My war story

Hello and welcome to my blog.

There are two things you should know about me. The first is that I really love the marketing industry. The second, that I'm a typical entrepreneur that has more than just a touch of A.D.D. So, if I finish writing this post, I've done well and should be fed grapes and fanned with palm leaves.

Since I will no doubt be spending the vast majority of my time blogging about the marketing industry, to satisfy my entrepreneurial persona I want to dedicate my first blog to my war story of growing this agency for the past 13 years. Most enjoy a good war story and the older I get, the more I reflect positively on the challenges we faced as a business and how we overcame them.

To begin, the year is 1996 and I was 24 years old. I had just sold my cellular phone business to Mickey MacDonald and had a few greenbacks in my mattress (Note to self: excess greenbacks + a 24 year old is a recipe for disaster!) Time took good care of this issue however and 6 months later I found this newfound nest egg, well, diluted in things like beer, trips, cars and other such meaningful investments.

The one thing my previous career taught me was that I probably couldn't work for anyone again. It was with that revelation that a friend fatefully dropped off a manilla envelope with contents that inspired me to get into the graphic design business. The guts of the envelope demonstrated how I could make millions designing personal brochures for real estate agents. I would take their picture, write their bios and lay it all out for the low, low price of $5,000 for a set of 1000 brochures. Sweet! So, I bought a PC (my first of many mistakes in this industry) as well as Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark and a shit load of graphic design manuals and began to ply my newfound trade. I then moved into my fathers carpet cleaning business to set up shop. Since all my money was eviscerated... I mean "invested," I bought some plywood and built my desk in the back corner of my dad's warehouse. Men's men (that smelled like, well, men's men) walked in and out all day with carpets over their shoulders while I worked away feverishly in the corner. Soon after, I felt I was adequately versed in the science of using the tools and had confidence in my design skill, so I went out knocking on every real estate agents door in Halifax. But no one bought the package from me. Not one! I guessed I missed the fine print in the manilla envelope that real estate agents were cheaper than dirt. Alas, my new business and three months of rigorous training had a grim outlook.

But wait, I thought... wouldn't companies need brochures, posters and the like? My business wasn't dead after all! I cracked open the yellow pages and invaded the Burnside Industrial Park for prospects. I actually found a few brave corporate souls that gracefully allowed me to fully understand how bad I really was at design. So, I learned my first and best rule in business expeditiously which was to hire people smarter and better than myself. The product got better and soon after I moved into my first permanent location on the Dartmouth waterfront.

From 1997 - 2000 I grew insatiably curious about this thing called "advertising". The lines blurred from what was graphic design and what was advertising. I was smitten. I felt like I had to devour anything and everything that had to do with it. I went to award shows all over Canada and the Northeastern United States. I called everyone who was a someone in advertising in Canada and went to see them all. The "TSN turning point" in these 30 or so encounters was a fateful meeting with a guy that had just opened his doors in Toronto from Montreal. The first thing I noticed when I got to that agency was the energy and vibe that this 20+ person agency gave off. These people wanted to be there. They had purpose and they really liked each other and I therefore had to assume, they liked their jobs. Next, I get ushered into their funky boardroom to watch their demo reel while I waited for my host to arrive. I was laughing out loud (lol'ing) at the content of their tv spots. I was so engaged with the tv that I barely noticed a man who had walked in. I looked over and here stood a guy in a pair of jeans and a sweater, shaved head and looked to be 8 feet tall. I greeted him and sat down. With no pleasantries exchanged he dug right in. I was gripped. He talked about this industry like a prize fighter before a fight. With passion, vigour and purpose. He didn't tell me what I needed to do, but in turn told me what he loved about this business, what he hated about it and why he was going to change it. That guy was Paul Lavoie from TAXI. I'm indebted to him for that 30 minute talk that altered the course of my future. That meeting was at the end of 2001 after which we had gone from being known as Extreme Design Group to Extreme Communications to reflect our new advertising positioning.

In 2001, the East Coast was a backwater of Canadian advertising. A sleepy and dormant region controlled by large established agencies that had deep connections into the commercial landscape. After my fateful meeting at TAXI, all that was about to change and change fast. Fatefully, I met Shawn King in 2001. Shawn's "interview" lasted 5 hours and ended up at his place over beers. We hit it off immediately and discovered we had the same belief that we could forever change the landscape on the East Coast. Next, I went to a client, Jamie Davison, who then was the Director of e-commerce at Clearwater Seafoods. We convinced each other on the back of a napkin to open Extreme Interactive together. We inked the deal that would see him owning 50% and myself owning 50%. Then, 6 months later in June of 2002, I went to another client Andrew Doyle who was a Marketing Manager at Coke at the time and convinced him (also on the back of a napkin) to join me in opening Extreme Public Affairs, where he would own 50% and I would own 50%. By the end of 2002 we had three companies operational under the Extreme brand.

The obstacle of storming the established agency strongholds, setting fire and taking their clients was ominous. The only way we could do this was to prove to the marketers that we would give them something no one had ever given them before... creativity. To do this, I started an award show along with a client at the time, Giles Crouch, called the Ice Awards. We conspired that if we built an East Coast award show, the work would get better, the talent would come and clients would get far better results and maybe compete beyond our borders. Secretly, my motivations were darker and more sinister; to put Extreme Group on the map and become synonymous with creativity. Though we bombed the first year at the newly founded Ice Awards, giving birth to this award show had a halo effect for the agency.

From 2002 - 2005 we exploded. We won almost every major account in Atlantic Canada including Aliant, Moosehead Breweries, McCain International, Workers Compensation Board, Atlantic Lottery Corporation and Nova Scotia Department of Health Promotion. We grew from 9 people to almost 60 by the end of 2005 and had been recognized for our work dominating the Ice Awards, the Bessies and then got a nod as far as the Cannes International Awards. We were unstoppable and I was having the time of my life building Extreme with the most amazing and talented people I knew.

In 2005, for a host of reasons we merged the three companies together to become Extreme Group. Jamie Davison left the fold to pursue his vision of a new interactive world and Shawn King earned his place in the ranks of partnership. We moved into our 13,000 sq foot digs in the Alezander Keith's Brewery and spared no expense building an office that would positively impact our culture that included a full gym and shower, beer keg, Xboxes and a cafe/ lounge. But something else happened in 2005 also which was an epiphany: we had amazing clients on the East Coast, but they were limited. With no means to backfill a client when (for whatever reason) they leave, there's only one way to go... down. I became obsessed with expansion. Bringing the "secret sauce" we discovered to new frontiers. Not just being a great Halifax agency, but a great Canadian, if not global agency.

It was with that motivation that we set our sights on Toronto. So, with a ton of planning and looking at several options to enter the market, I moved my pregnant wife April (who was originally from PEI) and two young daughters to Toronto. It was January 3, 2007 that the crushing reality struck me while I sat in a sublet office space on Dufferin Street, surrounded by 14 empty desks and computers and silence... "what the fuck did I just do??" I didn't know a sole in Toronto, had no revenue, no clients, no staff or contacts. But here I sat at my desk looking out over the expansive, cold city with it staring right back at me challenging me to even try. A city with a dozen amazingly talented agencies with contacts everywhere but with me. With the arse of the economy falling out of it's pants, that was a big moment. Thankfully the meds kicked in and I began the perilous journey ahead.

By the end of 2009, we had managed to gain a few great clients like Grand & Toy, Quiznos Canada, P&G, RIM, Sony Canada and BDO. We moved into our permanent new Toronto office in Liberty Village, had 17 people, and grew our revenue from nothing to one-third of our total revenue at Extreme.

I've never been more excited about this business and our place in it. I hope you dig my blog and take something away that helps you understand where your place is inside the "Blender".

Paul