All right, Robert, it is a pleasure to have you on our podcast today.
Super excited to dive into all things, leadership, leadership, collaboration, and some entrepreneurship tacked on there as well.
You have a very interesting journey and a great path of success.
So before we kind of get into the nitty gritty, I'd love if you could just give us a high level of who you are, what that journey's looked like, some of the exciting things you're
working on today.
And then perhaps just for clarity as well, what a digital first agency means and looks like.
Yeah, no, for sure.
And I'm excited to be here.
Who am I?
I'm still trying to figure it out, I think, is the honest answer to that question.
But I'll let you know what I figured out so far.
So my journey is an interesting one.
So let's start with where we are today, because I think that's important to sort of know.
Let's start in the present.
So presently, I am the CEO of Elite Digital.
And Elite Digital is one of the biggest digital first agencies in Canada.
We have tons of amazing people.
We work with all the biggest brands in the country, medium sized businesses, enterprise businesses, and we are their digital partner.
They come to us with their goals.
I want more leads.
I want more sales.
I need to build a community.
I want to strengthen my brand.
All of these fun things.
And they turn to the experts at Elite Digital.
And then on our team, we have gifted creative staff.
We have all of our designers.
We have gifted marketers that search marketing SEO social media programmatic email all that fun sort of stuff We have talented developers.
So once we design something and it's beautiful We actually bring it to life and make sure it works and we have an end with analysts who are measuring everything and we have
amazingly talented account managers and project managers and Really what we do is I always say we assemble the dream team where we act an extension of our clients to say hey today
You may not have an entire digital marketing department
but tomorrow you do.
And not only are they amazingly talented, but they are awesome, awesome, awesome people.
And we are so incredibly proud of our culture.
I am a fortunate lucky guy to work with such amazing people each and every day.
I feel blessed.
And I honestly, I'm so proud of the entire team at Elite.
Individually, they are amazing and together they are unstoppable.
So it is a magical, magical thing.
And this is now let's go back in time.
This is our 22nd year doing this.
So I have been doing this now for the better part
of over two decades, which is wild and crazy and mind-blowing to me, because I actually started this company when I was in high school.
Many moons ago, long ago, goofy teenage Rob in his parents' basement with braces and all didn't really know what he was doing, but I started this company back then and I was a
student by day, a high school student first, then university student by day, and entrepreneur by night, which was a real interesting
challenge to do.
But I've been doing this for a very, very, very long time and over the years it's been quite a journey.
I'd like to think I've learned a lot and evolved a lot since that goofy teenager in his parents basement.
But it's been a wild ride filled with ups and downs and twists and turns.
But I love it as much now as I did back then.
And I always say everything I do, every failure I've had is a learning opportunity.
And I have done lots of learning over the past 22 years that have really sort of set us up for where we are now.
When I think about the journey, we've been on the list of the fastest growing companies in the country three times now.
So Canada feels like a big place.
So from starting from a single guy in his parents' basement with nothing but a dream to now being one of the top rated, most highly respected digital first agencies is rather
exciting.
no kidding.
mean, congratulations and the enthusiasm is oozing out of your pores.
So I can tell that, you it feels like you just started it yesterday.
And that's something that's truly exciting to see a founder, a CEO who started something decades ago now carrying through that exact same enthusiasm.
So kudos for obviously all the success, but I can see why you're successful based on the energy that you bring to the business every single day.
And that's.
Thanks.
You know what?
I always say to any entrepreneur, I think you have to love what you do.
I think it is very difficult to get out of bed in the morning and keep trying.
And again, I don't think any of this is easy.
If there's an entrepreneur out there who says this is easy, I want to talk to them and know their secret.
But I think you have to love it because I think when you have that passion, it's easy to keep going.
It's easy to know that failure is not an option.
It's easy to look at an immeasurable challenge in front of you and say, we're going to find a solution.
So I do love it now.
And honestly, being able to work with such a
amazing people at Elite Digital makes every day just an absolute joy.
that adds to the fun in such dramatic ways.
But you did ask before, what does digital first mean?
So I don't want to leave that unanswered.
I always say we're digital first, we're not digital only.
What does that mean?
It means as a marketing agency, we try to take a digital lens on things first.
So if you go back in time, it used to be brands, small businesses, medium businesses, enterprises would all sort of plan their marketing strategy and then say, we should do
digital.
Maybe digital.
digital matters.
And as we all know, digital today can't be an afterthought.
Coming out of COVID many years ago, that digitally transformed the world.
Everybody's online now, right?
No one is like running for the yellow pages to find what they're looking for.
So we know we live in a digital first society.
So being a digital first agency means we look at a client's goals.
We don't ask them, what do you want to do in the digital landscape?
We say, what are your goals?
Where do you want to be?
What does success look like?
And then across our
army of amazing subject matter experts that really span the entire digital ecosystem, we could say, this is where you are, and this is where you want to get to, here's your path
to victory, and here's all the things we're going to do to make that happen.
And a lot of times our clients don't even know what's on the menu.
They didn't know that was possible.
And that's where we really have this partnership-centric approach, where we say, just tell us where you want to be.
Tell us your goals.
And we are going to stand with you there and march forward, doing all sorts of really cool and effective things that are going to mobilize your
audience utilizing literally every digital channel possible.
Thank you for answering that because you I think especially as someone who grew up in the era of Yellow Pages and now only uses them as like a booster seat when I need to see
overheads, it's, it is quite a transition.
A lot has changed and a lot has changed in that space and I'm sure continues to evolve, including for yourself.
And I want to, I want to turn internally for a minute and go back to Young Rob in the garage, in the basement, as you mentioned.
You had a big dream, as you said, you had a vision and now 22 years later, has that vision shifted or iterated?
If so, in what way?
And what have been some of the biggest challenges you've overcome, especially as the, you know, our world has changed so much in the past five years, let alone 22 years.
So what's that done to your vision and to the kind of trajectory of the company?
Yeah, so I think what's interesting about that is it changes all the time.
mean, imagine, you know, the digital landscape changed right now while we're having this conversation.
you know, could jump back in time.
I was featured in a documentary about the emerging social media industry because we created a Facebook page for a brand.
And like, if you think today, Rob, you were in a documentary because you created a Facebook page for a brand.
Like, we do that now.
Like, that's not newsworthy now.
Well, when social media was new, which dates me and I feel old saying that, this was groundbreaking stuff.
So I have seen
an evolution in dramatic ways.
But I think at the heart of it, my vision was always I wanted to run an organization and company that I could be so incredibly proud of.
And that really is an overarching statement that through all the phases we've gone through has been this sort of consistent theme, even as we've adapted and pivoted, because growing
up, I spent a lot of time, all my summers, I spent at different camps, day camps, overnight camps.
And I always loved that it was like this community that
materialized where everybody was there and even when I was staff, you know, we had a job we were taking care of the kids but this amazing community materialized where everybody
was in on it and everybody was having fun.
We were doing good things.
The kids were having fun, but everybody was sort of in on this community vibe where we all knew we were part of something that was special and I always knew as I created a company
whether we were small or big or as we've grown I wanted to make sure we had that same feeling of community.
So we call ourselves the elite family and we don't try to be like everybody else.
want to have more fun than everybody.
We care about each other more.
We put our people first.
So I always wanted to run this company where if you asked my staff, do you like working here?
They would say, I don't just like it.
I love it.
And that's really, really important because I believe if people love their environment and their colleagues and their coworkers, their culture, it's going to lead to better work.
And I have 20 years of evidence that that holds true.
So I've always sort of had that overarching theory of I want to have a company that we could all be proud of.
everybody who's part of it loves it.
And even to this day, there's people I'll see who worked for me years ago and they'll still talk about how being part of the elite family, you know, impacted their lives and
changed the trajectory of their career.
And if I could be in a spot where I'm positively impacting the lives of the people around me, that to me is something really special that counts for a lot in my books.
So that matters a lot.
But over the years, we've morphed and adapted every which way because when I first started out, we were really focused on email marketing.
We were, I created the first cloud-based email marketing software in Canada and email was new at the time.
Companies weren't sending newsletters.
So we did email and I had the idea in my mind, we're going to be the best at email, but we're only going to do email.
And our clients would call us and say, Hey, I love what you're doing for me in email marketing and my newsletter.
Can you do my website?
And we said, no, we just do email.
Can you manage my Google ads?
No, we just do email.
And then one day I woke up and I said, why do we keep saying no?
We have amazingly talented people.
have all these skills.
Why are we saying no?
Let's try something different.
What if we said yes?
What if we said yes to everything?
If someone calls us and they said can you do it?
We're gonna say yes, and we're gonna figure out how to do it.
Now I'll be honest, this got me in trouble some of the times, right?
I would go back to the office and be like, hey team, we now do this and they would look at me like, my god Rob, why would you say yes?
But-
It's only the first time you've done something the first time.
So we have a real sort of learning focus at Elite, right?
So we would say, yes, we could do that.
We'd figure out how to do it.
We'd really strategize.
We'd work together.
Again, there's no obstacle we can't overcome.
And we would get good at it.
And over many years, when you say yes to enough things, suddenly now I sit back and I go, holy smokes, the amount of things that we are really, really, really great at.
And we set the bar very high.
That's the brand of Elite, right?
Anyone can be average.
That's not who we are.
But you say yes to enough things and you're critical about what you do.
We post game everything we do and we ask ourselves, how can we be better?
And I always say to my entire team, if we're standing still, we're falling behind.
So we're always being critical.
Even if we think we're great, how can we be greater?
And that's a really big part of our culture.
But when you have that attitude, you build one website, how can we be better?
A second, a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth.
By this point, fast forward all these years, we've gotten so good at what we do because we never stop asking how we can be
better.
I kind of treat it like golf, like we're always playing against ourselves.
I want to have a better score the next round I go out.
So my entire team knows how can we be better.
Core to our philosophy, our strategic goal is always rooted in leveling up, leveling up as individuals, as teams, and as an organization.
And that constantly keeps us moving forward.
fantastic.
Fantastic.
And it's exciting.
I'm sure your team is, they're excited by the work.
and you celebrate along the way, which I love too, because I think where teams can get kind of bottlenecked is that 1 % better, that 1 % better.
And some people are saying like, for the love of all that is good, is this not good enough?
But if that's the lens you're looking through is to become experts and you, it sounds like you attract and or seek out folks who have that mindset already.
So
Talk to me a little bit about how you find the people that are on your team, right?
I mean, you've already gushed over them, which I love to hear.
It means that you've got such a core group.
How do you find them and where do you find them?
And what's some of your process to make sure that they'll fit that culture and they're aligned with what you're striving for?
No, absolutely.
And it's funny, you know, I hear that sort of 1 % better and I always say, you know, there's an expression, practice makes perfect.
And we say practice makes progress.
And we think that's really important because while it is about getting better, it's not about trying to achieve some, you know, vision that we can achieve.
It's about just trying to get better.
And I think fundamentally at their core, everybody wants to get better.
All of my staff love learning.
So you asked a really great question.
And again, I'm so proud of our culture and it's so core to who we are in our DNA.
And when we're looking for people,
We don't just look at their experience where you went to school where you worked Okay, equally as important to us is the vibe check.
Okay.
Are you going to fit in well with our culture?
Are you going to add to our culture?
Are you going to make us better?
There are many things I can teach people I was a professor for many years as well I taught I taught at Seneca for many years so I could teach people a lot of things What I can't do
is I can't teach you to be a good person.
I can't teach you to care for the person
I can't teach you how to have good work ethic and try harder.
Those are things that you either have or you don't.
And when we are hiring at Elite, that is the intangible quality we are looking for.
Yes, we will look at your resume, and your good resume may get you an interview.
It might.
But when we go to that interview, equally as important to how are your technical skills is are you going to fit in well with the team, right?
I use a lot of sports analogies, and I always say there's some
players, know, in basketball that step onto the court and as soon as they're on the court, all the players around them also get better.
That's the person we're looking for.
We're looking for the person who steps on the court and makes their teammates better, where they bring a lot to the table, but the team overall gets stronger.
And we have an amazing person who manages our HR, the team themselves, we do group interviews, everyone's in on it.
And we really try to cherry pick those people that bring the right skills to the table, but also
bring the right attitude and vibe to the table and oftentimes when I'm talking to people about sort of the interviews they were in, I'll first say, know, how did they do on the
elite vibe check?
Because they're not good for the vibe, but they're really talented.
That's not the person we're looking for.
Nothing against them.
They may be super talented.
They may be a great fit for someone else, but that's not what we're looking for because when you walk into the offices at elite, either virtually or in person, you feel that
right away.
And I love it because we've had new
people start lately and I'll check in with them, right?
And I'll say, how is your elite experience going so far?
And when that feedback is, it's amazing, I can't believe how welcoming everyone is, the outpouring of support is unbelievable, everybody wants to help me, that to me is how I
know we're on the right track because that is super special.
I love that, the vibe check.
I think it's so important to qualify that.
And you did it when you were explaining how you find these folks.
It's not that we want them to fit in, but how can they, what do they bring that's kind of their unique flavor as well that they can add to make us better.
And so I think there's such a...
having that distinction between, you're not just coming in everybody's bobble heading because we're the exact same, but how do we take you as a unique individual?
How do you align with what we're doing and make sure that one, you're going to feel welcome in this space and two, that we want you here every day because yeah, to your
point, you can be so technically skilled.
And I'm not sure if you've heard this story.
I can't remember who it was.
So I know somebody out there knows the person that did this, but there was a...
a company and they were looking to hire and they would go, part of the hiring process was that they would go and pick up the candidates in a car.
And after every single interview, the hiring manager or the CEO would ask the driver, how did this person treat you?
Right?
And if it was, if it was poorly, they just didn't get a call back.
If they were kind, then there's more to, there's more discussion here.
But I think it's so important.
It's just those, those things, those fundamental, like, do you show up with
with kindness, can you care for the person next to you?
And in the environment you've created and obviously why you're leaders in your industry, it means that you have to have that level of consideration for the rest of the team.
And it sounds like there's a lot of collaboration that happens within your environment.
Yeah, so everything we do at Elite is teamwork, right?
I don't look for one person who's good at 10 things.
I want 10 people who are each the best of the best of the one thing they do.
Because when you assemble those people in a room, when you get those people sitting around a table, it's unstoppable, right?
When we, like I am to this day, and again, I remember a time when it was like me and a few others.
So I have that perspective.
But when I see what the team at Elite Digital can do, when I see the teamwork of them facing a client challenge and really thinking outside the box and looking at every way and
Building off each other right?
I love that we know we said one of the things we say around the office is push each other with love So don't attack someone's idea, but push them to be better challenge them even
more and when everybody's in on that when everyone's like I'm gonna push you and you're gonna push me, but it's all for the greater good right I want to be better even me as a
CEO I have lots of practice of doing this and every day I still want to be 1 % better I still want that right one of my catchphrases around the office is be better tomorrow than
you were yesterday, and that's about just constantly
growth and I think that's super important, but when you create this culture that is both welcoming and diverse and we value different perspectives, I don't want to have a bunch of
people on the team that think like me.
I actually want a bunch of people on the team who don't think like me.
That's more important.
I need people who are going to think in different ways because that breeds fresh ideas and ideas breed ideas.
So we absolutely love that.
And I think when people embrace diversity and they embrace the fact that everyone's going to have their own unique
perspective and there is no right or wrong but it's about understanding all the perspectives and then figuring out what is the best way forward but creating an
environment that is welcoming to that, right?
We tell everybody there's no such thing as a bad question.
Show up and ask bad questions.
The only bad question is the question not asked because I want to create a culture of if you don't know something, maybe in another organization it would be, oh, I'm going to be
embarrassed to ask or I'll just put my head down and maybe when no one will notice.
I think that's terrible.
I want to have a culture where people raise their hand and say,
I have no idea about this and I want everybody else to jump and say I can't wait to help that person and that makes us so special and I get to watch that happen literally each and
every day and it's just awesome to watch.
That's incredible.
And I think to your point, there are so many environments where people are fearful or scared.
And some of it is due to external influences.
Some are the narratives they tell themselves.
Some is experience, right?
But knowing that new folks can walk into your organization and immediately feel welcomed and helped, I'm sure that breaks down a lot of those potential, the narratives that some
of the newer people feel.
in their minds of, don't know if I can say this.
I'm not sure if I can ask.
And one other thing I really want to highlight that I respect is that people have a line to you.
remind me, how big is your company right now?
How many people?
we probably have about 70 people now, I would say, somewhere around there, including like the freelancers and part-time and everything else.
And it varies and we're growing and we're hiring right now.
But what I think is important is I do, I have an open door policy or a virtual open door policy, depending on the day.
And I think that's important.
I think there's some organizations where the CEO sits off in their ivory tower and does whatever they do.
That's not who I am and it's not who I want to be.
Remember, I built this company doing this work.
So when I started the company,
I didn't have any outside funding.
So if I needed a skill, I couldn't hire for that skill.
I had to learn that skill.
So I learned Photoshop.
I learned computer programming.
I learned QuickBooks.
I learned SEO.
I learned all these things.
And now fast forward 20 years, I could have really meaningful conversations with all of my staff across all the departments, and they're all better than I am today, and I'm the
first one to admit that.
But I know just enough to be dangerous that I can have a meaningful conversation with them because I understand the language that they're speaking.
And the fact that I have this open door policy, they know I'm easy, they know I'm down to earth.
They know I want to know what's going on because my only desire is to help.
That open door policy, not only by me, but all of our managers and all of our leadership team, everybody has that attitude of not, my goodness, you're a coordinator, you're so
many rungs away from me on the hierarchy, don't you dare talk to me.
Absolutely not.
I know everybody's name.
I know about them.
We celebrate, and again, I'm big on work-life balance, right?
We have staff that-
are pregnant, we're celebrating that.
We have staff that just got engaged, we're celebrating that.
We celebrate birthdays.
We do all of these things because we also realize there's more to work than, there's more to your life than just work.
People spend a lot of time working and I get it and I want them to love that time, but I also want to be an organization that realizes there's so much more going on in this
person's world than just work.
And you know what?
We're also part of that.
The fact that we have people who have formed bonds and friendships at work where they get together on the weekend, that's not a work meeting.
They're getting together on the weekends socially.
That means this thing that I built is forging new relationships, and that's amazing.
the fulfillment that comes from that and just knowing that, you know, I think that's one of the things that is a big miss in organizations these days.
work life, as much as we say there's a distinction between the two, it ebbs and flows.
We feel certain ways based on the morning we've had.
We feel certain ways at home based on the day we've had at work.
And it's human nature, right?
It's virtually impossible to completely compartmentalize those things unless you're watching, what is it?
Severance?
That show where, yeah, you have two personnels.
Only then, and I hope and pray that we never actually reach that in reality, but who knows?
So with that being said, you've got this awesome culture where people love getting together.
You've created this, you had this vision so many years ago, and as you said, know, bootstrapping it that you had to go out and learn all these skills, which means that I'm
making an assumption here, so correct me if I'm wrong, but somewhere along the path, you've probably had some pretty impactful mentors that also helped guide, influence,
shape, direct, or really just like be a shoulder.
to or a sounding board, I should say.
So is there any or are there any in particular that you can identify at certain points in your journey where you say this person was instrumental in helping me do X, Y or Z?
Yeah, absolutely.
So my father has been a huge mentor for me and he's an entrepreneur as well.
So I got to grow up seeing sort of entrepreneurship close hand.
And he's been my biggest supporter from day zero.
And the biggest thing he always told me was, his biggest words of wisdom was that failures are learning opportunities.
And I think especially when I was younger, I would do different things.
And again, I was young.
I wish I knew what I knew now.
If I can go back and talk to Pastor Rob, all the things I would say, but...
You know, I made so many mistakes and I think it's easy to make those mistakes, get knocked down and not get back up.
I think failing is easy.
I think giving up is easy.
But because my father would take these failures when I would be sort of so beat up that this thing happened and he would just sort of say, what did you learn from this?
Right?
How was this going to make you better?
Because he was always saying that and him and my mother and my whole family, endless cheerleaders.
But because every failure was a learning opportunity, which is still how I treat it today.
right?
it suddenly made it seem like the failures weren't so bad, they were getting me better for the next go around.
And every time I would stumble and fall on my entrepreneurial journey, of which there were many times, and there will be many more times to come, when those failures aren't failures
but they're learning opportunities, it reframes the way you see it.
And suddenly, you know, yeah, it didn't go my way, but what could I have done differently?
And what could I learn from that?
And even when I do things now, I can almost trace back to, here's how I'm gonna react to the situation because of all the things
I've learned in the past and I think having that support structure and I think sort of having my family being my biggest cheerleader and biggest supporter made a huge
difference.
The other part of this too is I my wife I started dating her when I was 16.
Okay.
And that's a very very very long time ago.
I've been with her consistently since I was 16 but she is always pushing me to be the best version of myself and she is big on having a growth mindset and she endlessly supports me.
But the fact that she since I've
16, which is many years ago, since I've been 16, she's been pushing me to be the best version I can be of me.
That sort of led to this idea of constant growth and constant evolution, which is why I love learning and I love improving and I love all that.
So I think the way I push others to be better and again, with love and respect and admiration, but we can all better.
I feel like
my family and my wife and everyone has been pushing me that same way.
So do I think I have figured out this CEO game?
Absolutely not.
I haven't and I'm not sure I ever will, but my goal is to be better tomorrow than I was yesterday and I never want to stop doing that.
fantastic.
Those are two, well, two, mean, and your father, your wife, and then your family as well.
Those are driving forces that you are very fortunate to have.
And I think that that's something that really, really helps shape us as people.
And when you have cheerleaders like that who are willing to accept, let's say, 22 years down the road, a different version perhaps of yourself, that's really, really special.
also big shout out to your wife for
for seeing that evolution and for encouraging it.
I think that's one thing that we miss in our personal relationships is that if I'm growing, you might be growing as well, but just know that I might be a different person in
20, 30, 80 years from now as we're walking aged on a beach somewhere.
Well, it's wild and crazy.
our oldest daughter is 12.
She's 12 going on 18, but she's 12.
So she's four years younger than when I met my wife and started dating her, which is like mind-blowingly crazy when we think about it.
yeah, and that is, I mean, I don't have kids yet and I can just imagine seeing them grow.
do have...
I have three and having to be entrepreneur and father to three wild and crazy kids is an interesting thing.
No kidding.
Do you think there any of them have the entrepreneurial zest?
You know what?
I think they see, they see me, they see my wife, the way we operate, and I think they pick up on that.
When they lift their heads up from their iPads, I should say, but when they occasionally aren't flipping through endless YouTube shorts or TikTok, and they see what we're doing, I
would like to believe we're imparting that on them.
But I'll tell you, the same way I approach with my children about having a growth mindset and learning and growing and failures or learning opportunities, the same thing I do with
my staff, it's really the same thing I do with my children.
It's funny how much they parallel each other.
Because I want what's best for my team at work, I want what's best for my children, and I'm willing to give 110 % to all of those people to make that happen.
So it's actually interesting how much it parallels one another.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Again, going back to that kind of blurred line of work and life and they're ultimately mirrors for one another when you think about it.
Right.
yes.
some of our staff said, March break is coming up.
I don't know if I'll be able to come into the office because my kids are going to be home.
And we heard that.
And our team was like, well, what if we put that on Ted?
What if we said this is March break, bring your kids to the office day and the older kids will be like camp counselors and we'll sort of run programming for the kids.
And instead of you figuring out what to do with them at home, why don't we bring all the kids in?
We'll get to meet everybody's family.
The kids will have a blast.
We'll do fun things during the day.
So when I look at sort of the company
we are and I'm like, well you could stay home and have a childcare issue or you could bring your kids to work and we could have fun all day with them.
Again, those lines get blurred between work and family and I think we could make that work and have some fun along the way and I think the staff sort of love that immersion into I
want to meet your kids and I want to see the mini yous that you deal with at home.
So I think our approach to that is also pretty unique and fun.
I've never heard that before and I love that.
I mean, that's one of the things that we hear often is childcare, can't come in.
Oh my gosh, there's a PA day.
All of a sudden everybody's flipped to virtual.
What do I do with my kids at home?
Now they don't have to worry about entertaining them either because they've got friends that they can make.
I think that's super creative.
Yeah.
again I have three kids the other people you know the other people on our leadership team they all have kids so when someone says my kids school called I have to go pick them up
that's the priority like I want that to be the priority oh you have a doctor's appointment for your kid yes that is the priority we will arrange around that because I ask people to
give a hundred and ten percent to elite I really do but in turn we give a hundred and ten percent back and if something is important to them or their family it's equally as
important to us
And I think the fact that we recognize that and people realize that we recognize that makes such a dramatic difference.
builds loyalty, so much loyalty.
Where else do you get that?
I genuinely believe that that is not the norm, that you are the exception.
And we wanna make that the exception.
And that's why I think you sharing your story and your philosophies here will help to spark that creativity in other leaders who say, how do we build that loyalty?
How do we build that trust?
And how do we really show our team members that we care?
And so.
Absolutely, and I think being normal sounds boring, and I don't want that to be us.
I think being different is important.
think being unique is important, but I think also understanding our values, right?
We are a family first company.
Like we really do practice what we preach and that's really important to us.
And we're there for each other.
Like I've done this for a long time.
I've seen wild and crazy things happen to people.
And I think when something to one of our employees happens and it's a crazy thing in their life and their work family is endlessly supporting them, not saying why didn't you answer
that email, but endlessly supporting them, what can I do to help you?
When your work family is that special and cares that much about you, you feel that every single day.
Right, yeah.
And you know that it's not, there isn't that stress.
You can deal with what you need to deal with.
Everything else is taken care of, which means you're coming back refreshed.
If one of my staff had to go and deal with some sort of family emergency, I will jump in and cover for them so they can go and focus on family.
I am the CEO and I will jump into any job in any role I can because the important thing to me is they could go be the best mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, whatever
it is.
That's what's important and everybody in our organization understands that and I think that makes a big difference and it changes the way you have a relationship with work
because you know that your workplace cares about
you on a different level that isn't just the hours you're logging or the work that you're producing and I think that makes everybody try a little bit harder and when everybody's in
on it when you look to your left and look to your right and every person there is feeling the same way the overall dynamic is unreal.
means it's not transactional anymore.
It's, yeah, I love that.
I love that.
Everybody is, I wanna say zooming.
I was trying to find the correct adjective to use because I don't think there's one that is big enough that really encapsulates what your team is doing and how they're working
towards their goals.
So I think that you have created a truly unique and.
fantastic culture.
I'm so grateful that you've taken the time to share your philosophies.
I know you've shared a lot of mantras as well, some of the things that you say and that you use to motivate your team.
So two wrap up questions for you.
And I would imagine they piggyback off of one another.
The first is, is there one mantra that you've consistently, that you would say is like your number one that come hell or high water is what you hold on to?
And the second is in thinking about some folks who are either looking to become the most incredible individual contributors or perhaps looking to take their own entrepreneurial
journey based on your experience, what is one piece of advice that you would give them?
And feel free to tap into Young Rob there as well.
Yeah, my goodness, would young Rob say?
I think, I I have so many, my team would laugh.
I have so many catchphrases that are, at our holiday party last year, behind my back, I didn't know they did it, but I give a speech at our holiday party and without me knowing,
they were all playing Rob bingo.
So they all had a bingo card with different like Rob-isms that I say and like.
as I'm giving my lovely, beautiful, heartfelt year-end speech, people are cheering as I say certain things.
I say, go big or go home, and people start erupting, and I'm like, why are they all cheering that I said this?
Meanwhile, they're all trying to play this Rob is in bingo card.
And honestly, the fact that our culture allowed for that, and I this was amazing.
So I do a lot of catchphrases.
I would say fundamentally, always be learning and always be growing is really important.
I think that ongoing growth and that growth mindset really matters.
And especially in the digital world where we live,
something new every day.
And listen, there's some kid in their basement today who wants to start what we're starting.
And if we're not fired up and trying to always stay ahead of the curve, we're going to fall behind.
So I think the learning is important.
But I think to answer your other question, my one piece of advice would actually, again, come back to failures or learning opportunities.
think being an entrepreneur is very difficult.
If it was easy, everybody would do it.
Again, also on the raw bingo card.
But I think it's a very
true statement that this is challenging and it's easier to fail than it is to be successful.
And I think you have to be flexible and adaptable and love what you're doing, but know that it's not a walk in the park.
It's not going to be easy.
You are going to get knocked down.
There are going to be days when you think
Can I even go on?
And I think if failure's not an option and you're just determined to push forward, then you do.
I think when failure's an option, it's easy to throw in the towel, it's gonna be easier if I just go get a job somewhere else, and it might be, but if you're really gonna have that
entrepreneurial mindset, you have to be all in, you have to go for it, and you have to know that failing is simply part of the game, and you can't be upset about it, you have to
embrace it and ask how it can lead you to be a better version of you.
and that is a beautiful mic drop.
I think you have given us so much to think about.
The audience, whether you're a middle manager, whether you're a senior leader and a CEO like yourself, whether you're also an entrepreneur like yourself, I think everything that
you have shared is sage wisdom and people can take action on it as well.
So I just want to thank you so much for...
bringing such amazing energy to this conversation and sharing all of your insights with me today.
And with that, if people want to follow along with your journey, see all the amazing, cool, innovative things you're doing, where can they do so?
Yeah, absolutely.
No, and again, thank you for having me.
This was great.
I love this.
So we are Elite Digital.
The website is EliteDigitalAgency.com.
Check it out.
You can follow our socials.
You can get a glimpse at our culture by checking us out on Instagram.
But EliteDigitalAgency.com is where you're going to want to go to see the wonderful world of Elite Digital.
Well, thank you again, Rob, and look forward to following along myself.
Thanks so much.