In 1999, what started in the extra bedroom of my place, moved into a shed-like building in a 1,400-person community in the middle of Iowa. While we sat on Pleasant Street, the first few years were anything but.
As luck would have it, just three short years after getting this thing off the ground, it turned out to be about the worst cycle in Iowa Republican political history – in other words, a terrible time to own a small business focused on GOP campaigns. Our candidates at the top of the ticket went down in flames, infighting was fierce, and a new firm started picking off my clients one-by-one. At one point, I answered a help wanted ad looking for “event organizers.” Turns out they wanted people to do supermarket demonstrations for Listerine Pocket Packs. It paid $100 a day and the lights on Pleasant Street didn’t just keep themselves on, so I did it.