Let’s start by getting to know you a little better. Tell us about yourself.
I was born and raised in North Richland Hills, but I would always come to Fort Worth whenever I got the chance. I live in Arlington Heights right now so I get to hangout in Fairmount, the Historic District and West 7th. I’m basically right in the center of everything, it’s the best. I love Fort Worth.
I’m the youngest of five children – I have one sister and three brothers. With all of their spouses and children it’s a crazy blast and I love it, I love being around a lot of crazy passionate people, so it’s good that I work at Schaefer (laughs).
I have a dachshund named Luka (after the Dallas Mavericks player). I’ve been a Mavericks fan for as long as I can remember, and had a dachshund named Dirk growing up, so his name is a nod to the next generation.
What’s something you love to do?
I love cooking, and I’ve loved moving into the city and experiencing all of the fun and weird stuff happening around Fort Worth. Going to big events like the Main Street Arts Festival, finding new restaurants and just experiencing the city is a lot of fun.
What’s your favorite place?
My family’s lake house on Lake Cypress Springs, which is about two hours east of Fort Worth. We attempt some really bad wake surfing – we call ourselves the Mickey Mouse Club of the lake. But it’s really just great everyone being together.
What do you love about the job?
I love that every day is very different. I’m in a unique position in the agency where I get to work with for several wonderful account managers, and I actually get to work with just about every person in the agency. It’s really cool to watch experts do their thing. I really enjoy the research aspect of my job.
If you could do anything besides what you are doing now, what would you do professionally?
I’ve always thought it would be really fun to be a newscaster. Every character in pop culture named “Meredith” is either a mean girl or a newscaster, and I’d much rather be a newscaster. Look at The Parent Trap (mean blonde mom named Meredith), Meredith from The Office, or Meredith Grey from Grey’s Anatomy, who isn’t crazy, but is definitely high strung. For newscasters, you obviously have Meredith Land who I grew up with as the Dallas NBC anchor. So yeah, mean girl or newscaster.
What is the last thing you binge-watched?
Boy Meets World on Disney+. I’m basically reliving my childhood everyday after work. It’s so wholesome, and so good. I love that it’s truly a family show – great jokes for adults and kids.
What’s your favorite book?
Most recently, I read Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, which I read in like 3 days. It’s so fascinating, I love cooking, so it’s fun to observe a subculture that I knew nothing about. It was awesome to read about him growing up on the line in weird restaurants, and watch restaurants work or fail, and understanding the business side of them as well.
If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Enchiladas, sour cream chicken enchiladas to be more specific. My trick is to go to Rosa’s and order the kid’s chicken enchilada meal and size up the drink and you save like 4 bucks – it’s amazing.
What’s the scariest thing you’ve done for fun?
I got lost in Hong Kong and was like “eh, we’re good.” I was studying abroad, and it was myself and four of my friends, and the five of us had gone off to do a beach day, and we were coming back from our beach day, but we realized that we didn’t know the number of the cab company. So, we’re on a remote beach in Hong Kong, and we eventually figured out the cab number and got back to the area where we were going. So, we wandered around for a bit in Hong Kong to find the most affordable Michelin Star restaurant on the eastern hemisphere, and we had amazing dim sum and pork sticky buns. I think we ordered like six helpings of them, every time the server came by we ordered more.
Why Schaefer?
I had a couple of friendly connections at Schaefer, but the biggest reason is that I wanted to work at a place where I was valued, and felt like I could grow. Schaefer is very different than other agencies – for a lot of reasons – from the building to the people, it’s just a different feel.
Any words of advice?
Something we always say in account service is “if you get through your entire day and don’t scratch anything off of your to-do list, you still had a productive day.” You can start the day with expectations and a list of things to do, but it’s impossible to predict what the day will throw at you. It’s always about managing the project that’s currently in front of you.
