The Long Echo of a Single Yes
A Story from Jake Engel | Co-founder, Artifactual
I decided I wanted to start a marketing agency when I was fifteen.
I had a loose idea of what that future might look like, guided mostly by instinct. Still, when my parents said it was time to find a job, I walked into the only marketing agency in my hometown and asked for an internship.
It was a shot in the dark. But sometimes the dark has its own kind of aim.
Melinda, the owner, welcomed me in with a five-hour-a-week internship and a small desk in the back of the office. On my first day, I tried to design graphics in PowerPoint because I had never used Adobe software. Looking back, I offered far more enthusiasm than skill, yet her confidence in me – her single yes – shaped my professional life that followed.
When I moved to Indianapolis for college, I carried that energy with me. I wanted to understand how creative work moved through an organization, so I applied for an internship at Charles C. Brandt Construction.
My only “construction” experience was building stage sets for high school musicals. And honestly, my dad did most of that woork.
When Kelly, my soon-to-be manager, offered me the role, I felt a kind of excitement that comes when someone sees potential before you learn to articulate it. Another single yes – another moment of belief that mattered far more than I understood at the time.
Charles C. Brandt offered something rare for someone early in their career: access. I sat with project managers, accountants, and people who understood the company from the inside. The President and CEO encouraged my questions and curiosity. My boss showed me how marketing and business development come together. My inexperience never felt unwelcome. It simply lived alongside my drive to learn.
That experience shaped me in many ways. It revealed how much a fresh perspective can offer an established industry. I walked in with curiosity, and that curiosity sparked conversations that showed me how story, structure, and relationships move through a company long before any marketing work begins.
I also learned that broad exposure changes the way you create. When you sit with people across an organization, you begin to see what drives their choices and how communication flows between teams. You understand the ground truth of a business – the rhythms that shape work and the details that carry meaning. That kind of understanding comes only when someone makes room for you to see the full picture.
Artifactual grew from lessons like these.
Curiosity matters. Access matters. Honest questions matter. Fresh eyes reveal details teams grow too familiar to notice, and those details often hold the seeds of a great idea. Today, our agency has dubbed these small, yet important, insights as artifacts.
I think about Melinda’s office and those months at Charles C. Brandt more often than anyone might expect. I think about how easily those early opportunities could have gone another way.
Those yeses opened rooms I never expected to enter. They taught me how to look closely, listen fully, and follow the small clues that bring a brand to life.
That instinct guides Artifactual today – step in with curiosity, look for what others overlook, and let the work reveal what matters.
If you want to explore how outside perspective can help your brand see itself with new clarity, reach out anytime at jake@artifactualagency.com or 812.528.3117.
