Daily Inspiration: Meet Trey Boden

Today we’d like to introduce you to Trey Boden.

Hi Trey, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I never imagined I’d be an entrepreneur.

My dad was my best friend and was also a small business owner. He’d work hard seven days a week, constantly distracted by the next fire at work. It was a family business that started off on Spring Street in the 1940s and eventually made it to North Fulton. My mom worked there, too. I worked there as one of my first jobs when I was 10 years old. I was ‘volun-told’ to help in the shipping department when Chrysler had a body computer recall and the shop had the opportunity to repair and return every one of them nationwide in less than 3 months.

I remember watching the ’96 Olympics from the back of my dad’s warehouse. Making boxes. Printing shipping labels. While the rest of Atlanta went to the Games, I told myself I’d never get stuck running my own business.

Pretty ironic now.

What was my dream career as a teenager? Leading worship music at a local church. I even went to seminary! But life had a different plan. I found myself in education, after my first church job, at the Mount Vernon School in Sandy Springs. I taught the first couple of years, later joined the communications team, and eventually became the Chief Brand Officer.

I never imagined creative work would be the foundation of what I brought to the world. I never even took a formal art class! But over ten years at Mount Vernon, I helped build a brand that went from a sleepy day school to a nationally recognized name in the education space.

By 2019, I realized I’d done what I came to do. But I didn’t want to compete with that same school by moving to another one in our market.

That’s when the idea I never imagined saying became real: “What if I started my own business?”

Like any other business Roar was started with an inciting incident and a willingness to take a leap.

Roar is a small but mighty full-service marketing and branding agency built on helping our customers take their brands in courageous directions. We do this through what we call ‘old school marketing.’ While spray and pray approaches with digital advertising and dreams of set-it-and-forget-it leads are possible for some, most of us have to rely on the tried and true: our reputations.

At Roar, we believe in creating powerful marketing through targeted experiences with a people-first strategy. We help our customers to remember their best source of leads is doing well by the people who’ve already said yes… and helping those customers tell others why they should say yes, too.

Why are we in business?

Frankly, because I fell into it. But also? My family demands it.

I wanted to be a different kind of entrepreneur. Not a slave to my desk on weekends. My family is the number one motivator to keep going.

A big part of our family story is adoption. We have a passion for seeing orphans find families. That’s why when we started Roar, we committed 3% of all revenue toward a donor advised fund called the Triumph Fund in honor of one of my sons, adopted from China with Down Syndrome.

Over the past four years, we’ve been able to provide over 10 families with grants for adopting children with Down Syndrome from international countries.

We don’t do it for a pat on the back. We believe businesses should do more than produce widgets and chase revenue. Living that out, we want to be more than just another marketing company by creating impact for others.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Truthfully, I have been fortunate. In our first month in business, I was referred by a former colleague to a virtual mental health care startup. They were looking for a part-time Head of Creative while the CMO was looking for an internal team. With only one client at the time, I jumped at the opportunity. This led to our core offering that I didn’t plan: serving as an integrated marketing team that equips our customers to move from SOW to GSD, with me serving as the Creative Director or Chief Marketing Officer. 

Since our founding in 2021, we have served in this capacity for 6 companies and over 50 clients. 

The most challenging part of our growth has been balancing our non-negotiables: our commitment to philanthropy and our need to bootstrap the business. Three percent of revenue might not sound like much, but when you make the intentional choice to start a business with no debt and your customers demand you scale quickly, you can really feel that. However, I believe that our success is directly tied to our commitment to providing adoption grants for families. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Niching is always hard for business owners, especially when you first get started. Who’s your niche? The person willing to pay.

We’re just now finding our stride with the customers that are the best fit for us. With a background in education, many of our customers come from that world. We’ve helped private schools, consultants, and nonprofits hone their messaging and brand strategy.

On the other end, we’ve helped for-profit companies become their own marketing team for less than the cost of a full-time employee. We work best with purpose-driven companies that have a small total accessible market… usually fewer than 10,000 people they’re trying to reach.

One of my favorite stories: we helped introduce a customer to a nationwide prospect in the restaurant industry. We came up with the idea of designing a t-shirt inspired by the brand and style of the prospect, rolling and wrapping it in foil, and writing the name of a decision-maker on the outside with a black Sharpie. We sent a box full of these “burrito shirts” to headquarters. It led to a conversation that they never were able to get previously. Over two years, we’ve helped that customer build brand awareness among the leaders in their industry through creative marketing introductions, sales enablement, personalized customer experiences, and referral strategies.

I think that’s what sets us apart. We want to help our customers make intentional headway with their dream customers through personalized marketing creating moments that builds momentum for their brand. That takes work. It means understanding our customer’s industry, their services, and their unique value. It also means long-term relationships. Most of our customers have stuck with us since we started.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I present myself as a pretty confident person. Call it a product of being the middle child and an Eagle Scout, but I think people would be surprised to know how often I deal with imposter syndrome.

Most of the time when I’m making business decisions, I find myself thinking, “Who the hell am I to make these decisions? Where is the boss? Am I going to break this good thing we’ve got going?”

Ownership is an act of stewardship. We don’t control our customer’s yes, but we can influence it by being consistent with what’s given to us. The work that comes to us is a gift. Our job is to steward it well.

Being a faith-driven leader, my calling as a founder is rooted in humanity’s first job. Adam and Eve were given the opportunity to name the animals, tend the garden, and fill it. Everything was given to them. Their job was just to do well by what they received.

I try to lean into this, but it’s just so hard. However, I gain comfort when I’m vulnerable with other business leaders… because they feel the same way. It’s good to know you’re not alone, but in the moment it can be challenging to believe in yourself. A strong community is one of the greatest gifts that I have found to keep me going.

Pricing:

• Subscription and Project-based Pricing

Contact Info:

• Website: www.createwithroar.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/treyboden/