Kevin's latest post told the story of 8 East from his seat: the article, the phone call with Tyler, the leap. My version of that story starts a little differently.
I reported to Kevin in my previous role. When he announced he was leaving Lee Enterprises, I did not need to read an article or spend weeks wrestling with the decision. I had watched him lead. His passion, the culture he built, the way he showed up for the people around him. And when he laid out the concept for 8 East Agency, every box was checked almost immediately.
About a week after his announcement, I joined him.
Was it a giant leap? Absolutely. But the moment I actually put in my resignation, something unexpected happened: a weight I didn't even realize I was carrying lifted right off my shoulders. What replaced it was something I hadn't felt in a long time: freedom. Freedom to do what's best for the people we serve. Freedom to bring creative ideas to life without layers of approval killing the momentum. Freedom to build something I genuinely believe in.
That feeling is the foundation of everything we're building at 8 East.
When people ask me what 8 East is really about, I don't start with our service list. I start with the four words at the bottom of our website:
Growth, right on time.
It's not just a tagline. It's a promise. And it deserves to be explained.
Let's start with "Growth"
In my experience, "growth" is the most overused and underdefined word in marketing. Most agencies throw it around while handing you a report full of impressions, reach, and follower counts.
That's not what we mean. We care about results that actually move revenue, not vanity metrics.
When I sit down with a new client, I'm not thinking about how to make their dashboard look good. I'm thinking about what growth means for their business, and that's almost always one of three things:
- More qualified leads coming in the door
- More of those leads converting into paying customers
- More revenue, predictably and sustainably
Everything we build starts from those three outcomes: the strategy, the channels, the creative, where we put every dollar of your budget. Not what's trendy, not what's easiest to execute, and definitely not what makes for an impressive-looking slide deck.
I've seen what happens when agencies optimize for the wrong thing. Clients end up with beautiful reports and empty pipelines. That's a failure, regardless of what the numbers say. At 8 East, we measure our success by yours.
Now, "Right on Time"
This is the part I love explaining, because it works on two levels and most people only catch the first one.
1. Speed: we move without the corporate drag
One of the things I heard consistently throughout my career was some version of: "We'd love to do that, but we need to get approval first." Layers of it. Sometimes for things that should have taken an afternoon.
8 East was built specifically without that overhead. We bring senior talent across strategy, creative, and media, without the drag. We're a team of senior-level people who have already done this across major markets, big budgets, and complex accounts. We don't need training wheels, and we don't have six layers of account management between you and a decision.
When the market shifts, when a competitor makes a move, when an opportunity opens up, we act. For growing businesses, that speed is often the difference between capturing demand and watching it go to someone else.
2. Timing: because showing up late costs more than not showing up at all
Here's a pattern I've seen play out more times than I can count: a business waits until things slow down to start marketing. Then they wonder why it's not working fast enough. Then they either give up or throw more money at it.
The problem isn't the marketing. It's the timing.
"Right on time" is about being proactive instead of reactive. Building pipeline before you need it. Running awareness campaigns before your peak season, not during it. Reaching someone at the exact moment they're looking, not three weeks after they've already called your competitor.
I think about it this way: the best marketing doesn't feel like marketing to the person receiving it. It just feels like the right answer showing up at the right moment. That's what we're building for every client.
What this looks like in practice
Every industry looks a little different. A few examples: home services, elective medical, and senior living. The tactics look different in each one, but the philosophy is identical. Let me show you what "growth, right on time" means in each.
Home services: getting ahead of the season instead of chasing it
A roofing company comes to us in February. Business is slow, it usually is, and the instinct is to run some ads and see what happens. That's reactive, and it almost never works as well as it should.
Instead, we build a strategy designed to make March, April, and May their best quarter ever. Google Search campaigns targeting homeowners searching for storm damage inspections, before storm season even hits. Retargeting for everyone who visited their site in the last 90 days but never called. A fully optimized Google Business Profile so they're the first result when someone searches "roofer near me" from their phone at 7pm after spotting a leak.
By the time competitors start spending in April, this client already has a full calendar. That's growth, right on time.
Elective medical: turning awareness into booked appointments
A med spa launches a new body contouring treatment. They have real results, happy patients, and a team ready to grow it. But the Instagram posts aren't converting, and a previous Google Ads experiment didn't generate much. Sound familiar?
The issue usually isn't the product. It's that the marketing is aimed at "awareness" when the goal is "bookings." Those require completely different strategies.
"Right on time" here means meeting someone at the moment they're ready to act, not just curious. A Meta lead form campaign targeting the right demographic in a defined radius. A landing page that handles the two biggest objections upfront: results and cost. A follow-up sequence that moves an inquiry toward a consultation before the window closes.
Awareness is nice. A fully booked consultation calendar is the goal.
Senior living: being present across the entire decision journey
Senior living decisions are rarely made quickly. The real decision-maker is often an adult child, a daughter in another state who's been quietly researching for months before she ever reaches out. She's reading reviews, watching virtual tours, comparing communities, processing an emotional transition.
Most communities only show up when she's ready to schedule a tour. By then, she's already formed opinions.
"Right on time" in this vertical means being present at every stage. Earning her trust in January with helpful content, staying visible in February with smart retargeting, and converting a March inquiry into an April move-in with a follow-up sequence that feels human.
The community that shows up throughout the journey wins. We help you be that community.
Why I show up for this every day
I've worked inside big media companies and national agencies. I've seen what's possible when smart, experienced people have the right tools and the freedom to actually use them. I've also seen how rare that is.
What drew me to 8 East was simple. Kevin and Tyler weren't trying to build another agency. They were trying to build the agency they always wished existed: one where senior talent works directly with clients, where transparency isn't a selling point but a baseline expectation, and where the entire operation is oriented around one thing.
"It's about giving business owners their time back so they can focus on what they do best."
That's Kevin's line, and I mean it just as much as he does.
You didn't start your business to spend your evenings trying to figure out why your Google Ads aren't working. You started it because you're good at something, really good. A trade. A service. A craft. The care you give to your patients, your customers, and your residents.
That's where your energy belongs. We handle the rest.
Growth, right on time. That's the promise. And it's one I'm genuinely proud to deliver on.
— Cody McGee