Oh, Brother…

I was sitting across from an interviewer for a retail job at Dick’s Sporting Goods (that I was pretty pissed to be interviewing for after applying for nearly 500 advertising jobs and having no success) and I was hit with the worst question you can be asked.

“Tell me about yourself.”

This question ruffles my feathers. How do you define your entire existence and list all of your experiences and accomplishments in like 5 minutes worth of talking? They should use that for the plot of the next Mission Impossible.

I start naming off all the things I can think of: where I was born, where I was raised, where I went to school, what sports I’ve played in my life, my favorite teams, and random things I learned in my life experiences and how they helped me be a good sales person aside from my 2 year stint at Zumiez in high school. But my interviewer looked at me like I didn’t finish explaining.

“That’s who you are and what you’ve done, but what are you PASSIONATE about?”

I didn’t know what to say and I kind of froze. Not because I’m not passionate about anything, but I didn’t know how to articulate it, especially since the things I’m passionate about had nothing to do with selling sports apparel. I don’t know if it was the way my interviewer said it or how he explained what he is passionate about for reference, but I remember thinking, “that’s one hell of a question,” and if I had 5 minutes to think on my own, I could’ve delivered a masterclass on what I’m passionate about.

Luckily, my portfolio is a great place to teach you what I’m passionate about.

This is not an acceptance speech, but I would like to thank a lot of different people for pushing me toward the massive world of advertising. Whether it was words of encouragement, reality checks, lighting fires under my ass, feedback, or co-brainstorming, it was instrumental in me learning all that I’ve learned about advertising. But I can’t say “I’m passionate about advertising.”

When I dig deep, I find that I possess this collection of skills and ideas that come together, and I can strategically draw a line through all of them and find the common denominator for all of the things I love doing, and do well.

I’m passionate about storytelling, but not just any storytelling.

I’m passionate about telling the best stories I can.

It’s not about increasing sales or impressions for me. Where’s the humanity in that?

It’s about crafting a story so meaningful, so compelling, so tear-jerkingly beautiful, that when the audience member sees it, they remember it and choose Small Batch Jam Co. over Smuckers. When you tell a great story and it resonates with a lot of someones, the products sell (which makes everybody happy), but I’ll be happy when I help tell the story of a brand and it makes them unforgettable in the best way possible.

And reflecting on my life, it makes a lot of sense that I love telling stories.

That’s why I make music, why I love the entire process of advertising, and why I don’t have an issue reiterating the story of how I ended up in a hospital for a week in May of 2023.

It’s also why I have such difficulty confining myself to one specific part of advertising. Since I took Strategic Process with Alex Morrison and Jazo Moises at Oregon (Sco Ducks), I have felt like strategy is my thing. However, I also find myself loving the idea of writing, designing, or analyzing data. However, it does seem like strategists do all of those things, so I guess it kinda works out!

But whatever I end up doing, I know I’m going to do it well.

There’s a story to be told in nearly everything, especially every part of the advertising process.

But rather than get frustrated that I like too many different things, I would rather take the opportunity to tell you that there is very little that I wouldn’t be passionate about.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. And if you want someone who loves storytelling on your team, hit my line.

TL;DR, I like storytelling a whole lot and instead of having an identity crisis about what I want to do, I’m embracing the whole process. (P.S. I need a job lol)