Prior to starting Nucleus Marketing Lab in 2005, Steve Bast gained experience in the world of marketing from three different perspectives. He worked as a department head for one of Arizona’s leading integrated marketing firms in strategic planning and research. Then he was a Marketing Director at Cold Stone Creamery where he helped develop and name numerous products that are still sold today. And lastly, he was Professor Bast for a short time, having served as a faculty member at Northern Arizona University.
Born in upstate New York but raised in upstate Arizona, Steve holds a graduate degree (MBA) from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He has been named one of “40 Under 40” notable business professionals by the Phoenix Business Journal. Along with Nucleus Marketing Lab, Steve also founded notesthatcount.org, a company that helps nonprofits and schools simultaneously raise both funds and awareness with personalized stationery. Lastly, he also has a small ownership stake in Glendale Arizona’s Stir Crazy Comedy Club.
He is married with two sons and lives in the Moon Valley area of Phoenix, Arizona—the nation’s largest capital city, complete with its well-documented temperatures and consistently mediocre NBA squad.
Questions & Answers: Get To Know Steve
Arizona State University (undergrad and grad)
Some good Reuben sandwiches and beer but none of that I.P.A. crap.
Bruce, Bob and Billy (Springsteen, Seger and Joel that is) plus some Tom Petty, Barenaked Ladies, George Strait and Rod Stewart.
- Cirque Du Soleil. At the risk of sounding extremely uncultured, I just fundamentally don’t get it.
- Starbucks. I would rather have gas station coffee than their stuff.
- Actors that insist on using the word ‘film’ instead of ‘movie.’ Get over yourself.
- Long rants about politics on Facebook and supposedly open-minded people who are actually only open-minded about their own POV.
- Anyone who struggles with punctuality.
- I make pretty good chocolate chip cookies.
- I like to play darts.
- I have a weird thing about not having stuff in my pockets. Except for black Chap Stick which I always have in my pocket.
Milk Duds. They are an extremely under-rated candy. That said, I go to the movies about twice a year because we have two little kids at home.
- On the sidelines of a soccer field, watching or coaching my kids.
- Detailing a car. I find it relaxing and believe in taking good care of things you own.
- Why flight attendants insist on calling plastic cups and napkins “service items.”
- Why so many college-educated people can have such a hard time figuring out a logical, non-biased playoff format for college football.
Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies by Tom Perrotta.
- Do the best you can with the time and resources you have.
- You will always be 100% successful if your goal is to find something to complain about.
- If you are going to put your name on something, you should be proud of it.
Perception Precedes Persuasion. It’s even on the back of our business cards.
During Halloween when I was a kid, I thought it was wrong that candy manufacturers labeled ridiculously small versions of Milky Way bars “Fun Size” when to me it would be a helluva lot more fun to have a full-size version. Since that time, I vowed to bring ethics to the business. Plus I just find it to be a fascinating field that is the collision of business and liberal arts, right brain with left brain.
We live our mission. It isn’t just lip service. We truly feel that we leave the client better off than where we started. That can mean more informed, more enlightened or more inspired.
Neither have much to do with marketing.
- “I always try to be generous in tipping servers, drivers and bellhops. I figure they probably need it more than I do. ” My client Charles said that once when we were traveling on business in San Francisco.
- “We all have a profound and unlimited capacity to love.” My client Paul told me that once when we were talking about being Dads.
Has a drive-thru liquor store that also sells archery supplies. You can’t make that up.
That place The Container Store. I am unapologetically neat and organized.
Learn to play piano with my first song being “Somebody’s Baby” by Jackson Browne.
