I Couldn't Find the Right Room, So I Built It Twice

The idea didn’t hit me in a brainstorm or a brand workshop.

It hit me in a moment of quiet relief after finishing a run of projects that felt impossible from the inside. The kind of work where the client walks into a flawless final store and smiles.

Meanwhile, you know exactly what it took to get there. The near misses.  The effort you can’t track in a spreadsheet. 

The work you only notice when it’s missing.

I laughed to myself. The kind of laugh you have when you know no one will ever fully understand the level of intention behind every inch. And in that moment, I felt it. This is what we do. We make the impossible possible. Every day.

And without even trying, it started showing up in client calls and in text chains when we pulled off something in 10 days that should have taken 30. 

Well… that’s what we do. 

We get shit done.

It wasn’t bravado. It was identity.

Somewhere in there, I recognized something bigger. The clients I’ve worked with for over a decade all share the same mindset. They move fast. They stay curious. They push ideas further.

I started hearing the same thing reflected back to me. The way you get shit done changes how other people get shit done.

That’s when I knew this wasn’t just how I worked. It was how I led.

This past year, I stepped into something I didn’t expect. Not just doing the work, but sharing how we do it. Working closely with my team at a moment when they were right at the edge of their own potential. I see it early. I trust it. And I tell them the truth. I’ll help you get there. But you have to want it for yourself.

It’s the same thing I tell my daughter. Be in the right room. Surround yourself with people who raise your standards. People who keep promises to themselves. People who show up when it’s hard.  

Grit is rare. Consistency is rare. But the energy is contagious. When the right people get in a room together, the shift is immediate. You feel the lift.

I felt it recently with someone on my team. We were deep in a strategy project, chasing a single red thread through a mess of ideas. Then something clicked. One idea sharpened the next. The work started lifting itself. We walked into the client presentation and won over the toughest CMO in the room.

That was the room.

The truth is, not everyone is wired this way. I learned that a long time ago. In 2018, I hit a wall. I was tired of wanting it more than the people around me. Tired of watching potential fall short because people couldn’t push through the hard part.

That’s when I knew I had to start PORTER.

I needed to form a tribe of people who lived for the craft. Who had pride in the invisible work. Who didn’t accept easy answers. People who looked at two options and asked, “What about Option 3?” The path no one sees until you create it.

People like to joke that I never accept no for an answer. My response is always the same. No is just an obstacle on the way to yes.

So when the words Get Shit Done showed up in my notebook, it wasn’t a slogan. It was a mirror. It was who I already was. And who my people already were.

The cool ones. The driven ones. The ones who don’t need permission, but thrive with connection. The ones who don’t wait for applause from people who were never going to give it.

I spent years chasing recognition that was never coming. I had to learn the hard way that the only approval that matters is the kind you earn from within. Once I understood that, I could give it freely to others. I could see potential faster. I could lift people quicker. 

Over time, those instincts turned into standards. Not rules. A way of working. A mindset.

And that mindset stuck with me. So much so that I couldn't just let it live in my notebook. I did what I always do. I didn't wait for permission. I couldn't find the right room, so I built it. For me. For people like me.

PORTER is the finished product. The glossy reveal.
The Get Sh!t Done Club is the heartbeat.

It's my way of celebrating the people behind the work, the ones who live in the messy middle, who start ugly, who follow through when it's hard. It's for anyone out there feeling alone in their standards.

It's a work in progress. It always will be. But it's here.

Welcome to the Get Sh!t Done Club.

by Nicole Gunderson | Principal, Strategy Director PORTER | Founder of The Get Sh!t Done Club