The Lafayette Company turns 11 today. It feels a bit odd to be old enough to have anything that is 11, much less an actual business, but thanks to Providence and a lot of luck, Lafayette, nous sommes ici.
This milestone reminds me of one of my favorite quotes (it is, rather predictably, also in French, so please bear with me): “Petit à petit, l’oiseau fait son nid.”
“Little by little, the bird makes its nest.”
For those who know me well, such a credo of patient perseverance is… surprising. I’m not known for waiting around for things to happen to or for me. After all, I was the little girl who tried to organize her third-grade friends into a “Babysitters Club” when she still had a babysitter herself.
So, I guess it’s no surprise that at the tender age of 27, I had enough waiting in line for my turn to be in charge of the firms that didn’t do things as well as I thought I could on my own. That’s why, 11 years ago, I started this business with only a laptop, an entirely unearned sense of confidence, and enough athleisure to last me through weeks upon weeks of ghostwriting op-eds for clients from my Chinatown apartment.
It wasn’t a straight line. There were hard years and humbling ones where the nest felt more precarious than permanent, where patient perseverance was less a virtue and more a survival strategy. But we kept building, and it held.
Today, things thankfully look a lot different. We wear business attire, for one. But we’ve also got a great team – Morgan, Mitch, Corrine, Antoinette, Jessica, and more to be announced very soon – who make the work even better and more fun because we’re doing it together.
Indeed, our nest is growing little by little, though quicker and quicker these days. Even so, we’re still accessible to our clients. We still fight hard for them because we care (really!). And when the news cycle feels like it’s swallowing everyone and everything whole, we still influence what matters.
That’s because our wonderful clients continue to do work that truly motivates us. Just this week, Judson Horras, CEO of the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC), expertly testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on the urgent need to protect the First Amendment on college campuses. Such moments reinforce our belief that smart communications can actually change outcomes.
Most importantly, thank you – for your friendship, your referrals, your trust, and your business, without which one year, much less 11, would have been impossible.
Petit à petit, we’ll keep building our nest.
Warmly,
Ellen Carmichael