Last Wednesday was my first anniversary at Forward Networks. It’s cliche to say, “Oh, it feels like I just started,” but that is what it feels like. It is also a big deal because it marks my major transition from a technology-based role, my focus for my whole career, to a gasp marketing role. I have fielded this next question a lot. “Why marketing? You are highly technical; it doesn’t make sense.” This post will also go into a high-level view of my career and explain why the transition to marketing makes sense now. So, let’s dive into my first anniversary at Forward Networks and why I jumped to marketing.
In my 20+ years of working in technology, this is the most fun I at a job have ever had, and I look forward to going to work every day. I don’t think I have ever said this about any job, and I have worked at some incredible places. When I first saw Forward Enterprise, I knew I had to figure out how to get into the company to talk about the product in a way that only I could. Now, I get to talk about our phenomenal product in the way I want to.
Since I was a real network guy, I have the stories to back up organizations that need to consider looking further into the product and how it will give them incredible insights. My primary role is writing blog posts, talking at conferences, video production, and webinars. One thing I am the most proud of being able to do is what we call Demo Tuesday.
Demo Tuesday is where I stream to all popular websites and show off different scenarios the product can help with without the pressure of talking to a sales guy to see it. It was designed to not be like any other product demos you might see from any other vendor. These are just a handful of some of the awesome things I get to do and how I get to talk about our product, but I can’t leave you with just this….
A great example of this is when I presented at #NFD34. My “boss” called me during my presentation and asked why I was not on a troubleshooting bridge, and I needed to get on NOW to help isolate an issue. If you are curious as to how that turned out, you can check out that part of our presentation from #NFD34: https://youtu.be/q58WbL7iwls?feature=shared&t=476
So Why Marketing?
Now, the next question is, why marketing? I was at a certain point in my career where I had done it all, in my eyes. I ended my enterprise career at The Coca-Cola Company. That was the pinnacle of enterprises to work for because of their iconic brand. Not everyone can say they worked for a company whose logo is instantly recognizable worldwide. I know there were more prominent companies to work for, but none of them had the brand awareness of Coca-Cola. So, I moved to technical sales. This was fun but a lot for this introvert to get used to and adapt to.
The more significant hurdle was my daughter, who had just been born, and I started my sales journey with a very hot SD-WAN startup. So life went from 0 to 100000 very quickly! After the startup, I became a Subject Matter Expert for another networking vendor, specifically helping them with go-to-market strategies for their SD-WAN product. Sales were fun, but something was missing. The next move, I never in a million years thought I would do…
One day, an EY recruiter slid into my DMs, asking me about joining their team. My first instinct was no thank you, my enterprise days are done. He said no, not for our internal IT team, what about being a consultant. You have a very diverse background that we feel will do great here. I was intrigued, so I went through with the interview and was hired. One thing I want to point out is not all engagements I was a part of were fun. I did get to do some cool things I might never have done before. The one thing that I left EY with was an incredible mentor who, honestly, cares about both my personal and professional career.
If we are keeping track at home, I was a Principle Network Architect, Sales Engineer/Solutions Architect, and Technology Consulting Manager. From Fortune 150 enterprises to a startup to an established networking vendor to a Big Four consulting firm, what could be next? I have run the gamut of what someone would hope to do in the technology field. I wanted to take all the skills I built up over my career to see what I could do. This is where my current job in marketing makes 100% sense right now. This is why I decided to make the move to marketing. The diverse background that I have. From being in the enterprise to sales and rounding out in consulting. This gives me the full view of what companies think, how they operate, and what they look for in a product.
There you have it. This is why it made sense for me to go into marketing at this point in my career! Are you looking to move into a completely different business unit or jump into enterprise, sales, or consulting? Let me know in the comments below, or you can reach out to me on any of my socials. Thanks for reading, and see you in the next post!