Stories&Work: Everette Taylor
Give us your full name.
Everette Taylor
Share the kind of work you do.
I’m founder/CEO of the company MilliSense which is a transformational marketing firm dedicated to growing companies and building brands through datadriven digital marketing. I’m also currently serving as a growth marketing strategist to Microsoft and leading product/marketing for a new social app to be released later this year.
How did you come to do this type of work? What were you doing before you started your current work?
I honestly just fell into it. I was 18 and just started college but being the first person in my family to ever go to college, I had no idea how financial aid worked. So I filed late and didn’t get all the money I needed and I had to find a job ASAP. I saw in the local newspaper that United Way was looking for a marketing intern. It paid a little bit more than minimum wage, which was more than I ever received, so I jumped at the opportunity. I’ve been working in marketing ever since, despite not studying it in college. Before I got into marketing, I did a mix of retail, which has a marketing aspect to it in sales and manual labor jobs.
What’s the biggest thing you had to overcome to find success in your work?
Having a victim mentality. It’s easy for us to blame others for our failures and the obstacles we come across, but we have to take ownership of our own faults and take charge of our fate. It’s tough coming from certain backgrounds and life experiences but you can’t let that prevent you from being successful. The minute I stopped making excuses and feeling sorry for myself for the cards life dealt, my life turned around. I refused to not be successful, no matter the odds.
What is the risk in pursuing doing the work you love?
It’s scary as hell. A lot of the times the work we love doesn’t seem realistic or pay enough. It’s the path less traveled. It comes with different obstacles than taking a more traditional path will have. That uncertainty drives most of us away. It takes a special person to take that leap. I would advise to focus more on the benefits that come with doing the work you love, rather than focus on the risks, although you should still be very aware of those. We spend the majority of our adult lives working. A big part of being happy is doing what you love.
What’s the biggest way your business has changed since you started it?
A lot more delegated work. I started the company by myself with no help. I had to take a step back and realize it wasn’t realistic, especially as the business grew. I’ve been able to put a solid team of people I can trust around me and they make up for my weaknesses and compliment my strengths.
Tell us a few things you have to be consistent in to do your best work.
Constant learning, staying uptodate with trends, continuing to meet new people from all different backgrounds and experience new things all are crucial as a marketer. Staying disciplined and not procrastinating and being organized is key. I need to be able to back up everything I do with data and constantly get feedback from others.
What do you do to keep learning how to do your work better?
Spend time learning on sites like GrowthHackers, ConversionXL and Coelevate to name a few. Do research or take courses on skillsets I want to add. Constantly testing and using that as learning experiences and growth as a marketer. Also, as stated before, continuing to have diverse experiences with diverse people.