If someone would have asked me are you still going to be standing in 10 years – I would have said yes. That’s just my nature; steadfast and determined. I refuse to be defeated. This of course is 2015 and I have no idea what lies ahead…
In 2009, I took my first marketing gig; traveling the country for a soda brand promoting their new flavors. Little did I know this marked a massive shift my life/career trajectory. Flash forward six years and after working for several different agencies it was clear what needed to be done – an agency that took the best traits and left the worst traits behind.
We aimed to build an agency devoted to great work – not profit – and so began Moment. In March 2015, I founded Shop Marketing and Creative Group or SMCG. Called ‘The Shop’ as a sarcastic nod to agencies who referred to their offices as ‘shops’ and an homage to the agency world we aimed to leave behind. For months, I worked tireless to build a brand, develop templates, and processes that were the foundation of Moment for years to come.
Moment was built on honesty, transparency, and trust. So many agencies pretended to be something they weren’t, so from the outset our mission was simple – be real, speak the truth, and bill fair. We stopped telling clients we did everything, we shared vendor information, we didn’t mark anything up, and our profit margin was crystal clear from the start. After all, what business isn’t in business to make money, so being upfront about how you make money just made sense.
What we learned? Doing good work takes away all the question marks.
We are fortunate to have grown this business entirely organically. That’s right, not one bit of business has come from hard sales. In fact, we have very little outbound effort, because we believe slow, organic growth is the most sustainable path for success. We live by a rather simple mantra – do good work, get more work.
But how do we do good work? By never forgetting to be AA DUCC. Avoiding assumptions, taking accountability, focusing on details, acting with urgency, communicating, and having conviction. The more I think about it, the less surprised I am that we made it to 10 years. In fact, I know we will make it another 10 – because when you do good work, the long days become great years.
Happy 10th Moment. Cheers to the last 10 and to 10 more.