Riding for the Brand

This morning, i posted a picture on social media. Hiking boots. Mountains in the background. The boots were Timberlands, and they mattered because Timberland is a new client at 33 Sticks.

i titled the post Riding for the brand. i picked that phrase deliberately, though i wasn’t thinking about the weight of it in the moment.

Then my friend Rudi Shumpert texted me.

Rudy and i have known each other for more than a decade. We worked for the same company many years ago, and he saw my post about and it made him smile. It made him think about an onsite we did together in Salt Lake City, where i had presented something to the team.

“I remember that onsite,” he said. “The one in December where you went through the Cowboy Code.”

More than 13 years ago.

i was surprised. Genuinely surprised that a presentation i gave so long ago still resonated with someone enough that they’d reach out and mention it. And humbling, too. Humbling that what i said back then mattered so much.

It also reminded me of something important. It reminded me of why i created that presentation in the first place, and why those words have carried through everything i’ve built since.

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Before i started 33 Sticks, i had the incredible opportunity to test a lot of my ideas about what a high functioning team could look like. What a company could look like if we did things maybe a little bit differently than the norm, than what we’ve come to expect.

Because i had been seeing something that really bothered me. i saw myself and others going through the motions. Zombies, almost. Burned out. Operating without meaning, without purpose, without focus on creating real value for the customer.

i remember thinking, there has to be a better way.

So i started thinking about how to build a team differently. How to build a culture around something more intentional than corporate speak and empty mission statements. i wanted a code we could actually live by. Something real.

i had lots of ideas, but then i discovered something that aligned perfectly with what i was trying to do. In the early 2000s, Wyoming had adopted the Code of the West as their official state code, reflecting the values of the state’s cowboy heritage.

When i read it, something clicked. This was it. This was the framework.

The Code of the West has ten values. Ten principles that, if you actually follow them, change how you show up in the world:

1. Live each day with courage.

2. Take pride in your work.

3. Always finish what you start.

4. Do what has to be done.

5. Be tough but fair.

6. When you make a promise, keep it.

7. Ride for the brand.

8. Talk less and say more.

9. Remember that some things aren’t for sale.

10. Know where to draw the line.

That presentation Rudi remembered was me going through each of those values and how they aligned with what we were building as a team. Not as corporate buzzwords, but as real commitments to each other and to the work.

i adopted the Code of the West as the framework for how i would run my team. And then, when i started 33 Sticks in 2013, i built the entire company on that same foundation.

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Of all those values, “ride for the brand” is the one that resonated with me this morning.

When i hear that phrase, i hear something way more than loyalty to a company name. i hear a personal stance. A way of moving through the world.

Riding for the brand means choosing to stand for something on purpose. Not because it’s profitable. Not because it’s trendy. Not because anyone’s watching. But because it matches your internal code.

It’s the promise that you’ll bring your full self to the work. Your integrity. Your care for people. Your intolerance for bullshit. Your willingness to do things the human way even when the corporate way would be easier.

It’s saying, i’m not here to drift. i’m here to belong to something i believe in.

For 33 Sticks, riding for the brand is the difference between a company that exists and a company that means something. It’s how i protect the culture like it’s alive. It’s why i don’t let the work turn into a machine. It’s why i keep us rooted in the values we built on instead of letting us get pulled into whatever the industry is chasing this quarter.

You don’t ride for the brand by defending a logo. You ride for the brand by defending the code behind the logo.

With clients, it becomes a kind of quiet oath. i will show up honest. i will do the work the right way, not the fast way. i will treat you like a human, not an account. i will tell you the truth even if it’s awkward. i will care about the outcome like it’s mine too.

For my team, it’s a leadership style without theatrics. i want them to feel safe here. i want them to grow here. i want them to know they matter here. i want them to be proud of what they’re part of.

Riding for the brand is me modeling what it looks like to belong to something healthy. Not perfect. But real. A refuge. A place where the code isn’t a slide deck, it’s how people get treated on a random Tuesday.

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This morning, when Rudi reached back across more than a decade and mentioned that presentation, i got something i didn’t even know i needed.

Validation.

Not the empty kind that comes from likes or follows. The real kind. The kind that says what you did stuck because it came from belief.

i wasn’t thinking about legacy when i did that presentation in Salt Lake City. i was just showing up as myself, riding in a way that matched my code. And then i got proof, more than a decade later, that it mattered.

That’s why “ride for the brand” hit me so hard this morning. Not because it’s the flashiest line in the Code of the West, but because today i got to see the long tail of it.

Your way of showing up lands on people. Small moments travel farther than we think. Doing work with staying power is real. And a code you choose years ago keeps echoing through other humans long after you’ve spoken it.

i fundamentally believe that the Code of the West is what has allowed 33 Sticks to have a solid foundation 12 years later. It underpins everything i do. Everything i say. Everything i create. Every deliverable. Every piece of guidance i give to clients. Every partnership, especially our strong work with East Tennessee State University preparing the next generation of analysts. Every interaction with our community.

The Code of the West is the foundation of all of it.

Today was a reminder that this wasn’t a mistake. This wasn’t something that just happened organically. The decisions were made very deliberately to build a team, to build a company, a culture, a brand on this code.

So when i say i’m riding for the brand, i’m not just talking about Timberland or 33 Sticks or any client we serve. i’m talking about standing for something that matches my internal code.

i don’t just work here. i stand for this. And i show up like it matters.

Because someone remembered. A decade later, someone remembered the ride. And it made a difference.

Much Love 💛

-jason