Neuroscience shows listening to music has similar effects to meditation

From mood enhancement and relaxation to full-blown oneness with the cosmos, music has the ability to powerfully shift our state of mind. Meditation is not that different. Meditation lowers the stress…

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Michelle Davidson Sokoloff Of SHADOW On How To Take Your Company From Good To Great

As part of my series about the “How To Take Your Company From Good To Great”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michelle Davison Sokoloff.

Michelle was the first employee of integrated marketing agency SHADOW when it was founded in 2007. From the outset, Michelle was given free reign over SHADOW’s hospitality and lifestyle division, where she quickly began carving out market share with her clever and committed approach.

Under Michelle’s leadership, SHADOW became synonymous with its work in the hospitality space, earning acclaim for its “buzzy” approach to events. Michelle opened and sustained the buzz around some of Manhattan’s leading nightclubs and restaurants while also capturing the loyalty of the agency’s largest clients, including a portfolio of brands from spirits conglomerate Constellation. Michelle helped catapult SHADOW’s clients to success as the agency scaled to keep up with demand.

In 2012 at the age of 29, Michelle was named Partner at the agency after being awarded the Rising Stars of PR accolade by PR News, honoring PR leaders and creative practitioners aged 30 and under. Michelle was instrumental in executing on what had been an ongoing evolution of the agency, dropping the “PR” in SHADOW’s name to make way for its ambitious expansion into additional marketing disciplines, including event production, creative and influencer marketing.

Within the new agency framework, she continued overseeing her divisions, in addition to taking ownership over SHADOW’s business operations. In 2018, she assumed the role as Chief Operations Officer and was tasked with building and fostering the financial health of the business as well as building agency internal communications and culture.

In 2021, Michelle was named Co-founder after assembling a body of work that included four Forbes magazine cover stories, innumerable new business wins, and yearly double-digit revenue growth.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I really lucked out in that my first job out of college was working as an assistant for Lisette Sand-Freedman, who remains my business partner and best friend to this day. I knew immediately and instinctively that I was meant to learn and grow by her side. So, when she left that company to start SHADOW with Brad Zeifman and Liza Suloti, I didn’t miss a beat — I followed in support of her and her vision, and overnight it was the four of us, out on a limb, getting the agency off the ground.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

I know I’m not alone in citing COVID-19 as the ultimate hardship — it’s impacted everyone’s journey, including mine. Just a couple of months before COVID-19 made landfall here in the states, I had decided to take a leap I’d been considering for a long time, and step back from all client-facing work to assume ownership over company operations. So there I was, brand new to the COO seat, and my first task was to help SHADOW navigate and survive this unprecedented situation. It was daunting and I felt — as many did — underqualified for the challenge. In another sense though, I knew no one had the roadmap on this one and that we were all starting from the same place, regardless of experience. There was no data to reference, no strategy to copy — it was a very quick lesson that not all problems can be tackled with a spreadsheet. That experience really put me in touch with my gut and my instincts as a leader and trained me to rely on those above everything.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

I’m not sure I would call it a mistake, but a funny story for sure. When we first started SHADOW, Brad, Lisette and I were in Los Angeles at the Chateau Marmont for an Armani Exchange sunglass launch event. We were barely established as an agency, and I had just gotten our business cards printed at Kinkos, for that event specifically. They were in a bag in our hotel room and the cleaning person mistook it for trash and threw it out. I got myself seriously worked up over this (wasted money! missed networking opportunities!) and I ran to the front desk to see what could be done. They said all the trash got tossed in the dumpster behind the hotel — so I rolled up my sleeves and went dumpster diving. I found the cards in the end, and I promise I showered before the event…

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

I could offer countless examples of people who have carved out career pathways at SHADOW that didn’t exist previously. That is a real differentiator for us — we don’t have a set trajectory or internal ladder for our talent to climb. We hire smart, resourceful, creative, passionate people and invite them to lean into any white space that piques their interest. If they show results, if they prove that that space adds value to the business and to the grade of service we’re able to offer clients, we invest in it and in them. We let them run. That’s how our Experiential Division came to be, that’s how our Creative Division started; from trusted employees coming into our office with a pitch and a plan.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

We all need to take a look at what practices do and do not carry over to our new hybrid and remote work reality. Expecting people to engage with you in the same way they would if they were at the desk right next to yours is unfair, unsustainable, and leads to people feeling angsty and “always-on” — a recipe for burn out. I’d recommend setting clear boundaries: define company-wide cutoff times around communication; be clear about how and when different communication channels are to be used; commit to mental health days throughout the year. It’s our job as leaders to define boundaries for our teams and lead by example, but the employee side needs to take ownership as well. For those of you reading: take a real vacation and truly unplug; and schedule time into your day to get outside, go for a walk or otherwise re-energize yourself.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

While there are many that have helped, and continue to help along the way, I feel especially grateful to my parents. Growing up with parents, each of whom own their own businesses, taught me lessons by way of example daily. Work ethic was instilled in me from a very young age, and I was inspired by their love for what they each did, all the while never missing a single important moment in my life.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. The title of this series is “How to take your company from good to great”. Let’s start with defining our terms. How would you define a “good” company, what does that look like? How would you define a “great” company, what does that look like?

A good company is stable and profitable. Operations are in order, environments are safe, communication is healthy, and expectations are both clear and reasonable.

A great company has all the above, plus a culture that its people are proud to be a part of. At a great company, its people feel a sense of ownership over that culture, because their voice has been welcomed in shaping it.

Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to lead a company from Good to Great? Please share a story or an example for each.

Purpose driven businesses are often successful because the people behind them are motivated from an authentically emotional place. There is no substitute for believing in what you’re doing. That said, I think purpose can take many forms — including but not limited to social impact — and it’s for each workplace to define what that “something bigger” is that drives them to do quality work.

I think “considering” whether to be a purpose-driven business is a bit of a misnomer. The purpose should be self-evident at the outset and should be kind of undeniably embedded in your company DNA. If that purpose is genuine and shining through, it will be a big part of the attraction for whoever is buying in, from employees and partners to clients and customers.

What would you advise to a business leader who initially went through years of successive growth, but has now reached a standstill. From your experience do you have any general advice about how to boost growth and “restart their engines”?

When things get stagnant it’s very tempting to reach for what’s shiny and new — to expand into a sexier space, hire a pricey consultant, pivot to a trendier model. My advice would be to do the opposite, and to pause and reflect. What elements of the business are already working well? What opportunities do you already have that you aren’t capitalizing on? How could you be better utilizing your existing talent? You can usually find the answers under your own hood, and whenever you do identify an opportunity for growth, invest in it.

Generating new business, increasing your profits, or at least maintaining your financial stability can be challenging during good times, even more so during turbulent times. Can you share some of the strategies you use to keep forging ahead and not lose growth traction during a difficult economy?

Years ago, we saw our industry start to segment itself off as people realized just how broad and dynamic a space it was, but we resisted the urge to pigeonhole ourselves into any one thing. We know that our relevance — and by extension, our stability — stems from our willingness to embrace innovation and evolve in pace with the tech. We’ve never wanted to be a one-off service provider for our clients, we want to be their long-term partners in all things creative marketing. So whenever it makes sense, we keep broadening our scope. It’s why so many of our client partners are still with us 15 years later.

In your experience, which aspect of running a company tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?

I’m not sure there’s a name for it — but that point where human resources and operations intersect. In a creative industry, you can’t expect to plug people into a one-size-fits-all work experience. You have to create systems and practices around your talent. It’s so nuanced and requires you to really know your people — it yields the best results, but it’s not easy.

Of course, the main way to increase conversion rates is to create a trusted and beloved brand. Can you share a few ways that a business can earn a reputation as a trusted and beloved brand?

You just have to walk the walk. We aim for a true partnership relationship with our clients, and that develops over time. Anyone can over-deliver for six months or a year, then fizzle out or rest on their laurels. It’s about being consistent, present, creative and engaged year after year after year. I always invite anyone who’s interested in working with us in any capacity to ask around about us. Talk to our clients, talk to media, talk to influencers — because I’m confident that they’ll authentically sing our praises when asked.

Great customer service and great customer experience are essential to build a beloved brand and essential to be successful in general. In your experience what are a few of the most important things a business leader should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience?

In our case, that “wow” experience requires a tailored strategy for each client, and each initiative. There’s zero plug-and-play; everything is developed custom to address the specific needs and goals of that client in that moment.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?

They rely too much on the perfect business plan, and not enough on their gut. Sometimes you need to make a choice because it feels right and because you know you have the passion and the conviction to see it through, even when the data doesn’t support it.

Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I think more businesses should encourage employees to find their own lanes, outside of whatever pathways might already exist at the company. When smart, creative, and hardworking people come to you with a new idea — and plan — for how to apply their talents, leaders should say yes, invest in that potential, and open themselves up to unknown growth results.

How can our readers further follow you online?

@weareshadow

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!

Neuroscience shows listening to music has similar effects to meditation

Michelle Davidson Sokoloff Of SHADOW On How To Take Your Company From Good To Great

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