You shouldn’t have contractors, they’re not reliable, you can’t build a business on a contract network.”
That’s the advice Yvette Adams, Founder & Partner at The Creative Collective, got from business coaches when she started her business in 2007, the same month her daughter was born. She ignored it, and it became one of the reasons her agency survived the 2008 recession largely unscathed.
Before marketing, Yvette was a journalist and editor, a background she credits for her love of storytelling and her instinct to keep learning and sharing. That instinct eventually took her from a New Zealand newsroom to launching a magazine’s first website in early-2000s London, to building a global agency with clients as far-flung as Japan, Korea, and Iceland.
In this conversation with Ranmay, Yvette explains why she hires for aptitude over academic degrees, how “giving away” knowledge through training has grown her business rather than hurt it, and what’s actually changed in her SEO playbook this year from tracking which AI platforms send her clients leads, to why her team runs almost everything through Claude now.
She also draws a sharp parallel between today’s AI adoption anxiety and the early panic around social media, and closes with a piece of advice most agency owners overlook: business awards might be one of the best growth tools available, whether you win or not.
Takeaways:
- Started in journalism before moving into digital marketing and web design.
- A contractor-based model helped the business stay resilient through the 2008 recession.
- Hires for aptitude and real-world skills over academic credentials.
- International clients often come through strong organic Google rankings, not paid outreach.
- Today's AI adoption anxiety mirrors the early pushback against social media.
- SEO now includes tracking which AI platforms drive client leads and adjusting content accordingly.
- Business awards are one of the most underrated tools for agency growth and self-reflection.