We’re still pretty early into this blog, so I thought this month I would take the time to walk you through my journey into Digital Marketing Consulting. I realized only a few years ago how unique these skills are, and while no two journeys are the same, my hope is that this can shed some light on both my applicable experience and the way in which any aspiring college students or recent grads may end up in a similar space. Without further ado…
The first rarity in my story is that I was neither someone who transferred while in college, or someone who changed majors. While I have always been a decisive individual, there is one thing that wasn’t certain: my major. I didn’t even declare until the beginning of my sophomore year. Heck, I knocked out all of my electives as means of learning what I should do. The courses I took in consideration are almost humorous: geology, psychology, biology, packaging design, and 3-dimensional art, among other things. Once I was certain which route was right for me, I didn’t look back. Though you may think it odd, I don’t believe I ended up where I am because of being as decisive as I’ve always been. I ended up here because I kept my options open.
In college, I took Marketing for Nonprofits, and Event Marketing. In hindsight, these two courses probably shaped me more than I could have thought. One gave me experience in an industry I now often work in, and the other gave me the ability to have deep strategic insights. One of the great outcomes of the Event Marketing course was founding the River Falls Roots and Bluegrass Festival, which is still an extremely successful annual event today (now called the Bluegrass, Bourbon and Brews Festival).
While in school, I landed an agency internship with the wonderful Success Companies, whom is now a client of mine. This internship put me everywhere: analytics, web design, content writing, graphic design, strategy, event planning, social, relationship management, and even sales. I am so grateful for this level of exposure, especially as I realize how much of a springboard that was for the rest of my career. As much as I hate cliches, I’ve always been a “jack of all trades.” But to learn all the trades in the digital space and actually be able to choose an expertise is such a rarity. And I ended up choosing the rarest option.
I’ve got a great appreciation for graphic design, but I am not quick at it and I don’t have the greatest eye for designing visuals from scratch, so that’s not for me. Sales never seemed to align with my motivations or my moral compass. Frankly, web design is too commoditized, and I wanted something unique. Something quantifiable. Something that would allow me to justify projects because of a strong ROI. Something that could show, without a doubt, I have added tremendous value. This mindset was gradual, to be sure. It grew out of personal nature, and nurture of one of my most traumatic events – being laid off… more on that some other time. I didn’t realize at the time I had gravitated towards a career that provided such a rare and greatly valuable skill set.
After more than five years at the agency, I left for a corporate role in a space which I had no professional experience: education. I spent the next four years with West Academic, a staple St. Paul business of over 100 years. My role was brand new for them, and getting to make something my own was an extremely enticing prospect. In my four years of W2 work with West, we made three acquisitions and were acquired twice. The first acquisition was a changing of hands at the PE level, where I was one month in and it was all quite frightening. Fortunately, nobody lost their job in that acquisition. The next time we were acquired was by Barbri Global, another entity that was once owned by Thomson Reuters.
With each acquisition, my job responsibilities grew. Before any of those transactions, back in 2019, I accomplished one of my greatest professional endeavors thus far: strategic, technical, and analytical lead for a complete rebuild of a massive ecommerce engine, westacademic.com.
Years later, I still rave about the results of this project. Over a 212% increase in revenue year over year. An absolute 180 on traffic sources – where we had no organic or direct presence, they were now the top acquisition channels. Practically exponential growth in retention. I could go on and on. Ultimately, the skills utilized were greater than the results. I translated parlance between the marketing and development teams. I sold our CTO on digital security. I developed and future-proofed our analytics strategy. I got us ecommerce tracking, so we could both report on our results and create best practices. I did so much more than this. I will always be proud of this project.
You’re probably expecting some sort of turn here. There’s a reason I left. See, I was in grad school through 2020 and much of 2021. I got promoted, but there was no real upward mobility (nobody wants to leave a great company) and I needed to be challenged. Lots of people are happy with being comfortable, with “par for the course.” That’s fine, but that’s not me. I had to take my newfound confidence, following graduation, and put it into something. I left the organization for the challenges of the consulting world. On my way out, I issued a proposition. I would retain certain job duties for the time that it took them to backfill my role. I was told 99% no, but we’ll see. They came out of a meeting and told me 100% yes, for a month or two while they look for a new hire. Two years later, I was still consulting with West Academic and Barbri. I suppose it’s nice to know that your skills are rare and you can’t be easily replaced. And that’s how I got my first consulting client. I worked for them for four years on W2 and two years in consulting. Eventually the new CMO forced them to bring all consulting work in house.
It’s been over two years of consulting now. I have worked with travel bureaus, consultants, education companies, law firms, agencies, nonprofits, manufacturers, taprooms, CPG, and more in that time. I have built analytics dashboards, propped up tech stacks, launched ecommerce, managed digital advertising, and optimized content, among other things. I can’t wait for what’s next.
While this is a short story, it’s only going to grow. I’m excited for each new door to be opened. I’m always looking to grow. If you want to grow with me, please reach out. A chat is always worthwhile!