Today we’d like to introduce you to Christopher Pitcher.
Christopher, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In January 2015, a small group of seekers, dreamers, and creatives picked up their lives and moved thousands of miles westward to set their lives down a path of making the world a better place through contribution and creative.
Empact Labs was started by a group of 4 best friends who did exactly what everyone says not to do, we went into business together. And we’ve learned over and over again why people say that! And yet despite that the four of us stand together stronger, happier and more connected than ever.
Though some of us shared more than 10 years of history growing up, it was the Midwest city of Chicago that brought us all together in our early 20s, where we ruled the city’s nightlife scene; throwing extravagant parties, managing some of the most successful bars and restaurants, and filming for artists ranging from Skrillex to Snoop Dogg. During that time one even held down a steady 9a-9p at a big Ad Agency (Marc USA) while another pursued duel masters degrees at IIT.
As friends, we’ve held each other up through a lot, but it wasn’t until 3 separate international expeditions pushed us each to our limits, showed us what we were made of, and opened our eyes and hearts in ways that not only cemented us as family, but also inspired us to make a bigger contribution with our lives.
The stories of each of these trips are worth hearing about in their entirety (2 of them even have recap videos!), though for sake of space and time we’ve bulleted the timeline highlights:
• In April 2013, Chris graduates with MDes and MBA from IIT. Leaves Chicago for a solo pilgrimage around the world for 15 months.
• Seth joins Chris in Thailand for the first month of his trip and meets a South African woman named Zee who changes his life forever.
• In December 2013 Seth and Kris meet Chris in South Africa for a 3 week journey down the Eastern Cape, accompanied by Zee and two other women from Chicago.
• Three months later, having documented every moment of their trip which included everything from sharks to community service, Footprints was born.
• In May 2014 Chris, with the help of Seth, enrolls Arin to get on a plane to Peru with 2 days’ notice. Arin returns to Chicago a week later having married Chris. Three weeks later, Chris ends his trip early and moves home to surprise Arin.
• In January 2015 with a commitment to elevate the consciousness of the planet through the media, Chris and Arin move to California, followed by Seth two weeks later, and Kris 3 months after that.
• In June 2015 The Sights and Sounds Media House Inc. officially opens for business as a production company making conscious, uplighting content with the goal of awakening humanity through stories.
• Out of which Empact Labs was eventually born (as a DBA) with the mission to uplift, educate and connect curious minds through immersive stories designed from the inside out.
• In June 2018, Empact Labs and Seth officially parted professional ways to fulfill on similar goals along different paths. All parties would agree that the connection, closeness and relationships are now stronger than ever and that is was the right move for everyone! All parties continue to refer work to one another, play, grow and create life together.
Empact Labs is the creative agency for socially conscious brands, helping do-good for-profit businesses scale their impact through creative with empathy. Through a unique blend of 20 years combined creative industry experience and expertise ranging from leadership development to Design Thinking to exponential technology, Empact Labs is the perfect creative resource for impact and tech companies that are building a better future.
Today, our team is made up of three Partners, one full time employee, an intern and a large network of creative collaborators. Things are heating up however, and in the next year Empact Labs will be tripling the size of our team in order to up-level the impact, empower more inspiring clients and create more meaningful creative.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Ha, no!
And that’s life for you!
We are in a place by now however, where we view obstacles and challenges as an indication that we are actually doing something right: pushing and challenging ourselves and the world around us, for the sake of serving existence.
One of the biggest challenges, and also one of the most obvious is that we are all friends, with lots of history between us. When you are so closely connected with people you tend to share some of the same blind spots, and have to work extra hard to keep business and personal separate. The first three years were trial by fire, and now I feel that being friends first gives us a great competitive advantage because we understand to an exceptional degree how to support and empower one another to be our best selves and do our best work. Thankfully we also realized just how valuable and necessary it was for us to have outside help and advisory support, so we now seek that regularly.
Another challenge for us was distilling such a big vision into a simple company framework, industry and offering. With so much we want to accomplish and contribute, it was hard to position ourselves appropriately, and thank goodness we went through that! Because that is precisely what we support many of our clients to do today! And, we’ve learned that in today’s marketplace brands are living, evolving organisms that shift and change to serve the moment.
Bootstrapping our business has certainly been a challenge, and being tight on resources often added an extra layer of stress. However, it provided a great opportunity for us each to learn to trust deeper, manage our resources better and align with our vision on a daily basis.
From my perspective those have been the core challenges we’ve faced, and now we are looking at some exciting new challenges like growing our team and evolving the culture!
Empact Labs – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Empact Labs is a creative agency for socially conscious brands. We help do-good for-profit companies scale their impact through creative with empathy.
Though we work with many industries we are specifically positioned to support the tech community to build a bridge to a brighter future by telling their stories.
Our zones of genius includes three primary verticals: Brand DNA, Integrated Marketing and Experiential Creative (live events or activations).
Our process includes three primary stages: Discovery, Immersion and Empact, which guides our clients down the path from correctly identifying and understanding the current situation all the way to delivering tangible results on a desired outcome.
We are known for our Immersion Lab which is a 3-day collaborative workshop and design spirit that can build a solid foundation for an entire brand or be adapted to help existing companies solve just about any problem they are facing.
As a company, we are most proud of our authentic commitment to service; serving our clients, and making ourselves and the world a better place at every single touchpoint we can.
One of the biggest things that sets us apart from others is a foundational commitment to personal growth and leadership development. We are always bettering ourselves, and in turn that leads to constantly making our work better and lifting up the people around us. When everyone is uplifted, expanded and empowered the entire ecosystem thrives, better work gets done and more prosperity is available to make a bigger impact.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My current practice is to go to bed every night feeling like that day was the proudest moment of my career and my life: having played all out, left nothing on the table and falling asleep satisfied if it were to be my last day.
Other than that I would say that there is nothing quite like getting to experience the live environments we get to create. To see people’s faces transform as their minds and hearts open within an experience you designed, is unparalleled as far as positive feedback loops go. Recently we pulled off an event that transported 600 guests twenty years into the future to show them how money would be used more purposefully. We hired and trained actors, produced 100+ original works of art for a custom museum experience, managed the production set up and even handled the catering…all in 5 days! I’m pretty proud of the way our small team worked together to accomplish such an enormous feat!
Pricing:
- Discovery Lab $3K (3 hour session, 3 business day deliverable turnaround)
- Immersion Lab $30K (3 day intensive, 3 week deliverable turnaround)
- Empact Lab: custom creative services, custom pricing
Contact Info:
- Address: 4505 Glencoe Ave.
Marina Del Rey, CA 90292 - Website: empactlabs.co
- Phone: 425-417-3940
- Email: create@empactlabs.co
Image Credit:
Fish Makes Photos/Louis “Fish” Fisher
Christopher Pitcher
The Sights and Sounds
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