Why I love the show This is Us

I've always believed in our connectedness and the value of solid relationship. I love how the people we meet along the way have a significant impact on the direction of our life - whether it’s a chance encounter or a long-term relationship we’ve been part of.

I believe without someone like Roger Rowley, I never would have worked at Ogilvy West. And, as a result, I would have missed out on meeting some of my favourite life-long friends and mentors. I was fresh out of university, had just moved to the other side of the country (with no relevant advertising experience, I might add), and decided to apply to a role that Roger posted in the Calgary Herald for an Account Director with 10+ years experience at PJDDB. I applied to that job out of desperation (after not finding a job for 3 weeks) and out of sweet, sweet naivety. And guess what? Roger actually called me back and said he wanted to meet me. Not because I had ANY chance of getting that job, but because he loved what I wrote in that cover letter and what he discovered about my character within that letter (because quite frankly, I packed up my bags, left my friends and family to find work in a city where I knew two people and had a very temporary place to stay). Roger and I met and he went through every single one of his 'advertising' connections in Calgary and then told me who to speak to and how to best reference how they were connected to him. And that lead me to calling Mark Piggott, President of Ogilvy West. No big deal, right? All 21-year old kids call the president of a global ad agency for a job, ya? After three calls, all resulting in me leaving voicemails, Mark finally got Jennifer Fletcher (Head of HR/Operations) to call me back. The minute I met Jennifer in person, we instantly loved each other. Jennifer has since passed away and was a great friend over the years - she even took my parents golfing when they came to visit me in Calgary. In many ways, she was like a mother-figure to me while living so far from home. In that initial meeting with Jennifer, she walked me down the hallway to meet the two Creative Directors, Trevor and Bruce. The three of them agreed to hire me that day. Without their belief in a kid with no experience, I also never would have met (and worked with) the agency producer, Richard Cairns - one of my first mentors in the biz. He sparked my passion and interest in the production side of advertising. Without his interest and patience in helping me grow, I never would have had the courage to ask to be a "Junior Producer" in one of my next moves at an agency called CCL (now, Colour).

**OK, so now I'll speed up the story a bit here.**

Having been both the producer and account exec on some of my clients biggest productions - the Alexander Keith's Birthday Party and a handful of Atlantic Lottery TV commercials, I had the opportunity to work with a number of amazing people in the production and film industry. And without that experience, I never would have met JJ Lyons, the Exec Producer on some of those jobs and the person that gave me my first 'big break' in Toronto. He hired me to work in a production sales position in a company then called AppleBox productions. Here I got to work closely with many commercial TV directors (and here I also met three of my best friends Irene, Leslie and Rita - a friendship that has now endured almost 20 years). One of the directors I worked with was the amazingly talented Director and Cameraman Steve Gordon. It was Steve who would end up introducing me to Maurita Holloway at Leo Burnett. At this point in my career, I had so many incredible people helping me navigate an industry I loved, but a little lost in that I was searching within it to find the perfect role for me. At Leo, one of my longest career stints, I was mentored by Laurie Freeman and Cheryl Grishkewich who groomed me to be an amazing 'account person' - they both get a lot of credit for the best parts of me in this biz. And after almost 4 years at Leo, my next role came knocking back from the East Coast of Canada. It was the biggest move in my career (both physically and mentally)...one that would take me temporarily back to Halifax to lead the Bell Aliant business at Extreme Group (now Arrivals and Departures). I got the call from the team at Extreme because of the connection and friendship I built with Iain Deans - my friend and copywriter at CCL/Colour. Because of the immense faith and belief that the owners, Paul LeBlanc, Shawn King and Andrew Doyle put in me, I was able to grow exponentially, but I missed Toronto. And that's when Cheryl G. 'called me back'. She was now at TAXI and was wondering if I wanted to work on the Canadian Tire business. I had to say yes. After a year working on the business at TAXI, my immediate boss at the time (and now a close friend and mentor), Caleb Goodman, was instrumental in supporting me in taking on a client role at Canadian Tire. And I ultimately ended up staying at CT.

**OK, want me to speed this up even more? Are you with me?**

From my time there, I never would have met Darren Phillipson who became a solid friend, an introduced me to the organization, Autism Dog Services (ADS). Darren and his family donated to ADS in memory of my amazing 13-year old black lab (who by the way lived through much of the above) who passed away on my last week at Canadian Tire. Because of that, I built The Pawsibility Project to raise money and awareness for ADS. And literally, over 100 people in my advertising career played small and big roles in making that charity project a reality (from logo creation to a free 3 min video content piece to selling product at Canadian Tire). A few years after leaving Canadian Tire, I ended up working with Caleb again at Rethink, thanks to Scott McNeil (who I also used to work with at TAXI and moved into recruitment, I might add!). And that's where my Full-Time career ended and my freelance journey started. Freelance was amazing all thanks to relationships that I built over this very long career story. I had a chance to work at Zulu thanks to a call from Rob Feightner (from my TAXI days), then FUSE (again, thanks Scott but also to Bernadette for meeting me again years later and believing I was perfect for FUSE and the role), to Famous Folks (all thanks to my friends Dave and Jenny's wedding, where I met the owner, Jay Dingwall) and finally to Cossette where my old Rethink coworker, now friend, Judy Hamilton shared a job with me and introduced me to Geoff Wilton and Amrinder Buttar who hired me onto their team.

And now, we're here, in the year 2020 (wow sounds so futuristic after all of that), the year of the pandemic. The year where so many incredible people are out of work, in the industry I grew up in. The industry that nurtured me. But this I know, it won't stay this way forever. And I'm grateful for having met and talked with Melissa Gordon, back in March when everything was going down and my contract at Cossette was ending. It was Melissa that introduced me to Ni Kalman earlier this year. And Ni and I talked throughout this entire year, simply because we wanted to work together. She's human. And I like that in the people I work and partner with. They don't just look human, they are human.

So...the morale of this story is my career, and yours, weren't built by us alone. There were many, many people, moments and connections (and dis-connections) that got me here, today. And they aren't mentioned above, but that doesn't mean they are any less as important as the ones mentioned in this story. I have hundreds of people that made a difference in my career.

My favourite aspect of all of my jobs was the people I met along the way. And all the connections I made over 20+ years. Connecting people and connecting with people is truly a legacy goal of mine. I believe this story represents a fraction of my journey into the world of recruitment and helping people find their purpose, their path and their career.