OUR JOURNEY
STARTED IN A VAN.
Two generations of entrepreneurial spirit, and counting.
EXPLORE OUR STORY
The Van
In 1980, Elizabeth's parents set out on a journey to build a plumbing supply business out of the back of an old, beat-up van. In the blink of an eye, the business becomes the most successful wholesale plumbing supply chain in the western United States. Here's the catch - they literally started with nothing more than a big vision, lots of ambition, and a commitment to stay focused.
Their story is what inspired our story. Their values of vision, ambition, commitment, focus, and discipline were the bedrock of our training.
OUR CO-FOUNDERS
At the age of 19, Elizabeth Mead received her first offer to be a partner in a successful business in Tucson, AZ. Her only qualification was an unmatched tenacity to move the organization forward. She spent the next seven years cultivating as much experience as she could in both corporate and agency settings. By 26 (2008) she owned her own marketing agency which merged into the well-known agency: Anamorphics (established 2001). They served clients such as Best Western, Shock Doctor, Cutter's Gloves, The Cactus League, Lennar Homes and Greystar...to name a few.
In 2015 Chris and Elizabeth met for their first date. It was quickly apparent that they had a passion for business strategy. In fact, they spent over 4 hours at Mellow Mushroom chatting about different strategies they loved and hated. At the time, Chris was a successful business strategist and blogger for retail. He had spent over twenty years helping underperforming retail brands and locations improve results through thoughtful training and workflows. Elizabeth had just sold her share of Anamorphics and was in the trenches at Christ's Church of the Valley as a marketing strategist helping build marketing and engagement practices for ministry. They mused about one day having the opportunity to work together - though truth be told they were both skeptical about dating and figured it was a flippant dream at best. Little did they know that they would manifest that first-date musing just two years later.
After getting married in the summer of 2017, they decided to take a risk together. Chris left his retail career. Elizabeth rebranded and re-strategized her boutique agency. They took the best of what they had and their experience to create Tandem Collaborative. Our official birthday is November 1, 2017, though we do lean on the foundations Elizabeth started in 2008.
OUR MISSION & VISION
Our vision is a thriving, global community of people and organizations who are living into their dreams. We believe that God has equipped us with gifts and talents that, when put into action collectively, can catalyze forward momentum bigger than anything we can do alone. It is our mission to lend our strategic expertise, creative brilliance and tenacious commitment to those who need it to get to the next stop on their journey.