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To All the Little People…

I'd Like To Thank the Academy

Friday, April 10, 2009 | Posted by Aaron Goldman

Posted In: About Connectual

On the eve of the Connectual launch, I'd like to show love to some of the folks who played supporting roles in helping me reach this point.

In no particular order...

Elevate Studios created all the Connectual brand assets from the logo to the business cards to the website. Mad preesh to Larry for his trusted partnership and understanding what I was hoping to build, Kate for keeping me (and everyone else) in line, Travis for always being responsive and putting up with my scattershot feedback, Sara for her keen eye and giving life to the Connectual brand, Jason for his all-around wizardry (the custom CMS you designed for this site is the baddest thing I've even seen!), Joey for his wicked development skills, and Nate for just being Nate. Looking forward to helping Elevate and Extension Digital get Connectual!

Hans Theisen put his faith in Connectual to help Cardlytics go to market. It's a great new product (contact me if you want more details) and I'm honored to represent them.

To all the good people of Resolution Media -- thanks for ~5 great years! I've never been around such a talented and motivated group. I've gotten smarter with every interaction I've had with you search geeks and am priveleged to have the opportunity to help you keep growing through Connectual. Thanks also to all the RM clients for placing your trust in our team and and pushing us to continually innovate and integrate. 

A few specific RM call-outs...

Matt Spiegel has been my mentor from the time I finished school and someone I'd follow into the gates of hell. Matt taught me everything I know about leadership and starting a business. In recent months, he's been a great sounding board for the many different directions I've thought about taking Connectual.

Dave Gould showed me the fine art of politicking and gave me strong guidance over the past couple years. He supported my new endeavor from day 1 even though it meant having to replace my role at RM.

Ever since we starting scheming in college, Lance Neuhauser pushed me to never settle. He also came up with the tagline, "It's Not What You Know. It's Not Who You Know. It's Who Knows You." Same Dream Different Day, my man.

Tom Kuthy, RM's new head of biz dev, ramped up quickly allowing me to focus on launching Connectual and also gave me some great advice on my business model drawing from his plethora of consulting experience.

Betsy Carpenter provided great counsel on the Connectual brand identity. She really has a knack for this branding thing.

My direct reports over the years at RM deserve special recognition for their great work, support, dedication and putting up with my, ahhh, quirks as a manager -- Dave "DL Smooth" Levy, Neal "Rainmaker" Wilson, Larooke Nicholman, and the artist formerly known as Shen (that would be Shaby and J-Marsh). Dave, Lauren and Brooke - I promise that the pic of you guys will adorn the walls of my office forever!

The execs I've had the pleasure of serving with at RM since its inception -- Matt, Lance, Jeff, Tony, Darren, Chris, Dave G, Viji, Eric, Heather, Michael, Dave B, Dave T (yes, being named Dave gives you a leg up at RM), Jamie, and Tom -- are truly masters of their domains and were instrumental in shaping my POV on where the space is going and what it's going to take to win.

To my colleagues at Omnicom Media Group (especially Jill Botway, Scott Hagedorn, Jen Razor, Erin Matts, Wendy Arnon and Michele Markham) -- it's been an absolute pleasure going to battle with you and I look forward to many more years of fighting the good fight together.

Keith Kaplan of Adconion, Shawn Riegsecker of Centro,Tony Bombacino of Restaurant.com, Chris Carlson of MySpace, Kyung Kim of OMD, Scott Shamberg of Critical Mass, and Bryan Benavides of LFM Network always made themselves available to lend an ear over the years and are each rock stars in their own right.

To the old L90/MaxOnline sales crew (Matty, Kappy, C$, Iceman, B-Dub, Foster, Geier, Liz, Swerdy, Suz, P-Dub, Fox, Kelly D, Agens, Reetz, Ryan, Autumn, Katzy and, of course, the Pig) -- your little boy's all grownsed up. Thanks for showing me the ropes and letting me feed off your energy. It's time for the 10-year reunion. Get on that, Carlson.

Many thanks to everyone who wrote a testimonial for me on LinkedIn -- I'm truly humbled by your verbiage. (Especially Jeremy Bloom who wrote a whole megillah!) I promise to reciprocate and write reco's for all of you in due time.

And last, but certainly not least, I'd like to thank my wife Lisa for putting up with many days and nights of, er... planning and always being (at least pretending to be) interested in the most minute details of Connectual. Sorry I used our baby journal as a middle-of-the-night brainstorm pad!

Shout out to the littlest person of them all -- this one's for you Eliara! (Literally... baby's gotta eat!)

OK, acceptance speech over -- time to start being Connectual. Stay tuned for the press release on Monday.

Update: There's a little discrepancy over the origin of the tagline, "It's Not What You Know. It's Not Who You Know. It's Who Knows You." I'm giving attribution to Lance Neuhauser who conjured it up at a My Morning Jacket show last December. (We were sitting front row center, I might add.) But the Connectual-esque Jason Kalish pointed out that he's been using the line “It’s not only who you know, but who knows you” for the past 2 years. All I can say is, great minds think alike!

Update #2: Forgot some folks in my rundown. Now I know how the actors feel -- only I didn't have the producers blaring music and motioning for me to get off stage...

Much love to all the folks I've served with over the years on the CIMA board of directors, especially the old schoolers -- Christine, Matt (that's his 3rd mention, I really am a follower!), Jen, Tony, Ed, Jess (x2), De Anne, Brenda, Blagica, Mike, Erik, Camille and Addie. "Connecting Chicago" now seems like a piece of cake compared to the entire "Digital Marketing Ecosystem." Zoiks!

To the peeps of KSM, who took a flyer on an earnest intern back in the day -- thanks for giving me my start in the biz and allowing me to cut my teeth over calendars and IO's! Cheers David, Joanne, Matthew, Vicki, Michelle, Andrew, Kelly, Cheryl, Shammy (again), Sy, Darrell, Papa Nick, Marnie, Michael, Carrie, Kim, Chris, Andy, Len, Joni, Jon, Happy Herb, et al.

And, as long as I'm going all the way back, I should plug the Daily Illini for giving me my first taste of ad sales. And Mike Byrd of the now defunt Hawaiian Vintage Chocolate Bar for my first big campaign. (Which reminds me, shout out to Jeremy "Sweet Tooth" Jonhson of WinFreeStuff.com for my first sale in the big leagues at L90.) To all you DI'ers - Nancy, Kit, Tyson, Aviva, Jen (x2), Sue, Courtney, Mike O, Mike R, Tracy, Glen, Arden, House, etc. I've got 3 letters for ya -- I-L-L!