September 13, 2024 • 21 mins
A mentor, father, husband and visionary, Jarrod has held leadership roles with several non-profit and public-private initiatives in Nevada. He previously served as Co-Executive Director of the San Francisco/Silicon Valley Inc. Magazine’s Business Owners Council, was a board member for Northern Nevada Development Authority (NNDA) and an advisory board member for the Nevada Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (NCET). He’s taken the stage around the world at Destinations International’s Annual Convention, Social Media Week Bristol, eTourism, DMA West, University of Nevada – Reno, University of Nevada – Las Vegas and Truckee Meadows Community College, just to name a few.
Outside of his office in Reno, Nevada, Jarrod likes to keep his hands busy. He prides himself on being an early adopter, trying any interesting technology that comes on the scene and attending CES in Vegas just for the fun of seeing into the future (and how it can be applied to digital marketing, of course). His passion for photography has led him to new horizons–Iceland, in the near future–and led him to form a group for agency photogs throughout the country.
Want to know more about Jarrod? Pull up a handmade chair, grab a glass of homemade beer, wine or mead, and come prepared to share a story of your own.
Outside of his office in Reno, Nevada, Jarrod likes to keep his hands busy. He prides himself on being an early adopter, trying any interesting technology that comes on the scene and attending CES in Vegas just for the fun of seeing into the future (and how it can be applied to digital marketing, of course). His passion for photography has led him to new horizons–Iceland, in the near future–and led him to form a group for agency photogs throughout the country.
Want to know more about Jarrod? Pull up a handmade chair, grab a glass of homemade beer, wine or mead, and come prepared to share a story of your own.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jared Lapiccolo is the CEO and co founder of Noble Studios,
a digital marketing agency that's been around for over two decades.
Over that time, the industry Noble Studios has served has
changed dramatically. Here's the story of how they continue to evolve,
how you build something from scratch right out of college,
what it's like working with your significant other every day,
(00:22):
and how giving back philanthropically is the key to setting
a good workplace culture. Here is CEO Jared Lapiccolo from
Noble Studios on how it all started.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
So I grew up in the small town Carson City
of Nevada. It's the state capital of Nevada, and you know,
was young, sort of entrepreneurial kid, and you know, I
just found myself really attracted to the idea of sales
and sort of serving humans, if you will, and pleasing people.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
And then I went to school in unlviing.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I graduated high school at the age of sixteen, so
a bit of an overachiever, and I was set down
she be one of the.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Youngest architects in America.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
But then then, of course you stumble into this world
of entrepreneurship, and that became the path for the next
twenty years.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
So Jared, our listening audience does. I'm a big sports guy.
So you and lv A very famous for the running
rebels and Jery Tarcinian. I'm sure you know all about
the history. But that school for a while had a
great basketball program, man, I.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Know, and trusting and I was there during that time,
so it was great we got to see it and
and us that are those the alumni. We all kind
of talk about it. Whenever we get back into Vegas.
We're like, all right, let's let's go to a game.
It's not the same. It's not the same, but but yeah,
a lot of great memories there.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
So you're we're kind of an unusual spot here. I
talked to a lot of CEOs, entrepreneurs and self starters
that have some amazing companies that they come up with,
but they did a lot of things before that. You,
on the other hand, right out of school, came up
with the idea with your wife about Noble Studios. And
I'd like to ask you first before we get into
mission statement and all the things that you do, ye
about that idea, the epiphany of coming up with this.
(01:58):
You know, you're still a young man. You obviously have
a thought about what you want to do. Tell us
how this all started up.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, So, so I was working at Paul Steelman Design Group,
it was an architecture firm as an intern. Then then
graduated and in that first year I started to kind
of rise in the ranks, you know, over there. And
one of the things I was exposed to at this
architecture firm was this concept of user centric design. But
it's effectively if you think of Disney, it's all about
you know, kind of you know, really having a brand
(02:26):
touch point across the entire sort of buyer and experience
journey that you can have. Meanwhile, my wife now the
time girlfriend Season, she was working for on Our Partners,
which was a large PR agency, and she was working
on the brand and the tagline of what happens in
Vegas stays in Vegas. So here we have a designer
me and we have a copywriter Season, and we just
(02:47):
decided we're, like, you know what, we really enjoy this
concept of you know, sort of digital architecture and building
the Internet, and with us both being world travelers.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I used to live in Italy for a year, she
lived in Chile for a year.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
We just had this concept that if we can help
twenty years ago at the time, if we can help
build the internet, we could effectively flatten the world and
connect humans from one continent to another. And at the
end of the day, humans are effectively all the same, right.
We all want to you know, be around family and
friends who want to eat good food.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
We want to dance and listen to music and this,
that and the other.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So I guess it was like an arturistic, you know,
sort of view as to like, how can we actually
bring the world a little closer together? And we decided, well,
let's start a company, Noble Studios, and really the rest
has been history. We're growing really strong. We've got sixty
five employees. We've got you know, three offices, one international office,
and they've worked with the Fortune fifties, one hundreds and
(03:40):
five hundreds.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
And yeah, we're we're having a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
And a lot of people can't see that when you
work with your spouse, but we're still having a hell
of a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Well, great, I want to talk about that later because
you have that interesting dynamic. You have started a company
to work with your wife, So that really is a
cool thing, and I want to know how you do
that with our listeners and just to Ben, we'll explain that.
But why don't we talk about Noble Studios in the
mission statement. Let's start with that first.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, So our mission really, I mean, we're a creative digital, performance,
you know agency, so we have effectively bring brands to
life and we connect you know, humans to humans and
and but our mission, our mission is that in ten years, right,
three hundred and sixty five three tho six hundred and
fifty days of being better than yesterday, fueled by our
passion for creating meaningful connections, Noble Studios wants to be
(04:25):
known as the agency that's creating valuable, personally relevant experiences
through our services as.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Creative digital and performance.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
And so so that's that's kind of how we're leaning
into the world. It's it's it's we've created a servant
leadership model where we all believe in the vision and
mission and you know, we carry it through and then
that permeates into down into every single one of our
touch points and clients and partners and stakeholders and whatnot.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Jared, there's going to be a lot of our listends
are going to be introduced to your company for the
first of our time. So with that said, if you
already have that thirty thousand foot view about what you do,
what would you tell people.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, I would say that we effectively, uh you know,
put the brands of our companies in the hands of
their their customers and we create loyalty between the two
of them. And so that could be in the form
of you know, web development, and there's a great experience
of you know, you're on a website.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
It could be in the form of campaign ad development.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
So you're you're you're absorbing these these ads and you're
but the relevant to you, right, I think that's the
real most distinctive point, is that you're not getting ads
or you're not getting you know, served information that's not relevant.
We use signals, you know, first party data signals that
that really aligns what the customer's interests are and what
the what the actual clients and what they provide for them.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
So I'm curious, after being together in this company for
a couple of decades, we know that and I know
you started on the one laptop. I love the explanation
about the story too, which I think is very cool.
But now we're in a world of tech that is
moving so fast, and now AI is here, our phone,
there's a new phone every year. Now, it's just moving
very quickly. I imagine that when you started this company you
(06:05):
thought it was going to be something. It's obviously grown
into something sustainable and huge. But I'm wondering, just as
an entrepreneur and running a company, how you and your
wife and you and your team stay ahead of the
curve with technology, especially for what you do.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Also, we've always viewed ourselves as, you know, sort of
lifelong learners, and so the fact that we're in this
industry sort of satiates that that need. But one, you know,
our tagline for our company is let's be better every day,
And it's an internal and external invitation to effectively stay
curious and constantly learn. And so so that has been
sort of, if you will, our waypoint or our beacon
(06:43):
that's guided us through every sort of evolution. And every
year we would joke jokingly, we would say that we
operate on a thirty percent learning curve. And I will
say that that nothing has tested that more to your
point earlier about AI than this last you know, twelve
fourteen months.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
In adopting you know AI and machine learning.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
I'm glad you brought up one of your mantras because
it caught my attention. I'm a firm believer and as
a leader and what I do for my business and
radio and television sports, I always talk to my staff
about being better, having a better show the next day.
Not always possible, but at least the effort. So with
your staff and your team, that's a great mantra to have.
But you know, when you talk to talk, you got
(07:21):
to walk the walk. How does that trickle down to
the rest of your staff to make sure that they
indeed do try and get better every day.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, we joke often too, We say that our mantras
are cursed because you know, you're constantly like, you know,
content but never fully satisfyed that Hey, tomorrow we can
wake up and we can bring our whole selves to
work and we can do something better than we did
the day before. And I think that that infectious sort
of you know life learner, always pushing the norm is
the type of people that we attract. So when we're
(07:50):
doing the interview in the hiring stage, we're very transparent
that like, look, we value good work and we pat
ourselves in the back, and we give recognition, but the
reality is is we know that if we did that
same thing over the next day, we could probably do
it just a little bit better. And that I think
that actually keeps people very engaged at Noble as opposed
to like, well, I'm just gonna you know, set it
(08:11):
and forget it. The kinds of clients that we attract,
we they bond with us on that same mantra of
let's be better every day, and so, like I said earlier,
it's an invitation for them to really say, you know,
I'm very satisfied and content with the goals and objectives
and KPIs that we've set, but can we can we
do something different to even push those a little further?
And so we really subscribe to that growth mindset.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Well, Jared, bringing up your clients is an excellent segue
to my next question. I don't want to assume that
anybody around the world does exactly what you and your
team do. But with that said, when you're pitching yourself
to a client or somebody's looking to work with Noble Studios,
how do you differentiate yourself from that competition?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
You know, at the end of the day.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
People follow people they you know you, and so I
feel like we lead with people, right, so we have
some of the best culture. We actually just recognized or
at age best places to work. We also were recognized
for inc Best in uh you know, best in Advertisement
just last year. And I think that that type of
(09:09):
mindset of going in and saying, look, we're leading with
the best humans that you can possibly have working on
you know, a subscribing to that mantra, that really attracts
people because because you know, you can have one company
that does the same thing, does the same thing, they
price the same and everything else. But at the end
of the day, it's going to be that chemistry and
where you whether whether you can you know, fare the
(09:30):
you know you can you can weather the storm if
you will is what gets you through those those hard times.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
And I think clients are pretty savvy nowadays that they
know that if you've proven all the you check all the.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Other boxes, at the end of the day, they want
to do business with people. And so I think we
really lead strong with with our core values, our principles
always being noble.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Uh you know.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
And so yeah, I think that that's one of the
biggest things that that people come to us for.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
So, Jared, you had mentioned season a couple of times.
I did too, about you working with your wife co
founder of the company, twenty years with the company and
now married. With all that said, I've told I've talked
to other people about my kind of story with my
wife in my industry, yes, and it can get very
comedic when you work with a significant other in the workplace.
You two are running a company and a damn good
one too, and it's been fantastic, sustainable, now growing. Can
(10:18):
you just share with our listeners a little bit. I
know that I understand that every marriage and its own
perspective is what it is. So this, yeah, this questions
exclusive to you about running a company with with your wife.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
What's the dynamic?
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Like, yeah, yeah, I'm glad you asked.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It's something that I'm quite passionate about. I think, you know,
there's some statistics out there that say some of the
most successful companies in the world are family owned and operated,
and some of the most unsuccessful companies in the.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
World on family owned and operated, and there's pretty much
there's nothing in between.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
And so I think I think it comes down to
mutual respect and compromise.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
You know, I'm.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
A very extrovert, so of course being a CEO visionary
for the company sort of.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
That tip of the year.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I'm always focused on sales marketing, and what naturally someone
would do is overvalue that because they say, well, sales
is most important.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
We don't bring sales in. None of the operational things
are necessary.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
But if you bring sales in and the operations side
of the business you know isn't isn't functionally correctly, then
then you know that is just as big of a problem.
And so I think what we've learned over the years
is really defined that we're in alignment on the same
vision and mission of the company, and we own our
areas of expertise, and there's a lot of respect that
happens for each.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Side of that, and that takes time.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
That takes time to really kind of break down and
recognize that what we bring each independently to the company
is just as valuable even if one comes first or
one comes second. So I think that that I think
that would be the only advice I would give is like, believe,
if you're going to start a business with any type
of family member or spouse or significant other, partner or
whatnot is really define the value that each person brings
(11:52):
and and really respect that value that they that they
bring to the table.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
Thanks for sharing that great story.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Another thing that we share with our lists is when
it comes to running companies that it's not always unicorns
and rainbows all the time, even if you are doing well.
Well with all that said for you, your wife and
your team, what kind of challenges are presenting the industry
right now specific to what Noble Studios is dealing with.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, I think you know you mentioned AI earlier. That's
one of the biggest challenges that we have on our doorstep.
And I will say though that this is to me,
I view it as a tool. I view it as
a way of working. We've always been hit with that.
When we first started the company, there was no iPhones, right,
there was no yeah, I mean, there was no social
media like Instagram or anything like that. And so so
we've really embraced, you know, adopting AI. We created a
(12:36):
point of view, We brought in our legal team, you know,
we created an AI task force, we hired AI interns,
We did a prompt ethon instead of a hackathon for
those that are listening that are old enough to understand
what that is. And so we just really leaned into
it and we're sharing with our client all the discovery
and the work we're doing. And then now to get
really deep into it, we're actually creating our own GPT
for Noble Studios so we could effectively write thought leadership
(12:59):
and it comes out in our brand, tone, messaging and whatnot,
and this will be stuff that we start to extend
out our to our clients themselves.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Well, that's very exciting, and speaking of the future, let's
talk about that because I know people like you are
always looking head to the future, next five ten year plans.
With all that said, I know you're proud of so
much that you've done right now in the past two decades,
but can you share with us a little bit about
what may be coming up in the future for Noble Studios.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, and we're in growth mode, you know, so we're
looking to actually make some acquisitions ourselves. We have a
really healthy company, as you mentioned earlier, we have no debt,
so worth it, and we have a healthy brand. Right
we're really positively impacting every sort of stakeholder that we
had come across to So for us. We ultimately want
to continue to maximize that impact that we can make
(13:42):
with whether it's a team.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Member that wants to work for us, whether it's a
net new.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Client or a new partner that we want to partner with,
or it's a new stakeholder that we've never even met.
But that's our intent is we want to really grow
and we're going to We're going to continue to lean
on leveraging the tools and stuff that exists out there,
but always making sure that we stay true to.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Our mission envision, which is really about providing.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Those personally relevant experiences for the end user.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Very good, Jared, If I could just for a moment
put a pin in work and ask you a little
bit about philanthropic and charity work, whether it's with the
company or person with you and your wife, what do
you like to be involved in?
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, so, actually season ten years ago, my wife she
created the note we call the Noble Deeds and it's
our it's our philanthropic program where we extend our services
into the community and we work with effectively nonprofits. And
if you think about nonprofits, they struggle with really telling
their story. They don't have you know, they're always thrown
together with volunteers and or volunteer donation money. And so
(14:37):
typically marketing, you know, whether it's brand strategy or it's
getting their message out or even having the right types
of marketing tools and assets, they're just lackluster. And so
we thought, okay, ten years ago when she said, you know,
instead of us getting together and going and maybe building
trails and or you know, donating our time to like
a food bank, we thought, what if we could take
our best, you know, our best versions of our ourselves
(15:00):
and the things that we're considered subject matter experts on
and apply that as a donation and we just celebrate
our tenure.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
We brought it international, so now it's.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
In the UK, and it really is something that differentiates
us from our competitors, and it also attracts clients and
team members, and it also retains the team members because
it's an entirely team member ran committee. But that's one
of the best things we could have ever done, was
create our own philanthropic program and donating our services to
the community.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Well, I really appreciate you sharing that.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
I can tell your passionate about that not only for
what you do, but for that specifically, and it sounds
like you're very proud of it too.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
That's very cool.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Yeah, it feels good and you think of that.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
It was inspired by the Patagonia give Back one percent
and so's we effectively give about hundred fifty thousand dollars
a year.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Into the community into these nonprofits.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
And at the end of the day, you know whether
Noble Studios is around hundreds of years and you want
to have a bit of a legacy. And I think
that why we're pretty proud of this is that we've
impacted the lives of so many others. We've literally the
work we've done for certain companies have actually saved lives,
and not often can you say that in the work
that you do.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
So we did talk about a few of the challenges
for you your team in the industry. I also like
to talk about a great story, and I imagine you
have handfuls over the last two decades that you worked
with quiet clients, But Jared, is there something that sticks
out and you don't have to mention the client if
you don't want to, but maybe just an instance where
you know, you got up that day and you had
a problem and you solved it for the client, and
you know you said to you, your wife and your team.
(16:27):
You know what, we knocked that one out of the park.
We did good today. Is there one that sticks out
to you?
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yeah, I think it Over.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
The years because we started twenty years ago and our
proximity to the Bay Area, we got exposed to just
so many amazing brands that were launching, and we worked
with like Beats by Doctor Dre for instance.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
We worked with you know, Adobe.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
And one of them though, that that really does come
to mind is Pokemon Go. You know, this was one
of the first sort of ar you know, you know,
platforms to mobile phones got kids out of the house.
They you know, they started you know, going into the
streets and you know, playing, and so it hits so much,
you know, of the tension that was existing is the
(17:07):
more we adopted technology and us building technology, the more
people effectively stayed in house. And so I remember we
were on a family road trip and we were driving
in Utah and there was a sign on the billboard
on the highway that says, do not play Pokemon Go
while you're driving, And I thought, oh.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
My gosh, that's that's us, Like that was up. We
did all that work and we helped them launch that
into the world. And so that was just a really
good feeling. It was a movement that was that we
were effectively part of, and so it was fun.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
First of all, that story's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Second of all, count me in because I was a
part of it like every other adult on the planet.
But I'm curious, just as a sidebar, what's it like
to be a part of something that's so viral that
connects almost the entire world for several months.
Speaker 5 (17:54):
That must have been bizarre.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
It really is. You know, it's almost like we were
desensitized by it. Right when it first happened.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
We're like, no, I don't believe that this is actually happening.
And you know, we had helped build their website, we
had helped build all their email templates, their activations, you know,
the the you know the landing page that allowed you
to download you know, the app, and so you know,
we were in, we were part of that backbone, and
it was, Yeah, it was very surreal to.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
And just I guess you know, at the end of.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
The day, you were just fortunate, right, we were fortunate,
and we just felt blessed to say, wow, we were.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Really part of a cool movement.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
But yeah, the biggest word I would say is like
you're almost like you could become desensitized quite quickly to it,
because you're like, wow, okay, you move from like this
is really exciting to oh my gosh, what do we
need to do? How can we support? How do we help?
You know, you move into like action mode.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
So couldn't have hurt the reputation the company to be
a part of something so big enviral too, I imagine.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah, it definitely helped. Yeah, it definitely helped for sure.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Very cool.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Well, listen, I want to wrap up our conversation by
giving the floor to you, Jared, and we like to
do this for entrepreneurs, our CEOs, and our leaders, just
about some final thoughts about the company and some takeaways
that you want to give to our listener today.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Well, I feel like we you know, we created this
let's be better every day tagline. As I mentioned earlier,
it's an invitation right for ourselves internally and externally, and
I feel like that the world that we're living in,
you know, there's no better time to you have the
most accessed information.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
There's just no.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Better time to subscribe to a belief of like I
can wake up tomorrow and be better tomorrow and help
someone around you. And so I guess the only thing
I would leave is that, you know, be curious, you know,
ask for advice. I always say, if you ask for advice,
you usually get money aka opportunities. Or if you ask
for money, usually get advice, you know. So I guess
(19:36):
in general, like, be curious, be a good human, and
try to better yourself and those that are around you.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
I love that, all right, before we give the website,
I know you're also hiring the best of the best.
So when we're looking for careers that people either want
to partner with you, that want to look at working
with you and your team, or just find out a
little bit more about Noble Studios, how do they do that?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, and you just said it. Go to our website,
Noble Studios. It's n O, B L E S T
you dios dot com. And to your point that you
can see what careers we have open on there. If
you're a client or you're looking to transition from an
agency to another, you know, read our content, look at
our case studies, you know, and then give us a ring.
You know, we're happy to have conversations. I guess you
said earlier. We're growing. We're always wanting to, you know, again,
(20:18):
attract new and better humans to our company.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
So yeah, so that's how you get there.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Jared, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your
valuable time. And I want to leave you with one compliment.
One of the things that I get out of this series,
and a common thread with all our entrepreneurs, especially the
successful CEOs out there, is their passion for what they do.
And you and I just met twenty minutes ago, and man,
you've got passion and I love that. And I'm sure
you hear that from your team members and you hear
(20:43):
from clients, and I think that's very beneficial to being
a winner in today's world, about being passionate about what
you do.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
So I appreciate that. I wanted to let you know.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
That I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I definitely lead with passion, and I want to be
around people that are passionate as well.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
It's like time is short, let's just be around the
right people.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
So, Jared, thank you so much for joining us on CEOs.
You should know it continued success.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Thank you, Thank you, Dennis.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
That's it for this edition of CEO's you should know Phoenix.
I'm joe Y Yaylor. Thanks for listening.
Jared Lapiccolo is the CEO and co founder of Noble Studios,
a digital marketing agency that's been around for over two decades.
Over that time, the industry Noble Studios has served has
changed dramatically. Here's the story of how they continue to evolve,
how you build something from scratch right out of college,
what it's like working with your significant other every day,
(00:22):
and how giving back philanthropically is the key to setting
a good workplace culture. Here is CEO Jared Lapiccolo from
Noble Studios on how it all started.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
So I grew up in the small town Carson City
of Nevada. It's the state capital of Nevada, and you know,
was young, sort of entrepreneurial kid, and you know, I
just found myself really attracted to the idea of sales
and sort of serving humans, if you will, and pleasing people.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
And then I went to school in unlviing.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I graduated high school at the age of sixteen, so
a bit of an overachiever, and I was set down
she be one of the.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Youngest architects in America.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
But then then, of course you stumble into this world
of entrepreneurship, and that became the path for the next
twenty years.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
So Jared, our listening audience does. I'm a big sports guy.
So you and lv A very famous for the running
rebels and Jery Tarcinian. I'm sure you know all about
the history. But that school for a while had a
great basketball program, man, I.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Know, and trusting and I was there during that time,
so it was great we got to see it and
and us that are those the alumni. We all kind
of talk about it. Whenever we get back into Vegas.
We're like, all right, let's let's go to a game.
It's not the same. It's not the same, but but yeah,
a lot of great memories there.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
So you're we're kind of an unusual spot here. I
talked to a lot of CEOs, entrepreneurs and self starters
that have some amazing companies that they come up with,
but they did a lot of things before that. You,
on the other hand, right out of school, came up
with the idea with your wife about Noble Studios. And
I'd like to ask you first before we get into
mission statement and all the things that you do, ye
about that idea, the epiphany of coming up with this.
(01:58):
You know, you're still a young man. You obviously have
a thought about what you want to do. Tell us
how this all started up.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, So, so I was working at Paul Steelman Design Group,
it was an architecture firm as an intern. Then then
graduated and in that first year I started to kind
of rise in the ranks, you know, over there. And
one of the things I was exposed to at this
architecture firm was this concept of user centric design. But
it's effectively if you think of Disney, it's all about
you know, kind of you know, really having a brand
(02:26):
touch point across the entire sort of buyer and experience
journey that you can have. Meanwhile, my wife now the
time girlfriend Season, she was working for on Our Partners,
which was a large PR agency, and she was working
on the brand and the tagline of what happens in
Vegas stays in Vegas. So here we have a designer
me and we have a copywriter Season, and we just
(02:47):
decided we're, like, you know what, we really enjoy this
concept of you know, sort of digital architecture and building
the Internet, and with us both being world travelers.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I used to live in Italy for a year, she
lived in Chile for a year.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
We just had this concept that if we can help
twenty years ago at the time, if we can help
build the internet, we could effectively flatten the world and
connect humans from one continent to another. And at the
end of the day, humans are effectively all the same, right.
We all want to you know, be around family and
friends who want to eat good food.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
We want to dance and listen to music and this,
that and the other.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So I guess it was like an arturistic, you know,
sort of view as to like, how can we actually
bring the world a little closer together? And we decided, well,
let's start a company, Noble Studios, and really the rest
has been history. We're growing really strong. We've got sixty
five employees. We've got you know, three offices, one international office,
and they've worked with the Fortune fifties, one hundreds and
(03:40):
five hundreds.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
And yeah, we're we're having a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
And a lot of people can't see that when you
work with your spouse, but we're still having a hell
of a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Well, great, I want to talk about that later because
you have that interesting dynamic. You have started a company
to work with your wife, So that really is a
cool thing, and I want to know how you do
that with our listeners and just to Ben, we'll explain that.
But why don't we talk about Noble Studios in the
mission statement. Let's start with that first.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, So our mission really, I mean, we're a creative digital, performance,
you know agency, so we have effectively bring brands to
life and we connect you know, humans to humans and
and but our mission, our mission is that in ten years, right,
three hundred and sixty five three tho six hundred and
fifty days of being better than yesterday, fueled by our
passion for creating meaningful connections, Noble Studios wants to be
(04:25):
known as the agency that's creating valuable, personally relevant experiences
through our services as.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Creative digital and performance.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
And so so that's that's kind of how we're leaning
into the world. It's it's it's we've created a servant
leadership model where we all believe in the vision and
mission and you know, we carry it through and then
that permeates into down into every single one of our
touch points and clients and partners and stakeholders and whatnot.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Jared, there's going to be a lot of our listends
are going to be introduced to your company for the
first of our time. So with that said, if you
already have that thirty thousand foot view about what you do,
what would you tell people.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, I would say that we effectively, uh you know,
put the brands of our companies in the hands of
their their customers and we create loyalty between the two
of them. And so that could be in the form
of you know, web development, and there's a great experience
of you know, you're on a website.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
It could be in the form of campaign ad development.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
So you're you're you're absorbing these these ads and you're
but the relevant to you, right, I think that's the
real most distinctive point, is that you're not getting ads
or you're not getting you know, served information that's not relevant.
We use signals, you know, first party data signals that
that really aligns what the customer's interests are and what
the what the actual clients and what they provide for them.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
So I'm curious, after being together in this company for
a couple of decades, we know that and I know
you started on the one laptop. I love the explanation
about the story too, which I think is very cool.
But now we're in a world of tech that is
moving so fast, and now AI is here, our phone,
there's a new phone every year. Now, it's just moving
very quickly. I imagine that when you started this company you
(06:05):
thought it was going to be something. It's obviously grown
into something sustainable and huge. But I'm wondering, just as
an entrepreneur and running a company, how you and your
wife and you and your team stay ahead of the
curve with technology, especially for what you do.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Also, we've always viewed ourselves as, you know, sort of
lifelong learners, and so the fact that we're in this
industry sort of satiates that that need. But one, you know,
our tagline for our company is let's be better every day,
And it's an internal and external invitation to effectively stay
curious and constantly learn. And so so that has been
sort of, if you will, our waypoint or our beacon
(06:43):
that's guided us through every sort of evolution. And every
year we would joke jokingly, we would say that we
operate on a thirty percent learning curve. And I will
say that that nothing has tested that more to your
point earlier about AI than this last you know, twelve
fourteen months.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
In adopting you know AI and machine learning.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
I'm glad you brought up one of your mantras because
it caught my attention. I'm a firm believer and as
a leader and what I do for my business and
radio and television sports, I always talk to my staff
about being better, having a better show the next day.
Not always possible, but at least the effort. So with
your staff and your team, that's a great mantra to have.
But you know, when you talk to talk, you got
(07:21):
to walk the walk. How does that trickle down to
the rest of your staff to make sure that they
indeed do try and get better every day.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, we joke often too, We say that our mantras
are cursed because you know, you're constantly like, you know,
content but never fully satisfyed that Hey, tomorrow we can
wake up and we can bring our whole selves to
work and we can do something better than we did
the day before. And I think that that infectious sort
of you know life learner, always pushing the norm is
the type of people that we attract. So when we're
(07:50):
doing the interview in the hiring stage, we're very transparent
that like, look, we value good work and we pat
ourselves in the back, and we give recognition, but the
reality is is we know that if we did that
same thing over the next day, we could probably do
it just a little bit better. And that I think
that actually keeps people very engaged at Noble as opposed
to like, well, I'm just gonna you know, set it
(08:11):
and forget it. The kinds of clients that we attract,
we they bond with us on that same mantra of
let's be better every day, and so, like I said earlier,
it's an invitation for them to really say, you know,
I'm very satisfied and content with the goals and objectives
and KPIs that we've set, but can we can we
do something different to even push those a little further?
And so we really subscribe to that growth mindset.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Well, Jared, bringing up your clients is an excellent segue
to my next question. I don't want to assume that
anybody around the world does exactly what you and your
team do. But with that said, when you're pitching yourself
to a client or somebody's looking to work with Noble Studios,
how do you differentiate yourself from that competition?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
You know, at the end of the day.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
People follow people they you know you, and so I
feel like we lead with people, right, so we have
some of the best culture. We actually just recognized or
at age best places to work. We also were recognized
for inc Best in uh you know, best in Advertisement
just last year. And I think that that type of
(09:09):
mindset of going in and saying, look, we're leading with
the best humans that you can possibly have working on
you know, a subscribing to that mantra, that really attracts
people because because you know, you can have one company
that does the same thing, does the same thing, they
price the same and everything else. But at the end
of the day, it's going to be that chemistry and
where you whether whether you can you know, fare the
(09:30):
you know you can you can weather the storm if
you will is what gets you through those those hard times.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
And I think clients are pretty savvy nowadays that they
know that if you've proven all the you check all the.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Other boxes, at the end of the day, they want
to do business with people. And so I think we
really lead strong with with our core values, our principles
always being noble.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Uh you know.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
And so yeah, I think that that's one of the
biggest things that that people come to us for.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
So, Jared, you had mentioned season a couple of times.
I did too, about you working with your wife co
founder of the company, twenty years with the company and
now married. With all that said, I've told I've talked
to other people about my kind of story with my
wife in my industry, yes, and it can get very
comedic when you work with a significant other in the workplace.
You two are running a company and a damn good
one too, and it's been fantastic, sustainable, now growing. Can
(10:18):
you just share with our listeners a little bit. I
know that I understand that every marriage and its own
perspective is what it is. So this, yeah, this questions
exclusive to you about running a company with with your wife.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
What's the dynamic?
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Like, yeah, yeah, I'm glad you asked.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It's something that I'm quite passionate about. I think, you know,
there's some statistics out there that say some of the
most successful companies in the world are family owned and operated,
and some of the most unsuccessful companies in the.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
World on family owned and operated, and there's pretty much
there's nothing in between.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
And so I think I think it comes down to
mutual respect and compromise.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
You know, I'm.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
A very extrovert, so of course being a CEO visionary
for the company sort of.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
That tip of the year.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I'm always focused on sales marketing, and what naturally someone
would do is overvalue that because they say, well, sales
is most important.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
We don't bring sales in. None of the operational things
are necessary.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
But if you bring sales in and the operations side
of the business you know isn't isn't functionally correctly, then
then you know that is just as big of a problem.
And so I think what we've learned over the years
is really defined that we're in alignment on the same
vision and mission of the company, and we own our
areas of expertise, and there's a lot of respect that
happens for each.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Side of that, and that takes time.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
That takes time to really kind of break down and
recognize that what we bring each independently to the company
is just as valuable even if one comes first or
one comes second. So I think that that I think
that would be the only advice I would give is like, believe,
if you're going to start a business with any type
of family member or spouse or significant other, partner or
whatnot is really define the value that each person brings
(11:52):
and and really respect that value that they that they
bring to the table.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
Thanks for sharing that great story.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Another thing that we share with our lists is when
it comes to running companies that it's not always unicorns
and rainbows all the time, even if you are doing well.
Well with all that said for you, your wife and
your team, what kind of challenges are presenting the industry
right now specific to what Noble Studios is dealing with.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, I think you know you mentioned AI earlier. That's
one of the biggest challenges that we have on our doorstep.
And I will say though that this is to me,
I view it as a tool. I view it as
a way of working. We've always been hit with that.
When we first started the company, there was no iPhones, right,
there was no yeah, I mean, there was no social
media like Instagram or anything like that. And so so
we've really embraced, you know, adopting AI. We created a
(12:36):
point of view, We brought in our legal team, you know,
we created an AI task force, we hired AI interns,
We did a prompt ethon instead of a hackathon for
those that are listening that are old enough to understand
what that is. And so we just really leaned into
it and we're sharing with our client all the discovery
and the work we're doing. And then now to get
really deep into it, we're actually creating our own GPT
for Noble Studios so we could effectively write thought leadership
(12:59):
and it comes out in our brand, tone, messaging and whatnot,
and this will be stuff that we start to extend
out our to our clients themselves.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Well, that's very exciting, and speaking of the future, let's
talk about that because I know people like you are
always looking head to the future, next five ten year plans.
With all that said, I know you're proud of so
much that you've done right now in the past two decades,
but can you share with us a little bit about
what may be coming up in the future for Noble Studios.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, and we're in growth mode, you know, so we're
looking to actually make some acquisitions ourselves. We have a
really healthy company, as you mentioned earlier, we have no debt,
so worth it, and we have a healthy brand. Right
we're really positively impacting every sort of stakeholder that we
had come across to So for us. We ultimately want
to continue to maximize that impact that we can make
(13:42):
with whether it's a team.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Member that wants to work for us, whether it's a
net new.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Client or a new partner that we want to partner with,
or it's a new stakeholder that we've never even met.
But that's our intent is we want to really grow
and we're going to We're going to continue to lean
on leveraging the tools and stuff that exists out there,
but always making sure that we stay true to.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Our mission envision, which is really about providing.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Those personally relevant experiences for the end user.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Very good, Jared, If I could just for a moment
put a pin in work and ask you a little
bit about philanthropic and charity work, whether it's with the
company or person with you and your wife, what do
you like to be involved in?
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, so, actually season ten years ago, my wife she
created the note we call the Noble Deeds and it's
our it's our philanthropic program where we extend our services
into the community and we work with effectively nonprofits. And
if you think about nonprofits, they struggle with really telling
their story. They don't have you know, they're always thrown
together with volunteers and or volunteer donation money. And so
(14:37):
typically marketing, you know, whether it's brand strategy or it's
getting their message out or even having the right types
of marketing tools and assets, they're just lackluster. And so
we thought, okay, ten years ago when she said, you know,
instead of us getting together and going and maybe building
trails and or you know, donating our time to like
a food bank, we thought, what if we could take
our best, you know, our best versions of our ourselves
(15:00):
and the things that we're considered subject matter experts on
and apply that as a donation and we just celebrate
our tenure.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
We brought it international, so now it's.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
In the UK, and it really is something that differentiates
us from our competitors, and it also attracts clients and
team members, and it also retains the team members because
it's an entirely team member ran committee. But that's one
of the best things we could have ever done, was
create our own philanthropic program and donating our services to
the community.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Well, I really appreciate you sharing that.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
I can tell your passionate about that not only for
what you do, but for that specifically, and it sounds
like you're very proud of it too.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
That's very cool.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Yeah, it feels good and you think of that.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
It was inspired by the Patagonia give Back one percent
and so's we effectively give about hundred fifty thousand dollars
a year.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Into the community into these nonprofits.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
And at the end of the day, you know whether
Noble Studios is around hundreds of years and you want
to have a bit of a legacy. And I think
that why we're pretty proud of this is that we've
impacted the lives of so many others. We've literally the
work we've done for certain companies have actually saved lives,
and not often can you say that in the work
that you do.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
So we did talk about a few of the challenges
for you your team in the industry. I also like
to talk about a great story, and I imagine you
have handfuls over the last two decades that you worked
with quiet clients, But Jared, is there something that sticks
out and you don't have to mention the client if
you don't want to, but maybe just an instance where
you know, you got up that day and you had
a problem and you solved it for the client, and
you know you said to you, your wife and your team.
(16:27):
You know what, we knocked that one out of the park.
We did good today. Is there one that sticks out
to you?
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yeah, I think it Over.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
The years because we started twenty years ago and our
proximity to the Bay Area, we got exposed to just
so many amazing brands that were launching, and we worked
with like Beats by Doctor Dre for instance.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
We worked with you know, Adobe.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
And one of them though, that that really does come
to mind is Pokemon Go. You know, this was one
of the first sort of ar you know, you know,
platforms to mobile phones got kids out of the house.
They you know, they started you know, going into the
streets and you know, playing, and so it hits so much,
you know, of the tension that was existing is the
(17:07):
more we adopted technology and us building technology, the more
people effectively stayed in house. And so I remember we
were on a family road trip and we were driving
in Utah and there was a sign on the billboard
on the highway that says, do not play Pokemon Go
while you're driving, And I thought, oh.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
My gosh, that's that's us, Like that was up. We
did all that work and we helped them launch that
into the world. And so that was just a really
good feeling. It was a movement that was that we
were effectively part of, and so it was fun.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
First of all, that story's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Second of all, count me in because I was a
part of it like every other adult on the planet.
But I'm curious, just as a sidebar, what's it like
to be a part of something that's so viral that
connects almost the entire world for several months.
Speaker 5 (17:54):
That must have been bizarre.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
It really is. You know, it's almost like we were
desensitized by it. Right when it first happened.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
We're like, no, I don't believe that this is actually happening.
And you know, we had helped build their website, we
had helped build all their email templates, their activations, you know,
the the you know the landing page that allowed you
to download you know, the app, and so you know,
we were in, we were part of that backbone, and
it was, Yeah, it was very surreal to.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
And just I guess you know, at the end of.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
The day, you were just fortunate, right, we were fortunate,
and we just felt blessed to say, wow, we were.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Really part of a cool movement.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
But yeah, the biggest word I would say is like
you're almost like you could become desensitized quite quickly to it,
because you're like, wow, okay, you move from like this
is really exciting to oh my gosh, what do we
need to do? How can we support? How do we help?
You know, you move into like action mode.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
So couldn't have hurt the reputation the company to be
a part of something so big enviral too, I imagine.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah, it definitely helped. Yeah, it definitely helped for sure.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
Very cool.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Well, listen, I want to wrap up our conversation by
giving the floor to you, Jared, and we like to
do this for entrepreneurs, our CEOs, and our leaders, just
about some final thoughts about the company and some takeaways
that you want to give to our listener today.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Well, I feel like we you know, we created this
let's be better every day tagline. As I mentioned earlier,
it's an invitation right for ourselves internally and externally, and
I feel like that the world that we're living in,
you know, there's no better time to you have the
most accessed information.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
There's just no.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Better time to subscribe to a belief of like I
can wake up tomorrow and be better tomorrow and help
someone around you. And so I guess the only thing
I would leave is that, you know, be curious, you know,
ask for advice. I always say, if you ask for advice,
you usually get money aka opportunities. Or if you ask
for money, usually get advice, you know. So I guess
(19:36):
in general, like, be curious, be a good human, and
try to better yourself and those that are around you.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
I love that, all right, before we give the website,
I know you're also hiring the best of the best.
So when we're looking for careers that people either want
to partner with you, that want to look at working
with you and your team, or just find out a
little bit more about Noble Studios, how do they do that?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, and you just said it. Go to our website,
Noble Studios. It's n O, B L E S T
you dios dot com. And to your point that you
can see what careers we have open on there. If
you're a client or you're looking to transition from an
agency to another, you know, read our content, look at
our case studies, you know, and then give us a ring.
You know, we're happy to have conversations. I guess you
said earlier. We're growing. We're always wanting to, you know, again,
(20:18):
attract new and better humans to our company.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
So yeah, so that's how you get there.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
Jared, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your
valuable time. And I want to leave you with one compliment.
One of the things that I get out of this series,
and a common thread with all our entrepreneurs, especially the
successful CEOs out there, is their passion for what they do.
And you and I just met twenty minutes ago, and man,
you've got passion and I love that. And I'm sure
you hear that from your team members and you hear
(20:43):
from clients, and I think that's very beneficial to being
a winner in today's world, about being passionate about what
you do.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
So I appreciate that. I wanted to let you know.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
That I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I definitely lead with passion, and I want to be
around people that are passionate as well.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
It's like time is short, let's just be around the
right people.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
So, Jared, thank you so much for joining us on CEOs.
You should know it continued success.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Thank you, Thank you, Dennis.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
That's it for this edition of CEO's you should know Phoenix.
I'm joe Y Yaylor. Thanks for listening.
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