Brian Forth

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     A man who started as an intern at Disney then went on to become a student in California studying film, to a philosophy student who spent his free time taking apart and putting back together various computers, Brian Forth is a man who certainly stands out. The founder and CEO of Site Crafting along with its partner company Gearlobas Forth unlike many of the other guest speakers does not have a background involving the creation and failure or selling off multiple companies. Forth graduated from Gonzaga which is a private university in Spokane Washington with a degree in philosophy, followed by becoming an elementary school teacher for four years (1994-1998) where he taught kids and sometimes their parents how to code and build websites. From there he was hired in San Francisco where he worked while also creating his first company Site Crafting, for a few years, afterward he switched to working full-time on-Site Crafting. Site Crafting from the way Forth described it is a company with many jobs, they mostly do website designs however they focus on finding and solving problems for their clients, constantly changing and adapting to what they need. This is one of the ways that they survived the .com bust along with the recessions and of course the constantly changing field of technology. One of the biggest accomplishments or things that make Site Crafting stand out is their priorities first and foremost of which is their employees. With most companies such as Amazon and Google retaining employees for a year while other major technology companies retaining employees for possibly two years, the fact that Site Crafting has an employee retention rate of on average eight and a half years is beyond mind-blowing. Not to mention the fact that they have for a long time offered, one month paid vacation a year, health insurance, dental and life insurance, paternity, maternity, and family emergency leave of twelve weeks is also shocking. After employees come clients, this is one of the main reasons that Forth attributes to the success of the company, clients, once they screen the clients to make sure that they are a good fit they then get to work, their subsidiary Gearlobas walks them through plans on how to reach and just creating goals. Site Crafting is known for having immediate responses along with trying to help their clients no matter what the problem is. You may have not heard of Site Crafting before as they don’t put as much pressure on marketing since only five percent of their clients are not based on recommendations.

    Now Brian Forth is an impressive guy not just for how he has set up his company and the goals and environment he prioritizes but also for the way he handles his day-to-day affairs. He has a dedicated system in place that he does not stray from when it comes to morning routines, he is not someone that hides from the world or says I just don’t want to get out of bed this morning. Waking up every day at six-thirty in the morning, walking the dog, making coffee, doing yoga for at least a half an hour, and then running between two to five miles every day at lunch it may seem like he is fixated on things and unbendable however that is not how I would describe him. He is a grounded and open-minded person, he knows what it takes to get things done and goes the extra mile to do things, he is not someone who will fall apart at the first sign of burnout or issues, he is persistent and tenacious.  Part of this I would hazard a guess is due to his outlook on life and how he sees the world, I would love to discuss philosophy with him at some point. This is not saying he doesn’t have his flaws or things to improve upon nor does it mean that his approach is necessarily the best however the traits he projects and emphasizes would have me betting on him to rise above tasks and to improve at things.

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