Jordan Howe – longtime agency partner, recent cofounder & entrepreneur

NOTES

Recorded in the Living Room at Kiln SLC

Jordan Howe on LinkedIn

Arcade

Book Recommendations: The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough and Cutting for Stone: A Novel by Abraham Verghese

SUMMARY

Jordan Howe did not come from an entrepreneurial background but was inspired to go into marketing by his father’s career in communications and a mentor named Casey Jones. After college, Jordan worked at various companies gaining experience in tech marketing before becoming a partner at The Summit Group agency for 15 years.

In January 2020, Jordan and his two Summit Group partners, James and Christy, decided to start their own agency called Arcade. Jordan was initially anxious about leaving the stability of Summit Group but his partners gave him confidence. His biggest fear was whether they could be successful starting from scratch.

Jordan loves the feeling of ownership and building something that is theirs at Arcade. His day-to-day has changed from having a defined role to wearing many hats – dealing with clients, operations, finances etc. He cares more now because it’s his own business.

At Arcade, James is the creative maker, Christy handles digital marketing, and Jordan focuses on strategy, planning, finances and management. They acquire most clients through referrals thanks to doing good work. Jordan’s superpower is being a calm, solution-focused guy.

Resources Jordan uses to learn about entrepreneurship include the 2Bobs podcast and The Art of Client Service book. The best advice he got was from his mentor Casey Jones to treat his work as a craft and continually hone his skills.

Jordan’s wife Annie was very supportive of him starting Arcade. He realizes now how it could have been worrying from his son’s perspective when he left his job. But showing his son the financial forecast helped reassure him.

Jordan believes the COVID-19 pandemic has enabled remote work collaboration to thrive, so they are a virtual agency for now. He loves organizing occasional social events for employees.

Jordan recommends the books The Great Bridge and Cutting for Stone because they provide lessons on overcoming challenges. He also learned the ‘learn, do, teach’ philosophy from Cutting for Stone that helps with retaining knowledge.

Arcade offers services focused on solving marketing problems for clients through strategies, content, web development, sales materials, advertising and more. Their goal is to help clients reach their audience and express themselves effectively. They can be found at arcadepartners.io.

Kyle Knowles:
Hello, there. Welcome to the Maker Manager Money podcast, a podcast about entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, founders, business owners and business partnerships, from startups to stay ups, to inspire entrepreneurs to keep going, and future entrepreneurs to just start. My name is Kyle Knowles, and it’s a Wednesday night. And this episode is being recorded at Kiln in Salt Lake City at the Gateway Mall. We are actually in the living room tonight. Kiln is totally killing it in the coworking space, and they’ve just opened a beautiful community in Provo, Utah, as well as Portland, Oregon. You can find all their locations at kiln.com.
Tonight’s guest is Jordan Howe, who along with two partners, James and Christy, founded Arcade, a marketing agency that just celebrated its one-year anniversary. Well, you’re probably one year-

Jordan Howe:
A little longer, yeah.

Kyle Knowles:
A little longer now. Almost a year and a half, I guess.

Jordan Howe:
Yeah and a half-ish. Yep.

Kyle Knowles:
Yeah, and you can find Arcade at arcadepartners.io. Jordan has been an influential part of marketing strategies for several companies for more than a decade. His management style, strategic thinking, financial discipline and creativity helped him oversee strategic advertising and marketing campaigns for clients, including Microsoft, Sony and Intermountain Healthcare. Before founding Arcade, he was a partner at The Summit Group, leading account service, production and media teams across dozens of clients. Jordan holds an MBA from the University of Utah and teaches marketing at the David Eccles School of Business. He lives in Bountiful, Utah, with his wife and three children. Jordan, it’s a pleasure to welcome you to the Maker Manager Money podcast this lovely Wednesday night.

Jordan Howe:
Why, thank you, Kyle. Glad to be here, especially after, what, eight reschedules, probably?

Kyle Knowles:
Something like that. You’ve been very busy, so I really appreciate you being generous with your time and being here tonight.

Jordan Howe:
Oh, for sure.

Kyle Knowles:
Awesome. Well, let’s get started. Let’s just go to the beginning, and let’s ask this question. Were either of your parents or grandparents or anyone in your family an entrepreneur before you?

Jordan Howe:
It depends on how broadly you’d want to define it. My mom’s an artist, and so she’s kind of had her own efforts with her art and promoting her art, really as far back as I can remember. She paints beautiful landscapes and does really nice work in pastels and things like that, and so a lot of her own efforts there. My dad, always more of a career person, did really well working with O.C. Tanner and Northrop Grumman, and was a communications guy in marketing and kind of a proposal guy as well, but his background was more like, have a solid, set path and earn up through that with the companies that you worked with, which he did great.
But actually, it’s an interesting question just with that, because conversations with my dad about this was kind of like, “Oh, you sure?” But even he started to see what we were doing pretty early on with this, a lot of early encouragement and excitement from him as well, which is really fun. But I don’t have really entrepreneurial blood, to the question. It’s a different venture for me, and I’ve looked to a lot of different resources for help and mentorship and things like that because it’s, yeah, a different kind of thing for what I’m doing that way.

Kyle Knowles:
That makes sense. Your dad, though, was in communications and marketing. And did that inspire you to go down that road?

Jordan Howe:
Oh yeah, yeah. With what I could see that he did and being a part of some things at O.C. Tanner years ago when I was in high school and early college, I always thought it was cool what he did. He actually had a really good friend, Casey Jones, who became a great friend and mentor to me. Casey was running Grey marketing, Grey advertising out in New York for some time, and then he became the CMO at Dell and was someone that I was like, “Man, what he’s doing seems so cool and so interesting.” And so between seeing that, seeing the sorts of things that my dad was involved with, those were kind of early inspirations in what I thought was interesting and what I found I really liked, especially as I started in college.

Kyle Knowles:
Okay. Did he ever do take the kid to work day or anything like that, where you in the office and stuff?

Jordan Howe:
Yep, yep. And thought that it was a really nice space, lots of glass and fountains and everything. They had a great space. I don’t know what it’s like these days, but-

Kyle Knowles:
That was O.C. Tanner?

Jordan Howe:
Yeah, yeah. He’s been retired for a while, back in the day, back in the glory days that I was able to see some things, it was a cool space and seemed like they were doing neat things. And loved that they were making videos. And he had cool presentations and stuff. I just always thought it was like, “Oh, that’s pretty neat, what they’re doing.”

Kyle Knowles:
That’s great. And so the Casey Jones connection, how did he connect you with Casey Jones?

Jordan Howe:
Yeah, so Casey and my dad had been friends for a while. Casey was living in Salt Lake and lived in our neighborhood, and was connected with my dad through some different things. And I remember one time Casey invited my dad and I to go watch him speak. And I think it was part of an interview process that he was having for an opportunity with Gray, originally, to lead up one of their divisions. And anyway, he gave this presentation. The presentation itself lasted for about two hours. And I remember being so thoroughly interested in what he was saying, even though I probably understood maybe half of it, but I was just like, “He’s just such a compelling speaker.”
What he’s talking about was interesting. It was all about finding what audiences wanted, getting the right kinds of messages to those audiences. I just thought it sounded really cool, and it was stuff I’d never thought about, never learned about in high school at all, or junior high. And I think I was in high school at the time. And just the sorts of things he was saying were so interesting. And that started some conversations I’d had with him about agency life and what it would be like in marketing, because the things I saw that my dad did I thought were interesting and cool, but I was really intrigued by the agency side. I thought that seemed especially cool to be involved with.

Kyle Knowles:
That’s really cool. So there was no other entrepreneurial things. Did you ever have a lemonade stand or anything growing up, sell anything door-to-door, that kind of stuff?

Jordan Howe:
I remember selling weed services, like pulling weeds. There’s other weeded services, but-

Kyle Knowles:
I’m glad you added “services” to that. I didn’t know where you were going with it.

Jordan Howe:
We’d pull weeds for people. I remember going around door-to-door, my sister and I. And I’ve got two sisters, one older and one younger. And my younger sister and I went around offering our gardening services with that. And I think we had one customer with it. I remember being rejected several times, even by folks that were like, “Oh, you’re our neighbors. I would think that you’d pay us $2 to come help you out.” But anyway, I think one person did. But yeah, I was never one to be like, “Oh, let me get out there and make some money or make a mark or do that.”
Through growing up, I was far more concerned about getting good grades, doing well with activities and being involved with things, all the usual concerns with friendships. And that was where a lot of my attention went. And I had a couple of buddies that were more like, “Oh, I’m right into the success that I could find.” A cousin of mine who was all about like, “Oh, I’m learning about the stock market when I’m 15, 16 years old.” And I always remember just thinking, “Geez, that sounds way grown up, and I’m not really interested in that.” So I think that my path was very much do well in school, do well in college, try to get into something good. And honestly, owning a business or being an entrepreneur was not ever something that was on my list, even in the first probably five-ish or so years of my career. I’d never thought that I’d be a business owner. It was just never a consideration.

Kyle Knowles:
So you came into entrepreneurship officially later in life, right?

Jordan Howe:
Oh yeah, absolutely.

Kyle Knowles:
So how many years of full-time work experience did you have before you started Arcade?

Jordan Howe:

20. Yeah.

Kyle Knowles:
Okay. Well, let’s talk about that journey then. So you have some experiences with Casey Jones, agency Life, your dad being in marketing and communications, going into his work, seeing what he does. There’s some interest there. Let’s go from high school on then, all the way to Arcade.

Jordan Howe:
Yeah, so finished up high school, went to the University of Utah, had a great experience there. Studied mass communication and German in my undergraduate experience. I went to the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel for a semester in Germany, which I loved and had a great time at. I found that mass communication in German didn’t seem to have a next step with it. I was just like, “I don’t know what I’ll do with either of these degrees.” And so I at the time thought, “Oh, maybe an MBA would be interesting.” I just went straight from an undergrad experience to an MBA, which looking back and even at the time was like, “Oh, would it be beneficial to have some full-time work experience?” And I really didn’t.
But then after that, had a great experience with the MBA; in that, that was kind of the time that I figured out really like, “Oh, I would like to get into marketing. I would like to get into branding. I would like to get into shaping strategies for companies.” Even before that, I had some marketing exposure, but just not that much, and just didn’t really know what I wanted to do yet. I was kind of one of those college stories of like, “Oh, you’re finding your way and seeing what could be possible.” And so I finished the MBA, did a dual emphasis of brand management and finance in that. That was what most of my courses were for the experience there.
And then started work with a company not involved with any of that. It was just through a great friend whose dad ran a company out of China. It was called SCT Limited, and they were involved with product sourcing out of areas of China and Vietnam. And we worked in product sourcing and product development with a lot of different brands and a random set of brands, like Ford, Virgin Airways, Lovesac, just a random grouping of people that were basically looking to build in China and to get their products out of there.
And so I split my time between China and LA. That was where their main office was in China, and then they had an office in LA. And basically, really enjoyed working in figuring out how to get stuff and get things built right for the kinds of products that they were trying to do. And had some involvement with product design and thought that a lot of that was really interesting. But then my attention and interest started to go more towards tech, and it coincided well with them having a really tough time because of Lovesac went bankrupt. They couldn’t carry the same number of people at that time.
So I was asked to find a new opportunity, and I found one at Ingram Micro, down in Southern California. So I worked for Ingram Micro for a few years, and in that, was exposed to all sorts of different tech companies. Ingram Micro is a company that deals with basically every tech brand in the world. And I dealt with all the different tech brands that were very cool back in the mid-2000s, of like Blackberry and Palm and Nokia most of my time. And what I started to learn a lot about was mobility and being able to have offerings inside of mobile technologies and how to market them, and not only to end users, but B2B sides as well, which I had never really thought much about. I hadn’t learned much about business-to-business marketing in any of my efforts prior to that.
And so I spent a lot of time working out mobile strategies and understanding the technology, and that ended up leading me to The Summit Group, after a while working with them. I was connected through my sister-in-law to The Summit Group. And I thought the rest of my days would be in California or elsewhere. Loved being in Southern California. Grew up there as a kid. And thought like, “Oh, this is home now.” The Summit Group, based in Salt Lake. I ended up starting to have conversations through my sister-in-law with the partners at TSG and getting to know them. Eventually, it became a job opportunity.
And so I came up back to Utah and worked at The Summit Group. Again, a situation that I thought like, “Oh, maybe a couple years or something like that.” It ended up becoming 15. Started out as an account manager there working with a bunch of different brands, some pretty random brands at first. I thought when I first went there, they talked a lot about like, “Oh, we need a lot of tech stuff, so it’s great that you’ve got all this tech background.” And then I ended up working with brands that were in quilting and in other just random areas like some cookies and things like that. But then we had a couple of great more tech side groups, but another one that we were able to start conversations with and then ended up building a 10-year relationship with was T-Mobile. And I was so grateful for background in mobile technologies and working especially in the B2B and channel marketing with them.
And so had those sorts of relationships that I was able to be a part of, and really a wide variety of different kinds of clients. And I loved that every day felt very different in that. I thought that was a lot of fun. And before I knew it, I was in a situation as a partner there with a couple of other partners and thought that our situation would be like, “Oh, we’ll eventually be running this.” Things went differently from that than what we had thought, but ended up in a situation where Christy and James and I, as you mentioned, started our own firm, and have been able to provide services and work with lots of different clients in this next era, but with some different specialties and some different areas of focus.
And so it became … I think something that switched for me maybe 10 or so years ago was like, “Oh, I’ll eventually be some sort of owner in a business, so I’ll need to figure some things out for that.” And I like paying attention to financials, and I like paying attention to operational sides of the business that I before that didn’t really spend much time or attention on. And now a lot of my time and attention goes to those sorts of things. So it’s been, again, a different set than what I’d thought, but really, really enjoyable. And I really love what we’ve been able to do together so far. So that’s a bit of the journey. I hope not too boring with how that all goes.

Kyle Knowles:
No. That’s a great journey. And so Ingram Micro, were you a product manager, or what was your title there?

Jordan Howe:
So I was a vendor marketing manager there. And so in that, I worked with like nine or 10 different mobile vendors. And we’d come up with marketing programs for them and then worked back with the vendor business managers. Geez, I haven’t even thought about these terms in quite some time. But the vendor business managers were responsible for the profit and loss of those particular vendors at Ingram Micro and making sure like, “Oh, can we have new programs or new sales training or things to make sure that people would move more of those products?”
And a big part of it was how much understanding we could have of the technologies so that either the people inside the channel could understand more, or the eventual resellers or people that would do implementations or value-added resellers and others, to get those technologies in the end users’ hands. So it was making sure that they would see those brands in a very favorable way and that they could understand what they were offering.

Kyle Knowles:
So 15 years at Summit Group. You’ve got, I don’t know, five years or whatever at Ingram Micro. You’ve got six years of school, right?

Jordan Howe:
Mm-hmm.

Kyle Knowles:
Because you went straight from your bachelor’s degree and then did two years for an MBA. So that’s a long time from high school to all the way to Arcade. What did you have to shift in your head to decide to venture out on your own and become an entrepreneur?

Jordan Howe:
Yeah, I think the biggest change to me in my mind was almost like thinking you’re ready to leave home as a child. I had this career that felt very stable and felt very normal and felt safe. And it was enjoyable. I liked what I was doing. And then all of a sudden there was an opportunity, “Oh, we can do our own thing. We can make it what we want. We can have our own chosen name for it. We can have our own tone with it. We can set the rules that we want with it. We can treat clients the way that we want to.”
And that felt very exciting, but it was also like, “Oh, man, can we do this on our own? There’s things we don’t understand. There’s things that feel more complicated.” And I remember with that change, it really felt to me similar to when I first left home and had those same sorts of feelings of like, “Oh, can I afford a apartment? Can I do things that would be worthwhile? And can I have a car? Can I figure out other kinds of ways to get from place to place,” and those similar sorts of anxieties.
And what was nice then was having friends and people that could put their arm around me and say, “Oh yeah, people do this all the time. It’s going to be great.” And with this latest stage, with Arcade, meeting with people that are business owners, having great relationships with folks in my life that have had that and who have given me advice and have said … I think about my brother-in-law who’s up in Oregon, has run his own building business building homes for the last eight, nine years, and has told me, “I absolutely love this. I wish that I’d started doing this way earlier.” And even hearing that advice was like, “Oh, man, good for you, but I don’t know about myself.”
And to just start and to start making those steps as we got going, and to do the things for setup to do the things with conversations with attorneys and accountants and everything like that, each step had its own charm to it, like, “Oh, I get to have these conversations.” A lot of things that were really mundane, but that were like, “Oh, this is something that helps us build this. It helps me understand this. And it’s for something that’s for us,” felt really cool and different than anything I’d felt in my career before.
And so it really was a matter of, let’s just get started. Let’s start to take these first steps, build on those, do the next step. And now all of a sudden it feels like, “Oh, we’ve got a company. We’ve got good things that are going.” And it was funny too, even things like sending our first invoice with our logo on it, I took a moment of pride in that of like, “Oh, look at this,” as I email it out. But it was like, “Oh, we’ve actually reached this point, and then the next point to reach,” and seeing our own reports and building out things that help us actually run a healthy business. Each step of that and building on it has been really neat to see and neat to realize, “Oh yeah, these things that felt so foreign and even unreachable, yeah, we can do that.” So I’ve enjoyed that a lot.

Kyle Knowles:
What was your biggest fear going into business for yourself?

Jordan Howe:
I think I was worried about the things that I just maybe took for granted in how businesses were run. I mean, frankly, I was worried, would we even succeed? I think it’s one thing to find success within an organization that is established or to find success in one that’s starting to grow. And I’d had really nice experiences in that in my career, like at The Summit Group when I started there, we had about 20 people. We grew it to about 90. And that was a neat curve and a neat thing to be a part of, and to see that growth and to help in the ways that I could. And it’s another to think like, “Oh, we’re starting with a blank slate.” And you get a lot of self-doubt moments of like, “Oh, who would want to work with us? Who would want to work with me?”
And it’s weird to have those kind of thoughts, and they’re bouncing around, like, “Of course, people … you’ve seen it this whole time. You’ve been able to make it happen.” It just feels so different when it’s going to be your own thing and when it feels like you’re staring at a blank slate. There’s some things about a blank slate that can be so exciting, other things about it that are just petrifying. And I think just being worried, “Will we be able to start something that can lead to success,” was a frightening thought at times.
And I was grateful for partners in this, grateful that if at any point in those earliest days, if we felt frustrations or felt concerned, being very open with each other about that, having conversations that helped us to work through those sorts of feelings or to encourage each other and say like, “Oh yeah, of course we’ll figure this out. What are you thinking?” And I appreciated that a lot, especially in those early days and weeks and months, but just, I don’t know, it was really wonderful to see that the results of the efforts could start to bring some success and that we could build on that and try to manage it the way that we wanted to manage it in, “Oh, here’s ways that we can make sure to keep the business healthy. Here’s ways that we can make sure to give ourselves appropriate compensation and make this very much worth our while,” and then to just keep building on it.
And I think it has helped to have partners that are of like minds as myself. I have partners that are very concerned about making sure the business is healthy and that the business grows and that we invest in the business and that we don’t try to take too much from it, but still to make sure that it’s good for us and good for our families. And it’s been a great way to have a philosophy together in just how we’ll run the business and make sure that it just continues to grow and develop, and that we make those choices together. It’s been great.

Kyle Knowles:
What have you loved the most about being an entrepreneur?

Jordan Howe:
I’ve loved the feeling of building something that’s ours and something that’s mine. I’ve loved that the way that we treat clients is the way that we decide to treat clients. I think that we had some great experiences in the past with that, but for it to be the way that we dictate has been a very empowering feeling and something that I’ve loved the feeling of. I’ve loved moments when we see our logo on digital boards and different places where we’ve had activities and events. We had this event that we were running at a hotel in Cedar City, and we had our logo up on the screens all around in the Marriott. And I just thought like, “Oh my gosh, yes.” That feels so bizarrely rewarding, just seeing something like our own logo and these different uses and placements, but the feeling of building our own thing has been so nice. And to have the partners in it and the people that have been involved with it, I’ve loved that.
I’ve loved providing jobs for people. That was something that I took pride in previous roles where it was like, “Oh, cool, we’ve built up enough. We can hire more people or we can make something happen that way.” To do it inside of our own business has had a special level of fulfillment and just enjoyment for me and each of us, and to see us be able to grow and bring on more people. It’s not many. We’ve hired our third person, we’ve got six total, hopefully bringing on a seventh year in the next couple of weeks. But just, again, step-by-step and good, sustainable, gradual growth, that’s what I’m about and what we’re about collectively. And to be able to do and see that has been really, really rewarding. It’s almost like starting a garden and seeing the first tomatoes and just thinking like, “Oh, yeah, here we go. We can do this. This is great.” And picking those first ones off the vine and just how delicious they can be, it’s been a similar feeling. I’ve got all sorts of comparisons today, I guess.

Kyle Knowles:
So would it be safe to say that the word ownership and building something that’s your own, is that how you’d describe it if you just summed it up?

Jordan Howe:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, ownership, building our own thing and being able to do something that we see the results of those efforts for ourselves and have that pride in each of those moments.

Kyle Knowles:
Nice. I love it. So how has your day-to-day changed from working for someone to now working for yourself?

Jordan Howe:
Yeah. I think before, roles were always pretty well-defined, like, “Oh, you’re an account manager, you’re an account director, you’re a partner.” You’ve got these sorts of areas of concern and things that you should be spending your time on. With being a business owner, there’s still a lot of the client time that I’m spending, spending a lot of time in meetings or working back with the creative teams that are involved with our projects. But so much of my time now, I’m like, “Okay, am I understanding this new thing that we need to be doing as a company? Am I having the conversations that I need to with our accountant? Am I having the conversations I need to with attorneys, structuring next stage thoughts for how the company should be run,” a lot more operational issues, a lot more financial issues.
And the level of care on that, I’d like to think I had a good ownership type of mind in jobs before, but it’s just different by nature, that truly, as an owner in this, I need to treat this differently. And you just do, you just treat it differently. And so I’d say where before that was maybe 10%, 15% of my life and concerns, now it’s more like 40% or 50%, depending on the day.
And also, honestly, needing to have the discipline to stay with things in the same way. There’s no one looking over my shoulder at all. And so doing the things that I know will be best for the company or best for what needs to be done inside of a day is like, “Oh, yeah, you got to do that.” You can’t just go out and hang out somewhere or relax and just go have a fun time. And that there’s responsibilities back to the business, there’s responsibilities back to my partners.
But that’s a very different feeling than before, and in many ways where it’s like, “Oh, it’s awesome to feel so differently,” but in other ways that it’s like, “Oh, I need to make sure I put in what’s needed.” And sometimes that can even go overboard too. It’s hard to have the discipline to stop sometimes, and where there’s just like, “Oh, the list keeps going. Let’s keep figuring it out.” And I also know that I need to switch it off and spend time back with family or spend time just to refresh and get ready for the next thing. But it’s been, again, a different feeling than before, which I’ve liked.

Kyle Knowles:
Do you care more?

Jordan Howe:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. And again, I’d like to think that I cared at the full amount before, but I can tell that there’s been more that I’ve wanted to make sure goes well, make sure clients are loving what they’re getting, make sure that things are as detailed as they should be. It’s a different level and something that I’ve liked being able to access and something that I’d imagine I’ll need to keep digging at and making sure that that keeps going like it should.

Kyle Knowles:
So you had stress, I’m sure, at The Summit Group for 15 years. You had stress, you had deadlines, you had all these things. Is the stress different now? Because I’m sure you still have stress, but is it a stress that’s … I don’t know. I keep thinking maybe it would be more exciting when it’s stress that you own and you created because you’re trying to build something.

Jordan Howe:
Yeah. I’ll give another comparison, that I’ve driven in a lot of snowstorms before and I’ve been a passenger and I’ve been a driver in the snowstorms. And as a passenger, it’s hard to just sit there and look around, and you push your foot on the floor even though you have nothing in front of you, if there’s a feeling of needing to slow down or something like that. And then as the driver, you’re in control. And I think that it might feel more stressful. I’ve always appreciated being the driver in those situations more, though. And I think that now being able to have that control in stressful moments has felt very different.
And I’ve always felt like I’m someone that approaches stressful situations in a way that causes me more focus in them. Maybe my wife or others would say differently, but I think that when things get stressful, I don’t get in a mode of panic or in a mode of frustration. It’s more of a mode of like, “Okay, so what do we need to do? Let’s zone in on this more carefully. Let’s think about it a bit more. And what’s the next step that I can take?” And when I’ve been in wild snowstorms before behind the wheel, that it’s just, “Okay, need to make sure I keep going to this next spot.”
I think years ago, just you can edit this one out, but years ago when I asked my wife to marry me, I drove from LA to Oregon. And in my mind, I was thinking, “This will be the most dramatic, awesome thing that I’ve ever done.” It was Christmas Eve, and I drive from LA, I get to her place. And I remember telling my buddies, because they were like, “How are you going to ask?” And I was like, “Then and there. It’s just going to be then and there.” And they were like, “Dude, that’s awesome.” And so I drive up, get to her place. She’s staying with her family. She thought I had to work that weekend in LA, that I couldn’t make it up to visit.
And so I knock on the door, she opens the door. I ask her to marry me. Everything’s great. We have a wonderful Christmas, and I needed to drive back down on the 26th. And so I get up and I start to make the drive. And a snow storm’s coming into Ashland, Oregon that day. And it took me 12 hours to drive from Ashland to Redding, which typically is I think an hour and a half drive. But the snow was so bad I had to put chains on, I had to take chains off. I had to put them on and take them off at least four times on this drive because of going at different elevations. And it was just the worst. But I remember in my mind, just thinking like, “Okay, I just need to make it the next 100 yards. I need to make it the next quarter mile.”
And so anytime I’ve faced stresses, I’ve tried to think, “What do I need to do next in this?” Sometimes it can get overwhelming, but I’d say the feeling overall of being in ownership in an organization and being the one that it rests on and the one with those responsibilities, along with my partners, feels very different than simply being a member of a team. And members of a team are fantastic, and I loved what I was able to do as a team member before, but that level of being behind the wheel is very different. So totally roundabout answer to that question. Feel free to turn it into a 30-second response.

Kyle Knowles:
I love the story. So when you finally arrived there, were you too tired to ask her to marry you?

Jordan Howe:
No, no. I was pumped.

Kyle Knowles:
Did you do it right when you got there?

Jordan Howe:
Oh, it was then and there. It was as promised.

Kyle Knowles:
Okay. So set the stage here. So you pull in finally. And I don’t know, were there cell phones back there? I don’t know [inaudible 00:38:44]-

Jordan Howe:
Yeah. I had my Nokia cell phone that I could play Snake on, and that.

Kyle Knowles:
So you were telling her, “I’m coming, I’m coming. It’s just taking longer.”

Jordan Howe:
Yep, yep, or actually, no, she didn’t know I was coming at all. So it was a total surprise. I worked … it was with that company that was out of China. And at the time, there was some shipments that were coming in and some other issues at the LA office. And I knew that things could wait a couple of days, but I thought it would be fun to surprise her. So I told her like, “Oh, things are too crazy down here. I wish I could come up.” And her family knew that I was coming up. She didn’t.
And so I drove without her knowing. And on the way she called me at one point and I was like, “Oh, I think I’m going to take a break here soon,” or something. And then got there, and when I knocked on the door, her brother was like, “Oh, why don’t you go answer that?” And she went over, and there’s video of this, which I need to find again, her brother’s got this, but I then and there just knelt down and asked her to marry me. And she had this huge scream when she saw me at the door, and it was a really, really wonderful moment. And then we enjoyed Yorkshire puddings and roast from her British mother. So it was a great week.

Kyle Knowles:
I love it. I love it. That’s such a great story. So you know this podcast is called Maker Manager Money. Let’s talk about your partners, James and Christy and yourself. If you can apply, who’s the maker, who’s the manager, who handles the money? How does this work so that you do make money?

Jordan Howe:
Yeah. So we play pretty distinct roles. James is our creative director, has been a creative director for a very long time in his career, and is just fantastic. Christy is more on the digital side, with user experience analysis and user interface development, back with programmers and working through all the different needs for web development. And myself, my background’s mostly in account planning and strategy, and also way background of finance and some things that I was involved with over the years.
I’d say that the maker is absolutely James and his team and the designers that we have that work for us that like, okay, they’re going to make great stuff that our clients will love and that customers or other business customers will find interesting and find enlightening about them. Christy and I tend to share a lot of the manager types of responsibilities, where each one of us work with clients in different ways. James is even fantastic at working with clients. We can play off each other’s strengths pretty well, and like, “Oh, you’re busy with this?” One of us can jump in and help out, or just make sure that things keep going. And money side, whether it’s trying to get new business, that tends to be myself, it tends to be Christy, sometimes James, with different opportunities. Each one of us, I would say, play different roles. And then the management of the monies is on me and our accountant.
But the thing that I’ve loved about this, and when you mentioned your podcast name to me originally, it was just cool to think about of like, “Oh, the roles that each of us play are kind of a percent of each of these, and more of a majority in certain roles for each of us, but that there isn’t only one role. And we play in different ways and are able to help each other out.” And I think it’s been that way with the three of us for a really long time, and just heightened in this Arcade era that we’ve been doing.

Kyle Knowles:
How long did you work with James and Christy before you started Arcade?

Jordan Howe:
Yeah, so Christy was one of the first people that I’d met well before I started working at The Summit Group. And we worked together, Christy and James and I, for 15 years. We were partners together there for about nine years. And James and Christy had worked together for a couple years prior to that as well. And so a lot of understanding of each other’s nuances and things that keep us motivated, things that annoy us, things that annoy each of us in fun ways when we can annoy each other, just lots of knowledge in that relationship across the three of us that’s made for a really great starting point in a new business.

Kyle Knowles:
Would you have started Arcade without partners?

Jordan Howe:
No. No. I think it felt like the natural next step for us collectively. If I had not had Christy and James in that, I wouldn’t have started my own thing. I wouldn’t have had the idea of how to run it on my own. It really helped to have partners in my situation, and especially such amazing partners.

Kyle Knowles:
So you said that your brother-in-law wished he would’ve started sooner, building homes. Do you wish you would’ve started Arcade earlier?

Jordan Howe:
Part of me. Yeah, part of me wishes that I would’ve started earlier, that the feeling that I have now and what we’ve been able to build and what I’d love to continue to build, it’s almost like, “Oh man, I wish I’d started that savings account 20 years ago,” or something like that. But the difference though is that I do believe I needed to learn a lot of things before entering this era myself. I think there’s so many fantastic entrepreneurs and business owners that start when they’re much younger. For me, I needed a lot more of a foundation to be able to make steps and make the change, and even to do things like … Like it’s mattered a lot to me that with clients, we’re very open about what we do and what we don’t.
And I think that early in careers, it is harder to do that, whether it’s because of your own lack of experience or because you’re worried that maybe you won’t get the opportunity if you don’t stretch a little further than maybe you should, or things like that. And I’ve really liked in this that it’s been really important to me to say, “Oh yeah, we’re really good at this thing. We don’t do that thing.” And that’s okay. That’s fine. We’ll work in the way that we’ll be successful.
It’s important to me that relationships are longer term. We found a lot of that in our past experience together previously, to be able to build long-term relationships, and now to do that at Arcade has mattered a lot. And I feel like being very, very open about skills and capabilities, and for me to have that level of clarity in conversation has been different in this. I feel like there isn’t the same sort of sometimes pressure as before of like, “Oh, we got to figure this out. We got to just make this one happen.” It’s like, “Oh, let’s just be open, be honest.”

Kyle Knowles:
And say no to work, is that what you’re saying?

Jordan Howe:
Yeah. If there’s certain times where clients will come in and say, “Do you do this thing,” and then we’ll just say like, “Oh, unfortunately we don’t, but we can point you in the direction of someone that’s great.” And I think sometimes in different areas, it can be a temptation to say, “Oh, sure, we’ll figure it out.” And then you bite your nails at the other side and hope that you figure it out. So I’ve seen that kind of pressure and that sort of thing and would want to make sure that that’s just not a part of our situation.

Kyle Knowles:
Did you feel like you had to say yes a lot more when you were working for someone else?

Jordan Howe:
I think that there was the pressure of winning, and that sometimes things could be a winner’s problem of like, “Oh, you got it, now get to work to figure it out.” And I think sometimes that can work out just fine. Other times it can put things at way too much risk. And frankly, I’ve really liked having more of an approach of let’s be open, let’s make sure that what you want, we can deliver, and have that as a foundation of what we do.

Kyle Knowles:
So what is the superpower that you bring to the table in this partnership?

Jordan Howe:
I think I’m calm, solution guy. When we run into issues, whether it’s with the business or with clients, that I tend to sit back, think about what needs to be done, help find the solution to the problem. And whether it’s with clients or with internal stuff or whatever it is, that my thing is and really for a long time has been like, “Okay, how do we attack this one? What do we need to do next? How do we solve,” and to be able to get to those solutions. I think that’s been what I helped bring to the equation.

Kyle Knowles:
Did you do sales then at the summer group? Were you considered a salesperson?

Jordan Howe:
Yeah, with the different terminology.

Kyle Knowles:
Account manager?

Jordan Howe:
Yeah, yeah.

Kyle Knowles:
But were you out there hustling and trying to win business, or-

Jordan Howe:
Sometimes, like with what we approached then, it was more like, “What can we do to make sure that we’re earning in more with current clients? And what can we do to have great pitches out to net new potential clients?” And most of my efforts were, “Let’s make sure that client satisfaction is high on existing clients, and come up with new ideas and opportunities for those clients where appropriate.” We had another partner that was over business development and the real selling side, but I worked with him and with a director that was over that quite a bit, and pitch development, and getting out to brand new opportunities. But my thing really wasn’t like, “Oh, let me hustle and get out there and find brand new opportunities.” But a lot of things would come through networks, a lot of things would come through good work and really just making sure like, “Oh, can we do the next thing? Can we help figure this out?”
And something I think I’ve had a knack for is listening for the problem and not running from a problem. I remember years ago I was at a lunch with a couple of different reps, one from Microsoft and one from HTC, the old phone company, and was in this lunch and having a discussion up in Seattle. And one of the people at this lunch mentioned that they were dealing with all sorts of issues with sales promotions, that they could not figure out decent sales promotions that would get people to do something within a sales organization, capture their attention. Things weren’t going well, and they were rife with all sorts of fraudulent efforts at store levels as well. They were just like, “This just isn’t working.”
And I remember something in my mind at that time thought, “Well, why? Help me understand on this.” Something kind of clicked in that conversation. And we didn’t have a relationship with HTC at all at the time. It was a conversation we’d had through some folks at T-Mobile who were a client. And so we’re having this conversation. She mentions this. And then I started talking about some experiences that I’d had with promotions at Ingram Micro and mentioned maybe would something else, would this kind of approach help, and maybe having some tracking on a webpage or doing something where you could see exactly what was being done with the campaign and have more real-time information about what was coming in and how the results were?
And she was interested and interested enough that when I said like, “Oh, let’s reconnect on this,” she gladly did. And HTC became a great client for us there for a while. That client ended up … the specific contact moved over to Sony, brought us with her to Sony. We did a ton of work with Sony in the US and Canada for several years, and then she moved on to Microsoft. And we did a ton with Microsoft and Xbox. And she was just a fantastic person and a fantastic client, and loved working with her. And all of that came from just listening for a problem, listening to hear, “Oh, what things are pet peeves for you right now? What things are you struggling with?” And so I’ve not been one that’s like, “Oh, let me get out there and hustle up the opportunities,” but I tend to listen for when there’s an issue or when there’s something that irritates someone in their work, and try to help find ways to make that better.

Kyle Knowles:
So how does Arcade acquire customers?

Jordan Howe:
Yeah, so a lot of it’s been through our networks that we’ve had through the years. A lot of it’s been through good work being done for those existing clients that then refer us into other clients and other areas of opportunity. And the nice thing for us has been starting out with a few clients, but also just starting out with the three of us and thinking, “Whatever we make, we make.” And as we were able to do good work for those few that they then referred out, or we were able to bring in others from our networks, or have other conversations with great folks, to be able to start doing more work and to build off that.
And my philosophy has always been just with good work, more opportunities will come, more needs to solve and help out. And so we’ve been able to gradually build on that really through good work and through referrals that have come in through that, and really validations of the work. But I’d look forward to a next stage of that too, of getting out more with what we offer and what we’ve done, but haven’t done that yet really at all.

Kyle Knowles:
You haven’t needed to.

Jordan Howe:
Yeah, yeah.

Kyle Knowles:
Okay. So you’re learning to be an entrepreneur for reals?

Jordan Howe:
Yep, for realsies.

Kyle Knowles:
You obviously have an MBA, all these other things, so you know plenty about business, but being an entrepreneur for the first time for, let’s say, 18 months now, right?

Jordan Howe:
Yep. A little more, yep.

Kyle Knowles:
What are the resources? Is there a podcast? Are there books? What are the resources you’re tapping into to understand or learn the things you need to learn as you go?

Jordan Howe:
Man, so I’m not the right person to ask about business books, by the way. I’ve read a lot. I often get just glassy-eyed with business books. And 90% of them, when I read, I’m like, “Okay, thanks for taking 300 words to say what you could have said in a sentence, or adding all these different other thoughts with them.” The podcast 2Bobs, I’ve loved quite a bit, listened to that one for the last few years. And that’s smaller agency perspectives, and I’ve liked that one. The book, The Art of Client Service, Robert Solomon’s the writer on that one, I’ve liked that one a lot. And I’ll revisit it every now and again to remind myself of some of the fundamentals and things that I think are so important to just make sure that the efforts stay consistent. I feel like consistency is one of the most important attributes of client service, and making sure that they can rely on us for things that we say they can rely on us for, and making sure that we’re delivering and over-delivering. So just in those specifically, I’ve appreciated those quite a bit.
I think mostly what I’ve looked to in other areas is past knowledge and information on running financials. I’ve been a nerd with financials for a long time, where back in college I found out about the EDGAR search tool on SEC.gov. And anytime we’d have a new firm that we were studying, I loved looking through 10K reports and understanding aspects of their financials. And as we’ve had clients over the years, and when I worked at Ingram Micro as well, I remember looking up their 10K and doing it with clients, as we’ve had any public clients, of like, “Okay, I want to make sure I understand this about them.”
And so trying to replicate that … And actually, something I’ve loved with our financials is making my own models for them, where I know how I want P&Ls to look, I know how I want projections to look, and so I can match them up and make custom spreadsheets. And I reviewed those with our accountant and she was like, “Oh, this is actually really helpful as a way to view current status, upcoming status, and all the information in one, which normally isn’t the case.” And so just trying to think and play around with the tools that are available, I’ve enjoyed quite a bit. So that’s probably a terrible answer for that question that you’re asking, by the way.

Kyle Knowles:
No, I think it’s a good answer. So what’s the best piece of business advice anyone’s given you?

Jordan Howe:
Yeah, the one that comes to mind is actually from Casey Jones. So I reached out to him when I was considering working for The Summit Group years and years ago. So I was working at Ingram Micro, and he and I had stayed in touch. He’d been such a great friend and mentor to me. And I liked what I was doing at Ingram Micro. I liked being in Southern California. And I reached out to Casey and said, “Hey, they’ve offered me a job at The Summit Group.” And I told them about some of the conversations we were having. I said, “I think I’m going to take it.” And he said, “Oh, that’s awesome. Good luck.” And I said, “This’ll be my first agency experience for myself.” I’d worked with some agencies, but I hadn’t worked for an agency. And I said, “What should I do? What should I read? What should I get into?”
And he’s like, “I’ve got one piece of advice for you.” And he said, “Treat your job as a craft.” And I was like, “Cool. Meaning what?” And he was like, “I’m not going to tell you.” And I said, “Okay.” And I remember, and he asked me some other questions. We talked about some other things, but he was like, “Remember, treat your job as a craft.” And it stuck with me so much. And for a while I was like, “I want to figure out what he meant by that.” And I started thinking about it more and more for myself, thinking, “Okay, if I were a carpenter, I’d want to be able to make the best woodworking that I possibly could. I’d want things to fit perfectly. I’d want to use the best tools. What can I be doing to treat my job that way? What can I be doing to learn more outside of just what I need to for my job? And what tools can I understand?”
And something I’ve loved about just the world of marketing and the world of advertising, it changes so frequently. The fundamentals remain the same, but the tools change so frequently. And it feels like every two to three years I have to learn a whole new set of things. But I’ve really loved that, like, “Oh, I can learn about new platforms and new ways to communicate, new ways to get information out, new ways to collaborate.” And I think that his advice to me has been an inspiration, really my entire career. And it’s something I still think about, of how can I treat what I’m doing as a craft and make sure that things are done in the best possible way, and really to take pride in what I’m doing?

Kyle Knowles:
I love that advice. So you have partners at Arcade, but you have a life partner that you drove from Los Angeles to … was it Ashland?

Jordan Howe:
Ashland, Oregon.

Kyle Knowles:
Ashland, Oregon, to propose to. How did she take the news that you were going to start your own business, and how important is it to have a supportive life partner?

Jordan Howe:
So she was stoked. It was so nice to have that kind of support. She was excited about whatever things could be in our previous experience. And I remember James and Christy and I went to a late breakfast one day, it was a January day at Denny’s, and decided then and there, “We’re doing this thing, we’re going to make this happen.” And it was kind of like, “Whoa, okay, all right.” And I went home and I mentioned to Annie, like, “Hey, I think we’re going to do this.” And she gave me a big hug and said, “This is so good,” and how proud she was that we would do this.
And I’m sure in the back of her mind it’s like, “Oh boy, what about insurance? What about 401(k) stuff? What about all these different life path things that come through more of an established safe path?” And to have that support and faith in me has meant everything. And when I mentioned those times of self-doubt or feeling frustrated or concerned, and to have Annie at the other side of that has been massive, and I’m just so grateful for that. And yeah, it’s hard to even express how much that’s meant to me.

Kyle Knowles:
Thank you for sharing that. Do you remember what you had at Denny’s? Was it a celebratory breakfast, or was it just bacon and eggs?

Jordan Howe:
I’m a skillet man, typically, so I’m sure I got some sort of skillet at that, probably with an English muffin, if I remember correctly.

Kyle Knowles:
Nice.

Jordan Howe:
And yeah, that was a great, great moment.

Kyle Knowles:
I love it. And have you done kids to work day with your kids? Have you had them come in and they’ve seen what you’ve done with this?

Jordan Howe:
They get to see me all the time, actually, since I work from home. And we’re a virtual organization at the moment. So once designers have a desire to go back into a building, then maybe we’ll make some changes. But it’s kind of funny, so I’ve got three children. Our youngest just turned 12. And he’s a very thoughtful, observant young man. And so I remember I just started with what we were doing with Arcade, and I’d received my first check that we were cutting to ourselves. And I had it on my desk. And Matt comes in to check in on me. And we were talking for a little bit, and he kind of peers over in his observant way, and he sees the first check. And he’s like, “Well, what’s that?” And I said, “Oh, it’s a paycheck that I’ve given to myself.” And he’s like, “Are we going to be poor now?”
I’m like, “No buddy, don’t worry.” It stuck with me. And a few days later I’d talked to Annie and I was like, “I’m sure from his perspective, like, ‘Oh, my dad had a job. Now he doesn’t. Now he’s starting a company,’” which maybe to some kids would sound like, “Oh, that’s super cool.” I think to him it was like, “What’s going on? I’d visited your building before. It was super cool. Now you’re here all the time. What’s going on?” And so I ended up showing him forecasted financials and things like that to be like, “Hey, here’s kind of how things are looking.” And by the time I’d mentioned this to him, he was like, “Okay, cool,” and went out to go play basketball. But I’m grateful that things have gone even better than what those forecasts were.
And yeah, it was something I really hadn’t thought too much of, from our kids’ perspective. It’s one thing to have the love and support of spouse, but I think another as a child to think like, “Oh, so, what’s going on?” And I am grateful for how things have gone and that lifestyle stuff and everything to feel great. And now it’s just like, “Oh yeah, cool. Dad’s here, or he’s off at a client meeting, or out traveling,” or something like that. But I hope one day to bring them in for a work visit again. I think that would be a fun thing to look forward to, again, if the designers will ever come to the office.

Kyle Knowles:
What’s the likelihood of designers wanting to go into an office?

Jordan Howe:
I think it’s pretty low. I think it would be more of a like, will we have other team members that would be excited for frequent in-person collaboration? But a side thing that I’ve loved though, we’ve done some employee gathering things with lunches and outings in Park City. And I think the feeling of that, of like, “Oh cool, we’re getting some time together,” it’s purposeful. It gets us in the same area and having a good experience and how nice it’s been.
I’m still so shocked, and I know it’s just a COVID era remnant, but to be able to collaborate so well virtually and to have the tools that we have for it and to not require, and really frankly to not make someone that would say, “You know what? I can be just as productive at home or from a remote office, and I don’t love a commute and I don’t love that when I’m in a workspace with others around me that I can get distracted, or that people will pull me from the stuff that I can be more focused on” … They’ve been so awesomely productive and collaborative in things with me and with others. And it’s a pretty remarkable thing right now that, again, I think that if we’d started our own thing before COVID and then just been like, “Oh yeah, we don’t have an office, but will you work with us,” I think it feels very different now of like, “Oh, you guys, you’re all remote? Good for you. That’s smart.” It’s a very different attitude in this stage.

Kyle Knowles:
I would say you’re saving a lot on the bottom line too, right, on overhead?

Jordan Howe:
Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And especially when the motivations are like, “Oh, I’d like to go into an office or I’d like to bring my kids to an office,” I don’t know if the ROI on that is that strong.

Kyle Knowles:
Yeah, exactly. All right, well I just want to go through a lightning round of questions for you really quick. Favorite candy bar?

Jordan Howe:
Reese’s.

Kyle Knowles:
Favorite musical artist?

Jordan Howe:
Jack White.

Kyle Knowles:
Favorite cereal?

Jordan Howe:
Honey Bunches of Oats.

Kyle Knowles:
Mac or PC?

Jordan Howe:
PC.

Kyle Knowles:
Google or Microsoft?

Jordan Howe:
Microsoft.

Kyle Knowles:
Dogs or cats?

Jordan Howe:
Dogs.

Kyle Knowles:
Phantom or Les Mis?

Jordan Howe:
Les Mis.

Kyle Knowles:
Awesome. I’m surprised that you’re in an agency and you’re the PC guy, but your love of spreadsheets-

Jordan Howe:
Yeah, that’s the role that I play. I love-

Kyle Knowles:
You’re the one PC guy at the office.

Jordan Howe:
Maybe that’s my superpower, Gantt charts. I’m like Mr. Gantt chart all the time. So no, it’s funny, we played around a lot with Google, and I’ve used Macs, and I just keep thinking like, “Oh, I like this set of tools. It works best for me.” And people can judge that as they like. But on our creative side, all Macs, of course. That’s what they’re all about. And I get to be the spreadsheet guy with my PC and my glasses that I’m pushing up my nose.

Kyle Knowles:
[inaudible 01:09:47] authentic. So what’s something that most people don’t know about you?

Jordan Howe:
I never love this question, because I feel like I need to really wow people with the answer, but that I was born in New York. I think maybe most people don’t know that about me. My dad was working as a publisher in Manhattan. So I was born in New York and moved to Southern California when I was like two months old. But I’ve loved that my whole life … especially, it meant a lot to me as a kid, that, “Oh, I was born in New York, so I’m going to be a Yankees fan and I’m going to like these other things about New York,” and had no connection to it at all other than my birth certificate. But it’s always fun still when it’s like, “Oh yeah, place of birth, Suffern, New York.” Get to say that.

Kyle Knowles:
Love it. So are you a Yankees fan?

Jordan Howe:
I loved the Yankees until I was probably an early college. And then when I moved to Orange County, I became a big Angels fan and stopped following the Yankees. And that was in the A-Rod days, and things like that. It felt like they weren’t a team that I was that stoked about. And so became much more of an Angels fan. I still love the Angels and hope that Shohei sticks around, but I don’t think that’ll be the case.

Kyle Knowles:
Nice. So I know we talked about books for just briefly, and your eyes glaze over and everything, but is there a book that you recommend the most to people?

Jordan Howe:
Yeah. It’s not a business book, but a book that I’ve recommended many times and have given people copies of, and this will make me sound like a Gantt chart guy again, but it’s The Great Bridge, by David McCullough. It’s about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and how difficult that was and what an amazing engineering feat it was. And for people that have either thought like, “Oh, maybe I’ll find an interesting career in engineering,” or, “How can I overcome completely insurmountable things,” I personally have absolutely adored that book as something to read and think about and relate to my own experiences. And I mean, it was an impossible thing that was done years ago. So I love that book. It was one that I even thought was a recent one. I didn’t look at when it was written when I read it several years back, and it was written in like 1973 or something, but it’s a great book.
And then another one that I love actually, and I have recommended a lot and given people copies of is Cutting For Stone, by Abraham Verghese; probably not saying that right. But I love that book. It’s about twin brothers in Ethiopia that become surgeons. And the plot line to it is what led to the first successful liver transplant. So a very strange sort of what it’s about, but the way that relationships are described, the way that they describe medical procedures, the way that they describe dealing with challenges is all so fascinating.
And something that book talks a lot about is the surgical training methods of learn, do, teach. And I remember reading that years ago and just thinking like, “Oh, what a cool thought, with retaining knowledge. First you learn it, do it, then teach it.” And it’s something I tried to apply with how I work with team members and how I work with people when information needs to be clearly understood. And I’ve loved that model and loved that book. It’s a fascinating book. It goes into all these different unexpected places. And so I’m sure you want better business books for this. I apologize.

Kyle Knowles:
No, it doesn’t matter.It doesn’t matter if it’s a business book or not.

Jordan Howe:
They’re great books. I love them.

Kyle Knowles:
They sound very interesting. And I love the idea of teaching, because that’s when you really know something or not, if you can teach someone else, right?

Jordan Howe:
Yep, absolutely. Absolutely.

Kyle Knowles:
Okay. So just briefly, what are the services that Arcade offers, and how can people find you?

Jordan Howe:
Yeah. So we started out pretty narrow and have broadened over the last year and a half. So most of what we do is focused … really, it’s focused on understanding our clients’ needs and how we can best help them to solve their marketing problems and help their customers to love them and what they do, to present them as well as they can be to make sure that they’re seen and heard. A lot of what we do is inside of a digital space, so a lot of web work, a lot of content for websites, a lot of information that can help people through a potential purchase journey through digital platforms. We do a lot of sales materials and marketing materials for organizations. We do a lot of external advertising and work inside of media, a lot of digital media, a lot of connected television and things like that.
So really, I think that a lot of what we’ve been able to do is work with different clients that have said, “We’re having a hard time trying to reach a certain audience, or we’re having a hard time trying to express ourselves in the way that we feel we are,” or often clients that we’ll meet with that have fantastic products or services and their materials don’t reflect it that well, or the way that they’re trying to get their messages out just don’t really do it justice. And so to help them elevate it, to help it to match or exceed those expectations has been great. And so it’s those types of things that we do. And we can be found at arcadepartners.io.

Kyle Knowles:
Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Jordan, for being here tonight and taking some time out of your busy schedule. I really appreciate you being here. I’m glad we could reconnect and have this conversation. It’s just very insightful. And I wish you many more anniversaries with Arcade.

Jordan Howe:
Thank you.

Kyle Knowles:
And say hi to James and Christy for me.

Jordan Howe:
I will. Absolutely. Thank you, Kyle. Thanks for being so amazing and wanting to do this. And just so grateful for our friendship… Arcadepartners.io… Dude, that’s awesome.