Growing with Gratitude - Growth Marketing Werks

Company: Growth Marketing Werks

Guest: Suzanne Coriell

Year Started: 2011

Employees: 1-10

What happens when you build an agency around energy, intentionality, and a deep sense of why? Suzanne Coriell, Founder of Growth Marketing Werks, shares her journey from Chicago’s ad scene to Colorado’s mountaintops where a single ski lift conversation sparked the creation of a mission-driven media agency. This episode is packed with fresh perspective on building a sustainable agency fueled by purpose, real relationships, and personal freedom.

Key Takeaways

• How defining your “why” can sharpen focus, reduce distractions, and guide major business decisions
• Why financial freedom early on gave Suzanne the confidence to build an agency her way
• How consistent relationship-building (like handwritten notes and thoughtful gifting) drives long-term loyalty
• The role of energy and “flow” in building a thriving, values-aligned team culture
• A simple weekly ritual to stay in tune with team morale and avoid being blindsided by turnover

Transcript

0:02

Welcome to An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. From the excitement of starting up the first big sale, passion, doubt, fear, freedom, and the emotional rollercoaster of growth, hear it all on An Agency Story podcast. An Agency Story podcast is hosted by Russel Dubree, successful agency owner with an eight figure exit turned business coach. Enjoy the next agency story.

Russel: 0:40

A chance mountainside conversation turned into an agency that helps purpose-driven brands amplify their impact. From Chicago's fast-paced advertising world to the peaks of Colorado, Suzanne Coriell has built Growth Marketing Werks on personal connections, relentless grit, and a commitment to do good work with good people. Welcome to the show today, Suzanne.

Suzanne: 0:59

Thank you, Russel. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Russel: 1:02

Very excited to have you. Hot take, speaking of mountaintops and skiing and all that good stuff that I know is gonna be part of our conversation today. Best place to ski in Colorado. Where is it?

Suzanne: 1:13

Oh, it depends on your ski level, but my favorite place is Arapahoe Basin. It just has that charm, authentic ski chalet. You could still drive into the parking lot and walk directly to the lift without taking gondolas and buses.

Russel: 1:27

Sounds like a pro place. You gotta be pretty good there.

Suzanne: 1:29

I wouldn't, uh, recommend going to Arapahoe Basin if you're just starting out skiing. I would try to work up to getting to Arapahoe Basin, also known as A Basin.

Russel: 1:38

All right. A Basin. Ah, for the locals. That's what my son, when my son and I go skiing, that is what he always wants to do, is he wants to try to act like he's lives there and from there. He would be all over that, uh, vernacular to make sure he, he referred to it properly. Right outta the gate, I guess, if you don't mind, just tell us what Growth Marketing Werks does and who you do it for, and we'll learn so much more after that.

Suzanne: 1:59

Russel, you prepped us very nicely in the intro here, is that we do, we amplify messages that positively impact the world. I like to begin with the why versus the what because that makes us who we are today. There are many agencies out there that do the same what as we do, but the why I think is what differentiates us and why I do what I do every day. In the world of advertising, I believe that there's a lot of noise and bad messaging out there, and consumers have started to turn off the television, skip the ad. Turn it down, put an ad blocker on. At GMW I want to reinvent that conversation for the consumer by amplifying messages that positively impact the world. Represent brands that help with behavior change and enhances people's lives in or out of the office. That's the why of Growth Marketing Werks is we really wanna work with brands that believe in that mission and not to just reinvent advertising, but to amplify their messages that are making a difference in people's lives or making our world and the environment better for the future. What we do is we are financial planners for advertising dollars. We plan and buy. Advertising for brands, you know, through direct relationships with brand marketers or in partnership with other advertising agencies that may not have media services in house. We wanna move the business forward for, for our customers.

Russel: 3:33

Lovely. I always look for the unique points of how someone describes what to do is, I like that financial planner for advertising dollars, I think is how you may have worded it. Then you shared your story and the perfect classic, uh, Simon Sinek. Why, how, what, has that been a foundation for you of just even that concept to start with, why and how did you come across that and when did that become such an important thing for you?

Suzanne: 3:55

You hit it on the, nose. Simon Sinek was the author or the influencer in that approach. We at Growth Marketing Werks, we've been in business for 14 years and the first, I would say 10 years was very reactive. Doing great work, having positioning to a degree, but not, you know, really focusing on that. And every time I went to look at the market, I felt like we were sounding like everybody else. I know we aren't like everybody else. Simon helped me focus on our why and be able to really live into that. It's how we hire, it's the conversations we talk about internally, it's how we vet, you know, potentially good partnerships and the why is really at the essence beyond, take it beyond the company, as an individual human understanding, a why of why you get up out of bed every day, why you do everything. For me, establishing the why personally, establishing the why in the organization, establishing the values, it helps just energize the workplace and, and go beyond just this tactical busyness, mundane, not mundane, but just the busyness of life, of getting things done and having the why that backs it. For me, creates purpose and like a, a meaningful life.

Russel: 5:18

We very much embraced the concept in our agency and even with our client work that we did, we would make them go through the same process because you can come up with a lot of bad solutions if you don't really understand that foundation, that why, and I love how you even shared of just really embracing if we know and understand that why, how well we can embrace how we communicate that to the world and separate and differentiate to ourselves, which is so important in this game. I always love when people find that similar enlightenment and concept. It sounds like that's worked out really well for you.

Suzanne: 5:47

It has and, and really what's interesting when we start digging into the why and at Growth Marketing Werks, our essence of strategy first is exactly, it coincides with one another. If we don't know the why of why we're spending advertising dollars, the goal of that advertising, we're just gonna get really busy chasing a shiny object versus being very intentional about the why and, and then getting into the what and the how. That's actually how we start all of our relation, our conversations is why, how, and what is the goal here? Being very intentional. It's like building a house. Would you ever, uh, just start buying wood and hiring contractors without the blueprint? The game plan, you could probably, get some people and grab some nails and wood and start building a home. But is it gonna really stand up? Is it gonna protect you the way that you need it to? Is it gonna function the way that you need to it? The why really built is the foundation of strategy for us. That helps us move what we do for clients forward.

Russel: 6:54

The little snippet I caught. The why helps avoid shiny red objects, which I know for any business owner and probably especially agency owners can tend to chase a lot of those out in the world. All the more reason why, to dig into some of that work. If you folks haven't read the book out there, definitely highly suggested. It's one of the classics. Alrighty. So many great nuggets and we haven't even gotten to some of the backstory yet. Let's take a trip back in time real quick, Suzanne. If you don't mind, just give us a quick overview of where you started in the world to, uh, up until the point before starting your agency.

Suzanne: 7:25

Where I started in the world, while I was born in Westmont, Illinois, in the western suburbs of Chicago. I grew up on the same street and my parents still live in that same home. We actually moved across the street, uh, when I was in eighth grade. It's nice to be able to go home and do family roots. While I grew up in the, you know, suburbs of Chicago, I did spend some time in, um, the city of Chicago where I'd like to say I got my pedigree in advertising. I had lived in Colorado before I moved back to Chicago, but the day I left Colorado was the day I wanted to come back. When I chose to come back, I, uh, I didn't, you know, I quit my job. I had some savings. I had been in advertising, selling advertising for the first half of my career. Newspaper, television, forefront of programmatic and I came back to to Colorado and I was just looking for the next opportunity. I didn't know what it would be. I was wanting to be open to the world and I was fortunate to have all my debt paid off and to have some money in the bank account

Russel: 8:28

So you just kind of showed up with not, I won't say not a plan, but nothing locked in stone. Just said, I'm here and I'm gonna make something happen.

Suzanne: 8:35

That's exactly it, Russel. In my twenties and early thirties, I had a lot of debt. Coming outta college, I was always living paycheck to paycheck. I landed a job that a lot afforded me to be able to pay all my debts off and put some money in the bank account, and that truly is the ticket to freedom and I was able to live out my dream and follow my heart because I didn't have to worry about making ends meet. I knew the, the universe would land me in the right spot. It doesn't mean leaving and transferring life is easy. Anything that's worth doing, I find, is hard. But it flowed. I landed correctly, I had people around me supporting me, and I love the, 300 plus days of Sunshine in Colorado. I'm an avid skier, as you and I spoke about a little earlier. I was single at the time and my oldest sister said, go ride singles at a ski resort. Go find black runs, which is what you like to ski and go ride single, I did that one day, it was a Friday afternoon and I went out and I ended up meeting three people that day. One of those people was an owner of a B2B agency in Denver. Through the conversation, he invited me to reach out to him because they had needs inside their agency for media. Going agency side was always faux pa for me because on the sales side, the agency perception was overworked and underpaid, and I wasn't interested in being overworked and underpaid. I was interested in learning the agency side of the business. I gave them a call. They hired me as a contractor and for two and a half years I built out their media department, drove client demand, trained their teams, set up systems and processes. That was the start of Growth Marketing Werks. Was that fortuitous, ride.

Russel: 10:29

Sometimes ski lift run rides can be longer than others, but generally speaking, not crazy long. So in the course of what, of a few minutes, you basically had this entire conversation and got to the point of what you alluded to is the eventual onset of Growth Marketing Werks. That's crazy.

Suzanne: 10:45

You never know where the world's going to take you. Just being open to conversations and the people around you, I find are the most interesting relationships I have come upon sometime. Not to say my current relationships that I met happens, through school, are amazing, but the ones by chance really are energizing for me.

Russel: 11:05

Lesson learned. For any skiers out there, have more conversations on the lift, you just never know where it might go. We got some foundations set here. When was the moment that you're like, you know what, I'm gonna start a business, I'm gonna become entrepreneur and, and make this thing happen?

Suzanne: 11:19

It was about six months into that engagement, I realized that I had skills and knowledge that I started to develop in Chicago, that the Colorado market hadn't been privy to at that point. That was specifically around the programmatic landscape. Rewind. I joined a company called Revenue Science in 2008. They turned in to be audience science and unfortunately are no longer around, but they were at the forefront of using data to infor, inform ad calls to people using remnant inventory. Then there's algorithms to optimize based on some conversions. This was pre programmatic. This was the onset of, and I was at the forefront of that and I saw how powerful this type of data targeting and use of technology and algorithms, uh, was for marketers. I was working for Crate Barrel. We revolutionized their online business by new customers using this type of technology. Through that time, programmatic blew up and I was at the forefront of it. People in Colorado did not know what programmatic demand side platforms were. I started, um, bringing these this type of ad buying to the clients at this agency as well as don't, throw everything out with the bath water. Still stay true to good strategy. It's not about all in for programmatic, it's about a multi-touch strategy and reaching people on and offline throughout their days. That's when I knew that there was a need in Colorado. That's when I formed Growth Marketing Werks, and then I realized that one client and a one-legged table is bound to topple. I started to build out my website and my brand while, yeah, as while I was consulting and building out this agency's department.

Russel: 13:20

I want to go back to something I, I think is so important and, and whenever this seems like it comes up on the show, I really want to point it out is, is what you said of just being debt free and, and really giving yourself, you know what, at least how it's coming across to me is runway, one, just to have that capability that you just don't have a lot of heavy expenses that you gotta cover, but it allows you to explore a space, it allows you to really focus on, a problem and a solution. And then how do you bring that to market where sometimes, a lot of folks get started in this space because they, their need to replace income, they maybe got laid off or whatever the reason might be, and that, that kind of bypasses that whole problem, solution. Who and what are we solving for step? But, that seems for you just to be able to explore that based upon even what you're saying of some financial savvy, we'll call it.

Suzanne: 14:06

I couldn't agree more, Russel. It's a scarcity and abundance mindset, and as much as I could say I have an abundance mindset. If I have bills to pay and money's not coming in, it's very easy for me to move into a scarcity mindset. Then decisions are being made out of scarcity versus abundance. I've been intentional about, uh, spending within my means not living on debt. That's helped me with Growth Marketing Werks because I've experienced moments of, scarcity moments, things that shifting in the organization that not scarcity with, well, there is a moment where I had scarcity with money, but there scarcity with talent. Because I've been very conscious about not pulling all the money out of the business and reinvesting the money, having an emergency savings account in the business. When things shift in the business, people turn over, COVID happens. I have been grateful that I don't have that worry in how am I gonna make payroll? That really frees me up to make good decisions and not be driven by scarcity and stress.

Russel: 15:19

It's hard enough as it is, add more stress to this whole thing and we're just compounding our capabilities and even if we don't always recognize it, I think that can even weigh on folks. Then sometimes it does directly weigh on it. You mentioned maybe you slipped in there, there was a turbulent era or something along those lines. I can't remember how you put it, what was that little piece of time that you were, you're alluding to?

Suzanne: 15:39

I think you're talking about the moment where I didn't have a lot of money in, in my bank account. What happened was in that engagement at that agency, they got into financial woes and they owed me tens of thousands of dollars and really they were my only client. I had started using my Emerge, my bank account to offset the delay in payments. There came to a point where I had$2,000 in my bank account. They owed me tens of thousands of dollars. I was working with a coach and he said, you gotta stop working for free. I said, what do you mean work for free? They're my client. They went, yeah, I'm working with them for two and a half years. He said, you're working for free. And you need to leave them. I made the hard choice to let go of my only client that I was working for free and walked away. Couple things happened on that day. A fortuitous moment. My website went live on that day. I hadn't planned that at all. It just sort of happened. I had Growth Marketing Werks website launched, I had my brand. I had two and a half years of really fantastic work that we did, uh, together at the agency. I formed fantastic relationships with the people inside that agency, and I had a ski moment with their CFO and I had his phone number that I, I felt comfortable enough to call him direct and say, listen, I need your help to get me paid. Can you get me on a payment plan? He said, yes, I will work towards a payment plan. We worked out a payment plan to start getting money back in. I had$2,000 in my bank account and a live website and experience, and I had to make a choice. That moment, was I gonna go quote unquote get a job, or make a go of running and building Growth Marketing Werks beyond a one customer, contractor, freelancer. I chose the latter.

Russel: 17:39

I was gonna say, I mean unfortunately we don't have a what happened next, suspense moment here because we know we're here talking about an agency that you created. But I have to imagine it's, a lot of people will say that's just too much risk. I can't do that. How hard of a decision ultimately was that for you? What were those feelings and thoughts going through your head?

Suzanne: 17:55

It was hard. It was very hard. When I met that agency, I was new into Colorado. I was single. I was new. A lot of what I did, and we would recreate together. We would the team would go out to lunches together. A lot of my social life was wrapped up in that engagement on top of my financial life. To walk away was more than just walking away from a client. It was walking away from how I spent at my, my, my in work and outta work time and those relationships have continued to prosper. Quite frankly, they call, they were the first people to call me to do their media work once they left and went to the client side. That's really how Growth Marketing Werks has grown is through those relationships. But man, writing that email and saying, this is everything that we accomplish and this is what we have left to accomplish and walking away was, it took courage. Even though I was getting, working for free, it took courage and just a belief that this was the right thing to do even though it was hard.

Russel: 19:05

However unlikely that we're gonna get paid anytime soon. It is cutting off what feels or had to have felt like a lifeline. As you shared, not even professionally, but also personally. What a moment. That's pretty cool. I do wanna take a step back and just remind the folks home'cause I guarantee there's so many people listening right now that are working for free for somebody that they've let a particular client or an invoice or set of invoices lapse a little bit. This is just our friendly reminder. You are not a bank. Take care of it before it comes a real problem and cut it off when it needs to be cut off because we are not a bank and we should not work for free. That's our, our PSA for the day. Thank you for sharing the importance of that through your story. Relationships. Another word you subtly dropped there, but I know has been really important. You've already shared how important it's been in your journey, but I, I was really inspired about how you talked about the idea of just all the things you do to actually build relationships and make'em work. Give us some of those good nuggets and how you approach all that.

Suzanne: 20:00

I love relationships, but I'm an extrovert. Not to say introverts can't have great relationships, but I thrive in relationships. I'll take you back to growing up. I always had jobs in the service industry. Either it be in retail or hotels, and I learned what customer service meant. What's beautiful about Growth Marketing Werks and owning Growth Marketing Werks is I get to bring those experiences to Growth Marketing Werks and amplify them for our customers. One of the things that I love is snail mail. In the digital age, it just lacks that personal touch. To this day, I hand write cards to friends, families, members, and not, and customers. I send them thank you notes every time we sign a piece of business. You have to get their e, their mailing address. That sometimes is a little uncomfortable, especially in a remote world where they're giving out their home address. And we start a little bit earlier on in the process is as soon as we meet somebody and we think they're gonna be a good, a potentially a good partner, we have a welcome kit that I mail out and it's, one could call it a direct mailer piece. But it, it has a handwritten card in there. It has YGMW, there's some interactivity in it. There's a pen and some stickers I love our brand, so people receiving that in the mail get that personal touch. And then when we sign a piece of business, I always hand write a, a thank you letter to them as well. But we go beyond that in terms of the relationships. We don't always work with people that are in Colorado, but when they are, we get together and we'll take'em skiing or golfing or top golf in the escape rooms and axe throwing. It's a really fun time just to get to know one another. Our campaigns from the beginning of an engagement to the time we actually wrap up a campaign traditionally is 18 months. That's a lot of time to be working together and we want to just not check a box and deliver. We want to know who, what they like, what they don't like, who their kids are, what they're doing on the weekends. The only way we do that is if take the time to engage with'em.

Russel: 22:15

I imagine you could probably write a book that is very, very long about all the things that you do with relationship. But I want to hear more about some of the nuggets,'cause that's the real good stuff that, that people can get inspired by. But I don't know, when you're sitting here thinking of the mailer, it's like one, like, we live in this world today, where, you know, that it does kind of feel weird to ask someone their address. What does that mean? But I also think we live in this world the other day where I, I shared with my wife, like, we don't get any good mail anymore. It's only just bills and ads. That's all I get anymore. That's gotta be a breath of fresh air to get a note from Suzanne when it's just surrounded by bills and ads.

Suzanne: 22:48

I hope so. There's a nice logo that's like bright and colorful, so it looks fun and engaging when they get it. I would hope that the recipients have a good response. What I've tried to do is curate gifts that are very meaningful and make, and tie it into our why and, and enhancing their lives. For example, we sent all of our customers easy plants and they are self watering plants and growing their business, growing their life. Plants represent growth and an easy plant that self waters enhances their lives because they don't have to monitor it. The plant can live a lot longer. Just little, thoughtful gestures of how we can bring our brand to life without slapping a logo on the gift that we're giving somebody.

Russel: 23:43

It reminds me of, I think actually a past guest on the show shared, uh, there's a really great book out there called Giftology and it talks about a similar premise of right one give gifts that are unique and very custom. Not slap your logo on stuff is, like you said, last thing I need in this world is another coffee mug with someone else's logo on it. But give something that's unique that really stands out in people's mind. And I've been even doing some of this methodology myself and I've just gotten tremendous feedback and it really, really does bring it home.

Suzanne: 24:10

This sort of goes hand in hand with the future of work, which by the way, the future of work is now. It's not in the future. It's about how we relate with others. This comes, you know, to, comes up with leading inside the organization and translates into customers, media, partners, your team, and those are all relationships. To me, leading with curiosity versus a one-sided conversation is really, it has shown me what comes up when I get curious versus being very directive. I always leave the conversation when I'm curious with new information and a new understanding and an expanded mindset of my own belief. Curiosity takes time to cultivate that conversation versus just being really directive is way faster and in a time. I'm always rushing for time. My default is just say tell somebody what to do. While they could go out and do it, the curiosity and taking maybe three minutes versus the one minute gets me further in a deeper relationship, in a more connected relationship.

Russel: 25:28

I wanna dive into that one a little bit'cause I, I think that is so important. I'm just hearing you share that and I don't know, I don't know if I truly even make, connect to the dots fully in this way I'm thinking about it, but, but we have to be curious about someone else to have a relationship with them. We have to be curious in a way that's genuine to them. Not what we need for right, to put a proposal together or for something else, but just be genuinely curious in another human being. I think that's a really great takeaway. And I love what you said, right? That's not something that should just even come natural. That's even practice it sounds like. To do that in an authentic way that's meaningful and helpful to building the relationship. That's the sub context of what I'm hearing you share there.

Suzanne: 26:05

Absolutely. I was listening to another podcast this morning and they were talking about, and I do this, your gratitude journal. Every, you know, night I write down what I was grateful for. That's a lot around, count your blessings. Be grateful be mindful. Absolutely a fantastic practice to have, it's very self-serving in that moment. This podcast was talking about having a contribution journal around what are the, you know, over the week, who did I contribute to? Who did I help? Flipping it because the more I can help somebody and make improve, like goes back to our why at Growth Marketing Werks. The more we can help and improve someone's life in or outside of work or you know, your friend, your neighbor, whomever, that's really where the relationship thrives and the magic happens. If I'm always looking for what's in it for me and how can someone help me and what am I grateful for? I don't wanna construe gratefulness because gratefulness is very important to, to acknowledge and so forth. But I just like this new concept of reflecting on your, the contributions you made in the week.

Russel: 27:20

I love that. Another great concept, a contribution journal and that what, what, you know, strikes me as. I think even going back to even the power of why in the business that you were sharing earlier, just the energy that brings, that we're doing a hard thing and so we've gotta pull energy from where we can. They've done all kinds of studies that show that when we help people, that's far more energizing, far more, or far more likely to take action, be motivated, et cetera. I can see where if we're, if we're taking time to analyze where we're contributing and helping people, where that can give us more energy and motivation to do it again and again.

Suzanne: 27:52

You bring up a, a word that I'm really passionate about, Russel, which is energy. At Growth Marketing Werks, we talk about energy a lot. Actually, one of our values is flow. Flow, how we define it is the person is in the right seat, and if they're in the right seat and they have enough capabilities, they will be energized. If they're energized, then they can be great to others, other teammates, other media partners, other customers, and then we can deliver excellence. If you're not energized and have good flow in your position, none of that other, all the other values is impossible. It really is the root of how we show up every day. How we weave in energy is Monday mornings there's a slack that goes out and it's state your most energized moment from last week personally and professionally. It just opens up this dialogue and people sharing photos and sharing themselves. And then we get to see what energizes you? Then at the end of the week, there's a survey that goes out through Slack. It's rate how energized are you at work this week on a scale of one to five and then, provide a comment. It allows me to the leadership and to understand like, are people really in their right seats? Are they feeling energized? Because I never wanna be in a spot where I'm surprised that somebody left. I want to be given the opportunity to address if someone's not feeling energized, let's have a conversation about that. What do we need to take off your plate or add onto your plate so you can feel energized? That goes to actually my why, of why I do Growth Marketing Werks personally is reinventing the workplace one person at a time. My goal at Growth Marketing Werks is that people don't have the case on the Mondays. People feel energized and supported and heard and have contribution in their role. Anyways, I just wanted to speak to the energized moment because that really is a guiding light for Growth Marketing Werks.

Russel: 29:53

Even talking more about how it's weaved into the fabric of your business think that's another important concept in itself of we have to find more congruency and alignment with our activities and the things we focus on and our values in the business, rather than be isolated thoughts. The more they're all weaved together, the better it works in the end. That's wonderful to share. I know we teased maybe some couple other relationship tips, but we've gotten so many other good topics of focus that people will just have to wait for the book to come out down the road. As we start to wrap up here, I'm just curious to hear how you look at the future of this business. What's the 10 or longer year plan that you're looking at?

Suzanne: 30:27

I am excited when I think about the future of Growth Marketing Werks. We are on a tipping point right now, and while we've been in business for 14 years. We have one of the strongest media teams I think I've had in GMW history at this point. I'm just really excited to grow our client roster, so the client, our customers can experience this, expertise that we've really worked hard to cultivate this flow rooted team that is really passionate about advertising and amplifying messages that positively impact the world. I'm really excited about, living our purpose more and finding those ideal clients that, want that, that those marketers believe in the mission and the purpose that they're working for, and that they're not just joining a company to check the boxes on their end. We wanna work with marketers who are so passionate about amplifying their messages at the brands that they represent.

Russel: 31:30

Awesome. Passion, energy flow, positivity, who are we contributing to? All good nuggets and can't wait to see that continue to build out in your business and what that looks like. Last big question for you, Suzanne. Are entrepreneurs born or are they made?

Suzanne: 31:44

Russel, I, I thought about this one a little bit, and I'm an astrology person, so I asked in true, modern age ChatGPT, which astrological signs are more likely to be entrepreneurs. I got five of them. Leo Aries, Aquarius, Sagittarius, and I think Capricorn. I look at my history and my dad was a Leo and an entrepreneur. My grandfather was an entrepreneur, um, and he was an Aquarius. My other grandfather was an entrepreneur and he was an Aries. When I look at, I was born in Aries, I'm gonna say that we were born entrepreneurs. This is just a fun theory.

Russel: 32:29

This is the most unique take that I've ever had for this question. I'm sitting here loving this, by the way.

Suzanne: 32:35

I'm sure there's many entrepreneurs that successful that are outside of these five signs, but concentration of entrepreneurs. It would be an interesting study to take to see the concentration of entrepreneurs and the overlap of signs. I look back at my history of life. I've been doing entrepreneurial things my entire life. Born an entrepreneur, but cultivated the entrepreneurship inside me over time. That would be the grow the growth side of entrepreneurship.

Russel: 33:05

I love that. Well, you know what? I am right.

Suzanne: 33:07

What are you,

Russel: 33:08

I'm an Aries

Suzanne: 33:09

Ah, look at that.

Russel: 33:11

Yep. So, all right. Your study is already it's going in a certain direction. Someone will have to take that up, or maybe you can take that up someday. That'll be your second book. Astrology and Entrepreneurialism.

Suzanne: 33:20

Maybe we could do a poll with your audience and see how many entrepreneurs fit the five signs.

Russel: 33:26

That's a good idea. We're gonna do that. Great conversation, if people wanna know more about Growth Marketing Werks, where can they go?

Suzanne: 33:32

Go to growthmarketingwerks.com and we are very active on LinkedIn. If you go to my page, Suzanne Corelle and follow me, or go to Growth Marketing Werks as the LinkedIn page, you can follow us there too. I would probably rename my company if I needed to, because I have to say that works is spelled W-E-R-K-S. If you have to spell your brand to people, probably not a good name. But we're not changing our name anytime soon.

Russel: 34:00

That's fair. Good point of light. We were talking to someone on the other day and this idea that we could probably have a whole side podcast of just the agency naming journey. Companies come on and just tell the evolution of how they name themselves and why and when they change would be a whole niche podcast unto itself.

Suzanne: 34:15

I believe it.

Russel: 34:15

Wonderful conversation today, Suzanne. The power of relationships, the power of energy, the power of where we can find all these things and purpose to make them move what we're trying to achieve in the right direction. Certainly good takeaways and nuggets to bring home with all of that. Thank you so much for taking the time to share that with us today.

Suzanne: 34:32

I appreciate you inviting me, Russel. I enjoyed it.

34:38

We hope you've enjoyed this episode of An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. Are you interested in being a guest on the show? Send an email to podcast@performancefaction.com. An Agency Story is brought to you by Performance Faction. Performance Faction offers services to help agency owners grow their business to 5 million dollars and more in revenue. To learn more, visit performancefaction.com.

Suzanne: 35:14

I went into a boardroom to pitch Growth Marketing Werks, and that day I was wearing a dress and underneath the dress I was wearing Spanx. Spanx are like things to like sort of suck you in. I had gone to the restroom right before entering the boardroom, and I hadn't taken off my jacket until I got to the boardroom and I got into the boardroom, took off my jacket, and my dress was tucked into my Spanx. I'm standing in the boardroom, essentially in my underwear. My colleague saw what was happening and I saw her face and I looked down and I was like, oh my gosh. I, you know, pulled my dress down. Fortunately, it was most, mostly women in the room, but everyone got the, you know, got the pic, you know, got the, the picture. We were laughing so hard. My colleague and I were laughing, cry laughing so hard that this had happened, that at one point someone in the room said, alright ladies, it's time to get it together. We ended up winning the piece of business. So I guess, you know, the lesson is, uh, you know, have a wardrobe fail and you know, your vulnerability really does come out.

Russel: 36:24

It's not weird if it works. It might be something worth trying. I'm sure you were certainly memorable after that moment.