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

Tahmina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

My entrepreneurial journey and The Brand Agents’ exponential growth are far from the ‘overnight success’ story. It has been 12 years in the making—an accumulation of time spent returning to college and completing a media communications degree. I taught myself skills in graphic design, website design, and social media marketing while simultaneously seeking opportunities within the industry. I often offered free services to build my portfolio, eventually landing a position within one of Canada’s largest influencer marketing agencies. This journey led to clients inquiring about how they could work with me specifically, giving birth to the idea of starting my own digital agency—The Brand Agents.

There were endless sleepless nights glued to my laptop, accidentally deleting entire projects with clients on tight deadlines, and making the mistake of offering too many services within my agency. I later scaled back and had an honest conversation with myself about what I could fully and successfully deliver to clients without compromising the quality of the work or being overwhelmed by the workload.

Now, entering the 5th year of running this company and recently pivoting to redefine it as a consultancy-focused agency, I’ve learned that the most critical part of the business-building journey is understanding your mission statement and then reverse-engineering the process to meet the end goal and purpose of the company. For me, more than anything, it’s important to help people add the human element to their online footprint and guide them in translating their authentic personality into their brand, without succumbing to the pressures of algorithms that dictate following specific trends for digital success. With that mission statement in mind, I concluded that I no longer need to offer certain services on my menu, such as social media management. Instead, I aim to be exclusive with the brands and individuals I work with, concentrating on consulting and guiding them through a personality assessment. I focus on creating a unique brand tone and voice through a personal one-on-one relationship, extracting the magic I see and immersing it into their own online mission statement.

I’ve been able to be ‘real’ with myself and adopt a ‘quality over quantity’ standpoint. In return, I’ve secured numerous high-value contracts with clients who trust me to lead them and their brand in a future-driven manner without compromising their personal values and morals. Experiencing this as a business owner with a similar mindset has been extremely gratifying for me.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Tahmina Q, a Toronto native, is a dynamic and business-oriented individual who has made a significant impact in the city’s media industry. As the driving force behind The Brand Agents, her brand consultancy agency, Tahmina specializes in assisting local industry leaders, business owners, and creatives in infusing their personalities into their online presence.

With a career spanning 12 years, Tahmina has honed her skills in social media marketing, graphic design, consultancy/coaching, website design, brand partnerships, and PR event curation. Five years ago, she took the leap to establish her own company, carving out a successful path. Her diverse client roster is a testament to her expertise, having collaborated with names like Jully Black, Jaguar Canada, Body By Chosen, Celebrity makeup artist Prerna & Co., and many others.

Tahmina’s achievements extend beyond her client portfolio, earning her media coverage from reputable outlets such as Walk in My Stilettos Podcast, Bold Journey, Voyage Magazine, Flow93.5 Radio station, and more.

Through her consultancy and brand curation, Tahmina is dedicated to helping clients establish a robust digital footprint in today’s competitive landscape.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I have always been and still currently am heavily active on my Instagram stories. I strongly believe it has played a key role in the growth of my social media audience, specifically on Instagram. I treat IG stories with a certain “raw,” vlog-like approach where my followers can always get a more in-depth glimpse of my day-to-day personal and work life. I share the journey on business travels, thoughts about the trials and tribulations of my entrepreneurial journey, and really just anything I feel like sharing that day. It has allowed an intimate space for my followers and me to have an ongoing dialogue through DMs and has simultaneously allowed me to learn more about them through these open-style conversations.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I believe my ability to be multifaceted creatively has established a reputation within my market. I have dabbled in a variety of different mediums of creative outlets, such as curating PR events and social networking events in the city of Toronto that brought together creatives and business owners in mutual spaces to celebrate the media industry as a whole. I have also worked on set for music videos alongside artists, athletes, large businesses, small local businesses, influencers, and have been hired to create content for hotels, beauty/hair products… the list goes on! All that to say, I believe that trying my hand across all verticals within the media industry and meeting industry leaders along the way has intrigued the market and created curiosity around who I am and what I do over the years. I’ve always known my creativity has no limits, and all of my alliances have rooted from that way of thinking and the opportunities that presented themselves within my own line of work.

Contact Info:

• Website: thebrandagents.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/tahmina__q instagram.com/thebrandagents