Sean’s Second Spin
You’ll have to forgive us for the new website being a year in the making. I know what you’re thinking — they were just out riding their bikes – and I’m spending my time designing multiple iterations of cycling, duathlon, triathlon and running kits… And look, I won’t lie, the inaugural CHDL Cycling Club Friday morning ride did happen. Nine people showed up to our largest turnout, which I’m choosing to call a roaring success and not a group chat that barely has a quorum. But no, the bikes aren’t why the site took a year.
The real reason? The experiment worked. Better than we expected, honestly. And when something starts working, you don’t stop to redecorate—you keep riding.
Let me back up.
A year ago I introduced you to Tavis and Jenny — our data and digital self-proclaimed nerd (search smartest guy on the web, guess who shows up) and our brand and marketing strategist, respectively — both of whom I lured out of perfectly good careers with the promise of great work, great clients, and the occasional early morning ride in lycra. The pitch was that bringing deep data and in-house strategy alongside our creative team would change what we could offer clients. I believed that when I said it. What I didn’t fully anticipate was just how much it would change the conversation.
Here’s what’s been genuinely surprising: clients who used to want to hear from me — the owner, the creative director with the 30-plus years of agency decisions — or from Jenny on the brand and communications side, have been floored when Tavis starts talking. And not in the way you’d expect from a data presentation. Not charts with arrows pointing up. We’re talking about real-time insights pulled from thousands of sources — what their customers actually think, what language they use, what’s driving decisions — synthesized in a way that completely reframes a project before a single brief hits paper.
The most striking example from this past year was a client who came to us wanting to rename their business. Confident. Decided. And the data told a different story. Not a subtle one — a surprising one. The kind of insight that stops a room. We were able to walk them back from a decision that could have cost them significantly, with evidence they could actually get behind rather than a gut feeling from across a boardroom table. That doesn’t happen without Tavis and the depth of sophistication he’s brought to how we mine and interpret what’s out there. And it doesn’t happen without the trust our clients place in us, which we don’t take lightly.
I should be clear about one thing, because I know it comes up: none of this has shifted our position that AI is not a design tool. Not here. The creative work still comes from people — from craft, from instinct, from the kind of thinking that doesn’t come out of a prompt. What AI has genuinely changed is the intelligence behind the strategy and the speed at which we can validate, coalesce and pressure-test ideas before the creative even begins. That distinction matters to us and, increasingly, to our clients.
So year two. New website, finally. CHDL Cycling Club still rolling on Friday mornings, nine strong. Hoping for double digits. I have designed multiple iterations of our kit. Get ready for the 2026 reveal soon, although I warn, we’ll be using MAMILs (Middle Aged Men In Lycra) as models, because they’re free.
But most importantly, the work is better than it’s ever been.
We’re still figuring things out. That part never really changes. But we’re figuring them out faster, smarter, and with a much clearer picture of where we’re headed. Though like any experiment, we’re open to evolving and changing. Which might include another version of a website and not just a new kit.
If you want to come see what we’ve been building, or just want a coffee, a beer, or a ride, you know where to find us.
—Sean
