BRADLEY HUSTED
The Boss
Owner of Phoenix3 Marketing and twenty plus year design and marketing veteran, Brad Husted, started his journey into marketing in the heartland of the country, moving across the southeast, and finally landing in the Tampa Bay area to go back to school and balance his business education with his passion for art and design at the University of Tampa. After a number of years in corporate marketing, he decided to make the leap and go out on his own; he developed a marketing firm that offers resources to small and mid-sized businesses that are obtainable and practical. Over the years, Brad and his team have crafted strategic and tactical marketing for brands across multiple industries in B2B and B2C companies throughout the United States. Since 2008, the company has evolved and changed a great deal, but the mission has remained the same: “Building brands that move people, support a positive customer experience, and contribute to growth.”
We sat down with our fearless leader to gain some insight into what his life looks like when he is not working diligently at his computer or with clients:
If you could go back to any time in history, where would you go?
The 1950’s or 60’s because this era epitomizes where we inherited a lot of our current day ideals and obviously where the marketing and advertising field blew up. I’ve always viewed this era as being when the concept of the ‘American Dream’ was born and where we set the financial, social, and moral baseline of what it means to be a ‘successful American’. Spending over half my life in marketing, selfishly I’d want to go back to this time and see how much is reality and how much is a dreamlife we were sold on reruns of Nick at Nite shows.
What did you want to be when you were small?
I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. As early as I can remember I was creating imaginary businesses, whether it was building them out of Legos or later creating them in my backyard. I believe being an only child made me imaginative.
What’s your favorite movie?
At the risk of sounding cheesy, Under the Tuscan Sun. It has a lot of relatable moments and I love the lesson of how focused she is on this vision of what she thinks her life is supposed to look like, not realizing that it was actually happening all along.
And a quote that I reference probably more than I should: “You know when you meet one of those empty-shell people and you think, ‘What the hell happened to you?’ Well, there came a time in each one of those lives where they were standing at a crossroads. Some place where they had to decide to turn left or right. This is no time to be a chicken shit, Francis.”
If you could visit anywhere in the world you’ve never been, where would you go?
I would go to Italy; it’s next up on my international travel list. As an art major I studied a lot of art history, so I’ve always wanted to see the art, sculptures, and architecture I’ve seen in books or film.
What are you currently watching on Netflix?
The new series “YOU”, and you should too, especially if you have kids addicted to social media.
