Join me as the adventure begins!
It’s a gorgeous day down here at Connie’s Ric Rac in South Philly on the S. 9th Street Italian Market, the first truly beautiful weekend of the spring. As I supervise the production of a music video for one of Philly’s hottest up and coming rock bands, In The Presence Of Wolves, I can’t help but think that life is good. I have a wonderfully close knit family consisting of my amazing wife Noel and three handsome sons; Brodie, Zach and Cam (almost 16, almost 15 and 10 respectively). I quit my job 9 days ago to do my own thing. I’m starting a marketing communications firm, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.
This is the story, my Adventure In Marketing.
For 13 years, I primarily operated as sales and business development professional. The printing industry taught me a great deal, and it allowed me to build long term business relationships with people in the corporate, higher education, advertising, and non-profit sectors. I was somewhat of an anomaly, starting at the ripe age of 22, in that there is a major deficit of young professionals in the printing industry. However it became a blessing in disguise as I initiated many marketing and web-based initiatives in an effort to help these companies stay relevant in an increasingly digital world.
During this time, I also immersed my self in the burgeoning Philly music scene (circa 2008). I was in two bands over the course of six years, The Ron & Eric Show and The Discount Heroes. The latter became very much a launching point for my future endeavors; more on that later. But I took the things that I was learning in the business world, namely sales, marketing, promotion, and maybe most importantly the early stages of the social media revolution, and applied them to something I was very passionate about – my music. When that phase of my life ended, it rolled very seamlessly into the world of venue and entertainment management.
With Connie’s Ric Rac, I picked up right where I left off with The Discount Heroes, but now there was a real opportunity to turn a business around and make it grow. All the while, I launched CRWconnect, the integrated multichannel marketing division of CRW Graphics, a mid-size commercial printer based in southern New Jersey. CRWconnect allowed me to partner with clients on a much more strategic level and before long, I knew there was no going back.
The amount of support and excitement that everyone has expressed in regard to me going out on my own has been heart melting.
I’ve heard things like, “Congrats” and “You’re going to do great!”, and “So proud of you…”. But then the first thing that everyone asked was, “What kind of marketing?”, and I tell them, “Whatever’s needed.”
Some companies are doing a great job with their brand, but need help with social media. Others are doing really well with social media but are missing opportunities with the web traffic generated by it. Furthermore, I don’t want to limit myself to only one marketing product or service, such as just mobile apps, or just social media. I learned this years ago from my dear friend and associate Kelly Kirk. She’s one of the sharpest and brightest marketers I know. She knew the world moves too quick, and these things may not even be relevant in a few years. I’d rather be a general practitioner, with expertise in a wide range of marketing services, characterized by sound fundamentals and creative ideas.
Besides the client work we are hitting the ground running with, the top priority will be developing the company brand. We are settling on a name, and will introduce it along with the logo on May 1st. The main tenets of the brand will be:
- We’re great at what we do.
- We’re a lot of fun.
- Our Ideas.
- The Team.
Spring is here, and it’s a time of new beginnings. I hope you will continue on this journey with me, as I work as hard as I can and do everything possible to create something special. Have a great week!
