A timeline of our story
We’ve had many highs and also some lows over the last 25 years, and we want to share it all with you. As Richard Branson said, “a setback is never a bad experience, just a learning curve.” You’ll see we’ve plotted our good times in orange, and the tough ones in grey.
Spoiler alert: it’s a happy ending.
1998
A missed opportunity
Samantha Reynolds’s grandmother goes into the hospital for an operation and then slips into dementia. As a journalist, Sam always meant to get her grandmother’s story on record but procrastinated. With this irreplaceable loss, she realizes that it’s her life’s work to help people tell their own stories before it’s too late.
2000
Trial and error
Echo’s bookbinder suggests they shift from cloth-bound books to graphically designed covers. Samantha goes deep into debt as they spend months experimenting with different materials and painstakingly tweaking the lamination temperature one degree at a time.
1999
Echo is born
Echo is founded. The company is run out of Samantha’s home, a renovated farmhouse 20 minutes from downtown Vancouver. A horse named Haze keeps her company through the long days and nights of that first year as the company gets up and running.
2000
R&D success
Finally, the right paper, lamination material, temperature, imported glue, and binding method come together in harmony. Echo has perfected the limited-edition, hand-bound, digitally printed hardcover book!
2001
First corporate gig
After having focused primarily on personal memoirs, the company lands its first corporate client: the 25-year-old Fitness Group. It boosts the elite fitness club’s recruitment of new members and retention of current members in the first six months after the book’s launch.
2002
Media buzz
2002
Expansion
2003
Our eggs in one basket
Echo’s bookbinder, Simone Mynen, announces she is closing her bindery. After all the time and money Echo spent to perfect the binding process, Echo has grown dependent on Simone to bind its books. The problem seems unsurmountable. Happily, Echo graduates from Samantha’s home to the top floor of a 2,200-square foot, open-concept heritage building with a fabulous retro kitchen where Simone helps Samantha set up a custom bindery and train a new bookbinder, Jill.
2004
Retreat!
2005
Cash flow crunch
2004
First Christmas bash
2006
Top 40 under 40
2007
lululemon hires us
2008
The recession
2009
We survived
2009
Doing well by doing good
2012
Up in flames
A fire destroys Echo’s studio in Olympic Village. It turns out the fire was an accident caused by torch-on work being done to upgrade the roof. Samantha and the team spend a sleepless night before being allowed in the next morning to assess the damage.
2010
We go national
Rapid growth and more complex projects demand that Echo hire its first dedicated photo researcher. There are projects on the go now in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal.
2012
Our clients' memories are safe
2012
Our new home
2013
The best story never published
2013
National speaking tour
Samantha is invited to speak on how to use authentic storytelling to engage customers, employees, and the rising generation. She is rated “Best speaker we’ve ever had” by four chapters of Tiger 21, North America’s premier network for high-net-worth investors. Speaking to family offices and other groups will become an annual practice for her.
2014
Echo unveils a new brand
Founded as a custom book publisher, Echo rebrands as a storytelling agency. Fifteen years of honing our storytelling chops pays off as global brands trust Echo to get their stories out in engaging ways, whether they need a book, video, custom magazine, or social media campaign.
2015
We go digital
National retail chain London Drugs hires Echo to develop its content marketing strategy and execute digital storytelling across all social channels. In our first three months, we double organic reach and triple organic engagement on their targeted channels, as well as extending their reach on Facebook by 619%.
2016
A tale of two Johns
When our first Story Director, John Wellwood, retired in 2015 after nine years, we had big shoes to fill. Who could have guessed the new feet would belong to another John? We win the storyteller lottery by recruiting seasoned journalist, author, and instructor John Burns to head up first our editorial team, then the whole company.
2018
We go global
2019
The end of an era
From the day Norm Larson joined as our first Studio Manager in 2006, she made her mark. She was the beating heart of our culture, living our values and purpose with passion every single day. She was generous with laughter and praise, thrifty with a dollar, eagle-eyed in proofing our projects. But in the end, we had to be generous back and let her retire. One thing will never change. We love you, Norm!
2020
The world shuts down
2020
Sustainability is a hard word to typeset!
Mercer International, one of the world’s largest producers of market pulp, asks us to produce its first sustainability report, and you better believe it’s story driven. The gorgeously designed, rigorously reported book proves such a success with leadership, partners, and industry associations that we’re tapped to create the report every year since.
2021
They grow up so fast
2021
The power of commitment
2022
Double time
2022
A sad day
2024
A champagne birthday
After countless ups and downs, here we are. That little solo-preneur farmhouse hustle has survived and thrived for 25 years. We’ve grown and learned so much in our evolution from personal memoirists to the full-service agency that we are today, rooted in values and driven by strategy. But story remains our beating heart, our north star, and the hunger, the curiosity, the drive to connect — that will be the engine that takes us to 50 and beyond. Here we go!
1998
A missed opportunity
Samantha Reynolds’s grandmother goes into the hospital for an operation and then slips into dementia. As a journalist, Sam always meant to get her grandmother’s story on record but procrastinated. With this irreplaceable loss, she realizes that it’s her life’s work to help people tell their own stories before it’s too late.
1999
Echo is born
Echo is founded. The company is run out of Samantha’s home, a renovated farmhouse 20 minutes from downtown Vancouver. A horse named Haze keeps her company through the long days and nights of that first year as the company gets up and running.
2000
Trial and error
Echo’s bookbinder suggests they shift from cloth-bound books to graphically designed covers. Samantha goes deep into debt as they spend months experimenting with different materials and painstakingly tweaking the lamination temperature one degree at a time.
2000
R&D Success
Finally, the right paper, lamination material, temperature, imported glue, and binding method come together in harmony. Echo has perfected the limited-edition, hand-bound, digitally printed hardcover book!
2001
First
corporate gig
After having focused primarily on personal memoirs, the company lands its first corporate client: the 25-year-old Fitness Group. It boosts the elite fitness club’s recruitment of new members and retention of current members in the first six months after the book’s launch.
2002
Media buzz
ECHO is featured on a national radio program and then four more times that year in local newspapers and magazines. Sales jump 300% with the exposure.
2002
Expansion
Echo produces the first memoir for a client outside Vancouver: Henry and Lily Cynamon, a remarkable and inspiring couple from Edmonton who both survived the Holocaust.
2003
Our eggs in one basket
Echo’s bookbinder, Simone Mynen, announces she is closing her bindery. After all the time and money Echo spent to perfect the binding process, Echo has grown dependent on Simone to bind its books. The problem seems unsurmountable. Happily, Echo graduates from Samantha’s home to the top floor of a 2,200-square foot, open-concept heritage building with a fabulous retro kitchen where Simone helps Samantha set up a custom bindery and train a new bookbinder, Jill.
2004
Retreat!
Samantha takes the growing team of four full-time and six freelance employees up to Whistler for the company’s first strategic retreat. They rent a huge chalet and cook communal feasts. Samantha makes everyone play Charades, which becomes a begrudgingly loved ritual at Echo as the retreats become an annual tradition.
2004
First Christmas bash
Echo throws the first of what will become a much-anticipated annual Christmas party in the studio, complete with live jazz band. One client waltzes with his wife in the bindery. (Fun fact: At the party, Samantha meets Pete, who she will eventually marry.)
2005
Cash flow crunch
Samantha has more than one awkward moment at checkout counters as her debit cards and credit cards are declined. She is accepted into an intensive executive business course designed for early-stage entrepreneurs. (Fun fact: one of her peers in the small class of 15 is Flickr co-founder, Caterina Fake, who sells her company to Yahoo! a few months later for $25 million.)
2006
Top 40 under 40
Samantha is named one of Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40 by Business in Vancouver newspaper.
2007
lululemon
hires us
Echo’s corporate work now accounts for more than two-thirds of all book projects. The year’s new corporate clients include Lululemon, Echo’s first global brand.
2008
The recession
The phone doesn’t ring for almost a year. Samantha debates closing shop and cashing out. Is this truly her life’s work? She ultimately decides the Echo team will survive the recession or go down together.
2009
We survived
Ten months after the recession hit, Echo secures the 100th anniversary book for the PNE, the second-largest fair in North America. They go on to win the 2011 Marketer of the Year Award for their 100th anniversary campaign, which was built around the book project.
2009
Doing well by doing good
Echo takes on its first pro bono project, a very emotional commemorative book about a popular, athletic, kind-hearted 16-year-old who died suddenly and tragically from viral complications.
2010
We go national
Rapid growth and more complex projects demand that Echo hire its first dedicated photo researcher. There are projects on the go now in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal.
2012
Up in flames
A fire destroys Echo’s studio in Olympic Village. It turns out the fire was an accident caused by torch-on work being done to upgrade the roof. Samantha and the team spend a sleepless night before being allowed in the next morning to assess the damage.
2012
Our clients' memories are safe
The studio is gutted, but there are cheers (from inside respirator masks!) when the team sees that all their clients’ memorabilia is 100% intact inside heavy-duty, waterproof storage bins. Echo’s digital backups mean that all archived projects and ongoing client work are also unaffected.
2012
Our new home
Two months after the fire, Echo moves into its new permanent home just steps from the world-renowned Granville Island Public Market and its numerous design studios and galleries.
2013
The best story never published
Echo writes the history of a prairie co-op that overcame debt and drought to become a global agribusiness powerhouse. Despite being called “an absolutely stellar read” by the outgoing CEO and other industry leaders, it is shelved by the new parent company for undisclosed reasons.
2013
National speaking tour
Samantha is invited to speak on how to use authentic storytelling to engage customers, employees, and the rising generation. She is rated “Best speaker we’ve ever had” by four chapters of Tiger 21, North America’s premier network for high-net-worth investors. Speaking to family offices and other groups will become an annual practice for her.
2014
Echo unveils a new brand
Founded as a custom book publisher, Echo rebrands as a storytelling agency. Fifteen years of honing our storytelling chops pays off as global brands trust Echo to get their stories out in engaging ways, whether they need a book, video, custom magazine, or social media campaign.
2015
We go digital
National retail chain London Drugs hires Echo to develop its content marketing strategy and execute digital storytelling across all social channels. In our first three months, we double organic reach and triple organic engagement on their targeted channels, as well as extending their reach on Facebook by 619%.
2016
A tale of
two Johns
When our first Story Director, John Wellwood, retired in 2015 after nine years, we had big shoes to fill. Who could have guessed the new feet would belong to another John? We win the storyteller lottery by recruiting seasoned journalist, author, and instructor John Burns to head up first our editorial team, then the whole company.
2018
We go global
Global luxury brand Christian Louboutin engages ECHO to deliver storytelling training to their sales advisors in person around the world. Paris, London, Geneva, Shanghai, Dubai, Tokyo, Sydney, New York, L.A. … here we come!
2019
The end
of an era
From the day Norm Larson joined as our first Studio Manager in 2006, she made her mark. She was the beating heart of our culture, living our values and purpose with passion every single day. She was generous with laughter and praise, thrifty with a dollar, eagle-eyed in proofing our projects. But in the end, we had to be generous back and let her retire. One thing will never change. We love you, Norm!
2020
The world
shuts down
It seems like an adventure in the early days. But as weeks become months, the reality of the COVID-19 era settles in. Given our prime directive to connect, always connect, we make it work. We embrace Zoom (and Zoom parties, and Zoom scavenger hunts). We meet outside (lots of air hugs). And finally, our bonds intact, life resumes — as life always does. The world is different now, but our compassion is, we hope, stronger than ever.
2020
Sustainability is a hard word to typeset!
Mercer International, one of the world’s largest producers of market pulp, asks us to produce its first sustainability report, and you better believe it’s story driven. The gorgeously designed, rigorously reported book proves such a success with leadership, partners, and industry associations that we’re tapped to create the report every year since.
2021
The grow up
so fast
Way back in 2005, we made a very private family yearbook showing the monthly adventures of a mom, a dad, and two busy toddlers. They loved how the photos and stories captured not just the events but the feelings from that hectic time. In fact, they loved it so much we continued to make the yearbook (print run: four copies) until those toddlers have happily grown into college and we can lay the project to bed 19 years later. It’s sad to say goodbye, but we’ll love them forever, we’ll like them for always.
2021
The power of commitment
After a number of successful local training engagements, we’re ready for another global project. Thanks to Microsoft Teams, we skip the jetlag and use our recently sharpened videoconferencing skills to launch a small test engagement for global engineering services and management firm GHD, headquartered in Australia. The project’s success leads quickly to our largest training engagement to date: 350+ participants, 26 sessions, many, many time zones. As a bonus, we rewrite their brand story based on our new deep understanding of the GHD Ways.
2022
Double time
It’s fine. Where normally we’d give a book project like this at least 18 months, we agree to fast-track telling the story of a manufacturer famous around the world for their sustainable practices. Okay, 12 months. And then … uh-oh, a second client also suddenly needs a comprehensive account of 50 years of family business success in the same 12 months? We make it work, and we love both the books (as do the clients). But the dual marathons push the team to the brink. Before the ink is dry, we’ve hit pause. We need to reassess everything — process, culture, sales — or risk losing amazing talent. A new way of doing business — an approach affectionately coined Project Sparkles — is born.
2022
A sad day
One of ECHO’s beloved clients and a long-time mentor to Samantha, B.C. business legend Hugh Magee passes away at age 89. The world feels a little quieter and a lot less fun. Sam will miss their regular coffee dates at JJ Bean, where he would grill her on ECHO’s growth strategy, push her to shoot for the moon, and unsuccessfully try to convince her to eat red meat (in that order). He’s not our first loss. He won’t be our last. But it’s a death that hits very close to home.
2024
A Champagne birthday
After countless ups and downs, here we are. That little solo-preneur farmhouse hustle has survived and thrived for 25 years. We’ve grown and learned so much in our evolution from personal memoirists to the full-service agency that we are today, rooted in values and driven by strategy. But story remains our beating heart, our north star, and the hunger, the curiosity, the drive to connect — that will be the engine that takes us to 50 and beyond. Here we go!
Our services
Story-driven solutions
Company stories
Personal legacy
Our unrivaled research, writing, design and discretion have made us the choice for individuals and families who want to leave a powerful legacy.
Storytelling training
We empower leaders and sales teams to use the power of story to achieve remarkable results. As we like to say, ‘data tells but story sells’.
