Stop scrolling on your career. Do this.

I just made a career decision after a 1 on 1 with my boss.? It’s a call I will never forget.?

Before I get into all the details, I need to tell you a bit more about how I became a marketer as it didn't come the way you would expect. Am I a marketing major?? No.? Did I attend a top 10 Business school?? No.? MBA right?? Nope. ? ??????

I became a marketer out of passion, happenstance, and a little bit of luck. It's story time.

Picture this; me in high school, 16 or 17, living on the US Mexico border at my parents' house.? I'm home, punished again, cleaning a sea of red plastic solo cups.? I found them everywhere, all over our neighborhood,. They were on the street, between bushes, in planters, behind counters. It looked like a debris field that extended about half a mile. ??The smell of alcohol and bon-fire ashes still filled the air that morning.?? After cleaning, I just sat in the living room in my own thoughts; How did so many people show up to my parents' backyard?? How did my mom’s built-in ironing board turn into a tequila bar?? ?How long will I actually be punished? Then a thought hit me; Can I turn last night into a fulltime job?? You see, a day prior to this, I had about 500 people show up to my parent's back yard for a party. ??It was epic. ?

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Stuck at home, with no access to my Nokia phone to play snake, no PS1, and no TV,? I analyzed how and why so many people showed up to my parents' house.? That’s all I thought about.?

In my head I went through all the people that were at the house. A lot of them, were people I didn't really know. After a while, I understood why.? It was actually a simple explanation: Between me and one of my best friends German, we knew and had invited, all the teens on the US and Mexico side we knew.?? It was 500 people. That's a ton of people. From that point, all I could think of was how we could turn this into a business.?

I invited German over to my parents' house.? I don't recall what day of my punishment I was on, but I do remember the focus and clarity German and I had to turn this into a business.? We had this passion and purpose as we talked, something most teens didn’t have at the time. ?

In the span of a few hours, German and I had named our event production company. ?We had laid out how best to work together, we discussed what would happen to the company if we would ever split up, ?we even picked a date for our first event. The first event was going to be Father's day weekend at a bar in Mexico called Kookarachas.? This was the start of my marketing career, I just didn't know it back then, it was a moment built on chasing a dream, climbing the ladder blindly in hopes that the ladder led to a career in events. Just me, German, and faith.

Fast forward, and German ended up getting a job with Grupo Modelo. He opened up the door for me to get my first job interview at Constellation Brands (Barton Beers). I went from promoting at bars to sponsoring some of the best talent.

My ladder: First step: Event Company, Second step, I fell off the ladder, third step back on the ladder sponsoring bands such as Banda El Recodo, Banda Cuisillos, up the ladder again, Marco Antonio Solis, Ana Barbara, Mana, Alejandro Fernandez, Vicente Fernandez, up the ladder again gaining experience in soccer at Octagon, up the ladder again working with Karol G, Pedro Pascal, and Peso Pluma. Think about that. A punk kid from the border with no formal marketing experience working with today's biggest stars and brands.

Back to the meeting with my boss. I was sitting with him on my weekly 1 on 1 talking about my career path, the passion?I have for building programs that reach the US Latino consumer, my need to be creative at work again, and my need to build new innovative things.

As he listened, he told me about a new role that they were discussing internally.? The role aligned to everything I mentioned above about my passions.? I began to get excited, the more he told me about it, the more excited I was. But then he said the following: the role was approved as a Sr. Manager not a director.?

Imagine telling your boss about what you want to work on and they have that opportunity to give you with NO financial implications. The only change would be a lesser title. Would you take it? Or would you let the opportunity pass by chasing the title?

You have no idea how difficult it was to make this decision.? The back and forth that I went through inside my head.? I continuously asked myself:? How will people view this???? People will think this is a demotion; I shouldn’t even consider this?? Off course I shouldn't consider this.... No.? This should be a hard no.? I then talked to other leaders in the organization, they talked about the role, the long term opportunity, and how tied it was to building multicultural programming.? After each one of those calls, I would leave excited, it aligned to everything I wanted to do.?By the end of the call, I would be convinced it was the right opportunity, that I should just? just take it..? By night time, it was a different story.? I was back to ‘this is a bad idea’ what will people think.? That night I had a get together at the house.? In something completely unrelated to my job, I overheard someone say.? “It doesn’t matter what people think.?? You are the sum of all your experience no matter what anyone says”.? My god, those words fit perfectly for my situation.

The next day, after a conversation with a few mentors and with leadership after getting some clarity on a few things, I said yes.?

I’m a Sr. Manager instead of a director.? I am going to work on programs I will enjoy. I will gain new experience I didn’t have, and eventually my title will change again, but by then I’ve added to the sum of my experience.?

Remember:? You didn’t enter this career to chase titles you entered it to follow your dream. That career ladder isn't always straight up.

My ask to you: Today, pause for a minute, don't scroll. Take time to look at your career path. Are you on the right ladder? Is this where you thought you wanted to be when you started your career? Don’t forget. No matter what your job title is, YOU ARE ALWAYS THE SUM OF YOUR OVERALL EXPERIENCE and you can still chase the dream. ???