eROI Days Email Agency

It’s Easter morning before the kids wake up and I wanted to quickly write this blog post. On Friday afternoon, I gave the Commencement Address to the graduating class of the Art Institute of Portland and I must admit that it was a phenomenal experience. I had attended their Portfolio Show just a couple hours before and was awestruck and inspired by their design talent, creativity, and diversity of design in web, apparel, gaming, interior design, print, advertising, and more. Everyone has heard about Portland being recognized for its “Creative Class”, but the Art Institute is at the center of it all. They teach their students to not only design well but present their designs with maturity and confidence. After the ceremony, I had drinks with many of the professors and administrators and was encouraged to see their passion to continually improve and draw inspiration from their students. I’m excited to see the future of the Portland creative community as more talent comes out of a growing Art Institute of Portland and more agency owners are collaborating on client work and community projects.

So here is my 15 minute speech (which is slightly more formal than when I presented it and had all the graduates stand and the audience of 350 people give a huge round of applause, high fives, etc for their milestone accomplishment):

“• I’m honored to be here. Thank you. I’m not a traditional choice for a Commencement Speaker of this esteemed college of insanely talented designers and professors. I am not a designer and do not have a design background.

• However, I am inspired by design, creativity, and innovation. Five and a half years ago, I started an interactive agency called eROI that is now 50 people strong. In just the past couple years, I’ve hired 7 of you - graduates of the Art Institute of Portland. And, I’ve got to be honest, you are some of the smartest, most talented creatives in the country, making folks from brand-name New York design schools pale in comparison. I’m even more convinced of this after visiting your Portfolio Show earlier today - wow, some great work there.

• Management guru, Peter Drucker, said that business has 2 functions: marketing and innovation. And, if you look at the market today, you’ll notice that companies like Apple, Google, and Nike are rewarded with huge premiums in their stock prices due to a sense of creativity and innovation through every element of their products and how they conduct business. From this, we know that design isn’t just about making pretty pictures, it’s about having a profoundly positive impact on the world.

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“• When I thought about what I was going to say to you, I realized I needed to step into your shoes to figure out what might be helpful or entertaining or both, so I’ll do my best. You’ve MADE IT. You worked your butt off and you graduated from an incredible institution. You are PSYCHED. You should be - CONGRATULATIONS. So, now what? CHOICES, so many choices. For some of you, you’ll take the summer off and explore the world a little before you get locked into a job. For others, you’ll need to get a job ASAP.

• I want to tell you a little bit of my story, then give you a few bits of practical advice that may help out. I went to University of Virginia and loved it. I worked hard and played hard. The reality was that I played a lot harder than I worked, but managed to do alright. After my freshman year, I drove solo across country to work as the night janitor at Lake MacDonald Lodge at Glacier National Park in Montana. It was a transformative experience - I hiked nearly every day, went backpacking in the heart of grizzly country, and saw some of the most beautiful mountainous scenery and wildlife in my life. I also discovered an appreciation for cleaning out the hot oil in the deep fryers in the kitchen every week - IT SUCKED. After that summer, I realized that anything was possible and gained the confidence to do whatever it took to do what I wanted to do.

• The next summer, I worked at Black Butte Ranch near Sisters, Oregon. That place is Paradise on Earth and the reason why I’m here today - there is no better place than Portland. I feel so lucky to be here. So, let’s fast-forward a bit. I graduated with a double major in Environmental Science and Finance. There wasn’t a single company from Oregon that came to University of Virginia to recruit, so I had to make it happen. Six months before graduation, I flew out to Portland and did an informal informational interview at Intel in Hillsboro. Three months later, the hiring manager called me back and said that he can only talk to undergraduate candidates from Oregon and Washington - that was the policy. Without hesitation, I said “that’s great, I’m absolutely moving to Portland, so consider me from Oregon. When can we do the interview?” Within a couple weeks, I was offered a job as Financial Analyst at Intel.

• I lasted 3.5 years at Intel. I learned a lot of valuable lessons of some great things (results-orientation, well managed, and rewarding good behavior). I also learned what not to do in my next business - Intel, with its sea of cubicles and overall atmosphere, lacks creativity, to put it mildly. I found myself singing Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine” whenever describing the culture there.

• It was March, 2000 when I left Intel to start a construction-related dot com. The timing couldn’t have been worse - the dot com world was crashing all around me - and I was beating my head against the wall for over 2 years TRYING to sell technology to commercial contractors - PAINFUL. Now, that I think of it, our branding, design, and marketing was god awful, which led to the demise of that business. I tweaked the business model to form a web and e-commerce company called GCM Development, and at the same time, started a separate full-service email marketing company called emailROI. A year later, I combined the 2 companies to form eROI, which is part online creative agency, part software company. And over the past 5 years, we’ve been fortunate to do some amazing work for clients like Wacom, Disney, HBO, and Kettle Foods. That work has propelled us to be one of the 500 fastest growing companies in the country (recognized by Inc. magazine).

• Let’s get back to YOU. You’ve got thousands of choices, but for the sake of time, I’m going to narrow it down to 3 professional choices - you can go to work for an agency (like eROI, W+K, Leo Ketel, and others in town), for a client-side or product-based company (like Nike, Wacom, or startups like SameUnderneath), or you can Freelance.

• No matter what path you choose, you absolutely need to begin networking. Tomorrow, while you are nursing your hangover, go to the following websites and sign up for the newsletters of Portland Ad Federation, American Marketing Association, AIGA, and pdxMindShare. Put the next event for each of these organizations on your calendar and go to it. Don’t be shy, talk to people there. Ask stupid questions, but whatever you do, get involved and begin the conversation. Before that, email/call the Executive Director or President and set up a 20-30 minute informational interview meeting. Ask for introductions to other people you should talk to.

• Research the organization, agency or company before your informational interview. Have at least 3 good questions ready to ask. I meet with folks networking for jobs at least once a week and it is painful when I’m asking all the questions instead of the other way around - those type of meetings only last 10 minutes, not 30. Ask who else might be good to talk to.

• You might be an incredibly talented designer, but if you don’t make that in-person connection with others in the Portland creative community, you won’t get the job or the clients as a freelancer.

• When interviewing design candidates, there are 3 things I like for in how they present their experience and their work - thoughtfulness, maturity, and balance.

o Thoughtfulness - you need to be able to confidently present the thought that went into the design and why it fit that brand. Many of the cleanest designs seem effortless, but there is a very deliberate thought process that made it work. Clients will value design a whole lot more if they understand how it fits with their brand and why their logo, website, email, letterhead was designed a certain way.

o Maturity - hopefully, you’ve had some experience with clients. With experience, comes the maturity of not only tolerating but truly enjoying tough feedback that can make you better as a designer.

o Balance - with balance, you know when to push back on demanding clients and when to make the design revisions they ask for. Also, a balance in your design style means that you can adapt to many different styles instead of designing one way.

• Lastly, make sure you do your homework on the companies you really want to work for. This is where idealism meets practical real-world application. You want to look for 3 main things to make sure that company is a good fit for you: great work, a quirky but amazing culture, and financial stability.

o Great work - you can see it on their website, read news about the agency, and ask around town about the agency’s reputation.

o Culture - perhaps the most important part of a company that will dictate whether or not you’ll want to hang around for a few weeks or a few decades. Is it a fun place to work? Is it a collaborative environment? Do you feel like you have a voice and can make a difference? At eROI, a year ago, our processes had not kept up with our growth and it created a major problem. While everyone got along great on a personal level, there was some significant professional tension between our Design and Production departments and our Sales and Account departments - because we were not including design and production team members into the beginning of the scoping, ideation, and strategy of the project. I met with all 34 employees one-on-one, back-to-back for 3 days straight and wrote down 50 process improvements and held an all-company meeting on the fourth day and we created change and improvement immediately including a process team that meets weekly. The point is that every company gets off-course, but good companies make sure everyone has a voice, validates it, and makes change happen quickly. The more transparent, the better. You need to find out - are people at your new company all aligned with the same vision - to do amazing work for clients and utterly delight people and customers?

o Financial Stability - a company can do great work and have an amazing culture but you want to make sure that it doesn’t go bankrupt - at least not for a little while.

• You are about to start the greatest adventure of your life. Make your choice - travel around the world, start networking for a job, begin your own company - whatever you do, do it with conviction, do it with confidence. As Robert Pirsig said in Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, “in your journey, the sides of the mountain sustain life, not the top.” In other words, enjoy the creative process of whatever choice you make. It will be full of excitement, anxiety, and stress, but enjoy it! There is no better time than now.

• Thank you.”