My Story

Let's start with introductions first.  My name is Desirea, which is pronounced (Dez-er-A). Most people get it wrong, which is why I provide the pronunciation.

I'll just start from the beginning, it's easier that way.  I was born in Yosemite National Park, CA.  No, that's not the same as Yellowstone National Park - I'm amazed how many people get the two confused.  So yeah, the early years began in a national park.  I have vague memories of the whole experience, most of which are probably instilled in me from being forced to watch home movies, on beta max no less, most of my life.  The early years are interesting stories to hear from my parents perspective or when we get together with old family friends for the Park days.  My Dad was a ski instructor at Badger Pass, and waited tables for the Ahwahnee Hotel while my mom was in housekeeping at Curry Village.  They were modest times I guess.  I'm skipping over all the parts where my parents met, fell in love, got married, then had me 4 years later.  I wasn't around then anyway - that would be their story, not mine.

Fast forward to 1985 - time to leave Yosemite.  My mom decided it was no place to raise a kid.  It's all fun a games when you're a young 20 something living in one of the most beautiful places in the country, but at some point you have to grow up and take care of your responsibilities.  So the parents packed it in and headed south to Santa Ana.  Settling in took some effort, and we moved around a bit before finding any sense of permanence.  My Dad landed a job at the Irvine Marriott.  He had no idea at the time that it would be the beginning of everything.  We lived in Santa Ana, Anaheim, and San Pedro all the while my Dad was busting his ass to learn the corporate side of the hospitality biz, and partying fairly hard at the same time.  Mom was in the biz as well, making her way up the corporate ladder, but she wasn't partying all that much.  Needless to say, that dynamic caused a riff or two, but they worked through it.  Two years later, the first big promotion for Dad came and it involved moving - again.  It was at this point that my parents decided that my Dad's career would take priority.  Marriott's an awesome company, and Dad was making real headway getting in with all the right people and being a rock star at all the right moments.  Mom was the driving force behind Dad's ambition.  If it was left to him alone, he'd probably still be partying it up in Yosemite with his buddies.  Don't get me wrong, Dad's got talent for what he does, but he tends to get comfortable where he is.  My Mom is where I get my ambition and drive from. 

So now it's 1987 and we're on our way to sunny San Diego.  That's right, San Diego Marriott here we come.  My Dad's important, and we get to live in the hotel for a month while we learn the city and find a place to live.  This was probably the best moment in my childhood.  I was a hotel kid, and I ruled!  Access to all the secret behind the scenes hallways, some of the greatest chefs and their gourmet creations, and hotel luxury at its best.  I was meant for this.  I had a gourmet like pallet by the time I was 18 months old, ordering escargot and beef wellington on my own long before Hell's Kitchen was around.  I had a passion for good food at an early age. 

The hotel itself is simply stunning - two curved glass towers reaching up to the skies looking over the serene blue waters of the marina.  Windjammers, yachts, and speed boats lining up along the docks.  I think this is when I fell in love with boats.  How could you not?  So, we find a place in La Jolla - small condo perfect for our little family.  Now, I was not a normal kid by any means.  Growing up in Yosemite with very few kids around made me a bit more mature than your average kid.  I had no problems holding real conversations with adults.  So I'd run around the complex talking to adults of all kinds, and making new friends for my parents.  What can I say, I was an outgoing kid.

Next thing you know, it's almost 3 years later and time for the next big move.  This one is major though - it's executive level, and involves opening a brand new Marriott property - The San Francisco Marriott downtown.  We settled into a house in the East Bay - Concord.  Public schools are good, easy commute into the city with BART, and in the right price range at the time.  It's Fall of 1989 and I've started school at Ygnacio Valley Elementary.  I don't remember much of it - don't know if that means it was bad or just uneventful, but there is one day I do remember.  October 17, 1989 - the day of the big Earthquake that shook the city and took out the Bay Bridge.  I was home from school, talking on the phone in the kitchen when it started.  One minute I'm on my feet, and the next minute the floors buckle and I go flying.  Ok, so I'm making it sound more dramatic than it was.  I didn't get hurt, and nothing except the floors and a table lamp were damaged in the house.  The thing was, it was supposed to be opening day for the San Francisco Marriott.  First day open for business, and the second biggest earthquake to hit the city happens.  Luckily it was new construction, so it was designed to handle it.  The massive crystal chandelier fell, but it was made of such thick crystal, it didn't even crack.  So they hoisted up the chandelier and opened their doors, but not as a hotel.  Their first day in business and they opened as a shelter.  Later t-shirts were made that read "We Rocked, We Rolled, We Opened".

So let's fast forward again to spring 1994.  Dad comes home and says it's time move again.  By this time, I'm about to graduate from the 8th grade and move on to high school.  My parents did their best to only move when I would be going on to a new school anyway, so now was the perfect time to go.  This time, we would be leaving California.  We had two choices - New Orleans or Houston.  As a family we decided, we really liked Jazz - so New Orleans it was.  Other things were considered as well, but the jazz comment was made.

So off we go on our long drive from San Francisco to New Orleans.  The ultimate cross country road trip with a bunch of zig zags along the way so we could see friends and family.  We left June 30th, and got to New Orleans August 5th - my 14th birthday.  So here we are again - living in the hotel, getting to know the Crescent City, but this time things are cut short.  Apparently the south starts school well before Labor Day, so I have to go back to school in just two weeks.  Talk about sucky summer.  Now, you might be thinking a month long cross country road trip would be an awesome summer, but you've never traveled with my Dad.  Put it this way - the man drove past the sign that read "Grand Canyon 1 Mile" knowing that none of us had ever been there.  Forget about stopping for bio breaks.  You have to threaten his life, or be in tears before he'll pull over. 

I'll skip the parts about the culture shock and racial issues that were presenting by living in the south.  That's like a whole other blog.  Anyway, we settle in Mandeville, suburb just north of New Orleans.  Best public schools in the state, so it seemed like a good choice.  Little did we know that "best in the state" wasn't saying much.  I was enrolled at a brand new high school opening for the first time.  Construction was a bit behind schedule, so they opened with only 2 grades, and would grow each year with those classes until it was a 4 year high school.  Fontainebleau High - Home of the Bulldogs, and my graduating class would be the first to go there all 4 years.  Don't get me wrong, I loved high school, but part of me feels like I was kind of robbed.  The first two years were practically a complete repeat of the 7th & 8th grade curriculum I had in California.  Things were so easy in the beginning, I think I got lazy - and cocky.  Next thing you know, it's Junior year and the grades aren't coming as easy as they did the last two years.  By this time I was in a bunch of honors courses, and taking a lot of classes with Seniors.  So much so, that most everyone thought I was a Senior.  I even wore my Mom's old high school class ring, which just happened to have the same school colors.  I didn't do it to be deceptive, I had been wearing it since the 7th grade.  Socially, Junior year was the best.  I was hanging out with mostly Seniors.  I had my own brand new car (back then you could get your license at 15).  It was just fun times.  I become friends with a crowd from a rival high school, and just had a blast.  Then most of my friends graduated, and I was left to make friends with people my own age.  Don't get me wrong, a one year difference in age is hardly much of a difference, but back then it was drastic. Plus, I was still more mature than most people my age. 

Well, the rest of high school was fairly uneventful or more of the same, and so now it's time for college.  I had been planning for this since I was a sophomore in high school.  Even convinced the parents to take me on a college tour all over the place to do interviews and check out campuses.  At this point in my life, I was determined to be a lobbyist.  I knew I was going to be a Poli Sci major for as long as I can remember - I wanted to improve the world in some small way; do my part.  So I was looking for that small social science college where I could discover myself.  I had my heart set on the Northeast.  Brandeis University, Boston College, Hartwick College - places like that.  Hartwick College and the New York Catskills won me over though.  I was in love at first sight, but it had nothing to do with the curriculum.  It was just the view.  Just when I thought I had my whole collegiate life figured out, Louisiana came out with a new program - The TOPS program.  Basically it meant if I chose a State school in Louisiana, I could go for free on an academic scholarship just for taking college prep courses in high school - which I was already doing.  It would be dumb to turn down a free college education, so it was decided.  I was heading down the Bayou to Louisiana State University - the heart of SEC football, and the home of the LSU Tigers. So it was time to leave the nest and move west to Baton Rouge.

I won't dwell on the college years.  Some things are better left undocumented.  I definitely had the time of my life at LSU, and despite all the fun I had, I managed to graduate in 4 years with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Political Science. That's right, not a Poli Sci major!  Politics took a real turn for the worse from 1998 to 2002, and I just decided around 2000 that it wasn't meant for me.  So I slowly changed my major to Psychology, first adding it on as a double major, and finally dropping Poli Sci when it was time to move again and I didn't have time to finish the two classes I needed to have a double major.  What can you do with a double major anyway? You see, my parents left Louisiana and headed to Philadelphia my Sophomore year at LSU.  That's right, they brought me to the South, and then left me there.  So after graduation, I packed up, and headed North.

It's now August 2002, and I'm a new college graduate moving back in with my parents.  It's the thing to do in my generation.  There's a lot of stigma about living with your parents after college, but in reality it's the financially smart thing to do.  Plus, I had a plan!  The plan was to find a job, go to grad school, and move out in 3 years. My Dad's first reaction to my plan was "Yeah right - you're going to be living with us for longer than 3 years".  Well, that kind of doubt only motivated me more, but not immediately.  I just graduated, I'm in the Northeast - it's time to go sight seeing!  Dave Matthews Band concert in Pittsburgh, week in NYC, week in DC, weekend in Atlantic City, and endless sightseeing in Philadelphia with my new VIP Pass to the city.  Yup, life is good as a hotel kid.  Next thing you know, it's October and my Dad says "I think it's time you started looking for a job.  It's probably going to take you a few months to find something."  So, he hands me a news paper - then I laugh and turn to the internet.  What year did he think it was?!  So I went to CareerBuilder.com and started looking for something in Marketing.  I took a few Marketing classes in college, and found that it was basically my Psych classes, except we were applying the concepts to make money rather than just helping or understanding people.  Seemed like Marketing would be a good fit for me.  By this time I was an obsessive online shopper, and an expert at finding anything I needed online through the power of Google.  Yup, I was Googling as early as 2000 when one of my professors first showed it to me.  I ditched Lexis Nexus and never looked back. 

Anyway, I found a few job listings that looked probable, but I didn't want probable.  I wanted awesome!  I was going to be a young professional making thousands of dollars a year rather than some piddly hourly wage.  Little did I know then that I probably would have made more if I was paid hourly :-).  So I find something that peaks my interest in an area that I thought would be near where I would want to live.  Yeah, that's right - I had a plan!  My parents were living in New Jersey commuting into the city, and there was no way I was doing that forever.  So it's October 2nd and I submit my resume to Unreal Marketing Solutions in Narberth, PA.  It's the Philadelphia Mainline, and a totally cute area - haven for young professionals, upper middle class, and the elite.  I immediately got an interview, and next thing you know I had a signed offer by my Dad's birthday on October 7th.  I simply said "Happy birthday, I've got a job - and you thought it was going to take me months, hahaha."  So I had one interview, and landed a salary position on my first time out of the gate.  It didn't take much to get the job - I basically had them at "I love organizing things".  What did they care, it was entry level.

Like my Dad back in Irvine - little did I know this was going to be the beginning of everything.  My first day at Unreal, and I would be asked the one question that would shape the future of my career.  The one question that would unlock a secret talent that I didn't even know I possessed.  My new boss said "Well, you have a choice.  You can either do Media or Search.  Do you have a preference?".  I thought about it for a split second and said "I love searching and shopping online, so I'll do Search".  Then she said "Great!  Go learn it, and then tell us how to do it." 

That was it, I was on my own.  I was given a contact at Overture (now Yahoo!) and Google, and someone in our LA office could show me a couple things but they didn't have a whole lot of Search going on, since they were just getting into the space.  So I took it and ran with it.  I jumped right in, head first!  Now the concept of search marketing isn't all that complex.  You come up with keywords that people would type into a search engine to find information, and you write some text ads for people to click on if they're interested in your product/service. It just wasn't that complicated - especially in the world of Search Marketing in 2002.  But I had a secret talent for it.  I took to it like a fish in water, and started to mass create keyword lists before any automated tools existed.  Search was all about data and organizing it, and I knew Excel! 

I learned Excel in my Astronomy Lab class graphing star charts and tables of coordinates.  Now I could use it to mass produce keyword phrases combining base keywords and other descriptive words.  Sounds dumb, but this talent made me godlike in the industry for a short while. 

The moment I knew I was in the right industry was when Overture flew me out to Pasadena for Editorial Training.  They flew out a bunch of search marketers from top interactive agencies throughout the country.  They did a little exercise to see who could create the most keywords in 5 minutes using excel.  They showed us a website with a bunch of hockey jerseys for the Atlanta Thrashers, and said to build a keyword list around it.  When the 5 minutes were up they started asking the crowd to raise their hands if they had at least 5 keywords - everyone raised their hand.  Then 10, 20, 30 - each time more hands would go down.  At 30 everyone's hand went down except for mine.  It was time, the defining moment when I discovered I was awesome.  In a room with 30+ search marketers, all with more experience than me (since at this point, I had only been at Unreal for 3 months), and everyone in the room came up with 30 or less keywords.  So the moment comes, and they ask me how many I was able to come up with.  I pause for a second, wondering if I did something wrong, because I couldn't understand how my number could be so far from the rest, and then I just said it - 1,215.  It was total shock and awe.  Comments of "holy shit" and "how is that even possible" were uttered.  The ones running the class couldn't even believe it.  They physically walked over to see it for themselves, and there it was.  A perfect keyword list of 1,215 keywords created in just 5 minutes.  That was the day I taught the trainers at Overture the concatenate formula in Excel, and I made a name for myself as an up and coming rock star in the Search Industry. 

I went back to Philadelphia feeling awesome and with 3 job offers, but I loved Unreal.  Why would I leave after only 3 months, even if everyone was offering me way more money.  I got to define my own job, and I was creating something.  I didn't care how much money I was making - I was living with my parents, and had no bills other than car insurance.

My time at Unreal were some of the best and worst days of my life.  We were a really close group, and hung out socially, but the stress of a start up environment without any venture capital can take its toll on you.  I wouldn't trade my time at Unreal for anything in the world.  It's were I discovered myself.  My career progressed so quickly at Unreal, that I was able to buy my first house at the age of 24, just 7 days before my birthday, and 3 days before the 3 year deadline that I had told my Dad I would be moved out and living on my own.  That was probably the best "I told you so" moments of my life, and the first time my Dad said to me "I'm proud of you".  Don't get me wrong, my Dad has always been proud of me, but he's more of a bragger to the rest of the world, rather than offering up positive feedback and encouragement directly to my face, so this was a big deal.  Three months later, my Dad gets that call and it's time to move again.  Off they go, leaving me behind yet again, back to San Francisco, CA.  Figures!

A year later, it was time for me to move on with my career.  Leaving Unreal was one of the hardest things I've ever done.  It was actually really emotional - like breaking up with a guy you've been with for 4 years except this time it was your CEO rather than your boyfriend.  I had been through so much there, and made so many great friends, but it was time to go.  I was recruited by a former co-worker 6 months before my contract was up at Unreal, and he was willing to wait 6 months to get me.  So I decided to play nice, and go client side.  This way, I could try something different, and not violate my non-compete with Unreal.  No hard feelings, or crazy threats to take me to court. Like my Mom always said, "Don't burn your bridges."

So in June of 2006 I leave Unreal and head over to Post University.  Not much to say about this time in my life.  It was a small 4 person operation in Chestnut Hill, managing a University in Connecticut.  Totally strange situation, but I did gain one new awesome friend out of it and some life changing advice - but I won't get into that here.

I had a one year non-compete with Unreal, and when that was up it was time to move on and I landed at Yellowbook heading up their Local Search product - WebReach.  I have more to say about this time in my life, but I'll write about it later when it's not so present.

So who am I today? For a while my life revolved around nothing but my work, but I'm trying to change the focus a little more to me. I guess you can say I am a recovering workaholic who needs a life, but probably won't get it in the Northeast. After everything I've been through, I've learned that the Northeast is not for me.  Socially, I just don't belong here.  It's time to go back to my roots.  It's time to go home to California.

Ok, so that's my story so far - the abridged version.