A Bit Of News
Here’s something exciting: Matterhorn Marketing is getting a partner.
It’s been a sole proprietorship, started (from -really- nothing) by Pat Strader 12 years ago. Remember what the internet was like 12 years ago?
Pat and I started talking about joining up a couple of months back. We’ve been working well together since my company, Pencilbox, got on it’s feet. And we really do work well together. We’re like climbing partners, but with marketing.
So, we’re excited about what’s coming up for us, and for our clients. This is partnership as an idea, as a concept, that we’re putting into practice.
This is about possibilities.
On The River
One of the great things about running whitewater rivers is that you very rarely go it alone. There’s a relationship that develops between people that float together (or ski together, or play Dungeons And Dragons together- you get the idea). At its best, it’s some combination of leadership, responsibility, hard work, and fun.
Those four qualities are shared among everyone involved. If one person takes the lead on the water, another might step it up around camp. The journey is everyone’s responsibility. One thing is always true: it takes partnership to make it successful.
And that type of success just can’t be achieved on your own. The process of partnership, working together, makes those results more than just the sum of their parts. The end product can’t be the same if it’s done alone.
My greatest days on the river have been shared, and if they weren’t, they couldn’t have been my greatest days. That’s what I mean by partnership.
Dreaming In Words
I have always been a very language-oriented person. I’m a voracious reader and blog surfer, and I can savor a well placed turn-of-the-phrase like other people remember baseball games or Grateful Dead concerts.
Deciding to turn myself over to words- writing for a living- has been one of the best decisions of my life. I don’t want to be Faulkner or Hemingway (though I’ve thought Faulkner would be a great blogger, and Hemingway would write the world’s most compelling web copy).
I just want to write. And talk. I love to talk about stuff. It’s one of the reasons I’m so happy doing what I’m doing. Starting a commercial writing company just felt natural.
But the chance for partnership, the chance to build something… more… was missing. I knew I was missing the technical experience, the marketing miles, that would really put my writing to best use.
And I knew that a lot of people were missing an opportunity to say smart, engaging things about who they were. There was a gap. They needed what I love to do.
Where This Is Going
When Pat and I talked about forming a partnership, it made great sense to us. Pat’s preached about creating quality content since Matterhorn’s beginnings.
And I’m a big believer in functionality. It’s important, now more than ever, for marketing to work across a broad digital spectrum. It needs to be understood and paid attention. That’s what Pat does.
Both of us like how design helps content say more and functionality do more. Design enables us to do what we do (and if any designers out there feel the same way, get in touch anytime.)
Partnership strengthens all of us in what we do. I’m a better writer because of what Pat does, and he’s a better developer because of what I do. Cool to think: what does that do for our clients?
With all that in mind, the goal is to move marketing toward leadership. Don’t “manage” marketing- lead it toward customers. Make them (businesses, customers, the world) a part of it.
It’s something no one can really do by themselves. We need partners.
