Meet Us

Jeffrey Schmidt, President 
DeepSky Business Building and Agency for Earth

Jeffrey owns two firms: DeepSky Business Building (formerly DeepSky Marketing) and Agency for Earth, a company that specializes in environmental education and outreach.

He is a public speaker, trainer and consultant on the topics of business building, marketing, personal selling, eco-education and personal growth.

Over his 35-year career Jeffrey has developed marketing programs for hundreds of companies: see case studies on his site. He now helps sustainable and socially responsible businesses create greater impact in the world.

Jeffrey began his career in marketing research, fielding studies for companies like Allstate Insurance, Bank of America, The California Milk Advisory Board and Clorox Corporation.

He’s developed marketing programs and materials for organizations such as: The American Marketing Association, Heald Colleges, Foppiano Winery, Bushtracks Expeditions, Oracle Corporation, It’s Yoga International, Earth Heart Wellness, Zafis Chiropractic, SolarWorks, Parker Compumotor, Abbey Springs Water Systems, the Sonoma County Water Agency, Empowered Body Solutions, MTI College, Switch Vehicles and many more.

He has created environmental awareness campaigns and outreach materials for Ecology Action Associates, the Laguna Foundation, the Sonoma County Water Agency, the counties of Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Merced and the cities of Santa Rosa, Fremont, Hayward, Newark, Union City and more.

For 20 years Jeffrey was a member of the American Marketing Association (AMA) and was a Certified Professional Marketer with that organization. He holds a Hubspot Inbound Marketing Certificate and was a founding member of the Sebastopol Entrepreneurs Project (SEP) and was their education director for a decade.

Jeffrey is an accomplished speaker. He gives talks on personal selling, marketing and business for SCORE, SRJC, SEP, local chambers of commerce, CEO Focus, and the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) of Napa.

Jeffrey was a featured panelist at a climate talk put on by the Greta Thundberg organization and was president of the board of The Middle Way, a sheltered workshop for developmentally disabled adults. He spearheaded The Middle Way’s transition toward making their landscape services green and sustainable.

Jeffrey is a meditation teacher, QiGong instructor and was a NARM (NeuroAffective Relational Model) certified practitioner. NARM is an advanced methodology for healing complex attachment, relational and developmental trauma and a vehicle for personal growth.

Jeffrey Schmidt is the author of three books: Five Proven Internet Marketing Methodologies, Seven Key Questions You Must Ask Your Communications Partner, and Five Ways to Enliven Your Message. His new book “Selling a Better World” is due to be released in late 2022.

Barbara Stafford, Strategy / Messaging / Copywriting

“Helping clients achieve audacious goals
is what lights me up.”

Barbara Stafford has over 20 years’ experience helping clients solve wicked problems. She’s helped clients win market share. Sell more products. Donate more money to good causes. Help great ideas catch fire. Attract and build a loyal community. And connect people with what they truly value.

Marketing has the power to make all of these things happen –- when done well.

Barbara spent decades learning how to do just that. First, as a senior copywriter and copy supervisor for Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB) – a large San Francisco ad agency – where she created direct marketing campaigns that sold millions of dollars of products and services for the likes of Visa, HP, PG&E, Levi’s, Shaklee, Citicorp and other Fortune 500 corporations.

Barbara’s also been a freelance copywriter and creative director for ad agencies, corporations, nonprofits and small, and sometimes quirky, startups (like a turkey farm). She’s created virtually every form of marketing in every medium for many different businesses in many different industries.

In the process, she’s learned what works and what doesn’t – combining the art of branding with the science of direct response to get outstanding results for clients.