'Meet the C-Suite' Interview with the Atlanta Business Chronicle
We were humbled to be selected by the Atlanta Business Chronicle to participate in 'Meet the C-Suite', a weekly series that features the city’s most high profile c-level executives. Read more about Nimble.'s story, thought leadership advice, and what we're most excited about in 2017.
As published in the February 21 edition of Meet the C-Suite in the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
Background
Name: Candice Riley Campbell
Company: Nimble. Design Co. (Nimble. A Design Consultancy, LLC)
Title: Founder and Creative Director
Headquarters: Atlanta
Background: I spent the first half of my career honing my craft as intern-turned-national design lead at Stream Realty Partners, working directly with building owners on strategic repositioning campaigns around the country. In 2014, I founded Nimble. to help clients realize and extend brand stories beyond the logo and into the built environment to differentiate, inspire and influence audience behavior.
First job: Slinging ice cream scoops, crafting coffee drinks, and managing people at a local coffee cafe back in Northern Kentucky (even at 15 I was a jill-of-all-trades).
Education: BFA, Interior Design, Savannah College of Art and Design
Residence: ITP ATL
Business Strategy
How’s business: We’re working on a dream mix of adaptive reuse, repositioning campaigns, and new [hospitality] brand development concepts right now. Running on coffee and hyper-focused on refining a strengthened intersection of branding for the built environment. Since 2014, we’ve organically grown with the successes of our core clients; up 16 percent in 2016, and 30 percent so far in 2017.
Biggest challenge for your business: Slowing down to build sustainable processes and training that allow us to grow our team and our reach, while maintaining elevated client service and design innovation across focus sectors.
What’s going to change at your company in the next year: We’re diversifying our project load to include more hospitality-focused projects, and making tracks to grow relationships in southeastern complementing markets, specifically Savannah and Charleston.
Company goal yet to be achieved: Permanent studio space. Officing in a co-working space for the past 2 plus years has given us the flexibility to grow quickly, but we’re eager to put our process to work for ourselves and move into a permanent setting where we can blend our brand with place.
Management Philosophy
Guiding principles for good management: Hire great people and allow them to inform their own role and growth plan. Be transparent in company objectives and road blocks, and treat studio growth as a team win.
Best way to keep competitive edge: Keep client service first. Reflect often and continually adjust approach to meet project objectives. Never get comfortable in your process or service offering; consistently finesse to be more nimble in approach and benchmark greater results.
Why people like working for you: I tirelessly live our studio values. I am endlessly passionate about our product, meticulous about our craft, and dedicated to remaining a strategic right hand on behalf of our clients and projects.
Most inspiring entrepreneur: Hard to pick just one. I’m a serial podcaster, and love listening to entrepreneur stories - NPR’s "How I Built This" and Sophia Amoruso’s "Girlboss Radio" are two of my faves. Recently I listened to Dave Gilboa & Neil Blumenthal’s episode [on "How I Built This"] and really connected with their vision/success of disrupting industry through their solution to a common problem with Warby Parker. Amazing story and a powerful reminder to challenge market norms and continue pursuing innovation and user experience.
Judgment Calls
Best business decision: To begin.
Hardest lesson learned and how you learned it: A natural jill-of-all-trades, I’ve spent a lot of time juggling all facets of business, the good, the bad, the time-wasting. While all experience is good experience, my biggest lesson learned is to be intentional about delegating, and investing in resources who can progress objectives sooner.
Biggest missed opportunity: Time. As a small studio team, Nimble. is constantly finessing its balance of active workload. Time is sparse, yet our biggest opportunity is to invest in the right resources to make our projects run smoothly and continue to decrease scope creep.
True Confessions
Like best about job: The opportunity to do what I love every day; and the honor to build a team who cares deeply about the impact of design on user experience.
Like least about job: The small things that add up to unproductive days (aka the realities of start-up hood - the broken printer, the bank issue that has to be addressed before COB, the form that needs notarized, the lingering insurance issue, it goes on and on).
Pet peeve: Lack of self-sufficiency - never be afraid to ask the questions that will lead to DIY, and don’t be afraid to start. Never wait.
First choice for a new career: To lead branding and interiors strategy for a Fortune 500 brand.
Predilections
Most influential book: " Essentialism" by Greg McLeown
Favorite cause: As a young working mother, I’m driven to organizations that support children, specifically early childhood education and early intervention.
Favorite restaurant: Osteria Mattone or Colletta.
Favorite way to spend free time: Travel - travel is such a strong influence on my design process (and of course a great detox from the overexertion of entrepreneurship). I used to be overwhelmed by the ‘break’ [away from the daily grind/priorities/opportunities] required to travel, now I embrace it. Such a telling sign of my personal growth from my early 20’s to present date.
Favorite music: Acoustic or classical (‘thinking music’ – anything that can keep me on task longer).