Agency

Eric and Taylor are inspiring leaders who live by their values and set an incredible example of how to care for others while honoring their convictions. In this book, they give us an honest look behind the scenes when things go south, and they provide an encouraging road map for anyone who’s struggling to achieve their vision or find balance. This book is a must-read for entrepreneurs, leaders, and anyone looking to have agency in serving others!

From two partners who started at the bottom, we receive an invitation to reclaim our preferred—but possibly unknown—natural state: the redemption of everyone through effort and empathy.

Without a vision for your careerpotential, limiting views can suck you into the status quo and hold you back.Eric Brown and Taylor Jones are here to help with Agency.

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In Agency, my friends Eric and Taylor did everything I hoped for when they took on this project. Combining storytelling, experience, and self-reflection, they provide a practical guide that can help you become a master of your craft through the most unlikely of virtues: Empathy. As a result, Agency is a must read for anyone seeking to engage the joys and tensions of vocational life with wisdom and balance.

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Taylor and Eric have guided countless others through the complex work of aligning vocation and personal fulfillment. Both this book—and their elegant use of the Agency Axis—show us how to walk the messy tightrope between sustaining ourselves and giving to others. If you are burnt out, struggling with vocational fulfillment, feeling indifferent to your work, or simply at the stage of life when you’re asking, Is this all there is? then you’ll want to read this book.

Agency, a word you often hear, may hold within it a powerful finding for unlocking effectiveness and growth – in life and work. Eric and Taylor share insights to help us all find greater meaning and connection while making a difference with our lives.

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As we devoured Eric and Taylor’s book, Agency, we were reminded of a quote by Andy Stanley:"The value of a life is always measured by how much of it is given away." This book provides a clear description of how to live that out: by being an agent, someone who advances someone else's mission. In a self-serving world, this is a concept that could literally change culture. Agency is unsettling and challenging, practical and applicable, inspirational and hopeful. We've worked alongside Eric and Taylor for years—Aro wouldn't exist without them—and we can speak firsthand that they embody every word in this book, in work and daily life. We couldn't recommend their book more highly.

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What if I told you I just read a bookthat gave deeper meaning and language to my purpose? Well, I did. It’s this book. If you hope to help others in any way, I recommend you read it.

Eric and Taylor have been “behind the curtains” with prestigious brands across the country. I’ve had the privilege to watch their adept navigation of these opportunities to help leading brands and identify the impact executives have on their teams. Their gleaned insights have not only shaped their mission, leadership, and bond but are now generously shared in 'Agency.' I hope to apply more of these inspiring principles into my leadership. What if you do, too, and become an advocate for agency in your relationships?

This book is infused with the same spirit of service, brilliance, joy, and love that I’ve come to experience in my work with Whiteboard and my friendship with Eric and Taylor. They have taken the hard and worthwhile path of integrating their deepest values with the work they do. This book is both a testimony of their pursuit of integrity and a guide to help us follow the same path.

This book is about more than those who prefer to be self-employed; it describes the freedom, power, and perspective of being in control of your life and your career, no matter what job you have.Eric and Taylor explain the ways people abdicate this control . . . and the resulting effects, and they brilliantly point readers to the vision of genuine fulfillment through personal responsibility. Read this book, and give a copy to a friend. It’s transformative. 

In reading this book, I have two governing thoughts: First, they’re right. Eric and Taylor are naming, celebrating, and advocating for something deeply true, necessary, and too rare in this world. Second, they’re exemplary. Having watched them lead Whiteboard for a decade as a friend and client, I’ve never met anyone so cheerfully intuitive and skilled at living out this vision of agency in an organizational context. I’m grateful for them and for this manifesto of their life’s work.

Eric and Taylor’s practical, experience-backed approach to becoming an agent of change in someone else’s life is a breath of fresh air. I highly recommend Agency for anyone who wants to change the heart of their career, enhance their relationships with others, or reinvent their organization.

Many leaders in businesses and nonprofits have a vision for profit and impact, but they lack a clear vision to inspire their teams. In Agency, Taylor and Eric provide a roadmap forCEOs, presidents, and team leaders to create a dynamic culture that brings out the best in each person. If people report to you, learn from Taylor and Eric...and don’t settle for anything less.