Meet the Marlins: Leslie Lau, Account Manager
Leslie Lau is one of our Account Managers at Big Marlin Group, and she is best known for being the queen of Teamwork, our project management site, and having the best shoe game in the office. But as an Account Manager, Leslie spends a lot of time in meetings, speaking to clients, and leading and developing the team of Marlins.
What is your professional background?
“I went to school for Communications Studies – with a concentration on Mass Communications - and have a minor in Advertising, Women’s Studies, and Studio Art. I should have just double majored, I know."
How did you become interested in those topics?
“I guess I’ve always known that I was feminist, but I just never really put a label to it until I was like ‘Yeah, feminism is as easy as thinking that women deserve equal rights – men can be feminists too!’ And I also had a lot of professors who were really woke in a very conservative college, so I just kept gravitating towards the professors. My classes overlapped for both my major and my minor, so I just took an extra class here and there to get those extra credits under my belt.”
Professionally speaking, what was your career before Big Marlin?
“I worked in the gaming industry for about a decade. I started off in marketing technically - at the casino level – and I did promotions anywhere from working at the front desk where people get their player cards, all the way to building and developing games for people to play. I got sort of a masterclass in working as a team, because as a team of four we had half a million budget per month, so we all had to work together to figure out how to spend it and how to make money from that.”
“I also worked in corporate gaming. I got to work with the big 4 Arizona sports teams and did a lot of promotional stuff for my players. It was a cool experience, as I got to travel with the team and do a lot of relationship building. Then I got recruited to come work for an agency that marketed for casinos, and it was kind of a no-brainer for me because I knew exactly what it was they wanted. I basically went 9 to 5 instead of all the crazy hours, but it was a seamless transition.”
How did you start at Big Marlin Group?
“John Allen messaged me on LinkedIn and said ‘Hey are you looking for a position? I’m looking for an Account Manager or Account Coordinator if you’re interested.’ John’s title was CEO/General Manager, and I thought to myself, ‘What CEO/General Manager emails on LinkedIn?’ I thought at first it was a scam. But after I looked at the Big Marlin Group website, I saw it was legit and I was getting ready to transition elsewhere, so it was perfect timing. I had actually gone back to school and taken some classes on SEO, web analytics, and social media marketing so I think the chips kind of fell into place.”
What is your official title at Big Marlin Group?
“I am an Account Manager and a Team Lead.”
What is the best part of your job?
“I think just being an advocate for our clients. I’m lucky that all our clients are very nice, very understanding, very great to work with. It’s nice helping them out and feeling like I am an extension of their team, they rely on me to get their stuff done; I love that part of it.”
What is the most challenging part?
“Even though I do have a decade of experience, I think I’m still in the early stages of my career. So the challenging part for me is not having all the answers at once, or having to seek help from my team members or Jamie - who does an awesome job of guiding us – but yeah, not knowing a lot of things and having to find those answers.”
What does a typical day look like for you?
“Meeting with clients is a big part of it and asking questions about what their goals are so we can work towards those goals. It’s a lot of planning, putting in tasks to get creative done, to get digital campaigns up, mailers out - it’s a lot of collaboration all day every day.”
If someone wanted to be in your role, what kind of advice would you give them?
“Find joy in having a lot of stuff going on, it is a very busy job. It can be overwhelming, but if you mentally flip a switch where you can find joy in being super busy and fuel off that, it will keep you going.”
“You need to avoid hitting that wall where you get burnt out, and I think that’s why this job works so well for me because I can run circles around anyone - I just feed off of being super busy. But also, being busy is a wonderful thing, because it means job security. The busier you are the more people depend on you. “
Anything else you would want everyone to know about you?
“I think I have a resting bitch face, so I’ve heard it all my life that I come off very intimidating or headstrong, but I am probably the most loyal person I know. For someone I love or people that I respect, I will work tirelessly to build those relationships. I treasure all my friends, I think that’s the biggest thing that I’m proud of, I consider myself a very good friend. If you tell me you need me, I will drop what I’m doing to come help.”
If you want to learn more about Leslie Lau, Big Marlin Group, the culture, or what makes us one of the best digital marketing agencies in the business, contact us today!
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