“I can’t see myself working with a big ad agency right now,” he said. “I want to pay to get what’s inside your head, not pay for some agency executive’s BMW.”

[Side note: Thank you, dear client, for valuing whatever marketing insights are inside my little head. Believe me, I'm going to share every darn one of them with you.]

ANYWAYS — his comment got me to thinking that most of the agencies we choose to partner with are also small — places here in Dayton like web designers Atomic Interactive, or phototography studio Biel Photographic. Places with just a few employees, but with a lot of experience and specialty in their field.

When I work with Marty Biel, for example, I feel like I’m not just buying a product — that is, photographs — but rather that I’m buying his vision, his eye, his years of experience sizing up not-so-appealing environments and figuring out how to turn them into great images.

In othe words, I fell like I’m paying to get what’s inside his head. Instead of paying for somebody’s BMW.