Company: Atomic Idea
Owners: Duane Ciacco
Year Started: 2005
Employees: 1 – 10
In this episode of An Agency Story, Duane Ciacco, co-founder of Atomic Idea, shares his compelling journey from a multifaceted young dreamer—aspiring to be a lawyer, chef, or artist—to the co-creator of a thriving brand marketing agency. Atomic Idea, based in Lakewood, Colorado, emphasizes tailored solutions for clients and operates with a streamlined, efficient approach to deliver measurable results.
Duane discusses the pivotal moments that shaped his career, including an unexpected layoff that catapulted him into entrepreneurship. He shares insights from his early experiences in corporate marketing, working on multimillion-dollar campaigns, to navigating the challenges and opportunities of starting his own agency. Duane’s intentional approach to agency growth—focusing on cultivating a cohesive brand identity, hiring a no-jerks policy, and leading by example—sets Atomic Idea apart in the industry.
Listeners will enjoy anecdotes such as Duane’s participation in a performance driving school to understand a client project better and his humorous recount of holding a couch cushion over an air vent during a video shoot. These stories, combined with his candid reflections on partnerships, navigating financial hurdles, and prioritizing team culture, offer a unique perspective on agency life.
Tune in to discover how Duane and his team are building a client-centered agency, the lessons learned from years of growth, and the importance of creating meaningful relationships in business. This episode will leave you inspired and contemplating the essence of intentional leadership and entrepreneurship.
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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 Russell. In this episode we’re joined by Dwayne Ciacco co-founder of Atomic Idea, a brand marketing agency based in Lakewood, Colorado. Dwayne shares his journey from dreaming of being a lawyer to building an agency that thrives on creating results-driven solutions for its clients. Hear how an unexpected layoff led them to embrace entrepreneurship, the lessons he’s learned about partnerships, and why holding a couch cushion over an air vent, shows the unexpected nature of running an agency. From there, no jerks hiring policy to their dedication, to client relationships hear all the details that make Atomic Idea tick. Enjoy the story. Welcome to the show today, everyone. I have Duane Ciacco with us here today with Atomic Idea. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Duane.
Duane:
Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.
Russel:
I’m glad to have you as well. If you don’t mind, start us off right outta the gate. What does Atomic Idea do and who do you do it for?
Duane:
Atomic Idea is a brand marketing agency that works with our clients to deliver effective results that are tailored specifically to their objectives and needs. What we’ve done with the outset, from the outset of the agency is compress a lot of the layers so that we can work more efficiently and cost effectively for our clients.
Russel:
In 2024, everybody’s concerned about price. We’ll have to dig into more about how you’ve managed to do that and some of your thought processes there. But before we talk about all things agency, let’s go back in time. What was young Duane wanting to do with his life?
Duane:
That’s a complicated question, Russel, because, uh, went through a lot of different things from wanting to be a professional chef to a lawyer, an artist, a photographer, photojournalist. It just seemed to kind of be all over the board. Coming out of high school, I’d kind of settled on being a lawyer, went to college, um, with that thought in mind and that all changed my first year where I decided that I really wanted to find something that could combine several different things, uh, that I was interested in. Speaking to my creative side, my analytical side. I like to talk so that pitching side. At the end of the day, after doing a lot of thinking, research and talking to a lot of different mentors that we had through the university, I landed on marketing. I said goodbye to being a lawyer, which was probably a good thing and really focused on sharpening my skills in different ways to be a good marketing professional. When I came out of the university, I had a double major in mass communications and then studio art with a focus in photography, so I was really able to bridge the gap between, you know, the creative side and that analytical side, you know, the strategy and the creative. I took this job as a customer service agent at a call center and actually loved it, uh, dealing with customers and solving their problems, selling them, upselling. I knew that wasn’t gonna be my long term career, but it was a great foundation for me that I’ve never forgotten as I went along my career, to be down in the trenches, so to speak, right? Dealing with customer service at the basic level. From there, though, I went into corporate marketing, which was sort of the goal. I landed at, um, TCI Communications, which was a very large cable TV company at the time. They had a lean marketing group so it was perfect. I got in and got to do a lot of different things, working on, you know, multimillion dollar marketing campaigns. We had a couple of great ad agencies that we were working with and really got to kind of hone and sharpen my skills, uh, over a few years. From there I leaped over to Showtime networks, I was a national accounts manager there and then, uh, left there to go to the agency side. See what it was like on the ad agency side, and then maybe go back to corporate marketing. I never went back. I worked with a couple different agencies over the years, Russel, some really big ones. 35 people, then as small as like six or seven. Along the way, just continue to, you know, build my experience and look at, uh, you know, what I could take from each of those experiences. Ultimately, it was 12 years ago that I had jumped out on my own, became a consultant, fractional employee they call it now, and was really providing a lot of different services to other small agencies, to clients, video production, brand, uh, marketing, business development, kind of did everything. Just continued to build. That evolved where in 2018, I started Atomic Idea, uh, with a good friend of mine that I’ve known since college. We’ve known each other 30 plus years. He’s more of the creative. He’s an art director, a great graphic designer, and we started Atomic Idea. The goal was to create an agency that did things a little differently. Here we are, you know, 2024 and we’re still going and then we’re still growing. We’re excited.
Russel:
One, I’m just impressed because this was not young 20 something or maybe even pre-20 something year old Russel of how much intention and process you put into determining your major, but clearly that worked out and shaped out well for you. You’ve now been in this career for a long time and clearly seem to enjoy it and as you said, it appeals to your creative side. Go back to even when you said you were stepping away there to be a consultant. Was there a particular event that was the impetus for that? Or were you just like, man, I’m done with corporate life and I gotta work for myself? What were you thinking back then?
Duane:
You’re good, Russel. You’re keying in on that and peeling back the onion a little bit. That was a forced decision but I can tell you the story. I’d been with the agency that I was at for 10 years. It really helped build it into what it was. Was the head of the account services and strategy and, uh, taking care of all the clients. I had been trying for about two years to try to find something new. I felt like I, it kind of maxed out. I had talked to the owner a few times about even becoming a part owner and, and work toward acquiring the business when he was done and he wasn’t really open to that. I kind of realized I, I needed to find something else. I was trying, but hadn’t landed the right opportunity. Then one day, uh, he laid me off. Just out of the blue, it was really unexpected. It wasn’t a good breakup, unfortunately, but, you know, I went home and I thought, wow, this, you know, I was really grumpy. I remember it was like a week later, my wife, we were sitting at dinner and she says, all right, Duane, that’s enough. I’m like, what do you mean? She goes, that’s enough. You’ve been trying to get out of there for two years. You’re just not happy because it wasn’t on your terms. I said, that’s a good point. At that point it was like, all right, I got to pick up the pieces and figure out what we’re going to do. Honestly, what happened was I had two or three clients of mine that were part of that agency that came knocking and they said, hey, we were with you guys because of you. What are you going to do? I was like, well, I’m thinking of maybe starting my own thing. They said, do it. I was able to kind of launch with a couple of clients and then a small agency that I had a very good relationship with, uh, needed someone to come in and just kind of be a Jack of all trades. He knew me very well. He had almost hired me once, uh, before, couple of years passed. I went and had that too. Right out of the gate, I spun up the consulting firm in a couple of weeks, I had everything laid out and I was billing clients. I got pushed off the diving board, so to speak, but I think it was what I needed to, you know, make it happen. Funny kind of story about that. Russel, I remember getting my business checks. I ordered them and they came in this giant box. I open it up and there were, I mean, I can’t, it was huge, huge stack of business checks. I remember thinking to myself, I’m never going to use all these. I really thought, if I could do this for a year, that’d be awesome. Two years would be great and then I’ll probably end up back, you know, at an agency or maybe even a corporate job. Here we are, you know, 12 years later.
Russel:
I’m doing this until the checks run out.
Duane:
I had to move on to another box of checks, eventually.
Russel:
That’s good. A curious thing, I hear this a lot, you know, folks in the agency world, the, this grass is greener, this approach. Folks in the corporate world that are focused on one brand, one business, et cetera, like, man, I would love to go have the variety of an agency. And then people on the agency side, man, I would love to just work on one brand. That would be great. Do you remember kind of at the time when you, you said you stopped, that was going to be a temporary stop for you. What made you want to stay in that agency environment?
Duane:
That’s a good question. Preface this with saying, I get asked this a lot and I’ll always say there’s pros and cons to both sides. I’ll be the first to admit there’s some things I miss about being on the client side but there’s things I absolutely love about being on the agency side. And certain people also are better fit for one or the other. We’ve had some people even work for us, um, where I’ve told them, you would probably be better working on the client side. For me, I think what it was, was the variety. Being able to work on a lot of different types of things with different clients, different industries, different types of projects, different people. That really was something that fed, you know, me, if you will. And was fulfilling, I guess, is what you’d say. Because it kept me challenged. And being able to also be more, you, you gotta be able to land the business and keep the business. When you’re the client, you’re the client. You have the budgets and you’re hiring the agencies, but on the agency side, there’s a little more, you know, responsibility there in terms of making sure you’re getting that business in the door and keeping it. Those kinds of things have really kept me, you know, excited. And the ability to, to choose, right? At some level you can kind of choose what industries and things you want to work in, and, and, and build that variety of client base when you’re on the agency side. But I will say the benefits are a lot better on the client side.
Russel:
More corporate perks per se. I’ll go on a little side tangent here because this has been coming up in a lot of conversations lately that, and it’s made me even think of my own agency experience of just all the unique experiences you get that you wouldn’t expect having an agency or working for other clients, right? You can attend events and all kinds of, I’ve been to all kinds of crazy places because of the fact of being in an agency role. What’s your craziest thing that you’ve been a part of, as being part of an agency?
Duane:
I got a couple of them, but one that, you know, sort of stands out for me is we were doing a lot of work with a technical school that, uh, trained auto mechanics. We were putting together this program with another partner of theirs about safe driving. Trying to really focus on, uh, safe driving for high school students. As part of that, we were developing this course and working with this other consultant out of California. I get a call and he’s basically saying, you know, we’re really excited about this and what we’d really love to do is send you to performance driving school so you really can understand what we’re trying to do here. I was like, what? Did I hear you right? No joke, they sent me and another guy to, uh, Arizona to attend, uh, a private, uh, performance driving school at the Bondurant School of Driving. It was a private day. We had this whole day, two of us, uh, plus the other guy, so three of us, with this instructor who was a ex race car driver and they had all these cars and we did in classroom and on track. It was unbelievable. It was like an amazing experience. That one stands out, that was really cool.
Russel:
Just to give the visual for folks at home, what does performance driving look like? Is this like a stunt man, like, like donuts driving, or is this just like high speed?
Duane:
They put us in different types of cars to learn how cars react, but we had to go through obstacles and learn how to like, lock up the brakes and while you’re skidding, still steer. How to avoid, uh, maneuvers, uh, avoidance maneuvers, like going 70 miles an hour and then have to avoid things, how to take turns at a high rate of speed. It was really cool. It was like a blend of probably, you know, I guess you’d call it stunt driving and, and race car driving along with just stuff that applied to everyday driving, right? Higher level performance techniques. I still get excited about it, even talking about it and this was probably 20 years ago that I did that.
Russel:
I can feel the energy. I want to go down a whole even longer tangent on this, but I suppose we’ll get back, back on the storyline here. Another thing that kind of run into no shortage of, we’ll call it the accidental agency owner that, I started out as a kind of a freelancer consultant and I needed some more help and I need some more help and need some more help. The next thing I know, I got an agency. It sounds like you at least made a, um, it was a very intentional step to move beyond, freelance consultants, but why and how and what when that time came around?
Duane:
When I first started the consulting firm, you know, I would bring in people as needed. I had a very strong network of people that I knew and had worked with. Depending on the project, you know, I would bring in certain people to work with me and, and that was great. I did a lot of great projects and some big work, but what I was never really looked at as is a true agency. What I wasn’t able to, to really land and I would go after some of this sometimes is the true kind of agency of record, right? Work where, you know, they would look at you as like, well, you’re great, you’re talented and you got this team, but you’re just kind of the consultant. Or the one man band that brings people in. It was a calculated move to really create Atomic Idea. We had been talking about it for a while. I’d been talking to Keith, my partner, telling him we should do it. We had some other guys that were involved early on that we were talking about the same thing. We saw the need. We were already doing it. We started in 2017 and early part of 2018, we were already getting work, uh, through my consulting firm. Then another agency we were doing some work with who was just a production agency. And that’s when we were like, we need to just create an agency. A true brand marketing, full service agency. It was calculated in, in the way we created it. It was organic in the way we grew it. We took our time as we grew it, even in the beginning, the first two years, you know, I had a lot going on on the side. My partner had his stuff going on, on the side. Then it was probably, uh, just the last year of COVID maybe, um, that we really started to focus. It was 2022 where it was like, all right, you know, all hands on deck, we’re going to make this really, really work.
Russel:
Interesting. I love the intentionality. We can go back to young age and clearly some diligence and intentionality is clearly part of your personality. Obviously had a lot of experience, corporate and agency when you let’s just say even going maybe to 2022 and decided to ramp this up a little bit. What were you most maybe surprised by that experience that you hadn’t been able to get in all your years prior? What did you really lean on specifically that helped you in those, uh, those days?
Duane:
I would probably say that one of the things that became apparent pretty quickly is the scale of the financial side. More of the accounting, the bookkeeping, the, you know, all of that, where, you know, I had done that as my own consultant and, and run some things but the scale became much bigger. We’re dealing with more people, more clients, more payroll, more invoices going out, payments coming in. That was something that quickly. We realized that, hey, this, we need help. One of the things that myself and my partner are always really good about saying is, you know, we don’t do everything. We don’t know how to do everything, or we’re not good at doing everything. Find someone who is. Take it off your plate, even if it costs you a little bit. It’s worth it in the long run. We quickly identified that area and we brought someone in to just sort of take over. We also brought in, someone on a higher level, an accountant to help with some of the taxes and the planning and things. But that was definitely something that, you know, I thought I’d done that for, you know, eight years or whatever on my own. Dealing with the 1099s and the taxes and the forms and all that invoicing, all that I ran for myself. But it just, you know, it ramped up so quickly that it was like, there’s no way. And then putting the right tools in place to write, to be able to help us track.
Russel:
Those darn pesky finances. I didn’t know if there’s a route you’re going down, but it made me think of like, in the early days, it’s when I think of more of the finances the volume wasn’t high per se, but it was like, okay we just need 5, 000 to cover payroll this month and we’ll be good. And then it’s like, okay, we can whip up some stuff together, generate 5, 000. But then you look back 10 years later or however long, and we’re much bigger and it’s like, okay, well, payroll now is 200 grand and it’s like there is no just whipping something up to to cover payroll when you’re talking about that amount. Hopefully you’re not that size if you don’t have some things in shape but always what I think of it. It’s almost like you hear your, like your grandparents talk about I remember when the price of hamburger was a nickel or something like that.
Duane:
It’s interesting Russel, cause that, that does make me think, we were just talking about this, my partner and I, how, when you look back to the early days of the agency, one of the things that stands out to us is the projects we took on that we would never take on today, only because you are a little more desperate and you’ll take anything. Even when you know it’s maybe not the best fit, or maybe, maybe, you know, they have unrealistic expectations or the budget’s really small, you just do it. Like you said, cause you’re just trying to, you know, increase cashflow. You learn, and thankfully we’ve gotten to the point where, you know, we don’t have to do that and we have great clients and we have the ability to say no, uh, if, if we need to. That feels good. We’re not having to just take everything that knocks on the door.
Russel:
I think that’s just clearly gotta be a hurdle that every agency should jump through if they don’t, but, or most do, I feel like eventually. It’s like, okay, we can’t just take on anyone that has a checkbook, and might want something, might want to pay for something. Those are rough days, but some interesting things I’m sure that we take on in those timeframes. Someone being very intentional, and, you know, having a partnership in the business, was there a natural divide and conquer with your roles or more yin and yang, or you guys more aligned and then, right, you’ve got to figure out how to offset each other? How has that looked like in terms of your actual partnership?
Duane:
If you met my partner and again, I’ve known him 30 plus years, his name’s Keith. He will often say when we, when we’re pitching or talking, he’ll say I’m the silent partner. He means that because, you know, his personality is definitely much more introverted than me. I am definitely the, the face of the agency, the guy out there and pitching and, you know, bigger personality, if you will. Keith is much quieter. He’s very talented. Even though I have an art degree, nothing compared to him, right? He is a true artist, very talented. From the beginning, I had been telling him for several years, cause he did the same thing. He did corporate side, agency side, and he was on his own as well. I kept telling him like, we need to get together. Cause you know, you need me. He’s not good at the business side. He doesn’t like the client side, the pitch side, all that. It really was a good compliment. When we came together, it was pretty simple. I run the agency from the operations, you know, the financials, the people, all of that is under my roof because it’s really not what Keith wants to do, uh, nor is it, you know, probably something he’d enjoy doing. When it comes to, you know, client, uh, responsibilities, I really take control of, you know, the strategy, the account direction and creative direction. Keith is everything design. His title is the design director. The different designers roll up into him and he kind of has the final say on, you know, what goes out the door in terms of design, uh, the graphic design, art direction, all of that. It’s kind of just played out pretty well, but what’s nice is he’s there. We do have regular meetings where we’re talking about the operations, we’re talking about finances, we’re talking about those things and you know, he puts his input in and I’ll check in and you know, we bounce things off each other. What’s beautiful about it is he trusts me to do what I do. He realizes that I, you know, that’s kind of in my bucket, if you will, or my lane and that I’m good at it. He’ll trust me to do it. That’s great. It empowers me that I can make decisions and we can do things that are best for the agency. He trusts that that’s going to work out and vice versa. I know that, you know, I don’t have to see every piece of creative that comes through because I trust his eye.
Russel:
I always love to hear a good one plus one equals three story. Just for every good partnership story I hear, I definitely hear the other side of that coin.
Duane:
I can speak to that, Russel. When we first started Atomic Idea, there were four. There were actually four partners when we first started the agency. We realized pretty quickly that that, you know, probably wasn’t going to continue. One of the partners basically realized pretty quickly that, you know, he wasn’t a good fit. He came to us, said, you know, he was out of his, out of his lane, if you will. He kind of backed out. Then it was three, four months later, the other guy who was very good friends with that guy left as well. Keith and I look at that and that was actually a good, that was about a year in, just under a year. It did enable us to, you know, grow the agency in a better way. Be more focused. Instead of four people trying to, you know, come to terms, it was just Keith and I. We went through the pain of, okay, shrinking the owners and partners down to two. In the long run, it worked out and it worked out well for them too. They went on to have a very successful production company and we’re still in touch with them. It was good across the board.
Russel:
I can imagine sometimes that takes a lot of courage or conversation or just, it’s a difficult conversation to do. I don’t know, someone can convince me otherwise that a business partnership is really just like a marriage. You’re just, most cases, probably not sleeping together, although some, couples are together. But the things like you said, trust, and that sometimes, you know, you might be happier apart but willing to have that conversation and not feel bad about it or anything like that. Having a good, healthy divorce. Those are always good, good things to be reminded of when it comes to partnerships. We talked about already that you had this strong attention to results and, and that’s very important for you. Just getting the size\ just beyond just you being involved in everything I’m sure at this point, how have you able been able to carry that through I guess you can say to the entire fabric of the organization and the work you do?
Duane:
I really think that goes down to hiring smart, right? Once you’ve established sort of your brand, well, what is your brand DNA? What is your brand story or your distinctions? Who are you as a company? When you hire someone, they have to reflect that brand. We do really spend a lot of time choosing and making sure that someone we bring onto the team is going to reflect the brand. They’re going to, you know, feel like part of Atomic Idea from start to finish. One of the things we say often to our clients, and this starts with us is when you engage with Atomic Idea, it needs to be the same, no matter what, whether you’re talking to me, uh, as the, you know, co owner or Keith, or you’re talking to account person or designer, or you land on the website, or you see a video about us, it should all be cohesive. To me, it really goes down to people. We’ve really spent time to build our team in a smart way, in a strategic way, and we hire good people. That’s important too. Nobody wants to work with a jerk. Both Keith and I learned that a long time ago. Cause almost everybody has had to work with a jerk. Sometimes, unfortunately, companies will, you know, make an excuse. Well they’re so talented or, you know, they’re so great in this area or they’ve been here forever and they hold all the, you know, keys. We just don’t believe that here. Nobody wants to work with a jerk and we don’t want our team to work with a jerk so we don’t hire jerks. I think that’s really helped us to build a team that, you know, is consistent. We also try to communicate regularly with the team. We do team events. We’re always, uh, talking individually to our team about what, how they’re doing, what are their goals? What can we do better to help them? How can we support them? It’s a two way street. We ask all the time, tell us what we can do better. By doing that, we’ve been able to, you know, carry it through, as you said. Making sure that everyone understands that our goal is make the client a hero. We want to deliver on service. Lot of agencies out there, a lot of creative people. One of the ways we can distinguish ourselves is how we take care of them. Making sure that we’re all aligned on that is really important. Lastly, what I would say is leading by example, right? If they’re looking at Keith and I, and they don’t see us leading by example or doing the things we’re asking them to do, then we can’t expect them to do it. I try really hard, uh, to set a good example, you know, in the way I treat the clients, the way I take care of them, the way I treat them as employees.
Russel:
I think it goes along with what you’re saying, but my reading between the lines, even a little bit is, is not leave any gaps in all the detail and level and attention, it sounds like you’re putting into. What are your goals? What are your expectations? Here’s what we’re trying to achieve. Laying all this out on the open. Not to say that doesn’t take effort and there’s a lot of other things go behind that, but that sounds like a big, that sounds like a big piece of what’s been working for you.
Duane:
It is. And I think that, you know, at the end day has to be balanced with not micromanaging people. Early in my career, I had a few, you know, bosses that I reported to that weren’t great. I learned, you know, I don’t want to be like that. I don’t want to treat people like that. You have the one that maybe micromanages you and you go, yeah, I don’t like that either. Taking the best of the best and getting rid of the worst experiences helps you to, you know, kind of craft best agency you can. And we’re still learning, right? We hear things sometimes from our, our team where, you know, we ask for feedback, we’re like, oh, that’s, you know, that’s a good point. We need to do better. Being humble is really important as well. Being able to, to make those changes, to listen and, you know, do better. At the end of the day, that’s, that’s important. Cause we’re all on the same team. We try to really tell them that, you know, at the end of day, we’re right there next to you. We’re all going for the same thing. When we win and the client is a hero, we all benefit.
Russel:
This is a whole line of subject. I spent probably a good five or six years at the end of my kind of agency tour, big heavy emphasis on focus on recruiting, hiring, culture, operations and management. Really building up those practices. You go back to saying hiring and, and I can nerd out on this stuff all day long about just what are the really, I want to say odd’s not the word, but like unique nuances to how you’re evaluating talent in terms of how you look for something or how you identify very specific traits that you’re looking for. What’s like the nerdiest, weirdest thing? I don’t know if weird is the right word, but I’m going to say that word when it comes about the aspect of hiring.
Duane:
For us, it’s, it’s kind of a holistic view. Sure, paper’s great. You look at the resume, you look at the experience. It’s got to match up at some level. But for me, there’s a couple of things that we really try to do and that’s have a conversation. We want that to be in person if possible. If it has to be Zoom, that’s fine. You just learn so much from facial, you know, reactions, right? Facial expressions, body language, being able to pick up on that is really important. I am a big believer too in, you know, throwing some curve balls, uh, so that you really start to get the sense of how this person reacts. How do they react under pressure? If I could, I would take every person that we were thinking of hiring, I’d take them golfing. I can’t do that because not everybody golfs and you don’t always have the time to take someone out golfing. But a guy I worked for years ago used to say that and it’s so true, right? If you could take someone golfing before you hire them, you’re going to know, are they honest? You’re going to know how they handle stress. You’re going to know if they have a short fuse, a short temper. You’re going to know their language they may use. Golf exposes all of that. If I could, I would take every potential employee golfing, but I can’t, I can’t do that. We do rely a lot on that conversation. I do love, if possible, to take them to coffee or lunch or a meal. It just slows it down a little, relaxes it a little bit and you start to see the true person versus the interview. We’re all putting on our best, you know, in an interview. The more I can get them outside of that and look at who the person is, it is so important to me.
Russel:
Oh, I love that. Get them in natural settings or almost, if you, if, if you take them into these other things, they forget sometimes they’re on and you can really observe who they are. I love that. I want you to do this golfing thing. I think you’re onto something. And even if someone’s not a golfer, right? Maybe they own up to that and maybe they show they’re a good team helper and they’re a caddy and they’re the driver. I don’t know, man. I think you should go all in on this. This is a revolutionary idea. As we wind down here I know you’ve got some ambitious, but maybe not in the typical ambitious sense of when we talk about goals and the future of the business. What does the future look like for Atomic Idea?
Duane:
We had a little bit of a slow start and COVID contributed to that. COVID hit, two years in, but we’ve come out of that and really had some good growth. We’ve, you know, experienced good growth in 2022, 2023. We’re on track for amazing year this year, which is, is wonderful and we’re very appreciative. But as we look at moving forward, it’s how do we sustain that? We have some goals in place. We’re trying to continue to grow the agency. We’d love to bring on, you know, a couple more big clients and a couple more what we call small to medium clients. We’ve really been able to fine tune over the last year, you know, what we do well and, and where we fit, if you will, and also have a finally assembled the right team. That takes a lot of time. We were just saying this last week that, you know, we have the right team in place. There’s still a few additions that we can make over the next year, but if I look at the core team, we just feel so confident with that team. It’s the team that can be there for us, that’s going to help us to grow, can take on, you know, these new clients. That’s our focus is to really continue, um, to grow. As an agency, when you, when you grow, you, you go from small, we talked about taking on these small counts or projects that you, you know, you do it. But as you continue to grow, what happens is you gain more confidence, you gain more portfolio and you also learn from those along the way. I think that’s where we’re at now that, to ourselves, we’ve proven that, you know, we’re a pretty good agency. We do really good work. We take really good care of our clients. We’re hearing that from our clients. And so now we, we feel like, okay, we’re ready. Let’s take on another big client and we can take on, you know, some more, uh, work in, in different areas. Where before maybe we kind of kept that, you know, at a slower pace just to make sure we can handle it. But once you prove it to yourselves, uh, and the team is on board, it’s exciting, right? So we’re pushing, and then we’re just trying to continue to improve our processes internally. That’s another goal. Looking at, you know, how do we do things differently? We’ve brought on some different programs like monday.com to help us track everything. Looking at the tools that we’re using and we’re also really looking at, you know, the education part too. What can we do to continue to help our team expand their knowledge base? Trying to look ahead. AI is always talked about so of course we’re looking at that, but we’re looking at other things too. What is it that we need to know and sharpen up on that will help our clients? If we can get ahead of that, that to me will, will help us to be a better agency and a better partner for our clients. Because at the end of the day, that’s what I tell my team all the time, we never want to be referred to as a vendor. The minute the client is thinking of us as a vendor, we are not doing our job. We want to be a partner and if they look at us that way and we have a good relationship, that’s going to make that partnership more successful for them and us.
Russel:
Beautifully put. I was talking to another agency the other day and they said, we should be getting invited to our clients weddings. That should be like the ultimate KPI. It sounds like you’re on along the same thought process there.
Duane:
That’s awesome. I love that. I learned that lesson a long time ago when I worked for TCI. We had a lot of, of, uh, partners that would court us. The different cable channels and all this, and you’d work with all these different people. I learned back then that, you know, business is personal and the relationship is what really drives it. I saw and learned from those that were, you know, working with us. Our partners, our vendors that, you know, the ones that were really putting the time in to build that relationship, that went a long way. So that’s great. I love it. We should be getting invited to their weddings. That’s perfect.
Russel:
That’s the new measure of business success or agency success at least. I don’t know that car mechanics want to necessarily be invited to, maybe they do. Maybe that should just be everybody’s metric.
Duane:
You never ever know, right? But it’s at least having that, that relationship where you know what’s going on with them. You may not be the best friends. You’re not hanging out on the weekends all time, but like, you need to know and, and understand like, the challenges they may be facing and the things they’re dealing with. We have a client of ours, it’s one of our big clients and you know, she has been going through a lot. Her son has had to have several surgeries and she’s like working from the hospital and you know, just continuing to get it done. And we’ve really made it a point when we see her in person to just tell her, hey, sorry, you’re going through this. We really appreciate that you’re still there and helping us get our work done. We’ve sent her gift baskets. We’re doing things because we appreciate her as a person too, right? She’s going through a lot and that, that, you know, personal level relationship means a lot. In the long run, you know, it does obviously help the agency too, in terms of solidifying the partnership with that client.
Russel:
Good reminder. Good lesson learned there. All right, Duane, last question for you. Are entrepreneurs born or are they made?
Duane:
Classic question. Oh boy. There’s a, you know, a lot of opinions on that. A lot of debates too. I don’t know. I’m not trying to get out of this, but I don’t know if there’s one clear cut answer. I would say that if I had to pick, I would say made. I do believe that certain people are born with skill sets and, uh, you know, traits, if you will, that lend themselves to being a good entrepreneur. However, there’s a lot of people that are born with those that never go that route. Cause I think it, it does take some of the experiences, it, it takes exposure. It takes desire that kind of crafts that together to become the entrepreneur. In my career, I’ve met a lot of different entrepreneurs and they’re, and they’re different. We work with a lot of startups ourselves and we’ll see the, the guy who’s not your typical entrepreneur. He’s the engineer. He’s just very, you know, methodical but he had a great idea and he kind of just pushed himself to do it. Then you have guys that I worked for a guy for a while. His name was Justin. He was the serial entrepreneur. From day one, this guy just starts businesses, does well. He can pitch. He’s big personality. That’s a different character. For me, if, again, if I had to boil it down, I’d say it’s more made than born. But what I would say, if you’re born with certain traits, it’s easier.
Russel:
Like anything, probably. Some people are naturally born to dunk a basketball. Some people work to get there.
Duane:
Yeah. When you’re six foot four like me, Russel, basketball’s a little easier than if, you know, I happen to be five, five.
Russel:
For sure. Wonderful. If people want to know more about Atomic Idea, where can they go?
Duane:
AtomicIdea.com. That’s our, our website. That’s where you can start. You can reach out to me, Duane, D U A N E@AtomicIdea.com We are based, uh, just outside of Denver and Lakewood, Colorado, but we have clients, you know, across the country. Happy to work with anyone. We’d just love to hear from you if you want to chat.
Russel:
Love it. There you have it folks. Thank you so much, Duane. Wonderful conversation. Loved all the different tangents as well as great insights, especially getting into nerdy conversations about hiring. Really appreciate you taking the time to share all that with us today.
Duane:
I really appreciate being on. Thank you again, Russel, for the invitation and I hope you have a great day.
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Duane:
I think this speaks to, you know, being able to get in the trenches sometimes, even though you’re the owner, the strategy director, whatever your title. You got to sometimes get your hands dirty and get in there and be part of the team. We were on a video production shoot and we were having issues with sound. There was just a ton of sound coming through, uh, an AC vent in the ceiling. It was really messing up, you know, what we were trying to do as an interview and testimonial. We’re trying to figure out how are we going to solve this? Finally, you know, I’m looking around and it was high so there’s, you know, we’re trying to figure out how to do it. We couldn’t get it shut off. I said, well, what if we take a cushion off that couch and we just, you know, put it up there? They were like, that’s a great idea to block it. We didn’t have any stands to get it up that high, so guess what? Yours truly was the only guy tall enough that could reach it. I said, I’ll do it. I jump in, I grabbed the cushion. I’m six foot four. I stood on a chair. Over my head, I held this cushion up for a very long time as we shot this video. It was funny. Everyone, you know, would joke about it for years, but I’ll tell you, the bad part was the next day, my arms were sore because you’re not used to holding something above your head that long, even though it was just a couch cushion.
Russel:
This makes me think of why you would always, always put on a job description at the bottom: and other duties as assigned. Cause you never know when you might be holding up a couch cushion to an HVAC air vent.
Duane:
You never know.
