Day One: Mirum

**Today is a new day. Hello, [Mirum](http://www.mirumagency.com “Mirum”).**
Back in 2002, when I joined [Twist Image](http://sixpixels.com “Twist Image”), I had no expectations… I had big expectations. It was a dream. It was a dream to think that this small group of people could really do something in the marketing industry. It was also a dream, because I made a very personal decision to work for myself (again…). That feeling of boundless opportunity is both exciting and the stuff of things that keep you up at night. In a sense, there is nothing to lose, because the business is so new (and mostly in debt). In another sense, there is nothing to lose, because the opportunity to move the needle – ever so slightly – feels so present. What we accomplished in the following decade-plus has been a wondrous journey. A lot of it has been documented, here on this blog.
**Content at the core.**
As someone who has both published magazines and worked as a freelance journalist, there was something (deep inside of me) that wanted to use technology to share both the process of what we were going through as a business and how we – as an agency – felt about technology, brands and building a semblance of community. Having this out there – for all to see – was something new in 2003 (which is when this blog was started). Agencies did not share their thinking or their process. It was liberating. It was fun. It sparked our little agency into the limelight. It proved that social media can be used as an inbound marketing channel (long before those words were cool), and it proved that content marketing is a powerful way to gain attention and business (long before content marketing was a thing, as well). I’m not proud of the fact that we were early in the blogging and podcasting game. I am extremely proud that what we created found an audience and a group of people who cared, and continue to care over many years. Every day, I see countless articles in the media questioning the efficacy of blogging, podcasting, social media and content marketing for business. I fashion myself as a humble and quiet individual, but these articles make me want to scream, *”look at us!!!”* It works! But, it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, patience, resilience, persistence, consistency, experimentation, distribution channels and more. But, it does work.
**Walking into work today was different.**
While we announced that [Twist Image was acquired by WPP](http://sixpixels.com/blog/archives/exciting-news-about-twist-image-and-the-future/) back in May 2014, the journey to changing our name to [Mirum](http://www.mirumagency.com “Mirum”) and becoming founding partners of a new global digital marketing agency is – obviously – bittersweet. Going into the office and forcing myself to remember that it’s now *”Mirum”*… and not *”Twist Image”* was hard. Old habits die hard. With that, Twist Image needed to become Mirum. Mirum is the future. Mirum is a place where brands can go for true transformation. It’s the place where ideas can meet with new kinds of products and services. It’s a place where technology and data can help meld into the future… a future that seems to be coming at us much faster than ever before. So, today we celebrated. We celebrated fourteen years of independence. We celebrated the right choice is agreeing to be acquired by [WPP](http://wpp.com/ “WPP”). We celebrated joining the [J. Walter Thompson Company](https://www.jwt.com/worldwide “J Walter Thompson”) as a founding partner of a new global company. We celebrated new partners and friends from all over the world, as we move from two offices and one hundred people into 2200 people over forty offices.
**But, what about me?**
Over the years, I’ve tried to keep me out of it. To not get too personal. To keep the content focused on you. Thinking that might help you find a solution to a business challenge. But, I hope you will indulge me. For me, the real magic comes from the relationship that I have with my three business partners: Mark Goodman, Mickael Kanfi and Aubrey Rosenhek. Not a day goes by that I don’t marvel at how we met one another (a strange and lucky chance in life), and how we built this business by allowing one another to focus on our individual unique abilities. I jokingly tell people that we have the best business relationship, because I don’t like the jobs that they do… and they feel the same about what I do. We’re much more than complimentary to one another. We’re much more than a team. We’re a band… a band that works. Finding one good partner in this world is a miracle. I found three. That’s magic. There’s no other word for it. Over the years, our working relationship has never wavered. We had each other’s back and we strive towards the same lighthouse among the fog that is this ever-changing industry. With that, we’ve been surrounded by an incredible team of people that are passionate about digital marketing. From our management team over to the people who have to push the pixels. I get a lot of the accolades, but those are misplaced. It’s everyone on our team that really makes the work happen. So, it may surprise you to hear that I am not sad to be saying goodbye to Twist Image. It feels like Twist Image needed to do what most companies need to do when they turn fifteen years old… it needs to think about the next phase of its life. Mirum is that phase. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t all celebratory. I’m nervous. I’m scared. To a certain degree, we are starting over. The bar is set high. The expectations for success are high. It is in these moments of being challenged, uncertainty and opportunity that we discover who we really are. I’m looking forward to that experience… more than most people know. [Jeff Bezos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos “Jeff Bezos”) is often asked about where [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com “Amazon”) is at, in terms of growth and potential. He likes to say that it is *”Day One.”* I love that. I’m inspired by that. For Mirum, it is day one… both literally and figuratively.
**Here’s to day one! [#MakeMirum](http://makemirum.com/).**