This week, we celebrate our 10th anniversary. I won’t be cliché and say it seems like just yesterday since the agency started, because, honestly, it doesn’t — at least not to me. I know it’s a common feeling, and people probably think/say that when time has passed but there haven’t been any significant events to provide the proper context. And, of course, we’ve had our share of significant events — some we reflect upon with fondness, others with sorrow. But we are thankful for exceptional associates, both past and current; longtime clients, as well as new clients; and friends old and new, including those at our parent company, Woodward Communications. Each has contributed to our growth and success. We frequently celebrate agency and client accomplishments, and we’ve also endured more difficult times.
Through it all, everyone who has been affiliated with Two Rivers Marketing over the last decade should feel a sense of pride. There’s a special spirit here, and we all helped create it.
So during our 10th anniversary, as we raise a glass together, tell stories about our first days and weeks as a company, on the sixth floor of a six-story building being renovated, and without an elevator; as we thank clients for their continued business; as we welcome new associates and think about the others who have made Two Rivers Marketing the place that it is today; as we remember the dear friends and colleagues we lost nearly four years ago, and consider their families and other close friends; as we toast with the famous Tom Dunphy saying, “If you can’t have fun, be fun,” it’ll be with bittersweet emotions. But we should all recognize that we would not have been successful without each other, our families, and our clients.
Two Rivers Marketing was founded in April 2000 by Tom Dunphy, Jarrett Cowden, and Brian Jones — and 14 charter associates — who all bought into a vision centered on taking care of associates, with the idea that clients would then be serviced well, and profits should follow. We’re now a larger company, but that vision remains. Some of the original 14 are still here, and we are proud to have most of our first, very loyal accounts. We’re as serious today as we were in April 2000 about the work we do, driven to be the best in our industry, not for our sake, but for our clients’.
We also still take time to enjoy our time together and remember what it took to get here. Most important, we’ve learned that we can still “be fun.”
Here’s to many decades more.
With unprecedented economic and complex challenges facing companies today, the common link, or hidden secret of successful companies, is a strong and well-managed corporate culture. In other words, when it comes to long-range success, it’s all about your culture!
