Of course, I was always slated to take this place over, that’s been in the cards since I was born, so there are a few old timers around here who still think of me as that little tyke who used to tot around the old office space we had back in the nineties, or the teen who would come in after school to shadow my father, learn the ropes. They don’t think I’ve truly earned my place at the top, the Vice President and future CEO of Mitchell Media.
Honestly, this place has been my entire life for so long, almost no social life or eventhoughtsthat don’t revolve around clients, tactics, and breaking records. I think if you added up all the hours I’ve put into this job, my experience would probably even surpass some of those same old-timers who like to underestimate me.
So my stint these last four years as COO of Darling Digital has been to show the entire company, not to mention our entire client portfolio, that I am more than capable of successfully running every aspect of a marketing firm, despite my age and lack of a formal pedigree for the corporate world.
The success we’ve found has been no accident, but it hasn’t been a total cakewalk. Some of my accounts have struggled with me overseeing their campaigns due to my age; while others think it’s an asset, that I must understand this stuff intuitively because I was raised on a keyboard and on social media, whereas they just don’t get it. Eventually, I win them all over with the metrics and performance my team and I get for them. You can’t argue with numbers, baby.
Sadly, I feel like my accomplishments tend to get overlooked or brushed off as happenstance by some of the team, rather than being acknowledged for the insane amount of work I’ve put in to learn this business, train up on all the various elements that go into marketing in the twenty-first century, and frankly—if I can be candid—my own bright ideas I’ve added into the mix.
Imagination has always been a strong suit for me, and I’m easily able to put myself in others’ shoes and kind of imagine how something would appear to them. It makes me good at coming up with ideas for campaigns, as well as creating ads, copywriting, and even selling clients expensive marketing services.
But one thing I haven’t always been is, well, composed in the workplace. Sometimes the doubts that would get voiced by dubious staff at a divisional meeting, or even worse, in front of everyone at a company-wide meeting, would get to me.
The sneers or disapproving glances when I would get when recognized for a campaign performance, a new account I’d landed, or some other impressive metric I’d pulled off would seep under my skin and chafe. They still do, but at least I can hold back my stronger emotions about it now; maintain that professional facade that I’ve learned is so key to earning my respect here.
I’ll never forget the meeting about five years ago, where our sales manager, Tony, was faced with having to account for the large number of interested leads I’d generated through testing a new type of social media ad by running it for our own company.
He had been bitching about not having enough leads to work for months (instead of generating them himself or through his team, as he’s fucking paid to do, but anyway). I brought a report to my dad, Thomas Mitchell, the founder and CEO of this company for over thirty years now, that showed him how many of those leads I had generated, and that not evenhalfof them had been contacted in a timely fashion.
I admit, I got a littlepassionateabout it, as I put a lot of work into making this happen (not to mention had some epic bonuses riding on the sales that came out of that trial run), and dammit I want to see this company do better than it ever has before, year after year.
Tony actually scoffed at the report and began making excuses, saying the accounts he’d contacted weren’t interested in traditional marketing campaigns and that’s when I. Lost. It.
I exploded on him, pointing out thatof coursethey weren’t interested in traditional marketing campaigns, the entire ad set I had run was based onnewservices. Imayhave shed a few tears of rage in my passionate outburst, and then came the rolling eyes and the condescending remarks.
“Can we not be so emotional, Ellie?”
“You don’t need to cry about it.”
If he knew what was in my head, all the ways I was thinking of jamming my three-inch vintage-style pumps up his ass at that moment, maybe he would’ve treated me slightly differently, but then again, probably not. I have the distinct impression the only way Tony would respect me is if I had a penis instead of a vag. And that’s not happening.
If I’d been a guy, I could’ve yelled, punched a wall, and all would’ve been forgiven in the name of understanding, taking his job to heart. But a woman? Getting upset about something in the workplace? She’s overly emotional, unequipped to handle the stress of her position.
And after a significantlycalmerprivate meeting with just me and my dad, I have spent years focusing on reining in mypassionas he called it, in the workplace.
It wasn’t long after that he let me run with my idea for Darling Digital, running my own sales team as part of it (Chance being my newest acquisition, having poached him from Mitchell Media after his sales manager was fucking him around—spoiler alert: it was, you guessed it, Tony), and Thomas (aka Dad when we’re not in the office) has been more than impressed with my performance in the years since. The nasty comments from the others have mostly stopped, but I still occasionally hear a snicker when I address the entire team at our monthly company-wide meetings.
But it’s that experience, those notches in my belt, that led to the decision of assigning Asher to work with me on his apprenticeship for half of his day, every day. Thomas and Shelby feel like I can not only use him on some of the projects I oversee and put my magic thumbprint on, but that my side of things is a little moreexcitingthan what Asher might be seeing in his time working with some of the stuffier, “old guard” type staff.
I know they’re really hoping he sticks with the company long-term, but in a single conversation with the guy I saw it wasn’t his calling. It’s been mine since before I could drive. It ain’t his. But whatever. We’ll see out the next few months, get him the experience he’s here for, and I’m sure he’ll have a lot of value to bring to us and our clients in that time as well, then he’ll go his way and we’ll go ours.
So far, the kid’s impressing me. His first day with me, I gave him my usual test.
Gave him a task to complete. Any task. Doesn’t much matter what it is. But I picked something I knew he wouldn’t fully know how to do, gave him the rest of the afternoon to do it.
You know how many new hires we get, with their shiny, freshly minted marketing degrees, their noses up to the ceiling as they tell you how great they are, what an asset they’ll be to the company, who can’t so much as do a basic task related to their job?
After writing a certain number of wasted paychecks over the years, all of which resulted innothingfor our clients, nothing for our company as a whole, I got smart. Now, every single new hire that comes into my neck of the woods, they get tested, straight away.
Can they get something done? Or will they spend a week flitting from desk to desk, meeting every single person who works here, refilling their coffee, taking ten restroom breaks a day, but, oh, now they’re hungry, and you know what, let’s take a look at the parameters again for the assignment. Send off a few emails, gather more info, yet never actually get something finished.
It’s (sadly) a rare breed who can see what needs to be done and actually see it through to completion before the next winter Olympics comes around.
You know who did, though? The new guy. The apprentice. Asher “don’t call me ‘AJ’” Carter.
He came up with a new mascot and logo for a client we’re looking to impress, a long-term client of ours, In the Books Accounting, without knowing anything about them ahead of time, and it didn’t suck. Racking up points in his favor, more plusses in his column, and I’m starting to see why his mom sold my dad on his value around here. The kid is surprisingly self-sufficient, with serious skill and a good head on his shoulders. An uncommon combination of book smart and street smart that makes him able to think on his feet, and fast.
In the days since, he and I have been working together to come up with a campaign idea for the same client.
