I learned a long time ago, if you want to be successful you need to surround yourself with people who don’t think the same way you do and who are good at the things you aren’t. If you are very lucky you will find someone who cares enough to disagree with you.

I am very lucky, because I found Allison.

She argues with me, she asks pointed questions, she corrects my grammar and spelling, and tells me when I screw up. As annoying as that is, I can’t imagine life at Roundpeg without her.

Allison loves structure and routine, so when I suggest something new, some change in our operating strategy or new software, I can always count on her to ask the tough questions and point out the flaws. This is not to say she is unsupportive, just cautious. While I can get her to change with enough prodding, more often then not, she has saved me from rushing off in the wrong direction.

She would rather write a note than talk on the phone and she hates big networking events. How could I possibly hire someone who dislikes big networking events? But she doesn’t like them. That doesn’t mean she is without a network. Through social media, G-Chats, and intimate events, Allison has built a solid power circle, which rivals any of my networks. She just did it in her own way.

But we don’t disagree on everything. We share a common love for animals. While she will insist bringing home Maybee was my idea, I distinctly remember her singing a chorus from the song “Maybe” from the musical Annie until I gave in. (She sings better then I do, too.)

We share an off beat sense of humor, an addiction to Diet Coke, a love of art, theater and Project Runway. Most of all, we share a passion for what we do. We argue about what we believe is in the best interest of our clients and Roundpeg. The result is usually a better idea then either of us would have had on our own.

Did I mention how very lucky I am, that Allison is one of the Faces of Roundpeg

At Roundpeg, we love to play hooky. It’s not that we don’t love our jobs or aren’t passionate about marketing and web design and all that other good stuff. But sometimes, you have to take a step back from your work and take a day for other things. That’s why last Friday we cancelled work. Oh, sure, a few of us did a couple of hours of work in the morning or a smidgen in the afternoon, but most of our day was focused purely on having fun and enjoying the crazy carnival atmosphere that is the Super Bowl in Indianapolis. We even got paid for our time.

It’s a pretty radical thing to do, for an employer to pay their employees for not working. But we’ve found that taking time away from work as a team can be just as valuable as anything we do from 9-5 in our office. First, it refreshes us. Because all of us are creatives of one stripe of another, it can be critical to avoid burnout by becoming inspired by the work of others. That’s why the TURF art exhibit presented by the Indianapolis Downtown Artists and Dealers Association was such a godsend. It’s like a giant playground for grownups (okay, some kids too) where you can interact with art, view it from all different angles, crawl around on the ground and manipulate lights with your body. It’s important to step away from our own art sometimes and to look at what others are doing, how their viewpoints and perspectives differ radically from ours, and to see how we can incorporate that inspiration into our work in fresh, new ways.

The other important thing that our hooky day did was to help us form a stronger team. In our office, there are very few projects that we complete solo. Sure, I might do most of the work on a social media account, Peter shepherds website projects from start to finish and Jenna rules the roost with logos, but there are very few projects any of us complete alone. Whether we’re coordinating work together or just turning to the others for advice and moral support, we’re a team. So when we can get a chance to bond about things other than difficult customers or tricky WordPress themes, it adds a different dimension to our office relationships. It helps us learn to trust each other, and to view each other as whole people instead of just coworkers.

And finally, it’s fun. Fun is a critical part of our culture–an aspect of business that experts are agreeing is becoming more and more important. Culture is the motivation, cohesion, connection, spirit and focus that drive all great businesses. It’s about what makes you go to work besides money and why you deliver the best service day after day. And a little fun never hurt anyone.

Just take a look at some of the fun we had:

One of my all-time favorite TV shows is MASH. I loved all the characters of the quirky, somewhat political comedy. In the eleven years the show was on the air, many of the cast came and went. The writers and the director made a deliberate decision not to simply shove another actor into the same role. When a cast member left, they used it as an opportunity to take the show in a new direction.

The same is true of Roundpeg. In our ten years in business, team members have come and gone. The hardest thing to learn was that I couldn’t cast a new member in the same role. Each new person redefined the job around their skills and talents. While the essence of Roundpeg has remained the same, the company has evolved as a result of their influence.

These days, we have some new characters in our cast. Jenna Giles sits at the Art Director’s desk. While she has the same art degree as her predecessor Taylor, she definitely has her own style. In between designing logos and graphics for clients, she has been organizing our servers and files, shopping for pet fashions and teaching the cats stupid pet tricks.  Jenna  is passionate about her designs and comfortable explaining her concepts to clients, which has allowed me to spend more time looking for new projects.

We knew we had to hire Peter Wolfgram when Maybee drank his water and crawled into his lap during the interview.  Most afternoons you can still find her sitting there. As our production artist, Peter brings a calm center to the chaos that is Roundpeg.  He rolls his eyes ever so slightly when we suggest something he thinks is a dumb idea, you have to be paying attention to catch it. And when he is not designing, he  finds the most obscure and interesting links to share on Twitter. If you don’t follow him @pwolfgram, you should.

Some things haven’t changed. Roundpeg is still a quirky, productive place, filled with laughter, animals, and dining adventures.  It is however, a bit more polished, more professional and more grown up thanks to our newest cast members.   And with this new cast, I expect to run for quite a few more seasons.

They had many nicknames in the Indy business community, but to us they will always be The Boy Band. An unlikely duo, Jay Mattingly and Taylor Brough  shared a sense of  fun and a passion for what they did which allowed them to find a collaborative rhythm.

As solo artists they brought dramatically different backgrounds, skills and personality styles to Roundpeg.

Taylor was the quiet one.  He would often hesitate, thinking carefully about what he wanted to say. When he spoke up, it was worth paying attention.  After three years of working together, he could read my mind and my handwriting.   I am not sure which I valued most.

Jay exploded into every room he entered.  He had a million ideas and loved brainstorming with me. His telephone personality was an amazing mix of fun and business, and I know people called in just to talk to Jay.  The office is a little quieter without him.

 When they both left this summer to pursue bigger dreams, they took a piece of our hearts with them, but they left behind a wonderful legacy:

• Roundpeg Radio which started as a bit of summer music fun and transformed into our popular weekly podcast More than a Few Words.
• Adventures in Dining and Adventures in Culture – A standard practice of road trips as a team to find unusual food and experiences.   Next up? Paintball!
• On the business side they gave us a huge portfolio of great logos and websites and the RP avatar which is now the face of Roundpeg on all social media.

Hard to believe that the Super Bowl in now less than 3 weeks away. As we hear about the almost daily changes going on with our hometeam Colts, we’ve got our noses to the grindstone over here at the ‘Peg. Seems as if this January is redefining the word “busy”. Blogging is one of our top priorities here, and although I’m pretty sure you’ve also had a busy week, check out the Roundpeg topics that made it to our blogposts:

Leftover but Don’t Miss It - An Articulate Account
Scott, our summer intern, helped us out during his winter break. Here are his parting words as he heads back to school.

Saturday – Face of Roundpeg: The Pets – Bonnie, Clyde & Maybee
Roundpeg wouldn’t be the same without the four legged animals.

Sunday – If You Build It They Will Come
Unlike “Field of Dreams,” building a website does not guarantee that it will be viewed. Read Lorraine’s tips on how to drive traffic to your website.

Monday – Two Years of Madness
Allison’s anniversary. Roundpeg would be a different company without her influence for the past 2 years.

Tuesday – Customer Service Distilled
Guest blogger Thomas Aaron shares his perspectives on social media and customer service.

More Than a Few Words – It Is In the Words
Ellen Dunnigan, the owner of Accent on Business, joins us to talk about how to use  good communication skills as a sales person, leader or customer service rep.

Wednesday – Just Blog, Dammit
No excuses, make this the year to blog.

Taking a Stand to Defeat SOPA and PIPA
While the Roundpeg Blog  usually steers clear of politics, Lorraine explains why it is important to take a stand on SOPA & PIPA.

Thursday – 5 Simple SEO Tricks to Increase Traffic
Lorraine shares ideas of how small business owners can use SEO to increase web trafftic.

Friday – One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Plumbers
According to Peter, the  new GIPHCC website features a powerful search tool to help consumers find licensed contractors and an easy to use blogging platform that helps contractors reach out to consumers

I didn’t want to come to my interview at Roundpeg. I wanted to go to the zoo.

It was late January, 2010. I had been un- or underemployed for the eight months since my college graduation. I’d worked retail, I’d done some contract writing work for a local university and most recently, I’d been laid off from a part-time job that I hated but wished would go full-time because it paid well and I wanted a job–any job.

I was down-in-the-dumps on that January day when Roundpeg called and told me they didn’t have any jobs available, but they’d talk to me about an unpaid internship. I didn’t want an unpaid internship, I wanted a job. I was tired of being poor and depressed. But I knew that I needed to keep moving and learning if I was ever going to find that elusive full-time gig.

“Can you come in Monday?” My heart sank. Monday was going to be a rare day for myself. You see, Monday was Martin Luther King Day, which meant free admission at the Indianapolis Zoo. It was going to be my treat to myself: a free trip to the zoo on a frigid winter’s day.

“Of course I can.”

So I went. We interviewed, but I don’t really remember it. I was full of resentment and hurt, going through the motions. But Roundpeg and I looked at each other and saw the same thing: potential. They saw a girl who was a little surly, a little battered, but who might just have some chops. And I saw a company that was a little rough around the edges, a little scrappy, but which might just have the makings of something great.

“When can you start? How about today?” Lorraine asked.

Goodbye, shark petting tank. Goodbye, red pandas. “Sure, why not?”

I worked the whole day, and then never left. Two months later, I was brought on full time.

So much has changed since that day I first walked into the little white house. For one thing, we don’t hire interns on the spot anymore. The company is also more confident, more focused and more profitable. The cast of characters has changed, revolving around the constants of Lorraine, Rebecca and Clyde. The brand and the company have grown up tremendously, and it’s been incredible to watch the change.

And for me? I’m more confident, focused and profitable, too. I’ve honed my writing skills, discovered the wild and wonderful world of social media, built a tight network in the Indianapolis community, gotten comfortable enough with myself and with my boss to help steer the direction of the company. I’ve learned to manage people–sort of. I’ve executed great campaigns with clients I loved that reaped big results, and I’ve face planted on a few projects that left me with valuable, if painful lessons.

But most importantly in my two years at the ‘Peg, I’ve rediscovered my self worth. I’ve grown up. And I’ve had a lot of fun along the way, with Taylor and Jay and Peter and Jenna  and Rebecca and the parade of interns.

Lorraine still owes me a trip to the zoo, though.

When I started Roundpeg, the company was run from a spare bedroom in my house. My cats Snowball and Midnight were my companions and coworkers. Midnight enjoyed sleeping on my planner or mouse pad and Snowball was always fascinated with the movement on my computer screen.

It felt  strange when we moved to the little white house and there were no animals.  That didn’t last long. Rebecca was remodeling her kitchen and her dog, Bonnie, was not getting along with the construction workers. I agreed to let her come to work for a few weeks.

Four years later, Bonnie is a regular part of the routine at Roundpeg. Her daily duties include greeting the team, ignoring our cats, charming our clients and snoring as she snoozes on a pillow in my office.

If you are going to have an office dog named Bonnie, you have to have an office cat named  . . . you guessed it, Clyde. And of course, we do. Weighing just a few pounds when we got her, she quickly established herself as the head of the office.  When she is not hazing interns, new employees and the other office animals, you can find her perched high on bookshelves surveying the chaos beneath her.

And finally, there is Maybee who can always be found in the middle of things. Every water cup and lap are her domain, including those belonging to potential clients or prospective employees.

The animals are a part of Roundpeg adding personality to our Facebook page and fun to our office. They make us laugh as they interrupt our work flow, sales presentations and seminars with their antics.  Most of all, they make our house feel like home.

For more of their antics: Check out our Cats at Work Album on Facebook.

The first week of 2012 was exactly what I expected.  It started a bit slow, with the Monday holiday, but definitely picked up steam as the week progressed.  We launched our 1st quarter seminars and we are almost sold out for our first class.  (If you are interested in attending, don’t wait, reserve your seat now.   We have already started two new web design projects, and we are excited about what else is in the works.

With everything going on, we still had time to write some interesting blog posts. If you didn’t have a chance to stop by this week, here is a summary of what you missed.

Saturday – Faces of Roundpeg: The Interns

Interns are a part of the fabric of Roundpeg. I am a teacher at heart, and I love sharing what I know about marketing with people who are interested in learning. Every semester we have one, two or three individuals who are testing their careers with us.

Sunday - Start the Year Right

I love New Year’s Day. On this day almost anything seems possible. Closing the books on 2011, it is time to plan for the year ahead.  And just like every year for the last ten years, I am putting the finishing touches on my business plan.

The Web Strategy Organization Chart

Oli Gardner wrote a blog post, which is actually a small novel, outlining a six month plan to improving your search position. In it he, outlined the elements which come together to create an effective web strategy. His infograhpic gave me the inspiration for this post.

Monday – Plunger Bouquets and Other Bad Design Ideas

Jenna shares some of the things that make her want to set her graphic design degree on fire.

January Press Refresh

It is a new year, and time for new resolutions. How about making yours to whip your website into shape? We can help. At Roundpeg, we believe in empowering our website design clients to maintain and tweak their websites, continually improving their content and SEO.

Tuesday - Just One Story

Allison explains why business owners who can’t focus one message remind us of the person who trap us in a conversation who can’t just tell you a straightforward story? You want them to tell you one simple thing, but they have to expound on every detail…

More than a Few Words:  The Client Experience

Branding does not stop at the edge of the paper or the bottom of a website. True branding extends into all facets of your customer experience. How you answer your phone, greet guests as they visit and even furnish your office all combine to create a brand impression. This week, we spoke  to interior designer James Kuster, specifically about how he works with clients to extend their brand into all facets of the customer experience.

Wednesday - Roundpeg in Three Words

One of the most interesting and sometimes difficult question a business owners should answer as they write their first business plan is this:What are your company values? This is different then your mission, which is why the business exists or your vision, which is a snapshot of where you will be in five years.Values are about the core or soul of your business.

Thursday New Website is Work of Art

One of Roundpeg’s first WordPress web design projects was the site we built for my husband’s metal sculpting business. In the four years since the site was built, WordPress has grown tremendously as a platform, and so have our skills as a web design team. It was time for a major overhaul of AballStudio.com

Friday -Taking Online Relationships Offline: Richmond Social Media Club, 1/13

Allison talks about her friendship with Randy Clark.  She describes how it started online, but has grown into so much more, they will be taking it on the road for a presentation in Richmond later this month.

Interns are a part of the fabric of Roundpeg. I am a teacher at heart, and I love sharing what I know about marketing with people who are interested in learning. Every semester we have one, two or three individuals who are testing their careers with us.

Traditional and non-traditional candidates, our interns come in all shapes and sizes.  BabyD was a high school sophomore with a talent for video and web design. Mid-career interns Jenn and Kristen were mature women, with more than a few years of experience in different fields.  They came to Roundpeg to learn things which would allow them to take their careers in a new direction.

We even had an international student, Liang Chen, who was here as part of a delegation of students from Taiwan participating in Butler University’s International Trade Institute’s International Business Administration Program.

The faces change, but you can always count on a little bit of learning going on at Roundpeg. And the learning is not one way.  The good interns, the ones we will always remember, gave us as much as we gave them.    Meet some of our interns:

Grant Harris (Jan. 2008) joined us during his last year at Ball State.

Together, he and I learned about Alexa rankings and the positive impact blogging and commenting on other blogs can have on our website’s traffic

Emily (Felts) Reynolds (May 2008) spent the summer working on email marketing, and  event promotion.   But her greatest gift to Roundpeg was the introduction to our former Art Director, Taylor Brough.

Liang Chen (2008), Jay Mattingly (2009) and Scott Pfeiffer (2011) were each  a part of the redesign of the Roundpeg website. With little or no wordpress training when they started, they each left a lasting mark on our brand when they left.

Jenn Riley Simone (Nov. 2010) came to Roundpeg hoping to learn about social media.  She learned enough to open her own marketing firm, offering social media as one of of many services for her clients.

She brought a wonderful sense of fun to Roundpeg and along the way she taught Allison how to be a mentor and a manager. But her greatest gift was the interview she landed for the two of us on NPR’s Marketplace Radio program.  

Not every intern gets offered a job at Roundpeg. Sometimes we are ready to say goodbye at the end of their internship, and sometimes the timing is wrong. We haven’t been able to offer jobs to all the talented, creative people who have been a part of Roundpeg over the years.

But sometimes we learn enough to know the intern is a keeper like Annalise Corman (2008), Jay Mattingly (2009), Sharayah Saunders (2010), Allison Carter (2010) and Peter Wolfgram (2011).

It is not always easy, starting over, carving out time for training, and answering the same questions over and over again, but a good intern is always worth the effort.

Hard to imagine that we are at year’s end. Not to be cliche, but where has the time gone?  All of us who work here at Roundpeg know to expect the unexpected when we walk in the door and this week has not been an exception to that rule. While we are ready to celebrate the New Year, we’ve made it through this week by the skin of our teeth.

Have you had time to check out our blogs this week? From our list of personal favorite blog posts to our business plans for 2012, we’ve covered a lot of territory.  Happy New Year & we’re looking forward to a new year of blogging. What are you looking forward to?

Saturday – Faces of Roundpeg: Matt and the Gift of Words
Matt shared some words of wisdom with Lorraine when she was starting Roundpeg. Is there someone who has gifted you with their words this year?

Sunday – Simple Season’s Greetings from Roundpeg
Jenna designed the 2011 Roundpeg holiday card to reflect our new aesthetic. We wish our clients, friends and families a wonderful holiday season.

Monday – Hidden Gems from 2011
Last week we shared the top ten most popular blog posts, this week we tell you a little bit about our favorites from 2011.

Tuesday – All American Doesn’t Have to be Red, White & Blue
The challenge of designing a logo that will look good not only on the product but on a website as well.

MTFW: Your Baby is Ugly
Roundpeg designers Jenna Giles and Peter Wolfgram  discussed the challenges and rewards of working with graphic design clients.

Wednesday – Small Business Social Media Strategy for 2012
Social media became mainstream in 2011, how do you plan to use it in 2012?

Thursday – The Cobbler’s Children: 2012 Roundpeg Goals
This post is a list of our goals for 2012.

Friday – What Did Your Letter Say?
At the beginning of 2011, Lorraine wrote a letter about what she hoped to accomplish this year. Read this blog to see how her year wrapped up.

Happy New Year!