Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Yee.
Eric, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Born & Raised in LA. 28 Years Old – Studied Marketing at Cal State Fullerton.
Always had an itch to start a business and, like everyone else, be my own boss. Yet, it wasn’t always that easy. I worked at Virgin America Airlines while I was in College and was fortunate enough to be able to travel around the world with them. After I graduated, I remained at Virgin America and was working as a Reservations Systems Analyst (basically a specialist in the system and taught other employees how to use it).
While I was doing that, I was also working in Casting for SAG commercials as well as working as an extra in some. At the same time, I was also working with a friend in restaurant consulting pro bono. I wanted to learn the ropes of business, outside of the corporate world, and my friend had the experience. Throughout these years, I’ve started an e-commerce business, mobile app (developed, but never deployed), & an import/export company. All attempted, but none were successful.
I parted ways with Virgin America in 2014 and left to go to Chicago and New York to pursue opening a Ramen Restaurant in the Midwest with a partner I had met in LA. At the time, I was also working as a Digital Marketing consultant for a restaurant concept with 6 locations in Southern California, which allowed me to work remotely. Anyways, we stayed in Chicago and New York for a few months while we were exploring the market out there, and drove all around the Big 10 Schools in hopes to get a concept started. We ended up finding a location in Champaign, IL where University of Illinois is. I didn’t end up liking the location, yet my partner wanted to stay there. I believed the location was too big for a concept like ours. Regardless, I decided to pick up my bags and move back to LA.
When I came back to LA, that was probably the lowest point I’ve ever been in my life. No more Virgin America, no more restaurant business, and I felt as if I failed too many times. I contemplated moving to Chicago and just starting fresh over there with a new job. One day, my friend who owns that Casting Company, asked me if I was interested in doing Social Media Marketing for Sugar Ray Leonard. Of course, I said YES! We met over lunch, and signed him immediately that day. I started to feel like I may be onto something. I worked exclusively with Sugar Ray Leonard for a year, traveling around the country to boxing fights with him as he was a commentator for Premier Boxing Champions on NBC. Some of the most fun I had in my life was traveling with him and learning about his life and understanding his personality. Such an amazing man and the nicest person you’ll meet!
After a year of traveling with him, I began to look for other clients and had aspirations of building out a Digital Marketing Company. I reached out to Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ and another Mobile Advertising Agency to run Digital Marketing campaigns.
Fortunately, I signed both clients in the same month and that really gave me the start that I needed for this company. I continued to learn as much as I could through every company I worked with and learned as much on Digital Marketing as I could to prove valuable to the clients. With the Mobile Advertising Company, we were running Social Media campaigns for companies such as The Home Depot, McDonald’s, Ford, and more.
Today, I’ve had Cloud Gate Media almost 2 years now and now work with Sugar Ray Leonard still, Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ, iLoveKickboxing.com, Fruit Fly BarPro, to name a few.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Cloud Gate Media – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Cloud Gate Media – Named after my travels. Traveled to 22 countries, but one place that I love is Chicago. Cloud Gate is art piece name of “The Bean” in Chicago.
Cloud Gate Media offers Digital Marketing Services for Companies. We handle everything from Web Design, Social Media Content Strategy & Engagement, Paid Social (Facebook Ads & Instagram Ads), Email Marketing, SEO, and overall Digital Marketing Consulting.
We specialize and are known for our Paid Social campaigns to optimize & drive conversions. We’ll come up with the strategy and will produce the ad creative and ad copy through to execution. We have a photographer, videographer, and graphics designer to capture images/video that will drive results.
We’ve worked with over $1Million in ad budget and have the experience with driving conversions and brand awareness for companies. Our clients are long-term as we drive results and we work to maintain a happy client.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Having traveled to many places, I definitely love the weather and the food in LA. There’s so many delicious food options that are available anywhere around the city. It’s a melting pot of cultures, which gives us the ability to experience so much in their food. The weather, most of the year, is amazing and is rarely humid and it rarely rains. I definitely took it for granted until I got to travel to other parts of the country.
What I like least, as I’m sure most people living in LA do, is the traffic. Traffic makes it ridiculous to get anywhere nowadays. I hate being late to anything, so I’ll typically leave at least 30 minutes before when Google Maps says I need to leave.
Contact Info:
- Address: 12575 Beatrice St.
Los Angeles, CA 90066 - Website: www.cloudgatemedia.com
- Email: [email protected]
Image Credit:
Getty Images for the image with Sugar Ray Leonard, Usher, Magic Johnson, and Oscar de la Hoya.
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