Like many marketers, Jackson’s career started on the agency side, where he held a variety of roles and worked with brands such as Microsoft, T-Mobile, Old Spice, Dentyne, Proctor & Gamble, Jordan Brand and NASCAR, among many others. Jackson then transitioned in-house, becoming the head of digital for Chipotle, followed by a CMO position at Boxed, where he was named to the Forbes CMO Next 2018 list, identifying the 50 CMOs redefining the role and shaping the future.
Like many marketers, Jackson’s career started on the agency side, where he held a variety of roles and worked with brands such as Microsoft, T-Mobile, Old Spice, Dentyne, Proctor & Gamble, Jordan Brand and NASCAR, among many others. Jackson then transitioned in-house, becoming the head of digital for Chipotle, followed by a CMO position at Boxed, where he was named to the Forbes CMO Next 2018 list, identifying the 50 CMOs redefining the role and shaping the future.
Listen to this podcast episode where you hear more insights from Jackson Jeyanayagam speaking with GaryVee and Shane Battier here – “Jackson Jeyanayagam chats with #GaryVee on #MarketingForTheNow episode #4”.
You’ve been a digital brand builder and growth guy for 15+ years in your various roles (both full-time and advisor) – what do you love about this kind of work?
I love being able to see the results of my (and my team’s) work; there’s something so fulfilling when you see all the long nights/weekends and hard work result in something better than what you started with. But perhaps more than that, I love that I get to do it with other people that I respect and admire and that experience is quite rewarding.
You started doing agency work which is typically not quite as quantitative and over time your roles seem to be increasingly more numbers-focused – how did you find this learning curve? Did you just learn on the job or were there any other things you did outside of work to educate yourself?
I did do some research on my own and asked a lot of people smarter me for advice along the way but no question that 80% of everything I know is from doing it…and honestly, failing a lot, to truly learn. I don’t have an MBA and found myself in a GM role after many years across many types of organizations and functions and throughout that entire process I was learning at every step. My first real glimpse into understanding the numbers was my job at Taylor, where I was building and managing a practice group trying to drive incremental revenue and growth for the agency while balancing a group that was 15+. I was forced to have a better understanding of the numbers and that’s where it really started. It wasn’t easy and I made a lot of mistakes but I am better for it.
You mentioned that it was difficult for you at times balancing family life with work – what advice would you give younger folks about this? Is this just a rite of passage in your career progression journey or would you do things differently if you were to do it all over again?
This is a tough question. I don’t know if I have a good answer for people. It definitely is a consequence of being driven and having big ambitions; that said, the only way to think about this I would say is prioritization. Figure out what’s important to you – whatever that is – and prioritize around those things. It can’t be 20 things but it can be more than 1 or 2. For me, my career is very, very important. But nothing is more important than my family and my kids, in particular. So while I can’t be there for every moment and every event in their lives, I do prioritize the things that I know are important to them and the moments that are unique. Everything revolves around that. But to do this well, as I have learned, you have to be extremely self-aware about yourself; your working style; how much time you have to work with, etc. You can’t do everything and can’t be everywhere so being self-aware of what you can do and what you can sacrifice is critical….and the one thing you can’t sacrifice is your health so keeping that in mind and trying to maintain that as a priority is also important…so to simplify – it’s all about prioritization AND self-awareness 😊
