Owning The Moment: Finding and Seizing Challenges
Gustavo, or Gus (pronounced Goose), was born in Mexico City, grew up in the small town of Garden City, KS, and now calls Portland, Oregan (okay, technically, Beaverton) home. He gets to explore all the great things of Portland, including all the outdoor wonders, with his lovely wife and goofy dog.
He began his professional career at a startup fixture installation company where his exposure to experiential advertising piqued his curiosity. He was able to find his way into the agency world in client services and has worked with a handful of agencies.
Gus has had the pleasure of working with great brands such as ESPN, Blue Shield of California, Gatorade and PayPal to name a few.
In his current role as account supervisor at Quality Meats, Gus enjoys high touch collaboration with internal and brand teams and finding creative solutions to challenges. He has enjoyed doing this with lovely client partners on DoorDash, GoDaddy, GetYourGuide, and Huggies.
I joined BSSP as an account executive in the summer of 2021, one of the many who switched to a fully remote job during that time. I was very excited about the opportunity but also a bit worried about how to best approach the remote setting, especially knowing how much of the success of client services comes from making a connection with internal and client partners. I was lucky enough to jump right into things when I started, working on a big and fast-paced project that allowed me to attend a shoot, meet some of my colleagues, and hit the ground running.
By the end of 2021, I had worked on a few other client projects and was then onboarded on the largest client at the agency at the time. I had quickly created strong connections with my colleagues and was learning more and more about the client’s business.
One of the most exciting aspects of working on this client was working with colleagues from all the different services we had available; strategy, creative, production, media, and data science. I began to feel comfortable in my role, and felt like I was getting into a good groove.
Just when things were starting to feel comfortable, I learned that the account supervisor I worked under was leaving. While the search to backfill the role was in full swing, I decided to see this as an opportunity I couldn’t let slip away. I didn’t want to just keep things moving, but rather I wanted to thrive and show myself how much I could grow, and own this moment.
I quickly made it my goal to be the go-to person for everything related to this brand, and when I saw an opportunity to improve something, I worked with our internal and client teams to change that. Whether that was streamlining processes, establishing better ways of working and collaborating with internal and client teams, or being able to quickly onboard team members and help maintain the level of standard we set for the brand. I did everything I could to help make the creative better. I wanted to make sure my team and clients had the same high expectations that I had for myself.
I knew seizing this opportunity was going to inherently come with a lot of work, and I couldn’t have achieved all these things or grow as a professional without the support from so many people, but the person that was most influential during this time was the head of account management at the time, Mark Yee.
During that time he was also flexing down and taking on more of an account director role in addition to his responsibilities as head of account management. I went from connecting with him sparingly, to having weekly meetings as I ramped up with the new responsibilities that I was taking on. He always knew the best way to approach things with me — giving me the space to lead projects while providing support and advice when I needed it. We grew close during this time as we were working very closely, and even when we did get the account management support on this client, we stayed close.
My respect and admiration for him grew immensely during this time. I’ll always remember his mentorship, and aim to provide the same type of support, encouragement, and empowerment he gave to me to anyone I have the opportunity to mentor or support.
This moment in time is something that I always look back on. The growth and the journey were great, but I know it wouldn’t have been the same if I didn’t see this as the opportunity that it was. I could have taken a different approach—done a good job and things would have turned out fine—but the growth wouldn’t have been the same. I wouldn’t have the same type of belief in myself to be where I’m at today.
I realised that a big part of my success has come from seeing big opportunities and seizing them. This insight is something that I share with friends or colleagues that are going through a challenging time in their career. Not to say it will always get better, but to remind them that challenges can be opportunities for growth.
