The second guest blog interview is from Sam Gardiner. I met Sam at University (almost 16 years ago!) and since then we’ve not only been great mates and we’ve championed each other’s endeavors.

In the interview below, we discuss success, changing career paths and the fact that there is no such thing as an “average day”.

B:  Okay Sam, give me your elevator pitch… “Who is Sam Gardiner?”
S: I’m a creative at heart,  even at an early age, I found myself playing around on computers, creating and designing different things.. logos, brands, publications, labels, websites… I’ve always had an appetite for creativity. So when I completed high school I went into a BA comms at UWS (where we met!) with the idea to break into the advertising industry in some way.

I had this desire to feed my creative urge, however, I saw advertising as a cut-throat business which discouraged me greatly.  During this time, I took over my brother’s homebrewing kit, and from that moment on the die was cast. I decided to pursue a career in brewing. Once I had completed my BA comms I did a two-year graduate diploma in brewing, and subsequently worked a decade in the brewing industry.  Eventually, I found myself specialising in the setup and commission of new micro-breweries around the world.

After 10 years I decided to settle back in Australia and take a change in direction – I went back to my initial passion around creativity and now I work in a small advertising agency, in Sydney. 

B: So what’s your job and how does an average day look for you?
S: I’m “officially” a Production & Video Manager, but often there’s more to it than that.

My day revolves around wearing a range of different hats. Working for a small agency, I have my fingers in many pies when it comes to projects.

B: Yes, I find the same thing. No two days are ever the same!

S: Exactly! One moment I am out shooting a video, the next I’m designing a mock-up for a  website and liaising with programmers to bring that mockup into reality, then I may be managing the production of a trade magazine, or analysing data from a recent MailChimp campaign, or editing and producing our latest months content for Hello Foodservice, in between meeting with clients.

B: I find when it’s like that, it’s often hard to keep track of what day it is, because usually you’re always forward planning /working and then remembering the actual date is not (for example) November it’s September!

S: Yes!  I do find especially with travel thrown into the mix that the days fly by (pardon the pun!) and some days I leave with a headache, others I leave with a smile, but on the whole, I love what I do.
 

B: I think that’s important to love what you do. On that vein of thinking, what advice would you give someone?  

 
S: Don’t doubt your abilities when you look at others. A lot of people bluff. If you can deliver, that’s what will lead you to success.

B: Speaking of #Success (Which you know is a hashtag we champion!) what does success mean to you?

S: Success is in the eye of the beholder. Only you can gauge what is a success and what is not due to your own set of principles. Some people gauge earning a million bucks as a success, others gauge having a loving family at their side as a success. It’s subjective.

One thing I would say is that even something you may consider a failure is a success in a way as you can learn from it for next time.
If you do experience a failure, never give up.

Learn from it.
Move on.
Try a different route.
Eventually, you will succeed.

 

***

I’d like to thank Sam for his time and friendship. There’s more guest blog interviews coming soon, so stay tuned. 

If you missed our first guest blog interview with Intern Lani then CLICK HERE.