Today we’d like to introduce you to Georgia Conrad.
Hi Georgia, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
In 2019, I was working at a local nonprofit and needed video support, so I put out an RFP. Her bid came back offering everything the others did—at a third of the price. As a small nonprofit in McMinnville, I figured, why not? She was local, well connected, and worth a shot. That single decision is how we met.
At the time, Amanda was a stay-at-home mom doing web development and video creation on the side, she also had a non-profit background. I came to this agreement with a graphic design degree, many years in the nonprofit world, and an MBA I’d completed in 2015. I was a mom too, with a boy just a little younger than her two. And the whole time, I’d kept a handful of design clients on the side, but alway asking myself whether or not to shut it all down. I was never quite able to. The clients kept coming back and the work meant something. It was a service, a network, a set of real relationships, and a reprieve.
So that fall, I floated the idea: let’s do this together and without much hesitation we both went for it. We pooled our separate clients, split the administrative costs, and incorporated in December, 2019.
Three months later, the pandemic cost me my job.
But we kept building. What started as a side project became something bigger, a life of our own outside of motherhood, a way to be professionals again, and it gave us a sliver of normalcy during a very abnormal time. We’d haul the kids to the creek and strategize while they played in the water. Our goal was simple: provide for our families a little beyond the basics, and give back to a community we cared about, because the relationships mattered most.
That was six years ago and we’ve surprised ourselves. We doubled our revenue the first year and then doubled it again the next. Today we’re a genuinely committed team of seven, about four and a half FTE. Turnover is rare. Our staff work in a way that fits their lives, and everyone is invested in the people we serve. We’ve grown from a few local clients to relationships across the country—and even a few across the pond.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This has not been smooth. This kind of work comes with real ups and downs, and the questions never fully go away. Will the contract come back? Will it renew? Are the clients happy? How much of a discount do we offer a nonprofit—knowing they have genuine needs and do such good work—while we still have to support our own families? It’s a constant balancing act. But I’ve learned that if you meet it with the right intention, and truly recognize what a client needs when they hire you, you’ll find your footing.
Growth brought its own challenges. Hiring three or four part-time 1099 contractors is one thing; running your own payroll and becoming responsible for other people’s livelihoods is another entirely. That’s a big deal. Bringing on our first full-time employee was another stretch, new policies, new responsibilities, and the real weight of things like offering two weeks of paid vacation.
Expansion raised the stakes again. We earned our GSA award and set about securing our trademarks, first registering our brand in the U.S. a couple of years ago, then taking it further this year with trademarks in the UK, Ireland, the EU, and Canada. Every one of those steps demanded real investment. In fact, some of our staff make more than we do, because we believe we’re investing in something bigger: our futures, and our children’s.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
This has been a winding, surprising journey. On paper, the credentials are tidy: a graphic design degree from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, and an MBA from George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. The path to them was anything but.
I’m a Midwesterner at heart, born in Fort Collins, Colorado. I grew up in Wichita, Kansas and didn’t land in Southern Oregon until high school, then bounced back and forth a few times after that. For years, I couldn’t settle on what to study or how to make a living. I worked for a lobbyist in college, and while I can’t say I learned much, it gave me a real look inside the governmental system.
And there’s a thing about people pursuing art degrees: you go in dreaming of being an artist, and then you graduate completely unprepared for the realities of the industry, where the work is often closer to manufacturing. So there I was, full of high ideals, student debt, and an art history background, working in a print shop in Beaverton for $16 an hour and facing that level of income for the rest of my career. That wasn’t what I signed up for. And I knew I didn’t want to be a professional woman counting on a marriage to secure my future.
So I improvised. I went self-employed, picked up part-time work with a nonprofit, and kept my expectations low. But eventually I hit a wall: I couldn’t keep going that way forever. That’s when I went back for my master’s, and that degree changed everything. I landed a job at the Willamette Workforce Partnership, and I was thrilled; it was the stepping stone I really needed. I stayed about four years before circumstances shifted, then moved on to another nonprofit that widened my experience and connected me with even more people.
The public workforce world has followed me ever since. In 2021, they reached out asking if I could help coordinate work for the workforce boards through the Oregon Workforce Partnership. That ask has grown into one of Nimbl’s largest contracts, and it stretched our lens from graphic design and web development into workforce consulting, brand development, advocacy, and large-scale marketing strategy.
Today I wear two hats. I’m the executive director of the Oregon Workforce Partnership, a role I hold through contract with Nimbl Marketing Co., where I help plan and take part in events and conferences. And it reflects right back the values we live by: the power of work, belief in our own workforce, and the worth of a balanced life. Most of our days center on finding joy in participating in life—and yes, that includes work.
I’m proud to serve as executive director of the Oregon Workforce Partnership and chief administrative officer of Nimbl Marketing Co. I have a fabulous team and a business partner I couldn’t do any of this without. In that way, everything has come full circle.
What are your plans for the future?
Our boldest move yet has taken us across the Atlantic. We’ve opened Nimbl Marketing Limited in Dundalk, Ireland to expand our footprint into the European Union and the UK. We’ve also moved our hosting to Europe, where it’s more compliant with GDPR and better protects our current clients’ interests. It opens up a whole new world: supporting clients in Europe and planning for the future across two economies.
Closer to home, the focus is on stabilization. We’d love to complement our service work with a product or service that helps teams better understand and manage themselves, but the business itself is already doing well. So we’re looking inward: optimizing how we operate, making sure the team runs smoothly, putting everyone’s skills to their fullest use, training our staff to be experts in their fields, and sharpening our budgeting so we can keep meeting the needs and expectations of our community, even as costs climb. It’s a tightrope to walk every day, knowing your own costs are rising right alongside everyone else’s. But we wouldn’t trade it. We’re looking forward to building this business, right here in our community, for a long time to come.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nimblweb.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nimblweb/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nimblweb/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nimblweb/
