We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Barbara O Stephenson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Barbara O below.
Barbara O, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
I’m kind of a “risk-it-when-you-have-nothing-much-to-lose” person. Taking a risk is about being proactive and living your life by not taking the simple/easy/or obvious path. There are so many opportunities in life and understanding your tolerance for how much risk to take is key to running a business.
When I started as COO at 300FeetOut, I knew nothing about the business. Nothing about the company or even about design. I quit a well paying, cushy job where I was unfulfilled and bored to go to a tiny agency run by my friend who needed someone to take responsibility for projects and Ops. It was rough at first but process was my safety net and I gradually learned what I know today.
There were loads of risks along the way- the delicate balance of taking a small team of insane creatives who loved to prank each other to professional levels. That not being “nice’ doesn’t kill you; especially not to ‘be nice’ and work on the weekends. That saying yes to all clients leads to bad clients and the hardest clients come from other design fields. like architects. I learned not to start work until I had a PO and check in hand. I learned how to loosen up and have fun while focusing on goals.
Barbara O, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I got into the creative business just because I was good at keeping things straight. I never considered myself an artist, a designer, or even a person who enjoys crafts. I can’t draw a straight line, knit a sweater, or glue anything so it doesn’t end up dripping all over the place. But what I’m not good at, other people are thankfully.
300FeetOut started in 1997 on a pier in San Francisco where a group of young designers decided to start their own agency. They lived the highs of the dot-com boom with fancy furniture and vespas for the entire gang to use at lunch. They travelled the world and made influential friends. The specialized in bio-tech, cutting edge technology, and luxury brands.
After the dot-com crash, only one owner and a staff of 3 were left when I came on in 2006. The agency focus was on luxury travel websites and campaigns for the myriad of local non-profit endeavors like the San Francisco Opera and the AIDS Memorial Grove. Now almost 20 years later, we’re a thriving brand agency doing digital marketing for not only those travel and nonprofits, but also health + wellness companies, real estate managers/ developers/ contractors, government and education. We took all the learnings from working with the high end 5 star Hospitality and Arts clientele and turned it into our differentiator.
Have you ever had to pivot?
A few months after I had taken over the business, we restructured so that we’d be focusing on getting more retainer clients than fixed bid. The fixed bid model for a small agency means you can’t do any good forecasting if you don’t have a massive sales funnel with a long wait list and that wasn’t us. Before I took over we had weeks of downtime in between contracts- not only was that hard on the team but on me as the COO trying to manage the bills and payroll.
So I met with my lawyer, did some research, and figured out how to turn fixed bid website projects into retainers that guaranteed income for the rest of the year. I negotiated that first contract with the Halekulani Corporation while laid up with a huge cast on my leg. That was 10 years ago and now all of our websites come in with retainers.
Today, technology has evolved to the point where websites need 24/7 management for e-commerce, etc. People don’t expect your site to go down ever, even though we know 99.9% uptime is normal, we work very hard to keep that .01% from ever happening. Sometimes we take on the odd retainer client even if we didn’t build the site. It’s more risky for us because we don’t know the code but we’re very clear what we can and cannot do so our clients know they can trust us to manage it for them. Being able to say no and set clear boundaries is an entirely second interview about hard lessons learned- especially when people are start out, or if you’re small it’s really hard to say no.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
As mentioned before, we use hospitality to give us the differentiator from other agencies. The client experience at 300FeetOut is unparalleled and in turn, has developed us a loyal, we don’t say cult, following of clients.
It’s not that we’re nicer than everyone else; no agency is going to tell you that they don’t care about you. It’s not that we work harder than everyone else; no agency is going to tell you that they won’t work hard. Our reputation was built on years of learning how to say no, setting expectations, honest reporting, and winning design awards. Yes, it’s great for our clients when their companies tell them how much they love the work we did for you or have your boss tell you “our new logo looks amazing’”.
But the loyalty that remains as people move from one company to the next is directly tied to how we treat our clients; everyone matters as a peer. Everyone wants to be treated like they are special. Everyone wants to know that you have their back, in particular in a world where the bottom line matters more than humanity. We put the humanity back into business relationships. 
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.300feetout.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/300feetout/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/300FeetOut/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbaraostephenson/
Image Credits
Stephanie Frier