He couldn’t walk across the room.
Couldn’t finish a sentence.
Couldn’t remember a phone number long enough to write it down.
And his agency?
Barely alive.
On this week’s episode, I sat down with T. Christian Helms, founder of Helms Workshop.
Today, they work with brands like Disney, Harley Davidson, and Jack Daniel’s.
But a few years ago?
He was fighting undiagnosed Lyme disease while the studio he built was quietly flatlining.
What hit me wasn’t just the health scare.
It was what happened next.
When he finally came back, he didn’t just rebuild his strength.
He rebuilt the agency from scratch.
Different structure.
Different leadership models.
Different standards for clients.
At 15:05 he shares the single hire that took him from “spinning 10 plates” to actually leading.
At 18:00 he breaks down how they won a global rebrand against agencies 10x their size (and why most small shops fumble that moment).
And near the end he drops a line about branding that completely reframed how I think about creative work.
If you’re trying to grow from a scrappy founder led shop to something that runs without you suffocating under it
This one’s for you.
Catch the full episode on The Agency Uplift Podcast
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- Sean
P.S. There’s a moment where he explains why they literally put “We don’t work with assholes” on their website and how that became a new business filter.
If you’ve ever taken money you regretted, you’ll want to hear that part.