We were lucky to catch up with Tara Knight recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tara, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Goodknight Agency was born out of interest and evolved out of necessity. When I first started, my mission was to help content creators and small business owners quit losing sleep over their business. 

After scaling my agency to 2x our first-year goals in only 4 months, I faced a medical issue requiring me to take a significant step back. At the time, I was operating where I was the driving force of day-to-day operations for several of my clients, and I could no longer commit to doing that with needing to focus on my health. 

It was an eye-opening experience because I was faced with realizing my business was so reliant on me to function that I could not take time off if I wanted to or, more importantly, if I needed to.

Upon sharing my experience with more business owners, I came to a realization. The challenges I faced were not unique to me. Many business owners find themselves in similar situations, whether it’s due to illness, preparing for maternity leave, or simply wanting a break.

Goodknight Agency is still centered around the concept of helping business owners quit losing sleep over their business, but our mission is now to drive strategy, plans, and processes so that small business owners and content creators can prepare to take much-needed time off without stressing that their businesses will not move forward.

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?

I have had many unique experiences in my education and employment over the past 15 years that have shaped Goodknight Agency.

I earned my Masters in Entrepreneurial Leadership in Global Business from a work study program where I lived abroad in London with students from all over the world. During this program, I got to dive deeply into Organizational Effectiveness, Leadership, and Design & Innovation. I also served as an event coordinator for Citi Private Bank, planning events for their Ultra High Net Worth clients.

After receiving my Masters, I returned to the US to help produce a film that premiered at SXSW. During this time, I also worked in freelance digital marketing, where I learned how to build and maintain client relationships.

After working in the film industry, I pivoted entirely into digital marketing, working with a few advertising agencies specializing in paid media management. During this window, I managed over $100M in media spending for clients across numerous industries. I spent the last few years at agencies running an agency as the Managing Director, where I was responsible for team management, process development, and growth planning.

Throughout my career, I have worked with many small business owners. I was exposed to the fact that many of them strongly understand the service or product they are selling but don’t necessarily have the business acumen or time to learn how to streamline and scale their businesses. This knowledge led to me offering my services to help small businesses.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Having worked for start-ups and agencies for so long, it is second nature for me to want to fix all of my client’s problems quickly. When I started Goodknight Agency, it was easy for me to jump into a problem-solving mode where I would fix a problem and move on if a client had a problem.

I didn’t realize that this put too much reliance on me and that even though solving problems was helpful for them, setting up systems and teaching my clients to solve their problems was so much more valuable.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Relationship building is the most important thing when building out my client roster.

While many see social media presence and event attendance as networking opportunities, I see them as platforms to foster meaningful relationships. This shift in perspective has been enlightening and inspiring for me.

I search for people who inspire me and who I want to work with, and then I make every effort to build a real relationship with them by interacting with their content and learning more about their businesses.

Since my work with my clients can feel very personal, I do my best to build these relationships up before signing them because if I believe in their business and mission, I can support them much better.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://goodknightagency.com
• Instagram: @goodknightops
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-killmer-knight/
• Twitter: @goodknightops

Image Credits

Headshot please credit: Studio Lott Photography