at the end of the year. I typically design a card and then do custom gift boxes for clients using pre-filled questionnaires they receive when we taken them on.

It doesn’t matter what you do, or even when you do it, it’s the thought that counts. The end of the year is great because it’s about gratitude and community. It a fantastic time to show your audience, clients, customers, partners that you care without trying to sell. It’s about making them think about you.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.uncommoncrowd.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncommoncrowd/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quigleye/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuIvM-YKhdkCICNloXv9B_Q
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uncommoncrowd

Image Credits
Photography: Matthew Holler