Silver Linings: The good news that came out of 2020 for me

Many of you have probably heard me talk about how 2020 was a kick in the teeth for us at MPH Agency. When the pandemic hit, everything shot down and it impacted our business - like so many others - hard. Our partners had to respond quickly, almost all of our revenue streams were put on hold or stopped all together. 

It was a scary time and I didn’t know if we would see the end of the year. I sat at my desk, overlooking the critical situation (with all our projects on hold I had some free time!) I reminded myself of something my parents taught me from a very young age - Nothing generates success better than hard work. 

So, I started to hustle. I got on the phone to paused clients and prospective clients and started talking about how we could help them through the next few weeks of pandemic chaos….cause it was only going to last a few weeks right?

Ha!

I also remembered the business adage a number of mentors have tried to pound into my head, evolve or die. 

I reached for that metaphorical file of “things I want to do but don’t have time for” and pulled out something that has been in the back of my mind since I started at MPH Agency 6 years ago:

A large number of people understand they need advocacy marketing, but don’t know what or how. So much of my work was educating people on cause marketing BEFORE I could start discussing how we can help them. 

For years I had been working on a concept of a fully contained product that could help organizations build and execute a cause marketing strategy. 

• It wasn’t a Public Affairs solution, I’m sorry but MPH Agency can’t talk to the government for or with you - just not our specialty. Although we know some great people who can!
• It wasn’t general marketing, we are not experts in building a sales strategy.
• It needed to address all possible marketing solutions, not just the ones we at MPH Agency offer.

So I pulled out my notes, old scraps of paper, pages torn from notebooks, even something scratched on the back of a Wendy’s receipt!

I started bringing it all together and building a coherent thought. Through the summer and into the winter I played the “but what about…” game with myself, refining, addressing issues, and creating detail. 

Finally this past winter we started road testing this new product with close friends and clients. The feedback was positive. We took their input and further developed the concept.

After a year of steady refining and years of the concept evolving we were so excited last week to launch STAMPS by MPH Agency. A cause marketing strategy product that provides our clients with ….

This has been our silver lining in the difficult year that was 2020. A new product that highlights the campaign and marketing experience our team at MPH Agency has. 

I can almost hear 17-year-old me’s eyes rolling all the way back to the back of his head as I say, remember what your parents teach you - those lessons will ring in your head when you need it most.