Taking A Moment

The holidays are always a special time, but this year is a little extra special here at Karsh Hagan.

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Today, we were named as one of Outside’s Best Places To Work in 2023.

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Four years ago, senior management sat down and had a long talk about the future vision of Karsh Hagan. What kind of company do we want to be known as? Where do we want to be in five years? Ten years? What’s our story?

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While the answers were open-ended, the ethos of our company is anything but. In 1977, Phil Karsh and Tom Hagan founded Colorado’s Karsh Hagan on the love of a big idea. They built our culture around a simple yet profound principle: Above all else, you must live with purpose, and you must create with purpose. That legacy of pursuit of purpose and grit of the 70s is still carried on by our Co-CEOs Kathy Hagan and Pocky Marranzino, and at the heart of our work today. 

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At that time, one of our main goals as a company was to make Outside’s Best Places To Work list for 2020. To be frank, in hindsight, we weren’t ready to be a part of this list. We didn’t know it yet, but we had some work to do. 

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When COVID-19 struck, we lost 60% of our business overnight. Like many, we lost staff, and while at home, we started to lose our creative culture. It was a tumultuous time, but also an opportunity to rebuild — and to do it with intention. We redefined our business with a three pronged approach: our business is the people who embody it, the clients we love to work with, and the creative problem-solving we bring to the table. We created new roles that felt aligned with our future goals and those of our clients, and we only went after business that we knew we were absolutely the best fit for. 

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Back when we sat down in 2019 to nail down our purpose and brand, we knew part of our purpose was to inspire big thinking, and a massive part of our brand was our Coloradoism. It’s the idea of sitting at the foothills of the Rockies and having the urge to climb them because we wanted to see what’s on the other side; It’s the idea of exploration and pioneering big ideas. We wanted to make moments that change lives and inspire change — and so began the theme of “moment makers.” 

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From there, we knew we could be the place that everyone wants to work in Colorado.

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The best talent, the best work, and the best clients. It’s no secret that COVID-19 completely changed the broader work landscape, and we’re proud to be part of that change. For employees at Karsh Hagan, work is a part of life, not all of life. 

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We’re proud to offer benefits like unlimited PTO, a dog friendly office and an on-site bocce ball court. We’re even more proud, though, of building a culture that defines the agency we want to be. People at Karsh Hagan can easily block off an hour on their calendars to go for a walk. We have people who bike to work together because they care so deeply about the environment, and we specialize in outdoors clients because being outside is what we love to do. 

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At the end of the day, we want our employees to have the space to find their best selves outside, so they can create their best work inside. We may have a beautiful office right at the foothills, but what good is that if we’re making our people spend all their time inside of it?

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Advertising is a unique industry. We don’t have trucks, or equipment, or other tangible assets — all of our assets are human capital. Our business is the wellbeing of the minds that are in this building, and that's reliant on the happiness of the people here.

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Today, as moment makers, we stand here, redefined and refocused.

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Life is made in moments, but we know moments don’t just happen — we create them. For all these years, we’ve been working on just that, and now we’re thrilled to take a moment to celebrate the collective success, and most importantly, the people who make this place so special. 

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Cheers to our employees and clients who made this possible. We’ve been outside since ‘77, and now we’re the best place to work in ‘23.