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.

Get Your Exclusive AIO Growth Plan - We’ll kick off with a Live AIO Audit to see how shoppers find you, followed by Competitor Research to steal their spotlight: https://lunacal.ai/team/dws/dws-meetings

In this episode, we discuss:

00:00 - 02:20: Introduction

02:20 - 04:35: Surviving The 2008 Recession With A Contractor Model

04:35 - 06:51: Building A Training Company Alongside The Agency

06:51 - 07:55: Hiring For Aptitude Over Academic Credentials

07:55 - 09:33: Growing From One Market To International Clients

09:33 - 12:54: Lessons From "No Kidding" Applied To AI Adoption

12:54 - 15:16: How AI Has Changed The SEO Playbook

15:16 - 15:48: Why Yvette's Team Is "Team Claude"

15:48 - 17:11: Building Brand Presence Across Reddit, LinkedIn & YouTube

17:11 - 19:22: Why Business Awards Are Worth Pursuing

 Connect with Yvette Adams

 https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvetteadams/

 thecreativecollective.com.au

 FOLLOW US

Website: https://www.digitalwebsolutions.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/digiwebsol

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dws_global

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-web-solutions./