Greetings from BAMville…. A new year. Another day.
Stop right there. There’s no such thing as another day at BAM. We have a new saying posted above the door at the office. It reads, “We’re only as good as we are today!” Ok it’s only a post-it note but the words and the message are clear. Show up, chop your wood, and it’s all good. That rhymes too.
It sounds too simple but when you enjoy what you do it is that easy. That said, we’re not perfect. We’ve pushed deadlines, left discussions at crossroads of vague conclusions, and made assumptions that we probably shouldn’t have. That’s human nature. But at BAM, it’s our nature to carve out our brand through our work. Pure and simple. “Hey Bill. We gotta get a BAM newsletter out. Hey Bill, did you get your BAM client letter written? Bill, did you ever get the press releases out on Neil or Justin, and what about Andy and Kevin?” So now I can check-off the newsletter from our list but I think our time is spent in better ways. I like to keep the spin holstered in our world because that’s the way it should be. We let our work speak for itself. After all, we’re all only as good as we are today!
2011 brought a lot of growth at BAM. Measured growth. We’ve been blessed to gracefully supplement our staff this year with a few couple gifted people. Neil Catapano and Justin Fritz. EVERBODY KNOWS NEIL. Brother Neil hates when I say this but my world has been pretty much turned upside down since Neil migrated from the bright lights and big city of Plainville, IL to the advertising mecca of Upper St. Clair, PA. While Neil has spearheaded a wealth of projects in his short tenure, you have to understand it’s always with the same successful formula accompanied by painfully defined goals: Listen to our Culligan dealers, find an opportunity, gather input from an ever-revolving cross section of dealers, and then let BAM machine it into visual media with execution geared for measurement. After all, we are driven to ask ourselves, what have we done for Culligan today?
Justin Fritz, or “Jastin” as both Hall’s Maggie Smith and we prefer to call him, is our interactive brew master. We’re not always sure what the hell he’s rambling about but spend a little time with him and you’ll quickly understand why he embodies what we’ve done for Culligan today. He pours over his campaigns EVERY day… with strategies that he’s honed since he was 13! Go ahead, Google Justin Fritz Pittsburgh and look for an article about a pair of brothers “wrestling cash from the web”. The man was making more than most people do today, in high school. You’d never know it though. That’s why, like all of us at BAM (ok, Neil does have an ego as big as Texas but)… we just like chopping a new pile of wood every day with a pedestrian profile and lumberjack’s enthusiasm. Did I mention that we enjoy it too?
Can’t forget about the always effervescent Pam “Queen of Claims” Berry, Kevin “Scratch” Lazzaro, Andy “AC 30” Coleman (his nickname is a product for Pete’s sake whomever Pete is), Rachael “Hi-Res/Lo-Res” Seip, Bryan Morse-Code, Taylor “The Coder” Collins, Sue “Cellar Dweller” Froedtert, Mary “Dancing Machine” Broglie, and Francois “Yeah I’m French” Wilson. I could write lengthy narrative about each of us but that’s not really what we’re about. That said, I’ll bring more insight in future communiqués into these personalities who continue to define BAM. But in the meantime, give us a call, stop by, invite us out, have a cocktail with us… just talk to us. Spend a little time and get to know us… if you haven’t already… and I think that you’ll find that above all else, we care.
I’ve started every Culligan relationship with the same message. “Thank you for the opportunity to meet with you today. I’d like nothing better than to walk out of our here with the opportunity to earn your business. And if we don’t, I will consider myself fortunate to have met another band of Culligan men and women with whom I will cross paths again… and consider you colleagues and friends.” All these people and relationships are now embodied in a very special place outside of our souls. In a place created by Culligan men and women… in a place that everyone is getting to know a little better. That place is where this greeting emanates from today… and that place we’ve built for you… our valued clients, our friends, and our family who have given us the opportunity for our creativity to flourish, hard work to produce results, and the ability to display them in a place called BAMville. I just thought of another couple lines worthy of a post-it note above the door:
- “Ask what we can do for our dealers today”
- ”Chop wood like lumberjack everyday”
Take care, have a wonderful New Year, and Godspeed in all you do… for you, your families, your fellow workers and employees, and all of us on the 3rd rock . Hey Neil, what’s on tap for Culligan today… I’m feeling a little bored.