Today’s feature is Jared Belsky, the CEO and Co-Founder at Acadia.

What gap did you see in the market that led you to found Acadia?

Mid-market companies (who have a meaningful budget to spend, maybe not The Coca-Cola Company money, but a good budget nonetheless) have two options when searching for an agency partner.

Option #1: They string together a team of 5 - 7+ specialist agencies. At any given moment, three agencies are doing well, one needs to be fired, and no one knows about the 6th. Either way, that integration lands on the client who is increasingly short-staffed.

Enter Option #2: Reach for the top nationally known agencies and risk having your $2m budget assigned to a team that might not care as much about your money, given it's a "small client."

We built Acadia to have the perfect mix of growth services under one roof, where we can steward a mid-market client's budget extremely well across analytics, paid media, Amazon, social, SEO, Shopify/dev, and design, eliminating the burden of managing many agencies. 

What differentiates your agency from others?

We have a single private investor who is a long-term trusted friend, Co-Founder, and e-commerce visionary who shares my vision for long-term sustainable growth, one where we can place an emphasis on the quality of the talent we bring in, nurturing and retaining that talent (we have single digit employee turnover in an industry where 35% is the average), and using that unique advantage to translate into a superior experience for our clients.

In terms of our approach to the delivery of a superior return to our clients, one of our first acquisitions was a best-in-class data and analytics agency. We've placed 1P data at the center of our ecosystem because the ad space is quickly evolving. The mid-market needs to be masters of their own 1P data but often can't afford to do this themselves and need a cost-effective solution.

But really, in the end, it's that we hire for the "who" and not the what. We care about finding people who believe in our core values, who work hard, who will advocate passionately for their clients, and who have a high do:say ratio. The rest works out. 

Are any of your personal values incorporated into the agency?

A good CEO realizes a business is not about them. These are not my core values. Rather, these are Acadia's core values which are at the heart of our culture.

Curiosity, Can Do, Candor, and Community.

I have found that, by bringing together talented folks who share these values, we can find the right mix of push (candor), empathy (community), hustle (can do), and innovation (curiosity). Best of all, we don't have to drive this as a company. We recruit folks who have this in their DNA and then do our best to guide them and otherwise stay out of their way as they lead our clients to growth. 

Do you have any advice for marketers?

Find mentors and people who believe in you non-transactionally.

Stick around somewhere and find 1-2 very smart, thoughtful people who are 10+ years your senior and ask them for time, perspective, coaching, and learning. Don't ask them for favors, just to learn. This will help speed up your career journey and learning curve.