Atlas Charity

Changing the World! Learn more about Atlas Charity in Arkansas at https://twitter.com/atlascharity @AtlasCharity

Like most children, Kai Petrich once dreamed of jamming out on stage as a leading guitarist in a rock band. Although his day may not end with ten thousand fans cheering him on for an encore of Billboards’ top song, he is in many ways living the American dream.  Kai Petrich is the owner of Atlas Charity, a successful marketing firm in Northwest Arkansas.

While attending Harding University, Petrich found that his marketing classes seemed to have the excitement which his accounting classes did not, so he made a change. Once graduated and looking for a job, Petrich found himself at a direct marketing firm, better known as door-to-door selling. He was not able to find a lot of fulfillment in the sales aspect of his job; however, the business model of this firm allowed for advancement to leadership.  Petrich began to build his own team, as the business laid out, but in two months after getting eight people on his team, they all quit.  It was time for him to go back to the drawing board. He realized he was hard on his team, but they did not have the tools to be able to succeed.  He had to learn how to teach others, but his next team did not have the work ethic because of his lack of discipline on his team.  It was time to find a balance at this point. Petrich’s greatest learning style is trial by error.

“I would rather run and fall then simply walk. Maybe that’s not the right way, but that’s how I do it, and once I figure out the running, I just take off,” says Petrich .

And Petrich did take off.  Once he built his team he was able to open up his own office in Springdale, Arkansas. In the next year, he plans to continue to expand and open up other offices around the country.  Was it mentioned this entrepreneur is at the young age of 24?

Petrich is the first to say this is not a “get rich quick” business.  He says each successful owner will spend at least one cold winter and one hot summer knocking doors before meeting the opportunity to open his or her own office. His ultimate goal is to help build successful people who are consistent and strong leaders.  His greatest asset in leadership is relationship building. Because of his strength in relationships with his team members, he can lift his expectations for each of them.

“Kai is able to push me to the point where I do the right thing, not because he asked me, but because I know it needs to be done,” says David Fritz, one of Atlas’ senior corporate trainers.

Petrich believes that similar to the necessity of a coach to have his players’ trust, he too, must have the trust of those who work for him or they will not be able to approach him with their problems.

Owning and managing a direct marketing firm is not without its’ challenges and critics.  In defense of whether this approach will last, Petrich states that AT&T is particular with the approaches they choose to increase revenue. The importance of a revenue stream in business is obvious, so a company would not rely upon direct marketing if it was not reflecting success.  People are becoming more and more desensitized to mediums such as commercials, mail, billboards, etc.  It takes someone right in front of us to realize the opportunity we have.  This is where direct marketing has found a niche.

As far as the integrity of the business, Petrich reflects upon a story from his youth. As a child, he recalls a time when his grandmother left and told him his room was to be clean before she arrived.  While she was gone, she phoned him to see if he had finished his room. He responded yes, and once the call ended, ran and finished his room.  When she got home, his room was clean, but he told her that he had lied and it was not clean when she initially called him. He knew she would never know the difference, but integrity is doing the right thing when no one else is watching.  When speaking about integrity Petrich says, “if you can not sleep at night and look at yourself in the mirror, there is no point to all the work you have accomplished, integrity is the most important value we can have.”

Petrich looks forward to his future endeavors which include possibilities internationally and continuing to find success in leading and teaching those he cares about on his team.  His favorite part of this business is the opportunities for growth which people can achieve while young and inexperienced. One of his favorite stories is that of Thomas Edison and the discovery of the light bulb. “It took over 10,000 times until he found something that worked, how sad if he stopped at 9,999,” says Petrich in regards to making mistakes on the way to success.