2011 is a pivotal year for our start-up. Founder Mike Koehler went from solo consultant to a two-person team when Allie Carrick joined Smirk. In the summer, Smirk rolled out its first brand tagline: “Words on the Web.” On December 14, Smirk partnered with Pops Route 66 for social media management.

Mike has built Smirk New Media into a team that is committed to partnering with awesome brands and transforming the way they connect with their community and customers.

In this episode, Mike Koehler shares with us how his print journalism experience and understanding the use of the Internet helped him integrate digital, social media and storytelling online. 

This opened up a path for Mike to start his own agency in the middle of a global economic downturn with no clients and no money back in 2010 whilst everyone was still trying to figure out how to adapt to the technology. How he built his digital agency by building relationships with their audience and helping their clients with their visions to achieve their own visions.

  • The importance of building relationships 
  • Why it’s key to educate your audience
  • How content interaction and transparency with the audience needs to be a two-way conversation 
  • The challenges from overpromising and under-delivering projects 
  • Having a great team and find a balance between strengths and weaknesses 
  • Letting go and letting people do great work is key to form better client relationships
  • Delegating and empowering others and becoming a servant leader
  • How being transparent about how they work as a business and telling people how you do what you do and how you know what you know in your content stories helps you create constant content. 
  • The importance of switching off and creating the separation from the digital world

You can find out more about Mike Koehler by visiting his website below:
SMIRK New Media

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