January 13, 2025 • 25 mins
This episode centers on the innovative design agency 40 Hearts, exploring its founders' collaborative approach to overcoming challenges in the design industry. The conversation emphasizes the significance of community, work-life balance, and how their unique business model redefines success beyond traditional hustle culture.
• Overview of 40 Hearts and its founding partners
• The importance of community engagement in design projects
• Challenges and opportunities in transitioning from solopreneur to partnership
• Defining individual strengths and roles within the agency
• Embracing remote work dynamics as a modern collaboration tool
• Focus on community impact through creative collaborations
• Personal reflections on the journey toward partnership and success
Reggie's Bio:
Reggie is an award-winning, multi-disciplinary graphic designer and photographer. He received his BFA in Graphic Design in 1997 from Maryville University in St. Louis.
After 23 years of success running Curve Theory, a design and branding business, Reggie recently founded 40 Hearts with 2 partners. Their hope is to retain big design projects in Asheville and garner business from other markets across the country.
Reggie is considered a design leader in his industry. He created the multimedia class at Washington University as part of the Visual Communications curriculum.
A believer in community service, Reggie has served in many key Board roles in the community. Currently, he serves as the Professional Services Chair on the Art Coalition for Arts AVL. He is also the founding president of the Asheville chapter of the 111-year-old national, professional design association, AIGA. He currently serves on the organization’s National Board.
Reggie has dedicated his career to helping small and large businesses and organizations effectively connect with their audiences.
https://www.40hearts.com/
Thanks for Listening. You may contact me at https://billgilliland.actioncoach.com/
All the best!
Bill
Thanks for listening. Please hit the subscribe button, leave us a 5 star review, and share this podcast. You can reach me at williamgilliland@actioncoach.com.
All the best!
Bill
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bill Gilliland (00:02):
Hey there, welcome to this week's episode
of Epic Entrepreneurs.
Today we're talking to ReggieTidwell of 40 Hearts.
So, Reggie, welcome and tell usa little bit about 40 Hearts
and what it's all about.
Reggie Tidwell (00:15):
Thanks, bill, thanks for having me on the show
.
Really appreciate it.
So yeah, 40 Hearts is a designand branding agency right here
in Asheville, north Carolina.
Forty Hearts is a design andbranding agency right here in
Asheville, north Carolina.
It's made up of three partners,three founding partners, and we
all have been in the industryfor years.
I ran a small design entitycalled Curve Theory for 23 years
(00:39):
.
My partner, tim Scroggs, ran acouple of different agencies.
The most recent one was FuturesBright with his wife and a
couple of designers for I think16 years or so.
And then Joao Barbosa, ourother partner, was really big in
(01:01):
ed tech.
He was a VP of customerexperience for renaissance
learning, um, and you know weall really came together through
this sort of ashville creativeconnection.
But I'm the founding presidentof aiga ashville.
(01:21):
Aiga is a national professionalassociation of design and you
know there's chapters in everystate, many cities, and we all,
at one point or another, servedon our local Asheville, I think
all.
Tim was a founding board member, so he served with me for the
(01:45):
three years that I served.
Initially, joão came in sort ofin the interim and we formed a
friendship through thatconnection.
I think Tim and I had been kindof cultivating a friendship for
years, but it was through thatwhere we were able to
consistently kind of see eachother and build a relationship.
(02:07):
But to take it back a littlebit, we were all I guess this
was in 20, at the end of 2023,we were all in New York for the
AIGA National Design Conference.
Aiga National Design Conference, and we had been sort of Tim
and I had been talking about youknow, how do we, how do we get
(02:35):
these bigger projects, you know,and how do we keep these big
projects that seem to escapeAsheville and go to Atlanta, new
York, la, chicago, when we haveso much talent right here in
Asheville?
And so that you know, that sortof started us, you know,
ideating on what that looks likeand is this something that we
could accomplish?
(02:55):
And I think Tim and I had had.
We actually had hadconversations about
collaborating, joining forces,doing a collaborative agency or
something for you know a fewyears now, and that I think that
conversation was coming to ahead where we were like you know
, we have to do something.
(03:15):
So, anyway, we all were sittingin the big auditorium at
Pentagram, which is one of the,you know, undisputably one of
the best, most well-known designand branding agencies in the
world.
We have some friends over thereMichael Beyroud, emily Oberman
(03:38):
just a really good group ofpeople.
Paula Scher, you know weconsider these people to be sort
of design heroes in theindustry and all of them have,
have been involved with aiga atsome form of fashion.
And I'm now on the nationalboard for aiga which is kind of
in the path of some of thesewonderful humans.
(03:58):
And they had the five partnersof pentagram, the women partners
, on stage, and they were, youknow, I think, debbie Millman,
who's become a dear friend ofmine.
She's a wonderful designer,brand brand steward.
She's run a podcast calledDesign Matters for Eons.
(04:26):
She asked the women partners aquestion from the audience and
it was how do you become apartner at Pentagram?
And I think it was.
Paula Scherer answered firstand she said you have to work
hard, hard, hard, hard, hard,hard, hard, hard, hard.
And then Emily Oberman, I think, took over and said well, you
know, once you become a partner,you then have to work hard,
hard, hard, hard.
And we kind of looked at eachother, we kind of laughed, we're
(04:48):
so like God, that soundsexhausting, like why can't we
just spread the work around, andso that really was, honestly,
the.
At that point we decided wewere going to try to create an
agency that took on sort of anew form, where we work hard but
not to the point where designis our only mission in life.
(05:10):
Like we have families, we alllove our families, we all love
to travel with our families.
We love, you know, ourfriendships, and what we wanted
to do was cultivate a businesswhere we can have enough revenue
to work with.
So we're talking $500,000 and up, projects that not only we will
(05:35):
retain here because we have anagency that has the capacity to
do the work, but also we becomeattractive to other markets
because we're sort of fresh andnew, we have the, the, the
tenure, we uh, and we have thetalent and we're already doing
amazing work and so, um, yeah.
(05:58):
So, ultimately, our model is todo projects large enough that
we can do really impactful workwhile not having to stay in that
sort of hustle mentality wherewe constantly looking for the
next project so we can, you know, keep money coming in.
Bill Gilliland (06:18):
Got it.
So say you've been doing thisyear and a half or so something
like that not quite.
Reggie Tidwell (06:28):
Yeah, uh, really just last year we launched um
and right out of the gate welanded a project.
Purely just by happenstance, wewere, we were at a thing that
some friends of mine put oncalled a fun day, sunday, or
sunday fun day and we were, uh,we were at this, this event
where basically it's a bunch ofparents with their kids.
(06:51):
It's an opportunity to buildcommunity.
Parents get to know each otherwhile their kids play.
Bill Gilliland (06:55):
It's pretty awesome.
Reggie Tidwell (06:57):
And there was a CEO there.
We didn't know anything abouthim at the time, but his name
was Tim and super awesome guy.
We all just started talking.
I had invited both of thepartners there with their
families and so we were there,we met Tim, we all just kind of
talking about what we were doingand Tim sort of perked up as he
heard us talking about 40Hearts and he's like, wow, that
(07:19):
sounds amazing.
Bill Gilliland (07:20):
He's like can I invite you guys out?
Reggie Tidwell (07:22):
for a drink next week and we were like sure.
So Tim and I met him for adrink next week.
And we were like sure.
So Tim and I met him for adrink my Tim Tim Scroggs.
We sat down and we had thisgreat conversation with Tim Tim
Mitrovich is his name and hesaid you know, you guys,
whatever you're doing soundsamazing.
(07:42):
And my tech company it's an 85person tech company, not a small
tech company, big international.
They're doing really amazingthings in the world of AI and
cloud tech.
And he said you know, I don'twant to shop this around.
(08:02):
I need a full rebrand andwebsite.
and you guys, are it, and so hegave us this big job.
We were able to build out ourteam with two developers who are
now permanently our developers,and we brought in two other
designers to work with us and wewere able to feed some friends,
(08:23):
obviously, and also do a reallyamazing job for this company,
so much that he you know, hesaid we absolutely knocked it
out of the park and wants us tobe his sort of design partners
as we continue on doing workwith them.
Bill Gilliland (08:41):
Yeah well, congratulations.
I mean, obviously y'all havegot a lot of experience in the
industry and collaborating.
So what have you noticed?
I mean it's interesting.
It sounds like you've had threepaths.
It may have been twoentrepreneurs and now you're all
entrepreneurs, or maybe it wasthree entrepreneurs and now
(09:02):
you're throwing in together.
What kind of challenges hasthat presented?
Or opportunities, I guess wouldbe the positive way to look at
it.
Reggie Tidwell (09:10):
Yeah, you know, I think, address challenges and
opportunities, and I think,honestly, even the biggest
challenges so far for us havebeen totally manageable.
The biggest one was that wehadn't even actually had a
chance to launch like we didn't.
We hadn't even had a chance todo our branding or anything when
(09:33):
we landed the job with artisanstudios, and so we were
instantly, uh, thrown into thisreally great project that took
all of our skills and leadership, and we, you know, hadn't
really had a chance to thinkabout who we are as an agency,
and we've a lot of conversationsaround it, but nothing on paper
(09:55):
yet.
And so now we find ourselves inthis place where that job is
launched.
We're waiting for the nextprojects here to start later
this month, and we are nowtrying to understand exactly
what our path is, exactly whatour offerings are.
What does that look like?
(10:15):
We have a general idea of howthat breaks down, but how do we
articulate that to the world sothey know that what we have is
what they need?
And so that's the phase thatwe're in now, while one of our
partners, tim, and his family,are actually traveling around
the world for this 10 month, I'dsay almost like a cultural
(10:37):
journey.
They sold their house and aregoing to do sort of an Asheville
2.0 after they're donetraveling towards the end of the
summer They've been to Ropa dePapa, they were in Luka for a
(11:01):
while, then Croatia, and sohaving a partner that's remote,
even though he's full time he'sstill, you know, we see him and
communicate every day.
We don't get to have thatin-person time, so I say it's
not really a challenge as muchas it is an opportunity to kind
of see how we can stretch themodern days of, of, of working
(11:29):
um together.
You know, having somebody that'sfully remote and being able to
leverage that while also havingclients in the mix.
So far it's been absolutelysmooth.
You know, you wouldn't evenhave to know Tim was, you know,
thousands of miles away.
Bill Gilliland (11:46):
Yeah, it's, it's interesting.
We, um, you know, our firm isvirtual.
I was.
I was actually looking for anoffice before COVID and you know
that was smart.
I was glad I didn't buy anoffice right before, right
before COVID.
But yeah, and since then we'vebeen 100 percent remote and
(12:07):
that's that's.
That's worked great.
I mean, it's not, it's, it's aninteresting that does present
different challenges.
So that's great, that'sfantastic that that's worked out
and you know.
So you guys are coming togetheras a partnership trying to
figure out who you are as acompany and you got one of them
(12:27):
who's remote.
So I think, once you figurethat out, I mean I just think
that's helpful actually.
Reggie Tidwell (12:33):
Yeah, I think so you.
Once you figure that out, Imean I just think that's helpful
actually.
Yeah, I think so too, andhonestly, I think one of the
silver linings of COVID having aglobal pandemic was, I think
companies learn just how easy itis to have remote oh, I think
yeah.
Bill Gilliland (12:48):
I think, yeah, I think it's awesome.
So, um, the I mean you'reputting three people together.
Do you have?
I mean, is there a division oflabor?
Is are you guys all do the samething?
What, what?
How's it working?
Reggie Tidwell (13:02):
That's a great question, bill.
So so my strengths are brandingI'm also a commercial
photographer.
I do a lot of have have done inthe past a lot of stuff for
explore, ashville, mountain bizworks, some great local, local
agencies, um entities.
(13:23):
I you have a bachelor of finearts in graphic design, tim.
Also also branding thoughtleadership, which is thought
partnership, which is actuallyone of the services that I think
is one of our strengths.
Tim and I do what we call brandstory development and brand
(13:44):
story mapping, where we actuallyarticulate what a company does,
but also, as it is relative tothe audience that they seek out,
I think a lot of companies havea problem conveying that,
because they constantly want totalk about what's exciting to
(14:06):
them, about their offerings totheir audience, but they don't
think about the problems thattheir audience, that their
customers, need to solve.
But they don't think about theproblems that their audience,
that their customers, need tosolve.
And so if you switch thataround and approach it from your
client's perspective, like whatare their pain points, what is
it that they want, and how is itthat we can convey that we have
(14:28):
the thing that they want, thatcreates that through line, and
Tim and I do that work.
João is a completely differentbeast.
He comes from the userexperience world and he is what
I would call a multifacetedtechnologist.
(14:48):
Maybe he knows all the software.
He can tell you what softwareyou need to do a certain thing.
He's really amazing withcreating user journey maps and
(15:17):
customer experience maps, uxmaps anything that gives us
intel on the sort of big picturethinking of a company and how
it works and what they're doingand how it connects to their
user base.
He is that and that's such ahuge part of our business, and
so he's a massive asset.
Bill Gilliland (15:26):
Yeah, that is cool.
It seems like y'all are youkind of worked it out.
Yeah, yeah, how to usestrengths, and I've always said
strengthen strengths and thendefend against weaknesses, so
you can always you knowoutsource or or hire whatever
other, what other help you mightneed to fill in, fill in the
gaps?
But at the top level, it seemslike you got it covered.
Reggie Tidwell (15:47):
Yeah, part of two bills, cause part of 40
hearts is actually bringing inthose other, those other people.
Like we don't we don't want tobe the ones doing it all.
Like we have such a vibrant,amazing creative community and,
uh, when you have the kinds ofbudgets that we'll have to work
(16:07):
with, that's an opportunity tochange a lot of people's lives.
And as someone who really lovesthis community and has seen our
creative community strive andthrive and sometimes barely
survive, it has always been onmy heart to figure out a way to
(16:32):
be able to impact a lot ofpeople at once.
And so you've got a milliondollar project and you can bring
in, you know, 10 other peopleor more on this project to help,
you know, expand yourcapabilities.
It gives you the possibility tonot only feed those people but
(16:56):
enhance the offerings becauseyou're now I'll give you a
perfect case in point One of theprojects, one of the things
that we did for Artisan was wehad this whole different sort of
design direction, wholedifferent sort of design
(17:17):
direction and, because of mywork with AIGA and knowing the
the sort of disciplines of somany of the designers here and
illustrators here, we had thisidea of this sort of drop cap
logo design.
It's very specific style.
There's a guy in town named DanGreta who we know very well and
we know that that is his likething.
Like he can develop logos inthat style like no one else, and
(17:39):
so that was an immediately anopportunity to bring someone
else in to do a few conceptsthat we were able to then take
and expand upon.
Um, but there's going to be somany opportunities like that and
, ideally, while we will alwaysbe the three founding partners,
our hope is to grow with profitsharing partners that all have
(18:03):
their own teams built out, thathave different specialties that
they're able to.
Actually, you know, we're ableto have multiple projects going
on at once, projects that havecome in from all over the world,
(18:31):
and be able to keep a lot ofpeople busy.
Bill Gilliland (18:35):
Man, I love that .
I really love that.
You know, in marketing,branding, advertising, there's
so many disciplines and so manytalented people I don't you know
.
It's one of the industries thatyou know.
As I was learning business andbeing in business for a long
time, I've noticed that you justcan't do it all by yourself.
(18:56):
You have to.
You just can't do this stuff byyourself.
Reggie Tidwell (19:00):
So it's super cool.
Bill Gilliland (19:02):
Yeah, it's super cool.
Well, this I think we couldtalk for hours.
So I get why this.
Your first client, Tim, wantedto sit down and have a beer with
you because I would love to dothat too.
So, yeah, I think we need to dothat because I think and I'm
(19:23):
going to need to have you backwe're a little short, but you
know this is sort of running upagainst our time here.
Let me ask you one lastquestion, and the question is
what do you wish you had known?
Hmm, so, in other words, youknow about all this, or about
your whole journey, or aboutcreativeness, or anything.
What do you wish somebody hadtold you years ago?
Reggie Tidwell (19:45):
You know it's.
That's a great question.
Thanks, bill.
I think it's funny because Ithink I've known it for a long
time.
I think part of this industryand certainly being in an area
(20:06):
where you see a lot of the funand bigger projects going to
other markets I've always knownthat I couldn't do this alone,
or I shouldn't be doing thisalone.
I've always known thatcollaboration is key,
diversifies your offerings, butalso, you know I love people.
You know I love people, I lovethis community, and the more
(20:27):
opportunities I get tocollaborate with others, the
better I feel, and so what Iwish is that years ago, I
started what I'm doing now.
Now, granted, I've got 23 yearsof expertise and notoriety, but
(20:51):
I think the journey of adesigner that is doing the
solopreneur thing can be really,really challenging, and
primarily it's because you canonly do so much, you can only go
up to your bandwidth, andoftentimes we are beyond our
bandwidth and that's not a goodplace to be.
(21:12):
You're making okay money, butyou're not having the best
quality of life.
You're just working, working,working, and so one of the
things that's been reallyenjoyable now with the agency is
having two really amazingpartners that I know are working
(21:33):
on different things and I'mworking on my thing and I'm not
feeling like I have to do it all.
I don't feel this anxiety oflike as soon as I'm done with
this.
I got to jump over that.
As soon as I'm done with that,I got to jump over this.
So it's, it's already increasedour my quality of life, I think
for all of the partners.
I mean, I don't think Tim wouldbe able to do what he's doing
(21:55):
right now If we hadn't startedour agency.
I think that was at least oneof the things that freed him up
to be able to do that in termsof traveling around the world
with his family for 10 months.
And so, yeah, it would havebeen nice to have done it, but
better late than never, they say.
Bill Gilliland (22:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah .
No, I think it's great that youfinally pulled the trigger.
I can tell you're really apeople person and that's why,
yeah, you finally pulled thetrigger.
I can tell you're really apeople person and that's why
that's a great thing that youknow you wish you had
collaborated.
I'm sure you collaborated, butyou wish you had gone into
business with some of yourfriends earlier.
So that's, that's awesome.
Well, listen, it's been a greatconversation.
Thanks for being on.
(22:35):
If people want to get ahold ofyou, what's the best way?
Reggie Tidwell (22:43):
on.
If people want to get a hold ofyou, what's the best way?
Uh, well, uh, we are.
Uh.
40 hearts is our tag oninstagram it's brand new, so not
a whole lot of content up thereand our website is 40heartscom.
Uh, you'll see a landing pageup there.
But, as you know, asi mentioned, we are now in that uh sort of
selfbranding phase and so you'llsee that evolve out over the
next few weeks.
(23:03):
But definitely, you know we'rearound and we're super excited
to be a part of Asheville'seconomy.
It's creative for us and Idon't think this will be the
last you'll hear of us.
Bill Gilliland (23:17):
No, no, no, I think the runway is long and
skies are blue.
I think that's amazing.
One of the things I love isthat you guys just got to work.
You didn't worry about tryingto make your website perfect.
You're trying to make all thisother stuff perfect, even though
that's your business, but y'allgot to work because you had
clients to take care of.
(23:38):
So congratulations on that.
Appreciate you being on hereand, yeah, I look forward to
having you back on, because wegot a lot more to talk about.
Reggie Tidwell (23:48):
Thanks, so much, Bill.
Bill Gilliland (23:49):
It's been a wonderful time have a wonderful
day, yeah, and until next time,all the best.
Hey there, welcome to this week's episode
of Epic Entrepreneurs.
Today we're talking to ReggieTidwell of 40 Hearts.
So, Reggie, welcome and tell usa little bit about 40 Hearts
and what it's all about.
Reggie Tidwell (00:15):
Thanks, bill, thanks for having me on the show
.
Really appreciate it.
So yeah, 40 Hearts is a designand branding agency right here
in Asheville, north Carolina.
Forty Hearts is a design andbranding agency right here in
Asheville, north Carolina.
It's made up of three partners,three founding partners, and we
all have been in the industryfor years.
I ran a small design entitycalled Curve Theory for 23 years
(00:39):
.
My partner, tim Scroggs, ran acouple of different agencies.
The most recent one was FuturesBright with his wife and a
couple of designers for I think16 years or so.
And then Joao Barbosa, ourother partner, was really big in
(01:01):
ed tech.
He was a VP of customerexperience for renaissance
learning, um, and you know weall really came together through
this sort of ashville creativeconnection.
But I'm the founding presidentof aiga ashville.
(01:21):
Aiga is a national professionalassociation of design and you
know there's chapters in everystate, many cities, and we all,
at one point or another, servedon our local Asheville, I think
all.
Tim was a founding board member, so he served with me for the
(01:45):
three years that I served.
Initially, joão came in sort ofin the interim and we formed a
friendship through thatconnection.
I think Tim and I had been kindof cultivating a friendship for
years, but it was through thatwhere we were able to
consistently kind of see eachother and build a relationship.
(02:07):
But to take it back a littlebit, we were all I guess this
was in 20, at the end of 2023,we were all in New York for the
AIGA National Design Conference.
Aiga National Design Conference, and we had been sort of Tim
and I had been talking about youknow, how do we, how do we get
(02:35):
these bigger projects, you know,and how do we keep these big
projects that seem to escapeAsheville and go to Atlanta, new
York, la, chicago, when we haveso much talent right here in
Asheville?
And so that you know, that sortof started us, you know,
ideating on what that looks likeand is this something that we
could accomplish?
(02:55):
And I think Tim and I had had.
We actually had hadconversations about
collaborating, joining forces,doing a collaborative agency or
something for you know a fewyears now, and that I think that
conversation was coming to ahead where we were like you know
, we have to do something.
(03:15):
So, anyway, we all were sittingin the big auditorium at
Pentagram, which is one of the,you know, undisputably one of
the best, most well-known designand branding agencies in the
world.
We have some friends over thereMichael Beyroud, emily Oberman
(03:38):
just a really good group ofpeople.
Paula Scher, you know weconsider these people to be sort
of design heroes in theindustry and all of them have,
have been involved with aiga atsome form of fashion.
And I'm now on the nationalboard for aiga which is kind of
in the path of some of thesewonderful humans.
(03:58):
And they had the five partnersof pentagram, the women partners
, on stage, and they were, youknow, I think, debbie Millman,
who's become a dear friend ofmine.
She's a wonderful designer,brand brand steward.
She's run a podcast calledDesign Matters for Eons.
(04:26):
She asked the women partners aquestion from the audience and
it was how do you become apartner at Pentagram?
And I think it was.
Paula Scherer answered firstand she said you have to work
hard, hard, hard, hard, hard,hard, hard, hard, hard.
And then Emily Oberman, I think, took over and said well, you
know, once you become a partner,you then have to work hard,
hard, hard, hard.
And we kind of looked at eachother, we kind of laughed, we're
(04:48):
so like God, that soundsexhausting, like why can't we
just spread the work around, andso that really was, honestly,
the.
At that point we decided wewere going to try to create an
agency that took on sort of anew form, where we work hard but
not to the point where designis our only mission in life.
(05:10):
Like we have families, we alllove our families, we all love
to travel with our families.
We love, you know, ourfriendships, and what we wanted
to do was cultivate a businesswhere we can have enough revenue
to work with.
So we're talking $500,000 and up, projects that not only we will
(05:35):
retain here because we have anagency that has the capacity to
do the work, but also we becomeattractive to other markets
because we're sort of fresh andnew, we have the, the, the
tenure, we uh, and we have thetalent and we're already doing
amazing work and so, um, yeah.
(05:58):
So, ultimately, our model is todo projects large enough that
we can do really impactful workwhile not having to stay in that
sort of hustle mentality wherewe constantly looking for the
next project so we can, you know, keep money coming in.
Bill Gilliland (06:18):
Got it.
So say you've been doing thisyear and a half or so something
like that not quite.
Reggie Tidwell (06:28):
Yeah, uh, really just last year we launched um
and right out of the gate welanded a project.
Purely just by happenstance, wewere, we were at a thing that
some friends of mine put oncalled a fun day, sunday, or
sunday fun day and we were, uh,we were at this, this event
where basically it's a bunch ofparents with their kids.
(06:51):
It's an opportunity to buildcommunity.
Parents get to know each otherwhile their kids play.
Bill Gilliland (06:55):
It's pretty awesome.
Reggie Tidwell (06:57):
And there was a CEO there.
We didn't know anything abouthim at the time, but his name
was Tim and super awesome guy.
We all just started talking.
I had invited both of thepartners there with their
families and so we were there,we met Tim, we all just kind of
talking about what we were doingand Tim sort of perked up as he
heard us talking about 40Hearts and he's like, wow, that
(07:19):
sounds amazing.
Bill Gilliland (07:20):
He's like can I invite you guys out?
Reggie Tidwell (07:22):
for a drink next week and we were like sure.
So Tim and I met him for adrink next week.
And we were like sure.
So Tim and I met him for adrink my Tim Tim Scroggs.
We sat down and we had thisgreat conversation with Tim Tim
Mitrovich is his name and hesaid you know, you guys,
whatever you're doing soundsamazing.
(07:42):
And my tech company it's an 85person tech company, not a small
tech company, big international.
They're doing really amazingthings in the world of AI and
cloud tech.
And he said you know, I don'twant to shop this around.
(08:02):
I need a full rebrand andwebsite.
and you guys, are it, and so hegave us this big job.
We were able to build out ourteam with two developers who are
now permanently our developers,and we brought in two other
designers to work with us and wewere able to feed some friends,
(08:23):
obviously, and also do a reallyamazing job for this company,
so much that he you know, hesaid we absolutely knocked it
out of the park and wants us tobe his sort of design partners
as we continue on doing workwith them.
Bill Gilliland (08:41):
Yeah well, congratulations.
I mean, obviously y'all havegot a lot of experience in the
industry and collaborating.
So what have you noticed?
I mean it's interesting.
It sounds like you've had threepaths.
It may have been twoentrepreneurs and now you're all
entrepreneurs, or maybe it wasthree entrepreneurs and now
(09:02):
you're throwing in together.
What kind of challenges hasthat presented?
Or opportunities, I guess wouldbe the positive way to look at
it.
Reggie Tidwell (09:10):
Yeah, you know, I think, address challenges and
opportunities, and I think,honestly, even the biggest
challenges so far for us havebeen totally manageable.
The biggest one was that wehadn't even actually had a
chance to launch like we didn't.
We hadn't even had a chance todo our branding or anything when
(09:33):
we landed the job with artisanstudios, and so we were
instantly, uh, thrown into thisreally great project that took
all of our skills and leadership, and we, you know, hadn't
really had a chance to thinkabout who we are as an agency,
and we've a lot of conversationsaround it, but nothing on paper
(09:55):
yet.
And so now we find ourselves inthis place where that job is
launched.
We're waiting for the nextprojects here to start later
this month, and we are nowtrying to understand exactly
what our path is, exactly whatour offerings are.
What does that look like?
(10:15):
We have a general idea of howthat breaks down, but how do we
articulate that to the world sothey know that what we have is
what they need?
And so that's the phase thatwe're in now, while one of our
partners, tim, and his family,are actually traveling around
the world for this 10 month, I'dsay almost like a cultural
(10:37):
journey.
They sold their house and aregoing to do sort of an Asheville
2.0 after they're donetraveling towards the end of the
summer They've been to Ropa dePapa, they were in Luka for a
(11:01):
while, then Croatia, and sohaving a partner that's remote,
even though he's full time he'sstill, you know, we see him and
communicate every day.
We don't get to have thatin-person time, so I say it's
not really a challenge as muchas it is an opportunity to kind
of see how we can stretch themodern days of, of, of working
(11:29):
um together.
You know, having somebody that'sfully remote and being able to
leverage that while also havingclients in the mix.
So far it's been absolutelysmooth.
You know, you wouldn't evenhave to know Tim was, you know,
thousands of miles away.
Bill Gilliland (11:46):
Yeah, it's, it's interesting.
We, um, you know, our firm isvirtual.
I was.
I was actually looking for anoffice before COVID and you know
that was smart.
I was glad I didn't buy anoffice right before, right
before COVID.
But yeah, and since then we'vebeen 100 percent remote and
(12:07):
that's that's.
That's worked great.
I mean, it's not, it's, it's aninteresting that does present
different challenges.
So that's great, that'sfantastic that that's worked out
and you know.
So you guys are coming togetheras a partnership trying to
figure out who you are as acompany and you got one of them
(12:27):
who's remote.
So I think, once you figurethat out, I mean I just think
that's helpful actually.
Reggie Tidwell (12:33):
Yeah, I think so you.
Once you figure that out, Imean I just think that's helpful
actually.
Yeah, I think so too, andhonestly, I think one of the
silver linings of COVID having aglobal pandemic was, I think
companies learn just how easy itis to have remote oh, I think
yeah.
Bill Gilliland (12:48):
I think, yeah, I think it's awesome.
So, um, the I mean you'reputting three people together.
Do you have?
I mean, is there a division oflabor?
Is are you guys all do the samething?
What, what?
How's it working?
Reggie Tidwell (13:02):
That's a great question, bill.
So so my strengths are brandingI'm also a commercial
photographer.
I do a lot of have have done inthe past a lot of stuff for
explore, ashville, mountain bizworks, some great local, local
agencies, um entities.
(13:23):
I you have a bachelor of finearts in graphic design, tim.
Also also branding thoughtleadership, which is thought
partnership, which is actuallyone of the services that I think
is one of our strengths.
Tim and I do what we call brandstory development and brand
(13:44):
story mapping, where we actuallyarticulate what a company does,
but also, as it is relative tothe audience that they seek out,
I think a lot of companies havea problem conveying that,
because they constantly want totalk about what's exciting to
(14:06):
them, about their offerings totheir audience, but they don't
think about the problems thattheir audience, that their
customers, need to solve.
But they don't think about theproblems that their audience,
that their customers, need tosolve.
And so if you switch thataround and approach it from your
client's perspective, like whatare their pain points, what is
it that they want, and how is itthat we can convey that we have
(14:28):
the thing that they want, thatcreates that through line, and
Tim and I do that work.
João is a completely differentbeast.
He comes from the userexperience world and he is what
I would call a multifacetedtechnologist.
(14:48):
Maybe he knows all the software.
He can tell you what softwareyou need to do a certain thing.
He's really amazing withcreating user journey maps and
(15:17):
customer experience maps, uxmaps anything that gives us
intel on the sort of big picturethinking of a company and how
it works and what they're doingand how it connects to their
user base.
He is that and that's such ahuge part of our business, and
so he's a massive asset.
Bill Gilliland (15:26):
Yeah, that is cool.
It seems like y'all are youkind of worked it out.
Yeah, yeah, how to usestrengths, and I've always said
strengthen strengths and thendefend against weaknesses, so
you can always you knowoutsource or or hire whatever
other, what other help you mightneed to fill in, fill in the
gaps?
But at the top level, it seemslike you got it covered.
Reggie Tidwell (15:47):
Yeah, part of two bills, cause part of 40
hearts is actually bringing inthose other, those other people.
Like we don't we don't want tobe the ones doing it all.
Like we have such a vibrant,amazing creative community and,
uh, when you have the kinds ofbudgets that we'll have to work
(16:07):
with, that's an opportunity tochange a lot of people's lives.
And as someone who really lovesthis community and has seen our
creative community strive andthrive and sometimes barely
survive, it has always been onmy heart to figure out a way to
(16:32):
be able to impact a lot ofpeople at once.
And so you've got a milliondollar project and you can bring
in, you know, 10 other peopleor more on this project to help,
you know, expand yourcapabilities.
It gives you the possibility tonot only feed those people but
(16:56):
enhance the offerings becauseyou're now I'll give you a
perfect case in point One of theprojects, one of the things
that we did for Artisan was wehad this whole different sort of
design direction, wholedifferent sort of design
(17:17):
direction and, because of mywork with AIGA and knowing the
the sort of disciplines of somany of the designers here and
illustrators here, we had thisidea of this sort of drop cap
logo design.
It's very specific style.
There's a guy in town named DanGreta who we know very well and
we know that that is his likething.
Like he can develop logos inthat style like no one else, and
(17:39):
so that was an immediately anopportunity to bring someone
else in to do a few conceptsthat we were able to then take
and expand upon.
Um, but there's going to be somany opportunities like that and
, ideally, while we will alwaysbe the three founding partners,
our hope is to grow with profitsharing partners that all have
(18:03):
their own teams built out, thathave different specialties that
they're able to.
Actually, you know, we're ableto have multiple projects going
on at once, projects that havecome in from all over the world,
(18:31):
and be able to keep a lot ofpeople busy.
Bill Gilliland (18:35):
Man, I love that .
I really love that.
You know, in marketing,branding, advertising, there's
so many disciplines and so manytalented people I don't you know
.
It's one of the industries thatyou know.
As I was learning business andbeing in business for a long
time, I've noticed that you justcan't do it all by yourself.
(18:56):
You have to.
You just can't do this stuff byyourself.
Reggie Tidwell (19:00):
So it's super cool.
Bill Gilliland (19:02):
Yeah, it's super cool.
Well, this I think we couldtalk for hours.
So I get why this.
Your first client, Tim, wantedto sit down and have a beer with
you because I would love to dothat too.
So, yeah, I think we need to dothat because I think and I'm
(19:23):
going to need to have you backwe're a little short, but you
know this is sort of running upagainst our time here.
Let me ask you one lastquestion, and the question is
what do you wish you had known?
Hmm, so, in other words, youknow about all this, or about
your whole journey, or aboutcreativeness, or anything.
What do you wish somebody hadtold you years ago?
Reggie Tidwell (19:45):
You know it's.
That's a great question.
Thanks, bill.
I think it's funny because Ithink I've known it for a long
time.
I think part of this industryand certainly being in an area
(20:06):
where you see a lot of the funand bigger projects going to
other markets I've always knownthat I couldn't do this alone,
or I shouldn't be doing thisalone.
I've always known thatcollaboration is key,
diversifies your offerings, butalso, you know I love people.
You know I love people, I lovethis community, and the more
(20:27):
opportunities I get tocollaborate with others, the
better I feel, and so what Iwish is that years ago, I
started what I'm doing now.
Now, granted, I've got 23 yearsof expertise and notoriety, but
(20:51):
I think the journey of adesigner that is doing the
solopreneur thing can be really,really challenging, and
primarily it's because you canonly do so much, you can only go
up to your bandwidth, andoftentimes we are beyond our
bandwidth and that's not a goodplace to be.
(21:12):
You're making okay money, butyou're not having the best
quality of life.
You're just working, working,working, and so one of the
things that's been reallyenjoyable now with the agency is
having two really amazingpartners that I know are working
(21:33):
on different things and I'mworking on my thing and I'm not
feeling like I have to do it all.
I don't feel this anxiety oflike as soon as I'm done with
this.
I got to jump over that.
As soon as I'm done with that,I got to jump over this.
So it's, it's already increasedour my quality of life, I think
for all of the partners.
I mean, I don't think Tim wouldbe able to do what he's doing
(21:55):
right now If we hadn't startedour agency.
I think that was at least oneof the things that freed him up
to be able to do that in termsof traveling around the world
with his family for 10 months.
And so, yeah, it would havebeen nice to have done it, but
better late than never, they say.
Bill Gilliland (22:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah .
No, I think it's great that youfinally pulled the trigger.
I can tell you're really apeople person and that's why,
yeah, you finally pulled thetrigger.
I can tell you're really apeople person and that's why
that's a great thing that youknow you wish you had
collaborated.
I'm sure you collaborated, butyou wish you had gone into
business with some of yourfriends earlier.
So that's, that's awesome.
Well, listen, it's been a greatconversation.
Thanks for being on.
(22:35):
If people want to get ahold ofyou, what's the best way?
Reggie Tidwell (22:43):
on.
If people want to get a hold ofyou, what's the best way?
Uh, well, uh, we are.
Uh.
40 hearts is our tag oninstagram it's brand new, so not
a whole lot of content up thereand our website is 40heartscom.
Uh, you'll see a landing pageup there.
But, as you know, asi mentioned, we are now in that uh sort of
selfbranding phase and so you'llsee that evolve out over the
next few weeks.
(23:03):
But definitely, you know we'rearound and we're super excited
to be a part of Asheville'seconomy.
It's creative for us and Idon't think this will be the
last you'll hear of us.
Bill Gilliland (23:17):
No, no, no, I think the runway is long and
skies are blue.
I think that's amazing.
One of the things I love isthat you guys just got to work.
You didn't worry about tryingto make your website perfect.
You're trying to make all thisother stuff perfect, even though
that's your business, but y'allgot to work because you had
clients to take care of.
(23:38):
So congratulations on that.
Appreciate you being on hereand, yeah, I look forward to
having you back on, because wegot a lot more to talk about.
Reggie Tidwell (23:48):
Thanks, so much, Bill.
Bill Gilliland (23:49):
It's been a wonderful time have a wonderful
day, yeah, and until next time,all the best.
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