The Studio That Fires Itself Every Year

Idris Calloway: This is The RightUp, and I'm Idris Calloway. Every January, one studio shuts its doors, retires its name, and opens again a week later as something new. My guest has been through that reset six times. Mara Okafor, welcome.

Mara Okafor: Thanks, Idris. Seven, actually, if you count the one we abandoned halfway.

Idris Calloway: Let's start with the obvious question. Why would a working studio dissolve itself on purpose?

Mara Okafor: Because the version of us that exists in December is tuned for last year's clients. New name, new structure, often a new office. It forces us to ask what we're for, instead of assuming.

Idris Calloway: And the founder? I hear he's stopped trying to explain it.

Mara Okafor: He has. New hires ask him on day one, and he just says, stay until January and you'll see. He's not being mysterious. He genuinely can't put it into a sentence.

Idris Calloway: What does the reset actually cost you?

Mara Okafor: About three weeks of billing, every single year. And a website we redesign whether we like it or not. Clients get a letter explaining the new name. Most of them find it charming. A few find it exhausting.

Idris Calloway: So why does it work?

Mara Okafor: Nobody gets to coast on a reputation. Every year we pitch like we're new, because on paper, we are.

Idris Calloway: Mara Okafor, thank you. That's The Studio That Fires Itself Every Year, on The RightUp.