Today we’d like to introduce you to Lucas Rohm.
Hi Lucas, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Sometimes when I’m speaking to new potential clients or customers, and they ask me what sets Mission Bay Media apart from other web developers in San Diego, I tell this this: I’m not a salesman – I’m just a guy who likes helping people, and who figured out how to make websites when he was a teenager, and now here we are 20 years later. While that might seem a bit reductive, I feel like that’s still true at it’s core. I graduated from undergrad at UCSD at the height of the 2008 financial crisis with a interdisciplinary media degree and entered a job market characterized by hiring deficits and mass layoffs. I started out working in customer service, then gave entry-level corporate America a shot, to get some kind of foothold in a simultaneously hyper competitive and stagnating job market. At the time, wages were low for someone without a ton of real world work experience, so I began responding to requests for web designers on Craigslist in the evenings after my day job to help pay the bills. After a couple years of very long hours, and taking literally any project that helped build my portfolio, I was surprised to find that my moonlighting activities were actually paying better than my day job was, and basically haven’t looked back since. In the decades that followed, I honed my skills, curated a team and built a business that not only leveraged my interests and knowledge, but also provided a rewarding platform for me to help other businesses, both small and large, in a city I was grateful to be a citizen of.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Nobody is more surprised by the extent to which I’ve grown my business than I am. Our society is not primarily set up to support or elevate entrepreneurs, and there have been many obstacles along the way. I think the greatest challenge on my journey so far has been perseverance in the face of great discouragement. There have been many people in both personal and professional contexts who have not hesitated to criticize or disparage, and looking outwardly for encouragement or validation from others has been disappointing more often than not. Something I remind myself of every day is that self assurance comes from within, and to those with an entrepreneurial spirit I’d say that trust in oneself is the greatest asset you can carry with you on your journey towards self determination.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Mission Bay Media?
Mission Bay Media is a small website design and development company based in San Diego that has been helping companies of all sizes across the US with their digital media needs since 2011. We’ve worked with businesses ranging from small startups to huge multi-national corporations on everything from branding and logo design to e-commerce, website, app and software development. I think the thing that sets us most apart from others is recognizing that every business is unique, and as such has unique needs that can’t be addressed by taking the cookie-cutter or overly system-based approach to digital media production that many others hinge their process on. Everyone on our team is based in the United States, and we’re dedicated to providing custom-tailored solutions for the specific needs of all who wish to work with us. We also have set ourselves apart by taking a “people over profit” approach to every project we work on – always steering away from the subscription or contract based business models that have sadly become a hallmark of web and app design companies as long as we’ve been in business. We’ve got not only the skills and experience to do creative work, but also the flexible and accommodating attitude needed to build lasting professional relationships. At the end of the day, our mission – and the thing I’m most proud of – is showing up every day ready to help others achieve their web and media goals in the ways that help them best realize success in the digital universe.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
As someone whose professional life and career is largely digital – and who is ultimately responsible for the activities of an entire business – I think it’s super important to find resources that help support and maintain a work/life balance and preserve equilibrium across the different facets of day to day life. In a world that is increasingly chronically online, and where we all literally have a computer in our pocket as we walk through the physical world, there are a few apps that I keep on my phone to help with this. Top of the list is the AllTrails app, which is an awesome resource for anyone who loves nature, being active and staying engaged with the real world despite the never ending stream of digital distractions. Second on my list is the NYT Games app – being able to boot up the daily crossword puzzle to kill some time here and there as opposed to doom scrolling through social media is hugely helpful in terms of maintaining both a healthy outlook and a healthy vocabulary. Lastly, I’m going to say DuoLingo, just because it’s an extremely easy way to work on a skill that can be used to broaden your knowledge and connect with other people and cultures across the planet – both online and off.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://missionbaymedia.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/missionbaymedia/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mission-bay-media-sd/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/missionbaymedia
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mission-bay-media-san-diego
- Google: https://g.page/r/CSJzK2fEMJyiEAI/review
