It's a few minutes after 5 a.m., and Susan Jones, the CEO and president of Seed Strategy, greets us in the driveway of her colonial-style home, directing us to drive back toward one of the white Morton barns to park. The sun begins to rise over Flyaway Acres, in Walton, Kentucky, and streaks of orange and pink push the night sky away.
We're here to witness Jones's morning ritual, the preparation she needs to lead her team of just over 40 employees in the competitive arena of product development.
"Speed to market is crucial," Jones explains. "It's not innovation if you're not first. We get crazy deadlines that most wouldn't take. Six months of work in six weeks, years' worth of an innovation pipeline in three months—all delivered with excellence."
On a typical morning, she wakes up at 5, makes herself a cup of tea, and dresses for a couple hours of dressage training with her three horses and instructor, Nancy Baker.
"When I get on those horses, I literally can feel my blood warm within the first 10 minutes," she says. "Riding in the morning makes you feel good from a physical standpoint. It's a pleasurable exhaustion, and you're emotionally energized.
Rarely do you get much coaching as a CEO—you don't really have a teacher—and I think it's key that for several hours in the morning I'm taught by Nancy and the horses.
Rarely do you get much coaching as a CEO—you don't really have a teacher—and I think it's key that for several hours in the morning I'm taught by Nancy and the horses. I know what it's like to be a student. I know how to break down a problem and sort it through, so I'm ready with that mindset when I come to work."
Dressage is a meticulous sport for both the rider and the horse. Jones, one of the top amateur riders in the country, describes it as "horse ballet,” the art of training a horse in precision movement that flows from the animal's natural gait. In competition, she and her horses—Reliance, Lindor's Finest, and Connaisseur—perform a series of choreographed movements from memory. Among the movements is one called the flying change, where the horse changes leading legs in a moment of suspension after a stride. In some ways, flying change serves as a metaphor for Jones's career.
The original home of Seed Strategy was an office that Susan Jones built in her barn. She now uses the space as a home office. It is filled with mementos from the early days of Seed.
In 2001, Jones had reached the second highest post possible at a Cincinnati advertising agency when she started to feel out of sync with the agency's direction. By January 2002, she had resigned and started her own agency, Seed Strategy, out of a home office in her barn, mere steps away from where she rides today. The move required a great leap of faith in her vision for a new breed of agency.
"I left on January 16, and the next day I was sitting on the front steps of the barn with the farm dog, and it was just the two of us. I took no clients with me, I just had an idea for a better way to do the work.
"I wanted to create the place where I wanted to work and where the best creatives and strategists would want to work. A place where you feel valued. Where the agency fosters your passion and creativity."
She quickly won her first client, and an article about her plans to start a company attracted her first employee, Jeff Johns, who is now one of several creative leaders at Seed.
Today, Seed Strategy is thriving. With modern headquarters in northern Kentucky, minutes from downtown Cincinnati and a world away from a hayloft, the firm draws Fortune 100 clients and conducts business around the globe. In the last decade, the staff has grown from one woman and her dog to more than 40 employees, and Jones has continued to build the culture based on making people feel valued and supported.
A lot of people get to a place in their career where the thing that excited them doesn't anymore. So they change course, and they leave what they've built behind because they don't think they can fix it.
"A lot of companies now make everybody meet a common denominator—you go through a review process and everyone gets ranked, and you all have to match up your skills. At Seed Strategy, we want all the best people with all different strengths."
When people work from their strengths, she says, magic starts to happen.
"A lot of people get to a place in their career where the thing that excited them doesn't anymore. So they change course, and they leave what they've built behind because they don't think they can fix it. But I realized it was the work and the people that I loved. I just needed to change my place, my location. I didn't throw out what I loved about my career, and I was so pleased that I didn't."
The sun shines brightly now, and Jones finishes her training with Reliance, an hour before she is to begin her day at Seed. As she walks him to the barn, she pauses to reflect on it all.
"There's a certain amount of love and trust that's required between the horse and rider in dressage. I think that same bond is required with folks that work for you or your clients."
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