What's in a Name? The Story of how Uncommon Collaborative Got its Name
To understand where the name Uncommon Collaborative came from, we have to start at the beginning. Here’s the story from the person who lived it - our founder, Bre McGee.
“I was sitting in the living room with my then-fiance (now-husband), Dillon, on a cold, December night back in 2018. Miserable doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt about my professional life. I’d just left a Toxic Job A after 9 long months that spiraled my mental health in a depression that didn’t let up until Job B arrived. Eight months into Job B, I was in the exact same mental space. Toxic Job B was even worse. My normal daily level of anxiety would shoot through the roof anytime my phone buzzed or email notification came through. It wasn’t until I was told to pick-up and drop-off a vinyl banner 20 miles each way in a freezing snowstorm that I realized how bad it was. One panic attack later, I was planning my exit strategy.
What Did I Want To Do With My Life?
There’s nothing like a panic attack to help put things into perspective. It was instantly clear to me what I was doing for 10 hours each day wasn’t bringing me joy, it wasn’t using my skills to their full potential and, I didn’t believe in the organization and its leadership.
So, I did what any good Type A person does. I made a list!
I wrote down all the things I have loved about the work I’d done in my nearly ten years in the workforce and made an even longer list of everything I hated. This strategy painted a crystal-clear picture of what I wanted my days to be filled with and what wouldn’t have any part of my life.
What was on the list of things I liked?
Creating photos & videos of people doing stuff they enjoy
Telling a story through visuals
Piecing together interviews to tell a concise story
Helping others succeed by sharing my knowledge and skills
Making my own schedule and being in charge of my time
Finding creative solutions to problems
And on the list of things I despised?
Being told what to do and how to do it
Going into an office 5 days a week
Living for the weekends and being miserable the entire work week
Having zero room to brainstorm with others and collaborate
Not being trusted to create using my experience and skillset
While this doesn’t even cover all the bullet points on my original list, it shows a clear picture of what I wanted to do!
I figured out that the work that I loved doing as a photojournalist (“Creating photos & videos of people doing stuff they enjoy”) was at the top of my list for a reason. I needed to help others tell their stories to the masses. I needed to make my own schedule and have my time be my own. I began placing the foundational blocks to creating a visual content agency that helps people share what they love.
How Would I Stand Out Though?
The last thing I wanted was to blend into the masses of photographers and videographers in the very saturated market. How was what I wanted to offer different?
—
Sitting in the plush, suede chair in our living room as my husband sprawled on the couch on that arctic December night, we talked through what I wanted to do. He asked all the right questions to get me thinking out loud about what was important to me.
I knew I didn’t want to name my brand after myself. “Bre McGee Photography” just wouldn’t cut it — I didn’t want to build a brand around just me. Plus it sounds like a nursery rhyme…
But in all seriousness, how could I name a brand after myself when the biggest part of my brand would be about my clients.
Watching how they work. Learning why they do what they do. Understanding their biggest fears. Experiencing what they feel to be failures. My brand wouldn’t be about me!
Over the course of our conversation, it became clear that this brand would be all about collaboration between me and the client. I would help them tell their story, but I can’t tell their story for them.
Uncommon for a Reason
There are agencies out there that will create a story for a brand and it will be powerful and thought-provoking and beautiful, but I knew I wouldn’t be doing that. With my roots firmly planted in the world of journalism, I still adhere to a code of ethics that believes everyone has a story to tell. From my own personal life, I knew that to be true. You just need to take the time to listen.
I wanted to make sure my clients knew that this wasn’t the agency that would manufacture a story. I wanted my clients to know that this is an agency that works with you, prepares you every step of the way while you teach us what the soul of your business is all about.
I may be biased, but I believe a name like Uncommon Collaborative does just that. Every client gets homework with due dates. You get out of it what you put in. While it may be an uncommon approach to visual content creation, it’s the only method that works for us — and we have a whole lot of happy clients who agree!”
Thank you for being on this journey with me!
P.S. I wasn’t even the one to come up with the name Uncommon Collaborative. I have Dillon to thank for that one!
Interested in having Uncommon Collaborative help tell your story?
