October, how we love thee.
The tenth month of the Gregorian calendar is by far our favourite. At Ballentine, the excitement is less about #PSL’s and costumes, and more about the changing colour of the trees outside our office, and savouring the last bit of sun in Vancouver before it rains for eight months straight. (We even love October so much that our new website was built on this CMS).
October also means that our friends at Domenica Fiore are busy harvesting the first olives of the year in Orvietto, which will soon become their famous Olio Novello, and that our friends at SKYE are getting ready to launch this Fall’s must-have footwear lineup. You get it. We love October.
This October is a particularly special month at Ballentine because it’s our birthday on the 31st, and this year we will be turning five years old.
Yes, Ballentine is no longer a toddler (I had to Google this). To get a little more context of what should happen in year five, we consulted some experts. The fine people at the widely accepted medical resource WEBMD tell us that as a five-year-old we’re now developing greater self-confidence and creativity (among many other developments at this age). This sounds just like us. We’re all for growth, creating things in new ways, and growing creatively (WEBMD also tells us we’ll be content to play with our toys for longer periods of time, which Beto says is a relief).
Case in point: as much as we love Wordpress websites, our developer, Murray, talked us into trying something new – October CMS. We saw this as a good opportunity to try a new platform on ourselves first (so we’re not risking anything for our clients), and if we like it, then it may well be something that Murray can help us bring value to a client with down the road.
Of course, growth is nothing new at Ballentine. Since we launched back in 2012, we’ve grown hand-in-hand with some of our earliest clients, our team has grown, Mitch’s beard has grown (then greyed), our awards wall has grown, and we’ve grown in our ability to do what it is that we love to do (which is to help brands communicate as clearly and smartly as they possibly can).
Don’t worry though. Just because we’re five now it doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten where we came from, who we are, or what makes us good at what we do.
Don’t believe me? Just ask.
-MB
Oh, and bonus points if you knew that Pope Gregory XIII launched the Gregorian calendar in 1582. In October, of course.
Editor’s note: Below is a non-exhaustive list of other things WEBMD says we’ll be able to do now that we’re five years old, all of which we’re looking forward to mastering:
- Speak clearly using more complex sentences
- Count ten or more objects
- Correctly name at least four colors and three shapes
- Recognize some letters and possibly write his or her name
- Have a greater attention span
- Know his or her address and phone number, if taught
(Source: WEBMD)