My Career Trajectory
- Graphic Design Print Producer at Small Print Shop in Tyler, TX
- Note: Moved to Dallas, TX in May of 2008 after finishing my MBA in 2007
- Graphic Design Print Producer at Tracy Locke
- Sales and Marketing Specialist at Breckwell
- Marketing Specialist at Time Warner Cable Media Sales
- Starbucks Barista
- Temporary Clerical Worker at American Airlines
- Adjunct Graphics and Web Design Professor at Dallas Baptist University
- Web Marketing Manager at Partsmaster
- Client Services Manager at Standing Dog (acquired)
- Digital Marketing Manager / Sr Digital Marketing Manager at Wpromote
- Adjunct Digital Marketing Professor at UT Dallas
- eCommerce Marketing Manager at Lennox
- Digital Marketing and Strategy Consultant at GuideStone
- Self-Employed Digital Marketing Strategy Consultant at SWC Marketing, LLC
- Performance Marketing Manager of Digital Marketing & Media for Enilon
When you see this list, you understand that I have had a LOT of jobs. After moving to Dallas in May of 2008, it took me a while to find my way into the digital marketing industry when I accepted a digital marketing agency role at Standing Dog in Dallas in early 2015. It took navigating a very murky and winding career path from graphics to web design to digital marketing. Note: see my digital marketing and graphic design portfolio.
You might look at this list and wonder if there is a career theme here? Yes, there is. For those trying to figure out their own career, I think it might be helpful to understand how I present myself to organizations with this kind of resume.
Elevator Pitch
I am a digital marketing strategy and growth consultant, problem-solver, and educator. I help organizations grow their digital marketing capabilities and am a change management expert. I am a team player and a skilled mediator between creative, sales, technology, and IT to strategize and execute a digital marketing program laser focused on growing prospects, leads, and clients and improving digital strategy and processes.
I have world-class interactive agency experience in both managing strategic accounts with a team of specialists and feet on the ground digital channel execution for a large national ownership group managing multiple regions with many local retail locations and growing their digital presence in highly competitive local markets.
Breaking my Career Pitch Down
This elevator pitch is the overall approach when I get to face-to-face engage with potential clients, whether full-time, part-time, or consulting possibilities. Most consultant opportunities with small businesses are more online channel specific. They often ask, ‘Can you help me with social media marketing? Do you know PPC?’ I don’t normally get the question that I prefer they ask: ‘how to get more leads for my organization?’ This would allow me to customize a solution for them aligned with their business goals.
And that comes to my next point, most organizations, large or small, are executing without a really solidified plan and strategy that aligns with the broader organization’s business goals. In most large matrixed organizations especially, this requires significant change management and processes to create the structure they need to execute well and see marketing performance and growth.
So, when I write information on a resume for myself, it needs to focus less on the elevator pitch and more on ‘key phrases’ that companies care about, i.e., think online channel specific or specific domains. Then focus on the major accomplishments that align with the core elements in my elevator pitch that revert back to my motivations and how I am unique.
How I Got Here
My ultimate goal has always been to solve interesting problems and create work that people value. I am a visual thinker and so, in college, I first wanted to learn how to make compelling art and understand good design so I got training as a graphic designer. I loved it!
I then thought I would be more well-rounded with an MBA knowing I wanted to go into marketing or business eventually and that I wanted to understand how to solve business problems. I got an MBA at home also so I could focus on being a musician with my brothers. (NOTE: I did pursue music in a band for years. I also taught guitar at my church – check out my beginner guitar curriculum if you’d like.)
After getting the MBA, I was ready to enter the work world and find a career path. You can imagine my excitement when I got a print production job in a big advertising agency in Dallas! I was excited about the thought of an illustrious career in advertising. The unfortunate part was this was 2008 when the economy reached the worst it had been in a long time. I was in the first round (of 3 rounds) of layoffs since I was the newest employee. This was a bit of a shock to me but I dusted myself off and went looking for work again.
The next few roles were a way-finding adventure where I helped support marketing and graphic design for different verticals and industries. They were both new positions and in many ways hybrid roles out of the evolving needs in marketing, sales support, and advertising for the organization. The first company was sold after I was let go and the second wasn’t the best fit for me.
I decided that I wanted to teach myself web design. We didn’t have all of the free online training courses at that time, and I had limited success on my own. I read a ton of books. I struggled to redefine myself as a freelancer doing graphics and front-end web design, taking a contract job in the airline industry to pay the bills, then working at Starbucks on a part time basis hoping to allow for time to find freelance gigs. This was probably the lowest time in regards to finding myself.
After a few months at Starbucks, I received an adjunct role in graphic and web design at Dallas Baptist University. I already enjoyed teaching as I taught guitar as a kid and this was a huge blessing to me at the time.
I did not have a lot of web design experience, just a handful of sites that I had built and some of my own that I set up and customized on WordPress with knowledge of HTML and CSS. This was enough to land a web marketing manager on the client side. I thought this would be something I could do well at. In this company I learned a lot and enjoyed the people but realized that I was limited in my digital marketing.
Digital Marketing At Standing Dog Interactive Agency and WPromote
After several years trying to help them and not providing much value, I got hired at Standing Dog where my hope was to learn as much as I could about digital marketing. It was an incredible experience! The role gave me insight into many different industries and specialist roles to be able to understand digital marketing strategy, planning, execution, and reporting. It helped make sense of my interest in traditional graphic design, website HTML & CSS knowledge, and now strengthened it with search engine optimization, search engine marketing, Google Tag Manager tracking, Google Analytics reporting, and digital display. I learned best practices across all of these categories.
The company got bought out by Wpromote, a much larger digital agency. I was moved into the real estate digital marketing team which allowed me to work in a team that single-handedly managed most of the account strategy and execution for smaller budgeted local apartment complexes. I also took the opportunity to onboard various digital skill sets into the team (teaching) and streamline processes for them.
At this point, I was ready to try my hand at the client-side again, where I would get the chance to be closer to the decision makers and provide a new-found, highly valued skill set. I also knew I had learned the technical skill to build and market an online business regardless of how big or small.
The organizations that I have been working with so far are a mixture of medium-sized to large organizations that have complex business problems to solve doing business digitally. I am rapidly improving in my ability to communicate across matrixed organizations that don’t understand the digital environment and need a lot of help! Lots of opportunity to support the growth of these organizations in brand awareness and lead generation.
How I Can Help You Navigate a Digital Marketing Career
There are lots of reasons why digital marketing is a great skill to learn for a career or for business. The market of jobs is only getting bigger and the need for businesses to start conversations online.
I can be a particularly helpful digital marketing resource in two ways:
- I can teach creatives digital marketing to help them improve their career prospects
- I can help businesses improve in digital marketing