2015

2015 was a great year. But it was also one of the toughest years of my career.

I've always had the dream of starting my own business. I would make business plans, build spreadsheets, calculate costs, strategize, but I always kept it all to myself. I had a few opportunities to make it happen, but I always got cold feet and didn't want to risk a sure thing for a new adventure.

As I started growing on my career, I also noticed that the more important my role at the agency, the bigger the risk associated with it. Advertising is a very volatile market, clients come and go, and you are always at risk of losing your job if you make too much money (and be replaced by 3 junior creatives).

After 2 years of doing a great job at digitalizing and bringing AT&T US Hispanic market to social media, the client decided to consolidate the entire account on the same advertising group. The day I found it out, I went back home, and figured that this was life giving me a push to make my dreams come true. I went online, and started my company, Samba Rock. It was time.

Only after I started working as an entrepreneur that I realized that the timing couldn't be better. With the shared economy in full steam, and the explosion of services like Uber and AirBnb, it was time for the advertising world to make a change and stop acting like this is still living in the 1950's.

Nowadays we can work from home, build mini-teams per project that are 100% specialized on what each project needs. There are millions of great professionals working by themselves, ready to take on the next opportunity.

And this is what the word "agency" really stands for - becoming the agent of great talent. So I'm not afraid of calling it an agency, I'm actually proud (as most of the agencies nowadays are not "agenting" talents but instead using the talents to make themselves profitable - but this is subject for another post!).

So I finally started my agency! And it has a really lean payroll (composed of me, myself and I). And I hire the best talent around every time I need them. And I do as much work as I can myself, while keeping the relationships with my clients (that feel a lot more like friends than the scary relationship that I used to see on the big corporations I worked for before).

I've never worked so hard as I'm working now. Being a "one-man-show" responsible for big projects and teams everywhere in the world is not easy, and working from my home office has its pros and cons (I decide my own calendar, but I usually finish work at midnight). Plus, I'm having to learn how to live on a tight budget (so I can keep as much of the money to help my company grow as I can). But I'm loving it!

I was lucky enough to land some amazing brands to my portfolio of clients right on my first year - Itaú, the largest private bank in Brazil; Bauducco, the biggest seller of Panettone in the entire world; Forno de Minas, the largest "Pão de Queijo" (Brazilian traditional cheese rolls); The Little Chalet, one of the top 10 restaurants in Brazil; among others - and that helped me to grow from zero to a good position to start the new year.

In 2015 I transformed from a guy in the middle of the creative department of a big agency, who had little contact with clients and lived in this bubble, to an entrepreneur, making lots of new connections, meeting amazing people, making new friends, and learning a whole new respect for New Business and Account people (it's tougher that you think!).

In 2015 I've learned so much, and I know that this is just the beginning. I also know that, as the projects keep coming, at some point I will have to hire a team. Then more and more people. I will have new experiences, and I will never stop learning.

2016 will be an amazing year. Happy New Year!