Fall 2011 - Central Virginia Community College

Alumni Highlight
Lynn Kirby ‘97
For Lynn Kirby, the best part of his
job in advertising and design is
the interaction with others and the
network of relationships he has built
over the past 32 years with clients all
over the world.
Lynn is president and owner of
Stimulus Advertising, a successful, fullservice
advertising, marketing and web
design business established in 2007.
Their office is located in a loft space on
historic Jefferson Street, in Lynchburg,
Virginia.
He has come a long way from
entering Central Virginia Community
College in 1978 and intended getting
a General Studies degree to take over
his father’s accounting business. Lynn
had never taken an art course in high
school, but always had an interest in art,
which led him to take a class at the Elk’s
Home in Bedford, where he lives.
After his first year at CVCC, Lynn
got a summer job with Piedmont
Label working as a graphic designer,
which included creating packaging
prototypes, hand lettering and other
facets of printing. He knew this was
what he was interested in pursuing,
and decided to change his degree to
Commercial Art. His father asked him,
“How will you ever make money at this
type of work” which only made Lynn
more determined to prove that he
could. While attending CVCC, Lynn got
married to his wife, Debbie Bobbitt.
Lynn and his family live in Bedford,
Virginia. His wife Debbie is a classroom
aide at Moneta Elementary School.
Their daughter, Catherine, attends
Liberty University and is on the dean’s
list and honor society. Sixteen-yearold
Nicholas is a student at Staunton
River High School and enjoys sports.
In addition to his family, Lynn enjoys
basketball and World War II history.
With the financial demands of being
married and the CVCC Art program at
that time more focused on the broad
aspects of art than advertising design,
Lynn did not feel that the program
would improve his job prospects. He
decided to drop out of the program
and continued working full-time at
Piedmont Label to learn as much as he
could about graphic design. Even while
working full-time, he continued to stay
connected to CVCC taking evening
courses in business management and
Shakespeare.
In 1995, with fifteen years experience
under his belt in graphic design and
printing production with Piedmont
Label, Lynn accepted an offer with
First Colony Life Insurance Company
in Lynchburg, Virginia. To improve his
promotion opportunities, he decided to
go back to school and get his degree.
Lynn returned to CVCC and at the age
of 40, obtained an associates degree in
Communication Design. He has always
Lynn Kirby, owner of Stimulus Advertising, has found satisfaction in working in a field he loves and growing his own
business, located in a restored building on historic Jefferson Street in downtown Lynchburg.
felt that the diploma
has added value to
his career. “I have
never felt ashamed of
having only a two-year
associates degree. It is
an accomplishment. I
have hired employees
with no degrees and
have also had MBA’s
working for me. Drive
and experience are just
as important.”
Later on, General
Electric purchased
First Colony, and when
the company name
changed, he continued
to serve as Marketing
Communications
Leader and was
at one time Brand
Compliance Manager
for GE Financial (now
Genworth) one-eighth
of GE.
In 2001, Lynn left
GE and worked briefly
for the Canadian
division of Schawk,
one of the world’s largest pre-press
companies working in sales for webbased
applications. In 2003, he started
his own business, Axis Creative, a
marketing communications firm in
Bedford, Virginia. The company moved
to Lynchburg in 2007, re-branded as
Stimulus Advertising. Lynn admits that
owning a small business is hard work
but also rewarding. He started his
business with nothing, has no business
debt and he “makes a decent living by
doing what I love.”
Lynn’s present Stimulus Advertising
Company provides marketing and
brand strategy development, custom
web design, print design, photography,
search engine optimization, packaging
design, logos and advertising media.
It has grown to a core staff of five
employees, including one who works
remotely from Romania. They also use
a mix of freelancers and contractors
and currently have three interns
from Liberty University. A large part
of their business is web design and
development, followed by advertising,
print design and branding.
Stimulus Advertising serves
clients from retail, financial services,
manufacturing, health care, destination
marketing and travel, real estate, and
non-profits. Some of their current
clients include the new Lynchburg
Legends basketball team, a Californiabased
company marketing insurance
through kiosks in grocery stores, and
US Green Energy Corporation (USGE
is a solar energy company moving
to Danville and will employ 50-100
workers).
“We are very proud of our web
designs and working with local
communities. We just finished a
website for the town of Brookneal,
Virginia and have also designed and
built websites for the D-Day Memorial
and The Ellington music hall.” Their
clients come from Virginia and all over
the world. “I love to be able to talk to
clients in South Africa via Skype. I love
the interaction and know we are not
limited by being in Central Virginia.”
Lynn says his key to success is
“learning from each experience.
Everything that I have done, I want to
continue and make it better the next
time around.”
He is a self-taught web design/
developer, never having taken formal
classes. His company uses an open
source content management system
but “what differentiates us from our
competitors is a web design process
that delivers premium and dynamic
websites quickly that work well for the
customer’s business or organization.
Our customers can update website
content with very little training. “
What will he be doing next
According to Lynn, “ I have never
feared a blank page, whether I am
producing a TV commercial, designing
a trade ad, copywriting or designing a
website. I want to take my business to
the next level, whatever that turns out
to be.”
10 Central Virginia Community College Fall 2011 Fall 2011 Central Virginia Community College 11