Between copious amounts of holiday parties, last minute Christmas shopping, and simply trying to end the year strong it's all too easy to rush into the new year without even taking a glance back at 2017. As our team is preparing to take next week off to celebrate Christmas and recharge before 2018, we are taking some time to slow down and do a little reflection on the past year - most importantly, some changes that we've yet to announce officially to the world.
There's still a week left in the year so we won't tally the sales numbers yet (if you've got a proposal out there - 'tis the season for signing), but we can say that in 2017 we've pumped out some strong lead-generating websites and begun partnerships with companies who are poised for growth.
Additionally, our team has grown in every direction to keep up with the demand. Alea and Courtney joined our team at the beginning of the year and are now leading our partners' monthly programs as Directors of Partner Marketing.
Then in July, Michalah, Glenn, and Matt joined our team and Taylor became full time. Michalah is now our Content Manager, coordinating and writing a lot of the content that goes out the door. Glenn, Director of Client Development, has been building relationships and making an impact in our sales world. Matt brought a whole new range of web development skills to The Squad and continues to code websites with speed and precision. And Taylor has enabled us to take our video and photography to a whole new level.
In my book, that makes 2017 a great year.
But amidst all the growth has also come a bittersweet goodbye. In November Jay Stewart, a partner of the business since 2011, began a new chapter in life. Jay felt called to pursue his personal venture Razor Keep as well as to help local ministries, start-up business ventures, and business development projects through consulting.
Bryce, Jay, and Wayne came to an agreement to move Jay out of an ownership stake in The Squad, and give him the flexability to pursue his passions.
It would be amiss to say that the decision was easy, but as a company we are led by our mission to do good works and serve passionately, and we know that sometimes that means enabling team members to pursue new doors for the future.
Here's a little word from Jay on the transition:
"This decision is based on several things, but most important was working a deal that was going to be best for The Squad and Sarah and myself. I feel very blessed to have been a part of Bryce’s vision and to have played a role in building The Squad to where we are today. Even though I’ll no longer be an owner, I will always have a place in my heart for the vision and the "Squad family."
In this new chapter, Razor Keep is at the forefront of Jay's focus. Razor Keep is a new product, designed by Jay, to extend the life of razors and ensure a close and comfortable shave, especially for individuals with sensitive skin.
Even though it means a loss for us, we wholeheartedly support Jay's venture and new focus in life.
We are thankful for all that Jay has given to The Squad. When Bryce became ill with Lyme disease in 2012, Jay shifted into a leading role at The Squad and is one of the key reasons we are still here today. Jay will forever hold a special place in the history of The Squad.
Additionally, Sarah Stewart, Jay's wife, is still a major part of our team as our Office Administrator.
The best way to get in touch with Jay is by emailing him at jay@jaystewartconsulting.com.
As we go into 2018 we look forward to watching Jay's ventures succeed, and The Squad is gearing up for a year of continued growth and expansion.
The Squad 10 Year Anniversary Open House was a huge success, and we want to thank all those who came out, as well as everyone who sent congratulations over the past month but weren't able to make it to the open house.
From making new connections to eating burgers hot off the grill to throwing down on the ping pong table, it was a day full of good food, tons of fun, and great fellowship. If you missed it, check out these photos from throughout the day.
The morning crew enjoying donuts and coffee, with a Channel Partner presentation happening in the Large Conference Room.
We even rounded out the day with live music from some of our crew: Jay, Alea, Glenn, and Allison. If you're a fan of James Taylor, Fire and Rain, you'll love this this video of them playing/singing it.
In addition to ping pong, Mario Brothers, and live music, we also had an entertaining game of trivia going throughout the day. The challenge was to match each team member with an anonymous random fact - and even our own team had a hard time figuring out the answers.
For all those who participated, without further ado...
Many of you asked where various snacks, treats and beverages came from. Just in case you want to patronize any of the local brands, we created an easy list of links for your reference.
Morning
Lunch
Afternoon Hors d'oeuvre
In addition to having these rockin' eats throughout the day, we also gave away gift cards from three of the restaurants to some of our open house attendees. The winners of the gift cards are:
We kicked off the day with a "closer look at The Squad" for our Channel Partners. To all of our Channel Partners who were at that session or stopped by later in the day - Thank you! We appreciate your partnership and we're excited to see our relationships grow!
We equipped each of our Channel Partners with a kit stocked with items to enable them to share The Squad's story and capabilities. To those who couldn't make it, we'll be delivering the kits! They also have a few tangible treats in them.
As we prepped for the Open House, SquadTalks was on the agenda for the day. And our team was gearing up to share exciting information and news about the world of digital marketing, including inbound methodologies, 2018 trends, and what's happening in the digital ad space. Unfortunately, we were so busy having fun and connecting with people that we totally missed our SquadTalks opportunity.
To make up for it, we'll be planning future SquadTalk events in the coming months. We promise we'll invite you out to our place for coffee and talks on the digital marketing info you want to know.
Again, we want to thank all those who came out to our Open House! If you weren't able to make it, hopefully you'll have the opportunity to drop by our new office soon.
We are looking forward to another amazing 10 years of serving our wonderful clients, meeting people doing great work in Louisville, and hosting events that draw in the community!
If you haven't noticed, The Squad has grown a lot this summer. We've already introduced you to Glenn and Michalah, and today we want to introduce you to Matt, our newest Squad member and Web Developer.
Matt hails from the dark, cold lands that are Upstate New York. He moved to Kentucky for college and spent a few years in Lexington before making the move to Louisville. We of course wonder why it took him so long to get here, but we're happy have Matt join The Squad!
I was approached by TEKSystems with an opportunity as a Web Developer. Bryce and Wayne were kind enough to meet with me, and felt like I would be a good fit. Ever since, I've been making cool websites come to life, and learning a lot, and having fun!
How nice everyone is! Even though I've only been here for a couple of weeks, The Squad has made me feel settled and comfortable in my new role.
Playing video games is a big hobby. I have a gaming PC, a Playstation, a 3DS, and even my phone to keep me entertained. A night at the movies, or on Netflix, is also time well spent for me. When I feel like getting away from a screen, a novel, or graphic novel, will typically be my go to.
I love making websites look exactly as the designer had envisioned them, right down to the pixel. I also really like making animations, and other interactive elements, that make the user experience on a site even more enjoyable.
We are excited by the website development capabilities Matt brings to our team. If your business is in need of a new website, our team would love to get to know you and your business - start a conversation today!
If The Marketing Squad seems like a place you'd love to work, we're always looking for talented people to join our team. We aren't currently hiring for a specific role, but if you think you've got something special to add to The Squad, drop us a line.
We've grown quite a bit here at The Squad over the past few weeks. You've already met one of our new team members, Michalah, and today we want to introduce you to Glenn Herrera.
Glenn joins The Squad as our Director of Client Development, and after only a few weeks he is already scheduling meetings, coffee connections, and lunch catch-ups left and right. His big focus is building relationships and helping people out - and we love it!
Joel and I met at an Iron Bell event and reconnected at a Christian Business Meetup. We were discussing what I was looking for in my next chapter of my career and he enthusiastically said, "You have to talk with Bryce!"
The agency core values that are exhibited by all team members on a daily basis.
Consuming great food with friends and family
Playing my guitars across various genres with various folks
Serving in our worship team and other church ministries
Shooting and hunting
Being a good steward of our land
Being truthful, being helpful and serving the client to best of my ability
Always listening and staying tuned to the client's needs and goals
Building longterm relationships
I wasn't born in Kentucky but I got here as soon as I could!
I'm married to a wonderful woman and together we greet and cherish the new life style that God gave us here in The Bluegrass State.
_________
We hope you get to meet Glenn in person soon! Until then, be on the lookout for the introduction of our newest team member, Matt Bitley.
We shut down the ole marketing engine a few months back. We posted about going black with our marketing back in the dead of winter. We had several good reasons.
At the time, we were working nomadically in between our old office and our new one. We knew we'd be moving offices before March (almost done btw) and we'd just restructured the way our team was serving our partner clients. We also put a big emphasis on delivering on a promise to provide thorough monthly reporting to our ongoing partner clients. To make all those changes, we felt as if we'd be jeopardizing these very big rocks to continue investing 100-150 hours a month into our own marketing. Well, we took a risk to stop things. And the sky didn't fall. We still hit our sales goals in January and February and we are on pace for March.
That being said, we want to be leaders and it's tough to lead from behind. So we always knew we'd circle back around to our own marketing. It's tough to ask your partners to do things you're unwilling to do yourself. So we're going to crank things up again, but we're going about it in a very different way this time around.
It's amazing how much energy and effort we can expand on any given thing when we're not paying attention. We looked up and noticed that last year we spent an extraordinary amount of time, money, and energy on our own marketing channels. It wasn't just our website, social media, blogging, or email marketing, but it also extended out to lunch and learns, networking events, podcasts, and a lot of other initiatives. Rather than throwing grenades, pumping out shotgun shells, or scattering landmines, we decided we are much better snipers. So we'll be much more focused in our efforts in our own sales and marketing.
We dug into our Vision and Mission last fall. We paid some great consultants in our industry (Thanks, Nikki and Anthony!) to remind us who we are, and what we're good at.
So we know who we are. We know who we are looking for. We know what we what to say to those we're looking for. We know what value we can add. So we're gonna focus on that from this point forward. Some of the tools and tactics might be the same. Some might go away. The goal is to not spend extra energy or activity for the sake of those things. The goal is about efficient results for us, our partner clients, our project clients, and our overall profitability.
By nature, our DNA has always been about having fun, focusing on results, generating leads for new business development, and being transparent. Those things WON'T change. Those things WILL be amplified. Along the way, we'll give back to the least of these.
Well, January was a blur. We started the year with a 4-day workweek coming out of the Christmas break, and we had a 4-day workweek two weeks later with MLK day. We've been operating out of a temporary office, as many of you know. A big thanks to Greg Blakemore and the Nehemiah Group for the home away from home. We rolled out a new cadence to the way we serve our Partner clients and just finished up The Squad Vitals, our monthly reporting package that was delivered to every one of them earlier this week. We did much of this while one of our most experienced team members, Joel Gerdis, released a worship album and went out a small music tour.
In the midst of the month that seemed to fly by, we had our best month in our 9-year history in January. God has a sense of humor. It was a busy few months with some transitions, a couple client departures, and a lot of new client arrivals. We brought on a new team member (you rock, Alea!) and we are in the midst of a move to a new home in Eastpoint Business Center.
So, as owners of The Marketing Squad, we've paused and reflected and decided to pull back on our own marketing for a period of time. Why you ask? Well, why not. It's the middle of winter, it's still dark and grey outside and a good slumber never hurt anyone. That's a pretty lame answer, I know. How about I hit you with the real reason?
The real reason is three-part:
1) Although we want to lead the way with our own marketing, business development, and lead generation, we want to be externally focused on our Partner clients. With everything we've put in place to serve our partners better, we really need to concentrate all our energy and effort on perfecting the new structure/system to delight our clients. Then we'll refocus on our marketing.
2) We really want to lead the way with our own marketing, but that's not what we've been doing. We paused to reflect on what we've been doing with our blog and on social media the past year. One thing is clear: the drone attacks and social hacks must stop! We want our voice and our expertise to add value and not just be part of the noise in the digital space. A brief hiatus is in order to re-tool and re-focus. You'll like the content better and we'll feel better about how we're representing ourselves online.
Even though our website has a nice new look from our rebranding in 2016, the sitemap, content, and user flow doesn't really reflect who we are and where we are going. We've been working with some outside consultants, and they helped us realize how our website doesn't tell our story very well.
So we're excited to give it a reboot in the next 45 to 60 days. Rather than spend time and energy creating content on our blog, sending email updates, and pumping out social media posts, we think it would be a little more strategic to put that energy into our alignment. After all, that's what we preach to our clients.
3) We want to set the example that it's okay to stop, pause, and turn off the hamster wheel. We have several clients that work in industries where scheduled shutdowns are common. Well, there is no reason why we can't stop the conveyor belts, blow out the lines, clean up the shop or take inventory. So if we can do it, hopefully, you'll feel comfortable doing it as well.
So although it will be dark for a while on our blog, social media, and email, we're still taking new partner clients and new projects. And before you know it the sun will come out tomorrow. Or if you prefer, Here Comes the Sun.....
Stay tuned as hibernation won't last long!
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