Pink plus or minus.

GroundFloor Media

The biggest differentiator at GroundFloor Media, one of Denver’s “Best Places to Work” in 2008, is that it is made up entirely of senior PR practitioners. The average number of years in the business for those who work with GroundFloor is around fourteen. And over its eight-plus years of being in business, the agency has become a force to be reckoned with not just in Colorado, but in other areas of the country where it has a presence as well.

I sat down with Ramonna Tooley, Vice President and Managing Parter, to learn more about the secret of their success.

“We grow smart,” Tooley explained, “not fast.”

It’s an approach that is echoed by their stellar staff of PR pros who understand that the most important part of growing business is doing good work. With a total of 11 full-time staffers and an additional 15 who work contractually, GroundFloor is predominately made up of women. Women who have made their mark in the corporate PR world but are looking for a work-life balance that makes them not only better at their jobs, but better at every other aspect of their lives as well.

The concept started where most good success stories begin. In a basement. Specifically, the basement of founder Laura Love who exited the first economic sputter of the century with the dot-com bust to found a company committed to providing businesses with top strategic PR talent.

“Laura had been on the receiving end of the ‘bait-and-switch’ managing agencies as an in-house corporate marketing director,” Tooley explained, “so she wanted to start an agency that could never do that because it only worked with top-talent.”

Clearly she hit a target with that approach because since those early basement days, the company has grown with such clients as Children’s Hospital, Qdoba Mexican Grill, Mortons and the US Department of Energy. With satellite home-offices all over the state and extended into such diverse places as Portland, Milwaukee and even Oahu, GroundFloor Media proves unequivocally that the “virtual” shop can work.

While the company is based in a beautiful former-tile shop near Coors Field, only about half of its staff work there. The remaining PR pros manage their clients from their own home offices, coming into HQ for meetings or other business events. That commitment to work-life balance attracts a lot of power-hitters in the MarCom world. And may also be part of the reason why it is primarily made up of women who are more keenly focused on flexibility in their careers.

Just Google the phrase “women want flexibility in careers” and you will come up with more than 270k results with news articles from every corner of the world.

My own personal experience running this mobile office experiment has proven that physical location is less important than commitment, dedication and results. Do good work that makes the client happy and the client won’t care if you are working from home, or even from a moving vehicle on one of our nation’s crowded Interstates.

And while for many women, a big part of that flexibility is borne out of the family/work balance cycle, there is also a growing demand for community involvement. Perhaps it is precisely because we are becoming such a digital “virtual” society that we need to seek out those personal connections with greater fervor. Regardless, community is a huge part of GroundFloor’s mission.

They not only represent Tennyson Center for Children on a pro-bono basis but they encourage employees to spend time volunteering in the community. And by encourage, I mean they will pay those charities for the hours that each employee gives. The program is called “Get Grounded” and employees are encouraged to take time out of their work day to connect to the community by giving back. Some of those organizations that employees and GroundFloor as given to with both time and financial resources include: The Anthony H. Kruse Foundation; Colorado Music Festival; Morris Animal Foundation; Young Americans; and America on the Move.

So going back to that secret to success, I think I’ve uncovered GroundFloor’s recipe.

Do Good.

Whether it’s in your work, with your family or in your community.

Seems so simple. Makes one wonder why it’s been such an elusive concept for so many others.