Hello my digital friends. I’m back, and I brought Empac along with me.

Over the last couple years, I’ve had a lot to think about. I’ve also had a lot happen with my life. My day job has kept me busy, I’ve been able to kick some bad habits, form some better habits, and also had this happen:

Kelly and I in Hawaii.

I got married to my best friend, and the love of my life, in Hawaii. It was an incredible experience that I’ll remember forever. When this happened, it made me start considering my priorities and what I wanted a future to look like with my new wife and family. One thing that came to mind was finding ways to revive passions I’ve had throughout my life and career… including my love for helping small businesses.

What’s Empac?

Empac is the name I operate under for all my freelance projects. It’s essentially an army of one that supports small businesses with digital design, web development, and digital marketing projects. The root of Empac goes all the way back to 2010 when it was a fledgling company involved in the action sports industry.

We were trying to “look cool” in this photo.

It was called “Emerald Pacific Outfitters” back then because the company was selling apparel to help talented, upcoming athletes get noticed by potential sponsors. We created all kinds of things including websites and video edits to show the world what athletes we had in the northwest. Before I knew it, the work I did with EPO was noticed by a small company in California…

I somehow found my way into a temporary job at Apple.

Well, it’s actually a really big company. It was Apple. How on earth did this happen?! Well… for the longest time I was working at the Apple Store to help fund EPO. From time to time, I would submit my work samples to internal teams to see if someone might come along and notice me. I was in luck when I was invited by one of the teams to come down and support them with some internal projects. Projects that I can’t really talk about… :)

However, I was able to gather UX design and web development experience that got me noticed by this other company.

There really is a ton of magenta everywhere at this place.

When I came back from California, I was immediately brought into T-Mobile to work with a world class digital studio on some big projects and campaigns. A couple of those projects included a complete website redesign, the launch of T-Vision, multiple network campaigns, annual reports, and just about everything you could imagine. To this day, I’m still working on projects with some of the best creatives in the industry.

So why bring Empac back?

I feel like there’s a ton of work to be done with Empac. And it’s more important now than it’s ever been.

When the pandemic hit, a bunch of larger companies and corporations quickly made adjustments to their technology. A bunch of people in the industry called it the “digital transformation.” Essentially, all the big players made huge investments into software that made work from home easier, software that improved e-commerce and digital experiences, and started tinkering with new technologies such as blockchain and Web3. It’s impossible to make a pass on Twitter now without seeing someone shill a new cryptocurrency or the latest NFTs. A ton of people made huge investments into both their personal setups and their personal brands (TikTok practically blew up overnight, anyone else think it’s just a Vine 2.0 pumped with steroids?). It’s hard to think of a future without technology at this point.

There’s a problem though… small businesses have a long ways to go in their own digital transformations. There’s a ton of services out there companies can choose from… but which ones are actually right for them? It used to be that every company absolutely needed to be on Facebook. Is that really the case now? There’s a ton of topics lumped into the “digital” umbrella. My goal is to use my knowledge and experiences to help small businesses understand digital better, and what their digital transformations may look like.

What does that actually look like?

My main areas of focus will be digital design, web development, and digital technology. These are the three areas I feel most confident supporting businesses with. As I continue getting into more things with Empac, I would love to partner with other individuals within these three pillars. I’m also open to learning more about other disciplines that blend into these pillars in some way, so don’t be shy to reach out so we can chat. :)

The best way to contact me is on Twitter (BLorentz38). I’m also working on a redesigned experience for Empac that will be launching in the near future. Thank you for reading my story, learning more about Empac, and let’s make this happen.