We recently connected with Dante Marino and have shared our conversation below.

Dante, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

When we set out to launch Ethos & Able Creative (EA Creative or EAC), it wasn’t just a hobby, or something my brother and I came up with to make money. We love, LOVE, local business. A lot of agencies, teams, freelancers, whomever in our industry that cover any sort of marketing need, I’ve always found to have some means of disingenuity, lack of flexibility, and all followed the same cookie cutter aesthetic of being a creative – you know what I’m talking about, the light, airy, bright vibe with the little notebook on the desk, coffee, fake plant and a swirly letters; I could go on. Basically (choosing that word purposefully) for being creative services that I’ve come across, and have stories from clients and friends that own businesses, so many are just unoriginal.

Enter EAC where we just do not pull our punches about business. Vin and I’s will to make local businesses stand out have no end, and truly, we work WITH them, and not just for them. A lot of businesses we’ve made clients have seen our difference, our genuine selves of not being afraid to say ‘this launch idea sucks – we can do better’ or ‘why are we planning a sale when we haven’t even recognized our top demographics yet?’ It’s the relationships we create that build trust, and that trust lends itself to better results for our clients.

So you might be saying to yourself, ‘ok, like that’s cool and all, but there’s still other digital marketing agencies doing what you guys do – what makes you different?” they don’t have a Dante and Vinny Marino. That’s what.

We’re making a real difference in our businesses that work with us – building collaborations, helping with growth (even outside of a marketing perspective) and finding things that actually work for them, not just templates we create or use, which we do not.

Dante, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

One of the biggest reasons Ethos & Able Creative (EAC) came to be was there are a lot of hidden gems in Manchester, NH. I could go on and name all of them, but it started with the question of ‘why are they hidden in the first place? These places should be on everyone’s list and shouldn’t be missed by something like word of mouth!’ So one of my long time friends had reached out to me about helping him make a website for his business. In a past life, this is all I did was simply web design, but then I wanted to just do more – my ambition knows no ends, so I wanted to really help him be successful, in and in turn, would give me a start to my marketing portfolio. The true challenge was this was in the middle of the pandemic of 2020… yes, that pandemic haha. Luckily, his model was sound with takeaway, no contact styles of pick up so he could open which gave me the green light to start developing a website. From there, you start to realize (well a website isn’t shit without good looking photos of it) and I called upon my brother, who would soon found EAC with me. This created an absolute game changer of a dynamic as we could offer a one-stop solution for great photography to use for web, social, email, etc and I would be on the back end with creative design and copy which is what I always found my niche in. Once we combined forces, we were able to complete the website relatively quickly, and STILL have a ton of photos left for us to post on social accounts, email lists and more which not only saved us a ton of time, but the client money as well.

This model worked so successfully that my friend asked where we’d been all his life haha. I soon found that he wasn’t the only one looking for someone local, affordable and just to be a person about their business as they were and cared to hear the vision and get it out there for those who just didn’t have the tools to do. There’s so many places that are just amazing. but you and I both know that all it takes is a real bad website and awful photos to detract someone from coming and enjoying your products and services. People want to be wow’d and we create sites that keep attention, and function just as good as they look – all while being an advocate for our client in their spaces to hear their voices, truly hear them, and act as more of an extension of their business, rather than just another for-hire.

The thing I’m definitely most proud of is the people that work with us every day, and the relationships we’ve built with our clients who invite us to be extensions of their businesses past what they originally hire us for because of the experience that was just so great for them! I’m not here to say we haven’t had any negative experiences haha in our beginning stages while we were figuring this all out, there was definitely some hiccups, mistakes and learning curves, but from those, we’ve been able to create a solid plan going into any situation that’s made us a versatile partner for any business looking to come improve their online and active presence in the world’s community known as the internet.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

It did – EAC was simply a way for me to break away from my 9-5 job and start doing something I loved, to balance out the feelings I had toward my 9-5 of feeling just vastly misplaced and almost forced to be because the money was good, I had benefits and just felt I needed it. When I took on my first project, before I had any intentions of becoming a business, I was HOOKED. I pulled all nighters, I was taking notes of different creative projects I saw that just inspired me, always looking to change what I brought to the table and challenge myself because I wanted to just always be better than the last project. It wasn’t until my 3rd or 4th project I decided that I was so in love with what I do, that maybe I should consider a change. That was the hard part. How do you let go of a steady paycheck, benefits and predictable schedule? I had a mortgage, bills, loans, the whole 9, but it wasn’t until I sold my house I realized that it was a fresh start for me and it was time to bet on myself. So I did. Putting in my two weeks’ notice to pursue my dream was an absolute collection of emotions but I could not have been prouder of myself.

With the time I gave myself back from my 9-5, I found more opportunities to finish projects quicker, go out and meet with new clients, gained new friends in the process and people I know and trust and talk with every day, it GREW my confidence and all I needed was a little time, risk and to go out and just do it – it’s actually fulfilling, and that’s what we all look for – you just have to ask yourself is it worth chasing. If I fail at this, if I wind up needing to go back, would it be worth it at the end of your life to say, ‘I f*ck*ng did that, and no one could stop me.’ This is what that is for me, and when I look back, there’s no regret to be found.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

This one’s easy, it’s the feeling of a successful project completed, and not just completed, but that the client is just so happy with it. I legit tell all my clients, ‘this isn’t done until you love it’ because that’s how hard I grind to make sure this business not only does well, and is represented well, but known for.

That feeling cannot be substituted with anything else.

Contact Info:

• Website: eacreative.co
• Instagram: @eacreativenh
• Facebook: @eacreativenh