Two Days, Two Wheels, and 202 Miles of Road

July 16, 2010 — aspeyer

STP LogoA train ride from Seattle to Portland takes three and a half hours. By car, you might find yourself at the City of Roses in three hours. By bicycle, it takes a little longer. Try two days.

Expect to see many intrepid cyclists attempting the ride this weekend, as the Cascade Bicycle Club’s 31st Annual Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (STP) begins on Saturday, July 17. Procare Team Manager Josh Dand is looking forward to being one of many who pedal their way through 202 miles of valleys, farmland, and mountains.

Dand’s biking journey didn’t begin with STP, which is expected to draw 10,000 cyclists.

“When I [worked in] Seattle, I never biked,” he said; but when he was transferred to Cobalt’s Lynnwood office, and his coworker, Senior Account Advocate Raul Sedano, invited him to take a bike ride. They started cycling together at lunchtime around Edmonds and Lynnwood, which inspired Dand to start biking to work. He now averages around 120 miles every week, riding four days out of five, enough to “recognize coworkers by their bike racks.”

“The 30 mile road trip is a great way to begin my day,” he said. “[I can] decompress and work off stress.” Bicycling has helped bring him closer to his officemates. Dand, Sedano, and fellow first-time STP rider Robert Allen will be doing the STP together. Sedano is a veteran of the event; this year marks his seventh STP ride!

Josh Dand and his bikeParticipating in the largest, multi-day bicycle event in the Northwest, sponsored by Group Health, seemed to be the natural next step to Dand.

“It’s something I wanted to do for past couple of years,” he said. “I can’t believe I’m about to do it; I’m feeling pretty well on my way. I just had a bike tune-up, got a new chain, and [my] legs are feeling strong, nice and spry now.”

Spots go quick, with cyclists from all over America and the world vying for entry. Dand got extremely lucky with late registration and “wasted five minutes of company time” waiting in a virtual line.

Those five minutes paid off, as he now prepares to start at 7:30am on Saturday at the University of Washington. He and Sedano plan to bike around 105 miles before settling in for the night at a Chehalis campground around five or six o’clock. Every ten miles, rest stops with free food, water, bathrooms, and bike repair will be available. Along the way the bicyclists will cross rivers, climb 30 miles of hills, and ride in the shadow of Mt. St Helens.

“You can’t see it in a car. [The STP] is like a party on wheels,” Dand said in anticipation for the scenic beauty of Western Washington countryside

On Sunday, they will cross the finish line at Holladay Park and possibly attend the Finish Line Festival is at the end of each ride-day. Sedano and Dand will either stay the night, or drive back to Seattle that evening.

Dand is a machine that doesn’t seem to ever stop running. When asked if he would relax at all after this superhuman feat, he mentioned a massage on Monday and a little rest, quickly adding that he hopes this event “leads to more.”

The next time you drive down to Portland on business, imagine Dand doing it the hard way and scaling the same distance on two wheels instead of four.

Good luck to all three this weekend. Have fun, guys!

Margaret Kahn
Guest Writer
The Cobalt Group
www.cobalt.com
www.twitter.com/CobaltMarketing
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The Cobalt Group

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Cobalt Past & Present: What It Means to Be a DieHard Part Two

March 11, 2010 — aspeyer

On St. Patrick’s Day, Cobalt will be having a 15th anniversary party in celebration of its expansive growth as well as the hard work and dedication given by the company’s employees, both new and longstanding. Within Cobalt, there are 50 people who are given a badge of honor for their venerable commitment to the success of Cobalt. They are dubbed Cobalt DieHards and have been with the company for nine or more years.

Community Counts
Over the past few months, I have had the privilege of getting to know a few of these well-respected and enthusiastic DieHards. They have shared with me their stories of Cobalt’s past and present and are certainly on board for the future. Cobalt’s exponential growth within the past decade and a half is undeniable and couldn’t have been accomplished without them.

“Seeing us grow from dot com to big company is amazing. Throughout the ten years I’ve been with Cobalt, no matter what department, there’s a feeling of close-knit, small community. I love working at Cobalt because of the people I work with as well as our strong leadership,” said Ben Patawaran, account advocate.

DieHard Dedication
In Part One of this article, I wrote about the amazing transformation Cobalt underwent from using dial up connections and hard-copies of websites to being first in line for dealer and OEM digital marketing. One thing that remains consistent with Cobalt, despite new technologies and the ever-changing automotive industry, Cobalt has held true to its motto of “work hard, play hard.”

“During the 2001 earthquake, I was the safety coordinator for my floor and had to make sure everyone evacuated. I ran through the floor to double check; and there was still one person typing away at her desk. She just had to send off one email before leaving. That’s dedication!” said Patawaran.

Room for Even More Growth
Many of the DieHards began when Cobalt had fewer than 100 employees. Now, the company has grown to over 1,000 strong, expanded their offices across the nation and gained large accounts with Lexus, GM and Volkswagen.

“Winning GM was definitely one of the greatest accomplishments we’ve had at Cobalt. We were in the right place at the right time. After that moment, we doubled revenue, hired 350 employees and did 5,000 websites. The aftermath of that sale was incredible,” said Matt Muilenburg, vice president of enterprise marketing solutions.

With its efforts to double innovation, the company’s growth trajectory will not taper for quite sometime. Cobalt remains on the pioneering end of digital marketing for the automotive industry with its unique and successful digital ad packages that coordinate marketing messages from the brand to the dealer.

Work Hard, Play Hard
Another point that rings true for Cobalt’s corporate culture is its strong sense of community. Aside from company parties, events and celebrations, trust and camaraderie is the foundation of Cobalt and one of the reasons why the company has so many DieHard employees. In everything they do, DieHards and newer employees, alike, work hard and play hard.

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