Five years ago, a dream was planted to change the world in the digital marketing space. This covers not only social media but websites and any electronic media of the modern business. We also decided to do this in Northwest Alabama rather than Silicon Valley or another major tech sector area of the country. The reason was simple and that is there was an untapped pool of truly awesome people that had desires to do good in the community and the world. Many who have been held back but knew they had the potential to do good in the world. Experts exist everywhere around the world and not just in these tech sector centric locations. Our city of Cullman Alabama has proven and helped us grow with its entrepreneur spirit.
Business consultants said we could charge a lot more (and should) for what we offered. We knew this but we didn't care about charging more as it was not part of what or who we are. We cared about making a difference for small and medium sized businesses without gouging them of all their money as their dreams were the same as ours. We still care about helping businesses years into our dream and will continue to do what we feel is right. Don't tell us we CAN'T as we know we can. We will not be discouraged by naysayers or people who do not believe in bettering the world. Every year we have more people tell us we can't which further makes us push harder as we are the leaders and game changers for business. We think big, we think nationally rather than just locally, and we push every element we come across.
We all have those people in our lives that at one time encouraged us and then turn and change to say we will not amount to anything. Those that have said we can't do something and then see us and our client's success say they said what they said to encourage and push us. That's is a load of crap! (and they know it!)
Three years ago, I ran into a YouTuber called Casey Niestat. As I watched his episodes I saw someone that was always pushed and told he couldn't do certain things. He didn't listen to their negativity and instead embraced the idea to do good. He encouraged you to start looking outside of your comfort zone and do things that matter to you and not follow the typical path. To live your life so it makes a difference to you no matter how you do it. On April 9, 2012, he created a video called "Make It Count" for Nike. What was unique is you see all kinds of brands and products in the video. What you don't' see is Nike beyond the "Make It Count" slogan in the video until the very end and on the YouTube video, it's nowhere to be found. A completely unique and different approach that took guts, a gamble on Mike's part, and a desire by both to be different. This resonated and made the dream to move to help companies in marketing part of our core services rather than something we offered when asked. We saw too many companies over charging and from the outside were not providing a value to their customers (or as much as we know they could be providing).
A month ago, Casey created a video called "Do What You Can't". This hit home hard as we just got off the phone with Northwest Alabama Business Quarterly (NWIBQ) about winning two spots in their annual competition (more on that later). Since first grade, I have always done what I wanted and pushed the status quo even if it upset others. I have never been a conformist. That's a long time as I am a lot older now but still, have the desire to give people a value that truly helps their business grow. The video resonated and rang to my core being. It has energized me even more and since seeing this video I have even stronger convictions to change the world for the better; one business at a time by living to our core principal of honesty (Rule #1).
Last year we proved that what we've been creating around the United States could be noticed by others. Our clients and their friends voted us the "Best Ad Agency for Web Design" for 2016. That was awesome, we were humbled to be even considered let alone win this contest. It inspired us to push harder in marketing businesses than we already had been. A year later and we've broken down even more walls and more people are noticing.
We've taken a prototype to production that has gone through patent channels, doubled the profit of our client's project while increasing the overall quality and presentation. We helped define their brand, create logos and marketing materials, and set marketing standards for their product. We didn't stop with one, we've done it for a half dozen clients in the last year. The question comes to "are we making a difference" for our clients (that is what matters right?). Well, the one client was quoted over 40k to do the project and we came in at around 4k. The client is excited, more energized than they ever were before, and is a devoted fan of ours. We didn't know the price they were quoted until afterwards and knowing this we still wouldn't have changed our pricing. It's called doing what's right, doing good, and living our values.
Now a year later and the contest from the previous year ran again. This time we thought: "We wonder how we would do?". We did push it this year using our social media channels and treated ourselves 100% like anyone of our clients. Well, we won "Best Ad & Marketing Agency" (they changed the name this year). It seems though we didn't stop at winning one category. We won "Best Veteran Owned Business" and we even got runner up for "Best in Information Technology". You would think that is a pretty feather and you would be right that it is. The award means a lot to me and our entire team. It hasn't gone to our head though. We know we've pushed hard over the years and we are all energized to push even harder as our target is to make an even bigger difference for small and medium-sized businesses.
We are often told we can't do things in life even by those that lead good lives. We are all talked about behind our backs. These individuals though are not your cheerleaders. These are people that are envious of your talents. We all have some truly remarkable talents and each of us is different. Together though we can all make a difference in this world. Stay encouraged, use your talents, embrace your dreams, and you can make a difference. We do not know everyone reading this blog but know over 100 people a day read our blog articles. We believe in each of you and your dreams.
I want to personally thank my personal cheerleader Holly who has stood by me continuously and has always helped me stay on course. The success of our company though would not be where it is at today if it wasn't for Nancy, Teresa, Kyle, Cortney, Lisa, Anna, Charles, Katlyn, and Ed. Individually we are all great individuals. Together though we make an unstoppable team where each person is equally important. None of us is better than the other. We are a team that can, is, and will continue to make a difference.
If you want to live our dream as part of your business we would love to work with you to grow your business. You can reach us at @BUSINESSPHONETOLLFREE@, email at @BUSINESSEMAILADDRESS@, or through our online contact form here.