The Designer
At age 4, I might be what you consider an artist who was waiting to be discovered. My medium was to leave crayons in the car and let the heat of the sun create my masterpiece. Starting with just the meager 4 crayon set, I set my ambitions higher and only worked with the 8 color pack. When the newest vehicle arrived on the driveway, I was determined to raise the bar again. I would not be satisfied with just using the 24 color pack, I wanted the pinnacle of the 152 colors available in crayon. After a blistering hot day, I placed my crayons on the backseat and let the sun do its work. I showed my creation to all my family and friends. Many touted me as the new “Picasso of the Pontiac” and marveled at my creation. My parents were less enthralled with my creations and put the end to my artistic age by banning any further crayons in the house or vehicle.
The Engineer
In college, I became fascinated with technology. Computers were no longer boring and video games were actually fun to play. No longer did you have to “use your imagination” around huge blocks of colors moving across the screen. I quickly found work as a computer support technician. On my first day, my job was to replace motherboards and install memory and replace video cards. Unfortunately, my knowledge was quite limited and didn’t include the details on how to do the work. My supervisor just said get it done. After “zapping” several expensive desktop computers, I learned the proper sequence and wiring necessary to assemble computers correctly. By the end of the day, the acrid fumes from my workbench made it was clear to me and my supervisor that my destiny was with software not hardware.
The Marketer
In the 1990s, I had learn what I could do with software and began a career as a software and web developer. I learned how to build databases and write complicated scripts and programs using a variety of languages. For nearly twenty years, I created websites, software and mobile applications for various companies and non-profits until a friend convinced me to work for a company called ExactTarget in 2012. They were looking for someone who understood software and websites to help the marketing team maintain their website, build landing pages and create emails. On the ExactTarget’s marketing team, I broaden out my skills to include all the mechanics and strategies of digital marketing from SEO to SMS. I became the writer, designer and project manager overseeing launching campaigns for multiple countries in multiple languages.
That would soon change when I was asked if I could learn a new product called Pardot. Pardot was to be acquired by ExactTarget in a few weeks and I was asked to master it in just a few days and have all of ExactTarget’s marketing automation running on Pardot in less than 2 weeks. Wearing my lucky cheese hat (Go Green Bay!), I lead a group of contractors to quickly build and successfully launch on Pardot right before the official announcement. Since no one else knew Pardot at ExactTarget, I became THE pardot guy in the building. Even after Salesforce purchased ExactTarget and I moved into a new position supporting key enterprise clients, I would be asked to answer questions about Pardot. After I left Salesforce and worked for several marketing agencies, there would be requests for me to do Pardot work. Thus, I accepted that my future marketing work would embrace Pardot. I made it my platform and continue to learn and share how it can be your solution in marketing automation today.