Starting Fresh: What Happened in our fist week of the "in-between phase"

A Week of Firsts

We're currently working through the “in-between phase” after announcing the move and the rebrand, but still about a month out from officially launching it.?

I've delegated the task of designing to Bre Barnett , Lyndsey Hass and Myranda Lope on the team because if I were in charge, the new space would likely end up looking like a cross between an adult frat house and a mediocre office space, so for business reasons I have wisely removed myself from the process. But due to their efforts, I can confidently say when you walk into our office in about a month, it’ll look really sharp with the new branding and interior design.?

For now, when you walk in the first thing you'll see is blank white walls, look to the right and you'll notice the future work area is bare, turn to the left to look through the new glass wall and you'll see our conference room has one table and a whiteboard leaned against the wall. But if you walk straight back through one door, and then another door (soundproofing) the studio is a different story. Not perfect yet, but the all-black walls, the lighting, the couch, and the chair are camera-ready.??

Monday: Our First-Ever Recording in the New Space

A few hours before our first recording, our audio/video guys came in to set up for the first time. Immediately they started unboxing and geeking out over the new Shure SM7B mics and Rodecaster Pro II like it was Christmas morning (if those names mean nothing to you, you're not alone). I've never been very technical, but I was blown away by how clean the audio was in the test runs and how good everything looked on camera.?

The recording for the guests went well, the content looked and sounded great. We have a lot of work to do between the rebranding and finishing the office, but we are finally open for business, and that feels good.

Tuesday: The First Article About the New Move and the Relaunch Came Out

Thanks to Jeramey Jannene and Urban Milwaukee for covering our new move and the relaunch. It was fun to sit down and talk about the GoGeddit story, our successes, some of our recent struggles and realizations, the new move, and the future vision for our brand:?

Wednesday: A day trip to Indianapolis and back?

I was laying in bed when my alarm started going off at 3:30 AM, somehow I was coherent enough to know that pressing snooze was a bad idea so I got up, put my clothes on, stretched, and headed out for the Work Truck Week Conference in Indianapolis to help a client.?

After five hours in the car and only 1.5 energy drinks (other than my love for IPAs, they're the worst habit I have), I arrived. It was a good day of learning more about their business, sitting in on sales meetings, seeing what the competition was doing, and taking a lot of notes. On the way back--about an hour after almost getting stranded somewhere in Indiana since I didn’t notice the car was low on gas--I made an impulse trip to a random brewery right outside of the exotic metropolis of Gary, Indiana--just to make sure I got both my bad habits in on the same day. Ten hours on the road and a full day at a conference can bring out the best in someone.

I was home by 10 PM with knowledge gained and a four-pack of Pineapple IPAs from Off Square Brewing as a souvenir (highly recommended if you are passing through that area).?

Thursday: A new project?

On Thursday we signed a project where we will be using our new storytelling framework (that we will be officially announcing in April) for the first time in its new form. Though it’s not a huge project, it is an exciting one for us and one that we want a lot more of in the future. There’s always some anxiety about bringing a new product/service to market. You can do all the planning and research you want, but you never know if it is a valid offer until you put it out there, money changes hands and you deliver a great experience for the customer. This is something we are excited to start and build off of!

Also a quick shameless plug: although we haven’t officially launched, if you're interested in learning more about our new brand storytelling, video production, or podcasting services, we are taking meetings and bringing on new clients.?

Friday

As I sit here on Friday morning, it is snowing heavily in Wisconsin, there is a lot of work yet to be done in the next month, and the journey continues.?

PS: Thank you for reading this, and to everyone who responded to my first newsletter, it was great connecting/reconnecting with many of you.?

PPS: My Grandma Lainey, who in the last email I mentioned reads all of our emails and responds to 90% of them like they are personal emails to her, left me an amazing voicemail about 30 minutes after the last email I sent. More importantly, she actually stopped by with my Dad to see our “Marvelous!” new space last Saturday. At age 90, she continues to do well, has an incredible zest for life, and is an inspiration to me. :)?

This article was initially sent to our email list on 3/10, moving forward all articles will be up to date on LinkedIn