Salukis in Business — Scott Schmitt
Owner/Partner, The Schmitt Collective; B.A. 1992 — Visual Communications, School of Art and Design; College of Liberal Arts
In the first years of the 21st century when a recession spread across the nation, and the web bubble burst, Scott Schmitt needed a lifestyle change.
He and his wife, Michelle had been living in Elmhurst, a tony suburb west of Chicago, when family health concerns prompted a move to Minneapolis- St. Paul. Schmitt has worked for a direct mail marketing company for a dozen years at that point, and was able to continue to work remotely.
But in 2011, the company went through some changes and Schmitt was let go. At that point he chose to leap into the world of self-employment, a move which would eventually lead him to eventually establish The Schmitt Collective, an omni channel marketing company with a socially conscious focus.
“I loved doing direct mail. I loved the challenge of it. The company I was working for worked with insurance companies like Allstate, and we were always in it to beat our own best performance. But my shift into freelancing opened me up to the idea that I could to only excel at what I did, but that I could do design that was impactful and meaningful, not only to me, but to other people, “Schmitt said.
Schmitt got his degree in Visual Communications at SIU Carbondale when the famed Blue Barracks were still standing. The temporary structures that once housed the School of Art and Design, and Architecture classes, somehow lasted 40 years until they were demolished in 2015.
“I grew up in Glen Ellyn, and in looking for a university I was determined to get more out of college than just an education. I wanted a different experience than what I grew up with, and I simply fell in love with the Carbondale campus. It is one of the most beautiful campuses in the country, and just being there helped me to focus in the ways I wanted to focus,” Schmitt said.
Schmitt says his only regret was not spending at least one summer “doing the college thing,” taking a fine arts class or two and swimming at the Spillway or going to Sunset Concerts. But he was eager to begin his professional life, and so he passed on that in favor of a “real-world” paycheck.
His first job was one like many of us have right out of college: he worked as an art director for an agency in Oak Park, creating recruitment materials for large companies. But that job eventually led to another, better one, and living through the austerity of it helped Schmitt in later years as he dove into the world of self-employment.
Because of his 12 years in direct marketing, Schmitt had a well-developed sense of strategy, which put him in line for a fellowship with Organizing for Action, best known for creating digital email and social media content for the 2012 Barack Obama Presidential Campaign.
That experience led to a stint working for the 2014 Wendy Davis for Texas Governor Campaign for which he was a key member of their Digital Design Team responsible for strategic execution and analytics of a variety of digital channels for campaign communications, issue talking points, and fundraising.
Schmitt worked for several national organizations and state political campaigns during the 2016 campaign season, and worked remotely with a Boulder, CO company to provide strategy for targeted campaigns and multi-layered communications, including drafting planned and rapid-response email and social media content around the client’s activism and online fundraising needs.
Behind the scenes during those years, Schmitt also continued to grow his Advertising and Design Company, Schmittyapolis, whose name is a testament to the years Schmitt spent living in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region.
I wasn’t really sure where Schmittyapolis would take me, but I knew that while I was freelancing full time for other people, every once in a while a job would come up from a friend or a contact, and I wanted to make sure to have a system in place to honor that,” Schmitt said.
Having his own company also gave Schmitt a sense of freedom. He could take on the clients he wanted and do the design work he really wanted to do.
“It opened me up to meaningful work, and it allowed me to see my own strengths and weaknesses for what they were, which lead me to understand that I couldn’t do it all — that there were people far more masterful than I in some aspects of my business, which led me to create the Schmitt Collective, because although it’s my own company, I feel the need to give credit where credit is due.” Schmitt said.
The Schmitt Collective markets the social conscience of a companies to help them stand out from the pack. A company that makes belts, for instance, would use the Schmitt Collective to drive their digital engagement to sell more belts. That might look like highlighting ethically sourced hides, or buckles made through fair trade.
“We recognize that there is a huge market of people who buy products based on their ethical belief systems and wanted to help out clients align with those buying trends. What we do is not groundbreaking, but it matters. We are working with a lifestyle, not just a product, and that puts us in a position to make this world a little bit of a better place,” Schmitt said.
Schmitt said that one of his early professors at SIU Carbondale, Skip Briggs, helped instill in him qualities of perseverance and flexibility.
“I kept in touch with Skip regularly until his passing last year. He helped me understand that being honest about my weaknesses was actually a strength in business. He also introduced me to the concept that there is no bad idea, and that sometimes the best ideas come from drilling down into the heart of a bad idea to find the spectacular gem at its center,” Schmitt said.
Schmitt hopes that as his company continues to grow that we will be able to act as mentor to others in the way that so many others have been there for him.
Schmitt and his wife, Michelle, are 50/50 partners in the Schmitt Collective, and have recently moved back to the Chicago area. To catch up with him please visit his website, or his LinkedIn page.
“Salukis in Business” celebrates the our Saluki Alumni who have taken the risk to go into business for themselves.
If you’d like to be the focus of this weekly feature, or nominate someone you think we should feature, please email us at alumni-socialmedia@alumni.siu.edu.
