When Chuck Sanchez talks to any advertising classes at LSU, he starts off telling students to figure out what they love to do, and money and happiness will follow. What better way to speak than from experience?
Sanchez started off at LSU in 1990 and spent six years in general studies, earning what he calls his “Jeopardy! degree.” With that potpourri degree, he started a variety of businesses while bartending at Sammy’s. Though he was doing quite well, he needed more direction.
Tricia, his wife, suggested going back to school. Aptitude tests and career counselors suggested selling expensive boats or airplanes or a self-owned creative field like design or production. At almost 30, the husband and father opted for the latter and signed up for Round Two at LSU to get a degree in graphic design.
“I was the oldest guy, of course,” he says. “But I was the guy who always had his stuff done on time.”
He kept bartending while in school and did freelance work to establish a client base before setting up his own shop, STUN Design and Advertising, six months before he graduated in 2004. Starting out with about 15 clients, he’s between 70 and 80 now “from the smallest boutique to $300 million construction companies.”
With 99% of the business coming from word of mouth, STUN tends to handle more print work in publications, outdoor advertising, invitations, letterheads and corporate identities and seeks to live by its formula to “get attention, hold attention and make it memorable.” You may remember their work for Stay Canine and Dog Spa or the Academic Distinction Fund.
In 2005 he started another operation, Printedbig.com, shipping large-scale, customer-uploaded prints of digital photos across the country.
“Taking a chance is a difficult thing,” he says. “It’s always easier to take the safe route.”
But those chances can have stunning results, especially if you’re Chuck Sanchez.
What was your first job?
“At 15, I was the pig at Piggly Wiggly. I walked down the aisles with a 3-foot-high fiberglass head falling off my shoulders. I knocked stuff off the shelves. I probably scared kids.”
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