Running a Motion Design Agency for a Month
Hi! My name is Sophy McNamara. In January 2022, I started a video editing and motion design business. (You can check out my video work here and the business’s website here.)
The first two months running the business were really fun, really exciting, and really challenging. By March, I had gained my first seven clients. At this point, I was excited to document how I was operating and growing the business. I decided to make a resource guide. I asked myself, “What resources would a younger version of myself need to operate and expand the business?” I thought this would be a great way to solidify my understanding and gain trust in the eyes of my target clients. These things would help me build toward my long term goal of helping mission based startups create animation based advertising.
I created a series of resources to teach what I’ve learned through starting the business and act as marketing material for the business.
- Interview with the founder of a high end video marketing agency
- Project writeup of a motion design project including the initial brief, finished product, and client testimonial
- Case study of the initial stages of a motion design project, from discovery call to initial animations
- Comprehensive tutorials on how to use Adobe After Effects and Adobe Illustrator for motion design
- An outline of how I marketed the After Effects and Illustrator tutorials on YouTube and Tiktok. My TikToks marketing the tutorials have over 3,300 views.
- An outline of the animation storyboard process
- A worksheet system to streamline the creation of resource projects like this. I did this project as part of my curriculum for Discover Praxis, an entrepreneurial apprenticeship program. Praxis decided to share my worksheet system with future participants as they go through the curriculum!
- A client testimonial outlining the client journey

What I did each week for a month to create these resources:
Deciding what I would create this month and why, coordinating with clients, having a strategy call with a client.
Improving my After Effects skills and learning about the storyboarding process. Continuing to work on client projects.
Creating my After Effects → Illustrator Animation Workflow Tutorial, continuing to work on client projects, creating my podcast and scheduling my first podcast interview.
Creating How to Make Your First Video in After Effects — Easy Basics, continuing to work on client projects, and my conducting my first podcast interview.


What I learned by making these resources:
- It’s powerful to position yourself as a beginner
- How to ask people for advice when brainstorming a project like this
- How to write about what I’m doing and my goals as a brainstorming exercise
- Improved my Adobe After Effects and Adobe Illustrator skills
- Learned about video marketing
- Learned about running a business
- How to create a podcast and how to start an RSS feed for it
- How to export gifs for professional projects (using Photoshop)
- How to brainstorm and storyboard ads
- How to manage a month long project
- How to gather video testimonials from clients using Glimpse Video
- Improved my animation skills
- Improved my script writing skills
- Improved my storyboarding skills
- How to better market videos on YouTube using strategic titles and thumbnails and creating TikToks

Next time I do a project like this, I’ll use the worksheet system I created to streamline the process.

How I’ll use what I did this month to work toward my long term goal of running a animation based advertising agency:
- Make more podcast episodes! I had so much fun creating the first episode of The Making Cool Stuff Podcast. This month, I got the ball rolling by creating the podcast title, cover art and posting the first episode. I’m looking forward to talking to more people and learning about their stories. I’m currently scheduling out my next interviews.
- I’ll use all the content I made this month to market my motion design agency going forward.
- I’ll use what I learned about coordinating with clients for motion design projects as I take on more motion design projects in the future.
- I’ll use the worksheet system I created to document other things I’m learning and building in the future.
- Now that I know how to gather video testimonials, I’ll ask other clients I’ve already done work for and future clients if they’d be willing to give testimonials.

Follow me for more updates and resources! You can check out my YouTube channel here.