Brandon and Heather Steiger, founders and owners of 2120 Creative, an integrated digital marketing agency based in Chester Springs, spoke to VISTA Today about growing up (Heather as the daughter of a pastor in northern California and Brandon in Washington State, the son of a Navy corpsman), what brought them to Chester County, and how they differentiate their agency in a crowded industry.

Where did you grow up?

Heather – I was born in Dover, Delaware but grew up in Northern California. I was the baby in the family and have an older sister who is four years older than me. I lived in a few different parts of the Valley (Sacramento, Manteca, Lodi) growing up — I was an original “Valley Girl” from the ‘80s! My dad was a Pastor and we moved around every few years as he was assigned to work in different churches. My mom was a Nurse.

Brandon – I was born the oldest of three children in a naval hospital in Washington State. My dad was a corpsman in the Navy during the latter years of Vietnam. My step-mom worked off-and-on as a teacher and in accounting.

What do you remember about growing up in that area?

Heather – I remember living in the country during my middle school years. I only had boy neighbors, but I was always a tomboy, so I relished doing activities outside with them. We lived next to an almond orchard at the time, which I loved, because we were constantly outside riding ATVS, swimming, playing games and building forts. We watched television on Thursday nights as a family, but other than that, I was outside.

Brandon – I grew up mostly in Montana. We had a lot of wide open space — I always thought that’s how everyone grew up! I remember watching my dad graduate college when I was 12ish, after watching him work very hard for many years leading up to that point. He made a huge impression on me growing up. I watched him as a husband and a father, and then a single dad, and then a husband again. He worked multiple jobs at one time to stay afloat – one day at a slaughterhouse to the next at an oil field. People would put food in our car after church on Sundays to help us make it. Both my parents worked very hard to get us through school. When I was in high school, my friends and I would go backpacking in Montana, and I can’t imagine parents allowing that today! We had a lot of freedom growing up where we did.

How did you make friends as you moved around to  different schools?

Brandon – I was a quiet, nerdy introvert, so that made it hard, but I played sports, so that helped. We moved back to Montana many different times, which was nice. In 5th grade, we moved to Atlanta, and that was difficult. I was the only white kid in my class. It was a culture shock at such a young age but an experience that I value now.

Heather – I was always naturally friendly, and quickly adapted to new school settings. I did not have trouble fitting in until 8th grade. I had been moving around since the 2nd grade, so my “normal” was to find a way to adapt. Being the younger sibling, I also found that it was necessary to go along with situations. Later, I struggled in my twenties with feelings of abandonment from having to say “good-bye” so many times in my childhood, so I became more cautious with my friendships and relationships. Yet at the same time, if I found a good loyal friend along the way, they became a friend for life!

What was your first job?

Brandon – I’ve done it all. I don’t want to say I always had a job – because that sounds like an hourly thing. I like to say, I have always had a motivation. I worked various jobs from cutting lawns, pulling weeds, to cleaning trucks. My first official job was working at MetroPark when I was 16 during the state fair, and then I got a job working at Subway. I kept climbing in my jobs no matter what I did. I have always worked to save money to buy myself things that I longed for – like a laptop or a hard drive, little did I know these tools would be essential to my future career.

Heather – We had briefly moved to Michigan for 3 years while I was in lower elementary school and while my parents were putting themselves through college. My first “job” was selling hot cocoa and brownies to the fisherman right down the hill from our house during the cold winter months of salmon season. My mom would invest in the necessities, and we paid her back with the money we made then my sister and I would split up the profits. Fast forward to our business today, I always think about how instances like that were building blocks for fueling my future entrepreneurial spirit.

Where does that entrepreneurial spirit come from?

Heather – My parents taught me that anything was possible. I watched my parents put themselves through college as adults and work while doing so. My dad was always doing side gigs – remodeling houses, repairing things and my mom watched other college students’ kids and managed a tight family budget. I always saw my parents as self-starters who made it work rather than passively waiting for life to “happen.”

What kind of music were you listening to in high school and college?

Heather – I was always listening to whatever my older sister was. Duran Duran, the Cure, Madonna were some of my favorites. I especially liked the 80s one hit wonders during the New Wave era.

Brandon –Growing up I listened to a radio station in Montana that still plays original, old country music. I’m not a big fan of new country. I just like old country in general. I had a friend growing up whose family liked to play classical music, and when I would stay over their house, that’s when I would hear that genre and always liked that too.

Where did you go to college?

Brandon – I went to a number of schools but I finished at William Jessup University which was located in San Jose, California at the time, it’s since relocated to Rocklin. When picking colleges, I was living in D.C. and wanted to work in the nonprofit sector while incorporating technology. This was in the 1990s, so technology was still very new, and I saw San Jose at the epicenter of the .COM boom which made it THE place to start. So fast forward, I was in Silicon Valley working on a 5th-year senior program focused on nonprofit and technology integration in 1995 and was working with individuals from big technology companies who helped pave the way for my career.

Heather – I started out at a small liberal arts college in Napa Valley going to school for business and interior design. I started into my business courses and found the book work boring and nothing like I’d envisioned business would be (and, by the way, it truly is nothing like the interesting world of business).

I enjoyed interior design but my professors cautioned me that I would need to be a strong salesperson if I wanted to do residential design. That frightened me at the time, so in my Junior year, I decided to go into healthcare instead and focused on Speech Pathology thinking I could help people. You need to have a Master’s degree to practice Speech Therapy, so I was going back to school one way or another.

One day, a professor sat me down and asked if I was actually interested in working in the profession. I appreciated her candor (well, maybe not at the time), but I instinctively returned to business and pursued an MBA. A professor in the business school offered me a marketing internship – who knew how fortuitous that experience would be!

Looking back, who are the people who got you to where you are today?

Heather – I landed my first “real” job while finishing grad school. I was for a pharmaceutical company working with plasma. The training was very intense, with the FDA always looking over our shoulders, but I knew I had a good skill set for the job. After a year or so at the company, I was hoping to make a move, so I approached the Corporate Director of the plasma donor centers one day and asked if they could use an Interim Director for various centers around the country that were in between Center Directors. He barely knew me, but he took the recommendation of some of my supervisors and agreed. I traveled around the country and running operations which was a great deal of responsibility for someone my age. I started to come into my own during this period because I did not have children or a significant other, and I was learning a lot in my travels and I could really devote time to my career.

Brandon – I look at every job I had as someone taking a risk and hiring me. Everyone looks good on paper, but when you hire them, you get a sense of who they are. The people who gave me the freedom to work hard were at my first job Starwire.com. It was a technology platform and consulting firm for nonprofits and businesses moving into the CRM world. There were several people there who propelled me by mentoring me and allowing me to take risks. Later, when I went to a large company of about 400 people, my boss saw me reach for more, so she let me do more.

How did you end up in Chester County?

Brandon – Shortly after we got married in California we moved to South Carolina. While in South Carolina, we came up with a list of thirteen things we wanted in a place we would eventually settle down. We particularly wanted a sense of community. After a couple of years in SC, Heather quit her job and set out to find this city – and that’s when we landed on Chester County.

Heather – The reason I knew about Chester County was because of an aunt who raised her family in Downingtown. My family would come visit growing up. During Thanksgiving the year before we moved here, Brandon and I visited the area for a family reunion. We could not resist the charm and beauty of Chester County and just knew there was something special about this place.

Brandon – We wanted a place where we would raise kids and would have a community around us that would support in that. We liked that Chester County was a place where people are born, grow up, return to, and retire in. The Philadelphia region and Pennsylvania are well known for that. We also wanted to live in a place with four seasons – spring, summer, fall, and winter – we certainly did not have that in California or South Carolina. We’ve been here sixteen years now and still love it!

What are the challenges and opportunities for 2120 Creative?

Heather – While our strength lies in digital marketing, the agency world continues to evolve which creates a fair amount of competition for us. That said, our experience with online technologies allows us to excel in new media in a way that our competitors sometimes struggle and are still trying to master. Because we’ve been in digital marketing since there was such a thing, we feel confident we bring a level of knowledge that is solid. Coupled with our commitment to know our clients as well as we know ourselves, we consistently see results. When you have the kind of background we do, how things work on the internet and prioritizing how to market in the online world is almost intuitive.

Brandon – One of the big challenges happening in the marketplace right now is that there are a lot of people who are doers, who know how to do a “task”. Businesses hire employees–and not only entry level mind you–who are excited to manage their social media, build websites, or design something. Although they may be talented and can do the tasks “technically” speaking, they are missing the experience needed to build strategies that help clients grow their business. We talk about this concept of not just “doing the task”, but rather guiding an organization to grow and develop. Our biggest opportunity is having the ability to be known in Chester County for this growth and support. You need to understand how to be strategic, not just single-minded if you want to grow. Digital is now multifaceted:  print, analytical, design, sales, marketing, and so much more.  Most of our clients hire us to be their strategist, building a framework on how to market and sell. You have to consider bottom-line, profits, and growth so you can see how the needle is being moved. We help interpret that information for them and offer solutions and support. It’s a consultative approach.

We’ve been on the Philly 100 two years in a row, we’ve made INC 5000, and all while being in the suburbs. There’s great talent here in Chester County, not just in Philadelphia. We look for those people to help grow our team.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Heather – My parents always taught me to never burn a bridge. Relationships are so important, and you never know when you might need to come back to someone. Even if a relationship is not working, end on a good note.

Brandon – The one that sticks out to me is if you begin to see a problem, it’s not the problem. The idea is don’t ever settle for that problem. There’s a root issue, an internal reason, an external cause. We are most successful when we ask questions and get to the root. There’s always something more to it.