Jaclyn Strominger: Hello, everybody, and welcome to another amazing episode of Unstoppable Success. I am your host, Jaclyn Strominger, and on this podcast, we hear from amazing leaders. We get their insight, their tips, their tricks.

Jaclyn Strominger: on how to have unstoppable success. And today, I get to introduce all of you to Jason Clark. And let me tell you a little bit about Jason. Whoo! He is the CMO of Tektonic and former owner of Via Via.

Jason Clark: Media Studio, yes.

Jaclyn Strominger: Yeah. I guess depending upon which way we wanna… which language we're speaking in, right?

Jason Clark: Right.

Jaclyn Strominger: For over 20 years, he has helped organizations bring structure to their brand, marketing, and digital ecosystems. He's worked with clients across the spectrum, from Fortune 50 corporations to large nonprofits. He loves taking something complex and making it clear, useful, and aligned with real goals.

Jaclyn Strominger: And one of his, I love this line, good branding is more than aesthetics, it's a system and should drive business value.

Jaclyn Strominger: With that, welcome to Unstoppable Success!

Jason Clark: Thanks for having me, glad to be here.

Jaclyn Strominger: So, alright, so you are currently the Chief Marketing Officer, but you were not the Chief Marketing Officer before.

Jason Clark: Correct, yes, I was,

Jason Clark: I owned a small marketing agency from 2003 to 2023, and at the beginning of 2023, I sold the company to what is now Tectonic, and joined the company as Chief Marketing Officer.

Jaclyn Strominger: Okay, so I think that's from, I think, a lot of people's dream, right? To go from having that small business and selling it. So, how did that evolve for you?

Jason Clark: To be quite frank, I… I got bored and burnt out. I was, you know, I was,

Jason Clark: I had achieved the success… you know, I had achieved more success than I ever thought I could in my profession, in my career, and, you know, at some point.

Jason Clark: You realize what your strengths and weaknesses are, and what you love and what you don't love doing, and, you know, again, it came… it was coming up on 20 years of doing that, and…

Jason Clark: I was ready for a change. I, you know, that's… it… it felt like a hamster wheel at some point, because I also knew that I wasn't…

Jason Clark: I wasn't built for some type of growth. I had achieved, you know.

Jason Clark: multi-million dollar revenue stream with the business. I had a great leadership team. I have, you know, I've got people that work with me now that have worked with me for 10, 15 years. I love it. But I wasn't going to be the guy to scale the company from 2 or 3 million dollars a year to…

Jason Clark: 10 or 20 million dollars a year, and as I started to kind of

Jason Clark: come out of, you know, the peak of my career, you know, I'm in my 50s now, I knew that I didn't want to be the person to hold the agency down, and…

Jason Clark: you know, there's so many marketing agencies, ad agencies, that just fold when the owner, decides to call it quits or get bored with it, and I, you know, I wanted to land the plane somewhere more interesting and have another chapter of my career. So, that's what we did.

Jaclyn Strominger: So… When you started the agency.

Jaclyn Strominger: did you have that end in mind? Like, some people think, think about selling it, or…

Jason Clark: No, I just…

Jaclyn Strominger: We have that.

Jason Clark: anybody's employee, yeah. No, I was, I actually bought into Via Studio.

Jaclyn Strominger: Okay.

Jason Clark: When I first started, another guy who was my business partner for 6 or 7 years, his name was Kelly McKnight, he'd founded Via Studio, and at that point, it was just a small, very small place with 2 or 3 employees, and…

Jason Clark: I was coming off of being… working at a big agency and being burnt out with that, so I… you know, instead of being hired somewhere, I was… they offered to let me buy into the business as a partner, as an equal share partner. I was young enough, and…

Jason Clark: motivated enough to see what I could do there, which was awesome, because I achieved that, and it was a really fun ride. But again, after 20 years of doing the same thing, it's like, okay, what else can we do? Let's do something else.

Jaclyn Strominger: Right. So…

Jaclyn Strominger: I think this is actually a really interesting point, and listeners, I want you to understand, because unstoppable success is also knowing when to make that pivot.

Jaclyn Strominger: Right? So, you know, I guess, what… what… I mean, obviously, there were… there were some things, obviously, 20 years into it, but were there quote-unquote, like, signs where you said, hmm.

Jaclyn Strominger: Now's really the time.

Jason Clark: Oh, yeah, absolutely. When your employees start to despise you.

Jason Clark: I'm exaggerating, but I did, you know, it got to a point where, you know, the thing that made me successful and the agency successful was no longer what was

Jason Clark: part of our future success, right? Like, a lot of early success gets built on your own personal network, on your own connections, on your own capabilities of selling, and…

Jason Clark: like, that individual approach is really hard to scale. So, you know, when, you know, as a founder or an owner, and you feel like, I have to be in the room for everything, I have to see what all my team's emailing to our clients, like, that's just not sustainable long-term. And people absolutely start to resent you for that, you know?

Jason Clark: I know other people that own agencies that don't let their…

Jason Clark: teams send emails to clients, and it's like, okay, that's great, you want to control that situation, but your team hates you for it, and your clients are…

Jason Clark: will not trust you long-term if they can't trust the rest of your team. So, we never got that… we were never in that situation, but it was definitely, you know, I…

Jason Clark: I had, again, I had people that have been with me for 10 plus years, and…

Jason Clark: you know, if I got bored or decided to close up shop, it wouldn't be fair to them to just be like, okay, thanks for all that time.

Jason Clark: You know, good luck with your next… with your next career move, right? Like, so being able to…

Jason Clark: get the company in a place to put it somewhere where those people have even more runway for their careers, was important to me, right? I love those people, they're awesome.

Jason Clark: And, you know, just because I'm at a different chapter in life doesn't mean that they are, or that, you know, it uproots their life. So it's really great to, like, okay, if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, you guys are safe.

Jason Clark: Right. Landed somewhere else, our clients still love us, like, our processes are still there, and our culture's still there. I'm just not a linchpin. And I will tell you, I got hit by a car in November and suffered a pretty bad concussion.

Jaclyn Strominger: And…

Jason Clark: And that was, you know, that's part of it. It's like, if this would have happened 10 years ago, and like, I'd… like, something worse would have happened.

Jason Clark: Like, what would happen to the agency? So…

Jaclyn Strominger: You have to think about that.

Jason Clark: That's tough.

Jaclyn Strominger: Succession planning is actually so important, and some people don't… people don't think of it in the… people think of it just as when it's time to switch or change, but actually succession planning is also having a plan if something goes wrong. But that's a whole other different, you know, topic of conversation.

Jaclyn Strominger: But, so I love this, and I love the fact that you have the heart, basically, too, to be able to want to bring your people

Jaclyn Strominger: like, see them go someplace else, you know what I mean? Not just be like, okay, doors are closing, see ya, don't let it hit you on the way out, so to speak.

Jason Clark: Absolutely, yeah.

Jaclyn Strominger: And that's, you know, that's a huge sign of key leadership, which is… says a lot about you. So how… how did… how was… how did it evolve that you found…

Jaclyn Strominger: A place Sure.

Jason Clark: Yeah.

Jason Clark: I…

Jason Clark: There is a whole world, and again, in the world of small business, you don't see some things, but there is,

Jason Clark: There's a… there's a different type of business person that…

Jason Clark: makes money through mergers and acquisitions and connecting businesses with each other. And, you know, my new partner slash CEO, he has grown

Jason Clark: our company, Tectonic, to, you know, $16-plus million dollars in revenue through mergers and acquisitions. And I would have never… I'm not built for that.

Jason Clark: So, we are both part of a professional organization called the Bureau Community, which is, agencies, essentially. Marketing agencies, development agencies.

Jason Clark: They're essentially a support network for people like us, so they do what's called owner camp, and owners of agencies go off, 20 or 30 people, you know, will go to Costa Rica for a weekend and talk about

Jason Clark: you know, working on the business. And I met him there probably 7 years ago, and, you know, so we were professional acquaintances for a long time, and he posted in, you know, gosh, it was 4 years ago now, he posted in the Bureau Slack channel, hey, I'm interested in acquiring a marketing company.

Jason Clark: Anybody interested, and I send…

Jaclyn Strominger: You're like, sign me up.

Jason Clark: Me! I'll go. But I had, I had also entertained a few offers before that. A local agency I had talked to was interested in acquiring us.

Jason Clark: an agency on the East Coast I talked to, so… so I knew…

Jason Clark: what to look for in terms of, LOI, or, you know, like, understood how much my company was worth, which was really important, because people really, really inflate the value of their business, and it's more emotional than real, you know, so there's just some real simple math that you can do to understand what your business is worth, and…

Jason Clark: You know, if you… if you think you're…

Jason Clark: You know, $500,000 business is worth $8 million, like.

Jason Clark: You're gonna have to come to reality if you think you're ever gonna sell that, or you're gonna have to do a lot more work boosting your revenue and your profit margins.

Jaclyn Strominger: Right. And there's an interesting thing here, and I, and I actually… I think this is a… and then I want to talk about some… I want to talk about something we were talking about before, we started recording.

Jaclyn Strominger: But I do recommend people When you get…

Jaclyn Strominger: into your business, or where you're starting to think about the idea of even selling. I mean, I, I have a really great connection who is a,

Jaclyn Strominger: a business broker. I mean, she does… she…

Jaclyn Strominger: what she does, right? And one of the things that we talked about is that, you know, as an entrepreneur, you're… you're running your business, and if you're doing the solo entrepreneur or solopreneurship, it's all about, you know, I'm talking about for taxes here right now, losses, right?

Jason Clark: Yeah, right?

Jaclyn Strominger: Loss, loss, loss, loss, loss, right?

Jason Clark: Record as much loss as possible, so you pay as little taxes.

Jaclyn Strominger: Right. But, on the flip side, when you go to share your revenue with… to sell, that becomes a negative. And so then you have to start showing profit, profit, profit.

Jaclyn Strominger: And so…

Jason Clark: And pay taxes on that property.

Jaclyn Strominger: I pay you.

Jaclyn Strominger: pay taxes on it!

Jaclyn Strominger: But it's…

Jaclyn Strominger: But I would almost say to somebody, if you have a business, like, if you're in a business where you want to scale it, where you want to grow, I… I would say right… right now.

Jaclyn Strominger: If you've never met with a business broker, meet with the business broker to get some of those key

Jaclyn Strominger: Numbers that you're gonna need. Just a little tip, right?

Jason Clark: Absolutely.

Jaclyn Strominger: You know, so you're… so, I'm curious, because now you're… you're at the company, and some people might think, okay, well, and I'm gonna ask.

Jaclyn Strominger: What made you stay versus just leave?

Jason Clark: So the first thing to know when you sell your business is if you just want cash for your business, you're gonna get a lot less cash, okay?

Jason Clark: So, that's what, like, an offer would be. Like, if I wanted to sell, you know, I may have gotten 30-50% of what I was offered.

Jason Clark: by just leaving the company. Okay. Right? Because they're… they're offering you money on future possible revenue, not how much time you put into the company, not how much, you know, how much it means to you. They're saying, I'm gonna buy your company because I think it's gonna generate this much money in the next 5 to 10 years.

Jason Clark: And they are going to have more confidence that you can… that that will actually work out.

Jason Clark: if you're there to sustain that. So, it's, it's called an earn-out period, essentially. So, most earn-outs are probably 3-5 year agreements with the, you know, with an acquiring company, and…

Jason Clark: Essentially, you're helping land the plane, you're helping migrate your clients and, you know, customers to this new company, and, you know, you're…

Jason Clark: So, my situation, my, you know, the equity in my company was vested over 5 years, so next year is the last year of my earn-out, and again, I will…

Jason Clark: the value of that is based on how much value I've brought to this new company. And again, like, it's more work, but it's more…

Jason Clark: potential, and, you know, I wasn't done.

Jason Clark: Right? I was looking for a new chapter, so it was okay for me to be like, yeah, I'll stick around for 5 years, at least. Sure, let's do it.

Jaclyn Strominger: Maybe more, whatever, something.

Jason Clark: Yeah, if you still want me, and, you know, I do like to joke, like, after next year, I'll be fireable for the first time in 23 years.

Jason Clark: So, we'll see what happens.

Jaclyn Strominger: Employment.

Jason Clark: Yeah.

Jason Clark: Wish me luck.

Jaclyn Strominger: So, but I really like that, and it's true, you know, that is actually a big part. Like, you know, for you to go with the business, it does, it brings a lot more value, because it also, you know, you're bringing clients over, and that's the last thing that they want. They're buying… it's part of it is buying that book of business, and there is that trust.

Jaclyn Strominger: That you want to have, and that your, your people are bringing, that you're bringing when you make that transfer over.

Jason Clark: I met an owner of a video production agency in Austin at a conference a couple weeks ago, and he was real interested in what, like, my story, and he was like, so what advice would you have for me? And I told him, I'm like, stop doing the work yourself.

Jason Clark: And he looked at me, because he's obviously a craftsman, obviously loves video production, and loves to shoot and edit, and I'm like, do as little of that as possible. Get out of the work.

Jason Clark: Work on the business, and he's like.

Jason Clark: oh, I'm not ready for that. Like, okay, that's good to know. But when you're ready to sell the company, like, you will be…

Jason Clark: Your level of involvement will be tied to how much that business is worth, because if you go away, and your clients go away, and possibly your expertise goes away, then what's that business worth?

Jaclyn Strominger: Right.

Jason Clark: A lot less.

Jaclyn Strominger: Right, and I…

Jaclyn Strominger: Listeners, I just want to really hone in on what Jason just said, and the advice that he gave to the videographer.

Jaclyn Strominger: You have to get to a point.

Jaclyn Strominger: Where you are working on your business versus being in the business.

Jaclyn Strominger: And…

Jaclyn Strominger: Whether that means you, again, do the things that make… that are uniquely for you, that… but at some point, you know, in a business like that, if you're a coach, you're not gonna hire… you can hire other coaches to work with your clients, but…

Jaclyn Strominger: it's kind of harder in some ways, right? But at the same time, if you're doing the editing and the videoing and all those things, and you're not running the business.

Jaclyn Strominger: You can only grow so much.

Jason Clark: Well, and, you know, I hate to say this… I hate to break this to you, but you're still an employee.

Jaclyn Strominger: Right.

Jason Clark: You're just an employee for your clients, so, like, that… and that's okay, there's nothing wrong with that. Like, I still love to design things and edit video and do that kind of stuff, but I do it every once in a while instead of all the time, and you do it because you love it, not because it's your primary source of revenue.

Jaclyn Strominger: Right.

Jaclyn Strominger: And I think, and it's so key, and I love it, you have to get… you really have to get to the point where you are working on the business, not just being in the business. You know, scalability, that's, again, that's where, you know, the growth comes in, when you can actually, again.

Jaclyn Strominger: You know, we talk about that a lot. Success, unstoppable successes, being able to have people do the work, and you're… not you're up here in the sense of, like, looking down on people or anything like that, but you are running the business, you've got the systems going. You might be out there, but you're not doing the… you're not doing the day-to-day operations.

Jason Clark: Right, yeah. There's a hippie-ish phrase that I've seen on bumper stickers and whatnot that applies here, and it's, let go of that which no longer serves you.

Jaclyn Strominger: Yeah.

Jason Clark: And that is… it's very key when you start to see your business grow, is, like, that thing that probably got you that first wave of success might not be the thing that gives you the next wave of success. So, like, that curiosity and that motivation almost has to move in a different direction.

Jason Clark: you know, 20 years ago, when I was, you know, doing design and web work, I was, like, really into Flash. If you remember Flash website.

Jaclyn Strominger: God, I still remember Flash.

Jason Clark: Yeah, I was really good at it. I loved it. I loved, like, I did car… I was doing cartoons and, like, all kinds of awesome stuff in there, but, like.

Jason Clark: imagine if I was still doing Flash websites, like, it doesn't even exist anymore, so, like, you have to… you have to continue to evolve, so…

Jaclyn Strominger: evolve and grow. Now… now, we were talking beforehand, and I think this is really important, is… is whether you're in your… whether you're…

Jaclyn Strominger: running your business, whether you're… you've made yourself an employee, or… or you're working on the business, there is one thing that, we also really need to be able to do, and you talked about this, is

Jaclyn Strominger: step away so that you don't have burnout. You said before, like.

Jason Clark: Yeah.

Jaclyn Strominger: burnout was creeping in. So what would it… what advice can you give to people? Because, you know, when people think unstoppable success, we're thinking, like, oh my god, I got all these things I've got to do, and I've… and it's… it's how much can I cram in? And we're in the United States, and I've got to work, you know, 20 hours a day, and…

Jason Clark: That does not… that is the opposite of…

Jason Clark: creating value, right? Like, capitalism is based on value, not…

Jason Clark: your… the hourly billable wage. And so, you know, one of the things that we've started doing is taking long vacations, like.

Jaclyn Strominger: Mmm.

Jason Clark: I'm gonna be gone for 3 weeks, I am not going… like, I don't want to see an email or a phone call at all while I'm gone to my team.

Jason Clark: You know, I'm going to Burning Man for a week. There's no cell phone reception. I'm, like, figure it out.

Jaclyn Strominger: to Bernie Man, you better make sure that you spend a day to reconnect with me, because I live right down… I'm not… I'm in Reno.

Jason Clark: Right.

Jaclyn Strominger: Let's, let's go.

Jason Clark: So, but it's that kind of thing, you know? It's like, I'm, you know.

Jason Clark: And, you know, part of it's…

Jason Clark: being able to enjoy your unstoppable success, right? Like, there has to be a purpose to all this work. And if it's not geared towards your family, or your community, or…

Jason Clark: you know, something that fills your bucket other than just work and hustle and money. Like, you're gonna burn yourself out, you're gonna… like… I mean, we all watch The White Lotus, right? Like, those people that are just…

Jason Clark: filled up with money, but nothing else that gives them purpose or value in life. Like, I'm sorry, what are we doing this for?

Jaclyn Strominger: Right.

Jason Clark: And…

Jason Clark: Like, you have to find those other things, and if you get to, you know, if you get into your 60s and all you have is work, like, what have you done? What have you done to yourself and your family?

Jason Clark: I don't want to be judgy, but, like, I… personally, I don't want to be that person. I want to be the person that's like, okay, when I have grandkids, like, bring them to my house, I'll watch them, I'll play with them, I'll be healthy and happy enough to, like, be involved in their life, right? I want to be that guy.

Jason Clark: And, you know, I don't have grandkids yet, but…

Jason Clark: I have to think about that.

Jaclyn Strominger: Well, and I think it's… I think it's one thing that we…

Jaclyn Strominger: that we have to be able to… there's… we have to think about the time away. We have to… we have to think about the long game, right? We have to think about our family, you know, making those memories. It's memories, not material, right? You know, what are you doing to…

Jaclyn Strominger: spend time with your family, or where are you going? And to experience other cultures and other places, because when you do that, you grow both as a person, and it's great for your business, because you get ideas.

Jason Clark: Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. I'm… you know, and I don't want to stick to this, but, like, we… in this age, we get to watch the billionaire class. The people with more money than we will ever

Jason Clark: We can't even imagine how much money they have, and none of those people seem happy.

Jason Clark: Right? If you're Mark Zuckerberg, and you've made more money, like, you own most of an island in Hawaii, and you still need to be CEO of Meta, like…

Jason Clark: Why?

Jason Clark: Why? What, like, I… like, what fills your bucket other than telling people what to do? That sounds terrible.

Jason Clark: So…

Jaclyn Strominger: Right. It's… there… there is this… there is, like… And I will say this.

Jaclyn Strominger: Find the things that bring you joy, both in your business and outside of the business, because that will also help you have that success, because when you go… when you are working.

Jason Clark: Yeah. The first trip I took with my wife, before we were married, we went to Hawaii for a couple weeks. We rented a Jeep, and we just camped on the beach around the Big Island, and it was that, you know, I had just

Jason Clark: become a partner at VIA, and… It was, like…

Jason Clark: I had this revelation, I was like, okay, now I understand why I'm working so hard. Now I understand why I'm okay with working hard when I'm in the business. Like, this isn't a reason to not work hard.

Jason Clark: when you're in an earlier chapter of your life, it should be an incentive, right? Like, if I… if I put in the work, and I become an expert at this, or I grow my business to this, I'm gonna be able to have opportunities in life, and meet interesting people, and learn

Jason Clark: other things, and, like, make my world bigger, and… To me, that's important.

Jaclyn Strominger: Yeah, no, I… I truly, truly agree. I mean, the whole… this whole hustle culture of… it doesn't… it doesn't end up serving us the way that we think it should.

Jason Clark: Oh, I think… I think it's a way for the billionaire class to incentivize people to just work. You know, this whole, like, hustle, hustle, hustle thing is, it's a scam.

Jason Clark: I don't know anybody that has been in that mode

Jason Clark: for more than a few years that hasn't either failed or burnt out so bad that they don't, you know, like, I'm just gonna wash cars or something because this is miserable. So, like, you have to know…

Jason Clark: You know, working hard is different than hustling 24 hours a day. Like, you should work hard. You should invest the time to get good at something.

Jason Clark: But… When it starts to feel like a hamster wheel, you've probably exhausted

Jason Clark: That avenue, and it's time to, like, either

Jason Clark: Either step up to the next level of your career and do something else, and manage people doing that kind of work.

Jason Clark: Or maybe you've just gone into a dead end.

Jaclyn Strominger: You know, it's… I'm glad that you just mentioned, sort of, the hamster wheel, because I think, you know, I would also set some…

Jaclyn Strominger: Start to say that

Jaclyn Strominger: When we get on that… when we get on that hamster wheel, all of a sudden.

Jaclyn Strominger: I think one of the things that ends up happening, and I love your opinion on this, is that I think that we've lost sight of our goals. We've lost sight of really what we're doing, and why we're doing it, and what's our vision and mission, right?

Jason Clark: Right? Yeah? And that's… you know, there's… I think part of…

Jason Clark: Training your mind for success is finding way… like, understanding what the hamster wheel is.

Jason Clark: and then creating a system or a process to either automate that or hire for it. So you're not doing that anymore. And I'll give you an example. I just spent…

Jason Clark: the last few months helping one of our clients organize their fiscal year budgets. It is a… a big company with probably 26 different brands

Jason Clark: in their holding company, okay? And they had to deal with their fiscal year budgets for all these brands, and we're doing all the hosting and all the digital marketing and maintenance for those. And writing the statements of work for all of that and developing the budgets was… took up most of two months of my time.

Jason Clark: And I was doing this, I was like, you know what? I think there's a smarter and faster way to do this. So, I opened up Claude, and for the past month, I've been working on kind of a vibe-coded app that automates that process.

Jason Clark: So, you know, if I spent 100 hours doing it in the last 2 months, next year when it rolls around again, I expect to spend maybe 15 or 20 hours on it, because I've…

Jason Clark: coded, like, the thing that takes the most of my time, I have now coded into something that's… I can either do that work through this system now, and it's a lot faster, or I can give it to one of my staff and be like, this is how I work, and this is the process, and here's how this app works, and it will lead you through the process now, so you're not…

Jason Clark: You know, spinning… You know, 16 hours on something that should take 3.

Jaclyn Strominger: Right. I love that. It's actually being able to use

Jaclyn Strominger: Using the AI technology tool as a tool for the business.

Jaclyn Strominger: To help you do that, right, and… Right. Which is absolutely fantastic.

Jason Clark: And, you know, it helps me, again, like, at the end of, you know, at the end of my earn-out, when it's time for me to leave, I've actually built a thing now that replaces me in some way. And there's another nugget of wisdom for your audience that you should really think about, is always be replacing yourself.

Jason Clark: I have had many, many employees, and the most valuable ones are the ones… not the ones that are like, oh my god, I don't want to, like, think of a new process, because I won't have a job anymore. The most valuable employees are the ones that, like, hey, I do this… it takes me 20 hours to do this much work. I just found a way to get that done in 3 hours. I'm like.

Jason Clark: I'm not gonna fire that person. I'm gonna give that person a promotion. Like, figure that out for other things now, you know? Make us…

Jason Clark: make us more efficient. Like, and I just, you know, I… as we start to integrate more AI tools and stuff, the ones that are like, oh no, like, is my job on the line? I'm like, no, not if you figure this out.

Jason Clark: Right. Again, like, I need more of your time over here than on this thing that I know that can be automated, so don't, like, get that out of your head. We still need people.

Jason Clark: I just need you to, like, you know, again, it's automation, right? Like, when, Henry Ford designed the assembly line… Right.

Jason Clark: That didn't crush the economy, that boosted it.

Jaclyn Strominger: Right, right.

Jaclyn Strominger: It's a great analogy, and I love that. I love that. I love that. I love… So, tell us, like, so, what's on your next 5-year plan?

Jason Clark: We are… so my son is headed to college in the fall.

Jason Clark: My wife and I have a celebratory trip to Japan in, September and October. We're gonna spend 3 weeks in Japan in celebration of,

Jaclyn Strominger: Launching.

Jason Clark: Sending our… sending our boy off into the world, and on to his next chapter. And then,

Jason Clark: This is all personal, not professional. We'll get to professional next.

Jaclyn Strominger: But…

Jason Clark: The hope is, when he comes back for Christmas, is we possibly have our last Christmas in our current home, and as long as he's doing well in college and he feels like he's well settled, my wife and I are planning to do a digital nomad year, and go to…

Jason Clark: We've got 3 or 4 countries on the list, Peru, France, Croatia, and maybe Thailand, if the time difference can…

Jason Clark: Still deal with my, my work schedule,

Jason Clark: And so, have a digital nomad year.

Jaclyn Strominger: Yes.

Jason Clark: As far as that, the next 5 years, honestly, it depends on…

Jason Clark: where the… like, does… does Tectonic still want me around after my earn-out's done? Because they're… it will… it will be entirely in their purview to let me go and say, thanks, you know, here's your payout for selling your company, and it was great… great doing business with you. Right.

Jason Clark: Or I can stick around and…

Jason Clark: continue doing this. But, you know, as…

Jason Clark: you know, this was all part of an exit plan, so if it is… I could retire at the end of 2027. Whether I do or not is really… probably depends on how it's going here and how the Digital Nomad year works out, so we'll see.

Jaclyn Strominger: I am… I'm thinking there's, like, a book in that digital nomad year. I'd love it.

Jason Clark: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it, you know, that's… this is… I've, you know, I've lived in Louisville, Kentucky my whole life, and we travel a lot, but I've never… besides being in Alaska for a summer, I've never…

Jason Clark: really lived in different places. So, it all sounds great in theory, but in practice, if we actually are, you know.

Jason Clark: Turtles with our…

Jaclyn Strominger: Stuff on our backs, like…

Jason Clark: moving around the world, like, is, like, will I get homesick? You know, I don't think I will, but, we'll see. So it really… I'm… I've had so much certainty in my life for my entire career. I mean, I started my career in high school. I've never worked a restaurant job, like…

Jason Clark: I'm… Completely stoked about

Jason Clark: having no certainty about what happens after next year. I love it. I'm so excited.

Jaclyn Strominger: I actually… I… I think that is absolutely fantastic. You know, and I think you've got a lot of… you know, you have so many great insights and wisdom, like, being able to…

Jaclyn Strominger: share with other people, you know, the journey that you've been on, and the experience. It is, you know, I mean, you truly are having unstoppable success. So…

Jason Clark: Thank you. Thank you. It doesn't feel like it on a daily basis, but when you look back and you're like.

Jason Clark: Y-you know, you kind of… Take, take,

Jason Clark: take your world in the last 20 years into consideration, it's like, oh, wow, like, okay, this… we did it. We did okay, you know? Not a billionaire, but I don't want to be. There's a… I have a friend who owns an agency in Philadelphia, and he's got the word enough tattooed all across his arm here.

Jason Clark: And to remind him, like, he's… his agency is…

Jason Clark: a lot more successful than mine, and…

Jason Clark: that's his reminder, is like, I don't need it all, I just need enough.

Jaclyn Strominger: You need enough, right?

Jason Clark: And I'm like you, I love that. It's like, I don't… I don't need to boil the ocean. I just need to take care of myself, and my mental health, and my physical health, and my family, and the people I love, and…

Jason Clark: Cook a nice dinner once a week. Sounds great.

Jaclyn Strominger: Right, right, and maybe, you know, either…

Jaclyn Strominger: Yeah, enjoy a few sunrises and sunsets, right?

Jason Clark: Man.

Jaclyn Strominger: You know, that's really important. So Jason, I could talk to you literally for hours. I think what you're doing is absolutely fantastic, but how can our listeners connect with you, learn more about what you're doing, and maybe even follow you for your travels?

Jason Clark: Sure, yeah, yeah. Instagram and LinkedIn, both. My tag is the letter C, as in Charles, C. Jason Clark, and yeah, you'll probably see travels on Instagram and, professional life on LinkedIn,

Jason Clark: you can go to our website, teamteectonic.com, and this is… this is really interesting, because we've, you know, as Dusty, our CEO, has, you know, acquired all of these businesses, we've got 8 different divisions now.

Jason Clark: And, you know, just thinking about how AI is changing our…

Jason Clark: our industry, I think it'll be interesting to follow along, because we've got an IT division, we've got a web development division, we've got branding and marketing, we've got a couple SaaS products, like.

Jason Clark: where… where is all this going in 5 years? 10 years?

Jason Clark: I think following a company like ours, you know, along that path will be interesting, because it, you know, we've got lots of offerings, and I think a lot of small businesses will either… smaller agencies will either succeed or fail because of one specialty.

Jason Clark: So I'm, you know, even if I leave the company at the end of next year, I'll be super excited to see how it evolves, and so a company kind of our size, with about 70 or 80 employees, has a more solid foundation to kind of stick it out and see

Jason Clark: Where we going? What's happening?

Jaclyn Strominger: Where do you go? I think that's really cool. I think it's what… So, listeners, do me a favor.

Jaclyn Strominger: go and follow and connect with Jason on Instagram and on LinkedIn. Follow what he's doing, follow Team Tectonic. I think their site is actually really cool.

Jaclyn Strominger: And then do me the favor, share this episode with your friends, your business colleagues, because it's a really important message that we are… and a lot of great wisdom that we have shared today. And then, if you haven't subscribed already, hit the subscribe button. And lastly, please do me the favor of going over to school, S-K-O-O-L, and find Unstoppable Success. We have a brand new community over there.

Jaclyn Strominger: And we are growing that, and we would love for you to be part of it. I am Jaclyn Strominger, your host. Jason, thank you for being an amazing guest.

Jason Clark: Thanks for having me. It was fun.

Jaclyn Strominger: It's a pleasure, and listeners, we want you to have unstoppable success so that you can leap to your greatest success