What’s your backstory — how did you end up starting (or joining) an agency?

I started Gorilla in 2015, two years out of college. It was impossible to get any experience or traction in the industry, and I refused to do anything different because I knew who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do. When I couldn't get a job or even an interview, I started my own agency and haven't looked back since.

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What was your first entrepreneurial moment as a kid or teen?

I grew up with a single mom who worked a lot and didn't have a lot of money. If I wanted something, I had to go buy it. I would often go out and knock on neighbors' doors to offer to wash their cars, windows, mow lawns, etc. I was good at figuring out how to get things I wanted by helping others.

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What’s a day in your life really look like (no filters)?

Absolute chaos. But exactly how I like it. I have plans for my days and weeks, but they're always interrupted by a thousand different things. Client requests, website issues, team problems, etc. You never know what the day will hold no matter how much you plan. But I love it because it keeps me focused and allows me to learn quickly and apply solutions to complex problems in a fast paced environment which has fundamentally made me a better leader and marketer. It's wake up, Celsius, get kids off to school and computer time. I check my emails, Slack messages, random client texts, etc. I review my Monday boards, discuss with team members, and get organized to tackle the day and workload. If I have meetings, those get central focus, but the day is filled with minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour with task/deliverable + problem/solutions.

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What’s a personal ritual or habit you credit for your success?

5am wakeup - every day, even weekends. I always setup a goal for the day to accomplish no matter what and I do my best to reflect on it at the end of the day.

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What’s one mistake you made early on that taught you something lasting?

Stop chasing side quests and stay on the mission. Always maintain control and don't let yourself get pulled of course.

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What’s your definition of “success” right now?

Every client gets the leads and results they need to hit their business goals.

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What makes your agency different from others in your space?

If I take the marketing spin off of it or remove the typical answers like ""we care a lot"" or whatever, I believe the true difference is our attention to detail and focus on success for our clients from the bottom up. We don't pitch our services as much as we focus on the results and the services it takes to accomplish them. My focus is on my clients customers. What do we need to do, where, how, etc. to generate more results. We also aim to collaborate with our clients as an agency or department. Focusing on the everyday small business owner not major corporations. Our goal is to help clients be the best version of themselves - and we are highly competitive. In fact, for local clients we are entirely exclusive for the industry and we wear that as a badge of honor. We want to win for our clients and for ourselves and we do the work necessary every day to accomplish that. Our marketing work is symbiotic with our clients.

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What’s a principle or value your agency lives by?

The diamond rule. Treat others how they expect to be treated.

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How do you hire? What do you look for in people?

Hunger, ambition, motivation and personal goals. I can train people do anything I need but I can't make them love sitting on a computer all day solving problems or designing. They have to have goals and ambition to know where and what they want to be. My job is to make them the best version of themselves so in the event they move on from Gorilla or do something else, at a minimum they were better having worked with me and my team and can leverage that to more success in their own life. No one will ever love this job like I do and I am honest about that. I don't expect that. I expect people to care about other people's job and the money they pay us to do the work.

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How do you foster creative thinking on your team?

Everything is a discussion. Better ideas? Bring them. Something creative you want to explore? Show me. My only rule on that is be able to explain yourself, ask questions and have reasoning for choices that are being made. I believe the people doing the work will always know best so I expect it from my team when we work on projects. My answer is usually more - more creative, more efficient, more results.

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What trend in marketing/advertising do you think is overhyped?

AI, "Seo is dead," and social media.

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What’s a trend you’re betting on long-term?

Web design & user experience.

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What’s one small decision that led to a big result for your agency?

Building custom websites. It's a true test of an agency's ability to handle something creative and technical while managing clients and their business. There are few examples of marketing work that can showcase everything an agency can deliver better than a website project. When we decided to focus entirely on custom website projects it changed a lot for us because we could create one of a kind projects that provided the highest value to our clients knowing that they wont have to ever redo our work because the details are done at such a high level. It made the investment worthwhile for our clients and that matters to us. Only way we could control something as large as that is having our own designers and developers working in sync with each other.

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What advice would you give to someone starting an agency today?

Celebrate failure. Chase it with the intention of breaking things, fixing them, and learning how everything works through a quick trial and error process. You learn 100x faster when you just start doing and stop talking or reading threads on how to do it. Take the first step, and the next, and see if it works. Most people forget or never learn that failure is the best path to success if you have the attitude and mindset for it.

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What’s one thing you wish clients understood better about agency work?

It's a thankless job, it just is. Most clients don't really care about the hour to hour work it takes to do what they ask or how we get to the goal. You don't get into this industry thinking about pats on the back or receiving thank you notes in the mail. Clients want more leads, more money, and a return on investment - I understand that. I do wish that there would be more acknowledgement that things aren't as easy as social media makes it seem and that it's a skilled profession just like theirs. There should always be a mutual respect of time and workflow and that real results don't happen by clicking buttons or some fancy new AI software. It's hard work and attention to detail that matters and I'd say probably 80% of the work we have to do for clients, they don't care or even want to know. And that just is what it is.

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What’s your favorite thing about being in this industry?

The chaos and creativity. I get to do what I love every day, no restrictions and total freedom. On top of that, I genuinely have a deep passion for helping others reach their goals and I love to learn about other people's job, to the point of obsession almost. I am fascinated by other industries, how they work and how they get customers.

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What is one (1) fact or statistic about your industry that most people don't know?

The average burnout rate for a marketing professional is about 3-5 years.