On a beautiful Fall afternoon in 1993, the scoreboard at Ownby Stadium in Dallas showed Texas Tech leading SMU 14-7 when the kick sailed through the uprights.

And a guy wearing a suit charged the field to congratulate the jubilant kicker – a halftime contestant who’d just won two American Airlines tickets for his successful kick.

That guy in a suit? Me. A grad school intern in the SMU athletic department whose job included running contests like these.

Sitting in the stadium crowd that day was the founder of a new sports marketing agency in Dallas called The Marketing Arm (TMA).

After that Saturday – and after finishing my MBA at SMU – TMA hired me for a project: To help run a charity basketball game in Chicago. My first responsibility found me in a K-Mart asking a sales associate if they had any XXXL jocks. I’ll always remember the smirk he gave me. Humbling.

Turned out to be the best decision of my career.

This game – the 1994 Scottie Pippen Ameritech Classic – was the last game ever played in historic Chicago Stadium. Michael Jordan came back to play, along with 10 other NBA All-Stars. The game was a sellout and received more press requests than any bowl game that year. It was the hardest I had ever worked and the most fun I would ever have on the job. I was hooked.

And I got an offer to join TMA fulltime, then a three-person shop with $120k in revenue.

Over the years, TMA grew into a worldwide agency with more than 550 employees providing cultural expertise for blue chip brands across celebrity talent, gaming, entertainment, music and experience – and generating $120M in revenue.

Oh, and Ameritech rebranded as AT&T, which became my client at TMA for 27+ years.

Despite my two-inch vertical leap and inability to carry a tune, my experiences at TMA were vast and varied. The agency’s growth gave me opportunities to develop new capabilities needed for expansion and success. Which means I grew into a non-traditional hybrid of strategy/creative/entrepreneurial who attacks problems from multiple directions, thanks to diverse disciplines and roles like these:

Brand Promotions
In the early days of TMA, I created our Promotions Group that developed programs like the Office Depot Small Business of the Race, which earned the office supply chain NASCAR’s Marketer of the Year. Eventually TMA was named Promo Magazine’s Agency of the Year in 2006.

Sponsorship Consulting
The next challenge was launching TMA’s Sports Consulting Group to identify, evaluate and negotiate sports sponsorships for brands like AT&T who spent over $100M/year across 300+ sponsorships. The brand was named Sponsor of the Year by Sports Business Journal in 2014.

Creative
As the agency’s de facto creative head, I got to launch buzzy programs for AT&T. Like The Blue Room which live-streamed concerts in pre-YouTube 2006. The World’s Loudest Pep Rally promised a free Dave Matthews concert to the college generating the most creative invitations to the band (pre-Facebook). And we enlisted A-list artists like Taylor Swift to record songs that served as the Soundtrack for Team USA Olympic highlights which aired nightly on NBC during prime-time Olympic coverage. The songs were promoted via an iTunes takeover and generated over $1M (99 cents at a time) to support USA Olympic athletes.

My creative work at TMA earned industry accolades, honors like Effie, Reggie and Pro Awards, and invitations to serve as a juror for multiple award shows – including the 2014 Cannes Lions.

Strategy
In 2015, I was named Chief Strategy Officer of the agency. Where I learned that most problems can be cracked through the repetitive use of a single question, “Why?” (I’ll send you an invoice.)

Culture
In January 2020, I became Chief Culture Officer, responsible for the growth and development of 60+ culture experts who strive to identify and activate the role of brands in culture. Call it a combination of brand strategy, creative and becoming well versed in the nuances of IP (again, the hybrid thing came in handy). Our biggest accomplishment was a process that extracted knowledge from the heads of experts across the agency and used it to sharpen and power creative briefs across our 100+ clients.

Adapting in a Pandemic
The shutdown required a different kind of thinking. With a better understanding and appreciation for mental health, I forged an agency-wide partnership with Headspace. To give more opportunities to more people, we removed the requirement of a bachelor’s degree for employment. To stay sharp while at home, I completed multiple online education courses focused on different types of strategy.

The shutdown also brought into focus what excited and energizes me: Creating and chasing entrepreneurial programs. And when our holding company wanted us to chase hours instead of smart bets on what would pop next in culture, I left the agency in July 2022.

My 28 years at TMA feels like it was an apprenticeship to prepare me for the opportunities I really want to chase as founder of The Jos Companies.

Join me on my next adventure.