Company: Creative Direct Marketing Group
Owners: Craig Huey
Year Started: 1985
Employees: 26 – 50
Welcome to another episode of “An Agency Story,” where we delve into the fascinating journeys of agency owners and the ups and downs of building their businesses. In this episode, we sit down with Craig Huey, the founder of Creative Direct Marketing Group (CDMG), an award-winning direct response ad agency that specializes in accountable advertising and scientific marketing.
Craig shares the unique story of how he transitioned from a teaching career to founding CDMG. His entrepreneurial journey began in the 1970s when he was unexpectedly pushed into the world of direct response advertising. From negotiating with his first employer for the company’s name to stuffing a briefcase with cash to buy his own business, Craig’s story is filled with determination, creativity, and a bit of humor.
Throughout the episode, Craig discusses the evolution of marketing from TV commercials and direct mail to the latest digital strategies and AI integration. He highlights the importance of staying ahead of industry trends, the challenges of managing a growing team, and the critical role of persistence in overcoming financial and regulatory hurdles. Craig’s anecdotes, such as the surprising acceptance of his low-ball offer to buy his first company and the humorous tale of pitching to football legends without knowing a thing about the sport, add a personal and engaging touch to the episode.
Craig’s son, Caleb, now plays a significant role in the agency, leading its transition to a digital-first approach and expanding its operations to Nashville. This transition story is a testament to the importance of adaptability, family legacy, and the continuous drive to innovate.
Tune in to hear Craig Huey’s inspiring journey, gain insights into the evolution of marketing, and discover valuable lessons on entrepreneurship. This episode leaves you contemplating the dynamic nature of the industry and the relentless spirit required to succeed. Don’t miss out on Craig’s powerful quotes, humorous anecdotes, and the wisdom he’s gained over decades in the business.
For those looking to stay ahead in the marketing world or seeking inspiration for their entrepreneurial endeavors, this episode is a must-listen. Join us as we explore the rich history and exciting future of Creative Direct Marketing Group with Craig Huey.
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Show Transcript
Welcome to An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. From the excitement of starting up the first big sale, passion, doubt, fear, freedom, and the emotional rollercoaster of growth, hear it all on An Agency Story podcast. An Agency Story podcast is hosted by Russel Dubree, successful agency owner with an eight figure exit turned business coach. Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel:
Welcome to An Agency Story podcast, I’m your host Russel. In this episode, we’re joined by Craig Huey, the founder of Creative Direct Marketing Group based in Nashville, Tennessee. Craig shares his incredible journey from a teaching career to establishing a direct response ad agency. Discover how his passion for accountable advertising and scientific marketing set CDMG apart in a competitive industry. Listen in as Craig recounts, his significant turning points, like his bold move, a purchasing his first company with a briefcase full of cash and his humorous experience pitching to football legends without even knowing the sport. Tune in to hear Craig’s story of innovation, resilience, and the relentless pursuit of excellence that drives his agency’s success. Enjoy the story. Welcome to the show today everyone. I have Craig Huey with Creative Direct Marketing Group with us here today. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Craig.
Craig:
Russel, it’s great to be with you.
Russel:
Glad to have you let’s get right to it. If you don’t mind, tell us what CDM G does. And who do you do it for?
Craig:
We’re a direct response ad agency. We have clients nationwide, worldwide. We’ve won, oh, I think now it’s going on 112 awards. We just won a couple more awards. We have clients that are in any type of field. We specialize in accountable advertising. We’re scientific marketing. We’ve done this from the beginning when it wasn’t cool to today we’re, uh, you know, everybody’s demanding it.
Russel:
As I understand it, you’ve been in business for a little over a minute. If you don’t mind sharing, what year did you actually start the business?
Craig:
Normally I don’t say this, but I’ll tell you. I was in college and I was working for this entrepreneur who was doing a lot of marketing. He was giving me marketing assignments. I was getting my teaching credential. Back in 1972, he started me off doing this work. 1975, I was still in school working part time with him. All of a sudden he said, Craig, you know what we’re working on, we’re no longer going to be able to pay you on this. We’re going to do some other things. But if you want to work as an independent contractor, you can. I said, okay, I’ll do that. I was all of a sudden in a position where I had to make sales, I had to get some business in and I had to try to sell what we were doing, the ads that we were performing, the TV commercials we were doing. Back in those days, in the 1970s this was a unique thing where we would put on a TV commercial an 800 number and in ad we would have coupons, or we would have, call to action where they would write a check and send it in. Those days, it was quite a bit different. I started working on this. I loved it so much, especially working in the data and what have you that. I thought, I think I’m going to do this. I’m not going to be teaching and I’d like to get this company. I’m a kid and I’m thinking, okay, how do I get this company? We still have the name of the company. It’s our data company called InfoMan, was providing data and media, recommendations. Mailing lists, old fashioned mailing lists. I decided I’d get this briefcase and I got my old briefcase and I stuck it with 1 bills and I had like, 3,000 dollars. To me, it was like all the money in the world. I wanted to impress this guy, that this is a lot of money. I was going to give it to him and say, I want to buy the company. I want to buy the name of the company, have the company for myself. I was sure he was going to say no. I give him this briefcase, he opens it up and there’s all this cash. He had the smile and snicker. He knew that wasn’t very much. He said, yes, you can have the name of the company. From there on, I had my company, with its name and I was able to start, taking in new clients and being able to produce marketing materials, and that was the start.
Russel:
That almost sounds like a part of a movie. I just remember growing up as a kid, just always hoping someday I would run into some sort of scenario where I could just have a briefcase full of money. So glad you got to live that out. Well, very fascinating story. Prior to that time period, did you see, or did you even envision yourself running a business or starting a business or at that point in time was teaching the only thing on your mind.
Craig:
Never before. That’s the power of entrepreneurship. As I look back at the agency, if there’s one thing I can point to, one thing that, Russel, I think is the most important thing is, I have trained so many people to become entrepreneurs, successful in their field and be able to launch their careers. That’s exactly what this entrepreneur did for me. He trained me as to his techniques and marketing and he basically pushed me out of my comfort zone. Pushed me into doing something I would never have imagined ever that I would be a business owner. I have absolutely no regrets. I am so excited about where we’re at today and it’s been a roller coaster. As an ad agency, I’ve had my ups and downs, and there’s been far too many downs, far too many times where, I didn’t know how to pay the payroll. I couldn’t pay myself. I couldn’t pay my family because, somebody didn’t pay their bills. Or because the account, left or something happened with the government coming in and saying, I owed them taxes, the variety of different nightmare situations. And yet, through it all, I am so glad, that, I was persistent and, defied the odds and the agency has really been successful.
Russel:
And now you’re here on An Agency Story podcast. One of the things I’m sure a lot of folks at home are just curious is just what it was like to start a business many years ago. Can even think back upon that experience and what that was like for you in the first few months to a year of starting your business. Just would be curious to compare how different or similar it is to the same things that folks are encountering today.
Craig:
Oh, wow. I don’t know if it’s similar to today, but there’s probably some commonality. For example, I would, I had to learn how to make a sales call and dressed up in 1970 clothes from having come from a hippie background where I would never, ever put on a coat. I wouldn’t put on a tie and I realized if I’m going to get these accounts, I have to. I learned early. Driving up in my little car that I was so proud of that. I had bought it. I thought, man, this is a great car. Then, a prospect, I pick up at the airport comes in and goes, is this your car? It’s just like, I’m realizing, I need to be able to look professional and be able to sound authoritative and successful. During that time I had to hire people. I didn’t know how to hire people, so I had to learn how to hire the good and the bad. I had to learn how to fire. I had to learn how to be able to identify some great people. That was something that’s been a joy, but also awfully painful. One of my basic principles that I teach my staff at the agency is you have to stay one step ahead. To me, success means being an information junkie. You know what’s going on in the industry, you know different sectors and what’s going on. You’re not winging it. You really do some studying and you understand it. That is one of the keys to real great agency success, success in any type of business. You want to stay one step ahead. When I heard about a thing called the electric typewriter, I thought, oh my gosh, you know, we would have somebody sitting typing a direct mail piece or an ad with 20 or 30 different copies having to either have a white, eraser or do it over and over again. The electric typewriter, oh my gosh, all of a sudden I didn’t need as many secretaries sitting there typing. Trying to communicate with people and doing the phone and it had to be a landline. I was stuck and then I heard about something called a quip, and then a fax machine. I had to be the first to do that and start doing fax marketing. The second the giant cell phones came out and then the second, the different types of, new ways of communicating that took place with the computer. I had to make sure our agency was there and was on the vanguard of it. We always tried to stay one step ahead. The same principle goes with the media. We were one of the first agencies to do an infomercial. In direct mail, you had envelope mailings, everybody’s doing envelope mailings or postcards. We came up with a thing called a magalog, which looks like a magazine, feels like a magazine, but it’s really an infomercial in print. Even today in a digital age, a magalog works powerful wonders in getting response. Whatever the thing was, I wanted to stay one step ahead.
Russel:
That makes me think of a couple things. At least from a comparison standpoint, one is just how much folks are talking about AI. Today, but if we really think back in the course of history, we’re just constantly encountering technology change. You’re going back to talking about a typewriter. Uh, which seems radically different, but in the end, it’s just the next tool that people need to learn, how to integrate into marketing and business as a whole. Another thing that made me think of that you mentioned was just the idea of dressing up. I feel like when we were starting an agency in the mid two thousands that maybe right on the cusp, we clearly live in a world today we’re dressing down as far more common than it used to be, but we were always in conflict. Do we dress up? Do we wear suits? Or do we be more ourselves? What we found is I think people started to expect this and the agency that you’re going to dress a little more creatively or be a little more different because that’s what they might expect out of a creative group. It’s really hard to cover so much history across the time that you’ve been in business, but I’m just wanting to go back to some of the early days and even in our time period. We live in the information age today, especially how to learn and grow a business, especially a digital agency business or a marketing business. What resources or guides, or was there anything that you were able to leverage as you were trying to figure all this out?
Craig:
Back then, and even today, there’s a thing called a newsletter. I found that people who wrote newsletters, absolutely incredible in giving detail and information and insight, test results. That was very important to keep up. Even today, I probably get about eight or nine different marketing newsletters. Podcasts, obviously today. Marketing podcasts, but also, to be able to take a look at conferences. Even if I wasn’t even at a conference, I’d want to make sure I got the audio recording or the video recording of it. I’ll take a look and if I’m not at a conference or I’m at the conference, I’m not able to, go to sessions, I make sure my staff or myself, they listen to those sessions and they learn from the experts of what they’ve experienced. That way you’re able to come up with great new ideas. Make sure that you’re not making mistakes, you’re staying one step ahead.
Russel:
I’m going to take that, I guess the right the information has always been out there sometimes maybe more abundant or it’s obviously far more accessible with the internet and everything today. The reality is that you’ve got to go find it regardless. And while accessibility might be their quality might be the harder thing to find nowadays, but ultimately that it’s always been there and as you did find the circles, that’s going to have an impact, not only you, but also your team.
Craig:
Absolutely. Of course, today, I mean, I was just, using some AI. ChatGPT and some of the others to be able to do some of the research for clients, but I also did it recently for research on agencies and some agency success in the areas of a certain vertical market that we wanted to hit. I gotta tell you, it was great because I came up with insights and tactics and strategies that I couldn’t find on Google, but I came up with it right with ChatGPT.
Russel:
Definitely sounds like you’ve always had to be on the cusp of what the trends are at any given time. When you think outside of technology for a minute, how has your industry changed? What are a handful of the big shifts that had to force you to pivot or even rethink how you went about the type of marketing you were doing.
Craig:
Over time, when all of a sudden people were creating online presence and websites and landing pages, we had to figure out quickly, how do we do this to stay one step ahead? We figured out how to be able to master the art of email. Then of course, as the transition continues, how to do the digital marketing and that transition. So many agencies, so many different marketing people found that their companies either suffered, some disappeared because they weren’t able to keep up with that transition. A mega trend going on today, is what we just talked about and that is AI. With AI, I just, uh, I, have several books out and I just had a book, for example. In that book, I knew the artwork I wanted to put in that book I told my art department, this is what I want. They said, oh, that’s going to take about 2 to 2. 5 weeks to produce and we’ll give you different versions of it. I said, I don’t want to wait that long, so we used AI. In two minutes, I was able to get my first copy. In three minutes, I was done with the cover of my book. The art department saved time. The agency saved time. I wasn’t frustrated. I got what I wanted. Even today, I’m, I kind of brand this as an AI agency because whether it’s for media and or data, whether it’s for art or copy, for research, whatever it might be. We’re using some type of AI as a partial part of what we’re doing. Staying one step ahead.
Russel:
If you’re not growing, you’re dying. I think. Pretty much everybody that’s been in business for long enough has recognized that one way or the other. You talk about some of the ups and downs of your agency journey and anyone that’s been around for a few years has experienced some level of downs. We’re in a slow period of what a lot of folks are talking about in the agency space. As of today. What has gotten you through those down periods when you’ve encountered them over the years?
Craig:
Let me give you just a few examples. We had people from the state of California. At that time we’ve abandoned California, but at that time we were in California. I had people from the state coming in, looking at our sales tax and our revenue and saying we’re okay. For eight years, everything was fine. Then one person comes in and he says, we owe money for sales tax because on our bills, instead of saying, copy and art, we combined them. We owe tax on the entire thing and we didn’t charge for that. We got a bill, far more money than we needed. I kept moving ahead, trying to work with the state, trying to work something out. Finally he said, we’re going to just take money out of your bank account. The head of the department of the state of California looked at me and said, if you can’t afford to pay your taxes, you don’t deserve to be in business. That sparked within me a desire, I’m not going to let you destroy us. We went on and we paid our bills. We went on and kept going. I had another one where, for me at the time, a client, that owed me close to a half a million dollars didn’t pay his bill and I was stuck. I had to start negotiating with the suppliers and trying to work out this. What I learned from that was my relationship with the suppliers had been so good that, they knew that we were going to stick by our word. They worked with us to be able to get out of that hole, where everybody else looking at it said, just file bankruptcy and give up. I wouldn’t have anything to do with it. I have a faith in God. I have a faith that, that I can get through these things.
Russel:
My eyes just twitched a little bit at mentioning half a million dollars in an unpaid bill. I know, certainly in there, especially in the early days of our agency, where that would have just been unfathomable for us to overcome. Speaks to your perseverance and that darn sales tax man. I’m not a sales tax professional, but maybe this is just a quick reminder to all the agencies out there listening. Make sure you’re up to date on your sales tax practices. The government will eventually come calling. I think one of the things that’s even caught up with some people is in the old days, the laws had not caught up to digital marketing and really digital technology is as a delivery service or anything like that period. And so there wasn’t taxable, but pretty much eventually the government is going to come collecting on pretty much everything that’s offered as a service. Another aspect about your business is how you’ve been able to transition it. If you don’t mind, just share what that’s been like for you, especially more in recent times.
Craig:
The transition, it, I have found that, I now have a digital team more so than a traditional art team. To transition it, I have to make sure my copywriters fully understand the digital world completely. Both teams have to be able to know how to use AI. We have found that with AI, AI can lie to us. AI can do things that are from a copy standpoint, an art standpoint, so disappointing. We’ve learned that we have to have people trained how to work with AI and how to make sure that it works for our client’s benefit, for our benefit. In doing this, the skill sets I have with people, are absolutely essential. If somebody is not able to adapt to the new environment, to the new climate, then it’s just not a fit, because they have to be able to stay ahead and stay up.
Russel:
Speaking of transition, as I understand it, your son has taken over the business. How did that come to be? And how is that going for you.
Craig:
What happened was, I have five kids. I made all those kids work for me during the summer when they were going to school from, junior in high school, all the way through their college years. They’d come, they’d work. One kid, one after college decided he wanted to continue on working with the agency. He was working in sales and he was doing okay. Being in California. He was a surfer, he had all of his friends there and his name’s Caleb. All of a sudden he comes up to me, he says, dad, I’m leaving. I said, Caleb, what do you mean you’re leaving? I’m going to go to Nashville. I said, Caleb. There’s no surf in Nashville. Your friends aren’t in Nashville. What are you thinking? He said, dad, I have to. I said, well, I’m not going to pay for you to go to Nashville. You won’t be here to work. He says, dad, if I stay here, number one, I’ll never be able to own a house. Number two, if I stay here, I’ll have to pay costs that are 30 to 40 percent higher than in Tennessee. He said, Dad, not only that, I have to pay income tax in California and in Tennessee, I don’t have to pay any income tax. He said, I got to go. He went and his promise to me was that he was going to bring in new business and start a small operation for the agency in Nashville. He set up a shop, he started doing it, he started bringing in sales, he started hiring some people. He started showing that he could make it work, and so I kept paying him. Within three years, he bought himself his house. Then the pandemic hit. California had already passed the thing called AB 5, which said that you couldn’t hire an independent contractor. As an agency, a good 30, 40 percent of my employees are independent contractors and they want to be, and I want them to be, especially in a state that has such frivolous lawsuits. I said, how do we operate? I have to make everybody an employee now, and they don’t even want to be an employee. Then the pandemic hit, and California said, close down your business. I said, no way. I was operating illegally for a little bit. Then I said, enough with this, we’re moving to Tennessee. I offered people the opportunity to move to Tennessee. Some took it, some did not. We are all in Tennessee now, but my son’s has done a great job in transitioning to running the company and being able to make the decisions and showing the maturity and the wisdom to be able to be an entrepreneur.
Russel:
That sounds like a really great approach. When you think about it. I forget to let him go pioneer, almost a semblance of a startup on his own prove that it’s something he wants to do and build some of that confident in skills that naturally come along with that. And then once he proved that out, it sounds like it made the decision for everyone involved so much easier to feel comfortable with. And clearly has gone well for you. For someone that’s out there thinking of doing something similar today, similar someday having a generational business, however far in the future, that may be what’s one or two pro tips you have for them to pull off a successful legacy family transition within the business.
Craig:
It’s hard because, I have expectations. My son had expectations. I had to be patient seeing when he’s giving pushback on some of my direction or some of the things I want to let him do it. He learned the hard way of hiring some friends, for example. I would say, don’t hire your friends. I don’t care how good you think they are. It’s not going to turn out good. He hired his friends and they stabbed him in the back. They proved that they couldn’t do the work and he had to learn that lesson. There’s been several things along that line. But I have found that his attitude is great. I found that, the transition, has been pretty easy. I’m doing more and more of what I like to do and he’s doing things I don’t like to do. In the area of sales, I used to have to be the primary person bringing in the agency business. He now is the primary person. It’s just some of the legacy clients that, that I’m really dealing with at this point.
Russel:
Just to reiterate a couple of things you said there patients, which is probably the biggest aspect and goes along with the idea of taking it slow. What it often, probably also comes down to is I used to ask folks, what advice would you give your younger self to avoid certain things or issues that you eventually faced in the business. Pretty much everyone says, even if they gave themselves advice, they probably wouldn’t have listened to it. So probably not that much different than a parent child relationship that you’re going to give it, but it’s really how important it is for them to learn things on their own. Develop those, some of those skills and insights through their own experience but have some grace and patience through that process. Great takeaways and nuggets there. So I’m really curious, Craig, what’s the future look like for the business? How do you envision it?
Craig:
I’m blown away at how well we’re doing with revenue. We’re at a historic area of revenue. We have talked about whether or not we want to sell to somebody else, sell the agency. We have been open to that. We’ve talked to a couple of people about doing that. I had always turned down those type of opportunities in the past. When I saw clients turning down acquisition opportunities, I would always say, what’s he thinking? He should be doing that. But for myself, I wasn’t interested. We’re looking at that. We’re also looking at how do we be able to perfect the data for our clients? How do we perfect our copy approaches and our art approaches, our media buying approaches? It’s always a constant changing market. As we see Google, Facebook responses declining, we’re seeing other, platforms increasing in response. We’ve got to be able to understand these other media and be able to make sure our clients are there. We’re taking a look at the changing marketplace, my whole thing with the agency is don’t get stuck because it’s easy to get stuck. That’s how we did it last year, that’s how we did it the year before so what, why should we change? Well, you’ve got to change because the marketplace is always dynamic Today it’s fast changing. Indeed it’s accelerated. More changes than ever before. I look back 20, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, I see huge changes. I see something where, there was no FedEx at that time. You relied upon the post office. Today, I’m seeing these dramatic changes taking place, but at an accelerated rate. As an agency, we’ve got to be on top of that. Agencies have struggled. I think one of the things, Russel, has been this, sparked by the big pandemic is the idea that an agency can simply have its employees scattered about working from home. A lot of people are promoting that and they like it. Personally, I have a problem with it. We do deal with a few employees like that, but we have found that we get so much more energy with a team working together within the agency. We resisted the idea of having people being at home, concentrated on being able to be a team. We find that at least for right now, is the best strategy. We’re always looking at seeing, what do we need to change? How do we best do it? We never want to be stuck.
Russel:
I love that approach. We were actually having this conversation the other day in a mastermind group that I have for agency owners. And we were talking about remote working and there was certainly a mixed bag on the group of how they felt about it. Some were hybrid, some that weren’t. And ultimately we just net it out and said, Hey, whatever works for you own it unapologetically own it. As long as you’re genuine behind the intent, just trying to create the best environment for your team. Sometimes that might be in person. Me personally, I love a good remote work environment, but certainly there are situations where I know that’s just not as effective for folks and ultimately what they’re trying to accomplish. I could probably ask a billion more questions, Craig, and so many takeaways from your journey in this business and certainly appreciate you sharing any and everything. I guess I’ll just leave it with one last question for you entrepreneurs born, or are they made.
Craig:
What a great question. I would say an entrepreneur is made. I can justify the statement they’re born because I have seen, for example, among my five kids, Russel, I’ve seen my son who is an entrepreneur have those traits early in his life. He was just a natural sales person, what have you. When I take a look at my clients who are entrepreneurs. When I take a look at my own experiences, I have to say that the agency owner or the entrepreneur who is successful is the one who has that persistence, that vision, that goal, the objective, and is pretty unstoppable, and that they don’t allow circumstances to dictate how they think or what they’re doing. They allow reason and logic. They’re people of faith, prayer, to be able to understand what direction am I going to take? How do I get over this bump? How do I go through this valley and get to the mountain top? Mountain top is the goal and the objective. I think that, anybody can do it, but it takes the stamina of saying, I’m not going to let my circumstances define who I am. I’m not going to be a victim to circumstances. I’m going to take it. I’m going to run with it and I’m going to do what I need to do to make it successful.
Russel:
I love that answer makes me think of, I was reading this the other day and it was talking about high performance athletes and that it’s a very common trait that they are really great at not letting a bad game or a bad shot or really anything bad determine how they feel about their ability or whether or not they’re going to succeed. And that’s a very well known common trait amongst high performance athletes and I’m sure high performance individuals, period and so it makes total sense that correlates to high performance business owners. The perseverance aspect. Well, Craig, if people want to know more about creative direct marketing group, where can they go?
Craig:
They can go to our website, contact us there. They can go to cdmginc.com. I told you I’m a newsletter junkie. We even have a newsletter called Direct Marketing Updates. That gives all the latest test results, all the latest copy tips, all the latest events that impact marketers. They could, get a free copy of a DMU if they’d like to go to cdmginc.com
Russel:
Not too many newsletters have been circling around for 50 years or so. Whenever you started that. Highly encouraged folks to do that. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Craig sharing all the journeys, going back through time and all the transitions and different things you’ve encountered in your business. Really amazing perspectives. And I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to share those with us today.
Craig:
Good to be with you, Russel, thanks.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. Are you interested in being a guest on the show? Send an email to podcast@performancefaction.com. An Agency Story is brought to you by Performance Faction. Performance Faction offers services to help agency owners grow their business to 5 million dollars and more in revenue. To learn more, visit performancefaction.com.
Craig:
I was excited because I got a phone call from some people in Chicago and they were starting a new product, new service for people interested in sports. In professional sports. They were going to be able to have kind of a tip sheet an analysis sheet that you couldn’t get anywhere else from some of the biggest names in the industry. I fly to Chicago and I have all my marketing materials done, all the things done, that needed to be, giving them the impression that, I can do it. I can make them successful. I can launch this product and without any problem. I’m there and I’m talking to them. I’m thinking I’m doing a great job. The super sports hero looks at me. He goes, who’s going to be in the Superbowl this year? I said, I have no idea. He said, do you know any of the players? I don’t follow pro football. They all looked at me stunned and shocked. I thought how, I was totally embarrassed. I totally deflated. I thought this is a nightmare. I said my goodbyes. I thanked them. Two weeks later, they told me they were going to hire me to do their job.
Russel:
So I certainly have a couple takeaways from that experience, but I’m just curious from your perspective, what’s the moral there. What do you take away from that?
Craig:
I took away, they understood I had a plan to make them successful. My heart was to help them grow. My desire was to make sure I wasn’t enriched, they were enriched. I talked in terms of how they can really experience success. My guess is the other agencies they talked to, they didn’t get that feeling, but they certainly didn’t hire me be based upon my expertise.
Russel:
For me personally, there’s just the transparency. You didn’t fake your way knowing football or anything like that. You just said, that I don’t know this stuff, but I do know marketing just really pointing back to your strengths as well. And I’m sure that was a very interesting moment, but I’m glad to hear you won the business and certainly speaks to the power of what you do as an agency.
