The Growing Years

At Ärtful, I’ve been building on a dream I’ve had since one fateful day in 2016. I worked at an ed-tech startup that was a magical company filled with amazing, talented people, and supported fellow creatives and craftspeople by sharing their expertise through online educational videos. It was the third startup I had helped get to acquisition. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I was so committed to the mission and dream of this company that I not only drank the Kool-aid, I made it. I was an ambassador for our cause and willingly gave 100% every single day. Then, things started to take a turn. I started to realize that I was feeling more like a human Duracell battery, like in The Matrix, after several years of 70-hour workweeks and countless missed moments with my family and friends. The Kool-aid wasn’t tasty enough to keep my spirit and belief in our mission every day. I found myself having to spend weekends resting and recharging because I didn’t have any more energy to do much else, especially my own creative endeavors. 

Being in the media production world is hard work. Don’t let anyone fool you. It might look glamorous and seem like it’s an exciting life from the outside. It’s a rare feat to find such a well-oiled machine as we had at this company, which was not only a production company or just a tech startup but was a hybrid of the two. We had a sea of production crew as well as developers, marketers, and customer support staff cranking long hours with a smile as we all marched towards a common goal. What a wonderful formula mixed with innovation, education, and inspiration. I couldn’t believe the talent we pulled together. Many of us are still friends and colleagues today and several have gone on to build new and exciting businesses since. There were so many learning lessons we all gleaned during that journey. A journey that ended on that fateful day when another massive layoff happened as we rocketed toward the acquisition, which happened just a handful of months later. 

I remember walking in and feeling the energy in our studio space. It was palpable. I could see our HR Director down the hall with manilla envelopes and immediately knew what this day would bring. A second later I had a smile on my face and gave her a high five because I knew this was another one of the hardest days she would have to face in her tenure at this company. For those not in the HR world, imagine what that must be like for someone, especially when they have to do it in mass layoffs, and more often than might be usual. Now, add on the fact that you’ve helped to build an extraordinary team of people to serve the company's mission. Can you imagine the impact that has on a human who worked with her team for years to build that type of environment, and then having to say goodbye to them with a smile on their face? Think of the HR staff in the past year and what they’ve had to go through. If you have a role in HR and are reading this, my heart goes out to you, my friend. I’ll never forget the moment of pause and appreciation when she saw me walk up with a smile. I could feel the tension lighten just a bit as she confirmed what I knew. It was a tough day but it was meant to be, and I was proud of the work we’d done together over those almost four years. We said our goodbyes and made sure to hug each other as much as we could, knowing that some we would most likely not see again and others, it would not be the last. 

Afterward, I knew it was time to do some soul-searching. As I said, this was the third startup that I had helped build their dream with blood, sweat, and tears. In that manilla folder, I got the usual info about stock options and COBRA service, if I’d like to continue health insurance. I also had gotten a small severance and asked my wife if I could take some of that time to reflect on my next steps in life. I started writing in my journal. I met with fellow colleagues and friends to discuss what we were planning to do and to reminisce about great shoots and cool instructors we got to work with on set. I explored some online courses and worked on myself. I also took a course by Ann Rea, a painter and coach out of San Francisco, that ended up having an ancient Tibetan death/rebirth meditation in the middle of it. I found myself bawling by the end of it as I furiously wrote down my vision for leaving my own legacy and making an impact on the world. I wrote about the people and causes that mattered to me. I wrote about the fellow creatives that I wanted to help lift up, just like we did at the startup I had just left. I wrote about the change I wanted to bring to the world and that I didn’t want to just sit back and float through life working for someone else’s dream that I didn’t really have a say in. I chose to create my own dream. The thing is, when you create your own dream, then you have to do the work to build it — that includes the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

For the last six years, I’ve been building that dream and it’s been all of the above — good, bad, and ugly. It’s been filled with surprises, changes, missteps, learning lessons, amazing clients, fun projects, exceptional colleagues and creatives, and so much more. I’d like to take you back in time for a moment. I originally started the company as Vitalic Productions. There is a music producer, called Vitalic, that I love, and he was an inspiration for the original name because I love the idea of vitality and life. When I started what is now called, The Ärtful Podcast, it was called, The Vitalic Project. I wanted to tell people’s stories about their awesome, unique lives. During this time was when I started to take things a bit more seriously and wasn’t just acting as a freelancer, hunting and gathering to find work. I started to take on bigger projects and hired contractors in my network to support our clients. That was when I registered GATHORA LLC, named after the initials in my name (a bit of trivia for you). For a time I used the GATHORA name as the business but it didn’t have the mythos and branding that felt aligned with the vision I started to build on that day I experienced that powerful Tibetan meditation. 

I started to take things up another level as the business grew up a bit and projects got bigger. I spent a lot of time and money with business coaches, working on where the business was going and then a new brand emerged. It evolved into The Artful Entrepreneur. I was stepping into my role as a leader, entrepreneur, and mentor. I realized that I was worthy of being called a leader and wanted to recognize fellow creative leaders and change makers. I started remembering little things from my childhood that set me on this path, like my dad owning his own construction business, called HomeCrafters. I remembered the lessons he learned along the way as he led his team to build beautiful homes. I wanted to continue sharing stories of fellow leaders making an impact and building their businesses in their own unique way, so the podcast changed its name. However, over time I felt like the pendulum had swung a bit too far, and it seemed like I was getting too far removed from my creative brothers and sisters and the essence I was really after. I was focused more on the business side of things and felt like the brand still wasn’t quite right. I wanted to find a balance that felt good with me and this vision I had been working toward, slowly but surely. It was then that I radically simplified things and pared down to the essence I had been skirting around but hadn’t owned fully. That was when the dream of Ärtful came into focus and was the North Star that had been calling to me, quietly in the back of my mind for years. I was at the trailhead of the path I had been searching for, one of helping build successful, intentional businesses — ärtfully. 

These past few years have taught us a lot about ourselves and each other. Friendships have ended. Businesses have expanded. Families have splintered. Relationships have grown deeper. People have taken a stand. There is a consciousness shift happening and with it come the growing pains that must be felt if we are to achieve our big, hairy, audacious goals. My dream with Ärtful is to lift each other up as we change the landscape of business and inevitably, the world. My dream is to help creatives to thrive without grinding and selling their souls to put food on their table. My dream is to serve clients that have people and planet at the core of their mission while showing up with authenticity, creativity, curiosity, and vulnerability so they succeed in achieving their goals. My dream is to enjoy the journey and embrace the detours as we build an empire of good businesses doing great work around the world without stepping on each other and throwing each other under the bus along the way. 

We’ve seen that in the business world, I’ve seen it in businesses I worked for, and it’s time for a change. We’ve seen it in the way business leaders and government officials can show up and it isn’t sustainable there either. I believe we can change and many of us are in the chrysalis now. We can learn from our mistakes. We can all thrive without having to fight for power and money to do it. At Ärtful, we’re here to help the 99% that aren’t in it for power or greed. We’re here to serve those who want a brighter tomorrow, where we can all succeed with joy, fulfillment, and freedom. We are here for the misfits and mavericks that see a different future for our society and are willing to fight for it — as strong, but peaceful warriors. For the rest who like the divisive, angry, cynical, selfish world the way it has been, you had your time. This is our time. If you are ready for a change, then welcome to our army. We’re perfectly imperfect and ready to do the work with small, humble, and mighty steps, together. It won’t be easy to unlearn and rethink how we build this world but it’s not impossible. Will you join us?

In the immoral words of the 90’s classic, Empire Records, “Damn the man. Save the Empire!”