The business answer

I realized that by pairing my fascination of technology and my love for artistry, that marketing was the best way for me to be able to do both in a professional manner.

I have an in depth understanding of both fields, that are quickly being fused together. I understand how computer sends a packet series, send that series of packets through a server chain, reconstructs, and all the filtering in-between, as well as I do that the marketing world is on the cusp of another major revision on a fundamental level and the ever-growing importances of true branding is going to correspond to the changes.

The personal answer

I am just a general nerd who loves jazz, movies, tech, art, and who could learn how to not ramble on. While I have a very strong creative streak in me, things need to make sense to, so I find myself in the problem solver position a lot.

I do really enjoy marketing because it allows me to problem solve and it allows me to create. To put it simply, I like it because it’s rewarding to be able to flex the entirety of my brain and see others succeed at the same time.

A few chapters from my story

Growing up, I always have dabbled in both tech and in art. My uncle is a published photographer and I had a natural interest in technology as I saw clunky cell phones, heavy laptops, and PDAs, become replaced with smartphones, tablets, and cameras go from film and shutter to digital and mirrorless. Growing up, I ran track, made decent grades, and got to the point in life where I wanted a good summer job. There is where the beginning of current me begins.

I started a summer job working for a close family friend. This family friend taught me how to be a sound guy. He had ran sound for some big name people, Beyonce, Reba McEntire, Grateful Dead, just to name a few. Anyway, he taught me how to run sound and started me down the path of being an audiophile. The thing about it was, it was a lot of weekend gigs and gave me a lot of free time during the week, this gave me time to do two main things. Play video games and work on my photography skills. Eventually as I got older, I got a steady part-time job in the fashion industry, where I only really did photography and sound gigs on the side in my free-time. Lets jump forward a couple years.

A month after I had graduated from High School, and I still needed to choose a college to go to. I eventually decided on Marietta College for graphic design but then I was approached by the head of the Ohio Valley University theater department. He had heard that I was a sound guy and they were in desperate need for someone just like me. I loved the idea of being able to continue to do sound stuff and the scholarship he offered me was pretty nice to. So the fall semester of 2020, I started my freshman year at OVU. I enrolled as an Information Technology Management major on a theater scholarship, talk about the combination of two different kinds of people. By the spring semester of my Sophomore year, I had gained two raises on my scholarship for climbing the chain of command in the theater to the technical director position.

One other thing happened that spring as well. OVU added a new major that semester, Integrated Marketing Communication. When I was looking over the program requirements, the prospect seemed interesting, but what really got my attention was that all but two of my current classes overlapped with the new program’s. So I did what any (in)sane person would do and double majored. Two things came from this aside from getting two bachelors degrees ( and yes I did hate myself senior semester when I had a 20 credit hour semester). One, I discovered I was meant to be in marketing. Two, I got connected with the head of marketing and did some work for the marketing department. At the beginning of my Junior year of undergrad, I was the lead videographer, helping plan marketing campaigns, editing footage, and coordinating with others in the marketing team to help everyone meet deadlines. During those times, I wish that school wouldn’t end so we could continue to keep working on campaigns (the leads of all the teams and the head of marketing dubbed ourselves the dream team because we. got. stuff. DONE!). Eventually the end came and I graduated in spring of 2020 with a bachelors of Integrated Marketing Communications and Information Technology Management. I decided I wasn’t done learning what I can of marketing though and so I enrolled into West Virginia University Graduates School for IMC and that’s where I’m at currently.

Right now I am a grad student at WVU, studying IMC with an emphasis of creative strategy. I’m working 40 hour weeks and am on the fast track for graduation, so I’ll be graduating in December of 2021. Yes, that means I am completing a two year program in a year and a half. That’s why I am currently typing this at 12:02 A.M., because the grind never stops.