Young Entrepreneur Takes the Office Outdoors

Ascension Advertising might have the lushest, most open-air office in Baltimore County, at least four times a week.

The acreage rolls through green hills and streams, the shady meadows catch a heady summer breeze and the bright sky soars overhead, from steep hill to treeline, as if there is no roof.

There is no roof.

The employees at Ascension Advertising are at Cromwell Valley Park on a hot August morning, early enough so that the beating sun feels enlivening but not punishing. Their cell phones at the ready in case a client calls, they stretch their muscles for their morning workouts, which are as important a part of their professional day as optimizing their clients' search engine results—which they do in front of their computers, later.

This is the kind of company that could only be headed up by a 21-year-old, self-taught marketing prodigy and fitness guru—in this case, it's Steve Moore.

“I think one of the most interesting things about working out with your team is you know, very quickly, who pushes themselves to ridiculous lengths, and who doesn't,” says Moore, standing barefoot in a field at Cromwell Valley Park as he gets ready to lead his employees through strength-training exercises.

“And you figure out how hard an individual will go before they snap. You'll figure out a whole other side of an individual just by working out with him.”

Moore, a Towson resident who graduated from Parkville High School, spent a whopping three weeks attending community college before he dropped out. He started his company last summer, when he was just 20 years old.

Two of his employees are warming up while he talks. Greg Lew, 29, his business developer, jogs in circles, while Jennifer Murphree, 27, the project manager, bends to touch her toes. All of Moore's employees, save for a high school intern, are older than him.

“But it's all about fatigue, and when things start to get tough, what happens?” Moore says. “Yeah, you work like a demon on a laptop, but what happens when things start to get tough? What happens? That's really what I can see.”

The Field Workout and Office Practices

Moore started working out in the fields of Cromwell early this year after reading You Are Your Own Gym, a book by Mark Lauren.

“It's the Bible of body weight exercises,” says Moore, a strictly practicing Christian, who doesn't use that phrase lightly. As young as he is, he is already married to his wife, Ashley, who shares his beliefs.

He offers a quick explanation.

“Because of my faith, I remain abstinent until marriage,” he says. “And after a year, you gotta decide, man. You either gotta marry her or find someone else, in my opinion.”

He demonstrates a body weight move he learned from the book, the lunge, and adds, for fun, martial arts arm movements. He has studied aikido, pentjak silat serak, and a little bit of jujitsu at the Traditional Academy of Asian Fighting Arts on Harford Road.

But he's not being serious. He's goofing around. Lew is countering with his own martial arts pantomime while he lunges, too.

“So let's get to working out,” Moore announces. “We have four exercises—they're all legs today. The exercises are going to be back lunges, Romanian deadlifts, Toyotas and side lunges.”

Lew clarifies, “A Toyota is a plyo move. Plyometrics. Jump training.”

Moore explains the “ladder” concept of his workouts. One movement, whether it's a lunge, jump or deadlift, is followed by one resting breath. Then two movements are followed by two resting breaths, then three, then four, and so on.

“A ladder builds muscular endurance,” he says. “You go up til you think you can't do the next one, say you do six. You can't do seven—you know you can't do seven. So you go down to five, four, three, two, one.”

After working out together in the field's open air and sunshine, working together in the office comes easily for the group.

“I think we always get along in the office,” says Lew. “I think it does speak for itself. I came from a corporate environment before I came here, and [everybody] argued. I've been here six, seven months now, and I don't think I've gotten in an argument with anybody.”

At Ascension Advertising, the group creates websites, designs corporate logos and puts together “SEO packages”—search engine optimization. That means getting a website to the top of Google without it being a highlighted “sponsored ad,” which many Internet users skip over.

Lew offers an inside look at the office's secrets.

"We have a way of getting a website to the top by following the Google Webmaster Guidelines, which other companies don't do,” says Lew.

He explains the practice while hopping around the grass, keeping his muscles loose between ladder sets.

“They can get you to the top of Google quickly, but you will start falling down the search engine rankings just as fast and never be able to get back up, for violating their policies, or trying to manipulate them," Lew says.

"There's a lot of testing and managing that people don't know anything about. So their ads are never going to be successful. And that's what we're really good at."

Moore first taught himself how to harness the marketing power of an Internet search before he started his business last year, and he used Budget Bath, his old employer, as his guinea pig.

“I basically went and got a stack of books about this tall, waist high, on Internet marketing and all kinds of stuff,” says Moore. “I read those for like six months. I just read all day. I learned everything from search engine optimization, to web design, pay per click campaign management, everything. Just did it. And then I applied it at Budget Bath. I got Budget Bath ranked from nothing to number one for Baltimore bath and remodeling.”

Moore sums up what his efforts have done for Budget Bath's owner.

“He had no Internet leads, ever. And he is booked all the way through December now, at least as of this year.”

Small Beginnings

Ascension Advertising's office is a new, rented space in Phoenix, MD, a decided step up from where Moore and his employees got their start.

“He was working on top of my wife's dresser in my apartment,” laughs Moore, pointing at Lew.

“And I worked off the dining table,” says Murphree. She indicates David Coeyman, the intern, adding, “And he was on the other end.”

“I was at my desk, he was on a dresser, they were on the dining table, and everybody was just getting things done,” says Moore, who began renting the Phoenix office just a few months ago. “And we're just expanding. And we just hired a new graphic designer, and we're just kicking butt.”

Moore takes the word “ascension” to heart, always striving to climb higher and do better.

“To me it's about conquering the world,” he says. “The business world. I need to be told to stop working, by my wife. 'Steve! You've worked 13 hours today. Go home!' I'm a part of different groups that help me learn. I try to find older, successful individuals to learn from, so I can get better, and better, and better, and better, and better and better and better and better.”

He adds, "Everything relies on the business system that I've been thinking about, that I've dreamed about, and I've been developing over this past year."

But ascension means more than that, too. Why did he choose the word as his company's name?

“So it's first in the phone book, duh!” Moore deadpans.

“No, of course it has to do with my faith,” he adds seriously. “I'm definitely a Christian, a strong Christian, at least in my opinion, and it just kind of hit me one day. I was driving along Loch Raven, thinking about ascension. It's a great word, because it's a play on words with my faith, ascending into Heaven, the whole Jesus bit, and on top of that, ascending in the Google search rankings!”

Lew helps to keep Moore grounded.

Moore has asked him to.

“We were at Qdoba,” remembers Moore. “We were talking about our budget—where we are, where we're going, that kind of thing, and I go, 'Look Greg, since things are starting to come together, if this gets really big, keep me humble.' The second I said 'humble,' he slapped me across the face! I'm like, 'Dude, you just slapped me!'”

Moore is laughing while he's telling the story, and so is Lew.

“He was getting too excited!” Lew says unapologetically. “The thing is, Steve is 21, and I'm not much older, but every accomplishment, he thinks he's made it to the top, for each one. So I just sometimes slap the reality into him, saying, we're working our way to the top. We haven't quite reached it yet. Keep the enthusiasm, but don't think you're Jesus quite yet.”

Moore is aware of his own strengths, but argues that he's not a prodigy.

“A prodigy? Basically it's just, ever since I was 12 years old, I've been mentored by businessmen,” he says. “It's just my thing. I think anyone can do anything.”

He adds, “I think anyone's capable of anything if they just want it bad enough. You can do anything. You just have to do it. Get all the good stuff in your head. Start reading positive books, reading information, learning stuff, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter where you are, just do it. Do it. That's it.”