As a kid, I dreamed of being one of three things: a photographer, a baseball player, or a writer.
I got my first 35mm camera when I was 14 – it was my dad’s silver-bodied Leica. It went everywhere I went and a lot of the places I went were because of the camera, hunting the perfect shot. My cameras have travelled with me across the world and have helped lengthen my memories of my adventures.
My baseball career ended when I became old enough to start working. When I turned fifteen, I still spent the summer on grass, but I was mowing it instead of fielding it.
And then came writing, which became the passion that stuck and turned into a career. I studied Journalism at university, worked at a publishing company for a handful of years, spent my final semester of graduate school writing a thesis, and co-founded a marketing agency where I oversaw all of our copy.
I never thought my passion for writing would lead me to marketing. I’m honestly not sure I knew what marketing was until I met my future-wife, who was majoring in it.
But I fell in love, with both marketing and my now-wife.
Over my 20+ year career in marketing, I’ve learned a lot, and one thing I am continually reminded of is how connected writing and marketing are.
At the center of both is a story, and I’ve always loved a good story.
Falling In Love with A Story
While growing up, I wrote songs for a guitar I couldn’t play and reviewed concerts I attended. In college, I wrote stories about local events. But in graduate school, a transition happened – I started writing about people, and it felt different.
As I was preparing to graduate, I was given liberty to pick my thesis topic. I was studying Theology and most people around me were writing about exegetical approaches to interpreting scripture or the resurgence of liturgical practices in the modern church.
That sounded exhausting, and terribly boring.
So, I wrote about some one instead of some thing, and I discovered the real power of story … and not just the writing of it, but the reading and researching and interviewing and thinking and all the other things that come before the writing.
I wrote about Howard Thurman, a towering figure in the pre-Civil Rights era. His famous book, Jesus and the Disinherited, was studied and carried by Martin Luther King, Jr. on his travels, and many say that it was Thurman’s shoulders who King stood upon.
Writing My Own Story through Entrepreneurship
A few years after graduate school, I started writing a new story, and it was one of entrepreneurship. In those early startup years, we were writing our own story while writing the story of the businesses who entrusted their brand to our marketing agency.
We were telling the stories of founders who were running life-changing non-profits, saving lives through medical care, defending the innocent in the courtroom, and helping families cultivate quality time and memories through local entertainment.
When I shifted from writing about events and shifted to writing about people’s stories, I fell in love with writing all over again and I found my life’s work.
This is what marketing means to me.
Maybe it sounds poetic or over the top, but it’s the reason we built an agency.
We were drawn to the stories of those we partner with. We were so overwhelmed by the work of those around us, we wanted to write about it and help others discover it, and it happens that marketing is a great vehicle for doing just that.
So that’s what lit the match that has now become a torch in our community and beyond. We’ve grown from a team of two who quit their jobs to bet it all on the power of story, to a team of 25 storytellers.
Developers. Designers. Digital Marketers. Videographers. Strategists. Planners. And yes, Copywriters.
They each help tell stories through their own unique giftings.
Story will always be the centerpiece to marketing. It will always be what connects your passion with those who need your service.
What a joy it has been to spend my career in the field of marketing.
Leave a Reply