“I remember I was sitting with a large glass of wine with a spreadsheet open, trying to work out when we were going to run out of money.”

This was how Pete Heslop, founder of Steadfast Collective, spent one evening during lockdown. What followed was a mental health crisis.

Something had to change.

And so, the direction and structure of the Steadfast changed drastically. They put strict work-life boundaries in place; prioritised mental health; implemented a pod structure and eventually started a four-day work week.

But most notable was their decision to niche focusing on community.

“I think going niche has been a bit of a saving grace,” explains Pete. “It’s made me love my job again and it means we’re building the sort of projects our team really care about.”

“They’re not just building a website for the local butchers. We’re building stuff that people actually give a shit about.” Now, they’re recognised as the go-to experts when crafting communities, able to compete with massive, more well-known agencies.

“When we’re talking to clients, we can now pitch against huge agencies,” says Pete. “Because although we don’t have a dev team of 506 people… this is what we do. At our next dinner, we’ve got the head of community for TikTok coming – it’s great.”

Join us for our next client services mastermind, where Pete will tell the story of how niching down saved his company, and how the clients they’ve acquired actually mean something to them!