Our Story - Told By The Owner
The word 'ambio' comes from Latin and has a few different definitions but the one we like most is 'To Strive'.
Ambio Media is the brainchild of Managing Director Aidan Brotherhood. Aidan gives a bit of background on himself and the company - how it all started, where it's at right now and, most importantly for you as a customer, where it's going.
Background
I was always fascinated by entrepreneurship growing up, it was something that I admired and spent a great deal of time pondering in my spare time. Seeing great entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Steve Jobs (to name a few) fight for what they believed in, and build something completely transformational that was bigger than themselves was inspiring to say the least.
Their confidence, charisma, intellect, stature, determination and ruthlessness were enough to captivate my young mind. Initially, 'entrepreneurship' as a concept was just something I admired, something that I was intrigued by for all the right reasons.
Growing up, I was someone who struggled socially, who found difficulty in formal education and was plagued with a multitude of anxiety disorders that I only managed to get a handle on as I neared the end of my formal education. I was thankful to be heavily engaged in sport, specifically tennis, but I wasn't exactly an entrepreneur in the making, neither did I have any desire to be one, it seemed like something foreign, something entirely backwards from anything I had been taught by my parents or formal education to date.
I grew up in a household where my mother was the breadwinner, my father was a creative writer and the person who tended to me and my sister most when we were growing up. Something I always remember was my mother stressing to me and my sister the importance of helping people at any opportunity. It was something that I internalised and believed in growing up.
At 16/17, I had my heart set on university. Being a doctor had been my ambition from when I was around 14, but things just didn't work out that way. I found myself in a situation where I had no idea where I was going or what I wanted to do with my life.
At this point, I was coming to the end of my time in school, with no plan and no idea what I was going to do.
Being Faced With The Unknown
I had an itch to do something different and make a fresh start, and I figured that engaging with the entrepreneurial thoughts I was having might not have been the worst thing in the world. So, I started taking the thoughts I was having a little more seriously and began asking myself "Where is the best place to start?".
The first thing I did was find myself a part time job. You can't do very much without money and I knew that whatever I was about to do wasn't going to magically happen overnight. Once I found myself a job, I started balancing out my time between working and experimenting with different business ideas at night.
A big misconception about entrepreneurship that people on the outside frequently have is that you have to be coming to the market with something new, fresh, or so different that it seems off the wall. The truth is that most people find success in a well established market that already has a lot of competition - I already knew this, so thankfully I wasn't irrationally seeking to build the next Amazon.
I just wanted to make a start in an industry that:
- Didn't require a large sum of capital to get started
- Was evergreen, where the services would always be needed by someone
After taking the necessary time to think about it and analyse all the different options, I concluded that starting a digital marketing agency may be the best place to start. I didn't require a big sum of money to get started and marketing is always going to be something that companies require assistance with.
The truth is, I just needed a start, I was coming from a background with no entrepreneurial experience and I was only 17. So, outside of my part time job I began freelancing, taking small jobs here and there to gain some experience and make connections. When I wasn't working on freelance projects or in my day job I was reading, learning, and doing everything I could to sharpen my skills and ensure I was offering the highest quality service possible.
Building Something Real
Having customers from freelancing was great, and for most people that would be enough. I had aquired a tonne of skills and a wealth of knowledge but I wanted to take another step forward and turn my freelancing business into a real brand.
I left my part-time job after about a year and a half and went full steam ahead, turning my freelancing business into a real brand. I few months after I left my retail job, Ambio Media was formed as a company, and I could finally start building a real brand.
Having a brand means that you have an asset that is independent of you, that can attract customers and make money based on its own reputation and stature - not yours personally. For that reason, I was happy to have something that wasn't directly attached to my name.
It finally felt real, and from there I started acquiring clients at home in Scotland, but also across the water in places like Sydney and New York. I was hungry to take it further, to do more and grow the company into something that was stronger, better and bigger.
A Vision For Better
Ambio Media started out offering 'done-for-you' marketing solutions that were intended to help businesses outsource most of their digital marketing needs. Those offerings are still our core services, but since then we have gone on to introduce various other products and services like:
Ambio Academy - A digital marketing educational platform offering free social media and internet marketing training.
Ambio White - Comprehensive white label service fulfilment solution for digital marketing agencies.
Ambio Marketplace - An affordable alternative to our core services offering copywriting, graphic design, photography and videography services.
Ambio Sensus - An up and coming CRM platform to help help businesses manage customer relationships and improve their inbound marketing campaigns.
Ambio Local - An online platform for local businesses dedicated to helping them create a deeper connection with their local community, helping them gain more customers and exposure online.
I decided that I wanted to focus on serving as many businesses as possible - even the ones that wouldn't be able to comfortably afford our core services.
Ambio Academy, Ambio Marketplace, Ambio Insights and Ambio Local are all focused on providing businesses with marketing solutions that are easily accessible and affordable.
I want to help as many people as I can, and these services are the beginning of doing that under the Ambio Media brand. I have a vision for better, and am focused on doing everything in my power to improve the quality of the company's service, whilst building a community that people can look to when they need help with digital marketing.
What Does 'Ambio' Stand For?
Ambio is a Latin word and has a number of definitions in English, but the one I like most is 'To Strive'. Personally, I'm striving to be the best person I can be and do the best work possible for the people I'm here to serve, and I think having the sentiment carried in to the company name is ideal, and subtle.
Where Is Ambio Media Going? Where Am I Going?
The goal for Ambio Media is to serve as many businesses as possible, helping them drive better results for their company through social media and internet marketing. On top of that, we want to continue introducing and improving services like the ones mentioned above as a means of making comprehensive marketing solutions more accessible to those that need them.
Personally, I intend to keep tinkering, experimenting and creating things I care about as a means to helping as many people as possible. The beauty of entrepreneurship is that the world really is your oyster.
Will I stay in the marketing industry for the rest of my career? It's an open question, but it's more likely that I'll move more into tech and A.I. with a focus on software as a service (SaaS), but who knows. Right now, Ambio Media is my only focus.
