In 2013, Maranda White was at a crossroads.
Cutbacks at LSU had led to job reductions, leading to the dissolution of her job as Director of Communications and Marketing. What had once been a successful de facto internal agency composed of Maranda orchestrating student workers was no more. After over 13 years of working for some of the largest advertising firms in the nation, she was suddenly without a job.
In addition to the interruption of her professional career, she was also experiencing change in personal life as she was in the process of a divorce. Faced with handling the biggest professional and personal struggle of her life, Maranda responded by leaning into her two biggest support systems: her family and her faith.
Throughout her tenure at LSU, she would occasionally do freelance work for outside firms as a white label – where the firm contracting her would publish her work but not her name. Her father would consistently nudge and encourage her to pursue freelance work full-time, encouraging her to see what or where it would lead to.
At the same time, Maranda’s bible study group were studying the significance behind numbers. At one of these meetings, she learned that the number eight was representative of new beginnings, resurrection and transition. That resonated with Maranda, who viewed herself in the prime position to receive that message given the changes that had taken place in her life.
As she freelanced more and toyed with the idea of creating her own company, she began looking for something to name her company. She didn’t want to name it after herself and knew that she wanted to incorporate the number eight somehow but couldn’t find something she liked enough.
It wasn’t until the word “octagon”, a shape with eight sides, came up in an arcade in Houston when the inspiration struck. The realization came at the perfect time, and a short time later she created Octagon Media.
Maranda would not learn that MMA’s eight-sided ring is also called the octagon until later when the company was already established and it was pointed out by an employee, but she thinks it only makes the name that much more fitting. After all, Octagon Media is resolute in their mission statement of fighting for their clients.
