Clint Macklin
“Just start! Don’t fear failure. Have a goal and start with one thing towards reaching it and then do another thing. Soon it will be two things at once and then don’t look back.”
There is a very powerful saying, “I don’t want to work a 9-5 job, because 20 hours a day is just too much. How much does this stand true? Do we have real life examples which support the saying? Can we also step out of the job cycle? And If yes, what all does it take? Today in this article we will be writing about one such living example who followed a unique path and created history. Let’s get to know him more. The leader with entrepreneurial mindset Clint Macklin, the leader with an entrepreneurial mindset decided not to take the traditional career path and graduate high school, head straight to college, and then plunk into a degree related desk job to begin the climb up the corporate ladder. He was hesitant if college was the route for him, so he held a few 9-5 jobs but was never satisfied hustling for companies that he didn’t feel empowered to act like an owner. While working for other firms in digital marketing, he went to school and obtained his BS in Computer Information Systems while simultaneously starting a side hustle called Dilated Media. This gave him the confidence to work for himself and create a business that would empower others to act like an owner. His side hustle morphed into the creation of VEA Technologies, which he co-founded in 2016. He has always had an entrepreneurial mindset and has been curious if there might be a better way to do things. He has always had a high-risk tolerance and a persistent drive to work for himself and create a company culture that wasn’t available to him early in his career, all of which has led him to form several successful businesses over the years. He also founded CC Investments, a real estate investment firm focused on fix and flips and buy and holds, which has closed over twenty million in transactions since 2017.Clint is a native to Colorado. When he is not overseeing VEA’s dev projects or buying real estate he is spending time with his two daughters, fly fishing, golfing, and camping. His favourite part of VEA is learning about his client’s needs and finding solutions to improve their business through technology. He prides himself on his clients results and long-lasting relationships he has built in the industry. Clint looks forward to his future contributions to VEA and their client’s businesses. His Ideal theory of ‘Be Good and Do Good’ To put it simply, he just tries and be a good person. He does his best to lead by example with honesty and integrity. He doesn’t expect others to do things that he wouldn’t do, whether that be as an employee or as a customer. Creating a culture of high ethical standards and social responsibility starts with him. He wants to set the tone at VEA with his employees, customers, and prospects that they can build trust and loyalty in his product and people. He thinks that transparency is vital for building and retaining trust and he encourages his customers to provide their honest feedback. He wants the customers to feel valued and receive a consistent, high quality product that they are happy with. Openly communicating with his customers and
nviting their honest feedback elevates the customer experience and delivers the consistent message that issues will be proactively taken care of before trust is broken. Clint’s Greatest Strength Being adaptable and solution oriented. Change and issues are inevitable both personally and professionally, but obstacles provide opportunities. Through experience, he has learned to not just react but to appreciate the problem, change what doesn’t work, focus on finding solutions and do more of what is working. He has grown comfortable with failure and has often found
failure leads to innovative solutions to complex problems.
All about VEA Technologies
VEA (pronounced vee-uh) means to be different yet not isolated — to be exquisitely unique and attractive to those that love something new. VEA Technologies is a collective of digital experts who are passionate about the clients they represent and the results they hope to achieve together. They have more than 60 years of combined experience in web development, design, branding, digital marketing, and consulting that they put to work to deliver an outstanding product for their clients. Their team has a diverse background with a wide range of industries, allowing them to work successfully alongside big companies and small businesses alike. This also allows them to provide a fresh perspective in many engagements that lead to new ideas and strategies. VEA Technologies is different because their people are different. They are highly motivated, focused, and committed to your success as much as they are committed to their own. This digital agency focused on web development, design, branding, digital marketing, and consulting. They have a talented team of 25 employees/contractors. Clint oversees the daily operations of the development department. Their biggest accomplishment to date has been the acquisition of our long-time partner Evoke Group in 2021. This acquisition allowed them to strengthen their digital marketing team and capabilities. They expanded their resources and bandwidth by absorbing their creative and advertising service offerings.
Challenges imposed by pandemic
In the beginning, they were very scared as almost all their clients halted any work in progress. They all were facing the same global issue, but it affected their businesses and lives in so many similar yet wildly different ways. After the initial shock of the severity that the pandemic had imposed, within a month, they had reached out to most of their clients and together found solutions to keep folks working. Their team worked together to adapt to the new and everchanging challenges that were thrown at them and their clients. While challenging it has also been very rewarding and he is grateful that their business has not only survived but has thrived in the last two years. Not only did they not have to face reducing their employee count in response to the pandemic, but they acquired their long-time partner and created additional opportunities for their current and future employees. They reacted to their client’s needs with speed to help them make the transformation to the digital world as fast as possible realizing that it was a necessity for some to continue operations in a socially distanced environment. They were already a globally dispersed company comfortable working together remotely. It was an asset that their team was already prepared to switch to a fully remote environment immediately. While they were prepared and capable of working in their new environment, they didn’t have much work to complete with their clients freezing all-new activities for the first month. They had to be honest with their teams that while they never knew what the future would hold prior to COVID-19, now they really don’t know what future challenges they may have to face. They had no idea if they would be able to go to the grocery store if their children would be able to go to school, would they be able to get medical care, much less if anyone would need the services of VEA but they continued to remain a team and support one another whenever possible. When their clients were ready, they helped them find solutions together. As they say, be thankful for the problems you do have. VEA is incredibly lucky that they had the opportunity to react to problems and could find solutions during such tumultuous times and keep their employees and customers working. This has been a difficult time to navigate as a person and a business owner and he is proud of his team for persevering through those unknown times.
Daughters, the biggest inspiration
Clint has two daughters that inspire him to reach his goals, work hard and have balance in his personal and professional life. He wants to show his daughters that they don’t have to accept the status quo and can create their own success and path in life. He loves owning his schedule and exemplifying the work to live not live to work mentality. Being able to provide his team with this same flexibility and work/life balance is very rewarding.
Message for all
Just start! Don’t fear failure. Have a goal and start with one thing towards reaching it and then do another thing. Soon it will be two things at once and then don’t look back. You’ll only regret the problems you aren’t willing to overcome
