CIG: Denver Public Relations, training, graphic design, research and proposal writing

Great Moments in CIG History - Chapter 2

Before I knew it, 2005 was over and the calendar rolled over to 2006. Suddenly, my little firm started growing faster than the number of congressmen being taken down by sex scandals that year – faster than any of us ever could have envisioned.

Apparently, once people heard we were in business, they decided to check us out. At CIG, we refer to that as “a good problem to have.” In 2006, our “good problem” was that the economy was strong and the relationships we’d built through the years were providing new business opportunities. So what was the problem? Well, first off, we’re public relations professionals, so there are never any “problems,” – just “challenges.” No, wait… make that “opportunities.”

Opportunities were many. We’d been fortunate enough to be collaborating with our old friends at Kiewit, who were serving as Construction Manager and Owner’s Representative on Cherokee Denver’s redevelopment of the former Gates Rubber Factory site. We also had the great pleasure of helping with some of the final Transportation Expansion (T-REX) Project opening celebration. We also developed terrific new relationships with Adams County, Mapleton Public Schools and several private firms.

With our work on RTD’s FasTracks program in full swing, my colleague Laurie Meza and I found ourselves already busily humming along, so we brought on fellow T-REX veteran Kristi Estes in January that year, initially to head-up our non-FasTracks work. Later that year, Kristi joined the FasTracks team as well – taking over for Laurie, who went on a loooong maternity leave, to explore the wonders of raising twins.

Typical of how CIG rolled back in the early days, we worked out of a space graciously loaned to us at CRL, our homes, coffee shops, client’s offices, restaurants and yes, even our cars (I actually do recall driving up and down Broadway, my laptop on the console, angling for a free Wi-Fi signal). We had more work than staff members and – with the resources I had in place – I could see we needed to expand if we were to continue providing our clients the quality and customer service we demand and they deserved.

Our ~~good problem~~, er, opportunity, was to hire another staffer who could manage the ever-growing list of clients and projects that were not under the FasTracks umbrella. Who could we hire to be in this role, and where might we find this person? As I’d done before, I went back to the well of former project colleagues and tapped Matt Wittern.

For me, the challenge of balancing client work while managing three employees, payroll, HR issues, invoicing, ordering office supplies, negotiating contracts, etc. – all the while trying to maintain a personal life – became too much. It was time to call in reinforcements.

In June, my very dear friend Terri Atmore had flown out from Atlanta for my Big 4-0 birthday. It wasn’t long after (the very next day, in fact), that I roped her in and, within weeks, she became CIG’s new Office Manager, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, VP of Organization and Karen’s Personal Sanity Saver.

Within six months, CIG had doubled in size. Things were running smoothly and, by the fall, we had even more clients to enjoy. In December, I decided we all deserved a celebration, so we held the first-ever CIG Christmas party, which somehow ended with a limo ride to Polly Esthers. But, hey, that’s how we do things at CIG – we catch the tradewinds as they come and hope for a Disco at the end.

Everyone was feeling pretty good as 2006 drew to a close. We’ll call that the calm before the storm. Calm that didn’t last for long, because 2007 had a lot in store for us…

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