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June 25, 2024 • 23 mins
The Admigos sit down with one of their newest board members Kate Graves. They discuss her involvement with Ad 2 Houston, as well as her beginnings in the advertising world.
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(00:11):
Hola, amigos, and welcome tothe add to Houston Amigos podcast, a
podcast for young professionals in the marketingadvertising industry who are learning to navigate their
early careers. I am Jacob d'antone, the audio chair and producer of this
fine program. Joining me today isCameron Newhouse, our newly elected president of
AD two. Hello Cameron, Hi, Jacob, Hey, and today I

(00:33):
have in front of me Kate Graves, one of our newest members on the
AD I almost said amigos on theadd to Houston board. She is a
program's co chair and she is nowa member of the podcast committee. Yes,
happy to be here, Thanks forhaving me. Yeah, it's good
to have you. How have youbeen so far? Have been great?
I can't complain. I recently graduatedin May, so I'm officially done.

(00:56):
Congratulated, Thank you, and I'mexcited to be a part of AD two.
Get to know so many more peoplein the advertising industry. And yeah,
just happy to be on board.Awesome. We're happy to have you.
Now as we get started are whatwe normally do is we like to
ask you how you got involved inAD two and whatnot. So can you
please let us know how you gotinvolved that too, and I believe you

(01:19):
were part of the aaf Houston ADtwo over there, right, Yes,
So actually the way I was ableto get connected with af UH was actually
I was a part of the nationalStudent Advertising competition at UH. I was
overall project manager, which was great, and that's actually how I met another
member, Victoria Nice, and shewas chapter president or is chapter president of

(01:42):
af UH. And so because ofthat, I ended up joining af h
got to know more people there,and through that I was able to get
connected to add two. So itwas kind of one step after the other.
So it just kind of ended upworking out that way. Nice.
Now, did you did you seekout to be part of af Houston or
did you just kind of into it? Well, actually, as a strategic

(02:02):
communications major with a concentration in advertising, I wanted to get more involved in
advertising on campus or through programs,right. But in order to be a
part of en SAC you actually hadto join, which was perfect because I
was wanting to join. So itwas able to kind of that way it
was to Burches one stone was ableto kind of connect awesome to that end,
So it all worked out, Itdid, It really did. Yeah,

(02:23):
nice, Yeah, that's awesome.Did you see yourself being on the
management side of things or what wasyour what was your initial goal for being
on the in sact team or beingpart of afuh. So for en Sack,
I was considering maybe being like inthe creative side, or maybe being

(02:46):
like project manager for creative side.But I really respect that my advisor and
teacher he saw something in me,and so he actually put me in the
project manager role overseeing the team oftwenty people. No, so it was
great. So I appreciate, likesaid, he that trusted me to be
able to do that, and soI was able to get my feet wet
and not only working in like contentcreation or coming up with ideas and generating

(03:07):
ideas, but also being able tooversee a team and ensure deliverables were met
from account planning to media planning tocreative So no, that was really cool.
So No, I didn't initially seemyself in that role, but I'm
really glad I was put in thatrole because it allowed me to recognize that
it's something that I enjoy doing,and so that's held me I hope to
be able to take with me andapply to both add two and potentially professionally

(03:30):
as well. I didn't have arole in as Houston chapter just because of
my schedule. I just was verybusy with my extracurriculars. But if I
had the chance, I would haveloved to have taken a role in the
UH chapter as well. Nice.Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, Kate,
So you were recently a writing incentat the Jack Day but Lindsay School

(03:52):
of Communication, and you have previouslywritten for the University of Houston paper,
the Kouger. I need tell usa little bit about those speriences and anything
you learned from them. So it'sactually a little bit of a funny story.
I'm sure I'm curious to hear y'all'sopinions and if you can relate to
this. But coming into and havingan advertising major communications major, I think

(04:14):
it sometimes can be difficult to findinternships, especially like sophomore junior level.
And I thought, hey, Ithink I have a knack for copywriting,
and I was trying to get myfeet wet, but I didn't know or
know like what route to go tobecause I couldn't find anything on LinkedIn or
job platforms. So I thought,let me make an opportunity for myself.
And so because of that, Ithought, if I can get writing experience

(04:34):
through writing articles, then that mighthelp me get my feet wet and potentially
create opportunities for me. So no, I just kind of threw it out
there. I thought, well,I've enjoyed writing, so let me just
try to do this. So forsix months I or first semester, I
was a writing intern opinion writer excuseme, opinion writer for the Cougar student
led newspaper. So that was fun. I was able to pick a variety

(04:55):
of topics I wanted to write onand everything from like preventative boat tars to
recite Yeah, so like the gambitto recycling to the impact of what you
eat and how if that effects yourmental health. Right, is there anything
that you wrote that you know thatyou had fun writing or that's something that
stood out? What was your likemore fun opinion piece that you did.

(05:17):
That's so tough because everything that Iwrote so like chuckling to myself. Now,
everything that I wrote was something thatinterests me in one way or another.
Right, So, like I said, my first piece was preventive botox,
and only because I thought, youknow, I'm curious about like the
beauty industry and things like that,and so I kind of delved into that
and that was fun for me.But I have to say, I think

(05:39):
one of my the one I enjoyedthe most and maybe was more research heavy,
was from what I recall involved like, like I said, what you
eat and how that affects your mentalhealth, right, and being a big
advocate for mental health, and alsorecognizing the value of like quality nutritious meals.
I found that seventy five percent,Like this is so off topic,
but like seventy five percent of serotoninproduce in the body is producing the stuff.

(06:00):
Oh, so I think that kindof speaks to the quality of what
you eat and things like that.So I really enjoyed writing on that.
That's cool. But no, Iwas able to, like I said,
take that time to become a writerfor the paper, and then I was
able to propel myself into the writinginternship role because I had that writing experience,
and so it just ended up workingout that trying to create an opportunity
for myself created an opportunity for medown the road. Nice. That's great.

(06:24):
So we kind of covered it justa while ago, but you've You've
been involved in a variety of organizations. From what I understand, you were
part of the Houston Food Bank,you know, you did a little bit
in the af Houston. What hasbeen your most unique experience out of all
of them, and was there anythingthat you learned that sticks out to you
even today. Is there something thatyou might have learned in doing and being

(06:45):
a part of all these organizations thatjust sticks with you that you just always
kind of have. Oh, that'sa tough one. So, no,
I was. I was involved ina few extracurriculars. So I was involved
in during my entire college experience withAlpha Coyomega sorority, and so our philanthropy
is a messic violence awareness. Ohso I've become definitely much more knowledgeable on
the topic, but definitely an advocatefor domestic violence awareness, right. So

(07:08):
I would say it allowed me theopportunity to be more comfortable with the subject,
and then also with my sorority,we were able to not only raise
more awareness both on campus and off, but also, like said, to
raise funds for local nonprofits. That'sreally cool. So that was a really
cool experience for me, just delvingdeeper into the philanthropic side. And then
too, like I said, justbeing involved with n SAC, which kind

(07:29):
of was like an extracurricular It waskind of a class, but I willingly
took it was not required from amajor. And then yeah, like you
said, through the feud bank onand off and other things here and there,
I would say, just oh mygosh, that's a tough one.
I feel like I've learned a lotof different things. And I would say
just being comfortable with myself in theprocess and getting to know so many amazing

(07:49):
people. And I think just learningto do the things that I wanted to
do and that genuinely brought me joy. Yeah, yes, I'm not sure
that answers your question. That's afine answer. That's also important to learn
what brings you joy, right,It's so you kind of know what you
want to do and where you wantto go in life. You're like you
you know, you can't you can'tjust work to work. You have to

(08:09):
be happy in what you do.Ray tells me all the time. You
know, as long as you're havingfun, you know you're you're not working
exactly. And so I just definitelytried to well, I enjoy being busy
I wanted to make sure it wasthe things that I enjoyed doing being busy,
because I didn't want to burn themidnight or like run like I don't
know, just burn myself out doingall these things just to happen. You
don't want to do exactly. AndI thought I wanted to give value to

(08:31):
my life but also learn something fromit. So I think I've learned things
along the way from each group andorganization. That's a great answer, thank
you. Yeah, So these pastcouple of years doing all these things have
brought you to this point, butalso growing up too, and your kind

(08:52):
of your past has brought you tothis point too. I'd love to know,
like, have you always lived inHouston? Did you grow up somewhere
else? And you know how thosethings have brought you to where you are
now. Yeah. So I actuallyam born and raised Texan. So I
grew up in Leakee City. Iwent to school in Houston for a few
years for high school and then forcollege. I actually attended Texas Tech University

(09:18):
out in Lubbock, Texas for twoyears, and then due to some personal
health issues and also just never beingable to come home, I decided it'd
be best that I come back homeand ended up working out for the best
because then I spent the last twoyears of my college experience at the University
of Houston Go Koogs, and itwas great, I said. It allowed
me the opportunity to really be ableto focus on myself and my health.

(09:39):
And also I just I'm definitely acity girl, so having the chance to
be back in the city after beingin the country as much as I love
it, it was great. Sofor the most part, I've always stayed
in Texas, been in Texas,but in kind of the greater Houston area.
But for a few years I wasout in Lubbock living a good life.
How was it? How was Lubbock? How was moving out to Lubbock
and experiencing love it? Honestly itwas. It was good, but it

(10:03):
was also a definitely a transition,right. So kind of a small,
small side story, my grandpa hada piece of property out in Katie,
Texas, so I'd go visit himon the weekends every now and then before
my grandparents retired and moved to Florida, so I thought, okay, I
have like I enjoyed a little bitof that kind of country life. Had

(10:24):
a taste for it a little bitbecause he, like said, he had
cows and cattle and herd. SoI thought, oh yeah, I went
to lull Bit. I thought,I can live the country life. Like
it's a city of one hundred thousandpeople, but it's still out in the
middle of nowhere. So I thought, yeah, I got this. It's
a beautiful campus, but it wasdefinitely a transition because after a while there
just really isn't much to do.And that's okay, Like I said,
beautiful campus, lovely people, butit wasn't for me. And I followed

(10:48):
my brother out there who's two yearsolder, and I heard about his college
experience, and I really wasn't surewhere I wanted to go for college,
so I applied to Tech. Igot in. I thought, hey,
like, let's just go for it, and if it doesn't work, it
doesn't work. Yeah, And Iwent during the time of COVID, or
like, I was there for ayear, and then COVID hit I think
my second year with the end ofmy freshman year. So I think for
everyone COVID was an experience and atransition for sure. But yeah, so

(11:11):
like I was there for two years, beautiful place, but just in the
end it was not for me beautifulin passing. But yeah, I completely
understand because I am from a verysmall town about two hours away. It's
got I think less than four thousandpeople. It might have more at this
point, I'm not really for sure, but it's just like a small retirement
community, and I was clawing toget out forever. So now that I'm

(11:37):
out, I rarely go back.Right, You're like, I have an
appreciation for it. I remember itfondly, but well, it's funny because
I was actually just back visiting somefamily and friends I think the other week,
and I was driving down like alittle feeder road and it really dawned
on me how much I've gotten usedto the city because I'm driving down this
road and I'm like, it's reallydark out here. I don't remember it

(11:58):
being this dark. That's so true. And it gets so cold up in
Loveag. I mean, that's somethingI have to say I really wasn't prepared
for. Is I think either myfreshman or sophomore year, like we did
snow day, Like I couldn't seelike ten fifteen feet in front of me
because it was snowing so heavily.That's crazy. You really don't get that
Houston, right, I mean Texas, you know, mostly hot, but
yeah, we yeah, we kindof have like weird geographical areas in the

(12:22):
one state that we're in. AndI think it's hilarious that you can still
drive nine hours and still be inTexas. So that was also I think
it's funny too, But no,great justice. I prefer being back home
and I really enjoyed my time inteenieruce of Houston's that's awesome. So have
you, you know, again stayingin the in the past a little bit,

(12:43):
Have you always wanted to work incommunications or did you have like a
dream job before? Was there adifferent career path, because you know,
not everybody starts on the one paththey think they're going to go on.
They deviate, So no, Imean, I can't say I was like
that kid growing up who was liketo be a lawyer and they grew up
to be a lawyer. I think, like many people, I kind of

(13:03):
dabbled. I thought yes this,no that. My family always said I
had a business acumen, so theysaid, my mom thought I'd be really
good at marketing or maybe going intothe business route, like a business administration.
I got to college and I thought, you know, I was still
trying to trying to test it outeven up until my my sophomore junior year
when I transferred here. I wasadvertising technically at at the university excuse me,

(13:26):
at tech advertising there, but theydon't have an advertising major specific here
at you of H. So Icame in as communication studies and I thought,
maybe I go into marketing because Isee a lot of marketing jobs in
comparison to communication roles when I wassearching on LinkedIn, so I thought,
hey, marketing, but I don'tenjoy that math side of it. I

(13:46):
do enjoy that kind of content creation, campaign generation, just advertising itself.
And that was more my nick nota niche not necessarily graphic design, but
like I said, coming up withthe ideas understanding a target audience from a
start to finish creating a campaign andso kind of because of that and with
my family support and advice, butalso just kind of understanding kind of what
I'm interested in, it was ableto get there eventually by it. But

(14:09):
yeah, I'm not sure if theanswered your question. Kind of starting out
in marketing, recognizing advertising is moremy route and kind of just like I
said, understanding what I've always likedfrom the get go. Exactly. No,
that's good, that's perfect. Ihad a similar kind of thing where
I didn't know really what I waswanting on what I was interested in.
I knew it would be business,but I wasn't sure, and I started

(14:30):
out in finance and slickly was like, Okay, this is not for me.
Let me try marketing. And soit was nice because they all had
like the same prerequisite and everything,so it was an easy transition and I
ended up loving it. So that'sawesome. You kind of find that throughout
college, you know, like,yeah, what do I like to do?
Do I enjoy this? You know, and you're as you're taking classes,

(14:54):
you're like, this is so boringor this is so cool and interesting,
you know. So exactly, Iwanted to be a vend aarian,
so I deviate it way off thepast. But that's that's another story for
another time. You'll have to shareshare it with us later. I'm very
curious. Yeah, okay, sodo you have a favorite childhood memory?

(15:16):
Like what what is something that reallybrings you back and kind of leaves you
to yourself a little bit. SoI grew up playing basketball, so I
would say a fond memory I hadis just being on the basketball court winning,
you know, winning games and winningchampionships. And I've always I'm five,
but five, but I've always beensomewhat short and on the smaller side,

(15:37):
So I think it was funny forme, like playing against taller girls
even though you're the same age,and just kind of battling or competing in
that realm. And I don't know, just the camaraderie of it all and
the community and sportsmanship and of basketball. I was like, my first love
was basketball in the way I nolonger play it, but I've been following
the NBA finals, but yeah,I would say just basketball, just here

(15:58):
and there, and that's something Ireally appreciate from a childhood and a team
sport. You can also kind ofliken to working with the team and advertising
and even at two or the otherorganizations that you've been a part of too.
You can kind of link those up. Exactually, it's very true.
It's very true, very much ateam player. Nice. Nice. So

(16:23):
we're gonna kind of look into thefuture a little bit where you where do
you see yourself in the next fewyears? Or the next what the cliche
question is, where do you seeyourself in the next five years? Is
Houston your forever home or do youhave a dream like place you want to
live at some point? That's agreat question. I often ask myself the
same thing to what you know,what I have in mind for the future.

(16:47):
Oh, I would say definitely asof now, as I get my
feet wet in the industry, Iwould love to stay local because my family's
here, and like I said,I think it just kind of allows me
to kind of baby steps, likeI said, into the industry and then,
if you know, I'm fortunate enoughto gain valuable experience, should an
opportunity to open up elsewhere, preferablyin a bigger city or in a big

(17:07):
city versus maybe going somewhere a littlemore remote. I would love the opportunity
to even work internationally, like inEngland or in London, like for a
little bit, to try that outand then definitely end up coming back home.
But would love to start my professionalindustry or excuse me, professional career
here like I said, get thatindustry experience and then just continue to grow
and learn and honestly where for lifewill take me. Kind of take me,

(17:30):
so being open to anything, butstill just putting my head down and
trying to work and when I can. I think that's one of the best
ways to kind of look at it. You know, you don't don't have
a set plan, I suppose,but just kind of go where life takes
you, or go where whatever lifethrows out. You just kind of pivot
and just kind of go with theflow, exactly. Yeah, you never

(17:52):
know what takes them at you tomorrow, you know, exactly, Always something
that could come up that this mightspark the interest, you know, right,
But speaking here of you know,jobs and everything, is there an
agency or business that is your ultimategoal to work for? Would you ever
see yourself like owning your own agencyyour business. You know, I'm not

(18:18):
sure if I would own my ownagency or business, but I would love
to work at an advertising agency.I think I am still trying to find
my niche a little bit because Ido enjoy so many different parts of advertising.
But I mean, like I said, I enjoy project management, I
enjoy the creation side, and Ialso enjoy copywriting. So I think for
me, I was able to speakwith I won't say the name of the

(18:42):
company, but I was able tospeak with the president of a local ad
agency here in Houston, and hesaid, you know, it might make
you more marketable if you say,hey, I specifically am interested in this,
right, so then moving forward,people know where to place you.
And so I definitely agree, butstill staying true to myself of you know,
I want to do this specifically,having these other things that I'm also
good at can maybe kind of propelme forward. But no, an agency

(19:07):
in particular, I'm not I'm notactually dead to it on a certain agency.
I think it's just the environment andthe culture and the people that are
super important to me. If Ifeel like there's an agency, both locally,
domestically or internationally that I think thatwould allow me to to grow,
to encourage me, but also giveme the opportunity to kind of have a
little more free reign, to tohave that creative liberty, or to really

(19:30):
kind of trust and what I'm ableto offer both as an entry level position,
and should I be fortunate enough downthe road to have a more an
executive position, which I kind ofaspired to have, then you know,
I'm all for it, but atthe moment, taking what I can get
right that again, that go withthe flow kind of kind of approach,
right right, especially like as arecent college graduate, just just taking like

(19:56):
taking what I can get taken,but I can't exactly. So we're nearing
the end of this interview, Kay, is there any advice you can give?
I know you just graduated and you'reyou're also just starting out in your
career, but is there any adviceyou could give to upcoming students, students
maybe someone who's just graduating high schooland looking into kind of going into the
same path that you're going, oreven something you know around advertising or marketing.

(20:18):
Is there any anything you could sayto someone I would say it's very
cliche, but I would say,I think at the end of the day,
you know who you are as aperson. And even though I think
people often tell you, you know, you got to find yourself or you
have to lose yourself to find yourself, I think, deep down I'm of
the belief we really do know whowe are, or oftentimes many of us
do. It's just about encouraging andchamping that person. And so in other

(20:42):
words, you don't really have toalways lose yourself to find yourself. So
I would say just championing who youknow yourself to be, finding that confidence
and that voice within yourself. Andso if you're like I, you know
I really would enjoy writing. Iwant to try it. Give yourself a
chance, you know. And ifyou're not the best at something, but
you want to pursue it, giveit a try, and if it doesn't
work out, you still other avenues. So I would say, don't close
yourself up on one realm. LikeI said, for me, I thought,

(21:04):
you know, advertising or no marketing, And I'm glad I was able
to play with it because if Inever thought, let me try out marketing
for a semester, I would havebeen like, maybe marketing with the route
to go right. But now Ifeel confidence saying I'm really happy with the
major that I chose because I wasable to experiment and dabble in these different
classes and all these things. Soso yeah, I would just say,

(21:25):
recognize what you do like, tryto create opportunities for yourself. If there
aren't any, try to explore whatyou do like, and then never leave
a rock unturned. So if youwant to try something, try it,
and if it doesn't work out,then at least you tried. And now
you know, versus wondering should Ihave taken this route and regretting it that
you didn't. So yeah, thatwould be that would be my life advice.

(21:47):
It's pretty solid advice. Thank you. Look, I'm so excited that
you're on a board now and lookforward to working more with you and seeing
how we all can kind of cometogether make things happen. Thank you so
much. Cameron. I'm very excitedtoo, and you know, I've enjoyed
getting to know you and so manyof the other members like Jacob here with
me today, and so yeah,I'm excited to get moving with ad too

(22:11):
and meet so many more people andcontribute the best way that I can.
Definitely, thank you so much forjoining us as well. To Kate,
that was been a great episode andit's really great having you on the team
and looking forward to the next fewthings that we work on together. Thank
you me too. Thank you forjoining us today. The Add to Houston
amgo's podcast is produced at Radio Lounch. Add to Houston is a collaborative collective

(22:34):
of young communication professionals aged thirty twoone under. We're looking to make a
difference in the industry. If youwould like to becoming at Migo. Join
us at the number two Houston dotcom. You can also follow us on
Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn atadd the number two Houston. Thank you

(22:55):
for listening.
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