Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephen “Steph” Rawlins.
Hi Stephen “Steph”, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hey, thank you for having me. I have been in marketing and advertising for over 16 years. I started out doing experiential marketing before the phrase or term was created. Not to age myself, but I started off in an interesting time.
I initially got my start working for a special events company in NYC, where we did events for corporate entities in addition to family/life events (i.e weddings, bar/bat mitvahs, anniversaries, retirement parties, etc.). This was about 2004 or 2005.
I noticed the corporate events becoming more consistent and brands beginning to allocate budgets to take advantage of after work get togethers, as well as daytime meet-ups. A friend of mine who I worked with at the events company later moved on to work with a start-up agency that was doing jobs with various brands based out of texas and was flying & driving all around the U.S. I used to look at his myspace like, “What the hell is he doing!”
He happen to randomly reach out to me one day and said, “hey… do you have your driver’s license and have you ever driven a box truck.” I had no clue why he was asking, it was a super random call, but just as random, I had literally drove a big U-Haul truck for the first time ever the week before.
He literally said, great… I told this company you are someone I recommend to manage staff and is super reliable. He then told me he was getting paid an absurd amount of money at that time per week to travel all over the US and literally attend cool sports and lifestyle events and have people try different Mcdonald’s products.
My next response was, where do I sign up, and from there, I was on the move. I did that for 4.5 years and over that duration went to 77 cities and about 42 states.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No business/career journey I feel like has ever been smooth. haha
Not to be cliche, but I would say the struggles I’ve encountered along the way have been all things that have built character and who I am today. As I look back on everything, I feel grateful for having experienced those struggles. Not that going through them are enjoyable by any means.
The things I have experienced are the age-old struggles, company lay off’s and having to job hunt, not having the network to get in certain doors, people you report to that are not experienced enough to give you proper direction and so on.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
CrossOVR Collective is a company my business partner Walt Brock and I created just before covid that specializes in sports & entertainment, with a specific emphasis on marketing and branding, but also creates short and long-form content.
We have a bit of a unique story though because prior to starting our business, Walt and I initially connected on LinkedIn and long story short quit our jobs fairly quickly to move on the ideas and vision. Literally felt like overnight.
That being said, in addition to marketing & branding, branded content, original series, etc. we also negotiate partnerships, endorsements and help clients create strategies. We consult for conferences, develop various aspects of programming and execute experiential events with multiple client/partnership verticals that range from lifestyle, CPG, & luxury goods.
What we look to specialize in with how we work with our clients is finding opportunities for them to connect with audiences and fans in unique ways, but also help them find and engage with audiences they didn’t know they already had or were over-indexing with. Many markets and industries are becoming oversaturated, and we like to try to find new opportunities for our clients, as well as help them stand out amongst the clutter of their respective fields.
Every project has been drastically different from one to the next, but we are really excited to see our shows that we’ve created make it to networks and also continue to grow our international audiences & clients.
CrossoOVR is a company that we wanted to have meaning and disrupt the traditional models of business currently taking place. Many brands always want to take advantage of emerging markets or communities, and we always said that when we were in the right position, we want to make sure that brands are truly engaging and keeping a consistent relationship with the new opportunities they are seeing, and not just coming in to find these new clients without having an authentic experience. We are a marketing and branding agency that takes a cultural approach to every project we have while making sure there is a 360 touchpoint to ensure elements of each of our projects does not fall into to the traditional siloed approach that sometimes is lost when portions of projects are moved from agency to agency.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I haven’t had a mentor per say at this level currently, but I have had some very strong influences and help along the way from people who have really aided in my journey.
I think the advice I have for finding a mentor or being open to someone who could operate in that capacity is making sure to have the willingness to be open and be vulnerable with people. Listening is key, and sometimes the lesson may not be in the suggestion but it may even be in hearing what didn’t work for someone.
I feel like, for myself personally, networking has been the major catalyst in what has afforded me to get where I am today. The more I was able to network or learn from other people of have conversations, the more I was able to take in cultural nuance, contrasting viewpoints and hear about different industries.
So my advice for someone reading this would be – follow your gut, get out of your comfort zone and figure out aspects of your respective industry and find ways to put yourself in the rooms of conversations of the different segments of your field.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.CrossOVR.co
- LinkedIn: https://www.
linkedin.com/in/stephanr - Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/mrstephraw/
