Age: 31
School/Degree: Marketing, Business Administration Degree in Marketing from Marquette University
Title: Marketing Manager
How did you find your way to Go Local? John, Jason, Tom, Andrea, Caleb and I all worked at an agency together previously. I was at the last agency for 6-7 years, and I got to work very closely with them and had relationships with them. So when they started Go Local and needed someone for marketing, Jason reached out to me. I started in July of 2011, almost 3 years ago.
What do you love most about your job here? I enjoy the people and the environment that I work in. It’s really important to me that you get along with your coworkers, and I learn from them every day. That type of dynamic is rare. People in other jobs don’t always get along with coworkers, but everyone I work with is intelligent and driven. We always come up with new and fresh ideas.
When you’re not at work, what do you do for fun? I love to travel, that’s my number one thing. I love to go anywhere warm with a beach nearby. Of course, I always love to spend time with family, friends, and my dog.
Since you work out of our Milwaukee office, but occasionally come to KC for visits, what do you like to do in KC? For me, it’s obviously that I enjoy getting to interact face-to-face, and taking advantage of the time I have to meet with everyone in the different departments. When I’m in KC, I love that time. I also love the KC food. Oklahoma Joe’s and tasty BBQ is the best.
What is your dream vacation? Within the U.S., I definitely want to visit New York. I’m sure I’d really enjoy it, since I grew up near Chicago. I also definitely want to go to Hawaii. I’ve been to other islands, but I really want to get that Hawaiian experience.
What is your favorite Go Local memory? My greatest memory is the trip we took very early on. We started off as a small operation, with a handful of employees. We put in so much work to make sure Go Local became successful. To celebrate and enjoy our success, we all went on a trip to Mexico.
You’re getting married soon, how is wedding planning going? The wedding planning is going pretty well. We are 3 months out, so we’ve gotten a lot of the major things knocked out. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought, we were able to find a venue and photographer pretty quickly. We got recommendations from people, and since we’re getting married a little later on, a lot of our friends have gone through the process. They have been so helpful. Now we’re getting down to crunch time and trying to find time to meet with people.
How did Jason respond when you broke the news that he wouldn’t be officiating the wedding? Jason was someone we considered for the role, but since he’s out of town, and has 5 kids, we didn’t want to put any hardships on the Barrett family. I will note that the officiant is something we are still finalizing before the wedding, so he could still be in the running.
What are you looking forward to most about married life? Building memories, finding a house, things like that. We’ve been holding off on some of those things until we did get married. Those things have been up in the air, and now we have the opportunity to move out to Kansas City. Getting a house and finding a community and an area where we want to raise a family in is so exciting and nerve wracking at the same time.
Do you have a go local nickname? I’m known by a few different names, such as Michael J. Solms and Michael J. Fox. They also call me Magic Mike or Uncle Jesse sometimes, which originated from some photoshopped images where they put his face on my body. I don’t really know where any of them come from, but I know Caleb and Andrea were involved in some way, shape or form.
What is something that no one would know about you by looking at you? I’m left-handed. I’m also a huge Chicago Bears fan, and I’m awesome.
Do you have any pets? I have my chocolate lab Lola, she will be 4 years old in April.
Let’s say you have the day off today. What would we find you doing? If I had the day off today, I would probably be working out, and then I would probably be on the couch. That’s it.
Do you have any vices? What are they? Coffee is my vice. I drink a ton of it.
What do you love about marketing? You have the potential to be doing something different every day, every minute even. It involves all aspects of what I love: design, writing, sales, creativity, and you have to work with each different area of the company. It’s part of the role. I get to utilize a lot of different skill sets. You get a little piece of everything that the agency has to offer, like new business, writing, creativity, presentations, just everything. It can be chaotic at times but that’s what I love.