“How to achieve growth by saying no to the wrong clients” with Cimin Ahmadi-Cohen

Cimin Ahmadi-Cohen, like so many pioneering women, is challenging the norms of male-dominated, stagnant professional services. As the founder of her agency, Idea Peddler, she's dismantling how media and advertising are traditionally approached, banishing the negativity and toxic mindset that has plagued the industry. After working at major firms on Fortune 100 accounts, Ahmadi-Cohen continually challenges and pushes the boundaries of what is typically expected and executed. Her motto of doing “good work for nice people” extends not only to her clientele but also to her staff by nurturing and developing a healthy work culture. In doing so, she's managed to double her billing year over year since 2017, while also growing her staff and offerings despite the pandemic. Idea Peddler was pleased to see 167% growth in the first six months of 2021 compared to all of 2020 in addition to achieving their three-year goal in six months of year one.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

As a kid growing up in Austin, TX, I always loved media. My sisters and I would spend our summers making our own commercials or pretending we were hosting weather segments. Advertising as a career hadn’t really occurred to me until college when I realized that the culture and energy of the Psychology lab, which was my major at the time, was not a great fit. When I found the media department at UT Austin, it was the perfect intersection of creativity, business, media, and science that tied together all of my passions.

What inspired you to start your business?

After building my career working with some of the biggest media agencies and Fortune 100 brands in the world, I was feeling super burnt out. I was on a fast track to leadership but looked ahead at the people whose seats I’d eventually fill and didn’t see many happy faces. It looked to me to be a never-ending cycle of bosses on higher floors than you making decisions that impacted you but you had no say in; clients perpetually underserved and understaffed, always disappointed and annoyed at you; and teams that reported to you that were also underserved and therefore not happy either. It all felt very toxic. I escaped to the mountains of New Mexico by sheer luck where I made the decision to leave advertising and media. But advertising wasn’t done with me, and I was invited to help in a pitch for the New Mexico Tourism Department. I fell in love with the clients, the team, and the work. From there I just started to say yes more and more, get a lot of referrals and word-of-mouth business and we’ve grown like crazy since then to where we are today.

Where is your business based?

Idea Peddler is based in Austin, TX

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

I contacted a friend who was an attorney and asked him to do the SOS filing for me to establish the business. From there, I just was diligent about monetizing any engagement I had with potential clients. Everything ran through Idea Peddler, never me as an individual. So whenever someone needed a project or advice, I took it seriously and built a proposal and sent an invoice from Quickbooks to solidify in their mind that I’m a business and not a single person.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

We’re focused on raising awareness with the right people, not broadly. I’m a big fan of LinkedIn and Instagram as a means of staying top of mind.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

There have been challenges along the way to creating the amazing company that is Idea Peddler. Things have happened that come with growing a small business. What I think I was the least prepared for was the absolutely rapid growth of the agency. While we did have a couple of scary months during the early days of the pandemic, our growth in the past 12 months, and even before that, has been astronomical. As a team, it was a challenge to hire, train and cultivate a team over Zoom and through remote work. What kept us going was the important work we were able to do on behalf of our clients where it was so vital to the community.

How do you stay focused?

Prioritization. I love the Productivity Planner for this. We, as an agency, individually commit to achieving one most important to-do each day. That way we know we’re moving the ball forward on important activities. The other thing is trying really hard not to multitask. It’s just not effective. Sometimes I break and pop into Slack when I’m supposed to be writing or doing something else, but generally speaking, I’ve found not multitasking to be really beneficial.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

For Idea Peddler, we believe that the status quo of the agency process can be done better. We’re breaking down and rebuilding the way campaigns have been attempted traditionally. By pushing boundaries, we’ve done work we’re proud of and continue to do it in a way that promotes a healthy work culture.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

We’ve been very fortunate to have grown largely by word of mouth. Our clients take us with them when they leave their jobs and go to new companies, or refer us to their colleagues.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Trust your gut and move quickly. If you’re like me, you can play both sides of any coin and make it make sense. But if you have an inkling of something—it’s not the right client, someone’s ready for a promotion, it’s worth taking a big risk to pitch something new—just do it.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

App: TaskRabbit. My list of to-dos is long and lingering. TaskRabbit helps me get my never-ending to-do list at home or work done in a snap.

Blog: I enjoy reading Medium articles. I subscribe to the newsletter, which makes it easy to sift through the myriad posts. I also have friends who are writers, so I’m always asking around about what they’re writing or reading.

Book: I recently read Built to Sell and loved it. It was fast, easy and so practical. I think it’s a must-read for services businesses.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

I joined the Young Entrepreneurs’ Organization about two years ago and have found it incredibly beneficial. Being able to be open and connected to fellow entrepreneurs who are experiencing some of the same challenges is unlike any other social sphere I’ve been a part of.

Who is your business role model? Why?

I love Sarah Blakely’s story. While I’m sure it’s romanticized a bit in the retelling, the thing I appreciate is that she’s honest about how much work and time it’s taken her to build it. Yes, there was tremendous success quickly, but she’s remained extremely hands-on in the business for a long time past what most would consider the traditionally scaled part of the business. She’s candid that only in the past few years has she been able to make time for things like regular exercise and hobbies. I think too often there is a real myth circulated among women entrepreneurs about having it all: the successful and growing business, a happy healthy family, a healthy diet and lifestyle, beauty and fashion, and so on. Sometimes you have to prioritize one over the other, give yourself some grace for where you know you’re coming up short, and make a plan to address it later.

How do you balance work and life?

With help! Balance to me doesn’t mean everything always gets equal attention. There are some nights I work late and don’t see my son before he goes to bed and other days where I’ll leave work in the middle of the afternoon to see a recital and take him for ice cream. It’s a challenge for sure, but setting and following priorities and honoring boundaries is the way that works for me.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

Yoga and family time. My son is great at pulling me away from work. He doesn’t know or care what I’m working on, but when we’re playing and laughing together it really puts life and work into perspective.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

My plans for the future of Idea Peddler are to continue to go fast and build. I want to continue to drive my vision of challenging the status quo of the industry. There is so much opportunity in working with clients that have been underserved by their current agency structure. We want to help them realize their full potential and we’ll do that by integrating our team as an extension of theirs.

How can our readers connect with you?

Instagram: @ideapeddlerllc

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ideapeddler/mycompany/

Website: https://ideapeddler.com/