Our Team Our Story, Vision & Values

We help the good guys win

From a three-person web shop in 2009 to the team behind the Endless Customers System — and the purpose, vision, and values those seventeen years of lessons forged.

Hey there. I'm Bob Ruffolo, founder of IMPACT, the company behind Endless Customers. Our story is nothing more than a series of lessons learned over the years. Many of them were learned the hard way, but they've all come together to shape who we are, what we stand for, and how we serve our clients today. Here it is, year by year.

An IMPACT designer at work in the early web design days
2009

A web design shop with a bigger vision

IMPACT is founded as a simple web design company. It doesn't stay simple for long. A bigger vision sets in quickly: build something world-class, a company that truly helps every business owner who hires us achieve their goals. Not just decent-looking websites; a new standard for what a marketing partner could be.

An early IMPACT strategy meeting
2011

All-in on inbound with HubSpot

We sign on as one of HubSpot's first partner agencies. Inbound marketing is groundbreaking: grow a business by earning attention instead of buying it. If inbound is going to be our thing, we have to prove we're the best at it. And the best way to prove it? Do it great for ourselves.

IMPACT team member recording video content
2012–2016

Practicing what we preach

While other agencies sell "8 blog articles a month" and barely blog for themselves, we keep at least two people dedicated full-time to our own marketing, at one point publishing three articles a day. Search anything related to inbound and the results read: HubSpot #1, IMPACT #2. Traffic approaches a million visitors a month, with more sales opportunities than we know what to do with.

IMPACT team members working through a problem together
The hard lesson

Winning clients, losing clients

As easy as it is to bring clients on, we're losing them almost as fast, because we work with anyone who will pay us. The clients who treat us as an outsourced lead-gen department struggle; the content never sounds like them. The clients who thrive have in-house marketers and want to learn. The entire agency world shares this problem and calls it normal. We know in our hearts there has to be a better way.

Marcus Sheridan speaking on stage at a conference
2017

Enter Marcus Sheridan

One person has cracked the code. Marcus Sheridan saved his swimming pool company from bankruptcy by honestly answering the questions buyers were actually asking, turning his website into the most-visited pool site on the planet. Then he taught businesses to do it themselves: "I won't do it for you, but I can teach you how to do it." His book They Ask, You Answer becomes one of the most influential marketing books of its time. We co-run IMPACT Live 2017 together, and our teams click.

Marcus Sheridan teaching at an in-person IMPACT event
2018

The merger that changed everything

Marcus says yes to merging our companies. (Okay, there was some pleading involved.) Months in, it finally clicks: we retire the traditional agency model entirely. No more creating content for clients. We become coaches and teachers, and for the first time we're genuinely proud of the work we deliver to every single client.

An IMPACT coach leading a virtual coaching session
2019–2024

Coaching, not doing it for you

Hundreds of businesses go through the They Ask, You Answer coaching program. Owners and their teams learn to own their marketing instead of renting it, and the businesses that complete the program come out transformed. Creating heroes, growing businesses, and changing lives stops being a tagline and becomes the job.

The IMPACT team and community at Endless Customers Live
2025

Endless Customers

AI changes everything about how businesses market, sell, and show up online. We've seen this window before: inbound created the same opportunity in 2011 for businesses willing to move first. We rebrand and rewrite They Ask, You Answer as Endless Customers, a USA Today national bestseller built for an AI, video, and social-first world, and launch the Endless Customers Coaching Program alongside it.

An IMPACT team member presenting to the team
Today

Just getting started

Our Core Target: help 1,000 businesses complete the program and become the most known, trusted, and recommended names in their markets. Every one of them represents hundreds of careers and thousands of customers. Read more about our vision and values below.

Our Purpose

Create heroes, grow businesses, and change lives

This purpose is our guiding light. It's why we get out of bed every morning, and every decision we make is viewed through this lens.

Good businesses should win

Even as marketing and sales get more challenging, we believe good businesses should still rise to the top by doing things the right way.

People deserve to grow

We believe people deserve the chance to reach their full potential, no matter their role or career path. The heroes we create are the marketers, salespeople, and leaders inside our clients' businesses.

Communities deserve better

Better buying experiences, better products, better service, and companies that stand behind their work. We exist to help make that happen.

Our Vision

Help 1,000 businesses transform

1,000businesses through the Endless Customers System
100sof careers expanded inside each one
Millionsof customers and community members reached

Our Core Target, our Big Hairy Audacious Goal, is to help 1,000 businesses complete our program and become the most known, trusted, and recommended businesses in their markets.

That number matters because the ripple effect is massive. Each business represents dozens, sometimes hundreds, of people inside the company whose careers, confidence, and opportunities expand when the business invests in them and grows. It also represents thousands of customers and community members who benefit when a company shows up with honesty, delivers great work, and stands behind what it sells.

Do the math across 1,000 businesses and you're talking about an impact that can reach millions of people. That's why we're so committed to this mission, and why we care so deeply about helping good businesses win. We are just getting started.

Our Values

Core values we live by

Our values guide how we work with each other, how we coach our clients, and how we make decisions when things get hard. They shape our culture, protect our standards, and set clear expectations for what it feels like to work with us.

Proactive

Great work starts with preparation. We plan ahead, stay curious, and address issues before they become problems. We take ownership of learning and improvement because growth, for our clients and ourselves, depends on it.

What it looks like
  • We come to every client call prepared, with the agenda set and the homework done.
  • We raise risks early, while they're still cheap to fix.
  • We invest in new skills before the market demands them.

Accountable

We do what we say we will do. We take responsibility for our commitments and our results. We give and receive radically candid feedback, embrace challenges, and hold ourselves to a high standard because trust is built through consistency and follow-through.

What it looks like
  • Everyone has a scorecard, including our CEO. Expectations are never a mystery.
  • We deliver candid feedback even when it's uncomfortable.
  • When we miss, we own it, fix it, and say what will change.

Caring

We treat every client like it's our own business. We take the time to understand people, build meaningful relationships, and have honest conversations when they matter most. The work we do can change lives, and we never take that lightly.

What it looks like
  • We tell clients what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear.
  • We celebrate our clients' wins like our own, because they are.
  • We make time for the human stuff: careers, families, big moments.

Team-Oriented

We believe strong teams create better outcomes. We show up for each other, share the workload, and leave ego at the door. We value humility, resilience, and collaboration because culture is built through everyday actions, not individual wins.

What it looks like
  • We jump in when a teammate is underwater, no questions asked.
  • We share credit generously and debate ideas, not people.
  • We hire people who make the whole team better, not just themselves.

More than wall art

These values aren't aspirational posters. They're working tools. Every candidate we interview is assessed against them, every team member gets feedback through them, and when we face a hard call about a client, a partner, or a direction, they're the tiebreaker.

They also set expectations for the people we serve: if you work with us, this is who you'll get. And if reading them feels less like a corporate page and more like a description of you, take a look at our open roles, or read the story of how these values were earned.

It's an honor to do this work

We love the people on our team, the clients we serve, and the community of thought leaders and partners we get to collaborate with. We watch the businesses we coach grow, create jobs, and serve their communities, and there is no greater thrill.

If our story resonates, explore our content, listen to the podcast, join us at Endless Customers Live, or simply reach out. We always love hearing from the people who find their way here.

Bob Ruffolo's signature

Bob Ruffolo
Founder & CEO

Sound like a place you’d thrive?

We hire for these values first and train skills second.

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