#9 The Jerry Maguire Moment: Rebuilding Your Company For Your Mental Health With Kent Lewis
Listen
Watch
Description
In our ninth episode, Kerry interviews Kent Lewis who is the CMO of Anvil/Deksia, a marketing agency specializing in strategy-driven creative. We discuss why he rebuilt Anvil in 2013 for his own mental health. Or as he calls it his Jerry Maguire moment. Which turned out to be the best thing for him and his business.
About Kent Lewis
Lewis is currently Chief Marketing Officer for Anvil/Deksia, where he is responsible for the overall strategic direction of marketing, including evolving messaging and integration of our combined entity. With a background in integrated marketing, he left a public relations agency in 1996 to start his career in search engine marketing. Since then, he’s helped grow businesses by connecting his clients with their constituents via the Internet. In 2000, Lewis founded Anvil Media, Inc., a measurable marketing agency specializing in search engine and social media marketing. Under his leadership, Anvil has received recognition from Portland Business Journal and Inc. Magazine as a Fastest Growing and Most Philanthropic Company. In March 2022, Anvil merged with Deksia, a Midwest-based agency specializing in strategy-driven creative.
In 2008, Lewis created Formic Media, a sister agency to Anvil, providing a similar set of digital marketing services to small businesses and strategic partners. He’s co-founder of a variety of organizations, including career community pdxMindShare, emailROI (now Thesis) and SEMpdx, a Portland-area SEM professional trade association. As a long-time entrepreneur, Lewis is an investor and advisor to a host of emerging Portland-based companies, including CareSpace, Maury’s Hive Tea, Syndical, Tixie and ToneCommand. Lewis speaks regularly at industry events and has been published in books and publications including Business2Community, Online Marketing Institute and Portland Business Journal and SmartBrief.
Since 2000, he’s been an adjunct professor at Portland State University, where he’s taught an SEM Workshop, and tours nationwide as a regular speaker at the Digital Summit conference series. Active in his community, Lewis has been involved in non-profit charity and professional trade organizations including early literacy program SMART Reading, The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE). Industry recognition and awards include Portland Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 Award, Top 25 Most Influential Pay-per-Click Experts and Marketer of the Year by American Marketing Association Oregon Chapter. Lewis was also named a Top 100 Digital Marketing Influencers by BuzzSumo
Show Notes
Show Notes
Kent Lewis on Twitter
eoportland.com - A business network for entrepreneurs to grow their business
Jiro Dreams of Sushi - Kent mentioned this movie as an allegory for excellence
Anvil/Deksia
Anvil Media’s Website
Free Resources
25 Years of Business Advice from an Entrepreneur & Marketer
Transcript
Kerry Finsand: 0:10
Hello there. And welcome to Successfully Depressed. And I'm your host, Kerry Finsand. This show is all about helping solar entrepreneurs navigate mental and phyiscal health in life and business. Today's guest is Kent Lewis. Kent Lewis is currently the Chief Marketing Officer for the Anvil Deksia company, where he is responsible for the overall strategic direction of marketing, including everything involving messaging and integration of the combined entities. Well, welcome to the show kent Lewis.
Kent Lewis: 0:39
Thank you for having me Kerry. It's always a pleasure to connect with you.
Kerry Finsand: 0:43
Yeah. And we've known each other for, I don't know, maybe 2006 or something.
Kent Lewis: 0:48
Yeah.
Kerry Finsand: 0:49
I was involved with the company called Citysearch, which was kind of a old school version of, uh, Yelp, we'll say. And you were already doing Anvil and in the internet marketing space. I joined SEMPDX at one point which was, uh, organization that you co-founded. And then I later got involved as an advisor. And then through the years we just different networking groups like PDX Mindshare you started, um, And we both enjoy talking to people and networking. So we've been out there for a bit, so welcome to show.
Kent Lewis: 1:18
Thank you. Can't wait to get into it.
Kerry Finsand: 1:21
So let's, let's tell the listeners a little bit about who you are and how you got to this point today.
Kent Lewis: 1:26
Sure. So I'm, uh, I would say in short, an entrepreneur by defacto, and that I've been a part of, uh, 10 agencies. I've co-founded two founded. But the getting fired from two was the part that pushed me into entrepreneurship. Um, I started in high tech PR, uh, back in 94 and then in 95, I moved to Portland where I knew one person, my cousin, I moved to a high tech PR firm. And in about a year. I, my personal interest has started pursuing what's this internet thing. And how do you market on it? Ended up doing some trade and kind work with a sister web dev agency. And by mid 96, they were like, why don't you just move downstairs to the sister agency and be our marketing person. I was like, sure. You bet. so back then, I was there were no conferences or books on what internet marketing was before it was called, uh, digital marketing. It was internet marketing or web marketing. So I was self taught on SEO. There wasn't any advertising yet. Um, banner ads. I didn't really fall the search arm. They're still under traditional advertising or advertising. And so I was self taught and I started sharing some of my insights in a weekly newsletter. I called Anvil Media because my employer Vivo Media had a cool industrial name. And I thought. There was an available domain. And I took that, ran that as a, uh, initially it was under them. It was a business purpose to educate people on what's going on with the internet. And as I changed agencies, three more times, I decided to buy the domain myself and own it as a, more of a lifestyle, uh, creative outlet. And it became a monthly Ezine. Basically 2000 to 2006 and then getting married, having kids meant that was one of the few things I sacrificed. But I basically have been building teams of digital marketers since roughly 1997. um, at a bunch of different agencies and I'm now as part of Anvil Deksia or Deksia more specifically I'm, that's my 10th agency I've been involved with and just take the, and just reduce my entrepreneurial role to just marketing. Um, you know, being 50 or years or older, it's been a long run and I'm, I'm happy to, to rediminish my, um, my scope and have a healthier, mentally happier world at
Kerry Finsand: 3:37
Yeah. Now, was it a merger or acquisition?
Kent Lewis: 3:39
So technically it was an acquisition, it was an asset purchase of Deksia, um, of anvil by Deksia a Midwest based agency. Um, they're roughly three times our size at the time of the, uh, acquisition in March. So anvil was around 22 years. Um, my online networking group or, and now off, or was offline now online networking group, PDX Mindshare. You mentioned earlier was created originally 1999. So that's still running. I've been an adjunct professor of Portland State since 2000, I'm still actively a resource for them. So I'm not afraid of commitment, but I did decide that, uh, 20 years of running teams doing sales account support and marketing was, um, was getting a bit onerous and it seemed like a good time to switch over and. Um, sell the business externally was communicated as a merger because that's how they treat it. They wanted to take the best of the, the processes, the tools clients, and create a super Deksia, a super agency. And they've largely been able to do a lot of that versus just, we automatically get sucked into their processing culture and tough, tough patooties. It's been much more of a collaboration, so it's, we're acting like it's a merger, basically.
Kerry Finsand: 4:49
That's good. Yeah. It can be really hard to combine those different cultures. And it's also hard to. Uh, sell a business. I've went through that before, too. And just trying to figure out where all the assets are worth and the whole valuation. Now you have to look at all the different assets. You probably are looking at your revenue, and X-ing that over, over a certain period of time to kind of get the idea of what something's worth.
Kent Lewis: 5:09
Mm-hmm yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've been having, I've had conversations with potential acquirers since about 2006 or seven. It's been a long, long journey, um, and many conversations. In fact, in 2018 or 19, I was this close to selling the. Um, at the 11th hour, I was at the auto show decided to buy a car. Um, actually that was in nine, 2019. We were at the last bit. So I was like, if I'm gonna get this race car or just high end performance car, I don't need the want. Am I okay if, if the deal gets scuttled, for whatever reason I decided. Absolutely. And I scuttled the deal two days later. So, um, it was, I think definitely the right. and I believe this Deksia, um, uh, merger acquisition was the right move. Um, and I was re I still have the car. I still enjoy it, but I also built up far more value in terms of valuation, which is typically a, a rev, a revenue, sorry, a profit multiple versus a much lower revenue, multiple. Um, I built a better business in that time. That was worth more and, um, was actually a better acquisition for Deksia because everybody was happy and clients are happy. It was a, it was just a, it better for every.
Kerry Finsand: 6:24
Yeah, I think you're also in a nice spot too, because I know for me with, with when I sold Taplister, I was then hired back to work for it for a year or two. And that took a lot of pressure off of me. And it kind of refueled my energy for it for a bit. It's just kind of a nice thing even though your baby is not really yours anymore, you still have the ability to be involved with it and kind of leave on your terms.
Kent Lewis: 6:46
Right. And so for your listeners, many may not know the average tenure of a entrepreneur who sells their business is 12 months. And my goal was to stick around for four to 10 years, the amount of the earn out plus however much longer I'm having fun. It could be another 20 years, you know, as long as I can function and speak and write and, and enjoy what I do. Um, and I still think that that's still my target. Um, and I would be surprised if I, if I didn't make it a year, you know, because there's a benefit for me as a, as a mile post to make it at least a year, just to make sure I've maximized the return of the deal. But I could still leave today and get the same deal just without the paycheck. And I think it's good. Mainly I'm sticking around for my team and for my clients. I want that continuity for them to have a nice soft landing. And the last five plus almost six months has been a lot of work to integrate and, and have conversations and assuage and, and excite. Uh, but it's been very rewarding to see it move as arguably as fast as it has to get people like, you know, honeymoon's over, I'm still here. Let's go.
Kerry Finsand: 7:53
What's great about your situation is that you've done the entrepreneurial thing and you know, you're, you're still involved with it, but now you can kind of figure out what do you wanna do next. And I think mental health, you know, that's really something that's, uh, you know, this is, this podcast is about mental health and business. And so figuring out when is the right time for you to kind of think about, okay, now it's time for me to kind of spend more time either with my family or work on some stuff for my own personal development. So I guess, um, are there things that you're kind of excited about in kind of a personal development space that you're in right now or hope to be in soon?
Kent Lewis: 8:26
Yeah. You know, found it interesting that I no longer care about certain emails or inquiries around cash flow management um, leadership growth. You know, those sort of things are not really a concern of mine anymore. My, my interests have shifted towards how am I gonna be the best chief marketing officer CMO that I can be for Deksia and support their sales indirectly and support their clients and account teams as an advisor. I really enjoy being an advisor mentor type, and that's what I'm gonna try and do without stepping on toes in the process. Right? Because having been in my defined role for so long, I it's been a bit of a. But I will tell you, um, right now, I just feel like I have unfortunate to be able to, um, to have a much more manageable, lower stress day, because as you said, Kerry with your change to employee, there's a stability there that arguably, um, and, and, uh, I'm not worried about cash flow in other people's paychecks right now. It doesn't mean it's not a concern at all. Of course I'm concerned as a, as a, as a equity owner in Dex. That we continue on and I care about all these new people and my extended family, but, you know, I think if we were hearken back to the, I, I had to make a major change in terms of mental health. This was the tail end. This was a champagne glass at its after a 22 year run. I wasn't, other than my wife's mental health of getting outta the operational role, it, it didn't, um, it wasn't a major change for me other than emotionally. Like, can I, as you said, give up my baby and I'm surprised at how. How easy it has been. Um, there's still much work ahead, but, um, you know, all of my pain happened back in late 2012 and early 2013. When I fell out of love with my business and my team and the work, and I had to make a change. I was, I was, I was mentally at the end of my rope. I was exhausted. I was frustrated. I was pissed off. Um, and I know I had to make a change. And so that's when I did a lot of my heavy work was back.
Kerry Finsand: 10:23
Yeah, and that that's a good segway into what you call your Jerry McGuire moment. And this was in 2013, uh, your business was doing well but you kind of felt like the business wasn't innovating as much. And, and you just kind of have a different vision. You weren't really sure what's all going on with, with the employees, what they were excited about anymore, what you were excited about anymore. So tell us a little bit about how. You manifested this Jerry McGuire moment.
Kent Lewis: 10:49
Yeah, so, you know, what ended up happening is 2011 and 12 were our biggest years in terms of revenue and profit. Uh, we were really only 14. Not a huge number. You know, we, when we sold in March of this year, we were at 11 employees. So we weren't that much smart, but we were significantly we're another million or more in revenue, cuz we had some big ass clients like Borders Books and some others real networks. And that kept our team really busy. One, a couple of truths. If you're so busy doing the work, you're probably not thinking about other things for better, for worse. So my team, it wasn't idle mines. They were too busy and they were getting paid well, uh, everything seemed to be in, I thought it was in a Ferrari cruising down the freeway, 150. I what's, uh, what I had more hair back then, billowing in the briefs. Um, but then, um, at the end of 2012, I was hearing from my team. I don't think our structure is working, but they didn't have a good answer for it. Per se. They have some ideas which we ended up actually implementing six to nine months later. I wish we'd done it. Um, and then the other was Google telling us the way we're running our accounts. Um, our ads, which was a majority of our revenue wasn't relevant. We weren't staying up at the times in terms of our bid strategies. And then the third and final strike was an early 2013. I was at a conference industry conference called SMX sat next to the head of digital for Home Depot. And I felt like he was, he was talking a different language. And granted, I started in search in 96 and here it was 2012. And I was like, what is he talking about? How am I, how is this all new to me? I felt disgusted with myself and concern for the company and my team that I wasn't hearing that language from them. So, you know, I went back to the team and I don't think there was a huge level of interest in, in innovating, as you said, or catching up without making some other changes to the culture. Some of the people mix some of the client mix. And so it just kind of laggard for another couple months until my Jerry McGuire moment sitting with my son and his bunk bed as he's nodding off and I'm staring at the ceiling needing, I need a reason to go to work tomorrow. I don't even want to go to work anymore. And I decided, stayed up till 1:00 AM writing. Like, what are the truths, the absolute truths I need to come back to work. And I wrote 50 of them slept on it, woke up in the morning, a little bit energized, a little lot. Uh, about what the potential was of finding a, a block, an area to play in a box. I'm not normally a box person, but I needed that clarity. Like where are we gonna play? Moving forward, distill that into what we call what I called a credo of 10 truths. Um, slept on it one more night. I've been getting feedback from some people in this space and my EO Network and some other business coaches. And I unveiled it to the team the very next day. So two days later and said you have 72 hours to sign on to sign this as a contract saying, I believe these to be true. I'm here and willing to ride this thing out and see where it takes us with this newfound definition. The problem was for many of my team that have been, been with me five to 10 years. We had grown and changed, but I think we were not growing together. Meaning when they saw the credo as the last straw, there was a, I changed the rules on them and they didn't like the new rules. I didn't like the new game. So, um, half of my 14 employees left in the first week, um, the rest left over the following year. I don't think one employee might have made it two years. Uh, I made two critical hires within that first week, a new operations person that aligned, found the credo and found us, um, quit their job to work for us. And then I made a call to a longtime friend from years earlier to be our head of our VP of sales. And he was with me for nine years up until the Deksia merger. And he didn't feel that that new entity was a good fit for him. So he moved on and you know, that I would've, what I've learned is that's okay. I think the key is as long as you're growing together and see the potential as it employees going towards a greater good. Then keep working on it. But if you see yourselves going apart much like a marriage or any relationship, and you can't reconcile those differences and values or, or, or mostly its values, rarely is it morals or ethics or something like that? That was never really the issue. Um, then, then why fight it right? Do yourself both in favor, cut the tie, move on. And then maybe you can retain that friendship, that relationship. Uh, I think that Ando was such a tight knit. It was so emotionally charged that I have not talked to most of those people that left since they left. I think they felt they needed absolutely cold turkey, which I find interesting considering they did, I believe their best work at Anvil. Um, there was a lot of pushing and, and compromising to be made to get to that excellent level of work. And I think they, maybe they found that they didn't need to continue to put that effort out. So whatever the case is, I have high standards for my, for my family. I want them to do well after I leave. After we part ways. But the new people that came in more and more over time, totally aligned with that, with that credo. And we don't even talk about anymore because it's in our hiring process and it's just, we live it every day. There was no more reason to keep hitting people over the head with it, cuz those people, the new employees that we have today and have had since 13 signed on inherently, knowing that was the deal. And I never changed the deal after that because it met the needs of our clients and where we were going. You
Kerry Finsand: 16:00
know, sometimes. When you're working somewhere, it things don't always align, you know, like let's say like the analogy like I've been using lately is Chris Paul going to the Phoenix Suns and he was able to have a good group of people around him and really show his skills. And he's been shining in Phoenix before that, you know, he did okay. And everything, but sometimes you're on the wrong team or something or if you're the, if you're the leader. And you wanna change kind of the organizational structure and not everyone's gonna buy into it, then it's not good for everyone to be there anymore. As much as, as tough as it can be.
Kent Lewis: 16:36
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that was the hardest point for me was the day after the next morning, after I wrote the credo, um, a day before I unveiled it to the team, my 10 year, most seasoned employee, um, from intern to Vice President. Um, gave me notice when we were doing our regular walking one on one, and I said, Hey, you know, I get it. I'm unhappy. I know that you were put in a seat that you were have struggled with. Meaning she went from a brilliant account person and strategist to manager. And what I've learned with, um, strengths finder and freak factor is. Um, it's not the right seat on the bus. I think that's the wrong metaphor from Tim Collins. It's the right seat on the boat. If we're not all pulling and we're not on harmony, then somebody catches what they call a crab and crew and they get not launched outta the boat. And I think I put her, um, instead of being Cox and she could've been a lead rower, meaning she, people loved and respected her until she became their manager. And then they just were like, nah, I don't want. and it, and it hurt her deeper to her soul. She's a high empath. And so I said, just check out my credo, sleep on it. If you don't like where this is going, I don't blame you for leaving. And she slept on it's like it's too late. For me. I'm damaged. She was deeply hurt by the team. She managed that she cared so much about that. She's so respected up until a incident with a movie. We had a movie, uh, watching with, um, Jiro dream dreams of sushi. I highly recommend it. It's a. great allegory for excellence. And a lot of the team members took it the wrong way, uh, instead of a beautiful movie that it is, and it, and it led to her ultimately getting burned out. So, um, I think that's where, when you lose people that are like your family, you've raised these people in the career, it, it was, it really hurt me. Despite the fact I could look back and say, we set some great goals together. She achieved some amazing life goals. Um, and I got to see it and I got to be a part of it. Um, but to end the way it did was deeply saddening to. There's still a few people that have left that I still feel burned. Like, like, why didn't we work this out? We, maybe we could have worked it out. But, uh, now that I've sold, like a lot of that I can let go of, it's no longer relevant. Um, you know, maybe I care too much, but I didn't show it in the right ways. Well,
Kerry Finsand: 18:47
Well, I think the hard thing too, is that. Often we become, uh, our identities are often our businesses. Um, and so you, things can be taken more personally or if you're transition away from that. And that was like your life for so long. It's kind of like, who am I now? You know, like, um, I think was it in Zoolander when he looks into the puddle or something and he is like, who am I or something like that. But on, on a random note here I gotta bring this up here. You got a TLC shirt on.
Kent Lewis: 19:15
Yes. Oh, this is a good story. So this is from a, a, a. uh, eight bit arcade called quarter headquarters and that's their logo, the little buffering space invader thing. And it's on
Kerry Finsand: 19:27
isn't that? In Southeast Portland.
Kent Lewis: 19:29
Um, I don't know if no there's quarter world, I think here, but, uh, headquarters. There's one in Nashville and there's one in Chicago and I happen to have been, there may be others, but I, I first went to the one in Nashville and big fan of TLC in eighties, music, eighties, nineties.
Kerry Finsand: 19:46
Crazy sexy. Cool.
Kent Lewis: 19:47
impact album. And so the bartender was wearing this t-shirt. I was like, dude, that is a dope t-shirt. And the kid's like 19 he's like, you don't even know who they are. And I was like, what? You don't know? TLC's like, yeah, I don't know. It's not my, it's not my shtick. And I was like, dude, that is the coolest shirt ever. He is like looking at my shirt. It's an old. Tattered skate shirt, a RCVA skate shirt that had an interesting design, but it literally had holes in it. He's like, dude, I'll totally trade your shirts. And I was like done. So he gave me one other gift shop and I went in the bathroom change and gave him my smelly old rowdy shirt. He was stoked. Um, so that's how I got this shirt. And, um, and I get compliments on this probably more than almost any other shirt I own. And, uh,
Kerry Finsand: 20:28
That's
Kent Lewis: 20:28
and it was a straight exchange, so I'm pretty happy.
Kerry Finsand: 20:32
Literally gave you the shirt off of his back
Kent Lewis: 20:34
Yes.
Kerry Finsand: 20:34
And vice versa. That's good. Yeah. Is it, was it one of those kind of places where it's like a,
Kent Lewis: 20:41
bar, it's a bar. And as long as you drink, the games are free. And unlike like in Bend and other places where you pay act to have access or you pay per play, it's just all free. Including pinball games. They have a wall of cassette tapes that it's like an art installation. I'm in love with that place. If you're ever in Nashville or Chicago, Um, definitely check it out. And there's one thing I do want to say about the health and wellness thing because of the theme is I found that there are like at least three legs to a stool of being able to, as an entrepreneur or a solar entrepreneur to run a business. And if, if you take and I say three, cuz you only, if you take one off it'll you can fall. Um, it became, you have to have really strong core to hold yourself up on two legs. Right? So I've found this isn't any books I've read just my experience. If, if your home life, you know, if you're married, girlfriend, boyfriend, single, but you know, doing whatever makes like just your emotional life, your emotional needs are getting taken care of through friends and family, significant other that's huge. That is a, the biggest leg. And then the most under reported leg that we've learned at, you know, more through a lot of reading and science. Is your personal health, the physical health, mental health. So are you sleeping enough? Are you eating right? Are you talking to people? If you need to talk to them that are maybe professionals and not just friends and family, that's a big one. The third one for me is, is the business running reasonably well? Meaning there there's profit to be paid back there. You're getting a livable salary. So are your employees, um, if you have them, that that's really important to me. So what I found happening over a 22 year period, there were a couple points where, where two of the three legs were kicked out from under me. I'm proud to say that for the most part, unlike many of my entrepreneur, friends and EO entrepreneur organization, um, agency owners and industry folks I know from digital, like you is they tend to let their sacrifice their health first. And I never have I'm you know, I don't need as much sleep as others, but, um, pre COVID, I was pre averaging seven hours a week, uh, sleep almost seven hours after COVID it's, it's seven and a half to eight hours. I decided sleep was more important. Um, even if I didn't feel I needed it, I would take it. The other is, you know, diet and exercise. I, I pre exercise seven days a week. Um, in some fashion. So I know that I'm not SAC, that that leg is nearly impossible. The only way you can, Nick, Nick at it is put me in a weird, uh, location where I can't really work out and I can only eat shitty food. So like a Disneyland, the, that might be a problem, but at least you're walking all day. Um, the other is like when my relationship has been tough at home and at work, I really, then I actually dive into the, I try to eat better exercise instead of drinking more and lazing on the couch. So trying to balance those three. and you could argue there's probably a fourth one. I mean, if you're spiritual or you could pick something else, that's fine. For me, it was those three legs. And every once in a while, somebody kick one, I was missing one and somebody started kicking at one of the others and I'd be like, oh no. And so in 13, that's where I felt, uh, it wasn't, um, at home wasn't really the big issue. It wasn't necessarily my health, but with the business taking a big old poop, um, I felt the other, if everything else was it, wasn't perfect. I couldn't weather it. And, and so that's where I felt I had to make a. Yeah,
Kerry Finsand: 23:55
Yeah. And I, and one of the challenges too, you know, being, uh, an entrepreneur, it's harder to have someone to talk to. I mean, you, you obviously talk to your friends and family and that can be helpful, but. you also need to have people to kind of, uh, bounce ideas off of like, whether it's like a mastermind group or I know that you were in a number of like EO you were in startups, uh, what was
Kent Lewis: 24:18
Starveups yeah, yeah,
Kerry Finsand: 24:20
Starveups? Yeah, I know you're a member of number of those. And I'm assuming that those probably help kept you grounded
Kent Lewis: 24:26
Absolutely. I think EO entrepreneur organization, the Portland chapter of the global 15,000 business owners, it's a nonprofit. Um, you go to, I think EO network.org or eoportland.com. For the local chapter. It has been since oh seven has been a huge crutch for me. And then I have this other group agency round table, which is a bunch of Portland agencies, many of which compete. And we don't talk rates. There's no collusion. It's just best practices, HR sales, marketing, what's coming down the pipe. That that's been huge for me. Um, and then, uh, like I said, back in the day, it was, I was when I was active in Starveups, that was usually helpful from that S starving startup approach, um, to life where we were all very thrifty, um, back in the early mid two thousands. Um, so I I've had that balance. I had an advisory board for seven years at anvil that also helped. Um, so I have not relied on just myself. I think the biggest challenge I hear from entrepreneurs is whether they realize or not is they feel very alone. It's uh, and I, and I realized not only did I have EO and all these other resources, I still, once I became an employee started VEing like crazy to the head of ah, HR, cuz I never had somebody to talk to for 22 years about just little things besides my wife and I realized I can burn her out. So I just internalize it. So being able to like. Like at a really cathartic, um, weekly leadership team meeting. I got to vent things that have been on my mind for between five months and 15 years. But as it related to my success at Dexia Ville, and I felt just being heard and appreciate, thank you for sharing that let's work on that. Like thank you, you know, cuz I had to listen to everybody else, but I could never share back as a, as an owner. And it's, it's a really tough place to be.
Kerry Finsand: 26:11
Yeah, cuz the end of the day, when you're owner of a business, you're, you know, you're the janitor, you're everything. And if someone doesn't show up, you know, it's up to you, uh, you don't have the stability of someone that's, you know, worked somewhere for 20 years with a great 401k. Um, and, and, you know, that's, for some people, that's what they wanna do. People are wired differently. And for some people being an entrepreneur doesn't make sense. Other people, um, like you and me, we. We like it. And there's, there's that a little bit sense of craziness to it, of course. And that you like that, that rollercoaster ride for its ups and downs sometimes, but, um, and that's where it can be hard to talk to sometimes friends and families who don't have businesses. They don't quite get what you're dealing with and they can, at the end of the day, go home and, you know, I'm away from my laptop. I'm away from my email. Um, I'm lived my life. And so that's one of the challenges of being an entrepreneur. So one of the things I've been also talking to people about in this podcast is encouraging people to start something. It doesn't even have to be a business, but it could be like a podcast or what, you know, just learn and do something. And, and then also looking at, you know, is it is something you wanna start. Is it a hobby? Is it like a side hustle or is it a business? Because I've know in the past I've done things before that definitely aren't businesses. And I thought they were, and they clearly were not, and they were more just kind of an idea and, um, it wasn't fully thought through. One thing that I like to do, if I'm really gonna commit to something, is I like to write like a one page business plan on what I'm wanting to do. And so then I can kind of think about it and see if this is something that even makes sense versus just kind of going with, oh, I have this great idea and everything. So I guess what are some of the things that you've done to kind of keep you grounded with any project you started? It could, it could be, you know, the Annville newsletter could be PDX Mindshare.
Kent Lewis: 27:58
So I in college came up with a mission statement for myself, which is really unusual because I didn't really put a lot of thought to my life through, up, you know, up until after college. Um, but I was all about, um, I liked even in college to like entertain first and for. And then maybe educate others. And so there was this kinda like if I'm not educating or entertaining people, I'm probably not doing my job. And I carried that in spades through my early career. And the one thing I added once I'd been here for maybe 10 years in about 05 was, or no, just five years was I moved here. And I mentioned at the start of the top of the podcast, I knew one person, my cousin, who was already living here. And now I say, I know a couple thousand people. I don't know, but I know a lot of people in Portland and it was just this whole networking thing I did. Then I realized what I enjoyed, why I started PDX Mindshare and kept with it was I enjoyed meeting people. Then I enjoyed problem solving and, or connecting them with others that could problem solve for them. So I became a connector as Malcolm Gladwell would say. So my, my revised mission statement, the past 25 plus years has been to, um, inform, connect and, and entertain. So when I'm speak. At digital summit in Minneapolis later this week, I'm definitely educating them. Um, I'm gonna entertain 'em no matter what, I can't help it. Uh, even when people don't wanna be entertained, I'm gonna do it. And then arguably, I might even be able to connect, connect some dots, connect some people, whatever it is. But if I'm doing those three things or even one of those, those are the three legs of my stool of focus on how I make decisions in particularly in business, but also in life. Um, it makes everything really clear. That's why I've kept Mindshare for 20 something years. That's why I've been an adjunct professor when I thought I should quit because I'm educating it's that important to me to inform people and, um, it's been true to my brand. Um, so I'm I'm and then I'm always gonna be entertaining. And just in my interactions, just I enjoy that the most probably. If I can't do those things, one of there are more of those things with a given business decision. I'm probably not going to do it. And it's been very interesting instead of does it leverage synergies? Does it create a five X revenue? Multiple? I don't give a shit about any of that. I mean, I did at some point and I still, as a, as a owner, um, and, and leadership team member at Deksia, I do care about those things and wanna provide my guidance and input and support, but that's not what drives me. It's they want me to be a thought leader. I love being a thought leader. I do it for free. Don't tell 'em that. Then I know I'm, I'm living my vision. I'm living my purpose every day.
Kerry Finsand: 30:42
Yeah, if you distill it down to that, then you'll enjoy what you're doing and there's, you know, You can be, you can be happy in the moment, but it takes a lot of work to be joyful. And, and so you found those pillars to make, to kind of bring joy into what you want to do. So if you want to talk to people, you want to connect them. Um, those are things that, you know, give you a lot of energy.
Kent Lewis: 31:04
Mm-hmm Um,
Kerry Finsand: 31:05
Is there anything else? I mean, I think this we've covered a lot of different things in this podcast has been, I think, very educational. Is there anything else that comes to your mind that you want to discuss at all?
Kent Lewis: 31:15
Um, well, I would say there is a, I believe I sent it to you already. Um, a compilation compilation of articles. I've written both on my LinkedIn blog and on third party publications, like Inc magazine sharing my stories of launching business. Um, cause I've founded two agencies, co-founded two agencies have founded or co-founded two entities, you know, trade groups. Um, so there's that early stage startup. And then there's the growth mode. There's their, you know, hiring employees and then there's the leadership. And then there's the exit and I have three or four categories of articles and there's probably like 40 articles in there. That've written over the last 20 something years of based on. Written over the last five to 10 years based on 25 plus years of experience. And I think they cover a lot of topics that entrepreneurs, so entrepreneurs are living every day. Um, and it, I encourage 'em to use that, that, uh, resource, if they find it helpful and just a reminder, you're not alone. Right. So don't try to do this on your own thinking you're tougher, smarter, or better, um, learn from other people's mistakes. So you don't have to repeat them. That's the whole purpose of EO and other, um, peer groups is. Is problem solving and, and helping make it more informed decisions before you make the wrong decisions, because I've been experiencing this the last couple months, is there have been some ill-informed decisions that have had big impact regardless of the intent. And that's something I was coached on back in 1998. Hey Kent, you're a great guy, really smart. You get this internet stuff, but you're like a puppy in a China shop and you keep knocking shit over and breaking it. And the impact is just the same as whether it was intentional or just your waggy happy tail. And I was like, wow. And I I've taken that with me ever since, you know, that was a long time ago. I had more, um, more energy and a little less and a lot less cooth and, and tact. Um, but I'm still largely the same person. Um, so I think that's, you know, I've learned these lessons, so never stop embracing those lessons, leaning into quick failures and then ideally learning from the mistakes of.
Kerry Finsand: 33:16
Yeah. And what we'll do is we'll in our show notes, we'll include a link to that resource that you were mentioning. Um, and where can people find you online?
Kent Lewis: 33:23
So the best place would probably be on the Twitter at Kent J Lewis for just, uh, random streams of digital marketing information. If you want to be more focused on, you know, more holistic professional career connection, LinkedIn would be definitely the best place to connect with me. And you can't miss me. Kent Lewis on Google or Kent Lewis, Anvil, or Kent Lewis. Deksia, I'll be there in LinkedIn. Um, connect with me. I'm happy to do that. Um, and then just you deksia.com deksia dot com or AnvilMediainc.com tons of resources for you to learn and understand the stories. Um, you know, and, and, and, uh, you know, just help you rocket, rocket, feel your career.
Kerry Finsand: 34:04
Kent again, thank you for the time today was good to catch up and learn about your progress into building Anvil and then recently selling it. I always like to end this show with remember you're not alone in life or business.
