From Beans to Brands (unabridged)

The version posted on http://www.embatalk.com was geared towards EMBA prospects and the EMBA community. My unabridged version was too long to post on that site. Here is the full version I wrote--a draft of course (pardon grammatical errors). Thanks to Linda H for posting and editing the abridged version for EMBAtalk.

Get ready for some flair!

From Beans to Brands: One EMBA alum’s journey from accounting to marketing

My knees slightly bent, my eyes focused intently on the ivory dimpled sphere at my feet, I swing my 3 wood a tad too feverishly. The water hazard punishes my shot by taking my ball into its depths. A perturbed frown quickly graces my face, and I rock back on my heels. What’s a girl to do…well, other than fling my club to the ground in a frustrated fit? But of course: I call a mulligan.
If only the game of life would allow us these bouts of forgiveness golf so generously offers. Perhaps we’d go back to that time in grade school where we taunted the scrawny kid needlessly: mulligan. Or that time we left our mother behind on the doorstep crying: mulligan. Or the way we broke up so abruptly with our college sweetheart: mulligan.
The mulligan I sought involved my career.
You see, I always had a natural bent toward marketing and sales. When I was a little girl I organized these garage sales that brought in a significantly greater amount of money than surrounding homes’ garage sales. When I worked in retail and banquet facility sales during high school and college, respectively, I constantly exceeded my sales goals by more than 100%. I’d assemble marketing plans and promotional campaigns for fun, and then thought nothing of it when the numbers rolled in and rewarded me time and time again. It seemed, well, too easy. Thus, I turned my back on both marketing and sales in favor of the side of business that appeared to be most challenging: accounting. If my class of 60 accounting prospects my freshman year of college dwindled down to 12 by the middle of my sophomore year, then I thought I was well on my way towards accomplishing a significant feat. Math had always come rather easily to me, and accounting was simply like a Rubik’s cube of numbers in my mind that just required some routine order. When my balance sheet would balance, a rush of excitement would course through my veins. A new FASB pronouncement garnered as much excitement as the release date of the Wii. I actually looked forward to compiling an indirect cash flow statement. It’s okay to laugh—I admit I’m a bit quirky. Any of my classmates or family members will be quick to concur. I swear I laugh at my own nuances constantly….but I digress….
For eleven years I measured my successes in accounting terms. At first it was the number of required adjusting journal entries at each year’s end. In my mind, the fewer that were needed, the better job I had done that year. Later on I started measuring my successes in more strategic terms: YOY growth of margins and increases in ROS and ROI resulting from cost cutting measures and capital structure reorganization I spearheaded or implemented. Throughout those first eleven years I seemed to conveniently forget clients mentioning how personable, engaging, and persuasive I was. When I faced a particularly complex series of financial transactions, I forgot my problem solving preparation and escape usually involved penning an essay chock full of alliteration and metaphor. When it came time to presenting ideas and ways of promoting our accounting communications, I forgot how often my way was chosen in relation to others’. When I would meet a complete stranger in the street and enthusiastically strike up some random conversation, which I so love to do, I would dismiss the look of surprise I’d receive when revealing my occupation as that of an accountant. Not once did I think it odd that my roster of close friends included designers, musicians, sales managers, creative strategists, and writers, but excluded accountants. Not once did I think it odd to have this uncanny ability to seamlessly move through and relate to mutually exclusive social circles; during the morning I could be conducting a meeting in a circle of MBA CxOs and VPs, but by evening I’d be having coffee with my eccentric writer friends who not once have ever treated, nor labeled me as business. Not once did I question why I escaped to creative writing after a difficult day, why I procrastinated with completing financials in favor of creating a marketing campaign for a local not-for-profit, or why I was so excitedly advising a colleague about SEO instead of SOX. Over those eleven years I was so focused on the symmetry of the concrete financial blocks I had stacked in such orderly fashion; I had neglected to notice my marketing proclivity had been seeping through the seams all along. I was attempting to chip my ball onto that elusive green with the wrong club; I just didn’t know it yet.
It all came to light in 2007 during the middle of Dr. Balasubramanian’s Global Marketing Management course. I couldn’t remember feeling so inspired in years. In fact, I found myself more passionate about the material we covered and team projects we completed than anything I had experienced in my financial career. Dr. B’s class forced me to confront my denial of my waning passion for accounting, eye-to-eye and toe-to-toe. His class also reopened those doors I had locked on myself so long ago. You see, when I had started the OneMBA program in September 2006, my sights had been set on becoming what Hugh O’Neill calls a “climber”. By the time we had completed Dr. B’s class and returned from our Latin American residency, I had woken up to the realization that my destiny was to become a “shifter”. It was now my task to shift my career from an accounting to a marketing track. Little did I realize how difficult that would be! Not only would I now have to switch my clubs and stance, I would also have to redesign the entire course.
It all began with my job search. I quickly found that while employers were eager to hire me, they wanted me based on my financial expertise rather than my marketing ability. My resume screamed finance any way I sliced it; thus, my brand remained finance. As such, my interviews continued to end with an offer for a financial or accounting position. Heck, I couldn’t even secure an interview with most of the ad agencies or marketing firms. I didn’t have the experience to do what I loved, and yet, I kept getting offers for the types of positions I just didn’t want to do anymore. Talk about a vicious circle. I decided it was high time to completely rebrand myself. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, right?
I set out to meet the people I aspired to be in 5-10 years’ time. The first thing I did was join the Triangle Chapter of the American Marketing Association (http://www.triangleama.org) and soon afterwards was elected to the Board as the Chapter’s Treasurer. Little did I realize how natural a fit I was with this group; through the monthly educational lunches and evening socials we put on, I’ve met dozens of the top marketing movers and shakers within the community. A few rapidly became friends. My goal in the upcoming year is to help out with our Social Media and Newsletter outlets to quench my undying thirst for social networking and their accompanying analytics. Plus, it gets me a little further away from the strictly accounting image.
Ten Thousand Villages of Raleigh (http://www.villagesofraleigh.org) was another Board I joined in July of last year. The rest of the Board quickly embraced me as a Finance Committee member, but I quickly shifted gears to spearhead social media initiatives and webpage development to raise awareness of the store and fair trade in general. Now I try to balance my duties between finance and marketing to keep well-versed in both areas for not-for-profits.
In addition to those two boards, I am also a member of the Loras College National Alumni Board (my undergraduate institution), the OneMBA International Alumni Board (one of the two UNC representatives), and I have just been appointed to the Orange County Arts Commission Board. At each organization to which I belong I take great care to avoid accounting altogether as much as possible and work in a marketing facet instead. And in case you were wondering, no, I don't sleep. My love for life, learning, and giving keeps me constantly intrigued and full of whimsy.
Senior leadership at my current workplace took notice of my rather sudden shift in interest. My knowledge of my company’s brand generated a highly coveted spot on the company’s Brand Advocate team, working closely with Global Brand Management and Corporate Identity—not exactly an accountant’s usual cup of tea. And if that wasn’t enough, I constantly reminded my supervisors of my career aspirations and would not let them dismiss my words as folly. I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t being persistent. I was a squeaky wheel who refused the WD40. But you know something? It worked. In December, a newly created position surfaced in commercial support and merchandising. My former supervisor and current supervisor plucked me out of accounting and put me in merchandising and pricing as a Commercial Consultant. I have honestly never been happier. So a little bit of luck, the right timing, a persuasive case, an open-minded forward-looking boss, and did I mention a little bit of luck?, coupled with (I’d like to believe) the connotative aspects of being surrounded by people and activities who have nothing to do with accounting and everything to do with marketing, helped me make that shift from accounting to marketing. I'm excited to say there are a handful of marketing leaders in the area who can now attest to not only my board work in finance, but in marketing as well. I am finally surrounded by the people I want to be. Ah, the joys and necessity of some seriously time-intensive networking!
I should also mention that I still enjoy accounting: true accounting. I just don't want to do that and only that for the rest of my life. I'm happy to complete some tax returns, compile and analyze financials, study trends, and calculate ratios. But at the same time let me engage in iso-profit scenarios, web strategy, social media analytics, and persuasively minded people-facing activity.

On the other hand, I am not so bold to say that just because I own a pair of FootJoys and golf with Srixon balls I’m a good golfer. Believe me, I’m not. Remember my affinity for water hazards? I also have a mean slice Srixon can’t seem to cure. And for that, I’m just going to have to keep getting saved by calling “mulligan.”
Please feel free to introduce yourself and add me on Facebook (Audra Marotta), Twitter (audragmarotta), and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/agm1127). I’d love to hear from you!