Today we’d like to introduce you to Will Smallman
Hi Will, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh over twenty years ago with a BA in English Literature. Like many English majors I had little sense of how my degree would translate into a professional career. So it took a long time to figure out what I was good at and how I could achieve success in my career.
My wife and I moved to New York City a few years after college and I ended up working at a few different non-profits. I ultimately realized that I didn’t want to stay in the non-profit sector for my whole career, but during that time I did begin to understand my strengths and weaknesses. Most importantly, I learned how to communicate ideas and strategies confidently and efficiently. I started speaking to donors and community partners at events in all five boroughs of the city. Sometimes I had only a five-minute speaking window to convince skeptical donors that we had a strategy worthy of their commitment. And the settings and audiences varied widely – one day I’d be speaking to grant recipients at a public housing complex in the South Bronx, and the next day I’d be speaking to Wall Street bankers in the Financial District. Once I developed an understanding of how to speak publicly and make meaningful connections with different types of people, I decided I never wanted to have a back-office administrative role again.
After ten years in NYC, my brother Steve and his co-founder Kurt Dutra started talking to me about joining the marketing agency they had founded in Baltimore, Fifteen4. I was not enthusiastic at the time about moving down to Baltimore, but there was an electricity to the agency that appealed to me. There was enthusiasm for the work, a strong committed team, and a firm belief that they could win any account and build any kind of creative asset. This was five years before COVID, and the office was always buzzing with creativity.
As the years progressed I ultimately assumed day-to-day operations of the business as the Managing Partner. I’ve been a copywriter, account manager, new business director, strategy director, operations and finance manager – basically I spent years doing a little of everything to learn how to run the business as a whole. Some of those jobs I’ve done better than others, but I’ve done them all for better or worse.
In addition to running Fifteen4, I’m very proud to be an adjunct professor of marketing at University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Over my three years of teaching there I’ve come to love the culture at UMBC and the widely diverse group of students I’m privileged to teach.
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?
There have been many struggles along the way. My early years in non-profit were marked by frequent turmoil – from the financial crisis to constant leadership and strategic changes that were out of my control.
And running a small business is never without struggle. During my time at Fifteen4 we’ve weathered COVID lockdowns, the tech recession of 2023, frequent leadership transitions among major clients, the ‘great resignation,’ technological disruptions, and any number of other challenges faced by small business leaders. Tragically, we also had to work through the untimely death of one of our partners, Matt DeVille, in 2023. Matt was a beloved figure at Fifteen for eight years and the person most responsible for building our digital practice. He was also a close friend.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
For twenty years, Fifteen4 has been an award-winning marketing agency specializing in creative services. We provide brand strategy, graphic design, video and animation, and web design and development. We were one of the first creative agencies in the mid-Atlantic to include video for digital channels as one of our specialties. We launched our video practice a year before YouTube was founded and before many companies featured video on their website. That storytelling DNA has set us apart ever since.
We work with a wide range of organizations, and many of our clients offer complex solutions that are not easily packaged and messaged for buyers. This includes B2B Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies, cybersecurity companies, government contractors, and computer networking firms. These companies have to work harder than others to build out a cohesive message, tell a compelling story, and humanize their brand. Helping them get there is a big part of what we do.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
A willingness to stretch myself, try new things, and say yes to the most challenging assignments. Settling into comfort and routine is ultimately uncomfortable for me, and I never want to repeat the same year twice in my career.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.fifteen4.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fifteen4studio/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willsmallman/
