The Journey I Didn’t Know I Was On to A Place I Never Thought I’d Go
My journey began on the third Monday of October 2002. It was my birthday; I was sitting at an Atlanta Bread Company in Scottsdale with my boss. He owned the business I’d spent the last six years running. During that time, revenue had quadrupled, the staff had increased three-fold, we had launched a new division and the P & Ls looked great. I was negotiating for a pay increase and a title upgrade. Not that I ever cared much for titles or money but it was the right thing for him to do. We had a couple of minor issues but it felt as though we would work them out. We got up from the table, he shook my hand and wished me a Happy Birthday and congratulated me on the imminent birth of my daughter. My wife and I were going to have a baby. She went into labor two days later, our daughter was born at noon on Wednesday and my boss had the company CFO call to fire me an hour after that. So began my journey.
Do Well by Doing Good
The next day I opened my new business. I cashed in a 401K that wasn’t worth much then but it was all I had — it and an anxious wife, a big mortgage, a puppy and a brand-new baby. And now I had a new business with no clue of what I’d do or who would pay me. My experience was in marketing and communications with some product and brand development on the side so that’s what I did. In an obvious act of revenge, I decided to apply my skills to a business that would compete with the guy who fired me. His company sold fundraising event to nonprofits. I enjoyed working with the charities and supporting causes but his model was duplicitous and self-serving. I created a more honorable and transparent model and within a year I was making money. I found a couple of great people, then I became we, and the business grew.
The Pivot
Two years later and it was obvious that the event business we launched wasn’t built for the future so we made what today is called a pivot. Up to that point, my business planning was more reactionary than revolutionary. This was the first time that I believed I could see the future so I picked a destination. We became an ad agency, but not just an ad agency — we became a “boutique branding agency”. It was 2006, businesses were growing, the Internet was exploding and companies needed specialists. And I needed companies because in addition to the baby, the puppy (that was now a dog), and the mortgage — I had payroll. So the journey became a quest that earned us a contract with the State of AZ where we excelled at public service messaging. We created campaigns for everything from DUI to underage consumption, from traumatic brain injury to child exploitation. The work made us proud and effected positive change. The agency did well because it did good things and that became our mantra.
From Analog to Digital to the GOP
Last weekend the city of Phoenix sponsored a Shred-A-Thon. They shredded documents in exchange for donations to St. Mary’s Food Bank. In preparation, we sorted through a decade’s worth of files and confidential papers. The process was revelatory. I found old invoices from the mid-aughts that confirmed what I had always suspected: the world changed when things went digital. Between 2006 and 2008 internet bandwidth exploded, device storage capacity expanded, the iPhone dropped, Facebook was launched and our revenue from traditional print and broadcast production evaporated. To add insult to injury, Barak Obama appointed Janet Napolitano to Director of Homeland Security. Our Democratic Governor went to D.C. and left Arizona in the hands of Republicans. Our government contacts vanished as quickly as the revenue. It was a perfect storm and it took us by complete surprise.
New Opportunities from Old Clients
We were hardly alone. It turned out that the tech tsunami wiped out entire industries almost overnight. Our current clients were asking for everything digital and old clients were coming back for something new. But when we renewed with some of the old clients we realized that while they wanted to look different they didn’t want to be different. We told them that the Internet was the place to tell your story to millions while at the same time connecting with people one-by-one. Most clients chose to stay the course; one specifically intractable group was School Tuition Organizations. We felt the Internet provided them with a great opportunity to do more than just pass money from donors to schools. They had the data and relationships to provide services to students that not even the schools could offer. We cajoled and encouraged them to change but they couldn’t see why. We couldn’t see why not. This time we didn’t pivot, we expanded.
Our Journey: Kids, Causes, and Change
During the course of our pivots, contractions, and expansions I always thought we were reacting to specific business and cultural changes. That we did what good businesses did: strategic planning and execution. Wrong. Instead of a devising and following a careful plan we were actually adapting and adopting according to rapid change and based on a steady stream of new information. We launched our non-profit School Tuition Organization called A Degree For Me and its complementary college prep and admissions site called ApplicationPrep not because it was a wise business decision. We did it because we have always felt that championing causes that help kids is in our DNA.
Our Destination: Debt-Free College Degrees
When we started the business sixteen years ago I would have never envisioned tackling problems like education equality and student loan debt or using a state-sponsored tax credit to do it. But our work for kids and my having a teenage daughter of my own compelled that. We’ve created something that will help today’s kids prepare for tomorrow’s workplace without taking on tons of toxic debt. And as much as we encourage kids to have a plan and pick a destination, the truth is that it’s the journey that really matters.
