Tell us a little about yourself and your military background.
I grew up in Carnation Washington, and have spent nearly my whole life in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. After a chance meeting with a recruiter, I signed up for the Marine Corps at 17, with zero clue what I’d be getting myself into. The July after graduation, I was shipped down to San Diego to start my training. After San Diego I moved to Ft. Leonard Woods in Missouri where I trained as an engineer’s assistant, which involved surveying and road design in support of heavy equipment operators. I returned home to Seattle where I met my wife, Sandi. Fast forward 23 years, and we have three amazing children, Isla (10), Noelle (6), and Eli (5). We love to be outdoors at the beach or pool, at our cabin in Packwood skiing, and hiking the trails of Mount Rainier. In addition, I coach soccer (now THAT is a hard job), and serve on the school board.
What is the history of Audian, and what services does it provide?
We founded Audian in 2013 in Kirkland and our headquarters have always been in Totem Lake. We started out focused on telecommunications locally, as we loved the idea of taking what most people consider a painful and frustrating process and making it easy. Our goal was to simplify complexities, provide amazing customer service, and help our clients leverage technology to enhance their businesses. Kirkland has always been a wonderful community and we’ve spent countless hours volunteering where we can. We’ve since branched out and now have divisions focused on: IT Support for small, medium and large businesses; Networking as a Service; Security; Cameras; and more. Now we focus on everything cloud related, and are passionate about helping businesses advance themselves. Technology is second nature to us, but many businesses don’t know who to turn to with questions on upgrades, migrations, security concerns or telecommunications. During the pandemic, demand increased significantly as technology changed, and we now support clients from Bellingham to Dallas and have employees in six states.
How did your military experience influence the way you do things at Audian?
Reflecting back, one of the greatest lessons of being a Marine is the confidence gained in just “getting things done.” That permeates our company culture, and has resulted in Audian being able to execute on projects that seem incredibly daunting. Putting one foot in front of the other, and pushing on to the next step - even though we can be accused of being stubborn - has been a key part of our success. “Staying in solution” is another maxim we preach, and try to instill in our employees, and this also comes from the military. As a Marine, you never know where you are going to end up, or what situation you may be in. Focusing on staying in solution means not getting distracted by the problem at hand or getting overwhelmed, but focusing on the mission and putting your effort into solving problems as they come. Lastly, we were taught to never ask our team to do something that we wouldn’t do, and I’ve always believed that this is a huge difference between a leader and a “boss” or “owner”. A leader engages those around them to come together and accomplish a mission, where a boss or owner simply dictates what should be done “because I’m the boss.” I’m proud to say that we haven’t had an employee resign since 2015, and I attribute much of that to our culture of leading from the front, focusing on solutions, and supporting our employees. All lessons learned in the military!
Find Audian at audian.com
