It Always Starts With Values: How Ours Guided Us Through the Height of Covid
Just for fun this morning, I decided it would be a good idea to look back at my calendar and see what I was up to a year ago in the month of March. And then I saw it—the last time I went to see a client in person—March 4, 2020. I will never forget heading downtown to meet with our partners at Rover, the pet care service. Their office was in optional work-from-home mode, as many were “for a couple weeks” back in those days leading up to us officially calling this a pandemic. The streets of Seattle were eerily empty, the hustle and bustle gone, and besides the two people I was there to see, I saw no other people in the office that day. Not even the receptionist to greet me. Not a single adorable office puppy. That was when it hit me: this pandemic is real and it’s going to be with us for a while.
When we left our jobs to start KMG two years ago, we did so because we wanted to help companies grow, dig into interesting work, and still have a little time for ourselves and our families at the end of the day. Little did we know a few short months from taking the plunge, we would have to immediately face challenges that were daunting for even the most well-established companies out there. Despite being forward-thinking, as a new business owner, “global pandemic” was not on the SWOT when building out our short- and long-term plans.
Katie and I sprung into action, checking in with all of our clients. Some weren’t sure if they would be able to pay us, some were in healthy denial, and many just needed help. I started running “worst case” scenarios of our P&L and scrubbing every expense to ensure we had runway to get us through the “couple months” that this might last. There were a lot of late nights running numbers in my head—not only for the business, but how much time I could afford to go unpaid if it came to that. The magnitude of the responsibility we had taken on as owners of a company set in. Not only was I depending on this company’s success, but so were our clients, Katie, our employees and contractors. I had moments where that simply took my breath away.
But then, something magical happened. Our inboxes exploded. We were suddenly responding to the multiple requests we got from new clients looking for help figuring out the right “pivot” for their businesses, how to communicate with their employees, where to put their marketing dollars and how to see their brands through this crisis.
Though we had been in business for about six months at this time, I think the early days of the pandemic are actually when KMG was born. In an instant, we were no longer a new consultancy, but trusted advisors. We went from a healthy amount of business to “can we survive” to “oh my god, we need to hire more people” within a matter of weeks. Like so many business leaders, it was a true test of the foundation Katie and I had built, the commitments we made to each other and the values upon which we built our business. We always encourage our clients to develop core values as a foundation for not just how they operate their company, but as a foundation for their brand promise—the contract they make with their customers. So here are our core values that saw us through the storm:
Clarity: we speak directly, openly, and aren’t afraid to have the tough conversations. Talk about real talk! There was no room for BS during this stressful time—for us or our clients.
Empathy: we seek to understand our customer, their consumer and each other. We operate from a place of empathy always: for each other as working moms trying to homeschool, empathy for our clients who were also navigating complete chaos, empathy for their customers who maybe needed something different from them.
Growth mindset: we are always learning and we are curious. The race is as enjoyable as the finish line. Ok, maybe we got a little too much of what we wished for one this one, but boy, this is the key to the “pivot” that was 2020. There was no time for perfection in the past year—how do you strive for perfect when you don’t even know what good looks like anymore? If there was ever a time to take risks, try new things, get smart and stay open to learning, this was it.
Accountability: we hold ourselves and each other to a high standard of service. We immediately reached out to our customers and contacts to see how we could help, while also not missing a beat in our deliverables to clients. We simply could not fall apart; it was never an option. So as we got overwhelmed, we added to our KMG team, hiring an amazing crew of marketing and comms professionals who helped us make sure we could deliver our promises.
Teamwork: we all wash the dishes, we seek each other’s counsel and we collaborate to make our best work better. It was all hands on deck! Our usual cadence of work was ebbing and flowing in a new way. Some weeks marketing deliverables got quiet, then PR would have a lull. As customers were trying to sort out what they needed, Katie and I teamed up to be sure we could meet them where they were. I dusted off my journalism degree and wrote a byline, we both packed up our office and moved to our home offices. Most importantly, Katie canceled our water cooler subscription.
The bottom line is that our core values—our brand and our identity—were the calm in the storm that was 2020. By having had those tough conversations up front, coupled with a well-thought-out brand framework, we had a north star, making every conversation easy and every decision clear.
It also inspired us to take a look at how we were expressing our brand externally. And, like many of our clients have done, we decided to update our “MVP” brand into something more enduring and more representative of who we are and what we do.
Enter our partner agency, Strike 2. With them, we have developed a new visual identity that we feel delivers the essence of what KMG stands for. Like the Edmonds-Kingston ferry that used to shuttle me to the new office space we rented, but soon-after closed, we are the steady vessel sailing across a choppy sea: always moving forward with purpose and precision, but not so big that we can’t make a left turn when needed. Or more importantly, stop to celebrate the show that the resident orca pod seems to inevitably surprise us with. We’re learning it’s all those surprises that launch us in new and unforeseen directions.
So here we are, just 18 months since we launched Kingston Marketing Group, and we are humbled and grateful to have served 35 clients in their journeys, with our killer team of marketing and communications leaders (we are up to eight employees now). We are excited for the next leg of our voyage to help bold companies build enduring brands with strong reputations, from startup to scale.