Behind Ad Man’s Initials, 2 Women’s Ownership

Co-owners Christy Vandergriff and Julie Barnett of GWL Advertising in Little Rock

Christy Vandergriff and Julie Barnett are proud women owners of GWL Advertising of Little Rock, but still pleased their agency carries a man’s initials.

“Julie and I had both worked with Gary for a long time, and we’re happy he’s still with us as a consultant,” Vandergriff said, referring to the namesake of GWL, Gary W. Lay.

Lay sold the firm he founded in 1993 to Barnett and Vandergriff in October 2019, but he’s a familiar presence and still makes business pitches with them. “We see him just about every day, but he still gets to play more golf.”

GWL, which does about two-thirds of its work for the automotive market, has had the Steve Landers Auto Group as a client for 27 years. That group now has seven dealerships and two collision centers in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. GWL also manages advertising for 12 other dealerships from Texas to Florida. The new ownership has kept the bond with established clients while diversifying its work to be “heavier, heavier, heavier” in the digital sphere, Barnett said.

Vandergriff, who leads the firm’s creative team, and Barnett, whose specialty is client services, never seriously considered putting their names on the sign. “We were really excited to be females owning the business, but we wanted to keep the name,” she said. “I think when people hear GWL, they know the reputation that Gary has set forth all these years. But we really want to make the point that we’re an agency that thrives in 2021. We’ve evolved over time.”

The new owners wanted to continue seeing Lay “just walking the halls here regularly,” Vandergriff said. “That was important for Julie and me, and for our staff. It’s not like he sold it and he just walked away.”

The partners knew the operation “inside and out,” said Vandergriff, who has worked for GWL for 21 years. Barnett has been there 16 years.

Already close working associates and “very, very, very good friends,” as Barnett put it, they were ready to take the next step: plunging into a professional “marriage.” Yin to each other’s yang, with Barnett as the good cop, Vandergriff as bad.

But jokes aside, the women saw a serious opportunity.

“When Gary presented us with this, of course, we jumped all over it,” Vandergriff said. “We think it’s amazing to be women business owners, but we wanted to keep the name. I’ve never believed that women couldn’t do anything men could. That’s just how I was raised.”

Barnett had a feeling owning the firm was inevitable. “I really never questioned it,” she said. “Gary started to talk about how he wanted to step back, and I thought, you know, I’ll be a part of that. I knew I could put my work ethic and the work I’ve done for Gary up against anybody’s. So being an owner feels very familiar. I think we always treated this like it was our business anyway.”

Lay’s initials may still be on the door, “but our names are on the dotted line, and we’re responsible for everything now,” Barnett added. “It’s a little bit daunting.”

So far, so good, they say, assessing the bottom line heading into the second year of COVID-19. Revenue took about a 15% hit in 2020, Vandergriff said, but a Paycheck Protection Program loan of $277,250 and new digital and public relations business helped the agency not only avoid layoffs, but continue to expand.

“We’re bigger than we used to be,” Vandergriff said. “If you count our production house, we have 31 employees, up from 29, and we’re building a team strategically.” One of the new owners’ first hires was Dan Sawyer, the Notre Dame graduate and former minor league hockey player they snapped up last year as senior director of accounts and new business.

“We added Dan not just for his experience and because we knew his good work, but also because of who he is,” Vandergriff said. “We want a team of talented, quality individuals, and I think that allowed us to weather the storm of COVID.” Another key addition was digital director Ryan Williams, Vandergriff said. “He’s young, but he’s really good.”

Barnett and Vandergriff wouldn’t say exactly what they paid Lay for the business. “We paid him pretty well,” Vandergriff said with a hearty laugh. “There’s a reason we make him stay in the office.”