Meet Clinton Webb | Founder & Creative Director at Agave Studio

We had the good fortune of connecting with Clinton Webb and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Clinton, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Starting my own business has really been in the back of my mind since I entered workforce. I got my degree in marketing and journalism plus taught myself graphic and web design principles after an eye-opening college course on design. After graduation, I found myself working the agency life and came to find out that it really wasn’t for me. I’ve always been an independent person and after losing my job due the pandemic I did some major soul-searching, as I’m sure a lot of us did, and figured if I wasn’t going to start my own business now I never would. Based on my experience in the agency realm, I figured I could do things better between communicating with clients and just the overall design process. I’m now about a year and a half into working for myself and that thought process still holds true, but I’m now competing with myself and growing instead of doing it for someone else.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Being a creative comes with many challenges, especially when you’re starting your own business and putting your creativity and art out into the world. I think out of this whole process the part I’m most proud of is my ability to be able to receive feedback on projects and take that feedback and create something even better. This is something that I’ve definitely learned over the years and comes in handy when talking with clients about their projects.

Starting a business during a global pandemic was… rough to say the least. I was lucky enough to have some amazing support of friends I mentioned in the earlier section who were able to get my name out there and trusted me to get the work done; but overall not being able to the “normal” things you do when starting a business like networking and meeting people in person was a tough challenge to get through. Of course, I am in an industry that really can operate almost 100% online over Zoom or Google, but there’s something really cool about being able to meet clients in person. I’m excited to be able to do that now with local clients here in Colorado. The biggest lesson I’ve learned over these past few years is flexibility. I believe when you’re starting your own business it’s unrealistic to not be malleable in a situation where sometimes the way you did something before isn’t necessarily going to this time.

The biggest thing I want the world to know about Agave Studio and myself is that I am a stickler for communication. I love hopping on the phone with clients or meeting up in person and talking things through instead of trying to communicate via email. I know that’s a little unconventional these days, but I feel like when you’re discussing something as important as your business’s brand or website it’s important to get everything right. It’s interesting looking back on my previous agency career and noticing how there’s a steady decline in conversation from the start of a project to the end, and a general aversion to getting on a phone call with a client. My belief is that steady decline ends up leading to frustration on both ends and overall a poor experience. I don’t want that for myself or my clients. Building a brand or website is supposed to be fun and exciting! Let’s stress out about taxes or other boring business stuff.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
First off, I have to say we are so lucky to live in the most beautiful state in the United States. I have a lot of friends that come visit me up here in Fort Collins and the first place I always take them is Old Town. You can’t go wrong with a lunch at Ginger and Baker and walking around the square checking out all the shops and bars. You also have to check out all the breweries. My personal favorite is Funkwerks here, but you can’t go wrong with Odell or New Belgium as well. Recreation wise, I love taking people to Horsetooth Reservoir to go paddle-boarding or to hike up Horsetooth Mountain. Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park make for some fun day trips for hiking and some fresh mountain air. Otherwise, some of my other favorite spots in Fort Collins for food and drinks are Lima Coffee Roasters, Cacciatore at Heller’s Kitchen, The Exchange, Social and Ace Gillett’s. You really can’t go wrong with any of those places. Also, a trip to the Fort Collins Museum of Art or seeing a show at the Lincoln Center or the Holiday Twin Drive-In is always a blast.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I truly believe that it takes a village not only in raising a child but growing as a person. The love and support I received from my friends and family while I was starting my own business was second to none. I owe a ton of gratitude to my first clients over at MeadKrieger, who you all interviewed and Matt recommended me, for really letting me dive in head first with their logo and subsequent labels. Matt’s sister, Amy, who you also interviewed, was a huge help to me getting started and being my sounding board for my brand and how I wanted to do things. Matt and Amy’s mom Susan was also a fantastic mentor for me and really took the “scary” of starting my own business out of getting things rolling.

There’s also my friend Hallie, who is also a small business owner, also helped coach me through getting started and how I should do things. She also let me use her site as one of the first sites I redesigned to use in my portfolio.

There are really so many people that were a part of the process and I can’t thank them enough.

Website: https://www.agave.studio

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howdyagave/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/howdyagave

Twitter: twitter.com/howdyagave

Facebook: facebook.com/howdyagave

Image Credits
Personal Photo – Mojave Moon Photography