When did you know marketing was made for you?

Take a second and think back to a moment that you knew, this is what you want to do with your life.  When did you know marketing was made for you?  I am not going to sit here and say that there was one exact moment in my life, but I can remember a few, and they all led to the same ambition.  I wanted to one day be a top – notch marketing guy.  One day in the third grade during a career day, someone who was in my class decided to have their father come in and talk.  He worked in the local marketing division of Coca-Cola or Pepsi (like I said, I don’t remember exact moments), but I do know it was one of the two.  I remember him saying, “I make your mom and dad spend money, that is my job”

This was the first time that it was explained to me that the healthy cereals are on the top shelf, and the sugary cereals are on the bottom shelves so the smaller kids can see them and want mom and dad to purchase them.  I also learned that there was a reason why one week the Coca-Cola product were in the middle display and then the next week it was Pepsi.  I thought to myself, “this stuff is cool!”

As much as the game has changed since I was in third grade, the principals have stayed the same.  Marketing is still marketing, there are just many new channels of doing it.  Whether it is a direct mailing piece or a PPC landing page.  You still need the best, clear call to action that will initiate a sale.  Same ole’ game, just different players.

Reason # 2 that I just knew marketing was for me came a little later on, I was in junior high, I believe 8th grade.  My family and I headed over to my uncle’s house for a pre-Christmas dinner and my uncle had some friends over as well.  His friend just so happened to be VP at a direct marketing firm with offices in Manhattan.  My jaw dropped and I talked to the guy all night.  One of my childhood dreams has been to work in a high-rise in New York City (I’m in West Palm Beach, FL, just a little different).

The last moment came my sophmore year of college during an episode of The Apprentice.  They did a task that was all about marketing, and I see the contestants going all over NYC and staying up all night busting their butts to get the job done by 8 a.m. the next morning when they had to present to the Donald.

This was when I knew, this is what I want to do.  I began to dabble into it a little with managing a few affiliate programs, doing some PPC here and there, but wasn’t really involved with social media at all.  I had a Twitter account with 2 followers and maybe a total of 5 tweets.  Then I heard Chris Brogan and Julien Smith at the Affiliate Summit East in NYC in August and
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