Leverage for Growth Podcast

AL EP 26: Amanda Huddy – Trust Your Gut Instinct About People

Episode Date:Apr 17, 2023

Get ready for an exciting podcast episode featuring Amanda Huddy, the brilliant founder of Hudson Davis Communications! Amanda takes us on a wild journey from leaving her cushy corporate job right in the midst of the pandemic to embarking on an exhilarating adventure of starting her own agency. Buckle up and listen closely as Amanda shares her insights on the crucial importance of trusting your gut and following your instincts when dealing with people in the cutthroat world of corporate America. Don’t miss her inspiring words on how to avoid burnout and give yourself the self-love and permission to succeed as an entrepreneur.

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Show Notes

Amanda Huddy is the Founder and CEO of Hudson Davis Communications. With nearly two decades of experience in B2B marketing, Amanda has worked for some of the worlds biggest companies across a variety of verticals including entertainment, travel, real estate, finance, mining, manufacturing, and more. She is an expert in developing marketing, communications, and brand strategies that amplify business for companies of all sizes. Amanda received her Bachelor’s degree in business communication and marketing from the University of Phoenix and a Master’s degree in Communication Management and Marketing from the University of Southern California. She lives in Southern California with her husband Nick and dog Phoebe.

Connect with Amanda Huddy & Hudson Davis Communications here:
Web – https://www.hudsondaviscommunications.com

Episode Transcript

00;00;04;02 – 00;00;32;14

Everybody is adjusting to your agency and transformation coach and founder of Mission Control, Greater of Leverage for Growth. And I’m Lucas James, founder of Twist, which scaled from 0 to $200000 a month with my own agency. We are the host of Leverage for Growth podcast Agency, Leverage and Episodes. We know that in order to scale your agency successfully, there are multiple shifts that need to happen within the founders mindsets, skill sets and leadership styles.

00;00;32;23 – 00;01;00;19

We are on a mission to interview marketing and PR agency owners on their journey to six, seven and eight figures and leverage the lessons from their journey to save you time, energy and money in order for you to get your agency to the next level. If you find value in these episodes, watch the case, Study video to learn more about leverage for growth and how we successfully scale agencies quickly at Niche in control Icon slash Key Study at Niche in Control Icon slash Kingdom.

00;01;02;19 – 00;01;28;18

You’re now listening to Leverage for Growth. Hey everybody, This is Jesse Gilmore, founder of Niche in Control and creator of Leverage for Growth. Welcome to the Agency Leverage Edition. Today I am here with Amanda Huddy, founder of Hudson Davis Communications, an integrated marketing communications agency focused on providing best in class B2B marketing communications solutions across a diverse range of industries and verticals.

00;01;29;01 – 00;01;52;05

Thanks for coming to our show today. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. Can you tell us a little bit about the history and background of your agency? Yeah. So we started in 2021. I actually left my corporate job in the middle of the pandemic. I, I met who is my now husband. We were neighbors and had no idea that the other existed until the pandemic happened.

00;01;53;20 – 00;02;15;13

And so at the time, I was the CMO for a really large, affordable housing organization. I think they had 8 billion in assets under management. And Nick, who I met through the pandemic, said, You’re too good at this. You’ve got to start your own agency. So, you know, initially I essentially told him to fuck off. I was like, there’s no way I’m leaving my corporate job.

00;02;15;14 – 00;02;33;02

Stability is too good. Mm hmm. But then they wanted to go back to the office, and that was a no for me. I had just, you know, in the pandemic, working from home was just too good. And I had struggled earlier in life with some chronic illnesses. And I just realized that that was too important for me to give up.

00;02;33;03 – 00;02;56;11

So I left. I actually gave them a month’s notice, and I let them know that I would be leaving. And they immediately came back and said, Whatever you’re doing, we’re a client. So if you’re starting your own agency, wear your first. And that was amazing. And so, yeah, that’s kind of how it all started. Oh, awesome. And has it been two years you’ve been in business for two years?

00;02;56;24 – 00;03;21;11

Just about. Yeah. Awesome. And talk a little bit about what it was like doing that transition from being an employee to running your own agency. Maybe you may have started off as like a freelance, and then you’re starting to grow a team, right? Yeah. What’s that been like? It was it was really fun at the time and also probably the most challenging and rewarding thing I’ve ever done.

00;03;22;24 – 00;03;46;09

It was a really interesting sort of learning curve. I initially thought that I would just be consulting and it just grew faster than I could have ever expected. And so I hired a lot of people really quickly, grew it to a team of 25. We have 40 clients and it’s just been so fun and so challenging, but so worth it.

00;03;46;10 – 00;04;07;21

You know, I think if the opportunity presents itself for others who might be looking to transition, I would say, you know, the one thing that really made the difference for me in sort of actually taking that leap was looking at whether or not I was willing to take the risk, number one. And two, what I look back and wish that I had done it.

00;04;08;22 – 00;04;27;21

And that was the thing that made me do it was I knew that I was going to look back and go, what if. Right. And so like, however you find it comfortable for you, whether it’s starting it as a side hustle or, you know, jumping right in, if you’re willing to take the risk, you know, and it’s something that you want to do, just do it.

00;04;27;21 – 00;05;02;06

There’s no time like now to do it. Yeah. One of our guests had said that you can always go back to working for somebody else, but you can always go back on working for you. Yeah, well, what’s interesting is we actually, funny enough now referred to me as unemployable because, you know, we say that, you know, I know too much and I run my own business now, but it’s you will notice whether or not you like working for somebody else or whether or not you really like working for yourself.

00;05;02;06 – 00;05;23;09

And for some people, it’s the other way around. And they really know that they prefer to work for somebody else. And you’ll find out which one you are. By doing this, you’ll find out real fast. Mm hmm. Absolutely. And so getting to where you are right now, do you still have like the huge employees and a lot of different types of clients?

00;05;23;20 – 00;05;42;04

We don’t. So, you know, we’ve gone through a lot of ups and downs. And right now, it’s just three of us and four of us, including the co-founder and I. So we are small but mighty. And, you know, I’m happy to share with anybody a bit of the journey. There is a lot of stuff that was out of our control.

00;05;42;05 – 00;06;06;25

I had a stroke last year and so much of that downsizing had to do with my ability to function, which was none. But yeah, I mean, and now we’re we’re on the trajectory back up and it’s ramping really, really fast again. So now is really fun because I can sort of do the ramp up again, but I know more now and I won’t make the same mistakes twice.

00;06;07;09 – 00;06;35;03

Yeah, and absolutely And going from employee to entrepreneur and then scaling really fast, there’s always a lot of transformation that happens with that. And I totally yeah, totally. It’s it’s really challenging and you’ll find out so many different things about yourself. I found out how resilient I am. I had no idea that I was so resilient. But now I know when I get hit, I’ll get I’ll get back up no matter what.

00;06;35;04 – 00;06;57;28

So that has been really encouraging. Mm hmm. Absolutely. So for anybody that’s listening, what advice would you give somebody that maybe has gone through some type of big transition? Maybe they scaled up really fast and they had to scale down and that kind of building back up, there’s that kind of resilience or even just someone who is trying to make that that change there in corporate America.

00;06;57;28 – 00;07;23;10

And they’re deciding, hey, do I want to be a business owner? You know, either one of those, whichever one resonates with you? Honestly, it would probably be a little bit of both. My biggest piece of advice, at least what has resonated with me the strongest, is when someone tells you who they are, believe them. You are going to, whether it’s in the corporate world or as an entrepreneur, you’re going to encounter a lot of different types of people.

00;07;23;27 – 00;07;47;20

And one of the biggest mistakes that I made was to not trust my gut. I had a lot of, like, initial strong feelings about different folks, whether they were partners or, you know, consultants or all these kind of other things, employees. If you have a gut instinct about somebody, don’t ignore that. That is just so, so important. And looking back, I really wish that I had.

00;07;49;03 – 00;08;17;10

Mm hmm. Absolutely. Yeah. It’s those things that you only learn through experience. Yeah. Yeah. Read a book about it. But you’re like, Oh, that’s not going to help. Yeah, And it’s always going to come at you in different forms. And it’s just. It’s so easy to feel like you need to be doing more and more and more and more So those are kind of my two big things that I’ve learned is when someone tells you who they are, believe them and believe them immediately.

00;08;17;10 – 00;08;44;07

If they give you any sort of early indicator that something is off, believe that immediately and get out of it as quickly as you can and make sure everybody always signs their contracts. That was something that, you know, it’s easy when you’re growing so fast. It’s easy to miss little things. And so, you know, for for folks who might be growing really fast, take the time to slow down that I really wish that I had done.

00;08;44;08 – 00;09;06;17

And I’m used to such fast paced environments, and that’s kind of where I thrive. Mm hmm. Sometimes slowing down is the best thing that you can do to slow down. Don’t miss those little things and have fun when you get hit. Get back up and don’t let yourself feel like you’re not doing enough. Whether it’s in corporate or not.

00;09;07;16 – 00;09;35;14

As an agency owner, it’s so easy to go. I should be advertising here. I should be doing this. I’m not submitting for enough awards. And whatever it is that you’re doing, it’s already enough. Agency owners definitely have a lot coming at them quickly. And so what you’re doing is enough. Mm hmm. Well, it’s kind of like self-love. You got to give yourself self-love as an entrepreneur, because if you’re looking for that externally, it’s not going to come.

00;09;35;14 – 00;09;55;10

You got to give it to yourself. Yeah. And permission. You know, as an entrepreneur, it’s so easy to stay connected these days. So it’s so easy to be on your phone no matter where you’re at. But for me, that turned into real, real bad burnout real fast. And so really sort of do take that time for yourself. You’ll you’ll need it and you’ll appreciate it.

00;09;55;25 – 00;10;17;11

Mm hmm. Absolutely. So what are you excited about? Know, what are you working on? What are you excited about in your agency or the next 1 to 3 years? I am super excited. So one of our big focuses this year is reporting and making sure that our reporting is better than anybody else’s. And that has been going really well and I’m really, really excited about that.

00;10;17;11 – 00;10;45;02

We really do have industry leading reporting and then we are just getting so excited about new technologies and emerging industries and all that kind of stuff. So we’re working on how we can use air as a part of marketing materials and how we can advise clients who are thinking about entering the air. AI. ML Space. And so really just sort of heading that direction is really fun and really exciting for us.

00;10;46;05 – 00;11;04;27

Awesome. So what’s the best way for people to get in touch with you or do you have any offers for them to take advantage of? I mean, I’m always happy to speak to folks who don’t have any offers, but we are has in Davis Communications on all the things and I am real Amanda Hardy on all the things I think except LinkedIn.

00;11;04;27 – 00;11;28;09

I am just Amanda heavy go for anybody that’s listening. I’ll put all the connections for Amanda in the show notes and just why. I thank you very much for being on the show. Thank you so much for having me. This is so fun. What a blast. And congratulations for you to give this type of resource to both. You know, folks in the industry and agency owners.

00;11;28;09 – 00;11;51;26

It’s phenomenal. My pleasure. Agency owners, if you want to transform your agency to sustain and grow without your direct involvement, where you can stop working in the business and switch to working on the business where you can regain control of your time, delegate effectively, get paid what you’re worth, and have your team run the day to day. Go to niche in control.

00;11;51;27 – 00;12;07;29

Dot com slash case study right now to learn more about leverage for growth, you can book a free strategy session with us to look at your systems, understand what needs to be done in order for you to scale and get a free strategic plan for the next year to live the life of entrepreneurship that you’ve always dreamed about.

00;12;08;15 – 00;12;29;07

Go to niche in control dot com slash case study that is niche in control dot com slash case that we now.

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