We recently connected with David Sears and have shared our conversation below.

David, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Along with taking care of clients, taking care of our team is one of the most important things we can do as leaders. Looking back on your journey, did you have a boss that was really great? Maybe you can tell us about that boss and what made them a wonderful person to work for?

For approx. 10 years starting in 1980, I worked for Nibble magazine (for the Apple II computer). For a few years there, I reported to Diane Carhart (she later took the role of COO at Stonyfield Farms). I’ll never forget the day Diane surprisingly asked me to oversee a huge, year-long project that would impact the whole company. I hesitated to accept as there was a huge downside (if I failed), but Diane was super encouraging and supportive, and wouldn’t accept no as an answer. Ultimately, Diane forced me to uncover the confidence needed succeed, and it not only changed my perspective of what I was capable, but also the trajectory of my life. Thank you (again) Diane.

David, 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?

The 11 years of consistent personal growth I experienced at Nibble magazine and IDG gave me invaluable, hands-on lessons about entrepreneurship, business management, marketing, finance, and operations. When I look back, it’s clear that Nibble was an incubator for future entrepreneurs – Mike Harvey, the CEO (later CEO of Texas Instruments Software), was a brilliant leader who was never too busy to share his incredibly deep knowledge with his team.

After leaving IDG – during the tumultuous recession in the early 1990’s – there were very few jobs to be found anywhere, yet I had a 6 month old son to feed, and a house I preferred not to be repossessed. As a backup to finding a new job, I looked at launching my own business – evaluating my existing skill sets to see how I could create the most value for others. It quickly became apparent that my high level of expertise in printing, marketing operations, and purchasing was very valuable to many companies, and I began to help a wide array of organizations achieve their near impossible deadlines while typically saving money in the process.

Ultimately, Branded.com was to help marketers facing tight deadlines That perhaps sounds cliche, but I don’t know how to explain the problem we’re solving better than that. And over the past 32 years, I estimate that ~75-80% of our projects are last-minute, and that includes printing, signage, branded apparel, promotional items, and events materials.

I understand why most other firms have long lead times on printing and marketing materials – it’s really hard to consistently deliver on super tight deadlines in a high pressure environment – but there is a huge gap in the market for speed, and it’s simply not realistic to expect your clients to always know what they need weeks ahead. Marketers are under an unbelievable amount of pressure to continually achieve more with less, and consequently what they need more than anything else is a partner who helps them look good to their leadership team.

We put ourselves in our client’s shoes, we don’t ask them to change to work with us, and we adapt, solve, and deliver without excuses.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

While doing outreach calls to meet prospective new clients, I called on a division of publishing giant IDG in charge of publishing a weekly internal newsletter. The newsletter had to be designed, printed, and mailed in 4 business days with zero room for error. After meeting with the editorial staff responsible for this weekly super hero effort, I designed a solution to dramatically improve the process, give them the control they wanted, and save them time and money as well.

But, had I known – at the time of that meeting – how truly entrenched the current printer was (they had been printing the newsletter for almost 20 straight years) I very well might not have had the courage to propose a new solution. Thankfully, I was blissfully unaware, which kept me focused on creating a solution that achieved not only every goal our new clients had for themselves, but made their lives far easier in the process. Since then, I have experienced multiple situations where blissful ignorance can indeed be an advantage – as it’s far more productive to focus solely on finding creative ways to solve your client’s problem than be distracted by why someone else hasn’t.

For this client, we:
– provided training for our customer’s editorial staff – for free – on desktop publishing software (which their existing supplier had never offered before), so they could have greater control and ownership over the final product
– provided photo scanners, software, and training to dramatically improve the quality of the photos in the newsletter
– designed and implemented a (this is pre-internet) technology solution to enable the transfer of large print files, which eliminated the need for editorial staff to wait around for / meet a driver to pick up their files
– shortened the production cycle by 25%, improved the print quality, and removed all the previous obstacles our client had been experiencing

Everything went exactly according to plan, and we very successfully printed and mailed our client’s weekly newsletter for almost 20 years until they stopped printing it and converted it into an e-publication only.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I founded my company for just $100 (the cost to install a telephone line into a commercial business location), which was a huge chunk of the $1,400 I had to my name at the time. My mortgage of $1,600 was due in 3 weeks, and to this day I have no idea how I made that payment (or the next few after that).

I didn’t have money for office space either, so I bartered marketing consulting in exchange for a cube within an office at a local business. For my now-landlord, I wrote copy, designed ads, and placed them in local newspapers. I did the same for a local business next door, but I charged for that so I could put food on the table for my wife and 6 month old son.

I also met with the owners of a newly-launched print shop, and they ultimately agreed to print my business cards, letterhead, and envelopes for no money upfront – as long as I agreed to pay them within 6 months, which I did.

With a young child who needed food and diapers and the high risk of losing my house and car, I had a massive fire under me that literally propelled me into action. I worked nearly non-stop for the next few years, often working up to 80 hours a week to expand and serve my growing customer base.

Six years later, we were amazed and grateful to be recognized by Inc. Magazine as # 181 on their list of the fastest growing privately-owned businesses in the United States.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://branded.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-sears-487847/