Professional Career
Kevin Heimlich: Before Digital Marketing
Prior to forefronting a first-rate digital marketing firm, Kevin gained employment at a real estate company after earning his finance degree specializing in real estate.
The Great Recession
In an unfortunate turn of events, the crash, otherwise known as “The Great Recession,” that led to the U.S. economic downturn in 2008, happened during Kevin’s 1st year of employment at a commercial real estate company.
On the day news of the crash headlined various print and broadcast media platforms, Kevin and his coworkers were on the edge of their seats, in suspense, awaiting news of their company’s future.
Merril Lynch and Lehman Brothers, the company’s principal partner’s biggest clients, collapsed on the same weekend, naturally causing them to wonder how he would react to losing his main clients.
To their surprise, he came into the office whistling and in good spirits, drawing them to the conclusion that he may not have heard the news yet.
One of Kevin’s mentors, whom he still keeps in touch with, Jim Sladack, pulled Kevin aside and imparted a lesson that Kevin lives by to this day “Never speak ill of your competition.”
In the wake of the crash, Jim urged Kevin to polish his resume and shift his career focus, suggesting it would take time for the real estate market to recover. Valuing his mentor’s sentiments, Kevin went on to business development for an investment bank.
Digital Marketing: The Introduction
Initially tasked to cold call for lead generation, Kevin suggested a more efficient method that unknowingly paved the way to what he now specializes in today; digital marketing.
Kevin’s first attempt at online advertising yielded impressive results and gained quality leads for the investment bank, alluding to his future massive success in the industry. Witnessing Kevin’s natural aptitude for marketing, Kevin’s employers promoted him to facilitate the sales team’s advertising efforts and strategies.
Months later, when employees would venture out and seek better professional opportunities, Kevin would get calls for his expertise in online marketing, asking Kevin to perform digital advertising for their current company. Always seeking new challenges, Kevin agreed.
Seeing his success, Kevin felt compelled to seriously venture into digital marketing and slowly built his client base while freelancing as a sales and distribution professional for an automotive parts company.
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The Ad Firm
Kevin would perform his tasks and duties for the automotive parts company from 05:30 AM until noon and worked on building then Locally Ranked, now The Ad Firm, from noon until 08:00 PM.
Starting with a small office in Lake Forest, then Fullerton, The Ad Firm’s move to the Newport Beach office marked one of the company’s most notable milestones, where it became a considerably established agency.
After months of continuously increasing and expanding The Ad Firm’s client base and employees, Kevin opted to move to an office accommodating the company’s growth in Santa Ana, boasting 10 private offices and 25 cubicles.
From there, The Ad Firm really took off and saw exponential growth. While that is an achievement, it doesn’t come without challenges. Kevin felt overwhelmed, dawning on him that while he knew digital marketing, managing staff was a different challenge altogether.
At this stage, with relatively low business acumen and lacking management skills, Kevin committed various lapses in judgment that caused a rift between the production and sales team, essentially stemming from unrealistic results for the price point.
Having never handled predicaments of this magnitude, the pressure and high-stress environment eventually got to Kevin to the point where he was looking out the window from the 2nd story amidst the chaos behind him, thinking he should have gotten the 7th floor to end it all.
This was a critical juncture in Kevin’s life that urged him to make a transformational change. He took a week to reorganize, strategize, and improve The Ad Firm’s business structure, taking proactive measures to avoid the same issues from recurring.
The Ad Firm Reborn
Kevin decided to be more selective in accepting businesses focusing on offering quality digital marketing services to clients with whom the team can foreseeably and reasonably build long-term relationships as opposed to pursuing all leads only to provide substandard services.
After Kevin’s new business plan and structure, The Ad Firm saw significant growth. One of the biggest testaments to The Ad Firm’s improvement was when a client who owns 3 companies selling automotive head units dominated pages 1 and 2 of Google’s SERPs, indicating that the online users were choosing between the client’s 3 companies. The client’s success was so tremendous that Amazon caught wind of them and offered to acquire their business.
From a juvenile mindset focusing primarily on financial gain, Kevin evolved and shifted priorities to building a sustainable company that benefits and provides value to all parties involved; the company, clients, and employees.
Now, the “we win only if you win” mindset is at the forefront of Kevin’s strategies for The Ad Firm, offering value to not only the company but especially the clients and employees.
Through lifelong learning, aiding in employees’ professional development, and providing clients with superior service, Kevin aspires to grow The Ad Firm into a company recognized for yielding high ROI and trustworthiness nationally and, eventually, internationally.
