The Business Quiz: Heather Smith Friedman

HEATHER SMITH FRIEDMAN

PRINCIPAL

DE NOVO ALTERNATIVE MARKETING

CEDAR RAPIDS

Did you have a professional mentor?

Dick Damrow was mentor to many of us in the marketing/advertising industry. The day I announced I wanted to start my own company, he said he wouldn't let me file the incorporation papers until I could clearly define what de Novo would mean to me, our employees and our clients.

I think about that brand promise every day and often refer to the hours of advice he generously gave over the years.

What was the last book you read?

“French Quarter Fiction: The Newest Stories of America's Oldest Bohemia” is a great collection of short New Orleans-based stories, including one previously unpublished by Tennessee Williams.

Where is your favorite place to get away?

Home. My husband and I are slowly remodeling an 88-year-old house, and there's nothing better than envisioning, researching and then actually completing a project.

What do you always have close at hand at your workstation?

My phone, my iPad and my earphones. We're in an open office, and sometimes its nice to plug in earphones and create a virtual office.

What did you think you'd be doing when you “grew up”?

I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit, as does my business partner, Jen Neumann. It was just a matter of gathering as much knowledge and experience as I could and applying it to an environment born out of a client and employee-centric philosophy. We wanted to take the “best of” examples that we had seen and experienced through the years and add our own creative twist.