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A thirty-something woman is video-chatting with a client in New York from her Austin-based home between loads of laundry, uploading another client’s website, playing with her 3-year-old son, and communicating via email with her contractors and partners. Who is this multitasking, internet-savvy woman? Why, today’s high-tech mom, of course.
Dorie Pickle is the very definition of a high-tech mom. As founder of Creative Pickle, a small creative design firm she now shares with her husband, Pickle has learned to rely on the internet to keep her connected while simultaneously freeing her to spend time with her son, enjoy long dinners with her husband, and spend afternoons in the backyard with the chickens – spending real time with her family. She says, “New technologies have allowed me to really diversify my time. Coupling technology with organization allows me the life I want and the balance I was craving.”
In the midst of the dot-com boom and subsequent bust, Pickle, who worked for those startups and was there for the dot-com frenzy, started Creative Pickle in 2001. Initially, it was a side job as she went through graduate school for a master’s degree in broadband policy. While she’s kept a part-time job reviewing broadband policy, her main focus is Creative Pickle. Two years ago she finally let husband Ben Pickle in on the company. The two met as 20-year-old undergraduates at The University of Texas.
It was Ben’s arrival that helped shape the company into a creative force to be reckoned with. As a writer and CSS/Flash developer, he added a different flair to Dorie’s design eye and project management skills. She says: “The biggest change in Creative Pickle was Ben becoming a partner in the business – I was reluctant to give up control, but we’ve worked our roles out now. I focus on art direction, sales and project management, sort of the bigger picture of the company.” She also notes that being together 23 hours a day has fine-tuned their communication skills, enabling them to “love each other more every day,” she says with a grin.
The duo really is together the majority of the time, as the company operates out of the Pickle home. Consequently, another big step in the company’s history was the addition of designer Andrea Couch. The addition of Andrea enabled Creative Pickle to have a larger capacity, sparking an overall culture shift in the company, which also has a stable of contractors and partners for different projects. Dorie Pickle laughs and says that part of Andrea’s influence is simple: “she’s not married to us and it’s nice to have someone else there!” Pickle goes on to say that Couch also embraces the flexibility of an internet-based lifestyle, saying “we all work on the philosophy that we don’t care when the work of it gets done – midnight or 8 a.m. – we just want it done right and on-time.”
Pickle’s work life isn’t the only thing on the web. She’s already started a blog for Henry Pickle, her 3-year-old. “I blog for my son, with videos and pictures, and I love that. It’s so much more thorough and cool than a scrapbook would be.” Henry plays Curious George games on the computer and Pickle has already tapped him to design the next big social networking site. “I’m excited for his generation. We want a happy medium; want him to know where food comes from – that’s why we have chickens! And why clean water is important and where to get it. But he’ll also probably be doing 3D animated flash show-and-tell pieces! And that’ll be awesome.”
Explains Pickle, “We use new technologies as they come out and make them function.” It appears she embraces new technologies in work and in life. But what’s up next? “The next big thing on the web is more merging of video. Websites are going to have more and more fully integrated video, more like real life/TV. I think TV and the web will be indistinguishable between the next five and 15 years. In many ways, I prefer to watch on the web because the marketing is more in line with people and their interests. I’d rather watch highly targeted, well-designed ads. At some point, not having live face-to-face interaction on the web is going to seem antiquated.”
Being both opinionated and smart has shaped Dorie’s company. While she’s the design expert and happy to share her opinion with the client, she recognizes that the end result needs to be something the client loves. Client interaction is important to Dorie; she doesn’t think the company will ever expand to the point that she doesn’t have interaction with each client. That communication and connection with people is important to her.
Says Pickle unequivocally, “Without the internet, my lifestyle wouldn’t be possible. While being with my family and being a mom is definitely my priority, I love work and I don’t want to not work.” Spoken like a true leader of the next generation of high-tech moms.