Building a small studio without a formula with Katie Cadwell

Two years into running her own studio, Katie Cadwell will happily tell you there's still no system — and that's rather the point. She's built Lucky Dip on a simple belief: you can do great work, have a good time doing it, and grow entirely on your own terms.Katie is the co-founder and creative director of branding studio Lucky Dip, and the founder of the NDA podcast. Fresh off her first OFFF Festival in Barcelona — where she reckons she learnt more standing at the bar than sitting in the talks — she joins Jack to talk honestly about what the early years of a studio actually feel like, from starting out as employee number one at someone else's studio to taking the leap into founding her own.They get into the freelance-to-founder jump and the flash of confidence that finally pushed her into it; what it was like to read all 800 job applications herself, why the identical AI-written emails don't land, and the small, human touches that made people stand out; why she deliberately doesn't hire for "culture fit"; and how she keeps freelancers — Lucky Dip's "dippers" — feeling like part of the team rather than a resource to bill. Plus the case for growing slowly, staying small on purpose, and not having every answer yet.If you're thinking about going out on your own, chasing more freelance work, or sending off applications and wondering what actually gets noticed — this one's for you. You don't need a five-year plan, a fixed studio address, or a tidy system to be doing it right. Sometimes the most reassuring thing is hearing someone a step ahead admit they're still figuring it out too.Find Katie:Lucky Dip Studio (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/luckydip.studio/Lucky Dip Studio (website): https://luckydip.studio/NDA Podcast (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/thendapodcast/Katie (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/katiecad4/