Quick Wins for Long Term Profits

Josh Dougherty and Polly Yakovich own A Brave New, a 4-year-old boutique marketing agency focused on branding, inbound marketing, and web design. A Brave New uses strategy, marketing, content, and technology to help clients around the USA tell their stories, expand their reach, and connect with the right kind of customers, clients, or donors, "who will benefit from whatever they have to offer."

A Brave New believes in developing a "smart strategy" and diving quickly into execution to get "80% of the way" to the final results—energizing client companies with quick wins, seeing what works and what doesn't, and leveraging that experience to refine the strategy. Targeting perfection from the start wastes time and strategy does not have to be "complete" at the time of implementation. Companies can learn a lot by "doing," adjust their course, and develop strategies iteratively over time. A Brave New has found that flexibility and nimbleness empower companies to leapfrog over the competition. In simple words, "Get to the marketplace quickly, then fix it."

Both Josh and Polly came from a "big agency" and executed carefully-planned, strategic, employer-supported exits from big agency life. They honestly and openly shared their long-term goals with their employers and maintained good relationships with them as they adjusted their work schedules and phased into working at A Brave New full-time over a period of two years.

In this interview, Josh and Polly address the curiosity, discomfort with the status quo, and drive to explore new ideas that characterize the entrepreneurial spirit. They give a lot of credit for A Brave New's success to great mentors and a network of entrepreneurs who advised and encouraged them through the hard times so typical for start-up companies. Josh comments that, "Fortune and the future really favor people who are bold and set big goals." Polly agrees.

Josh can be reached on Twitter at @doughj or on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdough/

Polly can be reached on Twitter at @pollyyakovich or on Linked in at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/polly-yakovich-5a5151b/

Both are also available on the company's LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a-brave-new/ or on their company website, a Brave New, at https://abravenew.com/