We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sara Jean Potts a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sara Jean , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
We came up with the idea to start Guide & Anchor while I was working as the Director of Motion Design/Animation at The Onion in Chicago and my partner/husband, Joey Potts, was working as a Creative Director at a brewery. We were both working really long hours and giving a lot of energy and creativity to our employers and we thought, if we’re going to work this hard – shouldn’t it be for ourselves?
We had also longed to move to a smaller city where we could afford to start our own business and take a break from the Chicago grind. What we didn’t know is that the brewery would offer to add a new location and make us partners in an Indianapolis based project. While that seemed like a great move and ultimately helped us make the leap from Chicago to Indy, in the end we passed on the deal and started Guide & Anchor from the jump in 2018.
We knew that we both had a passion for a variety of different artistic mediums so we purposefully chose not to define what Guide & Anchor would be by labeling it a design studio or an agency. It was really more of an ethos for us with “Ride On. Stay True” as a fundamental tagline. At first I used a lot of my Chicago connections from my time as freelance motion designer to find animation work but we quickly began working with Indianapolis breweries and music festivals through Joey’s connections as a known illustrator in the beer world coupled with our ability to offer animation and an overall brand aesthetic as creative directors.
Since then our business has taken so many wild twists and turns and has led us to all kinds of different work from interior design to launching a clothing brand to curating dance parties. We officially opened our brick and mortar creative studio in November of 2023 and were named “Best Creative Studio” in 2024 by Indianapolis Monthly Magazine. While this award finally led to defining Guide & Anchor, it has also helped remind us that we made the right decision to follow our own creative path and enjoy wherever the road takes us.
Sara Jean , 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 SJ Potts, owner and Creative Director of Guide & Anchor – a Creative Studio & Retail Brand based in Indianapolis. I’ve been a creative my whole life, finding joy early on in everything from fashion and makeup to photography and music, so I chose to go to film school because becoming a film director seemed to fulfill all of my creative passions in one role.
After film school, I ran an experimental film series in Chicago from 2003-2007 and began touring the country showing my own work and work that I had co-curated as part of a traveling film festival – proudly bringing unusual short films to almost every state in America and a whole slew of oddball venues from dusty dive bars to nightclubs to DIY basement galleries. At a certain point, road life had run it’s course and I had began developing a larger interest in animation and motion design, a craft I had been teaching myself through my experimental film work.
At close to 30 years old, I decided to take on a bunch of internships from smoke filled documentary houses to ad agencies that soon, and somehow by the grace of Craigslist and an amazing female Creative Director, landed me a gig as a Motion Designer on the last season the Oprah Show. From there I went on to work at the OWN Network and eventually went freelance as a Motion Designer until 2016 when I became the Director of Motion Design/Animation at The Onion – leading a 6 person team of animators on all kinds of projects and branded content work that bridged the gap between big brands like Dr. Pepper & Dyson and our in-house brands and sister sites like the AV Club , Gizmodo and Lifehaker.
This exciting blast from Bartender/Experimental Film Curator to Big Brand Creative & Animation Director in just 6 short years led me straight to Burn Out City where I was the Mayor of Imposter Syndrome and overcome with anxiety and a deep longing for creativity without fear. So, in 2018, my life partner and greatest collaborator and I decided to move to Indianapolis and start Guide & Anchor – an ever-evolving Creative Studio that specializes in Branding, Design, Illustration, Animation, and Environments and has brought me to my new and favorite role yet as Creative Director/Proud Female Small Business Owner.
Guide & Anchor has become most well know for our cohesive approach to launching and building brands, exploring all aspects of a brand from the logos to the environment to a brand’s social and visual voice. We view every project as a collaboration and an opportunity to push the boundaries of creativity through combining our vision with the vision of our clients and creative partners. We also use our business as a platform for our creative community, educating our clients on the importance of working with local makers, photographers, and fabricators of all kinds. As of 2023, Guide & Anchor is also a retail brand with a a brick & mortar Creative Studio/Shop, four current clothing collections and a few new collections in the works. This allows us the space to test out products and materials ahead of our client projects and to continue our creative pursuits and our passion for curation and environmental design through our events and launch parties.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
We often get (and make sure to write down) comments like “I feel so seen” or “OK, now I’m crying” or “This is a proud moment” from our clients when we reveal their branding for the first time. We work with a lot of small businesses and we spend a lot of time listening to and reflecting on their stories and taking in all of their hopes and dreams for their new business or the next stage of their current business and I think that thoughtfulness comes through in the work that we do.
As small business owners ourselves, we know how hard it is to make that dream come true or how far you’ve had to come to continue to make it grow. It means a lot to us to be able to help someone else achieve their goals through the power of art and design and it’s something that we work really hard at. That doesn’t go un-noticed!
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
I think being what I call a “future thinker” has helped me so many times throughout my career and life. Being able to see when something has run its course or how doing something new, even if it’s just to fulfill your own creative desires, might lead to a new revenue stream or open you up to new opportunities and a new audience has been crucial for Guide & Anchor’s success. We didn’t start with any kind of a business plan and are only now learning how to strategize and grow our business but our #1 goal written at the top of every page of our current plan, from 1 year from now to 10 years from now, are the words “Be Open”.
Be open to having a cool conversation with a random stranger. Be open to new mediums. Be open to the adventure of pivoting when you need to and to where that could lead you. Always be open to listening and to learning and to growing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.guideandanchor.com
- Instagram: @guideandanchor
- Facebook: @guideandanchor
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/sarajeanpotts
Image Credits
Luke Stage
Josh Saltsman
Juicy Signs