Right Source Turns Five: Past, Present, and Remarkable Future

Show, don’t tell. Educate, don’t sell. Write for your audience, not for your ego. And by all means, don’t talk about yourself too much.

Today, I get to break the rules. After all, it’s Right Source Marketing’s fifth birthday.

I asked for a laser tag party. Rejected by Yvonne – too much hand-eye coordination, not enough beer. I inquired if we could head to Vegas to “make it rain.” Too expensive, according to Michael. Finally, I came to my senses, and asked if we could head down to spring training to take in Derek Jeter’s last appearance in Tampa. But Will said we had too much work to do.

So finally, I turned to my trusted colleague and friend, Alecia. She could not understand why the others turned down my brilliant proposals, and offered me an opportunity to express myself in a blog post. And the others wonder why she is my favorite?

Birthing, growing and nurturing a company is a labor of love. So excuse me while I express my pride in where we are today, give some thanks, and acknowledge a bright Right Source future.

Where we are

First of all, if you haven’t checked the Right Source web presence in a while, you’re in for a treat. In conjunction with our fifth birthday, we decided to celebrate with a new identity, improved website and blog, and a host of new or revised educational resources. I encourage you to check out the following:

• eBook: How to Grow Your Business with Content Marketing
• eNewsletter: Insights from the Trenches
• Checklist: 10 Tips for Creating Remarkable Blog Posts

And of course, we ate our own dog food on this project. For every public-facing asset you see, there are several internal assets that serve as the foundation for the future of our company. This includes items like messaging guides, presentations, editorial calendars, and more.

The real foundation of Right Source, however, is our people – both the people we serve (clients) and the people who do the serving (our team). Our client base is full of growing companies that have embraced a strategy-before-tactics, content-driven marketing approach. And I can say without hesitation that our current team of modern marketers is the strongest it has ever been, and it’s about to get even stronger.

Thank yous

I promise I will try to keep this short, but since it’s Oscars week, there are some people I need to thank.

First, thank you to our team – past and present members, full-timers, part-timers, contractors, partners, freelancers, and everyone else. I like to think about this company as a second family. Sure, this is a business. But it’s a business full of good-hearted, talented people. We spend a lot of time together, and we have plenty of disagreements, but our shared commitment to doing remarkable work is a point of pride that cannot be measured.

Second, thank you to our clients. There is no Right Source without you. You’ve entrusted us to handle some very important aspects of your business, and that trust is worth far more than the numbers on a check.

And last, a blanket thank you to our “regular” families for putting up with the ups and downs associated with growing this business. I wrote the first part of this blog post while sitting at the kitchen table as my kids ate breakfast. I am sure they wanted to talk about school, basketball practice, this weekend’s birthday parties, or anything other than Dad’s company and its fifth birthday. I am quite certain this scenario plays itself out in the kitchens of Right Sourcers from Alexandria, VA to Owings Mills, MD and beyond – so again, thank you for your loyalty, patience, and understanding.

The future

As someone who professes to be a planner by nature, I am embarrassed to say that I don’t know exactly what the future holds for Right Source. But here’s what I do know: In the next few weeks — maybe the next few months — there will be new Right Source team members, new client kickoffs, continued work with existing clients, some operational changes.

I also know that we will always shoot to do remarkable work. We will continue to build this company around the idea of doing remarkable work. We will hire the right people to do only remarkable work. We will find clients that appreciate remarkable work. In a business world that too often favors a high-volume, low-quality, low-price approach, we’re outliers. And we think that’s something to celebrate.

About Mike Sweeney:

As Right Source’s co-founder and CEO, Mike Sweeney creates, plans, and implements our vision, mission, culture, and strategic direction as well as serving as an advisor to our clients. Mike received a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a major in marketing from the University of Notre Dame and has more than 20 years of experience in B2B marketing strategy, including digital, content, and marketing technology. You can find Mike on LinkedIn.