My story to MKTG

Today I celebrate my 8th year at MKTG! It is very hard to believe that the way I got into this industry and this great company was 8 years ago! Since I have a little bit more time on my hands I figured this is a great time to share my story about how I got to where I am today. A lot of my colleagues at MKTG know this story, but I hope some of these moments that happened throughout this journey can help inspire people and most importantly share a feel good moment in your day (Lord knows we need some good vibes lately!)

As a Junior at Appalachian State University (a-puh-LATCH-uhn!!) I was getting to the point where I needed to start thinking about my journey after college. I had just finished my 3rd season on the soccer team and felt like I wanted to be around sports (ideally soccer) after college. What opportunities could even be out there for a Business major looking to be around the game I grew up admiring and playing? I did a little bit of research and saw an opportunity with the Sports Promotions Group at a company called Sports Endeavors. I didn't know anything about them, but when I found out they were the parent company of my favorite catalog Eurosport, I was sold. I applied and got an interview down in Hillsborough, NC. I showed up in a suit, as you are taught in college to do, and in walked Amy Rich, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, with a fresh pair of Adidas kicks on. I was waaaaaay overdressed. After realizing that the culture there was casual, family oriented, "work hard and play hard" mentality I fell in love even more. Mike and Brendan Moylan created an amazing atmosphere in Hillsborough and one I aspired to look for throughout my career journey. The reason I tell this part of the story is it plays a roll later when I get to MKTG.

Blah blah blah, fast forward many years, and States later, I am back where I grew up in Atlanta in data software sales. I love sales. I love people. I love talking. I love talking to people about sales. My dad was a salesman and knowing that I could connect with people and help them with a product or service to make their lives easier or make them look good I was all for it. I did this for a couple of years and then one day in the Spring of 2011 my wife brought up an opportunity through her company to potentially work abroad. In college I never had the luxury of traveling abroad, as soccer was a full-time thing. We didn't have any kids yet and thought what better time then now to see the world! After a pretty brief conversation, my wife and I decided London would be our next home. After getting off the phone with my mom and telling her we were moving to London (pause for 10 mins of my mom crying and silence) this became real! I was very fortunate, as my wife negotiated a sponsorship visa for me so that I could look for work as soon as we landed in London. I am not going to lie but with the Olympics fast approaching in the summer of 2012, I thought for certain I would be able to find something surrounding the games. I quit my job in software sales and off we went!

I won't bore you with all the details of getting acclimated to the culture in London (it was a lot of, what did you say, how much is this coin worth, why am I so tired? We were in temporary company housing and I had 3 tasks I wanted to accomplish while my wife was at work. Find a soccer (football) team to play on, find a place to live and find a job (all in that order). Things didn't quite happen in that order but pretty close actually. We settled in a quiet little area in Southwest London called Clapham. We lived in the basement of a larger row home with the landlords living above us. Now that we had a place to live I could really look for a football team to join. My thinking was, if I could find that then I could network and maybe make a connection for work. After finding a local team in Clapham (Fanatics FC) and meeting all of the "lads" (see I am picking up on the slang quickly!) I noticed none of them really did what I was looking for in marketing. After a few months of striking out, I went back to my comfort zone of sales. I interviewed A LOT! I got close a few times but most of the time I was too qualified for the roles I was applying for. I didn't care, we were only going to be there for 18 months so I didn't need to find my career. I settled in Oct of 2011 selling pay per click (PPC) marketing to medium and small businesses around London. A few weeks in the job started to wear on me. Picking up the phone and cold calling for hours was not the type of sales I wanted to do. I needed to be out there meeting people and talking to them face-to-face. After about a month I did something I had never done in my life...I quit. I am a HUGE advocate for never giving up and finishing what you started, but something told me this time that this wasn't it for me.

After months and months passed by and the Olympics quickly approaching I had no leads. I was getting bored and anxious. All of the hype around the Olympics was building and I really wanted to get involved, but I didn't know how. I started back at the beginning and reached out to my old bosses from Eurosport hoping they had some marketing connections in London I could reach out to. I would do anything, just to get out of our flat (apartment)! The Moylan's led me to a gentleman by the name of Fred Popp. Another American that had a very small consulting group in the UK called Teamup. Teamup unites experts in strategy, design, innovation and experience, working with sports most ambitious organizations to harness the power of brand for growth. That sounded perfect! Unfortunately, Fred runs a small team and didn't have an opportunity for me at that point, but all was not lost. Fred mentioned he was meeting with Kevin Collins to find out a little more about this new experiential marketing agency called MKTG. He said he would find out what they did and if they had any opportunities and let me know. A few weeks went by and Fred said he thought this was a cool place and worth a conversation. He introduced me to Kevin who we coordinated getting together in a pub to just chat. Over a couple of beers we talked for an hour or two, not once about MKTG or a job. We just talked about sports, family, shared stories of our homes back in the States. Afterwards he said he wanted me to meet his counterpart, Derek Cummings, who was the head of production in the new London office. Derek was traveling for the next week or so but he would setup a meeting in a couple of weeks. Things were starting to happen! A couple weeks went by and I headed to the London "office" in Covent Garden to meet Derek. I didn't actually see the office but I did meet Derek in the pub across the street (starting to see a trend here). Again not one thing mentioned about MKTG and the opportunity. We laughed and cracked jokes about our different English Premier League teams we supported (he was Chelsea and I was Fulham at the time, but later became a Tottenham Hotspur fan: COYS!). Again I left the meeting wondering what the next steps were.

About a month later I got a note from Kevin and Derek and they wanted to offer me a contracting role at MKTG. Again I didn't care what I was doing, I just wanted to get out and do something! I had no idea what I was getting into but I knew I was green in the industry and it would take some hard work to do this job. The "office" was a tiny loft at the top of another office space. This was the start of the MKTG London office. We had one client (Nike) and our only project was producing the British 10K race. The first few days is what I like to call fire hose training. Kevin and Derek threw so many things at me and just said here you go, let me know when you are done. I didn't even know what a ROS was or how to do a work back schedule. I had done powerpoint presentations in college so I felt ok about that, but I found out later that Kevin's 2 year old daughter could put together a better deck than me. I was struggling to figure things out. I started getting much smaller tasks that seemed like busy work to keep me occupied (i.e - sitting at Derek's flat while his cable gets setup). Again I didn't mind as it meant I was out interacting with people other than myself.

When I started with MKTG I was on a 3-6 month "trial run" to see if this would be a fit for me and for MKTG. About 3-4 months in, Kevin may have sensed I was struggling and couldn't really seem to get settled and find my groove yet. I consider Kevin and Derek mentors, as they both have been in the business for a long time and I value their insights and advice, so when they spoke I was willing to listen. Kevin put the ball in my court and just asked if I was happy and enjoyed what I was doing. Normally in my younger years I would have lied and just said yeah, all is good, I love what I am doing! We both knew that was not the case. I felt comfortable enough to be completely honest with him and we talked through a lot of things to help me understand a direction to go. He assured me this is a common feeling when getting into this industry, especially as green as I was at the time. At this point you either know this is what you want to do and you grind it out, or you realize this isn't for you. I spent the next few weeks really listening and watching Kevin and Derek and learning more about the culture of MKTG, the agency message and how we showed up to brands, partners, etc. I started to take ownership of things and really dive in and do them my way. I was so afraid of making a mistake or not doing things the right way that I was holding myself back. I learned there is multiple ways to do something and that is one of the great things about MKTG is no one tells you how to do something, you do whatever works for you, all you have to do is do great work. From that point on I started to see the culture come to life and I wanted to learn so much more. I started to take on a lot more responsibilities and became a go to person when things needed to get done.

Over the past 8 years I have met a ton of people, learned so much and so appreciative of the opportunity to be a part of this amazing company. Our culture is amazing and they let you draw your own path and for that I can't say thank you enough. Be human, engage and connect with people and you will go far and find places you never thought were even possible. Thanks to everyone along the way that has helped me get to this point and I hope to be writing a similar article again in 8 more years.