Don't quit your day job (yet): Elizabeth & Anthony Heaney, Squint Creative

Connor: Welcome to Exit Ready, the podcast for agency owners who want to build a business worth selling. So if somebody one day puts their hand up in the air and says they are ready to buy it, the company is ready. My name is Connor McAuley and today I am talking to Elizabeth and Anthony Heaney from Squint Creative here in Belfast. They started their business from their apartment during COVID lockdown in 2020, and over the last five and a bit years they have built one of the most distinctive creative studios in the country. This conversation is a great one from my perspective. It is about finding out what happens when you have an idea, when you try to find your niche, and when you build a business with the person you share your life with. Anthony, Elizabeth, welcome to the show.

Anthony: Thank you very much, Connor. Thanks for taking the time to have us on.

Connor: I am delighted to have you both here. You are brilliant people and I am a huge champion of your business. But I know what that is. Most people do not. So tell me, who are Squint and what do you do?

Anthony: Squint Creative is a creative studio and CGI agency. Our primary focus is 3D animation, fake out of home, and interior and product visualisation. We do it for a mix of direct to brand and agency work, and we work across retail, hospitality, beauty and FMCG.

Connor: I have seen your creative work. Tell me about some of your favourite projects from the last year.

Anthony: Our most recent favourite is probably the Primark one for the new store opening in New York. A lot of our CGI has been UK or Northern Ireland based, so this was our first proper New York project. We did three separate CGI videos for it, and strangely enough another client has come on board for another New York piece completely unrelated. It is opening doors for us.

My all-time favourite fake out of home piece is Boost. We did the Boost cans at City Hall. Belfast City Hall reversed, the oval replaced with a huge can of Boost, news overlays, the lot. It worked really well because they were launching their bigger sized cans, so we gave them a larger-than-life can for a larger-than-life product.

Connor: For people watching who have not come across it before, what is fake out of home?

Anthony: It is CGI. The term caught on because it is a spin on traditional out of home, only everything is digital. We go out and shoot a baseplate of footage, then create all the 3D assets in 3ds Max, overlay them on the baseplate, colour grade, match the lighting, and hit render. It looks like it is right there in the space.

Connor: I always reference it as the same quality as a Marvel film. Multi-hundred-million-pound production value, done for B2B business.

Anthony: Exactly. So we thought, how do we scale this back for Bob down the street who wants to do something big for his new salmon shop? The affordability point is the whole thing. People do not need to spend millions on huge productions any more because we have scaled it right back to an affordable price for a fifteen second reel on social.

Elizabeth: Anthony originally studied special effects at university in Bournemouth, so the technical side was not new. The only thing that was new was scaling the whole process back to fit a social platform and fit sectors like hospitality and beauty. Typically those were not the people using this technology because it was out of reach. Now it is accessible for everybody.

Connor: I love your story. Tell me how Squint came about and what those first couple of years looked like.

Anthony: This is going to be a bit of a PTSD reaction. We started in 2019 as sole traders. Squint is the birth child of COVID, basically. Elizabeth and I both worked in-house at a diagnostics company. That is where we met, and it is where we properly formed Squint. We were doing the same sort of work in-house that we do at Squint now.

When COVID hit, everybody was upheaved. We all became scientists for what felt like the foreseeable. Our nine-to-five became shift work. Twelve-hour shifts and overnights. Three on, three off. So we had a three-day stretch where we could work on whatever we wanted.

Elizabeth: When you have a nine-to-five it is hard to pick up extra side projects. But with three days off we could invest time fully. So we started building Squint in those three days.

Anthony: Setting up a company during COVID was probably not the best idea. Nobody needed any business. But we set it up anyway and tried to do things remotely, working with little chippies on corner streets. Our very first job was 50 quid. A photo shoot for a takeaway menu. We thought it was class. We were doing something we loved and getting paid for it. But it was not enough to quit the full-time job.

Restrictions started lifting, we got brought back into the labs full-time, and we kept building Squint on the side for another two to three years. Clients always wanted meetings. Clients always wanted work done. It got to the point where we were bringing our laptops into our full-time job, clocking out on lunch breaks, plugging the generator into the car and taking client calls there.

Elizabeth: The place we worked was quite rural, so there was nowhere to sit for a meeting. If we had a Zoom call we would go to the airport and sit in the cafe. It looked like a normal enough background. We actually signed our biggest retainer client from the airport. They are still with us today. Looking back, our clients probably did not realise we were not full-time in the business, because we just delivered as if we were. When we finished work we went home and worked until three in the morning, up again at six, back to the full-time job, clocked out at lunch. It was clockwork.

Connor: That grind is something most entrepreneurs will relate to. There is no shortcut to success in business. If you were to start again today, would you do it the same way? Or would you jump in with both feet, no salary, no income?

Elizabeth: I think we would do it exactly how we did it. I cannot imagine jumping in with no savings, because Squint would not be where it is today with all that worry in the back of our heads. We wanted to build up enough cash flow that when Anthony went first, we knew there was enough coming in to cover his role. Then I made the jump once cash flow had grown again. It was easier to leave a secure corporate job knowing there was money in the bank to pay us. I do not think we ever would have made the jump without that safety net.

Connor: You have had some incredible success over the last couple of years. And what amazes me is how tuned you both are to the results your work delivers for clients. That is very uncommon from creatives. Tell me about some of the best wins you can remember.

Anthony: Primark is an obvious one in terms of stats, but Primark have a huge following anyway, so organically that campaign is always going to outperform. A campaign that performed really well from a completely unexpected customer is Killwater. Five million combined views, from a construction sector company. That level of virality is unheard of for that sector.

The Killwater team were very brave. Nobody else in construction was doing fake out of home CGI campaigns like this. There was back and forth on the concept because they are strict on brand, but Catherine and the team backed us. Normal people outside the trade were interacting with the video, commenting, sharing. I was really proud to see that do so well.

Elizabeth: Visit Belfast was another one. Great ROI on the first piece. The Big Fish performed excellently, and their second piece for Christmas performed even better. They have since come back for more.

Connor: Now a question, because you are a married couple running a business together. You are into your sixth year. How do you find that?

Elizabeth: It is hard. One hundred percent. Anthony and I did not know any different. We met through work, so there was always a work element to our relationship. It was what we bonded over. What I find really hard is that I am normally good with critique. If a client gives me critique, or if you gave me critique, I would be amicable. If Anthony gives me critique, which he does all the time, it is a completely different story. It is still a learning curve for me. It is hard not to take it as your husband thinking your work is not good, instead of your business partner thinking something could be done better.

Anthony: You are supposed to have my back.

Elizabeth: Do you not love me any more? It is a natural reaction. But having a shared goal is something that only strengthens a relationship. Our business is a huge shared goal that we constantly work on together. It can cause unnecessary fights, but it also makes the relationship stronger. That is literally all we talk about, besides our baby.

Connor: That is the other factor. You have a little girl, Margot, and she is very young. How do you run a successful business together with a young baby at home?

Elizabeth: She is fifteen months now. It was definitely easier before Margot. We were a bit naive. We thought, it will be fine, no bother. We did not fully think about the implications. But we manage it because we are workaholics anyway, Margot or no Margot. If we miss four hours in the day, we make it up at night. We see ourselves working until two or three in the morning sometimes.

In a way it is actually better now. If childcare falls through, or something needs sorted with Margot, client permitting I can take those four hours out and work four hours in the evening. She goes to sleep at seven. We do not sleep until ten, eleven, twelve. On a good night.

Anthony: It depends if you are a person who values work-life balance. Our work is our life. People ask what we do in our spare time. We either talk about our business or work on our business. That is what we do for fun, because it genuinely is fun.

Connor: It is your pride. It is the results of your hard work and effort. Why would you not be proud of that? I put as much effort into my business today as I have the entirety of my career. My clients’ wins are my wins.

Now, a loaded one. I know this is one of the biggest things you combat. Whenever you post CGI, people comment “this is just AI.” Today every business is using AI to some degree. How are you using it inside Squint?

Anthony: We have started using a lot more of it recently. The biggest one for us is 3D tracking. When we go out and shoot a baseplate, depending on the weather, lighting, and environment, the 3D track does not always stick. That is probably the most heartbreaking thing in our line of work, because you travel, we went to London before Christmas, you try to get twelve to fifteen takes of the exact same shot to make sure at least one of them tracks. Sifting through those to get one usable track is so time-consuming. And if it does not track, we are back to square one and have to reshoot.

It happened recently on a piece we were working on. The track did not fully hold. We created the first scene with all the 3D elements in, created the last frame with all the 3D elements in, then fed it to AI and AI filled in the gaps. Which is exactly what the camera would have done anyway. It saved us a reshoot, and it looked like our CGI.

Elizabeth: A lot of people are thinking AI is coming for your job. We are thinking, how can this make our lives easier. The tracking fix is a perfect example. And the creative concept, the frames, everything that matters creatively, is still led by us. AI is filling in the technical gaps that would otherwise cost us days. People assume you prompt it, hit enter, and it spits out a finished product. It does not. It spits out workable content that still needs grading and polishing on our end.

Connor: It is a tool, not the tool.

Anthony: Exactly. I think down the line it is not going to be 3D versus AI. It is going to be 3D plus AI, built into the workflow.

Elizabeth: We have even built a full website in AI.

Anthony: With yourself.

Connor: I have not mentioned this on the podcast yet, so this is a great opportunity. I have launched a community called Augmented Agency which helps agency owners use AI in their business. I have been working side by side with Squint to help them understand the opportunities to build sites in AI. Again, a tool, not the tool. Used to speed the process up. It has been incredibly well received.

Elizabeth: At the end of the day, the client does not care what it is built on. They care about the end result. The parts that matter creatively are not being replaced by AI. Only the technical parts AI can handle are being replaced. It is nearly like we are scared to say we are using it because of the animosity around it. I always go back to the Photoshop argument. When Photoshop first came out, people would point at every edited photo and call it out. Now everyone uses it every day. AI is here to stay. You either use it or get left behind.

Connor: That is exactly it. You are the fourth guest on the podcast so far, and there is a mix. Some are not using AI at all. Some call themselves augmented agencies already because it is in every workflow. I am the first to say strategy is what will lead agencies going forward. Our understanding, our knowledge, our experience. The doing will be commoditised. That is not what clients pay us for. They pay us to know which tool to use, when, and to get the best result. Sometimes that is AI. Sometimes it is not.

Elizabeth: It is medium specific. Someone who works on brands and logos is not going to use AI to create a brand. But our work sits at a creative-tech interface. We use AR, MR, and we dabble in code to get experiences working. AI slots into our workflow more naturally than it does in a typical brand studio. I use it a lot for wider strategy too. I dump a thought in and it re-articulates it for me. It is still my original thought, but phrased in a way I would not have got to myself. Maybe I should have hired a copywriter, but at our size we do not have the budget for that yet. AI helps us scale quicker.

Connor: One last question. If somebody came to you tomorrow saying they wanted to start a creative agency, what advice would you give them?

Elizabeth: Definitely go for it. We have experienced a huge payoff now. Seeing all the hard work come to life has been very rewarding. But get heavily involved in AI. That is where the world is going. If you are not aware of it, you will get left behind.

Anthony: And take a while before you go all in. Build your safety net, build the business, get one or two retainers before you make the jump. Give yourself security so cash flow is not a worry. It is also not for everyone. Doing it on the side gives you an idea of what it will be like full time. Do not say “I am starting an agency tomorrow, I am quitting everything” unless you have support in place.

Elizabeth: And it takes grit. There will be days where nothing is working and you want to give up. The next day you sign one of the biggest clients of your career and it makes it all worth it. You just keep going and keep going and work through the bad days.

Connor: The good days come back. There is a line from Marcus Aurelius in Meditations: this too shall pass. Good and bad are momentary. Knowing that, and knowing there are better days ahead, is what keeps you going. Not every day is a winning day in business. I have had terrible days where everything was going wrong. Then the next day you land a big client, close a deal, get paid a chunk someone had owed you, and that spur keeps you moving.

Well, thank you both for your time. I really appreciate you coming on the show. And to everyone tuning in to the Exit Ready podcast, if you like what you have heard, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you are picking this up. If you want to build the best version of your agency, check out moveatpace.com where I share resources, articles, and my own agency valuation assessment. Anthony, Elizabeth, thank you so much.

Anthony: Thank you very much for having us, Connor.

Elizabeth: Chat soon.