Today we’d like to introduce you to Kace Phillips.
Kace, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I am a born and raised Dallasite and graduated from St. Mark’s, moving on to Arizona State University, where I majored in Creative Writing. Upon graduation, my goal was to go into advertising as a copywriter. I got my first job with an experiential agency that just wasn’t a great fit – so it was fairly short-lived. After that, I totally shifted gears and went into the recycled metals business working for Okon Metals. That also wasn’t a great fit and it was fairly short-lived.
So there I was, having graduated college during the height of the great recession with two jobs down and unsure of where I wanted my career to go. I had an idea for a dating app and found a few people to invest in my company and my idea—Anonymous Apps was born. We created a “Personal Relationship Management” app called HookBook that was supposed to be like a CRM, but for your personal life. It would allow you to track dates you went on, what happened on the dates, did you hook up or not, and if so, how far did it go. Sort of like the “little black book” for the digital age. We had a number of other cool features as well. Unfortunately, I think the app was a little bit before its time—it would have been great today to be paired with Tinder, Hinge, etc. We had some really good traction at first—coverage in College Humor, Fox 4, TFM, BroBible, and some other notable publications. I think we ended up around 250,000 downloads and some decent revenue, but ultimately, the product was not sustainable as a company.
My next stop was at a digital agency called Canonball (now Criterion.B). I was hired there as an Account Executive and spent 4.5 really great years there. I had opportunities to work with clients like McDonald’s, TruGreen, Terminix, Samsung, and Pepsi, and eventually worked my way up as the Director of Client Services.
After I parted ways with Canonball, I joined up with a friend of mine I’ve known since 5th grade, Ross Cromartie, and two other guys (who are no longer with the company) and we created RocketBrand. RocketBrand was formed between expertise in aerial media and video production, combined with my expertise in branding and advertising. Today, we have rebranded from RocketBrand to RBA, and are a full-service agency serving clients across a variety of industries ranging from alcoholic beverages to commercial real estate, to quick-service restaurants, to health and beauty and more. We specialize in working with challenger brands—that is, brands that have ambitions that outpace their budgets and the passion to tackle their competitors.
It was tough at first to get sign off on starting a company from the ground up from my then-fiance, Claire, but she’s been an incredible pillar of support throughout the entire process. We’ve now been happily married for 4 years and have a two-year-old son, George, and a seven-year-old French Bulldog, Sophie.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
(Laughs) Not an easy path… at all. It definitely took me a while to find my place in the business world, who I wanted to be, and the types of people I wanted to work with. I’ve always gravitated towards working for smaller organizations, and that presents its own unique set of challenges — budgets, how to scale, when to hire, etc.
Now, as a small business owner and entrepreneur, there are even more challenges. I think anyone who decides to start a business has to be very prepared for the roller coaster of emotions you will experience. One day you feel like you’re a genius who is going to conquer the world, and the next you feel like an idiot whose company might go out of business tomorrow. But among the highs and the lows, there are lessons to be learned. Every person and every company makes mistakes — it’s how you respond to them that makes you different.
RBA – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
RBA is a full-service branding and advertising agency in Dallas, Texas. Our purpose is to help good people do great things. We are culture driven and client obsessed and are proud to be named one of Ad Age’s Top 25 Best Places to Work in the USA. We talk a lot about client obsession, and to us that means creating better work through deeper, longer-lasting relationships. The more we understand what motivates our clients, the better we are at helping them achieve their goals.
We are a purpose-driven company, always putting our purpose before profits. We have emphasized building a great culture for the company since day one, and that was recognized by the standard-bearer in our industry, Ad Age, as the #6 Best Place to Work in the USA.
Our dedication to our culture and our dedication to our clients is definitely what sets us apart from our competition. Our clients know that we have their backs at almost any cost, and our people know we do as well.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Earning the #6 spot as Ad Age’s Best Places to Work in 2020. I’m not one who is huge into awards, but this one was different because it validated so much of what we’ve been building and the ethos of our company.
We set out to create a company that did great work for our clients, but how we were going to do that was more important: hire the best people we could find and allow them to flourish. We’ve made decisions along the way that were not in the interest of short-term gains on the P&L sheet but will pay dividends for many more years by providing a place for all RBA’ers to enjoy the place in which they spend 50+ hours a week, and be able to grow both personally and professionally.
The validation that someone, somewhere out there took the time to notice the work we’ve put in and give us a little bit of “hey you’re doing it the right way” was a very proud moment for all of us at RBA.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1350 Manufacturing St.
Suite 203
Dallas, Texas 75207 - Website: www.therba.com
- Email: hello@therba.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rba.dtx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rbadtx
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/rbadtx
Image Credit:
Zach Harris
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