How I Became a Successful Global Marketer, Part 1: Customer-Marketing Obsession

(This was first published with images on October 29, 2018 on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-i-became-successful-global-marketer-part-1-carsten-schwerm-mba/)

How did I get to today? What can you learn from my experience? This three-part series will reveal the important milestones that have influenced my career to date and offer you my key recommendations. Part 1 takes you on an amazing global journey.

My big-bang moment

It all started sometime in middle school near Cologne, Germany. My dad and I were sharing the newspaper at the 6:30 a.m. breakfast table, reading the business sections. He, a commercial banker who did not attend college and started as a teller, encouraged me to be curious about global markets. The more I read about companies entering new countries, forming alliances, launching products, creating advertising campaigns etc. to fulfill unmet customer needs, the more interested I got. What I read that morning kick-started my passion for business, and later, my customer-marketing obsession.

However, my path forward was neither easy nor linear. In high school, I realized too late that I had not chosen the best combination of majors to support my career plan. Fortunately, I was brave enough to push for a change, against the advice of the headmaster, and switched schools. To focus on business and economics, I left my friends and favorite teachers behind and even repeated one grade. It was a tremendous challenge, but one of the best decisions of my teenage years.

My love for Marketing

After working many jobs in middle and high school — from selling weekly papers for 10+ years to various full-time handyman, factory, and office jobs — I decided to apply for an Industrial Management Trainee Program that offered exposure to and work in key business functions of global life science leader Bayer and global imaging leader Agfa-Gevaert in Leverkusen, Germany while attending business college. Thanks to many amazing supervisors, like Gerd Jannes, I fell in love with Customer Marketing. Consequently, I pushed for as many marketing placements as possible and even extended my program to fuel my curiosity for customers, market dynamics, and marketing.

Marketing is both art and science, so you have to think twice to bridge gaps between brands and customers. (Photo by explorenation on Unsplash.)

Equipped with seasoned marketing knowledge and skills, I moved on to college and grad school in Bayreuth, Germany to focus on Marketing Management and International Management. I was very fortunate to learn from and work with the best professors I could have wished for, Prof. Böhler and Prof. Meckl. In parallel, I expanded my broad marketing experience by interning at great global companies across industries supporting Product Management, Marketing and Sales, and Sales Support teams.

My digital agency career kick-off

The person who empowered me to enjoy an ambitious digital agency career was Chris Messina, whom I had the pleasure of working with after college in 2004 and grad school in 2006. Leading the combined Account and Project Management chapters of Body1, in Boston, USA, working across all clients, and being involved in almost every function offered me an unimaginably rich growth experience.

During a short sabbatical in 2007, I spent an amazing summer supporting the Public Relations team at Huiling in Guangzhou, China. I served two very different customer groups: teens and young adults with developmental disabilities and international business and political leaders supporting the NGO.

In 2013, after some time as an independent Marketing Consultant, while supporting my dad during a series of surgeries, I ended up in Singapore and joined BBDO Proximity to work exclusively for one of its key clients onsite. However, during the on-boarding phase, the project’s budget was cut, so I had to say farewell to the amazing Jen Faucon and team.

My global client services roles

However, I kept going and joined the global Nitro team led by Jules Pancholi in London, England in 2014. I moved from Nitro’s London office to the New York, USA one in 2016, and shortly after, into a client’s office in Boston, USA. That very special client taught me about the importance of Customer Obsession.

(Photo by Bob Liao.)

It has been a great experience working at Nitro and with other agencies serving global clients in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific across many different industries, such as fitness, healthcare, marketing and advertising, research and advisory, technology, and other verticals, while creating and driving digital solutions (strategy, UX, UI, influencer marketing, app and web development, event management, media campaigns, analytics, and more) across channels.

My current Client Services Director role includes leading digital strategy and creation, consulting, client servicing, leadership, and growth. I focus on helping my clients to win, delight, and retain customers by bridging gaps between their brands and their customers.

Looking back to where it all started, and the milestones along the way, I am very happy things turned out the way they did. And I am ready to advance to the next level.

What is next for me in my career — and where? (Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash.)

How can you become a successful global marketer?

Here are some of the key lessons I have learned over the years:

• Do not be afraid to acknowledge your mistakes and correct your course.
• Do not let setbacks get in your way.
• Pursue different experiences early if you can.
• Explore the world to experience personal and professional growth.
• Always keep learning.
• Be curious and open.
• Immerse yourself in new cultures.
• Stay positive and energized.
• Seize each day.

Please let me know in the comments whether your career has been as exciting and unpredictable as mine. What do you think about the key lessons I learned?

I am very thankful for this roller-coaster ride to date and look forward to seeing what awaits me behind the next loop.