Our Story

Directive didn’t start with a business plan. It started with a career-ending injury.

In 2013, at 21, I was chasing a pro soccer career. I had a master’s degree in hand and a clear path ahead, until a serious injury took me off the field for good.

I had no roadmap, no job, and no backup plan.

So, I turned to the one thing that felt like a game I could still win: digital marketing.

I didn’t join an agency. I built one—from a cramped apartment in Azusa, California. No outside funding. No network. Living on $12 a day. My first clients? A shawarma shop, a hookah lounge, and a local plumber.

Execution Over Theory

I wasn’t optimizing for virality or followers. I was optimizing for survival—and real client outcomes.

That meant learning by doing. I teamed up with my best friend, Tanner Shaffer, and we immersed ourselves in SEO, PPC, and demand gen. No fluff. No gurus. Just campaigns that had to convert or we didn’t eat.

Every campaign was a test. Every win was a signal. We built our expertise through repetition, not theory. From SEO and PPC to content and CRO, we went deep on the tactics that moved revenue, not just rankings.

Growth Was Earned

We reinvested every dollar. Every client win became a case study. We didn’t chase shiny metrics—we chased revenue. Over time, that obsession with performance became our competitive edge.

We built out content marketing. Paid social. Landing page design. Every new service was a direct response to what our clients actually needed to grow—not what agencies wanted to sell.

Over time, that mindset became a methodology.

Every service was grounded in the same principles:

• Drive qualified pipeline
• Reduce acquisition cost
• Align marketing to revenue

The growth followed. Clients stayed. Word spread.

From Azusa to the World

Today, Directive is a 150+ person agency operating across North America, LATAM, and Europe. From Orange County to Austin, New York City to Mexico City, London to Toronto—we support B2B and SaaS brands that are serious about scale.

But our core hasn’t changed. We still prioritize:

• Data over assumptions
• ROI over vanity metrics
• People above everything else

We hire marketers who can think strategically and execute ruthlessly. We don’t separate brand from performance. We see them as compounding forces.

Customer Generation > Lead Generation

Directive isn’t a traditional agency. We’re a revenue partner.

Our Customer Generation framework replaces outdated MQL playbooks with full-funnel alignment. It’s how we connect strategy to pipeline, and pipeline to profit.

We exist to help companies grow—intentionally, predictably, and measurably. No shortcuts. No spray-and-pray. Just high-impact execution built to close deals, not collect downloads.

We exist to help companies grow—intentionally, predictably, and measurably.

Built for What Comes Next

Directive’s story isn’t one of chance. It’s one of control. Of reinvention. Of doing the hard work, over and over, until the result is undeniable.

We didn’t get here on vision alone. We got here by choosing performance, every time.

And we’re just getting started.