Star City 6: Andrew Tuzson

Evol Empire Creative (evolempirecreative.com) is an end-to-end digital agency headquartered in Lincoln’s Historic Haymarket. Andrew Tuzson is the founder of and mastermind behind Evol Empire Creative.

Tell us a little about your business.

Essentially, we focus on managing digital tools that a business owner can use to maximize the profitability of his/her organization. At Evol Empire Creative, there are two sides of the house: creative and marketing. The first encompasses all things creative, where we take projects from concept to completion. This includes branding, identity, web design, web development, ecommerce, photography, videography, podcasting – the tangible things generated specifically to put out into the marketplace for promotional purposes. For the second, now that the client has this shiny new thing, we want their target audience to know about it! Basically, our core competencies in this area are in all of the digital tools you can use to grow your business. This includes citation and data management, on-page and off-page search engine optimization, AdWords, social media management, engagement, and advertising, email marketing, automation marketing, and more.

How did you get started in the business?

I’ve been working in web design now for more than a decade. I was working as a junior partner for a firm in the mortgage industry, and tackling a lot of the marketing efforts there. Corporate America wasn’t for me and I decided it was time to grow my own business. I identified that I was happiest when I was creative and building things, and that I had also become proficient in those areas. My wife and I decided that the best way to leverage our skills and still provide for our family was to form our own agency, so we took the leap and started our first venture in Denver out of our basement. That operation proved to be successful, but we wanted to relocate to Lincoln to raise our family here, so we unloaded that shop in early 2016 and began the Lincoln chapter of our story.

What has been your most important achievement professionally?

Aside from our growth and success in such a short time thus far, it’s really the workplace culture that we’ve built. It’s a place where people love to come to work and one that is wicked conducive to creativity; we work hard to play hard.

Tell us a little about your family.

My wife Angela’s background is in nursing and medicine. One of her master’s degrees is in business administration, so she plays an important role in our business with planning, policy and procedures. She’s also currently employed at CHI and finishing her doctorate. We have three amazing kids – our daughter Eden (9) and two sons, Roman (almost 3) and Finn (just turned 1).

What is your favorite thing to do on a day off?

What the hell is a day off?

What is the most unique or interesting thing about you that most people probably don’t know?

I have an affinity for history and ancient mysteries, to the point where I’ve built a side company around it.

What is your greatest talent that you don’t utilize in your daily work life?

My musical background.

What local non-profit organization(s) are you passionate about or involved with, and are there any special reasons why?

We’re proud supporters of, and also honored to work with, the Short Bowel Syndrome Foundation, Lincoln Children’s Zoo, NeighborWorks Lincoln, and Sarah Mullins with Feya Candle Co.

If you could have dinner with one famous person from the past or present, who would it be?

Gary Vaynerchuk (#askgaryvee is a must-read!).

If our readers would like to contact you, how should they do so?

Phone: (402) 318-5741 / Website: evolempirecreative.com.