Montgomery County Leadership: Brandon Rost, CEO of beMarketing

This leadership[ profile of Brandon Rost was first published on MONTCO Today.

Brandon Rost, CEO of beMarketing and a?MONTCO Millennial Superstar, spoke with MONTCO.Today about learning the values of hard work and relationships in his childhood and teen years in Plymouth Meeting; starting his own lawn cutting business and helping his general contractor father with his part-time job delivering the early morning Philadelphia Inquirer; about his nine years bussing tables and working as a waiter at Outback Steak House where he learned how to handle a crisis and provide good service to so many different people.?

He talked about being the only freshman to make the Junior Varsity soccer team in high school and about going to Woodstock ’99 when he was 17, as well as the joy and energy music brings him.?

He also discussed how relationships are such an important part of the beMarketing culture, along with building client rapport and being a “contagious” personality; how beMarketing is adapting to current conditions to efficiently move forward as it continues to deliver fast, quality work.???

Where were you born, and where did you grow up?

I was born the middle of three children at Pottstown Hospital but grew up in Plymouth Meeting. My dad was a general contractor, and my mom was a stay-at-home mom.?

What memories do you have of growing up in Plymouth Meeting?

There are so many. It’s a great community that we grew up in, from playing outside with the other kids in the neighborhood to starting a business cutting the lawn for my neighbors when I was 14 years old.

I also helped my dad on an early morning paper route for the Inquirer. It was a job that was 365 days of a year, with no days off. Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is the biggest day of the year for the newspaper.?

He’d get to the Inquirer building in Conshohocken at 2:00 am; hopefully, there wasn’t a sporting event that ran late because then they’d have to wait even longer, and then he’d go deliver the paper before his day job and be done by 5 or 5:30 am.?

Why did you want to go with him?

I went because we stopped at Wawa on the way. Whether it was a Crystal-Clear Pepsi or a Jolt Cola, that made my day.?

What was it about your father that caught your imagination at such a young age?

I saw that he worked hard for everything he did, and we received. His example instilled in me that hard work was necessary. If I wanted to go on a date when I was 16, I knew I had to work for the money.?

What other jobs did you have in high school?

I cut grass for one season. At fifteen, I started bussing tables at Outback Steakhouse. The wait-staff would tip us out at the end of the night, so I had cash in my pocket when I left each night. The more nights I worked, the more cash I made.?

I worked at the same Outback Steakhouse for nine years until I was 24. I worked my way up – busing, hosting, waiting, bartender, head waiter, and then some office work at the end of my time there. It was a great time to work at Outback; Saturday nights would be a two-hour wait for a table. I made good money which helped me graduate college with no student loans.?

What lessons did you learn at Outback that stay with you today?

For me, the biggest thing that I took away from my time at Outback was building my ability to service so many different types of people, from happy people to angry people, to urgent people. Working in different positions at Outback allowed me to have different kinds of customers.?

When busing tables, the servers were my customers. The faster I cleaned the table, the more tips they received, the more money I made.?

From a hosting standpoint, it’s how you deal with crisis situations. How do you deal with a customer you told would wait for 45 minutes and who is still waiting for a table to open an hour and a half later??

Did anyone famous ever come into your Outback?

I remember one time Marvin Harrison came in. We gave money to the busboy and asked him to run to Dick’s Sporting Goods to buy some footballs for him to sign before he left.?

John LeClair came in one time. He’s a very nice and humble guy. I know him a lot better now through my career, but I was one signed credit card slip short that night. Andre Iguodala was another celebrity who came in frequently.?

Actor Terrence Howard lived close to the Plymouth Meeting Outback and would come in for takeout with his two kids. His ex-wife lived in the area, so he bought a nearby house closer to his kids. He hadn’t made it big yet in the movie business. He was in the restaurant once, and he was writing in a notebook, so I asked him what he was writing. He told me to always keep a daily journal to grow from, to learn from, and to live by. He told me he writes in his daily journal every single day. Seeing his career advance and just having known him and served him at Outback once a week was very inspiring.?

Did you play any sports in high school?

I played soccer and ran track. In 1997, I was the only freshman to make the Junior Varsity (JV) soccer team, and the rest of my class played on the freshman team. I somehow stayed on JV for three years, but I did play on the Varsity team my senior year. I still play soccer today, but never as competitive as those first few years.?

What kind of music were you listening to growing up, Brandon?

Read Brandon's entire profile on MONTCO Today.