Meet Kim Grennan | Founder & CEO of Axle Eight

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kim Grennan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kim, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I have always been willing to take on a little more risk than say the average person. But I am an overthinker. Something that may seem like a big risk for most people is usually something that I have spent countless hours on evaluating risk and modeling out scenarios of personal and financial impact. I consider myself a fast learner and someone who will dive deep into understanding a topic I have interest in, but it took me 3 years to get the individual marketing knowledge and foundation that I thought was key enough to build an agency. So I went from doing M&A and venture capital to owning my own marketing agency with no “formal” training on the subject in a matter of 3 years. And to many, they thought I was taking a huge risk and that I was crazy for doing something COMPLETELY different than what my education and career experience had been up until that point. I had to learn all new skillsets and build the trust through positive results to the clients I was bringing on, and ultimately it paid off. I believe that you create your own luck. Meaning, luck is in your favor if you lay the foundation and put focus and energy into something that you want. I wanted my own business, and I made that happen! There were a ton of risks but you can mitigate those through through planning.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I think what sets us most apart is the fact that Axle Eight is primarily a women owned and run company. And we’re all in our 20s and 30s. We’re young, but bring a new perspective to the clients that we work with. We work mostly with B2B businesses across a whole range of industries that are primarily male dominated and want to do something fresh and different that what everyone else in their industries are doing from a brand and messaging perspective. Some companies want this, and others don’t. But I am most proud of how we have established ourselves as the next generation agency for B2B companies. When you see us or think of us, you would not immediately think that this is our client target audience, but I love that juxtaposition. Now that we have 2 years under our belts as a full-fledged agency and 9 full-time employees, I think our progress towards growing the company is on par or exceeds my expectations for where we would be in that time frame. It required a lot of sleepless nights and many many overtime hours to get the job done, but the story of where we are today makes it all worth it. The people who we have brought onto the team is what makes it that much more rewarding. I know it is cliché, but we truly are a little family. And I think the culture we have built is truly unique, unfiltered and relaxed. I love that about us.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would start out with a morning hike up Camelback mountain then out to brunch at one of the countless restaurants in the Old Town Scottsdale area. From there we would probably meet up with some friends and have a little pool day BBQ by the pool. Then top it off with a night out in Scottsdale for dinner and drinks afterwards! Can you tell my days evolve around food? If we had an extended weekend I’d want to go camping up in Payson or Flagstaff. There’s a pretty neat little spot to camp called Edge of the World just south of Flag that overlooks Sedona. It’s pretty incredible! That would definitely be on my to-do list along with kayaking through Antelope Canyon and visiting the Grand Canyon Lava Tubes.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Yes! My husband, Derrik. I could not have created Axle Eight without his support.

Website: axleeight.com

Instagram: @axleeight @kimgrennan16

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-grennan-79192a27/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/axleeight