Company: Pinstripe Marketing
Owners: Ginger Reichl
Year Started: 1998
Employees: 1 – 10
Welcome to “An Agency Story,” the podcast series that delves into the journeys of agency owners, exploring their challenges, triumphs, and the unique paths they’ve carved in the business world. In this episode, we feature Ginger Reichl, the dynamic founder of Pinstripe Marketing. Ginger’s story is a testament to ambition and resilience, making this episode a must-listen.
Ginger shares the pivotal moments that shaped her career, including the challenges of starting her own agency and navigating the complexities of business management. Her ability to pivot during economic downturns and the COVID-19 pandemic showcases her strategic thinking and adaptability.
Ginger’s narrative is filled with inspiring and humorous anecdotes. Notable highlights include her decision in middle school to pursue a career in advertising, leading to her founding Pinstripe Marketing at a young age. She shares a hilarious yet slightly embarrassing moment where she mistakenly hugged a potential client, thinking he was coming in for an embrace, only to never hear from him again. A powerful quote from Ginger reflecting on her journey is, “I was the kid that recorded the Super Bowl and edited out the game so I could just watch the ads.”
Join us in this episode as Ginger Reichl shares her remarkable story, filled with insightful lessons and memorable moments. Her journey will leave you contemplating the power of ambition, resilience, and the importance of adapting to change. Tune in to “An Agency Story” to be inspired by Ginger’s incredible path to success.
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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 Ginger Reichl the inspiring founder of Pinstripe Marketing based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Discover her unique journey from a middle school student with a dream to the leader of a successful marketing agency that specializes in professional service firms. Learn how her early fascination with Superbowl ads and a pivotal moment in law firms shape Pinstripe’s tailored approach to marketing. Ginger’s story is fun and authentic, including a humorous incident where she may have lost a potential client, all because of a hug. Discover how her resilience and innovative strategies have driven Pinstripe Marketing’s success. Enjoy the story. Welcome to the show today, everyone. I have Ginger Reichl with Pinstripe Marketing with us here today. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Ginger.
Ginger:
Thank you so much for having me, Russel.
Russel:
I’m excited to get started, but right out of the gate, what does Pinstripe Marketing do and who do you do it for?
Ginger:
Pinstripe Marketing, I guess you would call it a full service marketing, advertising, communications, PR agency. What makes us a little bit different than most agencies is that we focus primarily on professional services firms. We love working with nerds. We work with lawyers, accountants, architects, engineers, construction folks, technology. Anyone that kind of, you know, picked their course in life and decided they were going to do something professional. Those are our people.
Russel:
I love that. I’m sure nerds are really great at whatever they’re really great at and probably need a lot of help with their marketing. Can’t wait to hear more about that. Before we talk about all things, Pinstripe, as I recall from our last conversation, you’re living out what was your dream, from a very young age. Tell us when this idea started and some of the early days pre Pinstripe as to what, how Ginger evolved.
Ginger:
Speaking of nerds, I decided that I was going to have an advertising agency when I was in the seventh grade and, uh, really put myself on a mission from that point. Really focused through, you the newspaper and the yearbook staff. Going to college, majoring in advertising communications, all the classes, all the clubs, all the professional associations. Put myself in a place where I could learn as much as I could before, I decided that I was going to start my own agency.
Russel:
That is amazing. You might be the first, person that I think I’ve ever talked to that decided at such a young age that they were going to own an agency. Can you think back, like, why? Was there a moment, was there something that inspired you or was it just because?
Ginger:
I’ve thought about that a lot recently, and you know, I was the kid that recorded the Super Bowl and edited out the game so I could just watch the ads. Back then, the, our local paper, the St. Petersburg Times, they ran a design an ad contest where they went to their advertisers for sponsorship, and they assigned kids, one of their clients. We got these little four by four spaces to design an ad. I remember I was assigned Bert Smith Oldsmobile and you know, everyone designed their ads and sent them in. That Sunday morning you opened up the paper, but my ad wasn’t in there. I didn’t win. I guess maybe at that point, I was like, well, you know, if that’s really what I want to do, then I better go to school and figure out how to do it. I was always just intrigued by, advertising. Back in kind of the eighties, nineties, a lot of the television shows, a lot of people worked in advertising and that just looked like a lot of fun, very creative, but still professional. I think it fit my personality pretty well.
Russel:
Clearly you chose a very good path for yourself. Woe to that newspaper, you showed them. Maybe that’s what it was. That was your inspiration as a, I’m going to show them.
Ginger:
In a funny full circle moment, I actually used that story in my interview with the St. Petersburg Times and that ended up being my very first job out of college.
Russel:
Of course we had to have a full circle moment. That’s amazing. You knew at a young age, this was going to be your path. How long did it take you to get there? You obviously went to college and graduated. What was the way point between you and actually starting Pinstripe?
Ginger:
As I mentioned, I went and worked and sold ads for the Times for a few years. Then got recruited by a giant law firm that grew from like, 450 to 850 attorneys while I was there. Now they’re well over 2200 attorneys or something giant. That’s where I learned that there was that gap in the market of people who understood how to work with, professionals. When I left the law firm is when I started Penstripe, but it didn’t take me very long. I would think I was maybe 26, 27 years old and I was like, oof, I am too young, too dumb, I have no idea what I’m doing. I got very lucky that, this Fortune 100 company decided to hire me to start this weird, in house advertising agency within their behemoth marketing department. I was able to learn how to run an agency and do all the things that were outside of marketing. The financial pieces of it, the business organization, just the politics of, with this Fortune 100 safety net. I had the best job in the entire company and I was able to stay there for about seven years before I was able to go back and tackle Pinstripe full time. That was, back in 2006.
Russel:
Almost sounds like a, just as you’re kind of describing, like a business owner internship. Or incubator almost, to give you this experience.
Ginger:
Absolutely. There’s a lot of things now where, where everyone talks about entrepreneurism, I don’t even know if we had the word for it then, but they allowed me to be intrapreneurial and really build something inside of this amazing company.
Russel:
Okay. Was that just a natural progression? When you’re saying you did that for about seven years and then, officially went and started. Did you call it Pinstripe? Were you, just a business within a business in this? Then you just left that entity. Is that how that worked out?
Ginger:
Yeah. When I left the law firm, it was one of those three o’clock in the morning kind of things like, oh, Pinstripe, like a Pinstripe suit. I kept it as a nights and weekends, you know, just helping friends if they were starting a business and needed some marketing stuff done, throughout those seven years. Towards the end of that stint, there were a lot of changes. It was a technology company and it was, you know, the tech industry is always changing and evolving. It was time for me to go. I was like, well, okay, now’s the time to really hit Pinstripe full time. So Pinstripe lives on today.
Russel:
The essence of the name is this professional pinstripe suit.
Ginger:
Exactly. Yeah. The idea is, is that, you know, that not off the rack, that bespoke custom made tailored one of one kind of suit. That’s really been our approach to marketing as well as making sure that, you know, everything that we do is tailored to that client.
Russel:
This is making me want to go get a pinstripe suit. Maybe I’ll have to.
Ginger:
You’d look good in a pinstripe suit.
Russel:
Yes, I’ll have to do that. Hitting out the gate on your own like that and, you know, obviously you had this good training ground. I’m sure you’ve heard other stories of what it’s like starting a business or in particular, an agency. Did you feel like it allowed you to overcome so many more of those issues more quickly, just as far as how you’re getting clients and how you’re handling, just some of the monetary business aspects of all this?
Ginger:
For sure. I had always felt confident in my marketing ability just because I had been a student of it again since middle school. I always felt confident with the marketing pieces of it, but I really had no idea how to run a business. My parents both work for other companies and they didn’t really talk about work when they got home and I was never really exposed to that. Having that training ground to really learn from some of the industry’s best, when it came to other parts of actually running a business, was extremely helpful. The sales experience that I got at the Times and selling media, where I actually sold to ad agencies from the media buying side, got a little glimmer of what that looked like. All of those things, that is the precursor really set me up for success on, on the side where I decided to hang out that shingle.
Russel:
25 years. I’m sure there’s 8 billion stories that we could try to, unpack and all that, which probably don’t have time for today. When you think back across that entire time span, what are the two or three just major pivot moments or just critical linchpin, fork in the road moments when you think about that journey?
Ginger:
That’s a good question. I’ve always been what my friends call a habitual joiner. If there’s a membership list and dues, I’m probably in it. I like to be around people and that’s really how I get my energy. While it started with, the American Advertising Federation and the Marketing Association and the Legal Marketing Association and being among my peers, as the agency grew and evolved, I was like, I’m not getting a whole lot of business from these peers. Let’s find some other ways in order to be visible. Getting involved in, the chamber and some other, national professional associations, going through leadership St. Pete and meeting people from all facets of business was really critical. Learning to be visible in a different way, was really critical and because of that, I’ve never really had to do traditional business development or sales. Everything that we’ve had from, new client and new business prospects, have what I call fallen in my lap. But I know that really, it’s just about being visible and, serving on boards of directors of nonprofits and things like that to show people that I’m reliable, I’m easy to work with. I’ve got a couple marbles in my head, can string together some good ideas. I think that made the growth of Pinstripe much more organic and simple to, to put my arms around versus a traditional cold call, cold email in the hustle.
Russel:
It sounds like it’s about adapting whatever your approach is to your strengths, which, just clearly you were talking about how you get energy from that and need that. Very cool on that front. I’m assuming at some point during this process, you’re talking about spending all this time and being a part of these things that you also have to make sure the work gets done and there’s some of that technician aspect. Were you working kind of two jobs because you were focused on both of those aspects or how are you getting the other side done?
Ginger:
I always joke and say that I have no skills. I’m not a designer, I’m not a writer, I’m not a videographer. As far as the work getting done, my skillset is really on the front end and setting strategy and building plans and connecting the dots. I’m able to spend a lot of time on the front end, but then I can hand things off to a very capable team to be able to create the stuff. My skill set really is in, developing the relationships and building the strategies. It’s funny when I say that I don’t have any skills.
Russel:
You just named several, but, yeah, maybe not giving yourself full credit there. Was that hard initially when you just talk about that? I think sometimes that’s something agency owners struggle through, as they do have that vision. They do see the bigger picture. Maybe not somewhat specifically the plan of how something needs to happen, but transitioning that to get other people to live that and carry that out. Was that all roses and sunshine in the early days of you needing to do that? How did you get to such a good place with that in mind?
Ginger:
Comparatively, I don’t know. I mentioned being involved in all those organizations where I was among my peers. The good news is that I was able to really meet the best of the best when it came to writers and designers and the folks that could actually do the work. A lot of them were independent and freelance or did things in nights and weekends. Some of us came up together where I could rely on them and pull together a really fantastic team on a project by project basis, where I didn’t have to necessarily staff up really quickly, that I could bring people in as I needed them.
Russel:
That makes sense. I think sometimes that is a value and that there’s this need to go hire someone. Maybe we’re starting out, we don’t have a budget for all the experience. But then now we’re responsible. We’re getting someone that experience, but more of that approach, you’re already hiring seasoned professionals that are doing this on the side. So you don’t have to bridge as many gaps. You’re hiring almost peers, it sounds like, than, people you’re responsible for growing. Was there a point and if, and when that was, were, some point in your 25 years where you’re like, oh crap, I’ve got to pivot. I’ve got to, change or just things weren’t going the way you planned.
Ginger:
Don’t we all? Like most of us, COVID was a struggle. In professional services, there’s a lot of our industries and client types that are, the, what do you call it?
Russel:
The leading warning sign.
Ginger:
Right. With the industries that we work with, a lot of them are the canaries in the coal mine when things start going south. If you work with a corporate law firm, they’re either doing mergers and acquisitions or they’re doing bankruptcies. But with guys like, architects and engineers and construction, when those things go south, the entire industry does. Our work in those industries follows along. Being able to have enough of a stable of a variety of clients, like, cause when I started, my idea was just doing law and quickly learned that wasn’t going to work. Being able to find these industries that still felt similar, where we could adapt our storytelling abilities, our ability to market to them, that are structured a lot of the same way. That seemed to be the key for us to be able to manage a lot of those kind of downturns and things in the market. I got a lot of sideways looks when I announced that in the beginning,
Russel:
Sometimes niches don’t have to be so specific, but the, there is common knowledge. You’ve kind of created this common thread of the nerd, of this professional worker that can be across many different platforms, but it’s the same mechanics that are going to make, what you do effective for them and probably adds just even a little bit of extra spice that you’re not just working with lawyers all day. I’m sure some people might feel the pain of that, some challenges there. I can totally see that. At some point in the business, it sounds like you’ve got things running like a well oiled machine. You had essentially a number two that was running things for you. That, as I understand, allowed you to basically step away from the business in a not insignificant way. For some owners, that sounds like a dream. How did you get that to happen?
Ginger:
She came in for an interview for a project management position. By the end of the interview, I think I offered her the agency. She is amazing. She’s multi, multi talented. Really smart and just, um, great with our clients and, and treated the agency as if it were her own from the beginning. We were together for about seven years, and she just made the decision, after having a baby and going through some life changes that she wanted to go back to her passion and decided to return to grad school for mental health counseling for kids, which, how can you argue with that? But at the time, me getting back into the day to day after being semi retired for three years or so was definitely a challenge.
Russel:
I bet. I want to talk more about that, but I want to go back to this. Cause I had a very similar, circumstance and, in our own agency. To the whole point, I almost was going to write a book find this person for your business and you solve just a lot of other things you might have to grow through, but when you think about that, do you look at that on the scale of zero to a hundred? We think about luck, or pure luck or pure skill. How do you look at that? was that just serendipitous lucky? Or do you think you did something to bring that in and attract that?
Ginger:
It would seem 100 percent luck. To land her at that moment was 100 percent luck. As I recall, it may have been a referral from someone. Maybe that network paid off, after all, but that was definitely one of the luckiest moments in all of 25 years.
Russel:
I’m not going to believe you that it’s 100 percent luck. You built this network, you represent yourself well. Clearly you also represented the type of business that this person, this type of person would want to work for. I think there’s a lot more credit due to your end than you might attribute, but I think maybe that’s just for the listeners home to hear that, there’s not this unicorn we have to find. We have to be the place the unicorns want to come to. Be a unicorn feeding ground. Let’s go back to, you had this really great opportunity that allowed you, as you said, semi retire from the business. Now you’ve got to step back in. Talk through a little bit more of what that’s like emotionally. What was your step one, two, three, when you were approaching this?
Ginger:
It was actually really good timing. We all went through the COVID years. I actually ended up with long COVID, which kind of pickled my brain pretty bad there for 18 months. Coming out of that, um, honestly getting bored, and not really feeling engaged. I was probably getting depressed, um, just happened at exactly the right time. When I had to jump back in, I mean, she was extremely kind and gave me, like, eight months notice that she was leaving.
Russel:
That’s nice.
Ginger:
I was able to ask her, so who are our clients again? And what do we do? And where’s the bathroom? To kind of figure out what, what changes had been made and what things that we were doing. Jumping back in and, you know, having those meetings and getting that energy again was absolutely the best thing for me. The first several months was the handoff and doing, going meet to meetings together, having calls together, doing things to kind of transition and making sure that our clients knew me and that they were going to be in good hands. They weren’t just getting dropped. The next part of that was, you know, she had done an amazing job in kind of maintenance mode, but because the rest of that support wasn’t there, there wasn’t a lot of growth. Me jumping back into a business development role meant getting back out and being visible again. Joining those organizations, finding different places to spend my time, but not necessarily, you know, extending myself or overextending myself like I had before was step two. Now we’re, I’m at a point where we’re starting to do proposals again. We’re starting to see the fruits of those labors over the last several months. That’s where the tweaking is going to start. When we start getting the, the wind ratios and where we need to make some adjustments, but, but overall, as far as my returning to the business, it’s been perfect timing and it’s really been a lot of fun.
Russel:
My kind of next question is going through that, does it feel like, was there a frustration? Like, oh, I have to, it’s almost like starting all over again in some ways. Or was that exciting, but it sounds like you’re really enjoying the process.
Ginger:
There’s certainly days when it’s frustrating, especially when, they’re the people that I was hanging out with before or off, playing and I’m back at work again, but, but no, it’s been wonderful. Even my mom said, you sound so much more like yourself again, which is really good to hear.
Russel:
That is a good KPI, a very qualitative KPI. One of my favorite things that when I learned about your story is this idea of how you look at your team and in particular your past team. You kind of called it, your alumni network, or I don’t know if you have a better name for that. You can tell us more about it, but I thought that was such a really cool approach to how you look at the folks that come into your atmosphere there. Where did you get the inspiration for that idea? And what does that thought process look like in your business?
Ginger:
I need to do some research and find out exactly where I initially saw it, but it was one of the big New York banks or financial services firms. I had read an article where they talked about their alumni network. The idea was, is that, they bring people in right out of school, no experience. They’re very honest and upfront with them. They say, we’re going to train you. We’re going to teach you everything, you know, we’re going to connect you to a bunch of people, but we understand that someday you’re going to outgrow us. You’re going to get frustrated. Something’s going to happen. You’re going to want to make a move when that happens. Don’t just give us two weeks notice. Let us help you. We have these networks. We’ll make sure that you get placed in the next best space for you. They host these alumni events every year where they bring everyone back together with the idea that if they get into a situation where they’re not a good fit, the referral comes back to that initial firm. If, you know, they get into a situation where they’re conflicted out of working with someone they can make that referral. That if they have someone that’s coming up and they want to be able to give them a job, but there’s no openings where they are, that they can make that referral. I just love that idea of building community where there isn’t any animosity, where we can all get along. There’s enough business for everybody. That if you treat people with respect and truly genuinely want to help them grow their careers because you know, we’re a small agency. I can’t afford, top level multi years of experience. I have to grow people up. If I can be honest with them and share my network and let them know that I want them to succeed, then I’m going to have the most loyal alumni out there ever.
Russel:
I love that. I love that approach. It reminds me of there’s a, a local, minor league baseball team here. Their approach is very similar that, they have a hard time, they don’t have big budgets and they got to hire people in. Their whole program is they grab folks out of college like this and they say, give me two of your best years here. Give me all you’ve got and I’ll give you everything I’ve got after that. If you don’t give me the two years, then you’re not going to get what I’ve got but give me those two years and, and, uh, I’ll set you up for success. I thought that was a really cool approach.
Ginger:
It’s really great. That concept has really grown over the last several years. This is not anything new, but a lot of companies are now building these alumni networks. In fact, I just saw a, um, an article in the Harvard Business Review last week talking about the benefits of alumni networks.
Russel:
I will say, I talk to a lot of folks and I do not hear it brought up that often. I’m sure it’s, yeah, maybe not the most unique, but, but I don’t think we’re anywhere near commonplace, in terms of thinking about this. Do you have like alumni get togethers or what, how does that live out beyond just your keeping up the relationship itself individually after the fact?
Ginger:
We used to do a lot of stuff together. I would take them to, you know, Tampa Bay Rays games or when the circus would come to town or something, we would all kind of get back together and do something. Since then, a lot of my alumni has moved on to other cities, so it’s a little bit harder to, to keep in touch with them. But, for instance, as part of our, 25 year anniversary, we sent these really great custom cookies out to a lot of our clients. Some of them haven’t been clients in years, but just to thank them for helping us get to this milestone. Those went out to the alumni as well, cause they were absolutely a part of the success and building that 25 year.
Russel:
Wow. Very cool. I love that. What a great idea. When you think about the business and obviously you’re still trying to get your feet back under you fully from stepping back in. But what’s the future look like for you? What’s the big game plan here?
Ginger:
I used to have these dreams of really building the empire of, having, staffs, dozens of people and then doing all kinds of really great work and going after the, the giant budgets and giant clients. That has definitely changed and, stepping out for a few years and realizing truly what’s important. I’m shifting into doing really good quality work. Not that we didn’t before, but it just, it, it doesn’t have to be big. It can be very small, but it has to matter. I see what’s happening. We’re doing more work, with some startups. I have an ooey gooey soft spot for nonprofits. I want to make sure that we’re doing really great work for them and the people that, that help build our communities. I’d love to do more of that. I really would like to get back into doing the pro bono work that we did a lot of in those early years, where we select a nonprofit and we do a comprehensive campaign for them and things that they would normally never be able to afford on their own. If I can, make a decent living for myself and for my team, that’s really, I think my only goal at this point.
Russel:
I don’t think anyone’s going to fight you on that. Doing work that matters sounds like a great enough goal, and especially if you’re doing it for other people that does work that matters, uh, then I think you’re making a good place in the world for yourself. Very cool. Love so many parts of your story. I’m curious how you’re going to answer this question, but, uh, someone that had such an idea of what they wanted to do from such a young age, are entrepreneurs born or are they made?
Ginger:
Are they born or are they made? I think it’s probably a little bit of both. Especially now, I think, I, just this week I had the opportunity to speak to, an independent school of 12th graders and, you know, asking them, who wants to own your own business or whatever. A lot of them in the room raised their hand that they’re part of these entrepreneurial, academies and tracks and school and colleges and universities now have entrepreneurial programs. Those things didn’t exist when I was in school. I didn’t even really know what an entrepreneur was until much later, but now that we all, carry around in our purses and pockets, this awesome tool that allows us, to have a side hustle or to build a business, within moments is really exciting. Being able to, to see kids, establish themselves and to build businesses and to have ideas is, is really pretty awesome. You probably have to have that, that spirit. You have to remain a student. You have to be curious. You have to have all of those, personal qualities, but the function of being an entrepreneur is more accessible than ever now.
Russel:
Beautiful answer. Love, love all of it. So many parts of that, but I think especially that, that spirit. But then how much that kind of has to be nurtured and fed with information, but maybe the key word, most of all that curious. That’s a very, very, very intriguing way to look at it. If people want to know more about Pinstripe Marketing, where can they go?
Ginger:
Pinstripemarketing.com is the website and we’re on socials. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, try to being as active as possible now that that’s back in my hands. It’s hit and miss, but, uh, yeah, we try to keep folks up to date on what we’re doing and, uh, seeing some alumni out there as well, keeping track of them.
Russel:
Love that. Yeah. Go find yourself a Pinstripe alumni folks. Go to all the socials, go to Pinstripemarketing.com. Thank you so much for your time today, Ginger, and sharing all the wonderful points of your story. So much to walk away with and, love seeing, pretty close to natural born entrepreneur that wanted to start a marketing agency. I think it’ll be a while before I see someone that has similar shoes as that, but really appreciate you taking the time to share your story today.
Ginger:
Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it.
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.
Ginger:
I went in for a new potential client meeting. It went great. We were laughing and joking. He was bringing other people into the room to meet me. We were, making all these plans and what the proposal was going to look like. I thought it was an absolute done deal, going to leave the office and, he goes to open the door for me. It looked to me like he was coming in for a hug, and I’m a hugger. Pulled him into a full embrace. I got this look like, lady, we just met and, slumped my way back down to the car and, parked out front and never heard from him again.
Russel:
Wow. Like literally just ghosted after that?
Ginger:
Yeah. Lesson learned.
Russel:
I mean, a hug can’t be seen as a bad thing. I don’t know, man. I’m with you on this one. Who doesn’t want to hug? I don’t know. I get it though. We all have our, we all have our boundaries. So, clearly he does not like to hug.
