Exploring Life & Business with Kiernan Rien of Blue Cape Digital

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kiernan Rien.

Hi Kiernan, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’m originally from Oakdale, California. A small ranching town just two hours east of San Francisco. Oakdale is considered the one and only “Cowboy Capital of the World.” I grew up on ranch there with my parents, Tim and Jan, along with my three older brothers, Nathan, Patrick and Brendan.

Although I was involved in sports, mostly baseball and basketball, I was always interested in creative ventures. This interest spanned from small video skits with my brothers and friends to photo editing, music and drums.

I went to undergrad at The University of San Francisco. I didn’t have a clear direction at the time, but I loved stories and writing, so I opted to study history. If anything, I could at least move on to teach or become a professor. However, that wasn’t my main objective. I played drums for a band during my time at USF, and that’s all I wanted to do.

The band didn’t pan out, and my college chapter had come to an end. I graduated with a 3.8 GPA and had no idea what I was doing. On a whim, I road-tripped to Nashville with my brother, Pat. The dream of drumming there turned into a little over a year of bar-backing, a few recordings and a handful of good friends I still have to this day. Realizing I needed something different, I took the GRE and got into grad school at the University of California, Irvine.

I studied public policy at UCI. However, I took an interest in finance thanks to Pat and would use most of my electives to take classes at UCI’s Paul Merage School of Business. This led to an internship with a wealth manager, and eventually my Series 7 and 66 Licenses as well as a paid job with a brokerage firm in Newport Beach. After three years, I needed a change.

My brother, Brendan, had been living in Spokane, Washington at the time. Brendan is a hunting guide by trade, but prior to Spokane had been living in Los Angeles pursuing acting. As a guide, he had a truck (not very common in a densely populated city like Los Angeles). Between the hunting season and sparse acting gigs, he would deliver furniture in the city for pay. Not surprisingly, mattresses were in high demand. Their heavy and awkward build were inconvenient, an inconvenience Brendan would capitalize on.

He established BEDzNOW LLC in Spokane in early 2015. BEDzNOW was a same-day delivery service for mattresses before online bed-in-a-box retailers like Casper had picked up steam. Spokane was perfect because it was small, home of Gonzaga, and close to areas he guided. At the same time and with Brendan’s blessing, I quit my job to join him on this wild bedventure.

The two of us did absolutely everything in the business. From the initial website, grassroots promotion, digital marketing and even sponsoring the minor league hockey team, The Spokane Chiefs, to off-loading distribution trucks, invoicing and delivery. But, above anything we did, customer service was our number one priority. We wanted to make sure that above all else, our customers were happy.

We could sustain ourselves in Spokane but weren’t thriving. Bren had guided in Texas before, and we both had always loved Austin. Our thought was, let’s get to Austin where we’ll have a bigger pool of potential customers and, if possible, we could even branch out or franchise to surrounding cities.

We had a good run in Austin, but after 2.5 years, we had to close the doors. That was one of the hardest things to do. Not only was there the financial investment, but the personal and emotional one too. Although we had to close shop, we never failed in our number one objective: making our customers happy. To this day, if you Google BEDzNOW, you can see that our mattress company has 56 all five-star reviews, all from very happy customers.

Racked by our new reality, I got a job working for a digital marketing agency in Austin, and Brendan headed to Wyoming to continue working and guiding. Since we did everything in the business before, including Google and Facebook Ads, the pivot for me to work for an agency felt natural, especially since I loved the digital marketing aspect of our business. Although it wasn’t top of mind at the time, deep down I knew I needed to get back in the game and start another business. But when I did, I was going to be ready, and I was going to play at a whole new level.

While at the agency, I learned as much as I possibly could and more. After just over a year and working through the growing pains of another company, I hit my limit. I was ready to give entrepreneurship another go. I took all the hardships, joys, lessons and skills I had and created Blue Cape Digital LLC.

Blue Cape Digital is an Austin-based digital marketing and design company that helps businesses of all sizes generate convertible leads cost-effectively. And our mission, above all else, is to make our customers happy.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Although rewarding, the road to get here hasn’t been smooth. Part of the challenge, and I believe that most people regardless of starting their own business or not face, is figuring out what to do. For me, it’s been bumping into things and learning what does and doesn’t work. Kind of like a Roomba vacuum bumps around the house until it’s mapped the most efficient path. Then, once it’s got it all sorted out, it gets to work.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Blue Cape Digital is a design and digital marketing company. We specialize in custom WordPress websites, Google and Microsoft Ads, email marketing, as well as social media marketing. We also fully automate lead generation and sales funnels for businesses. Whether a company’s target audience is local, national or international, we work to enhance the online experience, capture leads and turn prospects into life-long customer advocates.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
If you’re behind the curtain on a platform like Google Ads, you can see that with each new system update, they’re working towards full automation. It’s amazing the amount of data platforms like Google gather, and even more amazing how they’re able to string that data together to create user-relevant experiences online. That’s been trending for years, however, with that said there is still the need for human ingenuity, drive and creativity in all aspects of marketing.

Contact Info:

• Email: kiernan@bluecapedigital.com
• Website: bluecapedigital.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bluecapedigital/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bluecapedigital/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlueCapeDigital/

Image Credits:
Blaine Bowers