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.
And then I went to school in UNLV graduated high school at the age
of sixteen, so a bit of an overachiever, and I would set to
actually be one of the youngest architects in America. But then then, of
course you stumble into this world of entrepreneurship and that became the path for the
next twenty years. So Jared, our listing audience does are I'm a big
sports guy. So you and LV are very famous for the running rebels and
Jerry Tarcini, and I'm sure you know all about the history. But that
school for a while had a great basketball program, man, I know,
trusting and I was there during that time, so it was great we got
to see it. And us that are those with 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 yeah, a lot of great memories there.
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 about that idea.
The epiphany of coming up with this. 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. Yeah, So, so I was
working at Paul Steeman 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 touch point across the entire
sort of buyer and experience journey that you can have. Meanwhile, my wife
now at the time, I'm 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
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. I used to live in Italy for a year. She
lived in Chile for a year. 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. We want to dance and listen to
music and this, that and the other show. 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, h 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 five hundreds, and and yeah, we're we're
having a lot of fun. 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. Well great, I want to talk about that later because you
have that interesting dynamic. You have started a company 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. Yeah, So our mission really, I mean, we're
a creative digital performance you know agency, So 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 six hundred and fifty days of being better than yesterday,
fueled by our passion for creating meaningful connections. Noble Studios wants to be known
as the agency that's creating valuable, personally relevant experiences through our services as creative
digital and formats 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 emission 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 and and stakeholders and whatnot. Jared, there's going to be a lot
of our listens 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 of view about what you do, what would you tell people? Yeah,
I would say that we effectively, 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. It could be in the form of campaign ad development. 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 say 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. 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 phones, there's a
new phone every year. Now, it's just moving very quickly. I imagine
that when you started this company you thought it was going to be something.
It's obviously grown into something sustainable and huge. But I'm I'm wondering, just
as an entrepreneur and running a company, how you and your wife and your
and your team stay ahead of the curve with technology, especially for what you
do. Yeah, you 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 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 in adopting you know, AI and
machine learning. 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 in 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 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. 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 when when we're 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 and forget it. The kinds of clients that
we attract, we they bond with us on that same mantra, 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. Well, Jared bringing up your clients as 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 what 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? You know, at
the end of the day, people follow people they you know you and and
so I feel like we lead with people, right, so we have some
of the best culture. We actually just recognized for 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 mindset of
going in and saying, look, we're leading with the best humans 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 priced 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 you know you can you
can weather the storm if you will is what gets you through those those hard
times. And I think clients are pretty savvy nowadays that they know that if
you've proven all the you check all the other boxes, at the end of
the day, they want to do business with people. And so I think
we really lead strong with our core values, our principles always being noble,
you know, And so yeah, I think that that's one of the biggest
things that people come to us for. So, Jared, you had mentioned
season a couple of times. I did two 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 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 yeah, this questions exclusive to you about running a company with
you with your wife, what's the dynamic, Like, yeah, yeah,
I'm glad you it's 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 world our family owned and operated, and it's there's pretty
much there's nothing in between, and so I think I think it comes down
to mutual respect and compromise. You know, I'm a very you know,
extrovert, so of course being a CEO visionary for the company sort of that
tip of the spear. I'm always focused on sales marketing, and what naturally
someone would do is overvalue that because they say, well, sales is most
important. We don't bring sales in. None of the operational things are necessary.
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 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 side of that, and that takes time.
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 and really respect that value that
they that they bring to the table. Thanks for sharing that great story.
You know. Another thing that we share with our listeners when it comes to
running companies that it's not always unicorns and rainbows all the time, even if
you are doing well with all that said for you, your wife, and
your team, what kind of challenges are presenting the industry right now is specific
to what Noble Studios is dealing with. 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 we've really
embraced, you know, adopting AI. We created a 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 and it comes out in our brand tone,
messaging and whatnot, and this will be stuff that we start to extend out
to our to our clients themselves. 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. 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 we're the we have a healthy brand right We're
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 with whether it's a team member that wants to work for us, whether
it's a net new 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 continue to lean on
leveraging the tools and stuff that exists out there, but always making sure that
we stay true to our mission and vision, which is really about providing those
personally relevant experiences for the end user. 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? Yeah,
so, actually season ten years ago, my wife she created the note
we call the Noble Deeds, and 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 worth really telling their story. They don't have you
know, they're always thrown together with volunteers and or volunteer donation money, and
so 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 what, 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 ourselves and the things that we're considered subject matter experts
on and apply that as a donation and we just celebrate our tenure. We
brought it international, so now it's in the UK, and it really is
something that differentiates us from our 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 that's one of the best things we could have
ever done, was was create our own philanthropic program and donating our services to
the community. Well, I really appreciate you sharing that. I 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. That's very cool.
Yeah, it feels good and you think of that. It was inspired
by the Patagonia give Back one percent and so that's we effectively give about two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year into the community into these you know,
nonprofits. 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. 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, you know what,
we knocked that one out of the park. We did good today.
Is there one that sticks out to you? Yeah. Over 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 and we worked
with like Beats by Doctor Dre for instance. We worked with you know,
Adobe, 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's hit so much. You
know, of the tension that was existing is the more we adopted technology and
us building technology, the more people effectively stayed in house. And 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 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. First of all, that story's
fantastic. 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. That must have been bizarre.
It really is. You know, it's almost like we were desensitized by
it. Right when it first happened, 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, there 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 and it was, Yeah,
it was very surreal to to and just I guess you know, at the
end of the day, you were just fortunate, right, we were fortunate,
and we just felt blessed to say, wow, we were really part
of a cool movement. 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 moved from 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. So couldn't
have hurt the reputation the company to be a part of something so big enviral
too, I imagine. Yeah, it definitely helped. Yeah, it definitely
helped for sure. Very cool. 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. Yeah, 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. There's just no 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. Uh you know,
you know, So I guess in general, like, be curious,
be a good human, and try to better yourself and those that are around
you. I love that, all right, Before we give the website own.
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, they 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? Yeah,
and you just said it. Go to our website, Noble Studios. It's
n O, B L E, S t U d iOS dot com And
to your point, you can see what careers we have open on there.
If you're a client or you're looking to you know, train 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, attract new and better humans
to our company. So yeah, so that's that's how you get there,
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 six scessful 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 from clients, and I think that's very beneficial
to being a winner in today's world, about being passionate about what you do.
So I appreciate that. I wanted to let you know that I appreciate
it. I definitely lead with passion, and I want to be around people
that are passionate as well. It's like time is short, let's just be
around the right people. So, Jared, thank you so much for joining
us on CEOs. You should know it continued success. Thank you, Thank
you. Dennis