Today we’d like to introduce you to Donald Currie.
Hi Donald, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My professional journey started back in 2009, as a student at UNC-Charlotte. My original plan for college was to pursue Kinesiology and eventually become a physical therapist. As I got deeper into my college years I discovered this path was not for me…. at all! Hindsight 20/20, my pursuit of this career path had been fueled by family members and a few friends who thought I was “supposed to be” this or that.
I then transitioned into retail, and eventually banking, as Charlotte, NC is a major hub in the financial services industry. A few years into banking I was approached by my Pastor, who offered me a position to work for our local church and match my salary. I quickly accepted the offer, not knowing much about non-profit or ministry work. I initially started off as an executive assistant, but was privileged to be sent to an Adobe Photoshop bootcamp for 3 days where I began to learn the skills that would shape my current life.
I returned from the bootcamp, to be promoted to Communications Director, and begin exploring my skillsets in graphic design, marketing, video production, and more. As many begin to see the skills I developed, I began to receive multiple requests for freelance projects outside of work. This was the seed to launch 12/24 Media. From 2015 to 2018 I focused on freelance projects, creating logos, stationary graphics, and videos/short films.
While business grew I began to notice an alarming trend–I would create these great design assets for clients (many were startups), but when I checked back in with them months down the road, much of the excitement for business had fizzled out. What I came to realize is that many business owners were excited for the “branding” of their company, but had no real long term marketing strategy to sustain business success.
So in late 2018, I decided to shift my company 12/24 Media, from simply a freelance consulting firm to a full service marketing agency. We wanted to provide strategic marketing solutions for startups, along with those who wanted to re-brand. Since 2018, we’ve grown our company to a team of 4, 10x our revenue, and helped companies and organizations across many industries, including government, corporate, retail, non-profit, and education.
As of today, we’ve produced results for organizations such The City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, Invesco QQQ, Amazon, Renaissance West Community Initiative, Autism Charlotte, and many more.
Working in this space has afforded me to opportunity to give back and make impact in various ways. From facilitating marketing related workshops, hosting a summer intern media camp for students, and speaking as a consultant for large firms during re-brand initiatives.
I’m proud of the work we’ve done through the years to help those who my struggle with defining their marketing strategy, or have scaled to a point where they need a professional team to amplify their brand. As our motto states, their “brand deserves it”!
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?
I like to think of it as an entrepreneurial roller coaster. There will be highs and challenges (lows) as I like to call them. Probably the biggest struggle was learning to not take on more than I could handle. When business starts growing, you want to say yes to every opportunity, but as I now have the experience, I can definitely say, building with a team is a much better path!
Some of the other struggles that come along with being a Creative Director of a marketing agency is the challenges of AI, the never ending effort of relationship building, and the feelings of imposter syndrome–the fear of being exposed for not being “enough”. These things drive me to always be in learning mode and remain humble in my journey.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
12/24 Media is a results-driven marketing agency helping businesses transform into thriving brands. We accomplish this by crafting effective marketing campaigns, automating marketing tasks, and producing high-quality graphic & video content.
Key Differentiators:
– Diverse portfolio of clients including non-profit, corporate, hospitality, government, and retail.
– Intelligent storytelling, crafting campaigns that speak to pain points and effective solutions.
– Comprehensive services that provide a one-stop shop for marketing efforts.
– Consistent history of increasing engagement and conversion rates for clients.
Awards:
2022 Los Angeles Film Awards winner for production of the short firm “Thony’s Eyes”
Web: https://www.1224media.net
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
By far, continuing education. It takes patience with yourself, and a discipline to always be in learning mode, to be successful in the field of marketing. You’ll get left in the dust without it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.1224media.net
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/1224media
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldcurrie/
