Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jen Boyles. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Jen, thanks for joining us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you as a business owner?

I learned that TRUST is everything pretty early on. When I was a director at my previous agency, every client engagement seemed to be a consistent test of trust — a constant volley between the agency and brand that would go on until the client either felt comfortable or left. I always felt like every approach to remedy client dissatisfaction was taken EXCEPT true honesty. When I started my own business, I knew it would be difference-making to cut the fat out of these relationships and offer real transparency, even in difficult situations. If a client trusts you have their best interests at heart, you can do such great work together.

Jen, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Jen Boyles, and I’m the founder of a collaborative agency and consulting firm called JBD. I founded JBD after a decade as a journalist and marketing director. I was excited to attempt to remedy a lot of the mistakes I saw made with clients in larger agency situations, and it’s been unbelievably empowering to see it work!

We specialize in strategic digital communications for brands and larger corporations who want to create lasting and valuable community around their offerings. We help them set actionable digital, social and content strategy that’s transformative and keeps up with the pace of digital. We’re uniquely qualified to help clients hone their voice and meet audiences authentically with content that’s actually welcome. Brands can no longer talk AT their audience and ‘be on social’ — they have to talk WITH them and BE social inherently. While we aren’t just a social agency, this is the medium that makes the most immediate and consistent impact.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I’m going to give you two!

1- That you can do it all yourself. That is a lie we tell ourselves to avoid discomfort.

You’ve probably said “I’ll just do it myself so I know I’ll get it right” — right? But what’s missing from that equation is not only collaboration but also the varied perspectives that clients deserve. JBD is not just me consulting with brands — I could do that 100% of the time just fine — it’s me connecting with executive marketing level talent to form the best possible teams to meet challenges. Doing this all on my own would result in a pretty lonely life and about 80% less business.

2 – That a strategist’s job is to poke holes in everything.

I used to think a big part of a strategist’s job was to anticipate why something won’t work — and that is not how you build relationships, it’s an easy way to get uninvited to meetings. I’ll put it simply: A good creative strategist helps to forge the right path.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Word of mouth paired with a great reputation built over the years and decent SEO is a good mix for JBD. We aren’t looking to add 30 new clients a month through those insane lead generators and cold email blasts. We aren’t built that way. That’s not conducive to great client service for us and it’s not indicative of the kind of marketing we’d do ourselves. I’ve stayed steadfast to this and it’s worked — now if only I could find a way to stop those blanket email blasts once and for all….

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.jbd.agency
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/jbdagency
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenboyles/

Image Credits
Image credits: David Schmit, Richard Wong, Darin Kamnetz