Hi there. I’m Andrew Pottruff, and I’m the owner, designer, developer, strategist, and creator here at Oake Marketing.
As someone that works primarily with small businesses, and has built my reputation and career off of close-knit relationships, dependability, and quality work for the past 10 years, I felt it important to tell you a bit about who I am as the face of Oake Marketing and bring you up to speed as to how my career has developed.
I first got into design in high school. I was a sporty, musician “bro” on the outside and a total nerd on the inside (I’m still very much these things, btw). I fell in love with the blend of design and technology in Communications class. I used to have a blast designing graphics, t-shirts, and other things for friends and family. I knew I had a real business acumen for this when I traded my first ever “customer” website for a tattoo after winning Canadian Nationals for Team Ontario lacrosse.
I was hooked on the entrepreneurial and marketing life.
I went to post-secondary, attended Conestoga (culinary), UWO, and settled in at Mohawk in Hamilton and landed a co-op placement with a local credit union – probably the most excellent place I could have got into. I became part of an incredibly talented, award-winning team that I’m beyond blessed to have shared my career experience with – they’re some of the kindest, most genuine people you’ll ever meet.
During that time, I met a girl. And a really great one at that. One of those, “you just know” type of relationships, and before too long, she was my fiancé and is now my beloved, cherished wife and soulmate. During our early years together, her network of friends was also made up of a few business-minded entrepreneurs, whom I started to do some side-work for in my spare time. Before I knew it, this was keeping me busier than I could handle.
I quit my job and dove headfirst into my business.
Well, did I ever learn a lot? I learned that there’s a lot I didn’t know. But I’ve always been of the mind that I’ll figure it out, and I always have. I’ve always been determined to be better, to improve, to grow, to continue to learn and expand my skill set — and with my back against the wall, I was forced to learn things I didn’t know before. Things that have moulded me into the person I am today, with the digital marketing intellect I’ve collected over the years.
I’m a bit of an oddball from that perspective. I’m creative and have a unique flair for design. But I’m also a total nerd, and I’m obsessed with systems, strategies, and digital technology. Yet, on top of all that, I’m also deep and approach things from a very psychological lens. In essence, something I think has enabled me to be successful in this industry and allowed me to look at creative and technical things from a very unique perspective.
I’m so blessed to work with the people and clients that I do.
Since that day of trading a tattoo for a website, I’ve worked with many companies — everyone from small start-ups that haven’t yet decided on a name, to white labelled projects for companies like Rogers, PWC, and Amazon Web Services — and everyone in between.
I’ve met incredibly driven, talented, and inspiring business owners along the way. People that I’m now happy to call friends and that trust me to make crucial decisions that help grow and scale their businesses.
Amidst all of this, I’ve also been blessed with the most magnificent gift life could possibly have given me, our beautiful daughter, Lyla Mae Pottruff. Lyla’s given me a whole new means of motivation, drive, and sensibility. She’s given me focus, perspective, patience (oh, some days does she ever test that!), helped me slow down and cherish life’s essential moments. Everything I do is for that beautiful, sweet angel of a girl.
I’m excited to have focused my efforts toward marketing my own business and putting myself out there. Until now, everything I’ve done has been referral-based — which has kept me going for the past decade, so I must be onto something.
Now I’m determined to share my knowledge, insights, screw-ups, and experiences with you in hopes that you can see me and utilize me as a valued resource to grow your business. And when you need design, development, strategy, or a means of professional expertise to turn to, I look forward to being an open, flexible, transparent, and long-term resource for you.
Thanks for reading, I look forward to working with you soon.
P.S. the image for this post was taken by a good friend and extremely talented photographer, Brit Picken at Pecan Studios. I highly recommend checking her work out!