We’re looking forward to introducing you to Maria Harrison & Jonathan Schwartz. Check out our conversation below.
Maria & Jonathan, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
For me this answer is always the same – spending time with my family on the ocean. Boating is my happy place whether it’s a loungey afternoon anchored at Haulover sand bar or a long weekend of boating in the Keys, the simplicity of relaxing on the ocean or the adventure of a big run, bring me joy.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
We co-founded Bullseye Strategy together in 2009 and 16 years later we’re going strong! People said we were crazy to leave corporate America and start an agency in the height of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and maybe we were but we were also determined dreamers who had a vision.
We founded the agency based on the knowledge we had in many different industries bringing our senior executive level corporate experience combined with creative prowess and an ability to be nimble. We are proud to partner with clients across industries, including e-commerce, real estate, hospitality, travel, and B2B tech solutions. We service many clients here in South Florida but around the world as well from New York City, to Nicaragua to Italy! We are a full service agency offering an integrated approach to paid, earned and owned media.
Clients choose us because they care about results and about relationships. Choosing an agency is a bit like getting married. For a successful agency partnership to work, there are some key ingredients such as prowess, people, and process. We know what we’re doing, we’re easy to work with because we dig deep to get to know our clients and their businesses and then we execute our services with precision driven by our stellar account team that gives every client white-glove treatment, led by subject matter experts who use a full-funnel data-driven strategic approach, and then we deliver it through our agile methodology that allows us to run fast and hard in sprints, continuously outputting work for our clients.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who taught you the most about work?
Although we were raised miles and years apart, we both have similar influences which is probably why we make great partners. Jonathan was influenced by his Dad, a cardiologist, who demonstrated incredible work ethic and compassion for his patients. Maria was also influenced by family coming from a line of Italian-American immigrants who were hardworking and entrepreneurial.
Jon and Maria both went on to play high school varsity basketball and it turns out that both of their coaches were tremendously influential in their lives. Jon was coached by Coach Sandy Pyonin, who later went on to put over 30 players in the NBA. Maria was coached by a former international proplayer, Danny Mazzulla. Both men instilled in us work ethic, determination, teamwork and a can-do mentality. We are both forever indebted to them. We think of our coaches often as we coach our Bullseye Strategy team, encouraging them to work together, to run solid plays, and to shoot their shots!
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I think every entrepreneur has almost given up at one time or another. Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. It’s fraught with endless decisions, from complicated finances to where to take clients to dinner. The sheer volume of decisions we make in a week is dizzying. I think we probably wanted to give up at different times and for different reasons but our partnership and love of what we ultimately do for our clients keeps us going strong!
A specific time that I think many entrepreneurs and business owners wanted to give up was certainly during the height of the COVID pandemic. But we leaned on each other, and our team’s flexibility to work in the cloud, and we got through it. We had open discussions about the personal and professional challenges we were all facing as we began remote work and dealt with the reality that many of our team members were also being inflicted by COVID that led to personnel shortages and a real need for our team members to show up for each other and fill in the gaps. We learned a lot about what kinds of team members would help us grow and thrive during challenging times.
If we can launch a business during the biggest economic downturn in recent history, and we can survive COVID with zero layoffs, we can do anything!
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
We hold our Core Values at the heart of everything we do at Bullseye Strategy. We protect all of them intensely but probably the one value that is most important to us is passion. You have to care deeply about your work, your clients, and the results you get for them in order to be successful in the agency world. Without passion, we can’t make this work.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
We are fortunate to have clients that truly appreciate us – they value the results we bring them and the way we partner with them. So with appreciative clients, comes thanks and praise from time-to-time and of course, that always puts a little extra pep in our step! But yes, given our Core Value of passion, we could do this without a single word of praise because we love it and care deeply about the results we produce for our clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bullseyestrategy.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bullseyestrategy/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bullseye-strategy/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BullseyeStrategy/
