Entrepreneur at 21 and never looked back
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I met Regina, or Ginny as she’s known, in the most inauspicious circumstances. At 21 she already owned a successful ad agency in Miami –Smitco—and I tried to steal one of her marquee accounts: Entemann’s. I failed at stealing the account but succeeded in meeting a great professional and even better person and started a friendship that has lasted for over 40 years.
A defining moment – Ginny started working in the industry at 17. At 21, married and pregnant and still in college, she got fired. Her dad, the owner of a successful steel company naturally told her to come work for him. Pipes and fittings did not attract Ginny, but advertising did. So, with a $500 loan from her dad, she started Smitco.
What change she would have not predicted at all – The internet. At the time, 14 years after opening Smitco, Ginny had closed it and went to work for “corporate” in media. Many in media not only had not foreseen the power of the internet, but they were also trying to minimize it. But the biggest change was going from full-service agencies to the fragmentation we have today.
Coping with change – For the internet, it was simple: she took her work from being 100% manual (color separations, stripping) to 100% computerized. The fragmentation did lead Ginny into other directions, specifically sales. After all, owning an ad agency for 14 years teaches you the importance of relationships, customer or client experience and selling, skills that she is successfully using in her job.
Advice to a hiring CEO or CMO – Older people add value. But my advice is to older people: You need to show the interviewer how you will add value to the team.
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