As a surfer living in Texas, one of the most important lessons to learn is to pick the right surfboard for the ever-changing conditions we have here on the Gulf Coast. Unfortunately, when I started riding waves in Galveston more than 25 years ago, it was a tough concept to understand.

All the popular magazines at the time showed surfers riding these potato-chip thin shortboards that looked very similar to the ironing board in our family’s laundry room. As a teenager, of course, I had to have the “right” kind of board. It was a surfboard that everyone was supposed to be able to ride. In other words, it was billed as equipment for the masses. That apparently didn’t apply to me. I’d get up on it, struggle to my feet and fight the shifting surf every which way as I tried to figure out how to glide my lanky body effortlessly to the beach while perched atop this piece of fiberglass. Needless to say, my early surfing forays were full of frustration and disappointment.

Thanks to a friend, I eventually figured out that getting on a longer and thicker board made all the difference. That day, something clicked. My body was able to do what my mind had been telling it to for several months. I stopped working against the waves and started moving with them. Choosing the right equipment made me a surfer.

A few decades later, when I founded the Inkwell Communications Group in 2004, I realized that there were a lot of companies in the creative services industry that were trying to be all things to all people. Just like that first surfboard of mine, their marketing communications approach was a perfect-for-the-masses process of developing branding, websites, publications and everything else. If it worked for the airline industry, it had to work for oil & gas too, right?

Having had my first taste of the working world in the oil & gas industry, I knew better. So after more than a decade as a journalist and designer at daily newspapers, I set out on my own. My gut instinct was to build a small company that was very specialized, creating employee publications for the oil & gas industry. The work combined my passions for communicating a company’s message to its employees and creating a publication that brought that organization to life within its pages.

Today, I’m happy to say that Inkwell has expanded into a company that now includes several writers, editors and designers working together on oil & gas publications. Staying true to my initial vision of being a highly specialized service provider, we continue to produce results for a growing list of clients who prefer to start with the right equipment for the job. We’ve become that trusty longboard to help them ride the changing waves that continue to punctuate our industry.

When it comes right down to it, Inkwell is the right fit for your company because we’re focused on oil & gas. Just like you.