Six years ago I found myself at the proverbial fork in the road of my career. I had been at CAA for seven years and the research and trends group I was leading was being shopped around to potential buyers. Soon, we would become a part of a different corporation or big agency, One day I was sitting with potential buyers, sharing what we do, how we do it and why we’d been so successful and I couldn’t imagine myself working for the potential buyers, or anyone else. CAA was pretty great.
I had always been interested in starting my own business. My fascination for creating a business began when I was a teenager with my own paper route. I wrote my senior thesis in college about women and entrepreneurship. I worked for a startup after college, but was seduced by the excitement of entertainment industry. I spent the next 10 years of my career in corporate jobs, first at EMI Music then at CAA. But as I pitched my group to buyers, I realized I had 15 years of experience, managed a staff, and successfully conducted hundreds of projects for brands. It was time.
I wasn’t going to grow a company for someone else, I decided to grow a company for me. Well, for me, for my team, and for all the amazing people around the country we’ve been working with along the way. It was a huge leap of faith for all of us. Starting fresh meant we could be more creative, more innovative and more open-minded. Our approach started to pay off. Word spread of our new company, and more business followed. It’s now been 6 years of hard work and experimentation, I’ve built a company I’m proud of, that my colleagues are proud of, and that inspires our clients every day with our ideas. Now, I wouldn’t change a thing.
-Front Row Insights Founder & Keynote Speaker, Jayne Charneski
