Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Erik Radle. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Erik, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you ever had an amazing boss? What did you learn from them? Maybe you can share a story that illustrates the kind of boss they were or maybe you can share your thoughts on what you think made them an awesome person to work for?
As a relatively young man in my late twenties, I was recruited by Mazda North America to join their sales and marketing team. My boss at the time was a gift in so many ways, none more so than his ability to customize his leadership style to match the personalities and penchants for those under his command. He knew I’d work best autonomously, that if given space and flexibility that I’d excel and he allowed that to happen. I want to say that I went without seeing or talking to Jeff for 2 months one time, and I only reached out to him to make sure he wasn’t dead. Jeff coached me up later in my tenure with him as well, when I had been promoted and as a result took a large team (fourteen) under my wing for the first time. He observed that I was prone to be impatient, didn’t suffer fools lightly and he was good enough to pull me aside and share this: “Erik, when you’re a hammer you see every problem as a nail.” That lesson has served me well over the years, inspiring me to seek the best possible perspective of both people and events. This has truly impacted my versatility as a leader of the years.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
While born in Delaware and raised in New York, I found my way to Texas as fast as I could, attending Baylor University on a full scholarship, I met my wife Amanda at Baylor and we just celebrated 20 years together, along with our two daughters Grace and Paige. Since graduating college, I’ve always been in some form of sales or marketing role. For a decade, I moved Amanda around the country to different cites and states, accepting promotions regardless of geography to build an executive career on the corporate ladder. Facing yet another relocation in 2009 (this time back to California), we elected to join the family business at Miller Ad Agency (established 1984). I’ve been blessed to be able to deploy all of that sales and marketing experience living here in Dallas as a result.
When people ask what we do at the Miller Ad Agency, I share that we solve problems for businesses. While that often takes the form of advertising strategy, creative and execution, more often than not we’re in deeper than that. My depth in operations, coupled with my executive team that averages 25 years with the agency allows us to tackle projects with a complexity that the vast majority of marketing firms simply can’t. While the physical solutions we provide range from something as small as a business card to something as large as a spot for the Super Bowl, our tactical arsenal starts with strategy and cascades into hundreds of bespoke options to drive results for our clients. This level of customization as well as our operations experience truly gives us a leg up on the competition.
I’m incredibly proud of our team of 25, that this deep bench of performers is both skilled and dedicated to the happiness of our clients. My team (and the results they drive) is the reason for our success, why clients stay with us for decades. They are thirsty to learn new platforms and technology and we hire specifically for people that want to stay curious and keep learning.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I have often found that a great strength can also, and equally, act as a great weakness. Early on in my tenure at the helm of the Miller Ad Agency, we had a slightly different business model than we do today. Historically we’d focus on our knitting by articulating strategy, creative, media acquisition and execution in-house and we’d outsource needs that represented what I’d call nascent offerings. If it was brand new, super tech heavy or simply foreign to us, we’d outsource. In a relatively short period of time I had to unlearn this lesson that had been taught to me by the founder of the agency. It had worked for her for 20+ years. We stick to our core competencies. It didn’t take long for me to see the issues inherent in this (albeit tested) business approach. I like to sit in high-value client meetings, and I was getting a progressively larger earful from clients about the speed, professionalism, value proposition and results of the providers we were using in any nascent offering. My default setting (character trait) is to trust that these providers would do exactly as they said they would with speed and efficiency. No excuses. I found that could not and should not trust any other company when it comes to driving exceptional results. That’s on me. So from that day forward, we in-boarded any platform, technology or otherwise nascent offering such that it is now done in-house. Was this painful at times, capital intensive at times, stressful at times? Absolutely. But the buck stops with me, my team and our offerings as they are controlled from start to finish by people I can trust. We own every success and every failure 100% and that is a lesson I’ll never have to unlearn!
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I firmly believe that any reputation, good or bad, is an architected product. You don’t get the reputation you’ve earned by accident. When I joined the agency, I was blessed to walk into a culture that was a key driver of our sterling reputation in the market. Our founder, Dorthy Miller, taught me that our reputation was built on a simple playbook: Do the absolute best thing for the client, do what you say you are going to do and more, and don’t do anything you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the news. Seeing the world and acting in accordance with these 3 filters has taken us to a place where clients AND former clients all like and respect us. We’ve had clients with us for 20+ years as a result. Since, I’ve placed my own fingerprints on building our reputation, such that we are seen as thought leaders, innovators and complex problem solvers. That path was paved by giving dozens of speeches around the US, Europe, Canada, China and beyond, speeches where I endeavored to give great information to hungry crowd on all that was shaping marketing now and in the years ahead. In this way, acting as a resource and subject matter expert in emerging trends, we’ve attracted many marquis clients that desire a partner that will challenge them with new information and ideas to drive their business. That’s our secret recipe.
Contact Info:
- Website: milleradagency.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/milleradagency
- Facebook: facebook.com/milleradagency
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/miller-ad-agency
- Twitter: @milleragency
- Other: tiktok.com/@milleradagency