Tim Harty, The Business Times

The Jan. 1 sale of Ryan/Sawyer Marketing to Julie Hober and Bridgett Gutierrez pushed former owner and business namesake Dan Ryan to the edge of retirement.

Before the 65-year-old Ryan fully commits to the plunge into the life of leisure, however, he’ll help his former employees for two months as they transition into the joys of business ownership.

Just getting to the day of the sale was about a three-year process, according to Ryan. That drew a laugh from Hober and Gutierrez, as Hober said Ryan talked about turning over the business to her from the time he hired her in 2012.

Likewise, Gutierrez joined Ryan/Sawyer Marketing in 2019 with Ryan telling her she can one day own the agency.

“I feel like Dan kind of was like, ‘You guys are buying this business,’” Gutierrez said while Hober agreed and both grinned. “He’s definitely had a vision for a long time to find successors.”

Hober and Gutierrez can have their fun, but Ryan wanted to see the business he started on May 1, 1990, live on. He wanted the business to continue under the stewardship of capable owners. And he believes that’s exactly what Hober and Gutierrez are.

“Just the quality of workers that they are, that’s key,” he said. “I mean, it’s like this transition would not happen if not for the work of Julie and Bridgett, the time that they spent here, the experience that they have, the expertise that they bring to the table that I didn’t have.

“I was an old-school guy, and when things evolved and digital media, social media, the Internet, all that came along, they really stepped up and embraced new marketing technologies and allowed this company to move forward, which I wasn’t all that interested in. I was old-school. I’m an analog guy, but it’s not an analog world.”

Ryan might not have been as tech savvy as his employees, but his understanding of marketing and people served the agency well throughout his nearly 35 years as owner.

Hober said Ryan has been a mentor and “a leader who leads by example and really showed us how to manage some of the difficult situations that arise and do it with confidence and no stress, which was, I think, the most impressive thing. In addition to just his absolute unicorn ability to be creative and be strategic and think strategically with all the clients and with the business and just have this innate understanding of what to do.”

Gutierrez had similar praise for Ryan, saying he masterfully let clients know, “This is exactly what you need for your business. Here, let’s bring it down to the nuts and bolts of what’s most important for you.

“And I think that is a a great quality to have instead of, you know, some people are very much like, ‘Oh, you can do all of this and this.’ They get really unfocused, and they try to do everything at once, and I think Dan’s really good at just really focusing on what’s most important for people, keeping it simple and making it clear. And so I’ve always enjoyed working with Dan for that reason.”

Lucky for Hober and Gutierrez, even after the two-month transition passes, Ryan plans to be around at times.

“I’ve also got some relationships with clients I’m gonna continue to work with, specifically Intermountain Health,” he said. “I do video production for them, and I’m going to continue to do that work with them. I’ll be an employee of RSM. Those are the kinds of things that I like doing, I’m good at doing, and I can continue to do that, but not have the responsibility of owning and operating the business.

“And we don’t know how long that’s gonna go. You know, I may decide in six months, ‘OK, I’m done,’ and move on.

“But the priority right now is to help them transition, so that it’s seamless for them. It’s important for me that they succeed, so I’m gonna do what I can to help them succeed.”

The ascension to ownership extends beyond the goals Hober and Gutierrez had when they got into marketing. Now that the day is here, they say it’s exciting and “a little scary.”

“You just don’t wanna mess up a good thing, and so our hope is that we can build on it,” Hober said. “There’s a learning curve, of course, which we’re in the thick of figuring out how to do all the day-to-day things with managing a business. But yeah, it’s exciting, and you see the potential for the future, and that’s a wonderful thing.”

Ryan has a succinct and clear message to existing clients, vendors and partners about the new owners of Ryan/Sawyer Marketing: “Be assured that you are in great hands.”

MORE ABOUT RYAN/SAWYER MARKETING

WOW, THAT WENT FAST!

Trying to summarize his nearly 35 years as an owner of Ryan/Sawyer Marketing, which operated under several different names over the years, Dan Ryan first looked at the time that passed.

“I think for one thing, it’s hard to believe it’s been 35 years on the scene,” he said. ‘When you’re in the middle of it, you know, time goes pretty slow. But when you get through it, you look back and say, “Man, when did that happen?”

THAT’S A LOT OF WORK

Ryan then shared an anecdote about another measure of his tenure.

“I think the volume of work, the body of work is pretty astounding,” he said. “Interesting fact, every project we have, there’s a job sheet, and so there’s a job number. We started in 1990, I started with job number one, and I think today we’re at job number 23,000-and-something. That’s a lot of work in 35 years, 23,000-some projects that we’ve done.”

NAME WILL REMAIN THE SAME

Asked about all of the name changes his agency has had over the years, Ryan recalled the following iterations, affected in large part by partnerships with Lee Whitney and Tom Sawyer: Ryan & Associates Advertising; Ryan & Whitney; Ryan/Sawyer/Whitney; RSW Partners; and finally for the about the past 10 years, Ryan/Sawyer Marketing.

Point being, the name could just as well change now with Hober and Gutierrez as owners. But they aren’t inclined to mess with a good thing.

“As we tell our clients, rebranding is a really hard thing,” Hober said. “There’s a lot of effort that has to go into it. And while maybe somewhere down the road we do look at rebranding, right now we see no reason to change the name, change our offering. There’s no plan to deviate.

“It’s really just stay the course. Keep everything moving along smoothly as it’s been, keep offering the same high-quality work and service to our clients that we’ve been doing.”

Gutierrez then added, “There is value in the name, like 35 years of business in Grand Junction tied to the name Ryan, so your marketing goes a long way. That’s a legacy you don’t want to just throw away. If you’re gonna buy a business, why would you?”

Back to Hober: “Bridget’s absolutely right. That’s what you’re buying. Dan has been such a fixture in this community for so long that that’s not something you turn your back on and shouldn’t turn your back on.

SOLD THE OLD HOMESTEAD

Part of being able to sell the business to Ryan/Sawyer Marketing employees Julie Hober and Bridgett Gutierrez was first selling the former building that housed Ryan/Sawyer Marketing at 652 White Ave. The business moved to its current home, 259 Grand Ave, Suite 100, in 2021.

Ryan said he owned the building through another company with his old partner, Lee Whitney.

“We had bought that building back in 2005, so we had a long time there,” Ryan said, “But as time went on, that building … really became kind of what I would call artificial overhead.”

It was too big, and technology factored into the need to sell the building, as Ryan explained, “We didn’t need the space. I mean, there was a time when we had 10, 12 people in the agency. With the advance of technology and everything, we’re down to four. We did the same amount of work with four people, outsourcing some of that, so we didn’t need that much space.”

NOW WHAT DO I DO?

Asked what he plans to do in retirement, Ryan took a couple seconds to think, then offered, “I don’t really know. I’ll be playing some golf, and I’ll spend time with my grandchildren and be spending time at our family cabin, which is up in the Meeker area. And do some traveling and just kinda — I don’t know exactly what that looks like.

CONTINUING EXCELLENCE

As a full-service advertising and marketing agency, Ryan/Sawyer Marketing provides a comprehensive range of services to help businesses grow, including:

• Brand strategy and development
• Creative design
• Digital marketing and SEO
• Web design and development
• Social media management
• Media buying
• Content creation
• Public relations
• Production

Schedule a free consultation by calling (970) 241-4773, emailing info@ryansawyermarketing.com or visit ryansawyermarketing.com.