Career Rocket Episode #2: David Bacon

“Ask questions and be bold”

-David Bacon

Leader in digital analytics & optimization

The goal for my Career Rocket series is to make an impact on people’s careers by sharing wisdom from successful folks with high integrity.

You can also listen to the podcast of this post hosted by myself and William Thomas on Empathetic Machines which dives deeper into the topics covered here.

Target audience for this post: Digital analysts & optimization professionals looking for key tips in various career stages from just starting out through senior and director level positions.

Today’s guest: David Bacon. Digital analytics and optimization leader and executive with a really fun background.

Personal background: David was a military brat and moved around quite a bit. He attended 5 different 3rd grade schools in 4 states in one year! Before settling into digital sales and marketing, David was a blackjack dealer and a nationally published cartoonist. He has been married for over 20 years and has two teenage daughters.

Career background:

• Led all digital prepaid sales at Verizon Wireless with record year over year results

• Managed all digital testing and optimization for SunTrust Consumer Digital

• Now leading the digital testing, optimization and personalization program for InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG)

How many people have you managed over your career?

35

In your opinion, what overall characteristic defines the exceptional players vs the not so exceptional people?

Exceptional people have good leadership skills—the ability to see the big picture and empower others.

For each career stage, please share the most important advice you can offer people in the field of analytics and optimization.

• Entry level: 1-3 years

  • Consider this the on-the-job training part of your career. While you will always learn new skills and techniques, this is the brutal introduction to the workforce. It builds the foundation for both the scope and timeliness of your success.

  • Be patient and soak it in.

• Mid career: 4-5 years

  • Evaluate the breadth and depth of your job. Grapple with the question of how to acquire new skills to augment your current job while also considering how can you apply these skills to the reach the next career stage.

  • Start to focus on what you are good at as well as what you want to pursue more in depth.

• Senior level: 6+  years

  • This is the time you have to start to decide on life priorities and not just your career. Take the time to note your priorities and be intentional around protecting them.

  • On the podcast, David shares some examples and stories of people who prioritized their career too heavily and the consequences of their choices.

• Managers/Directors:

  • Learn the skill of empowering people. This skill will take time, hands on experience and is a lot harder to master then one would think. Once you empower your team, they will exceed your expectations.

  • Lead, but don’t just manage. Get in the trenches in meetings and on projects.

What are habits you have built over the years that have contributed to your success?

• Ask questions. Never be afraid to speak up when you don’t not know something or need clarification. Very few people will remember a dumb question but a mistake will make a lasting impression.

• Be bold. Develop a vision and follow it. Provide clarity for your team and .leverage all resources available to get there.

What does living abundantly mean to you?

• This is a tough question! Living abundantly is being rewarded professionally, personally and spiritually based on these values and how they have shaped my life.

• My career has afforded me numerous opportunities but it has not dominated my life nor supplanted my values.

If there was one thing you would like to tell someone earlier on in their career that you wish someone had told you, what would it be?

• Differentiate between noise and what is truly important. You can end up spending a lot of time and effort worrying about situations that do not really matter. Find people you trust and surround yourself by them to help guide you through what is truly important versus what is unnecessary stress and drama.