I’ve worked with a lot of marketers over the years. And I’ve been at companies that have gone through rebranding or launched new websites. But until it’s your baby, you really don’t know what it’s like. Well, meet our new baby, www.aptituderesearchpartners.com.

Of course we have had a website for a while. And we had a logo. But it takes a while to really find your identity when you start a new business. Madeline and I both had our own personal brand (how I hate that phrase), but who was Aptitude Research Partners? We asked ourselves this question and then we talked. And talked. And listened. And talked. To each other, to our clients, to people in our industry, to people not in our industry, to our family and friends – and I even had several conversations with the dog about it. We worked with some great partners who helped us distill all those words into the brand you see now. It was a labor of love for all of us, so I hope you will forgive me for indulging in a few thoughts with you on the process and the final result.

I have no idea what I’m saying. Our fabulous marketing consultant listened to Madeline, Ryan, and me talk and came back with all these pictures of mountains. We thought it was nuts. But we talked about vantage points and climbing up hills and guiding people and grit and determination, apparently, like, all the time. Who knew? This is why you need outside help. You are often giving off your brand without really realizing what you’re saying. It’s only when it’s reflected back to you that you really see the pattern.

Mark Twain was right. Or maybe it was Benjamin Franklin. Or Shaw. But somebody somewhere said “if I’d had more time, I would’ve written a shorter letter.” It takes a long time to be concise. It took me approximately four minutes to write the six sentences on the home page of our website. Or more precisely, about nine months and four minutes. The only way to get crisp on your message is to be imprecise over and over until you realize what you really are trying to say. Marketers, I’ll never look at the process by which you distill information the same way again.

It takes a village. Aptitude Research Partners is living proof of the gig economy. We have built an amazing network of folks who have shared their time and talents with us. Yes, because we pay them, but also because they want to work with us. They have choices. So do we. But we choose each other. And I could not be more proud of the group that has chosen to come together as what you know as Aptitude Research Partners. We believe in the partners part of our name. Madeline and I with each other, us and our team, and Aptitude with you, the readers, marketers, strategy leaders, and innovators we are privileged to work with every day.

So we hope you like the site and the logo and mostly we hope we made it easier to interact with us and find the information you need. We mean it when we say join the conversation. We can’t wait to hear from you.