Red House Media

Special note: this is a long post, a good post, but a long post.

This past Labor Day 2009 marked my 13th year of working professionally in the advertising and publishing industries in Brainerd, Minnesota. Each time this Holiday rolls around I flash back to my very first Labor Day back in 1996. The day prior, I left my parent’s home on the Iron Range, and this time it was “for real.” Prior to that day it was just “for fake” in my mind, heading off to college, but ultimately knowing that I could always head back home.

As I left my dad said to me, perhaps in jest, perhaps in not knowing what to say in the moment, “Write when you find work.” I can still hear those exact words, and exactly how they were said. Not because they were bad words, or said with negative implications, just words that would only make sense to my dad, and now 13 years later, to me. I think another way of saying the same thing would have been “Make me proud.”

I’d like to say I left the driveway with nothing but determination in my eye and confidence in my stride, but I recall I was weeping like a baby more than anything else.

My first professional role in this industry was the art director of a new magazine start-up called Lake Country Journal. Chip and Jean Borkenhagen were the publishers, Tracey Finck the editor, and Penny Nelsen leading up the sales. My first day at work was a surprise as there was no office furniture, no computer, just a chair. I sorted stuff. This truly was a business launch, and looking back 13 years later was I fortunate to be part of it.

One of my first client’s was Kuepers, and I’m proud to say that we still work in partnership with Kuepers to this day.

To be honest, the first challenge I faced creatively in starting a magazine for the Brainerd lakes was promoting the idea of image advertising. Up to that point, it seemed phone book and shopper-like newspaper ad design ruled the mindset of business owners. What that meant is some advertisers were asking us to force all their business service lines, plus phone number, fax, hours, and the entire physical address into one 1/12 page ad. (Could you get a photo of my business in there too?)

I knew I wouldn’t last long as a designer under this approach. Something had to change, some how, some way. I still remember all the pencil sketches Penny and I would draw up for one ad. I believe for one small ad I had well over 30 different concepts. We were bent on making it happen, and it wasn’t real easy. Back then there was no online stock photo sites to pull photos from. Digital photography did not exist, and custom photography or custom illustration for the most part was not an option as it would have been out of clients budget. Typography and toothy headlines were our angle.

Fast forward from that day 8 years and it’s now 2004. This was the year RedHouseMedia was born. The reason for change was simple. There was an internal passion within myself that needed to learn the “why” the “how” and the “when” behind the psychology of advertising. I wanted to understand how to create words, visuals, concepts that affected how people thought, that controlled outcomes more effectively. With the birth of RedHouseMedia we set that as one of our top tier goals.

Here again I’d like to say we launched RedHouseMedia with absolute certainty and un-shakeable confidence. But that wouldn’t be true. I was nervous as heck. I’ll be the first to admit, if it was not for my business partner and wife Beth, RedHouseMedia would not be. She was the advocate, the champion, the rebel with a cause that pushed me, wait, kicked me in this direction because as she said over, and over, and over again, “you can do it.”

Thank you Beth.

From the first day, RedHouseMedia hit the ground running. I was amazed at the tremendous amount of blessings God had waiting for us as soon as we took that first step forward in faith. There are pages and pages of stories in the first year of our business that just make us laugh (Ask me about 4:44 sometime if you’d like a good example) at all the amazing God moments in our business that neither Beth nor I would have ever imagined. Grateful we were, and grateful we are today.

And just so we have it on the record, we are called RedHouseMedia because the business started in our house that happens to be red. The front porch to be exact.
(It just received a new coat of red paint this past summer.)

Here’s the best story ever.
Beth and I had saved some money in Spring of 2003. I wanted to spend the money on a fireplace in our back porch. Beth wanted to spend the money on a computer because as she said “it might come in handy some day.” That original computer is what launched our business and is still in our studio today.

Thank you Beth.

The Franklin Arts Center then became an opportunity, and we were blessed with 500+ square feet of creative studio space. We painstakingly remodeled the space from head to toe, whispering to ourselves, if they build it, they will come.

And they did.

First came Dain, then came Kristen, and just this past year, Kellie.

There is one thing I know for sure. I’ve worked in this industry for 13 years, and this is without doubt the strongest team I have ever been a part of. It’s wicked good. The original vision that Beth and I set out for our business was to just be us, not hire, ever. I’m so glad we never were able to remain true to that vision as Dain, Kristen, and Kellie have grown RedHouseMedia into a culture much better than it was prior to their arrival.

So where are we going from here?
I’m sold on running strategically fast after understanding the appropriate uses of all media, from print to radio, from outdoor to direct mail, from TV to web, from networking to social networking the knowledge of each media must be understood because then and only then may a brand launch a continuous message across all platforms to control the outcome they desire.

Look for some mighty amazing websites to go live this year from us, we’re fired up about it. Look for some major video projects to come live on TV and online, it’s going to be good. And popular to contrary belief, look for some great traditional media that still works. It never stopped working actually. Yup, the Dispatch and local radio still get the folks in the door spending money.

Also, we need your help.
We’re looking to land a jumbo jet company, so we can do the graphics package on the exterior of their planes, that’s my dream project for 2010.
(not kidding.)

In closing a few more thanks are needed to complete this message.
Thank you to my mother and father, for putting up with a creative, type-A, extraverted kid that still doesn’t follow the rules.
Thank you to my father for his one comment he said to me in the dirt field of Palo at sunset (yes I have a visual mind) that still encourages me to this day, “You have a good eye.”
Thank you to Chip and Jean Borkenhagen who gave me my first chance as a creative and helped me understand the fine art of communication.
Thank you to God for blessing us with this opportunity, may we be good stewards of our gifts, opportunities, and relationships.

In closing, the impossible isn’t.

Peace out.
AWH