Daily Inspiration: Meet Don Poe

Today we’d like to introduce you to Don Poe.

Hi Don, 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?
I lead People Productions, a marketing agency based in Boulder. We work globally with major companies, especially in the B2B space and in medical device and diagnostics. Defining our client’s message, designing campaigns, and creating videos, digital marketing, social media, training, and sales enablement apps. Every day is an adventure and an opportunity to do something right for our clients, to learn, and to make the world a more enjoyable place.

How does someone go from a college intern to the owner of the company?

As a kid in the 80s, I got an amazing Amiga computer. This opened my door to art, programming, and creativity. Early on I learned how to combine technical skill with art. Wanting to explore digital art more, I took the video production class in my high school. In college, Journalism seemed more practical than a film degree. While never wanting to be a journalist, I followed video production with a wider eye. An internship on the business side of United Artists Theaters started to intermix business with video.

Out of the blue, People Productions reached out to me with an internship. Trial by fire, coming in on weekends to learn how to use the professional video editing gear. Dealing with the creative and technical aspects of old-school linear editing, and also making the jump to computerized editing. I am glad I have a deep foot in the technicalities of how video works.

Storytelling is the foundation of a good video. We needed to help many clients with stronger marketing, and we strategically evolved to become a full agency, developing their message, creating campaigns, and making all types of marketing materials, including websites. I learn how to communicate in any medium. Thrilling to fully spread my wings!

Practice makes perfect. Perform an activity for 10,000 hours and become an expert. But then, something even newer, and a real differentiator, a new frontier—sales enablement and app development!

We all know what marketing is, but often sales reps are left out and don’t have adequate training or strong materials to show to prospects so they can be a client partner. One of our clients needed an innovative way to distribute marketing and sales material. And we developed a sales enablement platform, UpSync, which was an early success with one company having 10,000 sales reps using our platform and other companies jumping on board. 2010 is the early days of this type of tool, and we helped invent the market for these types of platforms. Now, we help companies use other enablement platforms – we got tired of being a SaaS company and our team wanted to follow our roots of being an agency.

I go to work with a smile, after 30 years, leading our team, solving communications challenges, and helping our team and clients grow.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I am an optimist. There are no struggles. Just learning opportunities. Chances to expand and try new things. To take a leap to learn and evolve. I started as an editor and animator, then became a project manager. Then, took the reins as owner of People Productions and have run a fun and successful company with a fantastic team for almost 10 years. And now, what does the promise of AI bring, and how will all of our jobs change? I am riding that bucking bronco!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Being in Boulder, there are unique opportunities that come up from time to time. PeaceJam, an afterschool program that brings Nobel Peace Laureates to schools, has also produced many documentaries. One of their first projects had me interviewing the President of Costa Rica, the Dalai Lama, and many others in locations all around the world. Desmond Tutu is my hero due to my work on these projects, and I met him several times. The film, “Peacejam”, won many film festival awards!

Another project was with the Beeck sisters, of Boulder International Film Festival fame, who made their own movies early on. One was called “Grandpa’s in the Tuff Shed” about the dead frozen guy found in his grandson’s shed in Nederland. I was able to edit this funny documentary that won festivals, toured the world, and helped spawn Dead Frozen Guy Days. What a hoot of a film project (shot on SVHS of all things!)

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
It all boils down to love, caring, and trying. We are on the planet to help each other, support, and grow. Nothing is easy, and hard work pays off with a little luck. Just like atoms, our society is built up of elements circling and bouncing. The best thing is when relationships grow and we all help each other learn.

Pricing:

• Every project is unique, so after a couple of discussions, we can hit the ground running with a custom bid. Other projects need deeper research to understand the message and issues we need to handle, so we break those types of projects into separate tasks, keeping an eye on the overall budget. I love brainstorming and ideating — this is one of the most fun parts of a project for me. So, drop me a line, I am always happy to collaborate.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.peopleproductions.com
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/donpoe