Episode Transcript
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(00:14):
All Amigos, and welcome to theACT to Houston Amigos Podcasts, a podcast
for young professionals in the marketing andadvertising industry who are learning to navigate their
way in their early careers. Iam Gueed of Alconi, immediate past president
of art to Houston, joined todayby my co host. Hi, I'm
Raven, I'm the Vince coordinator forA Too Houston and as always our producer
(00:37):
Jacob Duntown. Hello. Today weare joined by Megan Nelson. She is
the AAF District ten ad TO representative. She is also the past president of
art to Amarillo, which I insistshould be pronounced Amarillo. She is also
the founder of sex club Megain.Thank you so much for joining us today.
(00:57):
Of course, yeah, yeah,absolutely. You know, you had
such a you have such a presencein the District ten club. You know,
you're always involved in everything. SoI wanted to talk to you.
We wanted to talk to you aboutyour experiences and all that stuff that you've
been doing for it. So we'revery happy to finally get to talk to
(01:18):
you. It's been an adventure forsure. Yeah. So you know,
before we get started, can youjust tell us a little bit about yourself,
maybe how you got involved with AAFand not too sure. So I'm
actually originally from Lubbock, So bornand raised in Lubbock, Texas, which
(01:38):
is just about one hundred miles southof Ambrilo. And then I came up
to this little town called Canyon intwenty fifteen, and I came to college
here. There's a college called WestTexas A and M. And they have
a really cool advertising in public relationsmedia communications program and tell in love with
(02:00):
it up here. I love Canyon, I love Amarillo, and the Texas
Panhandle is kind of its own littleworld. So I decided to stay.
I've been here ever since I firstjoined AF Amarillo in twenty eighteen because when
I was just fresh out of college, I was working for immediate past present
(02:20):
or immediate past Governor Stephanie Price atthe time, and so she was obviously
really involved in AS and AF AMaillo, and so anytime she couldn't go,
she would just send me in herplace. Really, I fell in
love with the idea. We'll talkabout this a little bit more later,
but Amarillo, it's really about whoyou know, and so I really liked
(02:44):
the idea of okay, you know, here's this group of people who if
I ever decide to get a newjob or I need a recommendation or anything
like that, that they'll kind ofbe my network. So I joined in
twenty eighteen, and then in thesummer of twenty nineteen, I decided to
join their board. So I joinedas their communications, social and Web chair
(03:09):
because that was just one chair atthe time. And I went to the
Border Treat or not Border Treat,the Club Offster training, which was in
I think in Dallas that year atnormally in Dallas. Yeah, and I
heard, oh gosh, I don'teven remember who it was. I heard
someone talk about AD two and aboutkind of how the bridge between af and
(03:36):
college and and the young part,like the young networking of it, and
in the public service portion of it. And I had just finished an SAC
and so I really liked the idea. And so I went to our president
at the time and I said,Hey, I want to I want to
do AD two. Let's do anAD two. And he's kind of looked
at me and said, Okay,go ahead, I want to do this.
(04:01):
Go ahead. And so then thisreally fun little worldwide pandemic happened.
Oh yeah, it was wild,but that kind of delayed us a little
bit. But add too, Marillais doing great now. I'm immediate past
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president. Are new president Haley mattLax has been with me since the very
beginning, and so I'm really excitedto see what she does with it.
But in general, I just gotinvolved. I got involved, really confessed,
mostly because she made me and shewas my boss. And I think
that's how sometimes I feel like alot of us get involved is because someone
(04:47):
was like, oh, yeah,I come do this, It'll be fun.
Just do it one time and thenwe all drink the kool Aid spiked
with vodka or whatever. If you'retwo and you say, oh, that
would be fun. Yeah, Imean it could be. Now. Yeah,
we're right at about four years.Oh wow, well something of everything.
(05:11):
But it's been a lot of fun. Yeah, correct me if I'm
wrong. But to Imrillo, whenwas it voted? Was it voted in
twenty twenty? Yeah? Actually yeah, so it was technically voted in in
twenty twenty, but we didn't officiallykick off until twenty twenty one, which
was but you were we were atclub, but we just it was oh
(05:35):
gosh, we were voted in inthe June meeting. Is that national?
Yeah, we're voted in at theDune meetings in twenty twenty, which was
virtual, which was so much fun, just an experience. But we knew
that we weren't really going to beable to host anything or any sort of
(05:57):
events, or we didn't really haveenough clout to be able to host any
virtual events because we weren't really anestablished club yet, and so we really
took that time to kind of getsituated and worked with our af partners and
really work on what we needed tobuild a really strong foundation. And then
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we officially kicked off in April oflast year. Yeah. Wow, well
that's it's amazing that you started itin the middle of the pandemic. It
was fun, It was so muchfun. Yeah, it was a lot
of phone calls all the time.But I'm glad that you, you know,
very like give you to have yourboss was involved with the club.
(06:40):
It is nice to see her kindof passing on to the next generation the
knowledge and the benefits of it.Right. No, definitely, she she
really really pushed for me to beon it. And actually one of her,
one of her people that her name'sAnna. She took my job when
(07:01):
I left. She just joined herboards this year and so so Steph has
still continued to be really supportive ofinvolvement, not only just at a club
level, but at a at aboard level. That's awesome. So you
recently became the AD two representative forDistrict ten. Could you talk a little
bit about what all the ADD tworepresentative title entails. Sure, it's actually
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a really unique position ADD two orDistrict tens through af District ten is the
only district that has an AD torepresentative that fits on their executive committee,
which I think really speaks highly ofDistrict ten in the fact that they want
to be supportive of their AD twosand of their young professionals in the market
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as a mega district. You cantell because we have six out of the
nineteen clubs I say six very looseport Worth will be voted in in November
ideally, but five and a halfright now out of the nineteen clubs that
(08:11):
are total, and so you canreally see that gosh third a third AD
two fist and District ten and sowith that they need the support from the
district. So really my job isto be their voice to district leaderships just
because at the end of the day, ADD two is experience things a little
(08:31):
bit differently than the AF clubs do, and so just helping the districts leadership
say and being able to say,hey, this is how they're feeling,
this is experiences they're going through.These are struggles that they might be going
through that senior clubs don't see.I took this from Erica, who is
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an ad to Houston person. Soy'all love her. We know to our
conversation with Erica episode two, thankyou, yeah actually, and so she
she really started all of this,was like, hey, bad twoes need
voice, The ad twoes need tobe heard of, being able to say
(09:18):
here's what they're thinking, and reallygiving us, I guess the comfort not
a safe space, but a spaceof someone who understands who has been an
ad to, who is currently anad to, just because not any not
everyone's been there, because not allof the nineteen district clubs have AD twos.
(09:39):
So it really does bring a differentperspective. And then I know that
I don't know everything, and soI'm never here to say, oh,
here's what you should be doing withyour club or here's what best practices,
but I am able to say,Okay, what recources do you need.
I know that such and such clubhas this resource, or I know that
(10:03):
the senior club has used this typeof program or this type of event before,
and so kind of just connecting thedots and bringing everyone together is one
of my favorite parts of it.We start one on ones next week,
and so it also really lets mesee, hey, here's what the clubs
are doing this week, Here's whatall of our clubs are looking forward to,
(10:28):
or something that they are working onthat they're really excited to announce once
it's up. So I'm just reallyexcited to be able to get to hear
from all dad toos and help fortWorth really get off the ground. You're
(10:52):
one of the founders of Ironsmith's FilmStudios. We went into the decision of
founding this company great question too.So my friend the two friends had created
a company and I had had myindependent studio for a while, and then
they saw how much I love commercialsand they wanted to do more of it.
At the time, they were doingreality and then one of the other
(11:16):
guys was also like because we bothwanted the same film program, and he
was also like, I don't likereally commercials, but this other other guy
was the co founder. Tyler waslike, actually, you know, I
want to do commercials because there's agood business model there. So then we
created our own thing called iron Smith'sStudios, and we purchased the company from
the other friend. We purached itfrom him, and then we took that
(11:37):
old company, we basically closed itdown, and then we just took over
the clients and everything else. Sothat was the mechanics, but a lot
of it was I just wanted tofind a way to do really cool work
and work with big brands and tryto find a way of finding cool opportunities
with the right people, you know. And one of the challenges that you
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run into as a creative in thespace of video and in advertising is that
you don't always get to choose yourwork. But if you can curate the
relationships to people, it starts tobe in alignment with what you really love,
and then the work doesn't feel somuch like work, right, Yeah,
And that makes a lot of sense, And actually it's a good segue
for my next question, because youguys do produce a lot of commercial content,
(12:20):
right, A lot of commercials alot of ads. What's the process
of that? So how you know, does the client come to you with
an idea, say hey, Iwant to do this, and then you
put together like a storyboard or theyusually come already with what they want and
just want you to film. Itdepends on the size of the agency,
the bigger agency, the creative directoror the art director. They've got a
(12:41):
really clear idea and my job isI have to execute it and I have
to add to it. So notonly am I going to take the storyboards
and make sure that they're coming acrosson the screen, but I actually add
some kind of magic sauce to thewhole thing and it makes it, you
know, uniquely different and interesting andvibrant. That's what a lot of these
big agencies are looking and for meto do. So I did a shoot
with Kristin Sporter. They and reallyI came on as a sort of add
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on to the photographer, So theywere just looking to for me to elevate
the quality from the storyboards. Thesmaller agencies, though in the mutum sized
agencies might say hey, we havea general idea, like I was working
with with Budweiser and this agency said, hey, you know, we've got
a general idea. This is sortof the look, what do you guys
think? And we workshopped it withsomebody because they're not as big, even
(13:26):
though it's a big brand, theygave us some leeway and we were able
to come up with a and I'llsend you the piece sometime, but it's
from Milan Hayduke, who's a hockeyplayer. And we were able to film
in the PEPSU Center in Denver,which was great, and they were really
open to our ideas. And evensmaller agencies where you know, the budgets
are maybe thirty thousand or something fora video where I'll sit with the agency
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and we'll come up with some ideasabout what I would like to do,
or you know, knowing that obviouslyit's the creative director, it's the copywriter
who are going to come up withit. But they might say, what
do you guys think or do youhave any ideas and they'll be more collaborative.
But it really depends on the sizeI've realized of the agency, right,
Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Yeah, And you know it's
like with a movie, right,someone comes out with the script, someone
(14:07):
comes out with the story and thenthe director needs to put their own flavor
to it. Right, It's notjust hey, just make this into a
movie. Yeah, even if theyhave that storyboard, they still want something
additionally. Yeah, exactly, totally. So you know, you've talked about
like Nike and some of those otherbrands, but it's not just big brands.
You know, we're with big nationalbrands as well as local band brands.
(14:30):
Can you talk about maybe the prosand cons of working with national brands
versus local ones. Sure, thebig one is typically how well it depends
on the agency, but how soonyou get paid the bigger the bigger brands,
if you're working with them directly,they usually do net ninety, which
is tough as a sort of youknow, smaller shop. So if you
work with an agency, mostly they'lldo that thirty. So that's nice.
(14:52):
But yeah, the big brands willtake a while to pay because they're invoice
sing in their book. The biggerbrands obviously have really big names. And
the Nike campaign I worked on waseverywhere last year. It was for the
Olympics, so I remember just Iwould go to a restaurant, hosts a
bar. It was like massive mediabuy. It was so cool to see
that. I think that's exciting.And there's also with those bigger brands less
(15:16):
less creativity in a way, orthere's less. There's less I guess your
own your own process because I wasediting a thirty second commercial or helping at
a three things commercial. These campaignsare massive, so they'll do a ninety
second of sixty then they'll do socialmedia edit. Sometimes on those teams,
I'll do the social media. It'sand you'll be you'll be really working closely
with the creative director or the producerof the agency, and you don't you
(15:39):
don't have a lot. You havesome, but not a lot of flexibility,
and there's a lot of you know, prep work. There's all these
things that you have to do,and you're working with so many vendors.
You're working with the colorists, thesound mixer, you're working with such a
broad network. The nice thing aboutthe smaller ones is that you have a
little bit more of your own voicein the work, and if you have
a good relationship with the agency orthe brand, they'll give you a lot
(16:00):
of freedom to explore what you like, and that can be really exciting and
I've had a couple of opportunities wherewe pushed an idea to a client.
They said, great, we loveit. What's going to cost It's going
to cost as much money? Theygo, okay, great, let's let's
do it. And then the endresult is something that even now I'll go,
wow, that's uniquely me. That'smy sense of humor. That's like,
you know, over the top andstilly. However, it can be
harder because then when you're a videoprovider like we are to a brand,
(16:23):
we don't necessarily have all of themetrics like agency folks do to talk about
the value add for that and whenalso you understand that video fits within the
customer journey process. So I haveto realize that my one video may be
very expensive. They may not bethe best fit for the brand. If
they only have say sixty thousand dollarsmarketing budgets for the year, then I
have to start thinking where can Ihelp them out. So those are the
(16:45):
big challenges I guess between the deal, Yeah, that's definitely really cool that
you can I guess it makes sense, right, you can have a little
bit more of a voice when there'sless red tape, so to speak,
get that creative fulfillment from Yeah,and I think you know myself and Brittany
with both writers and certainly we've we'vefound that when you're working with a smaller
(17:07):
client, they kind of give youmore free range to do what you want
because they're like, oh, wedon't have a voice, Like oh great
sometimes yeah, yeah, I loveworking with smaller Now I feel bad.
I didn't realize you were working onstuff for the Olympics, so so I
don't watch the Olympics. But ifI knew you were, I would have
at least watch the commercials all tendedto you. We had we had that
(17:30):
athlete I forget her name now,but the one that was kicked out in
the spot. Wait, remember theone who was kicked out for the use
of marijuana. Oh, yes,I know who you're talking about. But
I know who you're talking about.Yeah, yeah she was. She wasn't
in it. And then we becausewe were editing as we got removed and
we her in it. So itwas it was sort of like a thing
that kind of Yeah, it wasinteresting. It's it's a really I love
(17:53):
that campaign because I moved to LAand I, you know, to the
earlier point about moving the middle,you know, across the country not knowing
a lot. And then my friendwho was in Miami was like, hey,
Diego, I've got Nike here.They want to work with you or
they need your help. And Iremember just being like, this is insane.
And then so I was just happyto be a part of it.
But yeah, so that that wasa neat, you know experience. I
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think that's the other part of thatwith you know, your original question about
these brands is that, interestingly enough, this particular editor who I've worked with,
he's been around it for so longthat he will have saying you know,
so if you do have like areally established player in the in the
industry, people will lean on thatperson and say, well, what do
you think because maybe this person who'sthe creative they just started with White and
(18:36):
Kennedy, you know, and thenthey were doing some stuff and it's more
established person may have a little bitmore feedback or they'll listen to him.
They don't always go, oh,well, this is what the editor said,
but they're at least more open becausethey understand that his pedigree is that
they've done. This guy has beenadvertising for Nike for so many years,
so people are going to at leastconsider what he has to say so that
there is there is that possibility,but it just takes so long to do
that. Yeah, you know,we talked about a little bit about what
(19:03):
you're putting together, why you decidedto start on this from what you've seen,
and I guess what you've experienced withDallas what What do you believe is
the biggest benefit of having a nottoo club in your market? In my
opinion, I would say one ofthe biggest benefits is probably growing professionally.
(19:25):
I know that's kind of vague,but I think a lot of it is
talking to other people and hearing whatthey do in their jobs and hearing how
things can translate to your job.So, for example, like any of
the luncheon events or headshot events orresume critique events, I feel like that
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all helps me really grow professionally.And I'm still learning so much, Like
I'm learning from guest speakers who Iam getting great insights from, whether it's
like recruiters or something like that.Like I'm not even looking for a new
job right now, but it's justreally good information to know. And I
feel like all of those people thatI meet, I connect with them on
(20:10):
LinkedIn, and then I'll reach outif I ever do need advice on something.
So it's just really nice to bea part of like an organization that
has so many like minded people whereyes, you have a different job and
a different background, but you guysare all working toward a common goal and
ad too. So I think everybodywants to grow to together, and I
(20:30):
feel like everybody is so young andstill growing professionally, So I just feel
like that's my favorite part because itfeels like everyone's working toward a common goal,
which is super great. Yeah,No, that's that's great, And
I mean I've said it plenty oftimes since podcast, but I know that
I wouldn't be where I am professonallyif I hadn't got any involved with A
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two when I did. You know, I definitely agree with you on that
that is it's great. It definitelyteaches you those skills that you wouldn't get
sinciently. You know, if you'rea copywriter, you might not get skills
as a leader, right, oryou might not get skills as a project
manager or something. Yeah, sodefinitely getting involved makes you more give you
(21:12):
a little more skills a little more. It's like me being a copywriter and
then I'm also in public service talkingto the client. Yeah, you know,
yeah, explore different things. Sodefinitely I love that aspect because it's
like you don't have to be doingwhat you're so used to doing in your
normal job, like you can.Maybe you're an account person and you really
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love web design and you might wantto be on a committee for that,
for comms or something on AD too, so you get to really stretch your
skill set further this organization. Soeven though you don't yet have the AD
two club and for worth, youhave been attending AF events for example,
earliest year you went to Advention.How have AF events like this helped you
(21:57):
grow in your career? Yeah,I really love all of the conferences that
AF has. Adventure was one ofthe best ones I've been to. It
was in Houston and back in April. We were able to go and really
hear from some of the coolest guestspeakers that I've seen in the conference.
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So we heard from what is theTikTok influencer, but she was really great.
She was one of our keynote speakersat the lunch one day. But
yeah, yes, the HR Manifestois her tagline. But she gave some
(22:44):
great insights that I would never havethought of. So just being able to
hear from people that you wouldn't normallyin your market, So being able to
see Houston and like meet people fromall other markets was really great. Like
I've met Megan Nelson at a fewof them before, so now she's a
(23:06):
really great support for me as I'mstarting AD to Fort Worth. She's the
district ten reps for AD too,so she's been a really great resource of
just building those relationships. I knowI can text her, call or whatever.
So just I'd say the conferences,yes, it's about learning, but
it's a lot of fun and youget to go out and meet people and
(23:29):
talk about experiences and that's just someof the best part is having friends in
all these different markets in advertising.Yeah, I absolutely agree. Me and
Betty have attended a few natural events, right, and it's always great just
to hang out with people. Youknow, you're learning a lot, but
you're also making these relationships in otherwiseyou know. Yes, definitely, Magan
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Nelson. It's a fantastic person.And depending on which order we released this
head be so we have either alreadytalked to her or we'll be talking to
her so callback or foreshadowing. Yes, but review see she also created she
also found it toa Marillo. Youknow, it's also amazing. She she
she's fantastic. Yeah, No,definitely, I guess it's there's a lot
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that goes into it, and yes, more much more than yes, career
building, which is obviously the reasonyou go to it. There's a network
inside, right, and you makethese friendships that you know last forever.
Definitely. And one of the otherguest speakers I really love at advention was
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hearing from Larry Brantley about all ofthis stuff with recruiting. I mean,
oh yeah, all of the insightswere so interesting and things that I mean,
I'm not a recruiter, so Iwould have no idea that this is
what the job markets like. Soit's just really interesting to know. And
then I was able to take backall of my pages of pages of notes
to my agency and tell them aboutit. So it was really beneficial,
(25:06):
not just for me as an individual, but for my whole company. Yeah,
no, that's great. Adventure hada lot of really great stuff.
They even had like a whole thingwith NFTs, which was very interesting about
they had gaming and advertising, whichis pretty great talk. So now,
yeah, I'm very looking forward togoing to it this year in Austin.
(25:27):
Yeah, me too. So sorry, So now you are in this process.
You know, we talked about thefinding, we're talking about the people
you're putting together for your team.We're talking about We've talked about the benefits
of having then at two club.Right, So if there's some if there's
(25:48):
someone out there who's thinking, man, I need to get one of these
in my market. Maybe they alreadyhave an AAF but they don't have an
AT too, what advice do youhave for them? Like, you know,
how did you get started? Howdo you get started? What do
you look for? Who do youtalk to? I mean, I would
say one of the number one biggestthings I was really adamant about was making
sure that I was able to siton the AAF fort Worth board still,
(26:11):
so I'm able to still have representationthere and voice my opinions. I mean
sometimes it might not be as relevantif it's about the Triple A's or if
it's I don't know about an eventor something, but just to have visibility
into what they're doing as an organization, and so I'm able to be in
(26:33):
there, have a voice, Ihave a vote, and they're able to
also have somebody sit on our boardas well. So just having that transparency
and open line of communication with ourAAF board, I would say, is
one of the things that they shouldconsider because they're going to be the people
who are supporting you. They're goingto be providing us with startup funds or
(26:59):
paying for the bar tab at ahappy hour and stuff like that. So
just having that good working relationship withyour parent AF chapter is really important to
me. I would say, ifyou're also considering starting AD two, make
sure you reach out to your districtrep. So I mentioned Megan. She's
been a great help and a greatresource. I am getting all of the
(27:23):
notes from her checklist of things thatI need to do working on affiliate agreements
and budgets. So it's really greatto have those references like her and other
people on the national level for ADtwo as well. So it's really great.
We have a Slack channel for allof the D ten presidents, which
(27:44):
is awesome. I know I canreach out to any of them and they're
willing to lend me a helping hands. So it's really great and I highly
encourage everybody who's considering it to startoff with reaching out to your rep and
your a F board. I thinkthat's all pretty good advice. But just
to wrap it up, what isthe biggest thing that you've learned during this
(28:07):
process. The biggest thing that I'velearned is probably how much goes into starting
an organization like this. There's somany logistics, it's a lot of planning,
So that's probably the biggest takeaways,like prepared, be prepared to put
a lot of time into the upfrontand planning into this. Oh yeah,
(28:29):
absolutely, but you know what,you you gots through the hard part or
you're almost there, right, willbe exactly. We'll be voting on adding
to for Worth in at mid year. Yeah in Tampa. Yes, and
you know what, that always justsmooth standing from there. Exactly. It's
(28:49):
a hard part in the upfront,right, all of the technical budgets,
affiliate agreements, getting board members,everything in the upfront going to be a
lot harder than actually running the chapters. Yeah, then you're just maintaining yeah
exactly. Yeah, you know again, you are doing this amazing thing.
(29:17):
I am a big delivery not tooin AAF, so I'm glad to see
another one. Yeah, everybody's reallyexcited for add two for word. Yeah,
I mean that means more competition forus at the public we're coming for
y'all. That's fine, but youknow, it's it's good to see this.
It's good that the organizations doing andlike I said, you know,
(29:37):
I wouldn't be where I am withoutit, and I hope that it can
do the same for people coming afterme. That's the whole point of it.
But yeah, I think there's allthe questions we have. But before
we go, is there anything youknow? How can people find you anything
that you want to brag about?Yeah, I mean you can find me
on social media, Madison McCrory.I would just highly encourage you guys to
(30:04):
all connect with me on LinkedIn.I love messaging with people and learning about
their similar experiences there and just overall, when we start at two fort Worth,
give us the follow Oh yeah,absolutely, we'll make sure to do
that. Yes, well, ifit's nothing else, Madison, thank you
so much for joining us listen sperience. Yeah, thanks, y'all are great,
(30:26):
Thanks fun, Thank you for joiningus today. The ad to Houston.
Amigo's podcast is produced at Radio Lounge. Add to Houston is a collaborative
collective of young communication professionals age thirtytwo one under. We're looking to make
a difference in the industry. Ifyou would like to becoming at Migo,
join us at add the Number twohouston dot com. You can also follow
(30:49):
us on Facebook, Instagram, andLinkedint. Add the Number two Houston.
Thank you for listening.