Kanahoma Turns Four

Reflections On Where We Are & Where We’re Going To Go

This past week, Kanahoma celebrated our fourth anniversary. 

It was four years ago, alone in my home office, that I first pushed publish on this post and figuratively hung up a shingle. 

At the time, we were collectively navigating the peak of the pandemic and my wife and I were eagerly awaiting the arrival of our daughter Lola, who would be born in early January. 

To put it simply, it was one of the scariest moments of my life. 

I was walking away from a successful and established executive-level role as a Vice Chancellor at a university system and was quite literally leaping into the unknown. 

The idea was to build a better agency for education. 

After nearly 15 years in the industry, COVID had shattered any remaining doubts about the rising role and influence of online education and more than ever institutions were wrestling with how to navigate an increasingly crowded and complex market. 

What was needed was a highly-focused, high-skilled agency of education marketing insiders, leveraging an improved operating model designed to drive growth both on campus and online.

So I said goodbye to the stability of a salary and set out to build it. 

And what a wild, wild ride it’s been ever since…

Where We Are Today

Today, four years later, Kanahoma is home to over 30 incredible full-time employees, an expanding stable of all-star contractors, and a growing list of college and university partners.

After starting primarily as a consultancy, we successfully made the intentional transition to a full-service marketing agency, today supporting over 15 long-term partners (all on 1 - 3 year contracts) and working with another dozen institutions annually on a project basis. 

We’ve worked with three of the Top 10 online providers, multiple R1 institutions, and a growing number of private (primarily faith-based) institutions. 

Across our partners, we manage over $30 million in annual marketing spend; provide what I truly believe is best-in-class creative, web, and SEO services; and even own and operate our own production company. 

We’ve continued to grow (300%+ over the past three years), but most importantly our partners have grown too. 

This Fall, all but one of our AOR partners saw meaningful year-over-year growth, with many experiencing double digit - and in four cases record - enrollment growth. 

When we launched four years ago, I had a dream of building Kanahoma. 

Today, four years later, it’s safe to say we’re built. 

Where Do We Go From Here?

So if we’re already exceeding my own expectations of what we could become, where do we go from here? 

For starters, this past year I made the concious decision that Kanahoma is not for sale.

After receiving almost a dozen offers or expressions of interest over the past twelve months, I’ve taken the time to self reflect on both where we are, but also who we are. 

And I’ve decided that the ability to control our own destiny, to work with a team I so deeply respect, and partners I so deeply admire, is worth more to me than anything anyone else can provide.

So if the foundation is built, and the business isn’t for sale, it’s worth asking - what’s next?

Changing My Relationship With Growth

When I first founded Kanahoma, I wanted to grow because I wanted to survive.

I had a mortgage to pay and a baby on the way. And I needed this to work. 

But quickly, this idea really did become a business, and from there I think I pursued growth in some vague effort to prove to some indistinct audience that what we had built mattered. 

But today, after a lot of personal work and proper self reflection, I’ve realized growth is no longer a goal; rather, growth is the end result of us delivering on the promises we make. 

When we deliver for our partners, and they realize real growth in a down market, our own growth takes care of itself. 

And while I certainly still welcome growth, it’s no longer in a veiled effort to receive some kind of external validation, but rather born from a desire to increase our impact and provide more opportunities for our team. 

So will we continue to grow? I certainly hope so.

But do we need to grow? No, not anymore.

So What Keeps Me Up At Night?

While we’ve come a long way over these past four years, and I’m deeply proud of where the business is today, there’s still a lot of room to improve.

Here’s just a few of the things that still occasionally keep me up at night:

• Delivering on our Promises to our Partners: First and foremost will always be - are we delivering on the promises we make? Our partners turn to Kanahoma because they expect we can deliver outsized results and the reality is our work is never done. The larger we get, the more promises we make. And I still intend to keep them all.  

• Not Resting on our Laurels: While so many of our partners are experiencing strong year-over-year performance, the reality is we’re playing a game with no finish line. How do we keep the pressure up and relentlessly push to improve without burning out the team? 

• Growth for our own Team: As fast as we’ve grown, so too has our team. The talent we’ve managed to assemble is incredible. Can we continue to grow at a rate that provides us the chance to provide well-earned raises and promotions for our team?

• Maintaining our Benefits: When we first built Kanahoma, we made it a point to strive to be the type of employer we could be proud of. From covering 100% of health insurance premiums for employees, spouses, and dependents; to reimbursing student loans; to offering unlimited PTO and a 401k that vests day 1; we’ve set the standard for how we want to care for the team we’ve assembled. But those benefits are getting increasingly expensive and the financial burden of such commitments is real. How do we absorb the increasing costs associated with those benefits without reducing the benefits themselves?

• Financial Stability: For those that know, the reality is that a service business is never stable. Business comes and goes, revenue moves in waves, and expenses don’t always hit when you’d expect them to. How can we retain profits, improve our financial position, and build up our coffers to weather any storms that may lie ahead? 

• Understanding My Own Limitations: A question that is constantly on my mind is - where am I holding back the business? Over the past four years, we’ve gone from a team of 1 to a team of over 30. That reality has meant that my own role has changed dramatically and I’ve been pushed well outside my comfort zone. How can I ensure I am doing all I can to lead and improve and never be the limiting factor of our success?

Evolving from Something to Prove to Playing an Infinite Game

The past four years have been full of late nights, early mornings, weekend-long working sessions, lost sleep, poor health, and a myriad of stresses and anxieties that could fill a book. 

But it’s also been the most incredible four years of my life. 

While I set out to grow a business, I’ve ultimately realized the real opportunity is in growing myself.  

Simon Sinek says it best when he says…

“Finite players play to beat the people around them. Infinite players play to be better than themselves.” 

And that has been a lesson I’ve had to learn the hard way. 

After a career of trying to prove myself, I’ve learned to love and accept myself. 

And while I’ll no doubt still have a few more sleepless nights ahead, the truth is that I wouldn’t change a thing. 

Life is fleeting and building a business is hard. 

But four years ago I chose the hard. 

And it’s been both the hardest, but also the most rewarding, experience of my career. 

Giving Thanks

So whether you’re one of the partners that has chosen to put your trust in us, a member of the team who has made us who we are today, or a friend who has rooted for us along the way, I want to take this moment to share my deepest and most sincere thanks. 

As lonely as founding a business can be, thanks to your support, I’ve never felt alone. 

And it’s that support that has given me the confidence to push through the tough times and keep focused on the reality that this is such a special moment in time. 

How lucky am I? To wake up each day with a family I love, to go to work with a team that I trust, to support partners we believe in, in an industry with the power to transform.

So what do the next four years have in store for us? 

Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…

No doubt it will include new products, new partners, and an expanding team.

But with our continued growth, the problems we face will likely grow as well.

And that’s ok.

Because as Hunter Thompson once wrote…

“Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?”

So cheers to Kanahoma’s fourth anniversary.

Thanks for joining us on this wild, wild ride.

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About The Author
Seth is the founder and CEO of Kanahoma, a San Diego-based performance marketing agency on a mission to build a better agency for organizations building a better world.

You can learn more about who we are and what we do at www.Kanahoma.com.