November 3, 2024 • 36 mins
Company: Agency H5
Owners: Kathleen Sarpy
Year Started: 2001
Employees: 51-100
What if the secret to winning big clients wasn’t your portfolio but your principles? In this episode, Kathleen Sarpy, founder of Agency H5, shares how she built a successful agency from her basement by leading with kindness, persistence, and a clear set of values. Learn how a values-driven culture can become your agency’s greatest competitive advantage.
Key Takeaways
- The “no-asshole policy” that shaped her agency’s long-term success
- Why hiring for values beats hiring for skills—and what questions reveal the truth
- How to protect culture as your team gets bigger and leadership layers increase
- What most agency owners get wrong about balancing motherhood and ambition
- A memorable campaign that took her agency from $5K in revenue to CNN headlines
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast where we share real
stories of marketing agencyowners from around the world.
From the excitement of startingup the first big sale, passion,
doubt, fear, freedom, and theemotional rollercoaster of
growth, hear it all on An AgencyStory podcast.
(00:29):
An Agency Story podcast ishosted by Russel Dubree,
successful agency owner with aneight figure exit turned
business coach.
Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel (00:41):
Welcome to An Agency Story podcast, I'm your host
Russel.
On this episode, we haveKathleen Sarpy, founder of
Agency H5 based in Chicago,Illinois.
Kathleen opens up about thedrive and determination that
shaped her path from persistentjob seeking at top PR firms to
(01:03):
stepping out on her own when shefelt a disconnect between her
corporate role and personalvalues.
Her reflections reveal a careerbuilt on resilience, creativity,
and the courage to start fresh.
From a humble and Rocky start inher basement, kathleen shares
the highs and the lows of agencyH FI's beginnings, including
memorable client campaigns thathelped her agency gain traction
(01:25):
despite a challenging start.
She emphasizes the values drivenculture, which he created around
kindness, creativity, passion,hustle, and integrity, ensuring
a positive work environment fora team and an authentic approach
with clients.
Listen to Kathleen's uniqueapproach to leadership and her
belief in nurturingrelationships like gardens as
the foundation for lastingsuccess.
(01:46):
Enjoy the story.
Welcome to the show today,everyone.
I have Kathleen Sarpy withAgency H5 with us here today.
Thank you so much for being onthe show today, Kathleen.
Kathleen (01:56):
Thanks for having me.
Great to see you.
Russel (01:58):
Great to see you as well.
Can't wait to have a wonderfulconversation today.
If you don't mind, start us off.
What does H5 do and who do youdo it for?
Kathleen (02:06):
Agency H5 is a values driven firm based out of Chicago
that offers public relations,integrated marketing, and social
media strategy to a wide varietyof global national and local
clients all over the country.
Russel (02:20):
You summed up what I imagine has to be a lot more
very succinctly.
It sounds like you've been doingthis for a while and know your
stuff that we'll certainly getmore to in deeper into the
episode, but before we find outall about those amazing,
wonderful things, I want to hearabout young Kathleen.
What were her goals andaspirations and, and we'll get
(02:40):
to where she got to today.
Kathleen (02:42):
Young Kathleen was always a very curious child.
Pretty talkative child.
Shocker that I went into PR, uh,but I do believe that God gives
you certain gifts.
Mine was connecting with peopleeven at, you know, second grade.
Early Kathleen didn't know whatshe wanted to be when she grew
up, except that she knew shewanted to be a mom.
I'm fortunate that I was able toget that role, uh, as well as
(03:05):
having a long career in publicrelations.
Russel (03:07):
Okay.
Not even something like, youknow, be the princess of England
or just something outlandish, noyoung career aspirations?
Kathleen (03:13):
Sadly, I was actually interested in being an attorney
because I was very good atmaking arguments and being able
to sell, sell in things,especially to my mom and dad as
the youngest of four siblings.
But I had actually, talk aboutthe impact of teachers, I had a
teacher tell me that girlsdidn't make good lawyers back
in, in the seventies.
(03:34):
I believed him, actually, so I,I've always made it very, um,
clear that, girls could doanything they want to do.
I think early on that was adiscouragement to me, but in a
way it actually was a blessingbecause I got into a career that
I think is perfectly suited, uh,for me, for my personality and
who I was when I was seven yearsold.
I always talk about my sevenyear old self.
I think that the things that youoften get judged for or graded
(03:57):
on when you're little and thenbeing your superpowers when you
get, grow up.
Russel (04:01):
It is crazy, just the little comments that someone can
make.
I had a similar-esque instance.
My dad told me I really wantedto be a chef.
That was actually a really bigpassion, I was looking at
culinary schools and all that.
And he made some comment that Ihad to go.
I couldn't just go to culinaryschool, that I also had to go to
college.
I was doing the math.
It was like, I'm not going toschool for 10 years to be a
chef.
I'll go do something else.
(04:21):
But, one, I didn't, I don'tthink that was even true advice,
but it kicked me off my, notthat I'm complaining, but it
kicked me off my chef path.
So be careful what you say toyoung kids out there is maybe
the takeaway.
Kathleen (04:32):
I think that's true.
I bet you can still be a chef ifyou want to be now.
Russel (04:36):
I'm the resident home chef, uh, around here.
I've gotten to live out that in,in, in many ways, so I'll take
that.
I know you've been doing thisagency thing for a while, but
what were the early days of yourcareer?
And how were you being formedand molded for this eventual
agency owner journey.
Kathleen (04:51):
I graduated college in a little under three years from
my alma mater, PurdueUniversity.
I graduated Phi Beta Kappa topof my class just wishing to grow
up.
I honestly wanted to get out ofcollege and be a grown up when I
was just, just 21 years old,which now looking back, I should
have stayed in college and dranka few more beers and enjoyed
(05:11):
myself.
But my early days were at, um, Iwent to Hill Knowlton, which at
the time was one of the top PRfirms, still is a phenomenal
firm in Chicago.
But I really wanted to workthere.
I had met a woman named WendyLevi Lienhart at the time, Wendy
Levi, who was a recent graduateof Purdue, maybe within the last
seven or eight years.
I thought she was so incredible.
(05:32):
She spoke so articulate.
She had such great style.
She really loved her job in thiswild thing called public
relations that I never had heardof when I was a junior.
I just knew, that I wanted togrow up and be like her.
I just followed up with her andshe was very gracious.
She was also from Chicago, saidreach out to me when you
graduate.
She helped me introduce me topeople in the office and I wore
(05:54):
them down eventually, Russel.
They weren't hiring, but I keptreaching out in the early
nineties and said, I'll pick upyour dry cleaning.
I figured out how to get aholdof the GM, uh, early in the
morning before his assistantwould arrive.
I was determined to get a job atthe place where he worked.
I ultimately did.
He finally was like, listen,kid, you don't need to get my
dry cleaning.
You don't need to call me at 7am at the office, I would love
(06:14):
to hire you and got me in for aninterview.
I was early on, you know,raising my hand a lot to say,
let me try things.
Let me get in the room with theadults at the big table.
They went through a few layoffsat that, uh, agency back then.
I was fortunate to stick around,uh, with a lot of senior people.
It gave me a lot of opportunitywith only a top heavy
(06:34):
organization and a lot of juniorpeople, the chance to try a lot.
Russel (06:38):
I always love a good persistence pays off story.
Great to hear.
How did you get to the pointwhere you eventually said, you
know what, I'm starting my ownagency?
Kathleen (06:46):
I went and did a corporate side gig.
I wanted to try that out and seeif I would like working on the
corporate side.
I worked for Chicago Title andTrust Companies.
I built their first website,working with agencies, did homes
reports and learned the realestate industry.
It wasn't a very exciting.
But, I was able to do a lot ofcreative things at the company
and it really gave me the chanceto lead and to form a team.
(07:10):
Then I went on to Edelman.
I was very lucky to work for thelargest independent PR firm in
the world that's, uh, It's stillaround today and incredibly
successful.
Early in my career at 25, I wastheir probably youngest VP at
the time.
I remember actually gettinghired to be a vice president to
run craft foods and broadforeman wines business
nationally, uh, Corbelchampagne.
You can remember the champagnewas a big deal coming up to the
(07:32):
millennium.
I was asked by, by my boss whatI was doing one weekend.
I said, oh, I'm celebrating mybirthday.
How old are you going to be?
I said, 26.
She went, don't tell anybodyhere how old you are.
And I always ask the question,are you asking me my age?
Or are you asking me my ability?
They're two very differentthings.
That became just a good, a goodreminder of just the fact that
(07:53):
you can be whatever you want tobe and play the part, play the
role.
I had just recently gottenmarried wanted to start a family
and had my first child while Iwas at Adelman.
When I came back, I recognizedpretty quickly that I, my values
were being questioned.
Do I want to be a great mom ordo I want to be a great senior
vice president?
I went to a smaller firm, aboutique firm that I thought
(08:13):
might be a little better forwork life balance.
I found out that it was just asbusy but, uh, I was able to work
on some really cool brands.
I found out I was expecting mysecond child while at that
smaller firm.
I was like, wow, I think this isa wake up call.
God's telling me, Kathleen, youhave to decide what path are you
going to take?
Because I was working on 19 newbusiness pitches.
I think we won 19 in sevenmonths.
(08:34):
I wasn't doing myself anyfavors, pregnant with one child
and with a little baby at home.
I took a chance on myself andstarted my own firm in my
basement with a week and aprayer and a Rolodex back then.
It's not glamorous, was next tomy sump pump.
January of 2001, I gave birth toour son, John Henry, in March.
I made maybe, Russel, five grandthe first six months.
(08:56):
I thought, oh, I'm in trouble.
I'm in trouble.
Then I found, uh, the ColemanCompany came and said, we're
doing our hundredth birthday andwe need a big idea.
With a colleague of mine, we,um, brainstormed the idea of the
world's largest s'more.
Instead of birthday candles, wehad a hundred lanterns from
Coleman on top of a giant s'morethe size of a warehouse.
(09:16):
We had 850 employees put ittogether in Wichita, Kansas at a
hundred degree temps.
We broke a world record.
I was on CNN headline news withmy client all day the next day.
That was the breakthrough momentof when Agency H5, uh, began to
get some steam.
And then September 11th occurredjust real quick.
That's when a lot of the bigfirms were probably getting
their budgets cut significantly.
(09:38):
It was a very sad and verytumultuous time, obviously, in
our country.
I was always saying I'll behappy to be the strategist, but
I'll also be happy to stuff thepress kits back then.
We actually had paper press kitswe sent out to folks.
It was like, I'll do everythingfrom running your strategy for
your business down to the verybasic press tax.
That was a appealing value prop,I think, for a lot of larger
(10:01):
clients like Kraft Foods andAllstate and Sears in my early
days, because they could getgreat value out of the work that
I was doing without paying theprice tag of a big global firm.
That's really where my businesstook off.
Russel (10:14):
Not to say there's not often a rollercoaster ride in
the early days, but it soundslike you had a really, really
big rollercoaster ride even inyour first year.
The two words I just wrote down,just thinking about how you've
described, you know, just whoyou are and how you approach
business (10:28):
persistence and scrappy.
Just this idea when I, I don'tknow what I was thinking there.
You said five grand for sixmonths, that had to be tough.
How close are you thinking like,uh uh, this ain't going to
happen?
I got to move on.
Or were you said, nope, I ammaking this happen and it's
just, it's, it's not, if it'swhen?
Kathleen (10:43):
It's actually a little bit of the first.
My first boss out of college,uh, at Hill Knowlton was a
woman, is a woman.
She's phenomenal.
I just talked to her this week,Janet Cabot.
Even when I left Hill Knowlton,she bet on me and said, you'll
do great wherever you go.
She was one of the onlyencouragers, like when I was
leaving, she wasn't mad.
She was actually excited for me.
Janet has remained a greatcareer mentor and friend for 32
(11:06):
years.
I have a child now that's olderthan I was when I started
working for her, which is quiteweird and surreal now to look
back on.
But I called Janet and I said, Idon't know.
I may have made a really baddecision.
I had a three month old at thetime.
I had a three month old baby andI had an 18 month old.
I was like, what am I going todo?
She said, you're going to bejust fine.
I believe you have the rightconnections and the right
(11:27):
attitude that you'll be justfine.
She was right.
I reminded her of that this weekwhen we spoke, I said, you gave
me hope that I was capable.
You just said, give yourself alittle time and patience and
it'll pay off.
It's funny how I've realizedthat lesson over and over again.
That's been a theme I think ofmy agency is that, the beautiful
gardens I planted ofrelationships early on in my
(11:47):
career really bloomed atdifferent times over the years
since the firm was founded 24years ago.
All these people have beenincredibly kind and remembering
the work I did or that my teamdid later on.
That's how my agency grew, wasjust return to business and
happy clients that would pass myname on to somebody else.
In similar situations, a lot ofbrand managers that were, moving
(12:09):
jobs would take me along theride with them to other products
within their organization ordifferent jobs as they moved in
their career.
That has been a huge, I think,help, um, is being persistent
but also delivering.
When you deliver, peopleremember that and they go back
to the people that didn't letthem down.
It just took a little momentumto get me going, but we have
been, haven't really stoppedever since.
Russel (12:31):
I can believe it.
Hopefully we've inspired anyonelistening out there to find
someone to believe in, in you orthem or themselves, but then
also maybe a little inspiration,go believe in someone today and
just the power that that canhave, in someone's life or
future, or especially when we'redoing something so darn hard,
like running a business, butespecially an agency business.
(12:53):
That's a wonderful, wonderfulstory.
We got a lot of ground to coverfrom, from when you started the
agency to, to present day.
But give us, give us a couplehighlights in the first few
years of just or just reallyeven in, almost entirety of your
journey.
What's a major milestone or two,like, hey, this was a game
changer for us?
Whether it was a shift inthinking something that actually
happened that you overcome.
Anything stick out in your mindin that sense?
Kathleen (13:15):
I'd just say that sticking true to who I was from
the get go.
I built, selfishly, my agencyoff of the model of what I
wanted in my work life.
I wanted kind people.
I wanted to work with peoplethat, were passionate about
their business and I waspassionate about theirs.
It's really hard, as youprobably recall, working for
clients that you didn't have alot of passion for.
(13:36):
I decided since I was workingfor myself, I might as well be
selective about the type ofclients I wanted to work with,
but they were clients that wouldemulate my values, which were
not mean spirited people.
I wanted to work with kindpeople.
You'd never like to go home toyour family and be grumpy
because you've been abused atwork by a client.
I decided, like, sorry for thepodcast listeners here, but a no
(13:58):
asshole policy where I onlywanted to work with nice people.
I really stayed true to that.
I've worked with so many goodkind, smart people over the
years, both employees andclients.
I wanted to infuse creativityinto everything I did.
I wanted clients that liked myauthentic excitement for their
business.
I wanted, to hustle.
I loved getting things donequickly and moving on.
(14:20):
Back to your point earlier aboutscrappy I've always been known
and H5 has been known as thescrappy firm in the hallways of
big, big corporations, becausewe compete against the big the
big agencies for a lot of globalbrands and we win.
We win not only because of ourscrappy approach, but because we
do award winning work.
But we also are reallyrespectful of, of their time and
(14:41):
don't take forever to get thingsdone.
Our deadlines are two or threeweeks out.
It gets, don't let grass grow.
Get it done and move on.
Ask a busy mother of eventuallyfive children, which is the H5
and H5, it's a nod to the fivechildren that I was really so
lucky to have, and to really behuman and happy in her job.
That's the H for H5, uh, humanand happy and the five is, is
(15:03):
for kindness, creativity,passion, hustle and integrity.
I wanted to say what I was goingto do right, do it and then say
I did it.
Those were what I didn't see atthe big firms.
Not necessarily all those valuesdidn't exist, but just not
consistently for me.
I started a place where I canhave that and then also give
that same privilege to anyonethat I would be so lucky to work
with over time.
Russel (15:23):
I had no idea, right?
You take a letter, letter and anumber and that how much meaning
that you have brought to H theword H and 5, that that was a
fascinating.
I love just how you talk thereabout leading with values.
It sounds like that came verynatural to you, which I'll be
honest and say, I don't thinkthat's always the case.
I even think in my own journey,wasn't the case, I just, you
(15:43):
know, just thought it was justabout grit and, and put your
head down and work hard.
But it eventually did come tofind out that it, you have to
have purpose, principle values,um, to lead any organization of
a few people or beyond.
But it sounds like that camenatural to, I don't know, or
did, was that a learning processfor you to know how important
that was to have that in yourbusiness?
Kathleen (16:03):
I just felt early on in my career that I was
apologizing a lot for being amother, which is crazy because
we wouldn't, we wouldn't havepeople on this planet if there
weren't mothers around, right?
And fathers but, um, it seemedthat the guys got a better pass
at, like, going to work andgoing home, whereas women were
juggling the household and work.
I created a place of utopia, Iguess, for me.
(16:23):
But I thought if other women andmen on the journey in their
careers got sort of disenchantedwith the bigger agencies, they
might be interested in my model.
I've had over 250, maybe 300now, Russel, uh, people that
have worked for me and I've beenable to see them grow in their
careers, have children.
I have people that started withme as college grads that have
had babies, gotten married, I'vebeen at their weddings and see
(16:46):
them have children and it's,it's a really fulfilling role as
the owner and founder of thisagency to not only do great PR
work for a lot of awesomecompanies and brands, um, which
we can talk about, but, to beable to be a place where people
can be human and happy.
It didn't come easy to me in thesense that, um, I had the five
figured out when I started thefirm because I didn't know I was
(17:07):
going to have five kids to behonest, I renamed it later on.
But people that shared thesimilar value system, so being
nice, not being competitive andmean spirited, there's a lot of
crabby people in agency life andpeople that want to one up one
another.
Certainly that wasn't what Iwanted.
I wanted people to just be freeto work hard, do a great job,
(17:28):
extraordinary experiences withgreat brands and corporations
and nonprofits, but also, like,not apologize for having a mom
who is sick in the hospital or ababy that has to go to the
doctor or a kid's play atschool.
Those five values have served usvery well.
We've been able to really hirebased on those values, self
regulate our culture based onthose values.
(17:48):
I've been able to reward peoplewith bonuses, etcetera.
Russel (17:52):
I'm really curious, because I think that's a really
important thing, like you said,hiring for values.
I think most owners, or at leasta lot of owners, learn
eventually in the hiring processthat it's not just about resume
and skill, but that there's alot more about the intangible
traits, the character traits,uh, and then more importantly,
even as you're saying the valuetraits, what were some of the
things that you did?
(18:12):
I have to imagine there's someinteresting things you did to
uncover someone's values whenyou were, baked into your hiring
process.
Anything stand out along thoselines?
Kathleen (18:21):
Their personal lives.
Not in a creepy way, but I wantto know what makes you, you
right?
I ask what brings you joy.
One of the things that theboutique agency I worked for in
that short seven or eight monthperiod before I went out on my
own, after leaving Edelman.
They did a great job of findingpeople's own exciting journeys
or passions, the place they wantto go or an item that they're
(18:42):
coveting that they want and,doing that.
I would buy girls, women thatwork for me, certainly not
girls, women Jimmy Choo shoes tosay, you can walk in my shoes
when they had rocked a projector they had done an exceptional,
thing for a client.
I did things like that, thingsthat you couldn't do if you were
owned by a parent company.
It was fun to just say what'syour shoe size?
(19:04):
In casual conversation and thensurprise them and take them to
the shoe, boutique and say, have10 pairs of shoes and say, try
on whatever one you want.
We toast champagne and say, goodjob.
I like doing untraditional waysof rewarding people that you
wouldn't get anywhere else.
A day off with a spa day withsomeone's mom who flew into
town.
I tried to do things that madepeople feel like they were seen
(19:26):
as the person as opposed to theworker.
Obviously you can see so manypeople are qualified on paper
but I'd ask interestingquestions about what do you do
on the weekends?
What do you read?
What's your favorite thing to dofor just you?
What is something that you wishyou could change about yourself?
You can learn a lot aboutsomebody's personality and how
they work in the environment youown or have just simply by,
(19:50):
digging a little deeper thanjust what they put on their
resume..
Russel (19:56):
I feel like not subtle reference that you've actually
used several times of garden.
I can make my own inferencethere, but just in terms of what
that means, right?
Development, growing, blooming,you know, beauty.
So many things that, that canreference, but I'm just curious
from your end.
Is that a very intentional wordthat, you really approach this
notion of your businessrelationships, et cetera?
Kathleen (20:15):
It's something that I've just noticed as a theme.
I don't think I intentionallyset out to be a nurturer of
gardens, but I do think that I,my family is a garden.
I've really watered and grownmy, my beautiful children.
I have six now that I'mremarried and very happy with my
husband, Chris.
I have six kids.
I water those children with mylove and with my attention and
(20:36):
with my advice.
Maybe they don't want it, but, Iprovide it.
The same thing goes for my workfamily, you know.
I think that's just theterminology I created to make
sense of the nurturing side ofme, as a little girl, back to a
question you asked me earlier,what did a little Kathleen want
to be?
I wanted to be a mom and my momwas a nursery nurse at the
(20:56):
hospital.
I learned about parenting and,being someone that loves babies,
just through watching my mother.
That was like my favorite partof the week and then get to go
upstairs to the nursery and seemy, my mom behind glass holding
these little babies.
I have a really good role modelin my mom and dad.
My mom was a nurturer and my dadwas this guy who would be
beloved everywhere we went.
(21:17):
He was kind to everyone, nomatter their station, no matter
their job or role.
I witnessed early on that, thatattitude of treating everyone
with kindness and by the goldenrule.
My two parents really shaped me.
I always say relationships arethe currency of business and you
are the company you keep sochoose wisely.
I've been gardening and wateringfor all these years and my
(21:38):
businesses has bloomed indifferent seasons, like
relationships I had 24 yearsago, pop back up unexpectedly.
It's really fun to see that whenit happens.
Cause it's happened many, manytimes in my tenure of having
this firm.
Russel (21:51):
I feel like in the course of this conversation,
there's like 10 differenttangents that I really want to
go down.
I don't think we're going tohave enough time to get to even
most of them.
Kathleen (21:57):
Part two, we'll do a part two someday.
Russel (21:59):
Even going back to this idea of a garden and just how
important it is, what you'resaying is, yes, we're going to
measure revenue and how manyleads we got, but that maybe a
more important measurement needsto be how many meaningful
relationships does the businesshave, or at least, you know,
people within the business andhow many people are we treating
like they're valuable that maynot immediately have value?
(22:22):
I often think of just the ideaof how many people just, once a
lead goes through the proposalprocess and doesn't become
something, so many agencies justdon't ever even talk to that
company ever again.
Even going back to your gardenthat, we got to put them in our
garden and we got to be valuableand treat them as much, that's
what it sparks in me.
Kathleen (22:37):
No, I agree with that.
I think that the most fertilesoil comes from good
relationships.
I love connecting people andgetting out of the way, Russel.
I love it.
I don't need to be in the middleof the every connection I have
or see, but I love making them.
For instance, we work withBrach's Candy on their seasonal
programming.
Very fun client to work on.
Lots of fun stuff over the year,Valentine's Day and Halloween
(22:57):
and holidays and Easter.
We also work with Great WolfLodge Resorts.
We connected Great Wolf Lodge toBrach's candy we suggested they
do something really sweet forthe holiday season.
They created a candy corn sweetand it's gone viral.
It's all over the country rightnow.
We've probably reached in thelast 10 days, two billion
(23:18):
impressions in our campaign ofthis candy corn sweet in two
places in the U.
S.
It's really cool when you canput two people together and know
that, or two brands together,two brand managers together,
CFOs, CEOs.
I love when my clients are like,hey, I'm making a role
transition, connecting them to aCEO I've worked with before and
say, this is such a greatperson.
You two need to know each other.
(23:39):
I'm getting out of the way.
It's so fun to see thoserelationships blossom and grow.
I do think it's, if you want tohave a successful agency, have
fertile soil, have a lot ofreally great relationships
because it shouldn't betransactional.
I don't think you should keepscore.
It's an area that you'll getvery competitive if you keep
score.
It's more about how do you helpyour fellow agency friends.
(23:59):
How do you help a fellow client?
I give media contacts to clientsI don't even work with anymore
if they reach out.
If a media outlet reaches out tous and we no longer work with
that client, I'll still make theconnection for them because, uh,
it doesn't have to be all aboutmoney, but I find that the money
always came when I did the rightthing.
Russel (24:16):
I would say the person that keeps score is bound to
lose.
All right, well I am reallycurious about, and I have my own
thoughts about this in my ownjourney, but I'm just really
curious in your case.
There's a lot of people that,you know, kind of, I don't know,
but turn, turn their heads alittle bit, this idea of
becoming a little bit largeragency, you said you got up to
50 people because they feel likethey're going to lose some of
(24:36):
this, these values and thisculture and this, uh, you know,
all these things that they feelit can only happen at, you know,
five to 10 person size company.
How do you view that?
Share that experience.
Was culture better at 50, orsome larger number?
Can you scale culture in thatvery authentic way?
Kathleen (24:54):
You're astute to ask that question because as you
grow, it is harder.
I want to know everyone's name.
I want to know what they'reexcited about and what their,
when their birthday is.
I want to know what's up intheir life to some degree and
what books they're reading.
We talk about that at theoffice, what's the latest hot
book to read.
Culture for me did get a littlediluted.
I also think when you have thewrong people in the role of
(25:19):
leading culture, you gotta bereally careful.
I went through some seasons inmy life where I couldn't be at
the office as much, when myparents passed away, for
instance and they both passedwithin a three month period of
one another.
I had to be broken and work, youknow, but I've, that's part of
the human part of H5 too, is Ihad to let other people see me
(25:39):
in grief, but getting back upagain through adversity.
You have to get back up and dustyourself off and keep going.
I had to for my kids and for mycompany, I'm in charge of all
these people, my families.
I had other people leading, uh,and they, if they aren't the
right person, there's a dilutionof culture and I definitely
experienced that, but I was ableto, once I got back into the
(26:01):
grooves after my tragedies, um,I was able to get my culture,
you know, strong again.
What's cool now is my culture'sso ingrained into people that
work at H5 that I don't have toeven be there in order for that
culture to flourish.
But it definitely took myinsistence that you can't be
unkind to one another, right?
If you have a leader who's,like, from the big agencies that
(26:22):
maybe doesn't care aboutkindness as a value.
They could be exceptional attheir job, but that is really
painful and not necessarily agood thing if they aren't
bringing motivation and joy tothe people that they are
leading.
Be very careful as you grow toensure that the right people
believe in your values too,because it can harm your culture
if you don't, but our culture isreally strong right now.
(26:43):
But it's since I've had thisfirm, I would say the culture
couldn't be more solid and we'regoing to be 25 years old in a
year.
It's exciting to have maintainedmy initial reasons for having
this firm, which is a placethat's a good place to work with
good clients that care about usand we care about you.
That we do everything with theintegrity and the hustle that we
(27:05):
are known for.
Russel (27:05):
Sounds like it goes back to, to values, certainly in your
own case.
Being true to those.
There's two things that, ifyou're turning that question
back on me, you know, absolutelyright.
Very much have to be careful onwho you're putting in positions
that have a huge impact onculture.
Not to say not every single hireyou make really does have an
impact on culture, but somepeople certainly have a more
impact than others.
(27:26):
That's one of the things Istarted to come to find is, is,
and I think even again, pointsback to your values aspect of,
you know, people that they kindof sold me that they knew what
culture was and what it meant,but then when push came to shove
that they didn't stand behindthat word and that thought
process, goes back to values.
It's like, okay, you don't knowwhat this means.
That was a big wake up call tosay that, you know, cause that's
(27:48):
in the end of the day, to yourpoint of, culture is not lip
service.
It's action.
It's doing the hard thing whenin the face of, you know, what
might be a very hard decision,but you just gotta stand behind
it because you'll eat your lunchif you don't.
I don't know.
I had, I'm sure there's somedilution as you said, because we
got up to about 40 when I wasstill in the agency.
My perspective was as though,again, maybe going back to
values again, is that theessence of what our culture was
(28:12):
actually got to scale and becomebigger, right?
Learning was a big part of ourculture and what started out as
a little thing where it was justhopping around a table for 30
minutes on a Friday afternoon,turned into this thing where we
could bring speakers into thebusiness and really put the
aspect of learning on steroidsin this, the budget that we're
even allowed to give people tolearn more and things like that,
that just weren't luxuries thatwe had in the, you know, the
(28:34):
early days when we were smaller.
I'll just say it one more time,points back to what you're
saying of values, that we keptthe values of our culture and
just asked, how can we scale it?
Because yes, there were somethings that we simply couldn't
do size wise at 40, but whateverthat value or that notion was
there, we could just iterate onit or expand it to match what
made sense for our size at thattime.
Certainly had to let go of somethings on the, along the way,
(28:56):
but I feel like we're alwaysreplacing it with something as
good or better, or at least withthe same essence that we had
before.
Kathleen (29:02):
I think that it's important to listen to your team
about what they need from theculture because it's shifted.
It's shifted a ton since Istarted the company to today,
post pandemic, right?
We're still talking about it,but a lot of things had to
change.
We weren't going in the officeall the time.
How do you bring your culture topeople virtually?
How do you bring your culture topeople that live in different
states, which happened from thepandemic?
(29:24):
As much as that was a horriblechallenge for businesses, I was
able to get a lot of talent froma lot of different places as
well, just by hiring people thatweren't going to be physically
in the office every day.
I think that's how we've evolvedis by not just jamming our way
down other people's throats thatwork for us, but actually saying
what would emulate our culturetoday?
(29:44):
What are things you want wheremaybe five years ago they
wouldn't have asked for thosethings.
I don't care if people take awalk in the middle of the day
or, or are doing laundry or havea baby pop up in a cameo on our
calls.
In fact, I encourage it becausethat, is what makes us human and
happy.
I think our clients are justnormal human people.
They're just like us, right?
(30:04):
I've seen a real evolution too.
My client's going, I wish it waslike that at my company, or I
wish that we could have our dogor baby at work, you know what I
mean?
I have tried to ask my team totell me how to evolve our
culture.
It's always going to be the, H5will always stay at H5 but how
kindness or how creativity,passion or hustle or integrity
is seen today may be differentthan it was or will be in the
(30:28):
future.
Russel (30:28):
You just created five more tangents for me, Kathleen.
You're gonna have to stop doingthat.
When you were talking aboutthat, just thinking that like,
that's similar to parenting,right?
What our kid needs at a certainage or a certain stage, or even
a certain phase in the world oflife or whatever is not what
they need later or before.
What got you here won't get youthere.
I love what you said.
Listening is a very key elementin that.
I'm really glad that I nowforgot what the other thing that
(30:50):
you said that stood out to me.
That'll get us going to the nextquestion.
I'm just curious where, what isthe future of H5 look like?
What's the next 20 some years ofthe business?
Kathleen (31:01):
I've been a pretty live in the moment girl since
having this agency.
I haven't thought too far aheadpurposefully because, who could
have planned for some of thethings we've already
experienced, you know, in thelast five years.
But I would say that I've got anincredible team, senior team in
place.
As I am in my fifties, and Ihave had this firm, which is
crazy, almost 25 years.
That's a lot of my life.
(31:22):
It's almost half of my life I'vebeen doing this job.
I don't have any plans to goanywhere, but I'm I guess I'm
just very open to what, universeGod for me wants for my firm.
I'm very faith driven in thefact that when one door closes a
much bigger door always opensfor me always.
I listen when people say about,oh, uh, you know, are you
interested in funding?
(31:43):
I built a debt free, really selffunded business, bootstrapped,
just like you and yourbrother-in-law did, you know,
and built it into somethingthat's really special.
My goal for H5 is just tocontinue to grow and flourish
like my gardens.
To really continue to be a placethat people want to work and
that brands want to seek out fortheir PR and marketing needs.
(32:03):
We really do work with so manyreally cool companies and brands
that I've had so many excitingexperiences.
Forrest Gump.
I call it Forrest Gump momentswhere I, have gotten to do some
things that I can't evenbelieve, like go to the white
house or, be at Hollywood eventsthat I'm surrounded by stars,
But what's been the mostrewarding has been the people
(32:23):
that I've gotten to meet and thementorship I've been able to
offer to really, reallyacceptable people over these
years.
Who knows where the future isgoing to lead me, but I just
want to keep doing what I'mdoing with grace.
Russel (32:35):
Can't argue with that.
It did make me just think of, Idon't, I feel like this is
unique to the marketing oragency businesses, all the
really amazing experiences thatwe have in the course of doing
the work that we have justthrough our clients and, you
know, experiencing theirproducts, their events, whatever
that might be.
Any agency that's been around awhile has got just some really
cool stories there.
We'll add that to one of the,one of the 10 part series of
(32:57):
just interesting events andexperiences.
But well, I guess I better closeit out here.
One last big question for you,Kathleen, are entrepreneurs born
or are they made?
Kathleen (33:06):
I think we're made.
I wasn't born an entrepreneur.
I was born a mother, for meanyway.
I think that there's no playbookfor being an entrepreneur.
I had no idea what I was doingwhen I started this company.
I started it with a prayer and aweek, like I said, a week and a
prayer to just be a good mom.
But it has certainly been areally cool journey to learn and
to explore who I am as a leaderand figure out how to be a good
(33:28):
boss.
There's just been no instructionmanual.
I've just had to figure it out.
I definitely thinkentrepreneurship is made.
Cause I would have neveranticipated being an agency
owner.
I call myself the accidentalagency because I set out to be a
agency of one for me.
Then I just thought all theseother people that really wanted
to come on the journey with mebecause they saw the same things
(33:49):
I saw at the bigger firms, thatthey had to sacrifice something
in their own personal lives forthem to have those jobs.
I just never wanted that formyself nor for anybody else.
So I made it, created Utopia.
Russel (34:01):
There you did.
You made it.
Beautifully put.
Mic drop.
If people want to know moreabout Agency H5, where can they
go?
Kathleen (34:06):
They can just go to agencyh5.com and we're on
Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook,you can find us.
I'm just at Kathleen Sarpy.
Russel (34:15):
Easy enough.
There you know where to gofolks.
Gosh, Kathleen, wonderfulconversation.
It was so great to, to hearabout all the different aspects
of your journey.
Particularly just really ringinghome the value of values and all
the other wonderful nuggets thatwe were able to gather today.
Just really appreciate youtaking the time to share those
with us.
Kathleen (34:33):
Thank you so much for having me.
I appreciate it.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of An Agency Story
podcast where we share realstories of marketing agency
owners from around the world.
Are you interested in being aguest on the show?
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
(34:54):
An Agency Story is brought toyou by Performance Faction.
Performance Faction offersservices to help agency owners
grow their business to 5 milliondollars and more in revenue.
To learn more, visitperformancefaction.com.
Probably about 10 years ago, a colleague of mine,
(35:16):
Carmen and I were working on thered carpet at a Chicago event
for a major celebrity.
It was an award ceremony.
We had all of the guests,celebrities lined up on the red
carpet doing the step andrepeat, taking pictures.
We got a call on the press linethat the actual host of the
event would not be coming.
It was Steve Harvey.
His daughter had a horse ridingaccident.
(35:36):
She's fine.
But, they just, they wereparents first, and they just
didn't come.
We had an entire gala full ofpeople.
We had a press line of honorees,and there were celebrities in
their own right.
And then we had no Steve Harvey.
We had to figure out how to letall the guests know, and to let
all the celebrities know.
That was one of those moments inPR, you can't ever predict what
(35:56):
you're going to do in your jobor how you're going to handle a
situation.
That was one where our sort ofstomachs dropped and we had to
pick up the pieces very quicklyand figure out a plan.
We ended up just letting peopleknow that he was being a dad
first and that's the right thingto do.
But it was, one of those, like,oh gosh, how are we going to fix
this in, like, five minutes kindof situation?
Russel (36:18):
That's awesome.
Wow.
Again, it goes back to crazyagency stories.
I don't know if I could havehandled the event space of, of
marketing or whatever.
This is real time do or dielive.
Based upon the story you shared,God bless you for being able to
roll with the punches that thatworld entails.
Kathleen (36:34):
Events I would say in public relations are things you
just can plan for, but neverpredict what's actually going to
happen.
You've got to think on yourfeet.
That's one thing I've gottenpretty good at over the years.
Russel (36:43):
I'm sure.
Oh, I have no doubt.
Welcome to An Agency Storypodcast where we share real
stories of marketing agencyowners from around the world.
From the excitement of startingup the first big sale, passion,
doubt, fear, freedom, and theemotional rollercoaster of
growth, hear it all on An AgencyStory podcast.
(00:29):
An Agency Story podcast ishosted by Russel Dubree,
successful agency owner with aneight figure exit turned
business coach.
Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel (00:41):
Welcome to An Agency Story podcast, I'm your host
Russel.
On this episode, we haveKathleen Sarpy, founder of
Agency H5 based in Chicago,Illinois.
Kathleen opens up about thedrive and determination that
shaped her path from persistentjob seeking at top PR firms to
(01:03):
stepping out on her own when shefelt a disconnect between her
corporate role and personalvalues.
Her reflections reveal a careerbuilt on resilience, creativity,
and the courage to start fresh.
From a humble and Rocky start inher basement, kathleen shares
the highs and the lows of agencyH FI's beginnings, including
memorable client campaigns thathelped her agency gain traction
(01:25):
despite a challenging start.
She emphasizes the values drivenculture, which he created around
kindness, creativity, passion,hustle, and integrity, ensuring
a positive work environment fora team and an authentic approach
with clients.
Listen to Kathleen's uniqueapproach to leadership and her
belief in nurturingrelationships like gardens as
the foundation for lastingsuccess.
(01:46):
Enjoy the story.
Welcome to the show today,everyone.
I have Kathleen Sarpy withAgency H5 with us here today.
Thank you so much for being onthe show today, Kathleen.
Kathleen (01:56):
Thanks for having me.
Great to see you.
Russel (01:58):
Great to see you as well.
Can't wait to have a wonderfulconversation today.
If you don't mind, start us off.
What does H5 do and who do youdo it for?
Kathleen (02:06):
Agency H5 is a values driven firm based out of Chicago
that offers public relations,integrated marketing, and social
media strategy to a wide varietyof global national and local
clients all over the country.
Russel (02:20):
You summed up what I imagine has to be a lot more
very succinctly.
It sounds like you've been doingthis for a while and know your
stuff that we'll certainly getmore to in deeper into the
episode, but before we find outall about those amazing,
wonderful things, I want to hearabout young Kathleen.
What were her goals andaspirations and, and we'll get
(02:40):
to where she got to today.
Kathleen (02:42):
Young Kathleen was always a very curious child.
Pretty talkative child.
Shocker that I went into PR, uh,but I do believe that God gives
you certain gifts.
Mine was connecting with peopleeven at, you know, second grade.
Early Kathleen didn't know whatshe wanted to be when she grew
up, except that she knew shewanted to be a mom.
I'm fortunate that I was able toget that role, uh, as well as
(03:05):
having a long career in publicrelations.
Russel (03:07):
Okay.
Not even something like, youknow, be the princess of England
or just something outlandish, noyoung career aspirations?
Kathleen (03:13):
Sadly, I was actually interested in being an attorney
because I was very good atmaking arguments and being able
to sell, sell in things,especially to my mom and dad as
the youngest of four siblings.
But I had actually, talk aboutthe impact of teachers, I had a
teacher tell me that girlsdidn't make good lawyers back
in, in the seventies.
(03:34):
I believed him, actually, so I,I've always made it very, um,
clear that, girls could doanything they want to do.
I think early on that was adiscouragement to me, but in a
way it actually was a blessingbecause I got into a career that
I think is perfectly suited, uh,for me, for my personality and
who I was when I was seven yearsold.
I always talk about my sevenyear old self.
I think that the things that youoften get judged for or graded
(03:57):
on when you're little and thenbeing your superpowers when you
get, grow up.
Russel (04:01):
It is crazy, just the little comments that someone can
make.
I had a similar-esque instance.
My dad told me I really wantedto be a chef.
That was actually a really bigpassion, I was looking at
culinary schools and all that.
And he made some comment that Ihad to go.
I couldn't just go to culinaryschool, that I also had to go to
college.
I was doing the math.
It was like, I'm not going toschool for 10 years to be a
chef.
I'll go do something else.
(04:21):
But, one, I didn't, I don'tthink that was even true advice,
but it kicked me off my, notthat I'm complaining, but it
kicked me off my chef path.
So be careful what you say toyoung kids out there is maybe
the takeaway.
Kathleen (04:32):
I think that's true.
I bet you can still be a chef ifyou want to be now.
Russel (04:36):
I'm the resident home chef, uh, around here.
I've gotten to live out that in,in, in many ways, so I'll take
that.
I know you've been doing thisagency thing for a while, but
what were the early days of yourcareer?
And how were you being formedand molded for this eventual
agency owner journey.
Kathleen (04:51):
I graduated college in a little under three years from
my alma mater, PurdueUniversity.
I graduated Phi Beta Kappa topof my class just wishing to grow
up.
I honestly wanted to get out ofcollege and be a grown up when I
was just, just 21 years old,which now looking back, I should
have stayed in college and dranka few more beers and enjoyed
(05:11):
myself.
But my early days were at, um, Iwent to Hill Knowlton, which at
the time was one of the top PRfirms, still is a phenomenal
firm in Chicago.
But I really wanted to workthere.
I had met a woman named WendyLevi Lienhart at the time, Wendy
Levi, who was a recent graduateof Purdue, maybe within the last
seven or eight years.
I thought she was so incredible.
(05:32):
She spoke so articulate.
She had such great style.
She really loved her job in thiswild thing called public
relations that I never had heardof when I was a junior.
I just knew, that I wanted togrow up and be like her.
I just followed up with her andshe was very gracious.
She was also from Chicago, saidreach out to me when you
graduate.
She helped me introduce me topeople in the office and I wore
(05:54):
them down eventually, Russel.
They weren't hiring, but I keptreaching out in the early
nineties and said, I'll pick upyour dry cleaning.
I figured out how to get aholdof the GM, uh, early in the
morning before his assistantwould arrive.
I was determined to get a job atthe place where he worked.
I ultimately did.
He finally was like, listen,kid, you don't need to get my
dry cleaning.
You don't need to call me at 7am at the office, I would love
(06:14):
to hire you and got me in for aninterview.
I was early on, you know,raising my hand a lot to say,
let me try things.
Let me get in the room with theadults at the big table.
They went through a few layoffsat that, uh, agency back then.
I was fortunate to stick around,uh, with a lot of senior people.
It gave me a lot of opportunitywith only a top heavy
(06:34):
organization and a lot of juniorpeople, the chance to try a lot.
Russel (06:38):
I always love a good persistence pays off story.
Great to hear.
How did you get to the pointwhere you eventually said, you
know what, I'm starting my ownagency?
Kathleen (06:46):
I went and did a corporate side gig.
I wanted to try that out and seeif I would like working on the
corporate side.
I worked for Chicago Title andTrust Companies.
I built their first website,working with agencies, did homes
reports and learned the realestate industry.
It wasn't a very exciting.
But, I was able to do a lot ofcreative things at the company
and it really gave me the chanceto lead and to form a team.
(07:10):
Then I went on to Edelman.
I was very lucky to work for thelargest independent PR firm in
the world that's, uh, It's stillaround today and incredibly
successful.
Early in my career at 25, I wastheir probably youngest VP at
the time.
I remember actually gettinghired to be a vice president to
run craft foods and broadforeman wines business
nationally, uh, Corbelchampagne.
You can remember the champagnewas a big deal coming up to the
(07:32):
millennium.
I was asked by, by my boss whatI was doing one weekend.
I said, oh, I'm celebrating mybirthday.
How old are you going to be?
I said, 26.
She went, don't tell anybodyhere how old you are.
And I always ask the question,are you asking me my age?
Or are you asking me my ability?
They're two very differentthings.
That became just a good, a goodreminder of just the fact that
(07:53):
you can be whatever you want tobe and play the part, play the
role.
I had just recently gottenmarried wanted to start a family
and had my first child while Iwas at Adelman.
When I came back, I recognizedpretty quickly that I, my values
were being questioned.
Do I want to be a great mom ordo I want to be a great senior
vice president?
I went to a smaller firm, aboutique firm that I thought
(08:13):
might be a little better forwork life balance.
I found out that it was just asbusy but, uh, I was able to work
on some really cool brands.
I found out I was expecting mysecond child while at that
smaller firm.
I was like, wow, I think this isa wake up call.
God's telling me, Kathleen, youhave to decide what path are you
going to take?
Because I was working on 19 newbusiness pitches.
I think we won 19 in sevenmonths.
(08:34):
I wasn't doing myself anyfavors, pregnant with one child
and with a little baby at home.
I took a chance on myself andstarted my own firm in my
basement with a week and aprayer and a Rolodex back then.
It's not glamorous, was next tomy sump pump.
January of 2001, I gave birth toour son, John Henry, in March.
I made maybe, Russel, five grandthe first six months.
(08:56):
I thought, oh, I'm in trouble.
I'm in trouble.
Then I found, uh, the ColemanCompany came and said, we're
doing our hundredth birthday andwe need a big idea.
With a colleague of mine, we,um, brainstormed the idea of the
world's largest s'more.
Instead of birthday candles, wehad a hundred lanterns from
Coleman on top of a giant s'morethe size of a warehouse.
(09:16):
We had 850 employees put ittogether in Wichita, Kansas at a
hundred degree temps.
We broke a world record.
I was on CNN headline news withmy client all day the next day.
That was the breakthrough momentof when Agency H5, uh, began to
get some steam.
And then September 11th occurredjust real quick.
That's when a lot of the bigfirms were probably getting
their budgets cut significantly.
(09:38):
It was a very sad and verytumultuous time, obviously, in
our country.
I was always saying I'll behappy to be the strategist, but
I'll also be happy to stuff thepress kits back then.
We actually had paper press kitswe sent out to folks.
It was like, I'll do everythingfrom running your strategy for
your business down to the verybasic press tax.
That was a appealing value prop,I think, for a lot of larger
(10:01):
clients like Kraft Foods andAllstate and Sears in my early
days, because they could getgreat value out of the work that
I was doing without paying theprice tag of a big global firm.
That's really where my businesstook off.
Russel (10:14):
Not to say there's not often a rollercoaster ride in
the early days, but it soundslike you had a really, really
big rollercoaster ride even inyour first year.
The two words I just wrote down,just thinking about how you've
described, you know, just whoyou are and how you approach
business (10:28):
persistence and scrappy.
Just this idea when I, I don'tknow what I was thinking there.
You said five grand for sixmonths, that had to be tough.
How close are you thinking like,uh uh, this ain't going to
happen?
I got to move on.
Or were you said, nope, I ammaking this happen and it's
just, it's, it's not, if it'swhen?
Kathleen (10:43):
It's actually a little bit of the first.
My first boss out of college,uh, at Hill Knowlton was a
woman, is a woman.
She's phenomenal.
I just talked to her this week,Janet Cabot.
Even when I left Hill Knowlton,she bet on me and said, you'll
do great wherever you go.
She was one of the onlyencouragers, like when I was
leaving, she wasn't mad.
She was actually excited for me.
Janet has remained a greatcareer mentor and friend for 32
(11:06):
years.
I have a child now that's olderthan I was when I started
working for her, which is quiteweird and surreal now to look
back on.
But I called Janet and I said, Idon't know.
I may have made a really baddecision.
I had a three month old at thetime.
I had a three month old baby andI had an 18 month old.
I was like, what am I going todo?
She said, you're going to bejust fine.
I believe you have the rightconnections and the right
(11:27):
attitude that you'll be justfine.
She was right.
I reminded her of that this weekwhen we spoke, I said, you gave
me hope that I was capable.
You just said, give yourself alittle time and patience and
it'll pay off.
It's funny how I've realizedthat lesson over and over again.
That's been a theme I think ofmy agency is that, the beautiful
gardens I planted ofrelationships early on in my
(11:47):
career really bloomed atdifferent times over the years
since the firm was founded 24years ago.
All these people have beenincredibly kind and remembering
the work I did or that my teamdid later on.
That's how my agency grew, wasjust return to business and
happy clients that would pass myname on to somebody else.
In similar situations, a lot ofbrand managers that were, moving
(12:09):
jobs would take me along theride with them to other products
within their organization ordifferent jobs as they moved in
their career.
That has been a huge, I think,help, um, is being persistent
but also delivering.
When you deliver, peopleremember that and they go back
to the people that didn't letthem down.
It just took a little momentumto get me going, but we have
been, haven't really stoppedever since.
Russel (12:31):
I can believe it.
Hopefully we've inspired anyonelistening out there to find
someone to believe in, in you orthem or themselves, but then
also maybe a little inspiration,go believe in someone today and
just the power that that canhave, in someone's life or
future, or especially when we'redoing something so darn hard,
like running a business, butespecially an agency business.
(12:53):
That's a wonderful, wonderfulstory.
We got a lot of ground to coverfrom, from when you started the
agency to, to present day.
But give us, give us a couplehighlights in the first few
years of just or just reallyeven in, almost entirety of your
journey.
What's a major milestone or two,like, hey, this was a game
changer for us?
Whether it was a shift inthinking something that actually
happened that you overcome.
Anything stick out in your mindin that sense?
Kathleen (13:15):
I'd just say that sticking true to who I was from
the get go.
I built, selfishly, my agencyoff of the model of what I
wanted in my work life.
I wanted kind people.
I wanted to work with peoplethat, were passionate about
their business and I waspassionate about theirs.
It's really hard, as youprobably recall, working for
clients that you didn't have alot of passion for.
(13:36):
I decided since I was workingfor myself, I might as well be
selective about the type ofclients I wanted to work with,
but they were clients that wouldemulate my values, which were
not mean spirited people.
I wanted to work with kindpeople.
You'd never like to go home toyour family and be grumpy
because you've been abused atwork by a client.
I decided, like, sorry for thepodcast listeners here, but a no
(13:58):
asshole policy where I onlywanted to work with nice people.
I really stayed true to that.
I've worked with so many goodkind, smart people over the
years, both employees andclients.
I wanted to infuse creativityinto everything I did.
I wanted clients that liked myauthentic excitement for their
business.
I wanted, to hustle.
I loved getting things donequickly and moving on.
(14:20):
Back to your point earlier aboutscrappy I've always been known
and H5 has been known as thescrappy firm in the hallways of
big, big corporations, becausewe compete against the big the
big agencies for a lot of globalbrands and we win.
We win not only because of ourscrappy approach, but because we
do award winning work.
But we also are reallyrespectful of, of their time and
(14:41):
don't take forever to get thingsdone.
Our deadlines are two or threeweeks out.
It gets, don't let grass grow.
Get it done and move on.
Ask a busy mother of eventuallyfive children, which is the H5
and H5, it's a nod to the fivechildren that I was really so
lucky to have, and to really behuman and happy in her job.
That's the H for H5, uh, humanand happy and the five is, is
(15:03):
for kindness, creativity,passion, hustle and integrity.
I wanted to say what I was goingto do right, do it and then say
I did it.
Those were what I didn't see atthe big firms.
Not necessarily all those valuesdidn't exist, but just not
consistently for me.
I started a place where I canhave that and then also give
that same privilege to anyonethat I would be so lucky to work
with over time.
Russel (15:23):
I had no idea, right?
You take a letter, letter and anumber and that how much meaning
that you have brought to H theword H and 5, that that was a
fascinating.
I love just how you talk thereabout leading with values.
It sounds like that came verynatural to you, which I'll be
honest and say, I don't thinkthat's always the case.
I even think in my own journey,wasn't the case, I just, you
(15:43):
know, just thought it was justabout grit and, and put your
head down and work hard.
But it eventually did come tofind out that it, you have to
have purpose, principle values,um, to lead any organization of
a few people or beyond.
But it sounds like that camenatural to, I don't know, or
did, was that a learning processfor you to know how important
that was to have that in yourbusiness?
Kathleen (16:03):
I just felt early on in my career that I was
apologizing a lot for being amother, which is crazy because
we wouldn't, we wouldn't havepeople on this planet if there
weren't mothers around, right?
And fathers but, um, it seemedthat the guys got a better pass
at, like, going to work andgoing home, whereas women were
juggling the household and work.
I created a place of utopia, Iguess, for me.
(16:23):
But I thought if other women andmen on the journey in their
careers got sort of disenchantedwith the bigger agencies, they
might be interested in my model.
I've had over 250, maybe 300now, Russel, uh, people that
have worked for me and I've beenable to see them grow in their
careers, have children.
I have people that started withme as college grads that have
had babies, gotten married, I'vebeen at their weddings and see
(16:46):
them have children and it's,it's a really fulfilling role as
the owner and founder of thisagency to not only do great PR
work for a lot of awesomecompanies and brands, um, which
we can talk about, but, to beable to be a place where people
can be human and happy.
It didn't come easy to me in thesense that, um, I had the five
figured out when I started thefirm because I didn't know I was
(17:07):
going to have five kids to behonest, I renamed it later on.
But people that shared thesimilar value system, so being
nice, not being competitive andmean spirited, there's a lot of
crabby people in agency life andpeople that want to one up one
another.
Certainly that wasn't what Iwanted.
I wanted people to just be freeto work hard, do a great job,
(17:28):
extraordinary experiences withgreat brands and corporations
and nonprofits, but also, like,not apologize for having a mom
who is sick in the hospital or ababy that has to go to the
doctor or a kid's play atschool.
Those five values have served usvery well.
We've been able to really hirebased on those values, self
regulate our culture based onthose values.
(17:48):
I've been able to reward peoplewith bonuses, etcetera.
Russel (17:52):
I'm really curious, because I think that's a really
important thing, like you said,hiring for values.
I think most owners, or at leasta lot of owners, learn
eventually in the hiring processthat it's not just about resume
and skill, but that there's alot more about the intangible
traits, the character traits,uh, and then more importantly,
even as you're saying the valuetraits, what were some of the
things that you did?
(18:12):
I have to imagine there's someinteresting things you did to
uncover someone's values whenyou were, baked into your hiring
process.
Anything stand out along thoselines?
Kathleen (18:21):
Their personal lives.
Not in a creepy way, but I wantto know what makes you, you
right?
I ask what brings you joy.
One of the things that theboutique agency I worked for in
that short seven or eight monthperiod before I went out on my
own, after leaving Edelman.
They did a great job of findingpeople's own exciting journeys
or passions, the place they wantto go or an item that they're
(18:42):
coveting that they want and,doing that.
I would buy girls, women thatwork for me, certainly not
girls, women Jimmy Choo shoes tosay, you can walk in my shoes
when they had rocked a projector they had done an exceptional,
thing for a client.
I did things like that, thingsthat you couldn't do if you were
owned by a parent company.
It was fun to just say what'syour shoe size?
(19:04):
In casual conversation and thensurprise them and take them to
the shoe, boutique and say, have10 pairs of shoes and say, try
on whatever one you want.
We toast champagne and say, goodjob.
I like doing untraditional waysof rewarding people that you
wouldn't get anywhere else.
A day off with a spa day withsomeone's mom who flew into
town.
I tried to do things that madepeople feel like they were seen
(19:26):
as the person as opposed to theworker.
Obviously you can see so manypeople are qualified on paper
but I'd ask interestingquestions about what do you do
on the weekends?
What do you read?
What's your favorite thing to dofor just you?
What is something that you wishyou could change about yourself?
You can learn a lot aboutsomebody's personality and how
they work in the environment youown or have just simply by,
(19:50):
digging a little deeper thanjust what they put on their
resume..
Russel (19:56):
I feel like not subtle reference that you've actually
used several times of garden.
I can make my own inferencethere, but just in terms of what
that means, right?
Development, growing, blooming,you know, beauty.
So many things that, that canreference, but I'm just curious
from your end.
Is that a very intentional wordthat, you really approach this
notion of your businessrelationships, et cetera?
Kathleen (20:15):
It's something that I've just noticed as a theme.
I don't think I intentionallyset out to be a nurturer of
gardens, but I do think that I,my family is a garden.
I've really watered and grownmy, my beautiful children.
I have six now that I'mremarried and very happy with my
husband, Chris.
I have six kids.
I water those children with mylove and with my attention and
(20:36):
with my advice.
Maybe they don't want it, but, Iprovide it.
The same thing goes for my workfamily, you know.
I think that's just theterminology I created to make
sense of the nurturing side ofme, as a little girl, back to a
question you asked me earlier,what did a little Kathleen want
to be?
I wanted to be a mom and my momwas a nursery nurse at the
(20:56):
hospital.
I learned about parenting and,being someone that loves babies,
just through watching my mother.
That was like my favorite partof the week and then get to go
upstairs to the nursery and seemy, my mom behind glass holding
these little babies.
I have a really good role modelin my mom and dad.
My mom was a nurturer and my dadwas this guy who would be
beloved everywhere we went.
(21:17):
He was kind to everyone, nomatter their station, no matter
their job or role.
I witnessed early on that, thatattitude of treating everyone
with kindness and by the goldenrule.
My two parents really shaped me.
I always say relationships arethe currency of business and you
are the company you keep sochoose wisely.
I've been gardening and wateringfor all these years and my
(21:38):
businesses has bloomed indifferent seasons, like
relationships I had 24 yearsago, pop back up unexpectedly.
It's really fun to see that whenit happens.
Cause it's happened many, manytimes in my tenure of having
this firm.
Russel (21:51):
I feel like in the course of this conversation,
there's like 10 differenttangents that I really want to
go down.
I don't think we're going tohave enough time to get to even
most of them.
Kathleen (21:57):
Part two, we'll do a part two someday.
Russel (21:59):
Even going back to this idea of a garden and just how
important it is, what you'resaying is, yes, we're going to
measure revenue and how manyleads we got, but that maybe a
more important measurement needsto be how many meaningful
relationships does the businesshave, or at least, you know,
people within the business andhow many people are we treating
like they're valuable that maynot immediately have value?
(22:22):
I often think of just the ideaof how many people just, once a
lead goes through the proposalprocess and doesn't become
something, so many agencies justdon't ever even talk to that
company ever again.
Even going back to your gardenthat, we got to put them in our
garden and we got to be valuableand treat them as much, that's
what it sparks in me.
Kathleen (22:37):
No, I agree with that.
I think that the most fertilesoil comes from good
relationships.
I love connecting people andgetting out of the way, Russel.
I love it.
I don't need to be in the middleof the every connection I have
or see, but I love making them.
For instance, we work withBrach's Candy on their seasonal
programming.
Very fun client to work on.
Lots of fun stuff over the year,Valentine's Day and Halloween
(22:57):
and holidays and Easter.
We also work with Great WolfLodge Resorts.
We connected Great Wolf Lodge toBrach's candy we suggested they
do something really sweet forthe holiday season.
They created a candy corn sweetand it's gone viral.
It's all over the country rightnow.
We've probably reached in thelast 10 days, two billion
(23:18):
impressions in our campaign ofthis candy corn sweet in two
places in the U.
S.
It's really cool when you canput two people together and know
that, or two brands together,two brand managers together,
CFOs, CEOs.
I love when my clients are like,hey, I'm making a role
transition, connecting them to aCEO I've worked with before and
say, this is such a greatperson.
You two need to know each other.
(23:39):
I'm getting out of the way.
It's so fun to see thoserelationships blossom and grow.
I do think it's, if you want tohave a successful agency, have
fertile soil, have a lot ofreally great relationships
because it shouldn't betransactional.
I don't think you should keepscore.
It's an area that you'll getvery competitive if you keep
score.
It's more about how do you helpyour fellow agency friends.
(23:59):
How do you help a fellow client?
I give media contacts to clientsI don't even work with anymore
if they reach out.
If a media outlet reaches out tous and we no longer work with
that client, I'll still make theconnection for them because, uh,
it doesn't have to be all aboutmoney, but I find that the money
always came when I did the rightthing.
Russel (24:16):
I would say the person that keeps score is bound to
lose.
All right, well I am reallycurious about, and I have my own
thoughts about this in my ownjourney, but I'm just really
curious in your case.
There's a lot of people that,you know, kind of, I don't know,
but turn, turn their heads alittle bit, this idea of
becoming a little bit largeragency, you said you got up to
50 people because they feel likethey're going to lose some of
(24:36):
this, these values and thisculture and this, uh, you know,
all these things that they feelit can only happen at, you know,
five to 10 person size company.
How do you view that?
Share that experience.
Was culture better at 50, orsome larger number?
Can you scale culture in thatvery authentic way?
Kathleen (24:54):
You're astute to ask that question because as you
grow, it is harder.
I want to know everyone's name.
I want to know what they'reexcited about and what their,
when their birthday is.
I want to know what's up intheir life to some degree and
what books they're reading.
We talk about that at theoffice, what's the latest hot
book to read.
Culture for me did get a littlediluted.
I also think when you have thewrong people in the role of
(25:19):
leading culture, you gotta bereally careful.
I went through some seasons inmy life where I couldn't be at
the office as much, when myparents passed away, for
instance and they both passedwithin a three month period of
one another.
I had to be broken and work, youknow, but I've, that's part of
the human part of H5 too, is Ihad to let other people see me
(25:39):
in grief, but getting back upagain through adversity.
You have to get back up and dustyourself off and keep going.
I had to for my kids and for mycompany, I'm in charge of all
these people, my families.
I had other people leading, uh,and they, if they aren't the
right person, there's a dilutionof culture and I definitely
experienced that, but I was ableto, once I got back into the
(26:01):
grooves after my tragedies, um,I was able to get my culture,
you know, strong again.
What's cool now is my culture'sso ingrained into people that
work at H5 that I don't have toeven be there in order for that
culture to flourish.
But it definitely took myinsistence that you can't be
unkind to one another, right?
If you have a leader who's,like, from the big agencies that
(26:22):
maybe doesn't care aboutkindness as a value.
They could be exceptional attheir job, but that is really
painful and not necessarily agood thing if they aren't
bringing motivation and joy tothe people that they are
leading.
Be very careful as you grow toensure that the right people
believe in your values too,because it can harm your culture
if you don't, but our culture isreally strong right now.
(26:43):
But it's since I've had thisfirm, I would say the culture
couldn't be more solid and we'regoing to be 25 years old in a
year.
It's exciting to have maintainedmy initial reasons for having
this firm, which is a placethat's a good place to work with
good clients that care about usand we care about you.
That we do everything with theintegrity and the hustle that we
(27:05):
are known for.
Russel (27:05):
Sounds like it goes back to, to values, certainly in your
own case.
Being true to those.
There's two things that, ifyou're turning that question
back on me, you know, absolutelyright.
Very much have to be careful onwho you're putting in positions
that have a huge impact onculture.
Not to say not every single hireyou make really does have an
impact on culture, but somepeople certainly have a more
impact than others.
(27:26):
That's one of the things Istarted to come to find is, is,
and I think even again, pointsback to your values aspect of,
you know, people that they kindof sold me that they knew what
culture was and what it meant,but then when push came to shove
that they didn't stand behindthat word and that thought
process, goes back to values.
It's like, okay, you don't knowwhat this means.
That was a big wake up call tosay that, you know, cause that's
(27:48):
in the end of the day, to yourpoint of, culture is not lip
service.
It's action.
It's doing the hard thing whenin the face of, you know, what
might be a very hard decision,but you just gotta stand behind
it because you'll eat your lunchif you don't.
I don't know.
I had, I'm sure there's somedilution as you said, because we
got up to about 40 when I wasstill in the agency.
My perspective was as though,again, maybe going back to
values again, is that theessence of what our culture was
(28:12):
actually got to scale and becomebigger, right?
Learning was a big part of ourculture and what started out as
a little thing where it was justhopping around a table for 30
minutes on a Friday afternoon,turned into this thing where we
could bring speakers into thebusiness and really put the
aspect of learning on steroidsin this, the budget that we're
even allowed to give people tolearn more and things like that,
that just weren't luxuries thatwe had in the, you know, the
(28:34):
early days when we were smaller.
I'll just say it one more time,points back to what you're
saying of values, that we keptthe values of our culture and
just asked, how can we scale it?
Because yes, there were somethings that we simply couldn't
do size wise at 40, but whateverthat value or that notion was
there, we could just iterate onit or expand it to match what
made sense for our size at thattime.
Certainly had to let go of somethings on the, along the way,
(28:56):
but I feel like we're alwaysreplacing it with something as
good or better, or at least withthe same essence that we had
before.
Kathleen (29:02):
I think that it's important to listen to your team
about what they need from theculture because it's shifted.
It's shifted a ton since Istarted the company to today,
post pandemic, right?
We're still talking about it,but a lot of things had to
change.
We weren't going in the officeall the time.
How do you bring your culture topeople virtually?
How do you bring your culture topeople that live in different
states, which happened from thepandemic?
(29:24):
As much as that was a horriblechallenge for businesses, I was
able to get a lot of talent froma lot of different places as
well, just by hiring people thatweren't going to be physically
in the office every day.
I think that's how we've evolvedis by not just jamming our way
down other people's throats thatwork for us, but actually saying
what would emulate our culturetoday?
(29:44):
What are things you want wheremaybe five years ago they
wouldn't have asked for thosethings.
I don't care if people take awalk in the middle of the day
or, or are doing laundry or havea baby pop up in a cameo on our
calls.
In fact, I encourage it becausethat, is what makes us human and
happy.
I think our clients are justnormal human people.
They're just like us, right?
(30:04):
I've seen a real evolution too.
My client's going, I wish it waslike that at my company, or I
wish that we could have our dogor baby at work, you know what I
mean?
I have tried to ask my team totell me how to evolve our
culture.
It's always going to be the, H5will always stay at H5 but how
kindness or how creativity,passion or hustle or integrity
is seen today may be differentthan it was or will be in the
(30:28):
future.
Russel (30:28):
You just created five more tangents for me, Kathleen.
You're gonna have to stop doingthat.
When you were talking aboutthat, just thinking that like,
that's similar to parenting,right?
What our kid needs at a certainage or a certain stage, or even
a certain phase in the world oflife or whatever is not what
they need later or before.
What got you here won't get youthere.
I love what you said.
Listening is a very key elementin that.
I'm really glad that I nowforgot what the other thing that
(30:50):
you said that stood out to me.
That'll get us going to the nextquestion.
I'm just curious where, what isthe future of H5 look like?
What's the next 20 some years ofthe business?
Kathleen (31:01):
I've been a pretty live in the moment girl since
having this agency.
I haven't thought too far aheadpurposefully because, who could
have planned for some of thethings we've already
experienced, you know, in thelast five years.
But I would say that I've got anincredible team, senior team in
place.
As I am in my fifties, and Ihave had this firm, which is
crazy, almost 25 years.
That's a lot of my life.
(31:22):
It's almost half of my life I'vebeen doing this job.
I don't have any plans to goanywhere, but I'm I guess I'm
just very open to what, universeGod for me wants for my firm.
I'm very faith driven in thefact that when one door closes a
much bigger door always opensfor me always.
I listen when people say about,oh, uh, you know, are you
interested in funding?
(31:43):
I built a debt free, really selffunded business, bootstrapped,
just like you and yourbrother-in-law did, you know,
and built it into somethingthat's really special.
My goal for H5 is just tocontinue to grow and flourish
like my gardens.
To really continue to be a placethat people want to work and
that brands want to seek out fortheir PR and marketing needs.
(32:03):
We really do work with so manyreally cool companies and brands
that I've had so many excitingexperiences.
Forrest Gump.
I call it Forrest Gump momentswhere I, have gotten to do some
things that I can't evenbelieve, like go to the white
house or, be at Hollywood eventsthat I'm surrounded by stars,
But what's been the mostrewarding has been the people
(32:23):
that I've gotten to meet and thementorship I've been able to
offer to really, reallyacceptable people over these
years.
Who knows where the future isgoing to lead me, but I just
want to keep doing what I'mdoing with grace.
Russel (32:35):
Can't argue with that.
It did make me just think of, Idon't, I feel like this is
unique to the marketing oragency businesses, all the
really amazing experiences thatwe have in the course of doing
the work that we have justthrough our clients and, you
know, experiencing theirproducts, their events, whatever
that might be.
Any agency that's been around awhile has got just some really
cool stories there.
We'll add that to one of the,one of the 10 part series of
(32:57):
just interesting events andexperiences.
But well, I guess I better closeit out here.
One last big question for you,Kathleen, are entrepreneurs born
or are they made?
Kathleen (33:06):
I think we're made.
I wasn't born an entrepreneur.
I was born a mother, for meanyway.
I think that there's no playbookfor being an entrepreneur.
I had no idea what I was doingwhen I started this company.
I started it with a prayer and aweek, like I said, a week and a
prayer to just be a good mom.
But it has certainly been areally cool journey to learn and
to explore who I am as a leaderand figure out how to be a good
(33:28):
boss.
There's just been no instructionmanual.
I've just had to figure it out.
I definitely thinkentrepreneurship is made.
Cause I would have neveranticipated being an agency
owner.
I call myself the accidentalagency because I set out to be a
agency of one for me.
Then I just thought all theseother people that really wanted
to come on the journey with mebecause they saw the same things
(33:49):
I saw at the bigger firms, thatthey had to sacrifice something
in their own personal lives forthem to have those jobs.
I just never wanted that formyself nor for anybody else.
So I made it, created Utopia.
Russel (34:01):
There you did.
You made it.
Beautifully put.
Mic drop.
If people want to know moreabout Agency H5, where can they
go?
Kathleen (34:06):
They can just go to agencyh5.com and we're on
Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook,you can find us.
I'm just at Kathleen Sarpy.
Russel (34:15):
Easy enough.
There you know where to gofolks.
Gosh, Kathleen, wonderfulconversation.
It was so great to, to hearabout all the different aspects
of your journey.
Particularly just really ringinghome the value of values and all
the other wonderful nuggets thatwe were able to gather today.
Just really appreciate youtaking the time to share those
with us.
Kathleen (34:33):
Thank you so much for having me.
I appreciate it.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of An Agency Story
podcast where we share realstories of marketing agency
owners from around the world.
Are you interested in being aguest on the show?
Send an email topodcast@performancefaction.com.
(34:54):
An Agency Story is brought toyou by Performance Faction.
Performance Faction offersservices to help agency owners
grow their business to 5 milliondollars and more in revenue.
To learn more, visitperformancefaction.com.
Probably about 10 years ago, a colleague of mine,
(35:16):
Carmen and I were working on thered carpet at a Chicago event
for a major celebrity.
It was an award ceremony.
We had all of the guests,celebrities lined up on the red
carpet doing the step andrepeat, taking pictures.
We got a call on the press linethat the actual host of the
event would not be coming.
It was Steve Harvey.
His daughter had a horse ridingaccident.
(35:36):
She's fine.
But, they just, they wereparents first, and they just
didn't come.
We had an entire gala full ofpeople.
We had a press line of honorees,and there were celebrities in
their own right.
And then we had no Steve Harvey.
We had to figure out how to letall the guests know, and to let
all the celebrities know.
That was one of those moments inPR, you can't ever predict what
(35:56):
you're going to do in your jobor how you're going to handle a
situation.
That was one where our sort ofstomachs dropped and we had to
pick up the pieces very quicklyand figure out a plan.
We ended up just letting peopleknow that he was being a dad
first and that's the right thingto do.
But it was, one of those, like,oh gosh, how are we going to fix
this in, like, five minutes kindof situation?
Russel (36:18):
That's awesome.
Wow.
Again, it goes back to crazyagency stories.
I don't know if I could havehandled the event space of, of
marketing or whatever.
This is real time do or dielive.
Based upon the story you shared,God bless you for being able to
roll with the punches that thatworld entails.
Kathleen (36:34):
Events I would say in public relations are things you
just can plan for, but neverpredict what's actually going to
happen.
You've got to think on yourfeet.
That's one thing I've gottenpretty good at over the years.
Russel (36:43):
I'm sure.
Oh, I have no doubt.
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