Northern Nevada Business Weekly: Tell us a little about your company.
B.C. LeDoux: The Glenn Group is an advertising, interactive and public relations agency that is literally the result of a marriage between two long-time Nevada competitors. In January 2008, Valerie Glenn (my boss), who owned The Rose/Glenn Group, and her husband John Glenn (my old boss), who owned DRGM Advertising, decided, after 27 years of blissful marriage and cutthroat competition, to join professional forces and merge their companies. The result is a fun-loving, hard-working agency with offices in Reno and Las Vegas and 35 employees companywide. We specialize in marketing strategy and creativity for clients in a variety of industries, like gaming, healthcare, renewable energy and more. And we love it.
NNBW: What role do you play?
LeDoux: My roots are in the creative department I actually started as a copywriting intern 11 years ago. So, my role until recently has been to make sure we're delivering an excellent creative product companywide. Now, as president/creative director, I'm in charge of shaping our company's vision, instilling creative thinking throughout the agency and guiding us into the future, which in our industry will take a lot of nimble, scrappy, creative thinking.
NNBW: How did you get into this?
LeDoux: The truth is I wanted out of school, and I had always been a pretty decent writer, so I started taking journalism classes to fast-track my exit. Then I took a few advertising classes and fell completely in love with it. The lesson here, kids, is that sometimes avoidance and laziness can lead to a career you love.
NNBW: What's necessary for someone to succeed in this job?
LeDoux: I think you need to be a human Swiss Army knife. It's important to be: creative, intuitive, thick-skinned, even-keeled, analytical, nimble, good with people, passionate, hard-working, inventive, fun and 100 other things at any given time.
NNBW: If you could have had any other profession what would it have been?
LeDoux: I really wouldn't want to be doing anything else. That's not just me BS-ing. I love our company, and I love what I do. Would I love to have a rocket arm and have quarterbacked in the NFL or an epic voice and shred on guitar in front of thousands of people? Sure. But my arm sucks and my voice sucks worse, so I'm in advertising, and I love it.
NNBW: What are some of the important trends you see in your industry?
LeDoux: Clearly mobile devices are changing the way we act and interact with our world. Every other person you pass is engulfed in whatever is so fascinating on their phone. They'd hardly notice a streaker running past, let alone an advertisement. So we need to get their attention where their attention is and give them new ways to interact with brands via their mobile devices, too. That's already obvious, but in five years it will be a serious "No, duh."
NNBW: What do you like to do when you're not working?
LeDoux: One of my new favorite personal sayings is, "Check out before you check in." In our industry we are always working, always thinking, always connected to our phones, computers, email, Twitter, Facebook, etc., so I think it's really important to be disciplined about breaking free. I do that in the great outdoors. I love hiking and biking.
NNBW: Would you rather be younger, thinner, richer or smarter?
LeDoux: Smarter. Smarter could lead to richer. In fact, if I were smarter, I probably would have just picked richer.
NNBW: Five things you can't live without?
LeDoux: My wife, my dog, the 49ers, the great outdoors and work.
NNBW: If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why would you want it?
LeDoux: Teleportation. I travel a ton, and I'm really tired of taking off my shoes at airport security. However, I would probably just teleport to the other side of security and still fly. Planes are one of the few places you can actually escape email.
NNBW: What does the content of your refrigerator say about you?
LeDoux: That I have a great wife.
The basics:
Name: B.C. LeDoux, president, creative director and partner, The Glenn Group
How long have you been in this job? 11 years with the company; two months as president
Education: BA in journalism (with an emphasis in advertising), minor in psychology, from the University of Nevada, Reno
Best book you've read? Let's talk instead about the book I've read most over the last year Facebook. You know how you used to want a super power to see people's thoughts? Well, I know now that I would definitely not want that power.
What's on your iPod? The mix is eclectic. Everything from A to Jay-Z (I just made air quotes around that to signify the bad word play). There's classic country, classic rock, jazz, hip hop, alternative, metal, blues.
The best movie ever? Hmm, if I have to narrow it down to one that has stayed magical for me since the first time I saw it, then I'm gonna have to geek it up and go with "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back." The force is strong with that one.
Spouse, kids or pets? Wife, Colleen; Dalmatian, Oscar
