Dixon Schwabl is celebrating 30 years of successfully serving clients across the US. Wow.
However, if you’re reading this blog to discover some secret to that business success, I’m not sure I can give you a definitive answer. I can tell you that to succeed in any venture, you have to have an incredible belief in yourself and those around you.
I think that’s what has amazed me most over the past 30 years, starting with the moment I met Lauren Dixon. Here was this single mom and former TV personality from Rochester starting a business from her son’s converted bedroom, hiring a basically unemployed photojournalist from Buffalo to handle creative for her new agency.
“I need to hire someone to produce weekly half-hour TV programs for two of my three new clients,” said the woman who landed those three clients within 48 hours of starting her agency. “Can you do it?”
“Of course I can,” I replied in a heartbeat, never having produced a single video in my life. But hey, if you’ve ever met Lauren, you know her confidence is contagious.
So there it was born. An attitude that anything is possible and that we would do anything it takes to make it happen for our clients. Thirty years later, while I dare say our marketing expertise has been honed through vast experience, that confident attitude is still at the heart and soul of all we do. And you’ll find it driving the 120+ marketing professionals we are honored to have on our Dixon Schwabl team.
Together, we’ve learned that there is no recipe for success in business. But there are ingredients. Three of those are trial, error and trust. You have to invest in trying and learning new things to stay relevant. You have to be willing to fail, no matter how painful. And you have to trust the people around you to give it their all and make it happen.
It’s a formula that’s worked pretty well for 30 years and one that leaves me with the same feeling I had after that first half-hour TV program aired. Wow.
Mike Schwabl is president of Dixon Schwabl and the personification of our slogan—We Make it Happen. His name’s on the building, but, more importantly, his heart is inside of it.