How Did Blind Get Big Clients

The question was how didBeeline Connect with companieslike microsoft?Yes, yes, Yes.But when you ask, how didBeeline Connect with companieslike Microsoft, et cetera?What is it that youwant to know from this?And then I'll tellyou the answerif blinded to any astonishmentand what kind of advertisement,if so, and how did youknow where to find them?Or how did they know how tofind you the kind of stuff?OK, I want to introducethis concept to you guys.Thank you for bringing thisup and holding me accountable.I do appreciate that becauseI forget everything, ok?It's a skill and a cursethat I can forget everything.All right.I want to introduce thisconcept to you guys.It's called trading up.Everybody here looks atwhere they'd like to be.And it looks like it'san impossible thingto do if you want to climbEverest, climb a smallermountain first and asmaller one before thatand just start walking and thenjust casual hiking somewherein there.So the reason why if I'm tracingmy steps here that we havethese big accounts is for acouple of different reasons,and I'll answer it specifically.For Microsoft.When we started in 1995.This young upstart agency calledthe Eisenberg group were doingkey art and advertisingfor video games,but just like print based, justlike not the Super glossy stuffthat you see today, andthey are just gamers first.And this agency, I think,had eight people in it,or I routinely talkedto the CEO, the founderof this small group, andwe did really tiny projectsfor them on video game companiesyou never even heard ofand aren't even around today.So the first thingthat we did for themwas something an animatedlogo for a companycalled Red orb entertainment.You heard of them.Probably not.So I did that, and thena year or two later,they got a little bit morework and hired us again,and then we did somethingfor Midway sports.Midway is a bigger brand.And then we woulddo something else,so we're constantly trading up.So we have to start somewhere.They have to start somewhereand we have to start somewhere.So eventually, 20years later, they'redoing work forMicrosoft and for Xbox.And there's a long time inwhich we don't talk anymore.And then they think ofus for whatever reason,maybe they're stuck.Maybe the owner, EricEisenberg, says, hey, guys,give Chris and theteam at blind a call.They're very, verygood, and I rememberhaving a good time with them.So we get the call and we answerthe call and we win the work.So we're constantly trading up.Let me talk about another job.Some of you guysknow this story,but I don't tell if thatoften, so it's worth repeating,I think.In the beginning, we wantedto get big commercial work,and we had no big commercialwork on our reel at all,we barely had a real, barelyknew how to put one together.But through an introductionfrom a woman whoused to work for me at thattime, I went into an officeand presented tothis art director.Her name's Karen.I showed Karen thework, she looked at itand she go, cool, OK, Thanks.And that.Well, Karen was workingat a small agency,and I never thought much of it.I think she gave us theblow off like, like thanks,but no Thanks kind of thing.Karen gets hired atanother agency thatwas just starting to grow,and they're called Deutch.They open an officein La and theywere looking to grow theirteam and get new business.And this time they had won somelocal Mitsubishi dealer spots.So just so the difference,there are usuallytwo teams, one that handlesthe National work, which isthe cool, sexy branding stuff.And then there's the peoplewho do the local retail stufflike 299 a month, 2.7% appr, nomoney down that kind of stuff.So they had just one.The regional.Retailer stuff.For Mitsubishi, which isnot, by anybody's standards,a top tier brand, right?And she remembered us,so she brought us in.We did some design workand we did a good job.The hardest to do more.They started towin more businessand then they gotthe National account.So naturally, they abroad is in.So now we went from doingwhat you would considerpretty boring,but very lucrativeregional retail spots todoing the National work.Now this was going to be seen byeverybody because this rollingout across the United States.Once we got that, repswere available to us,but until we did thisMitsubishi national work,no rep would take us on.So with that nowI have real workthat's visible that for asecond is considered hot, right?That was it.That's all I needed to doto go and trade that upto get a rep because all thereps that are contacted priorto that, about halfa dozen or so said,I don't know what to dowith you because theycan look at the work and theythink it looks student work.We need a name, we needa name to attach to this.The cool thing about thisone agency with Mitsubishiis they want more accountsand more accounts.And they gave us all their work.So we went from doing probablya few thousand a year,which I think isthe first year, yearand a half that was in businessto this pivotal second year.And now we're doing amillion and we're doing moreand it's so, so profitable.OK now, this is thesad part to this story.I think we had probablybetween four to 600,000in profit in the bank, and I'mjust two years out of school.And this is in no three yearsout of school, I'm sorry.This is in the late 90s now.And we made somepoor investmentsin the stock market.Lost it all.Lost it all.And when I saywe, I really mean,my wife and I was not happywith that, she did not tell methe results of this andsaid, I think you justwant me to workforever because it'sso hard to make that money.And her defense in herdefense, she was like everybodywas investing inthe stock market.I'm like, yeah, butwe are not everybody.Why would you dothat to me, honey?So we're fine now, butI was like, Oh my god,all that money,easy come, easy go.So we went, OK, so you trade up.You do the small project,you keep your eyeon companies and brandsthat are moving fast.That have that ambition, thatdrive to do more, to do better.And you stay with them.So I think some ofthis is, I think.The energy that youput out into the worldthat you're driven,that you're motivatedand you're passionate.I think that energy that yousend out, people recognize thatand you see each other.And then you connect and yougrow together, that's usuallyhow it works, I think.So if you're not driven,if you're not ambitious,the kind of peoplethat you'll findare usually the same as you.They're not as driven,they're not as ambitious.And that's why Iused to say thisand people wouldget upset at me.I would say that Idon't want to workwith companies that grossless than $100 billion.And it seems like it's anelitist, snobby thing to say.And the reason why isI've met entrepreneursthat are like 70million, $80 million,and they're kind of contentat being at that size company,they don't want tobe the world beater.And so when you talk tothem and talk to themabout spending money and doingthings that are worthwhile,they're like, Oh yeah,I could do somethingelse with that money, yousee, because that mindset iswhy they're stuckat 70 or $80 millionand why they don't wantto grow beyond that.And that's going to reflectin their decision making.So when you meetthem, they're goingto say, well, that's toomuch money, I don't know,and they're going tosit there and nitpickevery part of your bid.And I feel like companiesthat are North of $100 milliongot there for avery specific reasonbecause the leadership, thevision behind the company,they're pushing.They don't want tobe at $100 million.They want to be at abillion and then $10 billionon and on and on.And I like people like thatbecause they want to changeand they want to grow.And as a creativeperson, I see myselfas a change agent, sopeople who want to changeor perfect opportunities for mein terms of what we can offer.