After meeting Bolu at OEI and watching her journey unfold this year—winning 1st place at the Global CEO Conference Pitch Competition in Tampa Bay, placing 1st in ISU's Pappajohn Fall Startup Pitch Competition, earning recognition at multiple events—I knew her story needed to be shared beyond just pitch competitions and award ceremonies.

Vertical Marketing's goal in creating effective brand systems is empowerment, not dependency. When clients can execute at the same level as their agency partners, the brand has succeeded.

After three intensive coaching days at OEI, I discovered brilliant students with perfect research solving the wrong problems. An engineer thought he needed better software - turns out volunteers just needed more time with kids. Sometimes the most valuable question is: 'What if we're solving the wrong problem?'