Last week, Minnesota Business Magazine named AIMCLEAR one of the Top 100 Companies to Work For in Minnesota. In June, they will determine a winner, but I am here to say, in my mind, we have already won. What does it mean to be a top 100 company? Honestly, the tread-desk, the cool work atmosphere, the wine Wednesdays, weekly Pilates and Zumba classes, limo rides from the Duluth office to the St. Paul office for our annual holiday party, the financial incentives and freakin’ great opportunities to travel and speak are only the tip of the iceberg; they are all surface stuff. What really makes AIMCLEAR one of the greatest places to work goes way beyond the superficial.
When the teams in Duluth and St. Paul gathered around our weekly live Skype connection to “ring the bell” and we all heard the announcement, the feeling across the board was, “Heck yeah!” We are a top Minnesota Company.  Each and every person at AIMCLEAR shares kumbaya feelings about our place of work. Shoot, we shouldn’t even be calling it a “place of work” because what we do doesn’t even feel like work most of the time.
Having been in the workforce for over 30 years, I can honestly say that I have NEVER been privileged enough to be a member of a team and company that is every bit of what they profess to be.
Here are some of the things you won’t hear about our company publicly until now. They are in every sense the intangibles.
Our founder and evangelist, Marty Weintraub, was recently named the U.S. Search Awards 2013 Personality of the Year. While you may read or hear all about that, what you won’t hear is how as a cancer survivor, he has paid it forward to countless people as a mentor who are suffering with similar health situations. I can personally attest to that, because just two years ago I was diagnosed with cancer and one of the saving graces in my recovery has been that I did not have to worry one day about losing my livelihood. One could say just that support alone helped me through what was a very difficult and potentially deadly recovery period. Our founder not only is a “search personality,” but he backs up his courage and spunk with kindness that is true to the bone.
How many companies do you know that will invest in the personal brands of their employees? I don’t know of many, but at AIMCLEAR, we put our money where our mouth is. Of our 27 employees, a good chunk of us enjoy traveling to fun destinations to speak about our business, enjoy the scenery of Portland, San Jose, the vineyards of Willamette Valley, even places as far away as Australia, Iceland, the UK and Israel. Oh, and how can we forget about the delicious gourmet breakfasts the team cooks in our full kitchens?
We have co-authored books with our employees, invested in their bands, their music, their art, their children and even their pets. When an AIMCLEAR employee’s child does well in a sport or achieves something special, you can bet that  the whole team will know about it and be there to offer excited encouragement and congratulations. Because what makes us great is we know that caring about our employees means supporting them in what they love and what they love to do, and how they live.
Not many CEOs would leave a cushy legal firm to head up a stable of whacked out, eccentric marketers and survive. But our CEO, Laura Weintraub, brings the polish and professionalism of an impressive legal pedigree and keeps us all focused and grounded while allowing us all to enjoy our work-life balance. It’s not easy to continue to build an INC 500/5000 company, and Laura has with seeming ease taken our company to the pinnacle of it’s success through a determination to create a business that mirrors the success of other businesses like Zingermans. We are embracing the Great Game of Business practices this year as outlined by Springfield Manufacturing Corporation (SRC) leadership in their book, The Great Game of Business, and it has already reaped dividends for our team.
One of the philosophies of our organization is to “Be totally willing to change your mind in light of feedback from employees and customers, to apologize when you are wrong, and don’t give ground when you are right. Say you’re sorry often. Don’t be codependent when you think you’re right. Keep the slate clean with everyone as if there is not another chance tomorrow. Remember that there will be another chance tomorrow.”
That refreshing take on honesty is the cornerstone of why our employees love to work for AIMCLEAR, but you won’t see that in a key message or on a plaque. However, you will find that raw honesty in pretty much every internal meeting we have. To go into a meeting and know that you can speak your truth, ask questions, give answers and not have to be worried about the consequences is truly a life’s-work gift.
So as we listen to a conference call on our tread-desk, sip a glass of wine in front of a Skype meeting, or even receive a gift card for doing something worthy of recognition, regardless of the final poll of Minnesota Business Magazine‘s Top 100 Companies to Work For awards, we at AIMCLEAR know that we will continue to be so much more than our company mantra.
We are an agency that is  dominant in audience targeting and customer acquisition.  Our clients “own” laser focused audience segments through to conversion.  We target users, drive traffic from and track merged social-psychographic/search personas, internet wide using 30+ data services.
Our process at AIMCLEAR melds big data, competitive gap analyses, true psychographic persona modeling, contemporary marketing strategy, deadeye creative, true psychographic omni-channel distribution and conversion optimization. Â We’re the missing link unifying search, social, PR, psychographic display and conversion.
But the intangibles are what make us truly great.
