I went through an incredible amount of change in 2023:

• I had a 5-year relationship turn sour, become exceptionally damaging, and finally end.
• At the same time, I was hiring my replacement at work and slowly stepping aside.
• I sold my home privately, including almost all of my remaining possessions within it.
• I moved away from my hometown and province for the first time ever, to a small mountain town, by myself.
• I left the agency I founded and ran for the last 15 years, with no current work plans.
• I met someone and started a new relationship.

And through all that change, I learned a lot. Some of the learnings are direct and personal; others have come to me from places like stoicism, and so forth. Regardless of how they came to be, here are 14 lessons I learned in 2023:

Today is my last day at Paper Leaf. For those who don’t know, PL is the digital shop I started back in 2009 with Andy, my cofounder, who I then bought out in 2018. In 2021, I sold Paper Leaf to ZGM, and today is the last day of my 3-year transition period post-acquisition. As I step away, I wanted to put a bow on everything in a post, and share some interesting facts, data, and insights.

Let’s start with some interesting numbers gleaned over the nearly 15 years of starting & running the shop:

Paper Leaf turns 10 years old today. I’m bad at stopping to recognize a moment, never mind celebrating, so I’m making an effort to do that here.

When we started PL, we were as green as they come. We had no real idea or plan for where the shop would go, what it would become, or all that would change in a decade. We went from 2 people running a business with annual revenues of $40k in year one to 17 people with annual revenues nearing $2M. We went from designing business cards for $50 to building six-figure software applications. We went from working out of a bedroom to, at present, our third office. We went from no benefits to benefits. We went from unheard-of to recognized both regionally and nationally. It’s been fulfilling, and it will continue to be.

But, real talk: it has also been the most challenging and consistently stressful endeavour I’ve personally ever endured.

The following is an edited version of the commencement speech I gave to the Edmonton Digital Arts College 2019 grad class. I swear it was way more hilarious and inspiring in person.

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When Jeremy approached me and said, “Jeff, I’d love if you could give a talk at the EDAC grad ceremony”, I assumed he wanted me to impart some wisdom or something. Then he said, “Yeah. Everyone else is really busy.”

When asked to speak, I had two immediate thoughts. The first: he really could have left that last part out. Second: of course, it’d be an honour to. I really am excited to be here, and excited for each of you. Because 10 years ago, I was right where you are, and I remember what that was like. I graduated from a small private college, same as you.

Right after I graduated, I started an agency called Paper Leaf because I was too dumb to know any better. Today, Paper Leaf is probably considered a success. But back then? My partner & I started working out of a house. Super small time. I mean, I had a Skype meeting one time with a client where my two cats started fighting on the bed in the background. Real professional.

That first year in business, we did a total of $40k in revenue – revenue, not profit. When you split that between two partners, we were far below the poverty line. I couldn’t afford fancy dress hoodies like this one.

Scope creep is awful. We struggled with how to handle it for years at Paper Leaf. It’s a tricky balance, isn’t it? We don’t want to be total doormats, but we’re also terrified to nickel-and-dime the client, or damage the relationship. In my experience, though, most agencies – including us, for a long time – end up on the doormat side, at the expense of our profits and our culture. After all, scope creep places stress on both those things, while also placing stress on the relationship side. Ultimately, scope creep is damaging in every regard in the long run – and running an agency is hard enough already.

Luckily, we’ve come to a good method of handling scope creep, and it’s super straightforward. Here’s how we handle it, so you can handle it too.