After spending several years “hacking culture” with Middle Child, Amanda Shuchat and Katie Muir are tightening their lens on agency culture more specifically.

Heads + Tales is a new integrated marketing agency that leans into the notion that if its product is its people, the agency ought to equip its people well.

The founding principle of the company is that there are two sides to the creative business: the work itself (the “tales” that communications professionals create for brands), and the talent that works for the agency (the “heads” who craft those tales).

“For a long time, agencies have focused solely on the work,” Muir tells strategy. “We think there is an opportunity to look at the people, as well, and really invest in the talent the same way that we invest in the work. We believe excellence can be achieved when we cultivate both, simultaneously.”

“A lot of companies care about their people and talk about that, but we needed to do something to put our money where our mouth is,” Shucat adds. Even though “investing in people” has been a stated priority for many agencies over the last year, Heads + Tales aims to take that to a new level, treating it the same way agencies would in any other area of their service offering.

One way the agency will achieve that goal is through professional coaching offered to all of its employees – and as part of its service offering for clients. Heads + Tales will offer a proprietary coaching model, developed with leadership coach Barbara Morris-Blake, that is designed to harness the potential of individual employees, make them feel more fulfilled at their jobs and decrease burnout. This will include one-to-one coaching and masterclasses, as well as a unique and bespoke curriculum that will help develop personal, leadership and work skills.

The model is, in part, the result in a shift of values during the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees’ expectations of their employers have changed, Shuchat says, and so the agency model must change to accommodate.

“People aren’t looking for the beer fridge or all-you-can-eat sushi anymore,” she says. “They’re looking for mental health resources, work/life integration tools, wellness and emotional intelligence. We want to equip people with those skills to really self-actualize. Just like Apple invests in a new phone and making that better every generation, we want to make sure our people are getting better and have the tools to do so.”

The goal, then, is to give employees meaningful opportunities to develop their skills while hopefully improving retention and preventing burnout, which have been pressing issues in the industry.

“We can’t expect people to do their best work or be their best selves unless we give them these tools,” says Shuchat. “We want to build something together and built their skills so they can follow their dreams, the same way Katie and I have by leaving really rewarding, senior network jobs to do what we wanted to do.”

“The goal is to always develop talent so that they are becoming their best selves, their best practitioners,” Muir adds. “If that’s doing it at Heads + Tales, amazing. And if that means leaving the agency to find something that’s perfect for them, that’s good too. That’s always been our philosophy: it’s about cultivating the talent so that they’re at their best.”

Muir and Shuchat would not disclose the agency’s foundational headcount, nor its initial clients. However, the agency is actively hiring and seeking more business. Muir says that clients can also expect the same “culture hacking” approach to the work from herself and Shuchat that they pioneered with Middle Child.