00:56:00 with Drew Hudson
Drew Hudson is a Harry Potter nerd. Who would’ve thought? I don’t blame him — it’s a compelling fantastical series — it just never piqued my interest as a kid. Interestingly, we do share a zest for Disney, with Drew mentioning his interest in the entertainment industry. His favorite Disney movie is Aladdin and mine (if I had to choose only one) is The Little Mermaid (a modern version twist of the classic would be dope, agreed?). Another interesting insight — when asked if he could change his career to anything, Drew responded with his dream career growing up, an NBA star. Similarly, I had high aspirations of becoming the next Serena Williams. I suppose we lack in the world-class athlete department. Oh well, perhaps we weren’t the “chosen ones.”
Starting off as a content producer turned creative project manager at Grovo in New York City, Drew took a deep dive into script writing and custom video production for multiple Fortune 500 clients. He led a 20-person team and double downed on scaling video production, progressing from a timeline of making five videos in six weeks to two-hundred in the same time span. Sounds like quite the feat just thinking about it.
Drew then decided it was time for a change — so he took the leap and moved across the country to San Francisco, a city where he was left to fend for himself. Although a daunting journey lay ahead, Drew was confident that he could find work and eventually figure out the rest along the way. He knew there was no turning back after he had purchased his plane ticket for The Golden State.
As the Tour Manager at Yondr, Drew implemented a locking phone case system for events ranging from weddings to concerts, and had the exclusive opportunity to meet celebrities like Lorde and Harry Styles backstage. The Yondr locking phone case is a brilliant concept because it allows people to have a sense of security for their phone by physically holding onto the locked case in which it’s stored, but the case must be unlocked using a scanning machine to access the phone. There have been case studies of complete aura transformations when implemented in schools — kids carry the case with their phone locked in it all day, and are able to open the case after their final class of the day. My high school should definitely consider using this system. It would be a total metamorphosis.
Drew then transitioned to Beyond, where he created eight assets for numerous up-and-coming devices like the Google Pixel in order to train hardware sales associates working at brick-and-mortar locations selling the devices to customers like you and I. I presume it really came full circle for Drew to physically go into stores (such as Best Buy) and witness sales associates, who trained with the collateral he led the production for, ultimately selling products.
Today, Drew is a creative project manager at Fitbit, where he aligns with the company’s values and mission of keeping people healthy and fit, and notes that it’s important to do so when choosing a company to work for. If you are unable to buy-in to the company’s purpose and product, it may not be the perfect place for you (that is, if you have the financial means to reject a job for that reason). Drew gave the example of his younger brother who had the opportunity to work for a cat food company, and although his brother loves cats, he did not feel passionate about the company’s purpose. Early on, Drew also realized he valued working with people who genuinely cared and supported one another (colleagues feel like extended family). Drew prefers going for that bread.
Look inward to determine your values when choosing a fulfilling place to work.
Don’t fret when applying for a job that you may not be 100% qualified to do because you can always learn and figure things out as you go. Drew declined an offer for a role that required building a system from scratch because he was self-aware and knew his preference of having a structured, established system in place that could then be updated and built upon. Drew also stayed committed to his values of aligning with the company’s mission and values, along with the people whom he’d work with, so he decided against taking the offer.
When asked about the biggest challenge currently faced by his creative team, Drew said working remotely as it has hindered the one-on-one connection usually felt when speaking with others face-to-face, and the small talk which lightens the mood rather than being in business mode 24/7. I feel him — it gets frustrating in “classroom culture” when teachers speak to the whole class and students can’t receive one-on-one attention, unless in a breakout room. A benefit of teachers addressing the class as a whole is the elimination of off-topic chatter among students which enables focused learning, but prevents the social interaction (and attention) that students need.
When asked about the amount of creative direction he possesses, Drew said it’s dependent on the size and scope of the company, since for smaller companies in general, you may be tasked with both strategy and management work, whereas in a bigger company, there are several creative directors and designers who manage strategy and have more of a “say” in creative. It also varies by project, but overall, creative project managers should have a good understanding of the client’s needs to arrange the timeline, budget, resources, schedules, workflows, etc. to achieve a finished project. Promotion also varies company to company. You can present your case for why you deserve to be promoted, but it’s important to be mindful that seniority levels also differ company to company.
A question I tend to ask liberal arts majors is, given the chance, would they choose to go back and switch their major to something more “technical,” such as computer science in order to be more favorable in the job market of today’s technologically advanced world. Drew’s answer was a resounding no since he was passionate about studying History at Wesleyan University, and wouldn’t have traded it with a subject he couldn’t sustain interest in. Following his passion and learning as much as he could about the subject was important to him, so he trusted his gut when making college (and career) decisions.
As a history major, it was understandably difficult for Drew to imagine a sustainable and lucrative career pursuing the subject, so he decided to explore other interests that could be applied universally, such as writing. Out of curiosity, I asked Drew why he decided to stray from writing as only a decade ago, as a junior in college, he was set on being a sports writer. He said something I can relate to: writing is very focused and less diverse of a role than project management, where you handle several functions and interact with dozens of people at a time. Drew’s career shifted toward people management, and he explained that it’s entirely feasible to change trajectories years into your career, so don’t feel too pressured to stick to what you currently do, or the subject you studied in college. He also added that most people in high school and college have not settled on what they’d like to pursue so he encouraged keeping options open, meeting new people, and giving new things a chance.
When starting out, Drew remembers that he didn’t have answers to every question and believes that the best way to answer something you don’t know is by responding with a phrase like I’ll get back to you on that, which is a cop-out solution to never leave a question hanging, and gives you time to research or ask someone else before finding and delivering the answer. I remember my elementary school teachers advising the same thing when we did presentations: Always respond with I’ll look into it and get back to you when you do not know the answer off the top of your head. This ensures that you feel confident despite not always knowing the answer, and prevents giving inaccurate information if you aren’t completely sure about a topic. It’s also completely acceptable to not know every answer — no one can know the answer to every question and it’s okay to be unsure and ask questions. The skill of asking good questions to fully understand the details of projects (to therefore carve a solution), along with being an articulate writer and speaker, and knowing the strengths of team members for task delegation, are all vital skills in project management.
Drew rated the amount of technical expertise required in his role a 4.5. The role doesn’t require programming, but you should have familiarity with common project management softwares like Asana, Trello, Excel, etc. as well as the Gantt Chart, which is a way of organizing a workflow of tasks for various departments on a timeline. Creative project managers are typically not expected to know programming since there is an engineering team to handle programming, and a creative team to handle…well, creative.
If Drew could do one thing differently when first starting out, he would have paid more attention to warning signs and followed his gut. Early in his career, like many, Drew was under the impression that everyone else around him knew what they were doing since they seemed “experienced” and he must’ve been the odd one out for being inexperienced (impostor syndrome). He had given everyone around him the benefit of the doubt, but should have trusted his instincts rather than suppressing them since he eventually came to realize that others were also “faking it ’til they made it” and they didn’t necessarily have his best interests in mind.
Give others the benefit of the doubt at first, but always trust your instincts and take action.
Thanks again, Drew! Until next time!
01/20/21.
