This is the story of how they (we) started SageRock. (As told by Sage).
Background
You should know the kind of people Sage and Rocky were then and still pretty much are today.
Rocky was a straight-A student. 4.0 GPA at Baldwin-Wallace College. (We were both English majors.)
Rocky has always been an overachiever. She is driven and determined. She got an assistant editor job with American Machinist at Penton Publishing right out of college. This was a major accomplishment. Most English majors got jobs at bars, coffee shops or cataloging books at a bookstore… none of those things nearly as romantic as you imagine.
Scoring this kind of job, as a woman in a man’s industry, with no machining experience was a testament to her capability. She’s just that kind of person.
She became an editor, traveled the world researching machining trends and eventually wrote the 20th century review of machining for the magazine. Her research and compilation of 20th century machining is a major contribution to preserving the history of American machining.
Sage has always been a dreamer, a revolutionary-type person. (I’ll stop referring to myself in the 3rd person now.)
I grew up poor, in a single mother home. I give you that point simply because I believe its a key factor in shaping who I am.
I was one of those English majors that became a bartender. I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with myself when I left college.
I went to school on a music scholarship. I play the cello.
I was just in college to study philosophers, music, art, history and read great books. That’s it. I didn’t go to get a job. I am a romantic, in that sense. I’d probably do it exactly the same way today.
I tried for many jobs and could not get hired by anyone, other than restaurants and bars.
How we chose Web marketing
SageRock was created based on one principle: Sage and Rocky wanted to be together.
We just wanted to spend as much time together as we possibly could.
We came together on Web marketing because Rocky was a top notch technical writer and I was a self-taught Internet technician.
Those skills together were ideal for Web marketing.
Because SageRock was the creation of an overachiever and a dreamer, the values of SageRock have always been focused on a higher level of expectation. We expected greatness.
SageRock wasn’t created out of getting rich quick.
SageRock wasn’t created out of manipulation.
SageRock wasn’t created out of self-interest.
SageRock was created out of love.
SageRock was invented because we wanted to be together. We wanted to do something great. We didn’t want to live the way the rest of the world was telling us we were supposed to live.
And that’s the essence.
We refused to be limited by the traditional rules of what things were “supposed to be.” We questioned all the rules of society. We wanted something better.
SageRock comes from wanting something better. We wanted to create a better place to work. We wanted to create a better kind of service business.
We just wanted to do things better.
Those values are at the heart of everything we do. We stay focused on traffic generation and increasing conversion. We aren’t everything to everybody. We do what we do best and leave the other stuff for other people.
Being better is what we push to be everyday.
And that’s the story of how SageRock came to be.
At It’s Peak
Right around 2007 SageRock was working out of the old ice and coal warehouse on North Summit Street in Akron Ohio. We had rented pretty much the entire building. There were nearly 20 employees at SageRock.
We worked with companies like Charter Communications, Jimmy John’s, and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Pretty much every large corporation in Akron and Cleveland had some connection to us. They either hired us for one-off consulting or became long-term partners with us.
And then the Great Recession came. It gutted us.
I’ve never seen such a severe restriction of business before or since. Everyone was suffering. The first thing companies look to cut is marketing. You tell your clients not to cut marketing during recessions. But the fact of the matter is: there was no one to sell to.
We drastically shrunk. When it was all said and done, we were down to 3 employees and some contractors.
But along the way we also bought a building: 15 Broad Street in Akron Ohio.
It’s nearly 16,000 square feet of turn of the 20th century goodness. The building has been a big part of our lives since we bought it in 2008.
Where We Are Today
We never went back to being a larger agency. I much preferred to do the work instead of managing the people. My favorite thing to do is to experiment with the latest technology and figure out how to make it effective for the businesses I work with. I’ve always loved that most of all.
We don’t really need much more work than we have these days. We are pretty happy. But there are definitely organizations that are very exciting for me.
I love working with Waldorf Schools, and they have become a big part of my life. I’ve worked with quite a few Waldorf Schools, AWSNA, and the Center for Anthroposophy. I love the culture of these organizations, and I love what they are doing for our young people.
I am also extremely passionate about homelessness. (That’s an entirely different story. But if you want to start going down that rabbit hole, you can read about some of the things I’ve done in that space in this New York Times Article.)
As I write this in May of 2024, I am so excited about AI that I sometimes have difficulty sleeping because I’m thinking about it so much.
I believe AI is where we are all headed. Successful businesses in the near future will be AI-focused. They will constantly ask themselves: How can AI and Machine Learning help me be more efficient? That’s where I am today.
I am probably the happiest I have ever been in my life. I have a great deal to be thankful for.
If you would ever like to talk about how technology can be used in your organization to make you money or save you money, I always love those kinds of conversations. Just email me at: [email protected]