Charlie Naus (Economics & Entrepreneurship) and Logan Romaine (Strategic Communication & Entrepreneurship) finished their degrees last May before heading out to Denver, Colorado to run their own company. After four years at Miami, they decided not to go the “normal” route out of school, but rather to continue the creative agency they started in college focused on branding, content creation, and digital marketing.
The idea for CarsonDoyle Creatives first came into existence when Charlie and his childhood buddy Thomas Brazier decided to use their creative minds to promote the latter’s rapping career. Charlie acted as Thomas’s manager, developing a brand for his music from album covers to social media campaigns. A couple years later at Miami, Charlie found himself living across from two guys who were working on a company with a great business model but no cohesive brand. Thinking back to his previous success promoting Thomas’s music, he called up his old friend and the next thing he knew, the two were taking on the marketing for the company. They built a brand, created commercials, and launched a $25k Kickstarter. From there, they began building up a clientele and CarsonDoyle was officially born.
Today, the team consists of eight individuals with Charlie acting as the Managing Director (he doesn’t like the title CEO). From the beginning, he knew they’d eventually have to bring on more people, which became one of his biggest hurdles. Finding the right person was much harder than expected. Luckily, this is when he met Logan Romaine, who would come on board as the Strategy Director. “Logan and I found each other…which was huge. We needed another person on the team that understood the vision,” Charlie explains, “Logan connected with Thomas and I quite seamlessly.”
Logan leads strategy creation at CarsonDoyle, which involves “asking a lot of questions, researching competitors and target market consumers, and balancing known-to-work methods with innovative ideas.” He credits many of his entrepreneurship experiences at the John W. Altman Institute with helping prepare him for his post-grad life. From Mark Lacker’s 321 Agile Marketing and Scrum course, where the two learned they work well together and have a knack for developing marketing strategies for clients to Jim Friedman’s creativity courses that shape how they approach research and brainstorming when building ideas. Toward the end of his third year at Miami, Logan chose to join the company “for a multitude of reasons,” but mostly because it gave him the best opportunity to keep learning. Coming from a program that constantly pushed him out of his comfort zone, he knew he wanted a job that could do the same by offering him a chance to “learn by doing, learn fast, and gain experience in many different areas.” Not many entry-level jobs provide this, but the position with CarsonDoyle does.
Similarly, Charlie also professes that every experience in the entrepreneurship program truly influenced him as a professional. He cannot think of a class where he felt he was simply going through the motions. In fact, as a student, he constantly worked with people and on projects that excited him, which has inspired the same for his company. “The entrepreneurship department taught me not to settle for mediocrity and to embrace ambiguity — two things that drive my everyday existence as an agency owner and entrepreneur.” Graduating from the Institute prepared him for a career of working with different brands to solve a diverse set of problems, making it so no two days are the same.
With such a small team and a young company, each day is ambiguous with a vast collection of responsibilities. The two recognize how real the possibility of burning out is because when there is constantly more work to be done, you must build and follow intentional routines for work-life balance. Whether it means reading in the morning, working out in the middle of the day, shutting down the computer by a set time, or planning time with friends, Charlie and Logan know how to rest in a way that makes their work more productive and their lives more well-rounded. They recognize the importance of emotional and mental well-being for every member of the CarsonDoyle team, as it directly affects the business. For this reason, they prioritize individual happiness as a core component of running the company.
In addition, the entrepreneurs have discovered through their time at Miami and beyond the importance of defining success. For them, company success and personal success have become greatly intertwined. Up until this point, Charlie notes his main objective has simply revolved around staying in business. As CarsonDoyle grows, however, both place their success on the clients who join them and the work they accomplish. They call each emerging consumer product company they onboard and each project they complete that causes people to think differently a win. Charlie firmly believes focusing on “continuing to make excellent work will yield any opportunity [they] want in the future.” On a personal level, success comes from the learnings they gain and the daily fulfillment they feel by driving their careers through a company all their own.
For their parting thoughts, the two entrepreneurs wanted to leave those aspiring to follow in their footsteps with a few pieces of advice. Logan warns that “running your own business, especially right out of school, sounds a lot sexier than it is.” Each day brings new decisions to make that they have never faced before. But if you are prepared for the high-pressure do or die stakes, “It is a rewarding path to take in terms of learning, growth, and a sense of fulfillment.” Charlie adds that he would not trade his last six months for anything saying, “If you have a vision, a team, and a product/service you’re excited about, I urge you to pursue it until you have done everything in your power to keep it alive.”
A huge thank you to Charlie Naus and Logan Romaine for all they have contributed to the Institute first as students and now as professionals.
Contributed by Christina Townsend