A chat with Sheridan

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d own my own marketing agency. It just wasn’t something that ever felt exciting enough to pursue beyond my 9-to-5 job. But here we are—and I absolutely love it!

One of my favourite parts of the job is onboarding new clients. I love sitting down with you (or jumping on a virtual call these days) for a real, down-to-earth chat about your business—where you want it to go and what truly matters most.

Once I have a solid understanding of your goals, that’s when the fun begins—crafting a marketing strategy that aligns with what’s most important to you. From there, we build and refine the strategy over time, adapting as more leads turn into sales and as new opportunities and resources become available.

What do you love most about what you do?

What I love most is building strong, long-term relationships with clients—working together for months, managing their marketing and seeing the impact we’ve made. Knowing that we’ve transformed how their business looks, functions, and performs is incredibly rewarding.

But the best moment? It’s when I get a call saying something like, “We’re hiring another team member and increasing our advertising budget.” WAHOO! That’s when I know we’ve truly made a difference. It’s a win for the client and a massive win for us!

Being very entrepreneurial, has every business you've started been successful? 

No, it really hasn’t! My first real business venture was a fashion label—and it was a big flop. I put all my industry knowledge and skills into it, setting up social media, a website, a campaign video, influencers, and advertising. But after two years of trying to make it profitable, I had to accept that there just wasn’t a strong enough market for what I had created—either not right now or maybe not ever. It was a tough pill to swallow and incredibly disheartening.

On the bright side, since then, I’ve built three successful businesses (this one included), applying everything I’ve learned along the way. It’s been a busy but hugely rewarding journey. Some might call it luck—and sure, there were factors outside of my control, like newspaper articles about my business or Instagram posts going semi-viral—but the real game-changer was finding my niche.

Success didn’t come from trying to be the IKEA of my industry, but rather the small pottery maker tucked away on the bottom shelf of aisle 47. Understanding where my business fits in the market and marketing to the right people has been the key difference between my failures and my successes.

If you could give one piece of advice about posting on social media, what would it be?

Never stop learning. Social media platforms are constantly evolving, with new updates rolling out every month. If you don’t adapt, you’ll be left behind. Too many businesses make excuses for not keeping up, and while some of those reasons may be valid, the reality is—you have to find a way to adjust.

There’s no point posting the same type of content week after week if, two months ago, Facebook announced they would no longer support that format. Staying informed and evolving with the platforms is key to staying relevant.

What’s your biggest pet peeve when it comes to websites?

Functionality—hands down. There’s nothing worse than a button that doesn’t work, a 404 error that doesn’t redirect to the homepage, or a dropdown menu that’s impossible to read on mobile.

You have to think like a customer and make your website run as smoothly as a McDonald’s drive-thru. It should function like clockwork—because why risk losing a sale over something as simple as a broken “Add to Cart” button or a limited shopping experience that forces customers to browse one category at a time? A shop all page is a must!

OK, I should stop—I’m getting way too passionate about this!

What’s one thing you want to say about advertising online?

Just be careful. Make sure you’re working with an agency that genuinely cares about your business and can actually deliver results.

Every business—no matter how successful—will have slow sales days. When that happens, your agency should be upfront about it, not trying to cover it up by focusing on vanity metrics like website clicks or, even worse, impressions. At the end of the day, what really matters is this: Today, we had no sales.

You wouldn’t believe the horror stories I’ve heard from clients about agencies that didn’t deliver and weren’t honest about results. We’re talking serious budgets—$25,000 spent with barely any sales to show for it. If that’s been your reality, I’m truly sorry. You deserve better. Learn more about Digital advertising.

End of our Chat with Sheridan.