Five years ago, a business was born on a mountain top in Colorado.
I was living in the DC-Metro area, working for a pro-democracy organization in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. I was being harassed by Indian nationalists because of my work (long story). My wife was driving to an empty office everyday to do mental health counseling with her clients via zoom. I had two kids in elementary school at home doing “zoom school.” My father was dying. It was rough.
My soul longed for something different–for wide open spaces, for art, to serve the greater good in the world in a place with different energy. I needed more joy and exercise and sunshine.
So, I meditated (a practice I had restarted relatively recently to deal with the stress and breakdown) on a mountain top porch while we were on a much needed vacation to Alma, Colorado. And the idea for Fire & Bliss was born.
I got to work as soon as we got back to DC and as anyone who has started a business from scratch knows, the road has been full of highs and lows.
I was smart enough to surround myself with a team of advisors from the beginning. We sold art (but didn’t make any money). We helped artists with their marketing and expanding their opportunities (and only made a little money). We got more in our sweet spot when we started working with mission-driven businesses and nonprofits.
And now-five years in–we are 100% clear on who we are and what we do. We help philanthropies and nonprofits develop strategic communications and marketing.
We are especially adept at communications planning, grassroots fundraising support, branding, and grantee training and technical support.
As our country is facing challenges that I’ve not seen in my lifetime, we are uniquely positioned to help navigate these waters because of our decades working in policy advocacy and movements for democratic change.
Our focus has evolved over time–as evidenced in the awesome rebranding we are releasing this week. And my family moved to a different mountain top in Colorado so we could breathe and think and be more creative and have more joy. Our team is now international and consistently growing as our clients’ needs become more diverse.
But no the matter focus or location, our values have stayed the same:
- Integrity-in our work and our treatment of one another and our clients.
- Humanity–with a clear focus on racial justice, LGBTQ+ liberation and art/creativity. We recognize most of our clients are going through uncertain times, so we honor their full humanity, too.
- Accountability–we do what we say we will do and more and we only hire adults who do not need a lot of management. If we mess up, we own up and fix it.
These values are reflected in the ways we treat each other and what our clients, vendors and partners can expect from us.
In these five years, people working in Fire & Bliss and supporting it as advisors have come and gone. I’m profoundly grateful for the work and wisdom of each of them–the lessons I’ve learned are too many to name.
But Fire & Bliss has always been Fire & Bliss, not “Stapleton & Associates.” It’s always been a community and the whole has consistently been more than the sum of its parts.
So to clients, supporters, partners, stakeholders, artists alike–thank you. These five years wouldn’t have been possible without you.
We are poppin’ my friends. Can’t wait to see what the next 25 years hold and the contributions we are able to make in the world with each of you.
