The thing that has become apparent while putting Indie Life together with ADFEST is a palpable exuberance for being an indie and an entrepreneurial enthusiasm for talking about it. Maybe it’s the freedom (including the freedom to talk)? Maybe it’s the responsibility of being the one who has to make the business work? Maybe both. It’s not the ease of starting a business. That’s hard in any industry. The stats on success across the board are not exactly encouraging.

Anyway, here’s where this series of The Stable’s Chats began. The brief was, “It’s all about the story. Tell a great one, with honesty and in your own voice and style.” Below is the second collection of inspiring, enlightening, interesting and unique (all the indie things?) responses. The link to Ep. 1 is also below.

Torsak Chuenprapar, Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Wolf BKK

I started Wolf to leave behind fear of clients, of losing business, of telling the truth. I felt that traditional agencies had lost their way. Too many unnecessary departments, too much time spent protecting relationships, and not enough time spent making great work. From day one, we chose honesty. We don’t have a strategic planning department because we believe strategy shouldn’t belong to a title it should belong to everyone. Everyone in the agency must understand people, challenge assumptions, and take responsibility for the thinking behind the work. We also don’t believe pitching leads to good work. Clients should choose an agency they believe in and once they do, trust them. That trust is where good work begins.

Of course, being small comes with trade-offs. We produce fewer campaigns than large networks and have less budget to enter awards. In many ways, it’s harder to compete. But the truth is, we’re not racing anyone. We’re simply swimming in our own lane head down, focused on doing the best work we can. Only when we reach the edge of the pool do we look up, just to see where we are. Indie life may take scale away. But it gives us the freedom to stay honest and to make work that truly matters.

Shane Ogilvie, Co‑Founder and Chief Creative Officer, The Garden

We started The Garden ten years ago because it was clear to us that the world of business was changing, but agencies were still trying to solve these new problems with the same old approaches. People were engaging with brands differently, but the industry did not seem to be acknowledging it. Most large agencies simply were not agile enough to turn the ship even if they did. We didn’t really know what we were doing. But we had a point of view and enough blissful ignorance to believe we could figure it out.

At the outset, I assumed the hardest part would be keeping the lights on. Learning how to run the business. Protecting the quality of the work. That part is real and relentless. What I did not anticipate is that, at a certain point, the job becomes almost entirely about your people. They are the business. Without them, none of it exists. Every decision you make touches their lives in real ways, and that weight can be heavy. When you own the place, forecasts stop being abstract. You see the human reality behind the numbers. Mortgage payments. Families. You suddenly have people’s livelihoods in your hands, and losing a client becomes more than revenue loss. You also start paying attention to the small shifts in how people show up. Who is quieter than usual. Who seems stretched. You try to read what is not being said. And sometimes you miss, and that hurts.

So if you ask me why indies are winning, it’s the people. Yes, independence brings proximity and speed. But it is the kind of people who choose to work inches from the clients and the consequences that make the difference. There is no insulation and no buffer. You feel every decision. It is demanding, but in my experience it creates better work and better partnerships. It’s heavier and messier. But I love it.

Herbert Hernandez, co-founder, Gigil

Being indie isn’t necessarily better than having a job. I think of it more as a vocation. Before starting www.gigil.com.ph with Badong [Abesamis], work was mostly about career growth. How do I get better? How do I move up? But when you start something of your own, the lens changes. Suddenly you’re not just thinking about yourself. You’re thinking about 100+ families whose livelihoods depend on the decisions you make. That shift changes how you see clients too. When you run a business, you understand budgets in a very real way because you manage your own. You become more sympathetic to what clients face. You also realise advertising is usually just 10% of their problems. The rest is operations, sales, people, and survival.

Running an indie also teaches you that collaboration beats ego. When you’re carrying the weight of a company, you’d rather work with someone reasonable than someone brilliant but impossible. And unlike being an employee, there’s no guaranteed pay cheque every month. No new client, no new revenue. It keeps you humble. Oddly enough, the journey also brings you closer to God. When the stakes are real and the responsibility is heavy, you learn to pray more. You also realise the best leadership book might already exist - the Bible. It teaches humility, stewardship, and how to lead people well. Which is why being indie feels less like a career move and more like a calling.

Nicolas Rajabaly, Co-founder & CCO, makemepulse

I didn’t start makemepulse to be “indie.” I started it because I wanted to make work that felt alive. Earlier in my career, I realised I was getting further from the work itself. Decisions travelled through too many hands. Ideas were discussed more than they were made. The energy that first drew me to this industry - experimentation, curiosity, making - started to thin out. Going indie wasn’t about rejecting size. It was about getting closer again.

What I wanted to leave behind? Layers. Layers of approvals, diluted ideas, and the comfort of safe thinking. What I didn’t expect to miss? The infrastructure. The safety net. The luxury of not worrying about cash flow while chasing a bold idea.

Being indie is paradoxical. You’re freer and more exposed. You can shape the culture intentionally. You can choose partners who value craft and innovation. You can build a team of people who care deeply, not just commercially. That intimacy creates sharper work. Clients feel it. Talent feels it. And that’s probably why indies are winning business. Not because we’re smaller, but because we’re closer. To the work, to each other, to the risk.

But indie life isn’t romantic. It’s relentless. You carry the vision and the responsibility. You protect the culture. You fight for creative ambition while keeping the lights on.

Is it over-hyped? Sometimes. Is it as good as it gets? On the days when the work feels brave and the team feels proud, absolutely. In the end, indie isn’t a size. It’s a mindset. And that’s what we’re really building.

Morten Ingemann, CEO & Partner at Worth Your While

There’s a particular kind of meeting I used to have in a previous life. It involved something called a “pre-alignment deck”. Its purpose was to prepare people for the deck. I left shortly after.

Not all big agencies are bad. Some of them do extraordinary work. But I realised I had developed an allergy to wasted time. Time spent managing layers instead of sharpening ideas. Time protecting politics instead of challenging briefs. Time invested in work that, deep down, no one would remember. So we built an agency, Worth Your While, around a simple sentence: You might die tomorrow. Make today worth your while. It sounds dramatic. It isn’t. It’s just perspective.

Time is the only non-renewable resource in this business. You can lose money and earn it back. Lose a pitch and win the next one. But you don’t get your time back. So why spend it on bad clients, bad briefs, bad colleagues, bad compromises?

An independent agency is simply the best structural expression of that belief. Only when you own the place can you truly choose your battles. Only when there’s nowhere to hide can you be honest about the work. If it’s mediocre, it’s ours. If it’s great, it’s because we refused to waste the time getting there.

Is indie life over-hyped? Sometimes. There are plenty of small agencies doing small thinking. But at its best, independence is not about number in employees, but about having a fierce ambition. The ambition to make ideas that earn their place in the world, and to spend your limited time doing something you won’t regret. One day we’ll run out of it!!! In the end the question is quite simple. If you could make it worthwhile, why wouldn’t you?

Michael Ruby, Chief Creative Officer, Park & Battery

I’ve worked inside agencies tied to holding companies. I’ve worked inside agencies that were technically independent but operated like they weren’t – constrained, cautious, optimised for something other than the work. And I’ve worked client-side, which is a whole bag of crazy. 

Starting Park & Battery wasn’t about escaping scale. It was about restoring alignment. We believe bold ideas matter - but only when they’re rooted in clarity, craft, and accountability. Independence gives us the conditions to do that properly. No portfolio padding. No profit-first decision-making disguised as strategy. No external pressure distorting what’s right for the client or the team. And no silly policies like you have to be in an office X days per week or somehow you aren’t getting the job done. 

That freedom isn’t reckless. It demands rigour. We call our culture Intelligent Audacity  - the ability to push boundaries confidently because we’ve done the hard work to earn the right to be daring. Independence sharpens that muscle. When you remove bureaucracy, you remove excuses. You either deliver, or you don’t. That’s why indies are having a moment. In a complex, scrutinised market, clients want proximity to decision-makers. They want conviction. They want partners who can move without asking three layers of permission and whose motives are purely driven by the clients.

But let’s not romanticise it. Independence means total accountability. There’s no safety net. Payroll is personal. Every hire, every pitch, every decision carries weight. And yet, that weight creates clarity. You build culture deliberately. You protect standards fiercely. You choose ambition over inertia. For those who believe creativity and accountability belong in the same sentence, independence is as good as it gets.

Louis Lunts, Managing Director, cummings&partnersNYC

One person’s dream is another’s nightmare. It really comes down to one question: do you like getting your hands dirty? I took the reins of cummins&partnersNYC in 2023 after a decade at juggernaut agencies like adam&eveDDB and Engine in London.

After the giddiness of the transatlantic move subsided, what struck me most was the expectation – the necessity – to roll up my sleeves and get into the work. My network days had taught me to be a good manager of people. Surrounded by world-class specialists, my job was to pass the ball between them. Throw to strategy, catch it back; throw to creative, catch it back; throw to production…I’m oversimplifying, but you get the idea.

At the helm of a small indie, that all changed. With fewer people to throw it to, suddenly everyone was looking to me to drive the work itself. At cummins&partners, this is hardwired into the agency’s DNA. Our founder, Sean Cummins, has always believed that the moment you surrender ownership of the work is the moment you lose an agency’s magic. Clients and teams choose indies because they want their leaders in the trenches, not pacing the corridors or the Croissette.

That level of ownership isn’t for everyone. The adage goes that Steve Jobs “played the orchestra”, setting the vision and coordinating specialists while sitting above the detail. If that’s your dream, stay away from indies. But if you’ve the curiosity and confidence to back yourself, why not give it a try? Clean hands are overrated after all.

Sol Ricagni, Managing Director & VP of Creative at Migrante

Our origin story is simple. We won two major accounts before we even had a creative agency. Migrante Content had previously existed as a production company, and in 2020, we had the chance to pitch a Super Bowl spot for Stellantis (FCA at the time). Instead of going in with a few ideas, we pitched 27 concepts and turned our one-hour meeting with the Stellantis CMO into four hours. We won the multicultural agency-of-record advertising account for Stellantis and Fiat USA right there on the spot. Afterwards, we looked at each other and said, “Well, guess we have to start an agency now.”

That was the moment Migrante was born.

From there, we’ve grown Migrante into an international agency, operating across borders, time zones, languages, and cultures without a single office. Clients seek out indies in part because we don’t farm out the work to a bunch of different, faceless teams. We are the team. The senior people the client meets on pitches are the people doing the work. We always strive to go above and beyond, and we pride ourselves on always listening to our clients. In fact, we listen so closely we can pre-empt their needs. Clients tell us this is not often the case at the big corporates. The creative freedom, passion, and autonomy you get at smaller shops are why they attract the best talent, and why, as AI continues to transform our industry, it will be the indies building the strongest relationships who spark the next creative revolution.

Rania Robinson, CEO & Partner, Quiet Storm

These days, people romanticise the idea that being an indie is fashionable. It certainly wasn’t when I started my career. Independence has always meant taking a harder, riskier path. Over time, I’ve come to realise that being independent isn’t really a business model. It’s a choice you keep making, again and again.

Quiet Storm has been independent for three decades. Like most agencies, we’ve lived through market highs and lows, shifting client expectations, and now the lightning-speed changes brought by technology. What independence has given us, above all, is clarity: the ability to decide what kind of company we want to be, and what kind of work we want to put into the world. It also means being clear about who we’re for - and who we’re not for. The most meaningful agency-client partnerships happen when there’s shared ambition, shared values, and a mutual appetite to do something distinctive.