Ep 142 – Amy Maxwell, Maxwell Design – Scaling With Soul: How to Grow Your Agency Without Losing the Craft
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Featuring: Amy Maxwell, Maxwell Design
In episode 142, I sit down with Amy Maxwell, founder and creative director of Maxwell Design, to talk about the real tension small creative shops face: how do you grow without sacrificing the craft that made you successful in the first place?
We dig into what it looks like to evolve from “hands-on designer” to “agency leader,” how to protect quality as you add capacity, and how to make smart choices about clients, process, and scope so growth doesn’t turn into chaos. If you want to scale with intention (and still love the work), this one’s for you.
Key Bytes
• Scaling doesn’t have to mean sacrificing creative quality
• Your process is what protects the craft as you grow
• “Better clients” often solves what “more clients” can’t
• You can stay hands-on without being the bottleneck
• The right constraints create consistency, not limitation
• Hiring should reduce friction, not add management drag
• Clear scope and boundaries prevent quiet burnoutChapters
00:00 Intro: scaling without losing the craft
02:10 Amy’s origin story and building Maxwell Design
06:20 The “stay small” choice and what it protects
11:05 When growth starts to strain quality (warning signs)
16:10 Processes that keep creative standards high
22:30 Team structure: support roles vs creative roles
28:40 Client fit, boundaries, and saying “no” earlier
34:15 Staying fulfilled while the business grows
40:20 Rapid-fire questions and wrap-up
Amy—Creative Director + Founder of Maxwell Design—has spent the last two decades helping businesses look their best. She’s an award-winning designer with a knack for reading minds and creating delightful visual experiences. Her solution-focused approach makes her someone you’ll want in any room. And her small (but mighty) team comes with some major design chops.
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Steve / Agency Outsight (00:03.61)
Welcome to Agency Bites. I'm your host, Steve Guberman from Agency Outsite, where I coach agency owners to build the business of their dreams. My guest today is Amy Maxwell, the founder and creative director of Maxwell Design. For most 20 years, she's been helping businesses look their absolute best. Amy has this rare ability to take what's in a client's head, even when they can't quite explain it, turn it into something beautiful and effective. She leads a small but mighty team that's all about creating design that not only looks great, but solves real problems.
Great to have you here, Amy, thanks for joining me.
Amy Maxwell (00:34.666)
Yeah, nice to be here. Appreciate it.
Steve / Agency Outsight (00:37.384)
So tell us about Maxwell and kind of your genesis of the agency and how long you've been running it and what do you guys do there?
Amy Maxwell (00:45.494)
Yeah, so I started the agency back in 2019 and kind of in a nutshell, I'm leading a profitable growing agency, but I'm trying to focus more on, you know, not losing the art of the craft or the humanity of the team. You know, excited to grow and scale, but focused on the important stuff first.
Steve / Agency Outsight (01:09.788)
Kinda like a Renaissance person. I like it, I like it. The old core values of the craft and the people and I feel like that's getting kind of thrown to the wayside by too many folks these days.
Amy Maxwell (01:12.769)
Yeah.
Amy Maxwell (01:21.258)
I agree. I mean, I'm not anti-growth. I'm more pro intentional growth. then, you know, everybody in our industry talks about like systemizing and scaling constantly. So I'm not anti-system. I'm pro alignment.
Steve / Agency Outsight (01:36.496)
Okay, so what are some of the things that you've found that you can still systematize and keep human?
Amy Maxwell (01:42.7)
Yeah, so I mean, everybody is using AI for the things that we can, right? We mentioned for feeding out titles or episode, you know, transcripts and things. We definitely leverage AI where we can. And then, you know, any kind of project management tools, we're using automation and systemizing when it comes to proposals and, you know, the boring paperwork side of what we do.
I'm letting the robots take that over for sure, but really trying to stay true for the creative side and designing for real life and making sure everything is very intentional, like solutions focused.
Steve / Agency Outsight (02:23.076)
Is your team fully behind kind of that let's stay as traditional as we can mindset?
Amy Maxwell (02:28.768)
Yeah, I think so. you know, that's part of the growth that I'm kind of cultivating now. I'm looking for very specific people to do very specific things for, you know, specific projects, for lack of a better word. I mean, some fractional agencies, they focus solely on like the system, the scale, and they're cool with that.
Steve / Agency Outsight (02:39.644)
Mm-hmm.
Amy Maxwell (02:50.348)
pixel pusher mode and I've worked for those teams and you know I don't want to do stuff like that so I think if you lead with that disposable approach it kind of it just undermines what you're trying to build so.
Steve / Agency Outsight (03:06.94)
Yeah. And I guess the core thing that you, not that you can't, but you really don't want to like let AI take over on is the process that you, you've developed on branding, um, what that approach looks like and how, know, even what I said in the intro, like the knack that you have for kind of getting things out of your client's brains. Like that's the human side and the interaction side and the value that you and your team bring to the table. And you've been doing it for.
long enough to know that this is what I love doing. I don't want to offload this to somebody else or a robot. So I love that.
Amy Maxwell (03:38.806)
Yeah, exactly. I kind of call it like practical creativity. know, it's like for real life design instead of focused on likes or dribble or awards or something like that. Because, you know, we like to solve for something. I'm built to be useful and build useful things. So it's really important to me to stick to that.
Steve / Agency Outsight (04:01.657)
Yeah, what I guess industries do you serve or what what you do branding design? What other services do you provide?
Amy Maxwell (04:09.312)
Yeah, we have comprehensive solutions, everything from branding, know, through go to market marketing collateral and support industry is is open. We don't have a specific niche industry. We serve anyone and everyone that we know we can help. You know, we just.
try to make sure that we're aligned on what their goals are and realistic ways that we can support them. Most of our clients land in the B2B SaaS world. And I think that's even more important to kind of keep things human and not lead with, here's my product, buy it. know, like, let's tell the story. Let's tell how it's helping people what the solution is. So I get most excited to help the B2B SaaS world teams.
Steve / Agency Outsight (04:56.589)
Is that the niche that you love the most that you can try and lean into?
Amy Maxwell (05:01.038)
love and keep the lights on would be maybe two different things. I, I do love it because it's very challenging. And I think that's something that is exciting to me where they have these super complex products that, you know, a ton of verbiage and technology that we might not be able to quickly bundle into like a, you know, McDonald's phrase or something, but
Steve / Agency Outsight (05:04.176)
Yeah, yeah.
Amy Maxwell (05:24.498)
It's so challenging that once you find that light bulb moment and you kind of show the founder or the CEO what their product should look like to the rest of the world, know, and it's very exciting to see that startup come to life or like, you know, connecting some starting out company to capital and watching it grow and things like that. So.
Steve / Agency Outsight (05:47.58)
Yeah, yeah, it is super exciting, especially if you can get in on the ground floor and be a part of that initial launch and evolution into maturity through their life cycle. Talk about kind of what your approach to design and like the process that you and your team run through.
Amy Maxwell (06:06.71)
Yeah, so you know, like I said, we offer comprehensive solutions. So we try to get everybody to start in the beginning of who they are, what's their why, you know, why are we here offering this product or service or whatever it might be. And then, you know, we try to kind of build the brand and align it in a way that
the foundation builds itself before they start growing. you know, same with our team, we're doing the same thing as an agency perspective. Like we want to build the foundation before we scale. So, you know, the brand guides done before you build an interface for a whole platform or, know, you have rules around a house of brands or a branded house. So, you know, it's just kind of establishing those.
touch points along the way to ensure success long term.
Steve / Agency Outsight (07:00.847)
Yeah, yeah, that's important. what's your kind of day-to-day role in what role do you play in that process?
Amy Maxwell (07:10.452)
Yeah, I like to say that I'm kind of in the messy moments of agency life. You know, I'm still in a lot of the day-to-day activities. I'm creative director for sure. I'm guiding all the creative coming out of our studio. I have a great team that's super talented, but I'm still meddling in all the things. I'm also, you know, business development.
trying to learn all the new AI tools, all the things. I just find like kind of exploring intentional growth as the foundation of our studio helps me come back to where do I wanna go? Where do I wanna move my day today so I can do the fun things, maybe get rid of the proposals and systemize the places and scale from there. But...
My day is still creating and that's what I love to do.
Steve / Agency Outsight (08:08.092)
Have you set it up in a way that you can focus on that as much as you'd like to, or are you still kind of mired down in, got to do all this admin, and you said you do biz dev and all these other aspects of the business. Most agency owners are just doing so much more than what they love doing. Have you been able to kind of model it more in your favor?
Amy Maxwell (08:28.278)
Yeah, I actually have sought out mentors and coaches throughout my career. And I once had someone tell me that if you can pay someone to do something you don't want to do and it shaves off important minutes in your day, do it. So, you know, I hire fractional bookkeepers and, you know, people to help me with things like that and taxes and things that art school doesn't necessarily teach you.
So I'm really in the thick of the real creative. know, I'm doing like the positioning and the brand strategy and the mood boards and things that I truly love to do. And then my team kind of comes in in the middle after we've established some of that foundation and then helps tell the story in a way that adds their, you know, flavor to it, but also builds on a very strong foundation.
Steve / Agency Outsight (09:21.724)
So you're doing kind of the top level foundational design work, brand or strategy work, and then setting them off down the road with the tools that you put in place, maybe collaboratively with them, and then they're able to do execution and production, getting that off your plate. So you can then do biz dev or the top level CEO level work that you need to.
Amy Maxwell (09:42.987)
Yeah, exactly. And I think where it comes back to kind of the soul of the agency I'm trying to build, at least, is I don't want to just send it off as tasks and then these people perform and send me, you know, we're still collaborating and brainstorming and meeting for coffee or over a huddle, Zoom, whatever, to talk about ideas and
push each other. It's not like just because I'm the one saying this is what the creative is going to be. I want to hear from them and see what their experiences lend to the overall product. it's just trying to kind of be friends, but also build an agency out of it.
Steve / Agency Outsight (10:28.464)
Yeah, it's called culture. Are you all remote or you have an in-person shop?
Amy Maxwell (10:32.952)
We have three in Wilmington and then the rest of the team anywhere from three to six at a time. Others are all remote. Luckily, we're all on the East Coast, so the time zone works out. It's been really cool to kind of grow and see. I'm always like, if a designer reaches out to me, I always take the meeting because I'm always looking to connect with creatives.
same as agencies, like I want to hear how everyone else is doing it and share stories and things. So it is fun to have remote teams because then we get experience from all over and not just, you know, agency down the road that we all know and love.
Steve / Agency Outsight (11:14.78)
I it's important to always be, I used to say, always be interviewing. My team was in-house, and so when they'd see somebody walk through the office and go into the conference room with their giant portfolio case, it definitely got them thinking, shit, I'm replaceable. Could that be my replacement walking in? I was typically upfront at, no, I'm just keeping the bench warm. I want talent in the bench for when we need to expand.
Amy Maxwell (11:32.834)
Right.
Steve / Agency Outsight (11:40.701)
But the fact that it got them thinking from a competitive mindset of I better keep my A game strong because you don't know what's happening. But also like to your point, keeping your finger on the pulse of what's going on in the creative space. What are the new trends? What's coming out of the schools and that kind of thing is really important.
Amy Maxwell (11:46.275)
Yeah.
Amy Maxwell (12:00.205)
Yeah, I mean, right now I'm looking to add designer to the team that's like, you know, mid level to art director to even associate creative director level. And I want them to have skills that I don't have. I want them to know framer. I want them to love working on AI because I don't, you know, so I think. Compiling the best people for the best jobs and the best projects, you know, it's, it's kind of the way of the future, not necessarily fractional, but
just collaborating in a way that leaves space for fun things to happen instead of forcing a project to one designer over and over and over.
Steve / Agency Outsight (12:40.656)
Yeah. You mentioned kind of the friends, but not friends. Let's get together and do this thing. How do you with a semi remote, well, fully remote, but semi distant team, you know, build culture, manage culture, keep people connected. What are some of the things that you found success in?
Amy Maxwell (12:57.102)
Yeah, so as I'm kind of building out my own foundation, you know, I've been coming back to this word intentional growth over and over and over. And so then I kind of started saying, I'm like, of course, I'm in marketing, so I have to make it sound sexier than that. So I've been saying scaling with soul. And so I keep coming back to that. And we have monthly check ins around it. We do quick puddles, hop on a call.
We always start projects with a brainstorm or some sort of intro to the brand, whether it's as simple as me on a loom, like telling somebody something cool I learned about this client on a call, or I try to bring everyone into the same level of information that I have. Because I think the personal conversations you have with your clients are the ones that make the projects the most successful.
just sharing all that knowledge. And then if I come across a new tool, I'm sharing that, know, and vice versa. We just try to stay connected in a way. It could be a meme on Instagram, or it could be like, I just learned how to use NanoBanana or whatever the latest AI tool is. just connecting and collaborating and being open to sharing.
Steve / Agency Outsight (14:16.186)
I that. I love scale with soul. Talk more about that, like the intentionality behind it. Do you take time for visioning? Are you a goal setter? What does that all look like for you as a CEO?
Amy Maxwell (14:27.542)
Yeah, I'm definitely a goal setter and, you know, kind of, manifesting the world that I want to live in. So scaling was so kind of a definition of it would be intentional growth, but it's growth that respects your team, your time and your values. And I think, you know, it just, it just kind of sometimes can be a bit slower when you're trying to scale, but intentional scaling is going to lead to that better creative outcome that.
better brand, and ultimately happier teams.
Steve / Agency Outsight (15:01.816)
And slow and steady wins the race. We found that since we're kids with the, what is it, the tortoise and the hare. I absolutely despise scale for the sake of scale. And I, and I define that as copycat goals. Typically they're inauthentic. Typically they are, I've seen somebody do something. I don't know the journey that they took to get there or the sacrifices they made, but what looks like the results, which is typically through the square of an Instagram feed is what I think I want.
Amy Maxwell (15:08.768)
Yes.
Steve / Agency Outsight (15:30.981)
And what you're talking about is what I work with so many agency owners on is let's define your own true set of authentic goals that means something to you, your family and your team and their families. Because collectively now we've got a path forward where we're all really invested in the success of what this goal looks like. And not just I want a seven figure agency, I want 25 people, I want a Lamborghini in the driveway or whatever that thing looks like. You know, so I fully honor that. And I think that's a beautiful way to...
Amy Maxwell (15:56.429)
Yeah.
Steve / Agency Outsight (15:59.247)
approach it and bring your team into the process.
Amy Maxwell (16:02.318)
Cool. Yeah. I mean, it's also kind of that building creative confidence, not only within myself, but with my team, within the agency, like reputation, you know, I get a lot of work by referral and that's the ultimate compliment, you know, it makes me feel great, but then it also comes from solving those real problems, not chasing trends. And it all to me comes back to like, yeah, beautiful work is exciting and it matters, but the useful...
work indoors and it's going to keep the lights on a lot longer.
Steve / Agency Outsight (16:33.168)
Yeah, is creative confidence kind of a core value that you and your team have instilled in the culture?
Amy Maxwell (16:40.768)
Yes. And whenever I bring on a new designer, especially if it's like a contract position, we're just starting to get to know each other. And they send me 15 iterations to look through. like, no, you tell me what the best version of this could be. Cause I want to hear, you know, the confidence and the, perspective that you've cultivated through the work, you know? So I think creative confidence is huge in our industry, especially if you're running an agency and you're meeting with very important people all day long. So.
We want to be not authoritative, we want to guide our clients to the best outcomes.
Steve / Agency Outsight (17:10.833)
Yeah.
Steve / Agency Outsight (17:19.334)
Do you think, so you went to art school, you got critiqued in person like I did. We got tore down in front of the class by our instructors. I don't see that happening as much. know, in my, again, my agency, put everything on the wall. We all came in and we all critiqued everything. didn't pull punches. It wasn't about personality. wasn't, well, I don't like Joey, so I'm going to rip his whatever the shreds. It's a constructive criticism. It's how do we push whatever.
Amy Maxwell (17:27.566)
I'm
Steve / Agency Outsight (17:48.272)
The solution is the farthest and the best. I don't see that happening as well in a Zoom environment. How do you guys maintain that and push the envelope with that?
Amy Maxwell (17:58.317)
Yeah, you know, I think mostly when it comes to feedback being nice, but also
You know, constructive feedback can't always be nice. Like I tell anyone on my team, like don't take anything personal. If I say this is ugly or this is that I try not to use words like that because I don't think it offers anything as far as guidance or real creative direction. I like to say words like let's try or would love to see, or, know, to, I I'm not trying to just tell them exactly what to do in this little box. So I want them to still be creative and cultivate their creative confidence, but it's more.
Steve / Agency Outsight (18:12.273)
Mm-hmm.
Amy Maxwell (18:37.742)
At the end of the day, I've been doing it long enough. know how to get to the best version. So I frame it in that way. And then it becomes a team goal versus like, said, we need it like this. So it's been helpful to change my tone in a way that's more guiding towards a certain answer that I want than telling someone, do this.
Steve / Agency Outsight (19:04.678)
Yeah. Do you find the younger generations are as receptive of feedback as you or people, your peers or me or my peers might be?
Amy Maxwell (19:16.628)
Yeah, I think age or generation hasn't really come up in my world. It's more of personality type and that still comes back to like that scaling with soul and intentional growth, finding the right people. I had an intern this year and he was, I think he was a freshman at App State and he was so cool.
Like I, you know, as we age, we want to be cool and hang out with the younger folks, right? Like, he was just so cool. I would tell him a bunch of stuff. Like here's some ideas. I'd love to see what you come up with. And then he would pitch me his design and I would give him feedback and we had a really cool workflow. And then on the other side, I have teammates that are my age or older and. know, they take feedback the same way they want to grow. They want to learn. They want to make it the best it can be. So.
It's a personality thing, I think.
Steve / Agency Outsight (20:12.73)
Yeah, I also think people in our industry need thick skins. And to your point, you don't take it personally. You know, whether you read the four agreements or not, like that's something to live by of like, just don't take things personally. But this is my artwork. I poured my heart and soul into it. What do mean you don't like blue or, you know, this is garbage or whatever. And so having thick skin, you know, more things are going to get rejected than not in our, in our career paths.
Whether it's a proposal or a brand identity or a website design or whatever it is, having that thick skin is vital to, I guess, survival here, right?
Amy Maxwell (20:47.35)
Yeah, yeah, thick skin and then also just the ability to stay agile. And I think that is even more underlined of why I like to stay kind of small as an agency, like just that ability to bounce back and shift and have new ideas right away without it being like, my feelings are hurt. That was the only idea I had. Like our problem is we have too many ideas. So just having the ability to shift and you know, if a client doesn't like something,
we're all in it together. I'm not blaming anybody. There's no finger pointing. I think protecting your team's energy is a business strategy and we kind of handle feedback and client pushback in that way.
Steve / Agency Outsight (21:32.164)
Not easy to do, but you seem to be managing it and juggling it well. You juggle a lot, like you wear a lot of hats. What are some of the things that you see working for you and for your team to kind of celebrate wins, mitigate burnout, things like that.
Amy Maxwell (21:47.437)
Yeah, I think burnout is one of those words like every agency has to talk about it. It's not the elephant in the room. It's just on our shoulders with the weight of sitting in a chair all day. I think, you know, I've tried block scheduling. I've tried
all forms of all the advice and the only thing that truly works for me and my team, we call it binge working and binge breaking. When the ideas are flowing, get it done, get it on a page like an episode of Chopped or something like get it out there. But if it's not, go take a break, go walk, go take some time off. I don't want somebody's half brain on a project. I want your whole brain and I want you to be happy to be here doing it. So, you know, and then of course, like,
when it comes to wins, if a client says they're so happy with something and it only comes through my email, I spread it to everyone that worked on it. Cause I think everyone should get to feel that love, get to feel that win. it makes people strive even more, they feel success and then they reach for it even more.
Steve / Agency Outsight (22:56.336)
Yeah. Do you all enter like enter award shows and things like that to celebrate work?
Amy Maxwell (23:02.574)
You know, I have a mixed feeling of awards and I think it comes from my back life in other agencies. You know, sometimes not all the time. Some awards are really reputable. They're like, wow, they deserve every one of those awards. But a lot of times I feel like some of those awards you're just paying to get it. So, you know, it just kind of depends. And it also depends on what type of project, if it's important to the client, you know, some
I have like nonprofit clients or something. So it helps them be able to say they've won awards or like publications, you know, that's something they can put on their media kit. So if it helps a client go further in their journey and their story, I'm happy to enter, but it's not as important to me as like I said, creating this real, real life design solutions.
Steve / Agency Outsight (23:54.171)
Yeah. And then, you know, a thought or two ago, you mentioned like binge working versus, and then binge breaking. do you kind of allow your team to flex their schedules so that if nighttime is my most creative zone of genius, I'm going to work nighttime or mornings are my most creative times. you allow for that flexibility?
Amy Maxwell (24:14.24)
Yes, absolutely. I mean, that's the way I thrive. And so I could not, you know, rightfully ask somebody to be here nine to five. And like, I think the whole reason we get into any form of art or creativity is to have that flexible space. And everybody has different times where their brain is firing or where all the idea, you everyone mentioned it's like, I got the idea in the shower. That's always like a phrase people say, but
I try to pace our projects on a timeline that allows for space, for real creativity. So I always tell my team, like, if you need more time, we've got room for it because I've already pushed the schedule to make it happen. So if you need to take the day and then work all night or whatever you want to do, I don't really care when they do the work as long as they enjoy it and have time and full brain power working on the work.
Steve / Agency Outsight (25:10.716)
building in that flexibility for your team to kind of take the time they need, not rush solutions, explore new ideas. Like I think that's so overlooked. So many shops are like, how do we compress this? Because I want to get the milestone payments in quicker or cashflow or whatever capacity, et cetera. And so the fact that you prioritize that is super healthy. I love that that's important to you and your team embraces it.
Amy Maxwell (25:34.359)
Yeah, I mean, it all kind of comes down to team energy too, because whether you're the creative director or you're the production designer, you can't produce your best work if you're at capacity 100 % of the time. mean, our best projects, our best wins come from when we've had space to think and we've had time to go through the process that we really should go through instead of someone shaving it off or saying they don't need this step or we just need a landing page. You know, we're looking for
clients and think that want to go through the time, put in the time, do the work, you know, and I think it's more rewarding that way for everyone.
Steve / Agency Outsight (26:14.104)
Yeah, you do your best work when there's no corners being cut and yeah, absolutely This has been awesome. I want to kind of wrap up with a couple of random rapid fires So the first is if you could instantly master any creative skill or like other than design, what would it be?
Amy Maxwell (26:32.362)
probably coding. Like I respect developers so much and I work with them every day and I always wish I could just boop boop and do it myself.
Steve / Agency Outsight (26:43.258)
Yeah, I love that. What's something you've learned about yourself through running your own business?
Amy Maxwell (26:49.198)
you can't do it alone. building trust, connecting with real people. Like every time I network or, you know, meet with a colleague or a new person, I learned so much and in a bubble just doesn't work. so that's why I'm happy to do stuff like this, you know, be on podcasts. I'm hoping to go to a lot more in real life conferences next year and just, just connecting with, with humans.
Steve / Agency Outsight (27:18.458)
Love it. And then finally, what's one thing that clients think they're hiring for, but only you really know that they're really getting something else?
Amy Maxwell (27:28.716)
Like a project base or like a maybe frame a little. Okay.
Steve / Agency Outsight (27:32.646)
Like a value add that you bring to the table kind of as a secret weapon.
Amy Maxwell (27:37.198)
The biggest value add that I think our team has is that we're thinking all the way around the box. When someone asks me for a landing page, we're doing a full audit on their brand. We're not going to just, it's this much, it's this timeline. We want the client to win and be the best version of themselves. It comes from when that brand and everyone...
under the umbrella of the brand is speaking the same language and it's consistent. So no matter what service you're hiring us for, we're going to kind of look under the hood and recommend the best process and the best solutions tailored to you.
Steve / Agency Outsight (28:18.928)
Love that. Amy, thank you so much for joining me today, for sharing your experience and what you've been building. Folks, check out MaxwellDesignCo.com. Super talented team, great results. And just, appreciate your time and experience today.
Amy Maxwell (28:32.47)
Likewise, thanks for having me.
Steve / Agency Outsight (28:34.417)
Thanks for being here.