I am so excited to introduce Beth Sherman to you for our next Moments to Motivate interview. As the founder of Women in Agencies and Managing Partner at Signify Digital, Beth is an absolute powerhouse in marketing and actively looks to put female-owned businesses in the spotlight. Through her work at Women in Agencies, she’s created a business community with a different type of networking at its heart. We discovered Women in Agencies after they started following and engaging with us at Your AJency. As an ambitious female founded business, we definitely have ambitions to be a bigger agency and so straight away, they caught our attention. Their eye-popping yellow stood out from the crowd and a lot of the messages were things going through our heads at the time. You can't do this journey on your own in our opinion and so being part of a community like Women in Agencies is great. Since becoming a member of Women In Agencies ourselves, we have been so impressed with the membership. There is a such a spectrum of expertise and we can't wait to get to know more people and draw on this incredible group of female-founders and female business owners.

So over to Beth…

In the Your AJency community there are people who are just at the idea stage, perhaps just launched or have an established business. Tell us a little about your journey, including some of the highs and lows, how long ago you started and what prompted you to take the plunge to start Women in Agencies?

Women in Agencies is really a fledgling community! We launched properly in November 2021 but the concept has been years in the making. We have so many incredible female-owned and female-founded businesses already in our community and it has been so exciting to see our members draw on each others’ expertise and grow.

Marketing is so, so important and it is certainly an area I am passionate about and that I’ve really thought about for Women in Agencies. The problem I think most people run in to with marketing is that there is so much to do and whilst most of it is fairly straight forward, it’s the strategy and consistency that can be a challenge. For Women in Agencies I try to stick to a plan as much as possible but still build in time and space to be creative with our marketing. My social posts for example are a mixture of pre-planned content and on-the-day content. I feel like if everything was planned in before hand, you lose some of the fun!

We talk about how important it is in marketing to share your why. So, tell us your why - what is your goal with this platform?

Like I said, my main goal for Women in Agencies is to shine a spotlight on the incredible female-owned businesses that we are thrilled to have in our community. I have always been really passionate about spotlighting women in business and working to further careers. Our community is focused on this single goal. It has certainly been a busy year! Like most people starting a community, project or business, I have a full-time job to balance as well as a home life and everything that comes with it. For me, balance is really about working out what you can do yourself, and what you can get help with!

It's hard to launch and run a business on your own, impossible in my opinion. Who and where have you sought the necessary support? What has been most useful?

Unlike lots of others, I don’t have a coach or mentor but I certainly have people around me whose opinion I ask for and respect. I am quite a driven person but I totally agree that it is impossible to do something successful on your own. Whether you have a business partner, a mentor, a very supportive partner or a community around you – finding peers is essential to creating something sustainable. And really, this is what Women in Agencies is all about. So many women look to develop their careers or start their own agencies but stumble at key points because of a lack of decent peer support (and mentors can be hard to find or expensive). The dream for the community is that our members can ask questions, make connections and develop their careers with the support of each other.

What is your background and how has it helped you in your business? 

Gosh, that’s a big question! My full-time role is actually as managing partner of a digital marketing agency based in London. Its incredibly rewarding and as the lead on new business and client relationships I get to work with great people all day everyday! Before that I worked in in-house marketing and before that I worked in fashion buying. Having a varied career and mixing with all sorts of people is great experience and certainly gives you great people skills. I love working with people and I also enjoy challenge and change so working on a community like Women in Agencies gives me a fantastic challenge and enjoyment, as well as working towards a goal I am passionate about.

I know you are a mama, so how do you balance being a successful business owner and being present for your kids? Being a parent and a business owner is a lot! We love sharing what works for you, as with all things it may not be right for everyone but it could be just the advice someone needs. 

The truth is you can’t do everything and you do have to make choices and prioritise your time. I have a toddler and while it can be a challenge, I’m very aware one child is probably easier than 2 or 3 haha (nervous laugh!). In terms of business and balancing babies I’m not sure what advice to give other than look for and use support where you can and where it is offered. If it’s not offered then ask for help and don’t try to do everything yourself!

What has been your personal highlight for Women in Agencies so far? 

Seeing people ask questions and finding support on our member Slack group is by far the most rewarding thing. Being a passive observer to members of the community supporting each other and making personal and business connections is amazing. We have over 120 members so far and continue to grow each week, with women from all levels of business. It is great to see the skill and talent we have to offer the industry.

We started using Slack because I think I wanted to get off social media a little bit and treat it more like a chat. Social certainly has its space but for this group I wanted to try something a bit more like a private chat feel.

**Slack is a chat based app where you can create various teams and ‘channels’ - you can easily share files and documents as well as making announcements and works extremely well for anyone looking to create a space for membership/course groups as opposed to Facebook Groups or WhatsApp groups**

What is the best advice anyone has given you in terms of being an entrepreneur?

I spoke to a woman once who looked like she was on top of everything - running a business, being a super mum, looking fabulous – and I asked her how she balanced it all. She told me how much she relied on childcare but also how she protected her time with her children. I found this refreshingly honest and inspiring.

What has been the single biggest thing you have done that resulted in growth? If you could only do one thing what would it be?

I would say in terms of growth you really have to take a lot of the ‘hacks’ with a pinch of salt and ignore 90% of what you are told haha!! There are a lot of ‘experts’ who will give you formulas and advice on growing followings online and to be completely hones, I would say growth comes simply from regular posting and interacting with your community as much as you can.   People use social media for personal reasons and to make personal connections. If you copy other people or post for the sake of it, I think your followers will switch off very quickly.

What would be the one thing you would have done differently? Or for some there are more than one, but the biggest. 

I would have started sooner I think! But saying that, our branding and style changed a lot during development and I am happy with where it is now.

We only work with ambitious inspirational women which is why joining your community was a no brainer for us. Knowing how ambitious you are, what’s next for you? Success looks different for everyone, what is success for you? 

Success for me is loving what I do and also having the time and space to spend time with family and friends. Being someone who enjoys a challenge I don’t think I will (I hope I don’t) ever get complacent with one goal or one definition of success.

So our conclusion? Simply, it is that there is space for everyone and nothing beats being part of a community of like-minded females to take away any feeling of loneliness which can come with being a female founder. We are at the infancy of our Your AJency journey so feel this kind of support is invaluable.

Beth is founder of Women in Agencies (https://womeninagencies.com), a community for women of all levels within the agency world. Alongside this, she is managing partner of her own agency Signify Digital (https://signifydigital.com). With almost 10 years in marketing and management experience, Beth is an advocate for women’s career development. She lives with her husband and little boy just outside of London, UK.