Career Path of an Associate Director of Brand Marketing at Free People

Could you walk me through your career path, starting with your experiences in college? Did you have any internships or jobs prior to becoming the associate director of marketing? How did you get that first job?

I did my undergraduate studies at NYU, which offered many internship opportunities. My school encouraged us to find internships in areas we were interested in. I took that advice and started working pretty much right away. My first job was in music, a passion of mine.

However, the music industry was in a strange place when I started. I decided to pursue fashion, another interest. I worked at Giorgio Armani and Polo Ralph Lauren, both iconic and incredible companies, but very different experiences, especially while balancing school.

Luckily, my school offered many evening classes, allowing me to work a couple of days a week and supplement that with schoolwork. As a learner, I really need textbook knowledge to merge with real-life elements. This was super helpful because I studied Media and Communications, and marketing falls under that umbrella at my university.

I also did an internship at Groupon when they were filing for their IPO. It was very interesting to work for a company during their IPO process and understand their growth, expansion, and the rules for public companies. My last internship was at FleishmanHillard, a very traditional PR company, the largest in the world at the time.

I worked for three Global Heads, their Executive Admin, and myself as an intern. They were starting a new brand marketing division, essentially an ad agency within the PR agency to attract more business from their existing clients. That internship led to a full-time job after about six months.

I worked in marketing, experiencing the New York, Madison Avenue grind. This involved working all night, sleeping on my boss's couch for an hour, then waking up for morning meetings – the total New York experience.

Then I started working with CAA, a talent agency based here in LA with offices in New York. I found myself doing quite a bit in entertainment and working with talent from day one at FleishmanHillard. This relationship with CAA snowballed into working on many projects together as agency partners, and eventually, CAA offered me a job.

I moved to LA and went through their trainee program, which was my introduction to the entertainment world. I worked in entertainment marketing there. After a couple of years, I worked with incredible clients, on TV shows, developing music festivals, running VIP programs, and launching celebrity brands, truly merging brand, talent, and entertainment.

I decided I wanted to work on the brand side. My first move was to Gwyneth Paltrow's wellness company. Wellness has always been an interest of mine, and I knew I needed media experience. That company was like a media company plus a brand because they created their own products, which was very interesting.

Since I worked a lot in wellness, I covered everything from vitamins to cannabis. My client MedMen at the time was the fastest-growing cannabis company in the United States, the largest retailer, aiming to be like the Apple of weed stores. Given my background in retail, I found that very compelling.

I went to work for them after they were my client, focusing on retail marketing and introducing cannabis to new markets like New York, Florida, and Illinois. It was a fascinating opportunity to work in an emerging market where the rules were constantly being broken. It taught me about taking risks, being more fearless, and enjoying company growth.

The cannabis industry is very volatile and not for everyone. I found myself wanting a little more stability, so I returned to retail, which is where I am today.