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Happy holidays from Vivace
+ Our favorite moments of 2024
Ryan Sheppard & Joel Leeman
December 20, 2024
Welcome to Spark, a newsletter from Vivace. We curate and publish the most interesting thinking and ideas from our community on themes ranging from business and finance to culture and creativity. Send pitches and feedback to [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you.
Season’s Greetings Spark reader,
As we wrap our first full calendar year at Vivace, I can’t help but feel one overriding thought:
Holy guacamole. What a year!
The year has had such a frenetic and lively pace, which aptly suits the name of our business.
For those who don’t know the origin story of our name, it’s a tempo marking from music meaning lively and fast, or more specifically, somewhere in the region of 132-176 beats per minute (BPM). Think “Flight of the Bumblebee” or Outkast’s “Hey Ya”.
Don’t worry—we also believe in balance and have all taken great breaks. Plus, the work we do for our clients, the people we get to work with, and the excitement of starting something new, all give us a boost of energy to keep going, each and every day.
And that pace isn’t slowing down any time soon. We have some exciting news that I can’t wait to share with you early next year: A major client project we’ve been engaged on that we’ll finally be able to talk about and lots of exciting things going on behind the scenes. One tiny update which we haven’t really publicized yet: We’re dropping the Content from our name: Vivace—just like Cher. Or Prince.
Only a couple of weeks ago we had our senior team gather in our new office in Minnesota for Vivace Week: a whole week of programming dedicated to investing in ourselves and planning for 2025 and beyond. I’m excited to share more about the outputs and learnings from the week in the months ahead.
For this final Spark of the year, I asked a few of my colleagues to share their most memorable Vivace moment—a fun way to reflect and synthesize one of the most interesting and transformational years in recent memory.
On behalf of the whole team at Vivace, let me just say how incredibly grateful we are to you—anyone reading this who has come along on this journey with us. We know we wouldn’t be where we are without our clients, talent community, partners, and all of the friends of Vivace who help us and root for us in ways both big and small. Thank you for everything! We can’t wait to see what 2025 has in store.
-joel
What was your favorite Vivace moment of 2024?
Vivace Week was a turning point for us—a time when our small boutique agency hit pause on the daily grind to truly invest in ourselves. From refining our strategy to diving into professional development and strengthening our team bonds, it was a week of honesty, emotion, deep reflection, and planning. What stood out most was how momentous it felt—every conversation, every idea, every moment shared. It culminated in one of the most inspiring and unforgettable strategic planning sessions I’ve ever been a part of—a testament to what happens when you pour your heart into what you’re building together.
From touring to current state – it has been so exciting to see the dream of a physical space for Vivace become a reality. Love that it is a place we can all congregate and connect – with the potential to evolve and grow as we do!
Interviewing Ryan and Joel for the special Founder's episode of Connection Request (listen here: The Story of Vivace)🎙️
The first in-person CDP workshop where we got to know the team. Everyone leaned into the exercises and we knew we were creating something special together. ✌️
The Vibe with Vivace in London, and a 3am creative chat with Joel on the steps of St Paul’s eating McDonald’s, only hours before his flight back to the US ⛪️ 🍔 🌙 🛫
Too many to choose just one, but I’ll give it a shot. Ryan and I had a really special New York trip in the Spring. We sponsored Financial Narrative’s Spring Summit and had one of those really fun co-founder adventures where we talked late into the night about everything—Vivace, hopes, dreams, the finer points of regulation, and a few other topics that aren’t quite ready for Spark primetime.
I have loved interviewing some of the great minds at Broadridge. They never cease to amaze and inspire me. They are so bright, energetic, visionary and articulate! We go into the calls with quite a set agenda, but the magic happens when we let the conversation take us where it wants to go. It is very enjoyable work for a storyteller.
“Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments.”
–– Rose Kennedy
Thanks for joining us this week. Anything we missed? Something we should include next week? Send us your shout-outs and strong opinions to include in next week’s edition at [email protected].
Spark is a production of Vivace, a global B2B creative studio and consultancy that helps businesses drive meaningful brand and commercial impact. Get in touch if you’d like to chat with any of the team. Have a great week ahead.