“The river forged it’s path, it doesn’t necessarily know where it’s going to go, but it will continue downstream until it can no longer.” -Anonymous

Over my working career I have learnt a lot from mentors, bosses and co-workers. I have incorporated these takeaways into how I like to lead a team and I am continuously excited to fine tune these pieces and finding more ways to continue to develop into a better leader.

My first job was at the Zara fashionwear retail store in Dallas, Texas. My manager was a no-nonsense woman; who I came to respect greatly, being able to manage the many egos on the team. She ran our work breaks and inventory management to a T. I had always wanted to transfer over to the menswear section due to it being a significantly more relaxed working environment. I remember the assistant manager more fondly because she was well-liked by everyone and was a bit more empathetic to the way we worked. When she was the sole manager on the floor, it was more chill and enjoyable generally, which was reflected in how the team performed with customers. It was at Zara that I learned that empathy translated to better performance towards customers.

  • The takeaway: Empathy is key working with customers and working with your colleagues.

The next job I took was at the first LEGO store in Dallas. I got the chance to work with my college friends, which honestly felt more like we got paid to play with LEGOs. It was an interesting dynamic in the store as we typically had two types of customers, the children and the parents. My manager was super chill, almost too chill. She was able to connect with people pretty easily and was loved by her team. The assistant manager at the time was a LEGO nerd, very straight-edged but his love for LEGO bled through significantly which made him connect really well with the other LEGO nerds out there. It was really gratifying seeing kids + adults come in extremely excited and awestruck at the store, even more humorous when they saw the prices. What was great was they all had a story which connected them to LEGO, it was extremely easy to sell the product and auxiliary items because the product was superior.

  • The takeaway: Superior products sell themselves, showcase a different angle towards the product and activate people’s nostalgia towards the product.

At my first agency position, my first mentor was a man named Jake Jordan whom I learned so much from. He and I were in the trenches daily, learning ways to improve SEO strategy for our clients. We mostly learned on the fly— watching webinars, following and emulating prominent SEO figures, and finding additional ways to deliver more for our clients. Jake introduced me to bloggers and authors who I went on to learn a lot from, and still continued to follow for many years, such as James Clear. Jake instilled in me the passion for learning and improvement; the drive to search for answers. At a point in time I was also juggling a part time restaurant host job, the LEGO store position, and being a full time student. Money and time was very tight during these times, but I gained an immense amount of knowledge from these experiences, and from Jake’s mentoring.

  • The takeway: Having a great mentor/coach will not only expand your worldview but mentally accelerate who you are and want to be as an individual.

After my first agency role, I took a position at another agency mostly because it paid more. I quickly realized (within one week) that I didn’t belong there. While there, I worked with a manager named Jeremy, who was very different from Jake, my previous manager and mentor. Jeremy was extremely smart and unfiltered, which I had found more endearing. He could tell I didn’t enjoy working at the company. Most of my colleagues were in this dark room with all these Nicholas Cage posters and I just couldn’t buy into that specific culture which was built at the company. I would grow to despise this job and in so in my free time, I would be motivated to listen/watch TED talks to stimulate my mind and see if it could change some of my current mental models to move forward. I remember reading a quote of Gary Vaynerchuck’s, that still lives rent free in my head, “There’s no reason to do shit you hate.” I think at that moment, I realized I needed to get the fuck out, ASAP.

  • The takeaway: There is no reason to be in a place you despise, doing things you hate.

During the time when I was trying to figure out what my next career move would be, I attended the 99U Pop-up Design School, hosted by Behance, in New York City. I was following the company blog for quite some time and figured it would be a great experience. As a Texan who knew nothing of New York City, besides my seeing it in movies and Law & Order SVU, I was about to embark on a life-changing experience. Before I left for the city, I quickly put together a website and made some snazzy business cards for myself. When they were doing portfolio reviews, I had a chance to have my website reviewed by one of the cofounders of Behance, Matias Corea. He inquired why I was in NYC, and why I was at a design event (given my background). I said “Great design and great marketing is the ultimate powerhouse. One can only enhance the other.” He then offered to introduce me to some founders that were working on a project where I could potentially be a fit. I didn’t get a chance to meet the founders until much later. I did, however, constantly remind Matias to make the introduction. Ultimately I had the chance to meet them and started doing some work at the startup, Glassful, as employee number 6.

  • The takeaway: Only way you get lucky is if you put yourself in a position to get lucky.

At Glassful, it was such a different experience compared to the agencies I was at previously. Being at such a small company, the work ethos was very familial. In our time working really hard towards the team mission, we celebrated together, soothed bad times with one another, and ate most meals together. The work experience was much more fulfilling, especially compared to most of my previous positions. I loved working with that team. Looking back, I realize that I was way beyond my capabilities. Here I was, a kid from Dallas who had some knowledge of SEO & some knowledge of paid search but ultimately, not prepared or disciplined enough for the free-reign of early stage startup culture yet. I had yet to develop a voice, a continual showcase of how we should have moved as a brand. This came across in the way I led the marketing and brand. In all, I was too afraid to fail which led to me actually failing and getting let go.

  • The takeaway: Sometimes you’ll find yourself over-extended. You have to be honest and see if it’s something you can correct quickly or take steps backwards to slingshot many steps forward.

Soon after, I had some issues finding another job and ended up doing a couple freelance gigs while also taking on a job at ‘THE’ Nike retail store on 5th avenue on the running floor. A typical retail gig for sure, though what made Nike unique was that the product essentially sold itself. The record foot traffic from foreigners and tourists all over the world solidified this. I’m pretty sure the store was making multi-millions daily based on the traffic we were getting. At Nike I met really great people and truly observed the Nike culture at the ground level— the values themselves and how they apply on an individual by individual basis. Nike would hold running events weekly that were open to the public. I would offer these events to customers to come put their purchases in action and often join myself since the community aspect of it was something I really enjoyed. A final but important component of the role was learning through interaction with all types of people across the personality spectrum. Colleagues, customers, higher level managers, shady characters, and everyone in-between— I have met many, and learned a considerable amount from engaging with others due to the sheer number of people I crossed paths with at Nike. I always have, and continue to, hold the brand in high regard.

  • The takeaway: Finding, building, and maintaining community is incredibly important

For financial reasons during this time, my return home was imminent. The journey in New York had nearly come to an end. I told myself I would give myself 1 month to find another gig. So I started to fervently look for jobs and apply to as many roles as possible. I returned back to Texas but after securing two interviews, I came back for one more go.

  • The takeaway: Resiliency and determination are extremely powerful when leveraged correctly.

The agency that I am at now is the same one that took a chance on me a chance 6 years ago. I had joined when the agency was small to mid-sized (employee ~67ish). The mission was cool, they were like ‘rebels’ in the advertising space and when chatting with Kamran Asghar (CEO/cofounder) I could really see it and felt like it was ‘within grasp’. I joined a newer team doing paid search which was about 3 people whom I’m still very good friends with today. My boss was this woman named Julie Kenny whom I owe my tenure in New York to. She took me in, she trained me up. I watched how she handled meetings and how she was never too ‘senior’ to get into the actual work. She grew the biddable platform team (Marketplace as it was referred to) by nearly tripling it the first few years I was there. We would find things to do that brought the team closer together, whether it was a simple happy hours, or some media related event where we would all have a chance to go. Despite working on different clients, the team itself had remained close as it had scaled. When I had finally become a manager and started to manage a few individuals, I quickly realized that there is this balancing act that would need to exist. There was unknown territory that I was entering and unfortunately there weren’t too many examples aside from my experience with Julie I could count on. I had started to read a few books which lead to me developing how I would like to lead teams. I was, and am still in pursuit of finding the qualities that could best push a team forward. The demand of the clients and day-to-day contacts started to warrant building up project management, reprioritization of the workflow faster, sooner. How we would integrate with larger teams had become more complex and it was evident a system needed to be placed. More junior colleagues were asking for more systemic changes so they can also become more efficient.

Over time as the team grew, there was a growing need to ‘specialize’ across roles which had caused some differences in opinions amongst how teams had operated historically. The more specialized teams had faced it the most and there came a time where my skillset had developed into something a bit more diverse which allowed me to shift over to the analytics team at the agency. By being able to apply my media background to the role, I felt that it would ultimately connect the pieces where I can not only become the liaison between technical teams but the non-technical teams and clients.

  • The Takeaway: Challenge yourself and each other, be adaptable, always be learning

These are some of the many takeaways I have incorporated into how I like to lead a team and I’m excited to find more ways to continue to develop into a great leader.