I’ve been fortunate to be part of this company—we now call Current360—for more than half my life. In early 1986, 18 months into these 30 years, I came here to be a copywriter. Writing ads and producing commercials for all of our (one) broadcast clients was what I wanted to do since early in college. There were only four of us, so Rick Schardein and I wore a lot of hats—new business, client service, copy, media, print buying, and pretty much everything an agency did back then except graphic design. It was a great time. I worked with a colorful assortment of clients and media partners (too many and too colorful to name them all here), and I loved coming to work every day, which was rare!
Ten years into it, we were blessed with a new opportunity. In a 90-day span, two clients—who represented 70% of our revenue—sold their businesses, and the new owners took their advertising elsewhere. So, as we put it, we did such a good job for these folks that we were about to go broke. That’s when Lisa Schardein joined us (though looking back I can’t imagine why she thought it was a good idea). That summer, the three of us came out of our first-ever strategic planning meeting with one simple goal: to still be in business in January.
Current makes the Inc. Magazine Fast 500
I have long been impressed with Rick’s ability to overcome adversity by sheer force of will. And that’s just what we did. By 2000, we made Inc Magazine’s list of the 500 fastest growing privately held businesses in the country. Both of the clients who left came back in some form or another, and we’re still working with one of them today: Tumbleweed Tex Mex Grill & Margarita Bar.
Since then, we moved to our current offices in historic Bakery Square, gained a South Florida office and became a 100% employee-owned company where everyone has some skin in the game on every project for every client. We assembled a collection of 40 communication professionals—each specialist in their own discipline—to encircle our clients with 360 degrees of marketing capabilities.
Today, Current360 is a living entity that is not tied to any one person. Not Rick, not Lisa and certainly not me. Everything that has transpired in the past 30 years is simply a prelude to what comes next in the wild, wild west that is today’s marketing industry.
I can’t wait to see what’s to come. And whatever it is, I know I’ll love coming to work every morning to figure out how to make it work for our clients!
