"A Special Day"

This Independence day is a special one for us.

Yes, there will be fireworks, hotdogs and plenty of pop.

It will be hot, it might rain and the kids will probably be covered in the sticky remnants of candy suckers or leftover ice cream.

Five years ago I made a phone call that would change our lives, forever.

On July 4th, 2014, we found out our first client had signed a contract that would launch our marketing and public relations agency into existence.

Moments later, I picked up the phone and called my then news director.

“Hey Mike, I know this is a strange call to get today, but this is my official notice that I’m resigning my position effective two weeks from today.”

There was a long pause on the other end of the line, some kind words were exchanged and that was it.

My 18+ year career in local television news was ending.

I was both excited and scared, apprehensive and jacked up.

My business partner wife and I were leaving the cozy world of guaranteed paychecks and moving into the world of complete self sufficiency.

And you know what, it was the right move.

I truly believe God has a hand in all things and has provided us with so many incredible experiences over the last one thousand, eight hundred days.

We’ve moved into an office, hired employees, fired employees, expanded into another office, said goodbye to wonderful people, hired more awesome team members, said hello to amazing clients who share our vision, said goodbye to a few clients who didn’t, refused to take on a couple of clients because of that vision, spent incredible amounts of money on equipment, learned valuable lessons about debt, about paying off debt, and about taking on even more debt in the form of our very own office building.

We’ve learned so many personal lessons about gratitude, love, loyalty, facing fears, celebrating wins and enjoying the little things when they’re happening. We’ve watched our kids grow into little people, with hopes and dreams of their own.

We regularly tell them they can do anything.

You know why?

Because they can.

We’ve lived that, as has every entrepreneur who’s living their life on their terms.

I don’t know what the next five years hold.

But I do know that whatever happens, we’ll continue to run our wildly successful businesses using our three core ideals: teamwork, for the win and customer bliss.

We’ll continue to expand into new and exciting markets.

And we’ll continue to celebrate our independence!