AMANDA

CEO, Monday Creative Inc

Finding the perfect career starts with dreaming big. When you realize what you want to do, the next step is just getting there. Her background is as a writer— Amanda came up in newspapers and magazines and hit a point in her career where she knew she wanted to step into the editorial world. Then 2008 happened and so many magazines shut and so she discovered the world of brand content, and eventually did a masters degree that focused on brand content, right? Easier said than done, but Amanda Lee Smith has had her eye on the prize for a while. She is the co-founder of Monday Creative Inc, a branding and content marketing studio that was ideated when realizing there was a niche in the market that no one was really focused on. For the past 6 years, Amanda has been busy becoming a leader in the brand and content marketing space, working with industry leaders like lululemon, Arcteryx, Herschel and Stoko - to name a few. Today, Amanda is working with brands on a whole new level.

Today: Quickly realizing that there was this whole niche that no one was really doing well around telling stories for brands—building those emotional connections that lead to conversion. That was really the origin of Monday Creative. The thing I’m the most proud of in the world is the team that we've built at Monday. I actually get emotional every time I think about the crew that shows up and how much of themselves they bring every single day. They are so invested in what we're creating—it blows my mind. I walk into the office and I can't believe it. Sometimes I look around at them and have to text Lindsay my business partner just to say ‘Can you believe we made this? We created this world that we’re in.’ I’m super proud of that.

Tomorrow:  At one of my previous jobs we did a lot of future goal-setting. And I started to get a vision of a life that was incredibly flexible, where I could help people in a creative space, but also be able to skip off to a house on the Sunshine Coast on a moment's notice. Finances were tight when we started Monday but as we grew I suddenly had more income than I would spend in a month. I bought my first investment property 3 years ago and I've always put money into RRSPs and a TFSA. But I want to expand my reach a bit more and have a greater impact. I realized with angel investing that I didn't need to have $100,000 to invest in a business to be involved. It is exciting thinking about having a hand in another business without having to actually run that business. I can shape a business and feel a sense of ownership but I don't have to spend 10 hours a day on it.

The Future: Lindsay and I are co-founders of our agency and we have created a joint investment vehicle. The vehicle is set up 50/50 and this is where we do all of our angel investments. We'd like to start doing some other types of investing together like property. The process for both of our investments starts with meeting the founder to see if there is a connection. In some cases there hasn’t been a fit, but with two investments there was definitely a connection where the energy that the founder was bringing to the table and the vision were something we liked. I've sat on two different boards and one was full of representation and people from different backgrounds and walks of life, and I was on another board with twelve people; two women and two people of colour. It showed me the imbalance. Having those different voices and different perspectives is important. You end up with more offerings that are relevant to a bigger part of the population.