Values Make (or Break) a Relationship

Everything we do is evaluated on the basis of creating strong, mutual long term relationships based on trust, a desire to improve and win that moves our clients and us forward. We believe it's the only way to live, let alone do business. Below, you will find our top five values and why we believe them, as published by Forbes.

a man standing in front of Jeff Jahn et al.

1. Do it right or don’t do it.

This one statement underpins everything we do. Life is just too short to do work that we're not proud of, and everything we choose to do should have 100% of our attention and effort. If we can't do that, or if we aren't able to complete a particular task with the quality necessary to ensure it will be successful, it's our job to find the person or company that can do it better for our client. This decision has led us to identify dozens of amazing companies in their respective niches, and gives us the mental freedom to work on only what we're best at.

2. There are no trade secrets. Share everything.

KNOWLEDGE IS TO BE SHARED
Our industry is full of consultants and companies who attempt to hide their best ideas until a contract is signed, for fear that others will take it and run with it. It's also filled with people who know very little and hide behind buzz words, scary phrases and tech-speak to make themselves appear more competent than they are.
By contrast, we seek to share 100% of what we know every time we meet with anyone, be it a long-time client or a first time prospect.

If we see an issue, we not only call attention to it but provide that company with all information necessary to have it resolved by their current company. Likewise we freely expose any ideas we have for ways to highlight their business. If, after this they choose to have someone else develop our concepts, we have saved our time and energy for someone else who will appreciate the care, time and passion we put towards their business.

3. Offer value with no expectation of return.

PROVIDE VALUE, EXPECT NOTHING IN RETURN
This is perhaps the biggest cornerstone of our success, and it springboards directly from the previous point. Our job is not (in our case) to sell someone a website. It's to help people better understand their business, consider how they can and should better tell their story, and provide insight into what could be done differently to connect with their core customers. If we do that we'll win in the long run, even if the person never pays us a dime.

I can't count how many people we have helped who have, sometimes years down the road brought us a wonderful client, or turned into business because we helped them when they were down and out without the expectation of a return. And not keeping score is extremely important too. The world just works better when you help someone because they need you, not because it brings an immediate or obvious return.

4. If it’s not maintainable, it’s not a solution.

There are no shortage of examples where a cool digital concept is completely unusable long-term because it was designed poorly. It's not enough for us to build something compelling once, it has to be designed so that the customer can continue to gain value from it for a long time to come. Even our coolest solutions are made so that we're irrelevant to the day to day operation of that feature.

5. Don’t be a half-solution for many. Be the best fit for a few.

It seems like virtually every agency and media provider these days claims to be a master of everything. Make no mistake, your clients understand what you do well and where you're phoning it in or outsourcing. Rather than creating "failure points" where we know you won't have the best experience with us, we focus on doing just one or two things incredibly well and leave the rest to others who are the best at their particular niche. Taking this a step further, we recognize and embrace the fact that we're not the absolute best fit for 80% of the people who need what we provide. Not all business is good business, and we want to help those companies find a place where they'll be better aligned. In the long run that means happier customers, happier employees and a tight, unambiguous focus on what we enjoy doing most.

These are our five core tenets, and they're far from the only beliefs we hold dear. But by putting these down on paper and exposing them freely to our customers, our team is empowered to immediately speak out if it seems that one of these is not being adhered to. This is very important, because it makes them real to our employees and our clients, and sets the tone for what someone can expect when working with us.