A message from our founder, Anna Stout:
Yesterday was a big day.
Almost a month ago, we closed on our new office building. Now, we’ve officially begun working in our new space. Astute Communications is now located in the perfect standalone brick building, right off I-440 and about a six-minute drive from downtown. This move nearly doubled our space. We’ll be able to host events. We can make a more functional, creative environment for our team. We can do whatever we want, really! Because it’s all ours…
Ryan, my business partner, and husband of almost 10 years, sat in the room with me 4 weeks ago and signed his name after mine on every closing document. As always, we’re in this together. What an amazing time we’ve had over this past decade: building a family, a business, a life. Right before he took my photo in front of our new building, I asked Ryan to come stand with me. “No,” he said, “This is your moment.”
I’ve worked so hard for this. Six years ago, I started Astute with a phone and a computer in the extra bedroom of our first home–making cold calls while our oldest son, an infant then, took blessedly long and predictable naps. I took him to meetings–rolled his stroller right into those lobbies, asking brazenly for the person I was meeting with, as if bringing a baby with me were as business-as-usual as toting a briefcase. “My little closer,” I called him back then.
He’s in 1st grade now, and our younger son is four years old. Kind, happy boys who I hope will grow up knowing they are deeply loved by a strong, capable woman. A woman who makes things happen, and figures things out, and cares, a lot, even on the days she doesn’t want to. And I hope they will turn that knowledge into respect for other people. And I hope they will care, even on the days they don’t want to.
Getting our space ready and operational has been such a whirlwind. But looking back, it’s all gone that way. Sometimes I can’t believe how far we’ve come. Sometimes it’s like I’ve always known we’d be here.
So yeah, yesterday was a big day for me.
A big day for my family.
A big day for Astute.
And I look forward to many more big days in our future.
-Anna Stout
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Woman-owned digital marketing agency in Nashville purchases property to accommodate the company’s rapid growth.
NASHVILLE, TN, Sep. 20 — The Nashville-based creative marketing agency, Astute Communications, is making a big move.
Anna Stout, the founder and president of Astute, today announced that on September 9th, 2019, she completed the purchase of a commercial building for the agency’s new office. By October 2019, the agency will be operating from its new address at 2631 Grandview Ave–a freestanding building in the Woodbine area of Nashville. The office is two miles from the Nashville Fairgrounds, the chosen location for the city’s highly-anticipated Major League Soccer stadium, and a six-minute drive to downtown. Astute enlisted Tee Patterson from the brokerage Chas. Hawkins Co., Inc. to represent them in the purchase of their new office.
Stout established and ran Astute independently from 2013 to 2015. In 2016, she began hiring a full-time staff and the agency has since experienced continuous organic growth without any outside funding. The new office will support the agency’s growth, enable Astute to host community events, and build an environment that fosters creativity.
“With only 0.1% of creative agencies owned by women, I know this is an opportunity to show Nashville and the marketing world what women-led companies can do,” Stout says. “Astute is completely bootstrapped. Every bit of growth we have achieved has paid for itself. And now, all that hard work has paid for our building. This is a milestone for us, and I’m so excited to be able to do this for our team. Everyone has been involved in the planning process–thinking about their ideal workspace, even helping choose furniture and decor. We’re working together really deliberately to create an environment that we all love. We’ll incorporate a quiet room for focused work or meditation, and a flexible indoor/outdoor space so they can enjoy fresh air throughout the day. Our team will finally have room to move around. I can’t wait to see what we do next, and what opportunities this move will provide for us. With this purchase, we’re staking our claim in Nashville.”
About Astute Communications:
Astute is a creative digital marketing agency serving clients across industries with branding, website design and development, SEO, paid media, and social media management services. Founded in 2013 by a web designer and developer with a background in business development, the company was built to create harmony between client interests and production realities.
Through collaboration and open communication, we discover new solutions for businesses that directly impact their goals, and provide the playground for our team members to demonstrate their talent, stretch, and grow.
Astute works with funded start-ups and mid-sized companies that are proven in the marketplace to achieve their big “next-step” growth.
About Anna Stout:
At 26 years old, Anna Stout founded Astute Communications. As President and CEO of the digital marketing agency, she oversees brand direction while focusing on company growth and culture.
Anna is a volunteer mentor for the Pathway Women’s Business Center, and a nationally recognized public speaker. She serves as City-Champion/President of the board for the Nashville chapter of Together Digital. Her 5-step process for planning a website was featured on the cover of the renowned international web design publication, Net Magazine.
Anna resides in Nashville, TN with her husband and two sons. When she’s not at work, she enjoys reading, gardening, and taking adult gymnastics classes.