We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Roby Fitzhenry. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Roby below.

Hi Roby, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I’ve always loved the business side of design. Though I started out as a trained graphic designer, I quickly grew to become fascinated with everything related to building a brand. Developing names, telling stories, creating strategies, just figuring out what each company needs to succeed. When Covid-19 hit, I was just on the other side of downsizing the company, refocusing what we’re up to, and transitioning from Houston to Austin.

Somehow, right in the middle of the chaos, my life’s work became clear: To help make people and their ideas successful. To help all types of people find joy in being their own boss and going for it, whatever “it” might be. I had previous ideas like Best Idea Wins™ or Do Good Work, but they always felt like they were about the process or an internal basic goal.

As soon as that mission became crystal clear, I rebuilt my 15 year old company from the ground up. I brought on a partner who could create things I couldn’t yet I knew our clients needed. We redesigned our brand, told a new story, and then brought on another talented team member. The result became a tight, 3-person team that can handle anything for our clients. The team was built to truly deliver on that mission. From there, we redesigned every process, asked existing clients about our change in approach, and our now laser-focused on helping people succeed.

At the end of the day, we get to see our work as service to others instead of graphics for sale or hourly work. Becoming true partners in people’s success makes the work so much more fulfilling. At the end of the day, we find more joy in our craft because we found purpose in it first.

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

I’m the founder and Creative Director of Always Creative, a brand studio for startups and entrepreneurs. Since 2007, we’ve helped hundreds of people and companies start and/or scale businesses of all types.

We specifically focus on brand strategy, brand identity, and product design. We see everything as an extension of a brand, thus leading any project of any size through our Strategy First™ approach. This ensures what we make is just as smart as it is beautiful.

I got my start in the industry as a teenager actively in love with BMX. When not on my bike, I’d invent companies complete with names, logos, unique product offerings, you name it. I had no idea this was a subset of design until my senior year in high school. After designing merch and album art for my musician friends, it became instantly clear what I was supposed to do with my life. After college I worked for Texas A&M for a couple of years until I left to start Always Creative with a co-worker. It’s crazy to think that was 15 years ago.

Nowadays, I lead strategy and content plus day-to-day ops. Always Creative has a reputation for always being ready to solve a problem. My favorite part is that our team of 3 senior creatives enables us to do absolutely everything for a client, ensuring whatever we come up with can be created. We’ll name it, position it, brand it, and then design the entire product, build an amazing web experience, deploy marketing templates and automation, then lead you to and through funding. It’s just incredible to know we get to help entrepreneurs that much.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

I’ve taken an ownership stake in companies before. That has led to a revenue stream or buy-out, depending on the overall goals early on, what type of business it is, and how much value we can continue to bring to the table.

We’ve recently taken ownership in an Austin-based startup in the food and beverage space. We’re going to rebuild it from the ground up, starting with a new name and story. The goal is to 4X revenue in 24 months, thus creating a recurring revenue stream for us moving forward.

In a few months we’ll be rolling out a new type foundry and are possibly taking ownership in a menswear store.

I was previously the co-founder of Manready Mercantile. I got to help my co-founder scale the business before my exit. It was my first effort at building a side company while running Always Creative. Over the years, I’ve had a lot of ideas and experiments, some were profitable but most were not. The experiences ultimately helped me better serve my clients so none of it was without value.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

Always Creative should be dead. We’ve had some a couple bad years, horrible tax burdens early on, and then a couple of mass employee exits that almost gutted us. I had a few teammates that didn’t work out and at one time had to sell half my business in order to buy a home. It just hasn’t been easy.

At the end of the day, you need to have some grit if you’re going to run your own shop. If you see a dip coming you have to know how to get out there and get some work lined up. No one is going to do it for you.

The biggest challenge of all was keeping the business afloat in 2019. My home flooded in May which had us displaced for a while. In September, we had planned to move into the house and had our stuff in the garage to move in that week. Then the house flooded again, only way way worse. The second flood took everything we had left and resulted in my decision to move out of Houston and head to Austin. We found a place and signed a lease in December after we had a buyer lined up on our house. Then they cancelled on the day of closing. We moved to Austin with a mortage and rent due, ultimately getting to sell the house in February. Guess what happened right after? Covid-19.

The point is that sometimes your personal life will take precedent. You’ll have to put your business on life support while you get things sorted out and make it happen. 2019 was the worst sales year in a decade. 2020 ended up ok, things leveled out. 2021 became our biggest year ever as a company and 2022 has already set records. That’s what having a little grit and belief will do. Go all in or else.

Contact Info:

• Website: alwayscreative.co
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/alwayscreative
• Facebook: nahhhhhh
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alwayscreative/
• Twitter: twitter.com/robyfitzhenry