10 Lessons That Defined the First 10 Years of My Career

August 2, 2010. I remember the day like it was yesterday. I drove from Huntsville, Texas to College Station, Texas on a pretty warm day to start off my commercial radio career. This 21-year-old kid was about to become a radio host! As a senior in my broadcast journalism schooling, this was a quick rise to my career and an opportunity that felt a little out of body. I didn't care about the pay, the hours or how I was going to make working while in school work. I just wanted to spread my wings.

In the 10 years since, my unusual career path has taken me to many places. From not finding full-time work for almost two full years after graduating to giving up seven years of experience to essentially start over in marketing to losing a job just as my career started to peak. I've had sleepless nights, I've had tears but in the end I've had more personal growth and success than I think I'd ever imagine. The path wasn't full of gold in the radio industry, and often paved in shortcomings for a struggling host. Never losing sight of the greatness inside of me I diversified my skills into digital media with my storytelling philosophies. I hopped into a digital marketing career when all I knew was radio and broadcasting. I've felt behind, I've felt lost, I've felt the greatest success, I've grinded harder each day to fill in the blanks. I never stopped trying to be the best. So for laughs, lessons and everything in between. Here are 10 lessons for each year of my journey from 21-year-old goofball to 31-year-old pro.

2010 - Passion

My first year of work, 10 years ago! This would be when I became a small town radio host in College Station, Texas. It's a fun year for me to look back at, because the person I was then was always the person I want to be and need to be. We strive so hard in our work to be "something." To be "above the rest" and take our talents as far as we can go. But do we ever stop to ever see how cool our roles truly are? Or how blessed we are to do something that is so uniquely ours? In 2010 I didn't care about the money, the hours or how to even make this work. I wanted to deliver a great radio show to my listener while I was finishing up my senior year of college. In my middle to later years of this duration I started to look back at my 2010 self. The passion, energy, the willing to do things way against the grain. A lot of people call themselves "idiots" when they look back at themselves in yester-years. Instead I like to incorporate that youthful adventurous spirit, pay gratitude to the mistakes I made and know it shaped who I've become today.

2011 - Failure

Nobody will grade me as hard as I'll grade myself. I take failure hard, it eats at my bones it creates insecurities. I will fight with every ounce in my soul to consistently outdo myself and the competition that surrounds me. For this very reason, 2011 was one of the harsher wakeup calls. Still working as a part-time radio host I graduated in May. For the remainder of the year I applied to basically every hosting job you could find in the nation that was of full-time employment. I got shutdown, shutdown some more, laughed at, ghosted and told I was not a good enough host to be in this industry. Broadcasting was all I knew. It's what I did when I was 16, it's what I studied in college it's where I expected to be. I spent the remainder of the year unable to obtain full-time work with my degree. Though I didn't expect things to be handed to me, I also didn't expect the harshness of the rejection I felt in the radio industry. To this day I can remember the quotes of those who ridiculed me and instead of staying bitter. I've let it grow me as a person, I've told myself I'll never be that person. I will be an ambassador for young talent. I will spread as much positivity as humanly possible and constructive criticism to those who want it. Failure was an eye opener to me, and it definitely wouldn't be the last of my career. Failure isn't taught in college, and I think it's a real life experience kids have to learn at their own pace.

2012 - Adaptability

I would credit 2012 as the first year I started to see movement in my abilities, even if sometimes small. I would begin working seven days a week between two radio stations in College Station, still at a part time level. I decided working myself to death would be the best way to accomplish diversifying my resume some. By doing so it got me into producing sports radio programming, which would be the first domino to fall. I also would at one point work 42 straight days (again at a part time rate) giving up pretty much all of my social life. In return I was able to parlay my new sports programming experience in landing a new part time job at Gow Media. Because I was still struggling to grasp ahold of a stable full-time role, I decided it was time to give this sports thing a try. I would relocate to Houston, Texas towards the end of the year and begin a new journey.

2013 - Sacrifice

In 2013 I would finally get the full-time role I wanted with an internal promotion at Gow Media. I did the internships, I networked across the nation, I hired the voice coach, I made the phone calls, but now I could finally say the college degree paid off! It was 23 months after my college graduation that I achieved full-time work. Part of me to this day considers still considers it a giant slap in the face that someone who worked as hard as I did was left on the sideline for this long, but I also consider it an event that has defined my entire life. I'm thankful for the edge it gives me. Full-time didn't come easy though. It consisted of a typical radio schedule that was at least six days a week and included all weekend work. The sacrifice I put into my career essentially sacrificed the other things around me. These would include romantic relationships, social life and at times my mental health of always feeling fatigued. It was worth it for me, working towards and end goal. Every 2 a.m. evening or 3:45 a.m. wakeup was worth it. Sacrifice is everything in the early years.

2014 - Diversifying

In 2014 I would continue to grow my skillsets in producing a variation of programs for our radio network. However, I felt like I had grown further away from my hosting days. I started to wonder if I would ever get back to hosting radio again, or if it was a goal I even wanted anymore? This would be a theme over the next several years as I learned I just didn't have the answers. I HATE not having the answers by the way!

This would be the year I'd start to volunteer on helping with our social media channels for our stations. Digital media had always fascinated me in radio. It wasn't something a lot of radio hosts liked to use at this point in time, as they "just wanted to do radio." For me dating back to 2010, I always saw social media as a way to continue my story. I was an early adapter to Facebook and Twitter, often continuing my content on the channels. When was given an opportunity to help our stations channels for free, I didn't hesitate. I didn't only take the duties willingly, I took the opportunity to take ownership of it.

2015 - Ownership

Stay humble? Nonsense. In this field humbleness leads to keeping you in the middle of the pack. I don't believe in ballin' in the middle, so I take ownership of my work and have no hesitancy to let you know when I do it the best in the industry. That said, there is a way to always do this in a respectful way and in a way that will make your boss join the ride with you.

2015 brought my swag back but in a completely different form than 2010 or 2012. I once again was promoted at Gow Media, this time to a full-time Social Media Manager role. For the first time I felt ownership of something in my career that was far above the average product on the playing field. We had gotten our channels to the best in our marketplace. Our numbers were up, my career started to show promise and I had the best boss (B-Strange) anyone could as for in my new digital role. This year in my opinion was the most pivotal of my career, because I had someone who believed in me. He saw talent, and let me off the training wheels. I'll forever be thankful and know that there is no digital career without him taking a chance on a very green radio kid.

2016 - Risk

Nobody in this game of life makes the greenest paper without a little risk right? 2016 was all about risk. I went back on the job hunt after seven years in radio and three and a half years at Gow Media. I had mastered digital media in radio, but I really had no clue where this newfound career could take me. What I did know is that social media specifically was blowing up for companies overnight. I knew that it had the potential to be the greatest and most lucrative form of marketing in decades to come. I knew I had a skillset in demand as it was a developing industry that not everyone knew about. So why not roll the dice?

You know that moment when Happy Gilmore realized he is now a golfer and not a hockey player? That was 2016 for me in finally giving up my radio hosting dreams and realizing digital media was my calling. I would enter #AgencyLife for the first time, getting hired at an agency called Studio Brand Collective. It was a large and sometimes difficult transition for me completely flipping the script on my career. One that I'll be forever thankful in that I took the risk.

During my radio career I hosted a top 40 show for over two years. I produced national radio content. I met celebrities of all types. I partied like I was on the Jersey Shore at times. I did it, and I have #NoRegrets.

2017 - Heartbreak

The other side to risk in your career is heartbreak. You can't have one without the other and sometimes when you hit one too many times you bust your hand. It doesn't necessarily mean the risk was wrong, it just means it didn't work on this hand. This would definitely define 2017. My first agency job was a real learning experience for me in learning how to navigate social media for small business entities. My second agency job was the one that I loved.

I would get a new role in March of 2017 at a no longer operational agency. This role would be my own, it would elevate my skills in new ways possible. Handling budgets in the several thousands, working with well known companies and brands, controlling a whole department of social media. I was going to bring social media strategy into the future and had managers who believed in me. My first five months at this agency were about the most fun I've ever had in my career. I whole heartily believed that #AgencyLife is a life that I would be living for awhile. I would have stayed loyal to this company, I would have given my blood sweat and tears. That was until the company was no more, and entered bankruptcy. My role was lost, dreams shattered and just as my career was making movement I was out of work.

Naturally as someone who is unemployed you reevaluate each risk, each new beginning, each chip that you put in play. It didn't work. I can say though that in my short time of working at this company I really learned marketing at a higher level. Watching people who were already pros helped me bring a business aspect into my social media philosophy that wasn't fully present yet. With each loss, there can always be a win later in the game. Learn the cards, play the hands, double down later and recollect your winnings.

2018 - Redefining

Life is funny in that you can feel like you've messed up over and over again, yet you get the blessing to redefine your course. 2018 was a reset for me and I did just that. I found social media work, this time outside of the agency sector. I would accept a role as Social Media Specialist at large tourist attraction and museum Space Center Houston. This role brought me back to in-house social media for the first time since my radio days. Combining my radio storytelling capabilities with my newfound marketing sense, I became a complete social media pro in 2018. In my opinion I became my own social media pro, different from the others out there and truly establishing a strategy that takes businesses far beyond the standard professional. Coming out of a four month period in which I had no job, I was able to reset my brain, my emotions and my drive. My focus was as good as it has ever been in 2018 and it certainly diversified my skills even more into where I am now. I think redefining your career has to come every so often for good or for bad. Being unemployed will accelerate that conversation! This year taught me it's something not to fear, but to trust in the skills I've developed and where I can ride them.

2019 - Smell Some Freaking Roses

I'm as guilty as any hustler out there as someone who can't slow down to smell the roses in front of me. 2019 was pretty freaking cool, and I'll look back on it as a year I got to do some fun things. I spoke at my first conference (Social Media Day Houston). I got to travel a bit for work. I put together the largest social media campaign for my career in the Apollo 50 celebration at Space Center Houston. I actually went a year without dramatic career movement! It was fun. I think people like myself need to sometimes just slow down and enjoy the moments when they present themselves like this. Much like my lesson in 2010, I look back at 2019 as my full-circle journey bringing me back to my original self. I do things that I'm passionate about. I love digital media the way I loved radio. I enjoy entertaining our users, I like brining good into this world. In 2019 I felt like I've made it to a point in my career that was just really cool.

Moving forward my ultimate goal for my career has become not about me. It has become to be an ambassador for all that is good in our social media industry as we grow it. My passion in radio was to entertain, it was to do things for all the right reasons. So much of this article is an exceptional journey, but for so much of it I think I was lost in who I really wanted to be for those around me. In 2019 smelling some roses, brought me back to what I want to put out there every step of the way.

2020 - A New World

2020, I mean what else can we really say about this year? I mean it was a pretty exciting year for me in that I accepted the role of a lifetime as Social Media Supervisor at BarkleyREI. It also meant that I relocated to Pittsburgh, PA a BIG shift from Texas. Let's do this right!? It was going to put me with a company handling large social media budgets, new and larger responsibilities, an all-star marketing team I can learn tremendous knowledge from. It is THE situation I have seen myself working towards for years.

But then coronavirus happened, and it happened right upon my starting date. Our company moved to remote work literally on the first day of my employment. And well I've been home ever since! Once again it was a major plot twist after taking a new job. I can't lie that my heart sank a lot after the world changed. Would I be safe in my new role? Working remote? I've never done this, how does it all work? Fortunately BarkleyREI has been absolutely amazing in retaining employees. I couldn't be happier, but it was again a lesson. Things can change overnight in just about any industry. What was normal yesterday is gone tomorrow. While we do as much as we can to stay atop of our game, the game doesn't play by your rules. 2020 I think has all taught us a consistent lesson in that I can guarantee you there are no guarantees. So go out there, take that risk, do your best today and most of all, HAVE FUN.

We have one life to live, one career to master, try to do the best you can and smile through it. We're so fortunate to do this thing to do we called work and just by writing this article it has helped me see that even more. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey and thank you for allowing me to be apart of yours. Here's to another 10 years!