Meet Christine Rogers | Co-founder, Communications and PR strategist

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

Hi Christine, what habits do you feel play an important role in your life?
Our best habits were learned by experiencing what was missing from our big agency and Fortune 500 jobs. There were too many things that didn’t work for the realities of two-income households, and cultures that fostered siloed work and self-preservation.

When we set sail in 2009 as SparkFarm, we wanted to try something altogether different – to reinvent the workplace for all, but especially for women, by leading with kindness, a collaborative spirit, and a flexible work environment that knows its top talent can produce great, on-time results and still get their loved ones to doctor appointments and soccer practice.

Through the lens of this brand vision, we choose teammates, clients, and collaborators. We embrace kind, smart, collaborative people with a strong work ethic and reputation for excellence. We don’t work with liars, cheats, gossips, back-stabbers, the prejudiced, the complacent, and the hostile. We insist that people share feedback directly and considerately with each other with the goal of helping each other grow. We start by giving the benefit of the doubt, assuming any misunderstanding was unintentional and maybe mutual.

These combined habits are magnetic. They attract the kind of people who are easy to work with and accomplish great things, like growing the nation’s largest community day of giving by 1,140%, or increasing public transportation ridership in 2022 to almost pre-pandemic levels.

These habits have fueled SparkFarm’s growth, too, from where we started in 2009 supporting three small, project-based clients to how it’s going now with many recurring local and national retainer clients, a bigger team, more in-house capabilities, and $13.8 million in revenue last year.

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?
First let me say, nothing is easy.

But, we make things easier on ourselves when we are the kind of people we like to work with.

We don’t work with jerks and we don’t tolerate gossip. We are zeroed in on excellence, kindness, honesty, and outcomes. That has served us well since our 2009 founding, leading to a happy, healthy team and a steadily growing company nearly exclusively based on referrals.

Here is the backstory:

In 2009, the recession was in full swing. Layoffs were common and big-agency working moms like us were hit hard. We found ourselves without work and very few viable options that would keep our careers on track.

I pursued all the job leads I could find. The final straw was being offered the same job I’d held 15 years prior. I told my husband, “If that’s the best this city has to offer me, I’m going to have to find a better way.” Over a bottle of prosecco and a giant bag of Peanut M&Ms, my co-founder who also had been laid off agreed striking out on our own was the better way.

Our husbands were skeptical of our starting SparkFarm. They thought it would be a part-time side-hustle, not the $13.8 million agency it is today.

Our vision to reinvent the workplace for women started with our unemployment, sure, but also a drive to find a better balance of caring for ourselves, our careers, clients, and families.

Even after surpassing our prior agency salaries by our second year, we couldn’t fully know what a gift SparkFarm would wind up being to us and our families. Not long after launching our firm, co-founder Taylor’s four-year-old son’s speech therapist asked if something had changed at home and remarked, “Your son seems much more relaxed with less anxiety in his speech.” If there is better proof of concept, we don’t know what it is.

Our 14-year-old firm is HUB- and WBENC-certified. Clients range from local to national and across sectors from art and architecture to CPG, education, nonprofits, restaurants, retail, real estate, and more. Each of us are tenured marketers with at least 15 years of experience specializing in brand strategy, PR, paid media (digital and offline), social media (paid, organic, influencers, and ambassadors), and email marketing strategy.

The best advice we’ve gotten comes from two beloved friends and successful businessmen. Their advice is about knowing your worth and not backing down from that. Mark counseled us to never give away our ideas for free. If pressed to, say, “That is what I get paid to tell my clients, but I am happy to share similar work I’ve done for others.” Chaitan said, “If someone asks us to work for free or at a reduced price, explain, This isn’t a hobby for me – I am in business to earn a living, just like you are.”

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My and my co-founder Taylor Campbell’s family and friends mostly visit from the Midwest or east coast in winter months. They love visiting Dallas-Fort Worth for its abundance of unique restaurants, to see if we really do live in the Wild West, and for our “excellent weather” (an impression they have because we discourage visits July through September.)

Combining all of those things, here’s what we love to treat our guests to and why:

Part of Taylor’s work for Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages was locating outdoor boards far and wide across Texas to support their sponsorship of Texas Monthly’s Top 50 BBQ Joints. As a result, she fell in love with the local pitmasters and their backstories and has visited 26 of the Top 50 – so far. She takes visitors to her favorites in Dallas-Fort Worth: Zavala’s BBQ, Cattleack Barbeque, and Terry Black’s Barbecue. She will advise anyone in earshot: if beef rib is ever on the menu, it is always worth the splurge.

When I moved here in 1993, I was a Deep Ellum regular. I loved seeing live music and going dancing with friends. Now I love taking visitors there to see Dallas’ most historic, edgy district during the day. We start with a rooftop mimosa brunch, then stroll through the district to see its art galleries and home goods, vintage, and thrift stores. No visit is complete without selfies in front of the district’s unique murals.

The entire SparkFarm team prioritizes staying active. Most of us are avid racket sports people and love to get on court at Samuell Grand when fresh competition comes to town. We also love yoga or taking in sunsets at White Rock Lake.

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?
We dedicate SparkFarm to our 1970s parents, teachers, and textbooks who told us as young girls we could do or be anything we wanted. (We only wish everyone had thought to relay to all young kids how a dual-income, 50/50-run household would work. In 2023, we are all still trying to figure that out!)

Also, I personally dedicate my and my co-founded firm’s success to Susan Atteridge. In my 30s, she showed me what being a strong but kind, ethical yet successful professional woman looked like. Susan led global communications for the 150-year-old Texas energy company where we both worked. She suffered no fools, leading with skill and confidence, often wearing a black leather pant suit to board meetings.

Lastly, this dedication goes out to my and my co-founder Taylor’s dads, both retired C-suite execs, who held the unique position of being exemplary professional role models and loving fathers who wanted to see their daughters succeed in a male-dominated world. Thanks, Dads!

Website: www.thesparkfarm.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/sparkfarmllc

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SparkFarm

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

Image Credits
All photos courtesy of SparkFarm. Logo designed by Black Eye Dallas.