As we approach the launch of this new brand, we’re going to take a quick look back at how far we’ve come.
Back in a lakefront shanty 10 years ago, I lived next to a inspirationally-named car wash: the infamous Dirt Squirt. Its all-hours success led me to believe my first digital agency would one day be the Nerdy Squirt. What can I say? The car wash inspired me. I paid for the LLC and everything. Developed a bespectacled water droplet mascot with a local animator friend:
But let me just skip to the end on all this — Nerdy Squirt was not a name I could get my aunties to Google without worrying they might stumble on something… porny. Don’t Google it, friends. It’s a mistake. We all think we’re smarter than we are sometimes. You cannot outsmart an algorithm when porn is on the line. RIP Nerdy Squirt.
After abandoning the Nerdy Squirt, I developed an agency brand that included an embarrassing mix of native Microsoft fonts and 14-hour days. I spent the first couple months of an unforgettable digital nomad global journey worried that I wasn’t working enough (I was. I’m sure of it now). I hustled hard through the stuff no one talks about in building a business — getting business insurance (while riding a night train through Vietnam), learning how to open offices in other states (eff you New York), figuring out how to build a retirement fund when no one is helping you build one (thank you Mary & Jennifer), finding a payroll partner (hats off to Lindsey), and wondering why procurement people hate me so viscerally (They don’t actually… I don’t think).
At that point, our crowd-sourced logo (see hilarity at right) was an upgrade, with a cutie-patoot pixel-driven umbrella delivered to me just in time to build a one-page website to pitch a new client. I still love that logo the way you do your first car. She’s the 1994 Pontiac Grand Am of branding.
During the first years of Drizzle Digital, we shuffled through a pandemic, picking up both small and gigantic clients that needed a digital partner, and eventually our long-term contractors turned into amazing employees and even better team leaders. We got our best clients the way you get your best friends — We were reliable, consistent, accountable… And fun. If I do say so myself.
Last year, we got our Women’s Business Enterprise certification from WBENC. To be honest, that certification was a 3-month slog of business statements, paperwork, passport photos, and Quickbooks reporting that culminated in a final “site visit” that I did hilariously via Zoom. In Michigan. At a friend’s office. It was a pain. And I assume it will be worth every moment.
Because next week, we’re about to exhibit at our first WBENC trade show in Nashville. Our first trade show at all, actually. And we’ve got a booth and matching shirts and business cards and flyers and a sizzle reel and a team of my favorite people and a fresh-out-of-the-wrapper brand to unveil to lots of women who have also been down this road.
So. I’m taking a moment of gratitude for the umbrella that MaryPoppins-ed us this far. That allowed me to work from a little porch in Koh Tao, and a sunlit apartment in Pósnan, and a mountain-view high-rise in Denver. That brought this team of brilliant, wonderful people together into the agency we are today.
Goodbye, old umbrella…
And hello, new Drizzle. You look so grown up.
New brand launches Monday, Mar. 20, 2023.
