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TrendyMinds
36
Outpost
Highrise
Kindle for iPad
In 1996, before anyone knew what the Internet would become, before social media existed, Trevor Yager started TrendyMinds, offering silk screening and embroidery services. He was a senior at Anderson University then, and he’s been growing what is now a full-scale marketing services business ever since.
TrendyMinds still offers its original services, but now it also provides Web and social media as well as print and brand design. Over the years, it has helped NASCAR drivers Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick, businesses such as Home Depot and Bank of America precursor MBNA, health care companies and many others get their message out.
“Some people like a niche, a specific tool or an industry,” Yager said. “That’s not us. The way I’ve always looked at it is, I would never use one tool to build a house. Why would I use only one tool to help spread the message of a company or organization?”
In addition to its for-profit ventures, TrendyMinds offers a pro bono program that in 2010 gave back $150,000 in in-kind services, Yager said. Not-for-profit organizations apply for help and each employee votes on which is most deserving. Over the years, they’ve helped the Madame Walker Theatre Center with printed materials, created a website for IndyHub, and developed public relations and marketing plans for School on Wheels.
Yager serves on the boards of the Indiana Arts Commission (“There’s a huge need to help keep the arts alive in this state, especially with funding cuts”) and the Damien Center, and he and his life partner adopted a 7-year-old son last summer.
He’s proud of all that, as well as how TrendyMinds has grown. “It’s been slow and sustained growth,” said Yager, who wanted to limit the company to 10 employees but now has 13. In the next year, he expects to “fill out some areas and add complementary services to help our clients.”•
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