Business partners. Neighbors. Sisters. Well, maybe not sisters, but Mary Mickel and Andrea Ritchie could pass as sisters.

The partners of the fast-growing Fayetteville communications agency, AM Group, act like sisters by being on the same page with business philosophy, serving clients, putting family first and structuring their business for the long term.

Their upbringings are similar, though their professional client work is varied. Sit down with them for an interview, and they often complete each other’s thoughts. Like sisters, or maybe soulmates or maybe business partners who were destined to collaborate.

“We’re at the same season of life,” said Mickel, in reference to the two partners being mothers with young children.

They understand the importance of work-family balance and admit to having a similar work ethic. Part of that comes from both of them spending time in the hospitality business in their early years of adulthood.

“We both cut our teeth in hospitality, where we learned a high-touch, proactive, and empathetic approach to our work, which typically gets results, and fast,” Mickel added. “We both learned that style of customer service working at and with hotels and restaurants, and it’s made us the communications professionals we are today.”

The AM Group touts itself as a strategic communications agency that offers services ranging from public relations, community engagement and brand partnerships, brand messaging, social media, and content and copy creation.

“Strategic communications is what we primarily do,” Ritchie noted. “We integrate PR, content creation and social media into all-encompassing campaigns. We work with a diverse range of clients — the real estate sector, tourism, nonprofits, finance, technology and hospitality — which is in our roots. What I think we do really well is trying to find that overlap with clients, brand partnerships, to see how we can bring different brands together and tell different stories that way.”

FINDING THEIR PLACE

Ritchie, 37, and Mickel, 38, met in late 2022 working on a nonprofit account for a mutual friend. Ritchie, who grew up in Fort Smith but has been in Northwest Arkansas since 2006, had just left advertising-marketing-PR powerhouse CJRW for a company doing business with Walmart.

Mickel, from Little Rock, landed back in the region in 2019 after graduating from UA in 2008. She had done stints with agencies out of California and Texas and had opened an office for her Austin firm in Northwest Arkansas. They realized quickly the nonprofit had given them each about half of the work on the project.

“We realized this particular client gave us each a half of the campaign to see essentially who would test out who she liked working with most,” Mickel said. “We found that out on a walk together, and we realized immediately that we were aligned on work ethic and our backgrounds.”

“Very quickly in that conversation I said, ‘I want to work with you,’” Ritchie added.

By early 2023, the AM Group — the “A” standing for “Andrea” and “M” for Mary” — was born.

The firm has six employees and does work for a diverse group of clients, including Specialized Real Estate Group, Modus Studio, Moxy Hotel, Experience Fayetteville, The Stonebreaker Hotel, AcreTrader, Cushman & Wakefield / Sage Partners, Bastazo, Endeavor Heartland, The League of Women Voters of Arkansas, the NWA MLK Council, and Ozark United FC, just to name a few. That’s a pretty big client list for an agency less than three years old.

“We both really believe in what’s happening in Arkansas and Northwest Arkansas specifically. We are rooted here. We believe that these nonprofits and small businesses deserve a national spotlight. There are some amazing stories to tell, and we’re helping to amplify those,” Ritchie said.

Mickel emphasized that AM Group doesn’t take every client that walks in the door. They search for clients that are compelling, of interest to the community, and fit their passion for service.

“I think that a lot of people see that we represent a broad range of diverse clients and might see that as a weakness, but we definitely disagree,” she said. “I think that the same person that loves a perfectly-cooked steak also wants a very sound financial planner in their lives. So there’s such great audience overlap and there’s so many opportunities for our clients to partner and to really capitalize on each other’s audiences by working together.”

GROWING FOR THE FUTURE

AM Group has ambition to grow larger, but the two founders are insistent that the growth be manageable, true to their core beliefs and preserves their ability to be involved.

“I want to stay boutique and small, but I could see us doubling where we are now in terms of staff,” said Ritchie. “We want to be very high touch as founders with every client we have.”

“We want Arkansas to be our primary focus, but we would be remiss if we didn’t focus on the growth that’s happening in the heartland in general,” said Mickel, suggesting that Tulsa, the Kansas City metro as well as other parts of Arkansas are on their radar. “But as far as size, we still want to keep our agency feeling like the person that you’re talking to on the phone is also the person that’s representing you on your account. We don’t want it to grow to the point where we can’t be hands-on within the business.”

Ritchie said the AM Group’s size is in a sweet spot right now between “a contractor doing a couple of accounts” to the “mega agencies.”

“We’re able to fill a white space here in Northwest Arkansas,” she said. “I think this market is very unique at how connected it is. And honestly, we wouldn’t be here without the relationships we’ve built within the community.”