Meet John Roope of WIDSIX on the Phoenix-Scottsdale Line

Today we’d like to introduce you to John Roope.

Thanks for sharing your story with us John. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
WIDSIX started as my side hustle. I was a nerd by day (working on servers, storage, network admin) and ran WIDSIX mornings, nights, weekends (and during the day… don’t tell anyone). After 9 years of being a thriving side business, I decided to leave the nerdery behind and focus on WIDSIX full-time. I’ve hired on a good group of people and we’ve grown from a one-man-band with some contractors to a team of about 17 (designers, social team, developers, video production, AdWords/ppc, etc). We are on a mission to change a self-important, snobby industry and we succeed one client (turned friend) at a time.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Smooth is all relative. All business owners know that obstacles and challenges occur daily. I don’t focus on them and I don’t let them drag me down. Of course they can slow you down for a quick “why me?” moment, but I don’t let them stop progress. In those few moments where grit wears thin, I’m blessed to have a good group of core friends who remind me to keep my head down and keep going.

I wake up every day thankful for life, for our “successes”, for all of the people on the WIDSIX Crew, for the health and well-being of my family, etc… But more importantly, I’m grateful for the tough times… the trials and tribulations that have created my current situation. While I’m grateful for the good times, health of family, etc… What little journaling and affirmations I do (I am trying it out)… many of the “thankful” items include things like “I’m thankful for growing up broke” and other things that normally don’t come up in the “thankful” conversations.

A humble upbringing combined with great positive mindset in the face of adversity (given to me by my mother) set me up to succeed at anything I do in life. Joking about shitty situations and a positive outlook was the norm growing up. As a company and personally, gratitude and thanks are at the core of everything I/we do.

Please tell us about WIDSIX.
WIDSIX is a full-service marketing and advertising company. If you ask yourself “does WIDSIX do that?” in a marketing/advertising conversation, the answer is probably “yes”. We don’t necessarily specialize in one service, I think our social media management is just as strong as our branding, and so forth. I will say though, our main focus is in the digital space… not because we think print, traditional TV, or radio doesn’t work, but because the ROI on digital delivery of content is so much greater.

The same thing we are proud of, also sets us apart from other ad agencies. We are proud of that fact that we don’t let business get in the way of being good humans. I can say with confidence that our sales have suffered because of it, but we don’t sell people on things they don’t need. In the long run, we like doing what’s right for our clients and that translates to most of our clients becoming friends over time.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
A couple of things come to mind (more will pour in later, I’m sure).

Right now, we are getting ready to raise some capital. I wanted to make sure the company was functioning at a high level and we had systems in place, before going after some working capital. What I would have done differently, is leverage the funds that were in the bank a year ago to get some bank financing and lines of credit. Not taking on debt, but having it in place to leverage later.

I selfishly don’t require people to work set hours in our office (I’m allergic to cubes now), but I still understood that we needed a “home base”. I signed up for an executive office, thinking we’d have some time before we needed more space… I was wrong. We quickly outgrew that office, but I had signed a long-ish term lease… lesson learned. Don’t underestimate your potential and sign a long-term lease, if you are planning on growing your business.

Contact Info:

• Address: 6991 E Camelback Rd
  Suite D-300
• Website: https://widsix.com
• Phone: 8889437499
• Email: experience@widsix.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/widsix
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/widsix
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/widsix
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/widsix-scottsdale-2
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/widsix/

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.