Meet Steve Smith | CEO

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

Hi Steve, how does your business help the community?
Making a difference in the community, and not just in our clients’ businesses, has been part of the DNA of Firehouse since even before I joined the firm. And, today, that part of us is more evident than ever. We have a multi-year partnership with J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson, a huge part of which is giving students from diverse backgrounds exposure to the advertising business. We execute micro-internships with students from HBCUs to provide students with practical and leverageable experience. And we donate our time and talents to non-profits whose causes we want to advance; in 2024, we partnered with Taylor’s Gift Foundation and created a great campaign for Elevate North Texas.

Beyond that, we do company-wide volunteering days a couple times a year. Just recently, we volunteered at Austin Street Center, which is just a tremendous asset to our community. And, we give employees time off to support or volunteer with causes that matter to them.

What should our readers know about your business?
Firehouse is a full-service agency that serves largely national brands like Lennox, Toyota and Hooters. What sets us apart is senior talent, an appreciation for thinking and strategy, and the belief that effective communication often has to be surprising, to break with some conventions.

I joined the agency as Director of Strategy in 2006, later became a partner, and then with my current partner, Tripp Westbrook, bought out the founder’s interest in 2020, at which time I became CEO. While I never intended to own my own business, guiding and growing this business is important to me. From the time I started working here, there has been an esprit de corps among Firehousers that is special and magnetic, and I wanted more of that.

The ad business has never been easy, and today, more than ever, it is subject to constant change. It teaches you to be adaptive and to evolve with the market. And that’s important whether you are talking about the services we offer clients or the environment we create for our team. I am proud of the business we’ve built and the successes we have created for clients, but I am most proud of making Firehouse a great place to work. Being recognized as the best small- to mid-sized firm to work for by AdAge was affirmation that our investments in our people and our culture were well-placed.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Dallas is so diverse that there is no shortage of ways to fill your time. I’d suggest a day in Bishop Arts, browsing the stores, picking at candle at Society, getting pie at Emporium and maybe doing some karaoke at Casanova. Downtown Grapevine has a totally different vibe but makes for a fun day too – I like the bar at Hotel Vin, sopapillas from Judy Pies, and shopping the Farmers Market. Fort Worth and the Hotel Drover make for another good daytrip with a distinctly different feel. And I’d squeeze in a dinner at Mister Charles and a night out exploring the many speakeasies around town.

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?
Megan Ward, our Director of Operations. Her passion for building our culture has inspired me and made Firehouse an even better place to work.

Website: https://firehouse.agency

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenesmith66/