Striking out on your Own | Jon Westover, Voltage Marketing Group
To take a chance on yourself or not?
Most of us in Marketing Operations roles have been a part of an agency relationship at one point or another. For in-house teams, agencies are an essential partner for an understaffed and overworked role. Many of us have also spent time in Marketing Operations or Marketing Automation agencies and had the chance to work with a wide variety of clients and tech stacks.
The subject of this week’s interview has had experience on both sides of that relationship. Jon Westover began his career working in an Operations role before he even really knew what Marketing Operations was, and before he knew it he had progressed from building emails to managing tech stacks, providing executive-level reporting, and creating lead scoring models from scratch.
What do you do when you get “stuck”?
The largest inflection point in Jon’s career to date came when he was deciding between a seemingly perfect role and the itch to strike out on his own.
I feel like this is a relatable scenario for many Marketing Operations pros.
Without a significant amount of formal training, most of our impactful learning comes in the form of on-the-job training, and this accelerates our ability to learn new processes, tools, and ideas, even if it does come from an area of self-preservation.
As we begin to master the basics of many fundamental Operations skills, we begin to see how large of an impact Marketing Operations can have on the broader Marketing team.
In some cases, we’re able to realize creating all, or at least some, of that value. We have a leader who believes in us, an appropriate level of resources, and the trust to go and make things happen.
Other times, we’re stuck - working with a leader who doesn’t get (or doesn’t fully support) the Operations function, and our purview is reduced to sending emails and maintaining the Marketing Automation tool. Another way you might find yourself stuck is to be limited by the structure of your org and not have anywhere to grow.
If you find yourself in the “stuck” scenario, one of the ways out can be to take your highly transferable (and in-demand) skills to the open market. This can either take the form of finding a new job or if you’re like Jon, striking out on your own and seeing if you can build a sustainable source of income.
Jon’s situation was further complicated by the fact that his wife was expecting their first child and the job offer he was considering was packed with delightful pregnancy and childcare perks that would have coincided nicely with the happy arrival of their baby.
How are you being intentional about your career?
When I asked Jon what gave him the confidence to turn down a seemingly perfect job opportunity and pursue the idea of opening his own marketing operations agency, he says,
“What was missing from my career up until the point of making this decision was being intentional. I fell into working in Marketing Operations, and I stayed there and the money was good. But I was on my heels, I was being reactive.”
He continues, “It was like I was waking up in my career. I knew that I didn’t just want another job - what I was going to do next was going to be what I wanted to do. When I turned that job down, I didn’t know what I was going to do.”
This is a great reminder for all of us. In economic times like this, it can seem safer to stay in a role, even if we know deep down that it isn’t the right fit. We may put off making a change because we’re afraid of the risk that comes with taking a chance.
Being intentional in your career doesn’t necessarily mean turning down a great job offer. You don’t need to make a huge drastic change like Jon ended up making in his career (we’ll come back to that story in just a minute). Being intentional means that you have a specific outcome or goal in mind, and you take steps to build to that point.
If your goal is to become a VP of Marketing Operations or a CMO, then you’ll take different chances than someone who wants to head down more of a business operations path, and even more different than someone who wants to start their own business.
It’s a great idea to check in on your progress towards your goals at least twice a year, if not more often. If you’re closer to what you want to do, then you’re on the right track. If you’re not, then you know that you need to make some adjustments.
Placing a bet on yourself, and doing it your way
Once Jon had decided that his job offer wasn’t the right path for him, he got to work figuring out what he wanted to do.
One method Jon relied heavily on in having the confidence to strike out on his own was prayer. He says, “So what I did is I prayed. Spirituality is a part of who I am. So I prayed about this question - where should I go next? Should I turn this job offer down?”
“The answer I got didn’t take long. After a few minutes, I felt that I shouldn’t make a decision out of fear. Prayer helped me get past my fear and be confident enough in myself to make the right choice, not the safe choice.”
Now whether or not you’re a spiritual person, tools like prayer, meditation, visualization, or journaling can help you gain clarity and direction.
We’re constantly bombarded by so many distractions and notifications that it can be hard to focus on what’s on the screen in front of us, let alone a significant decision relating to a career change.
Taking time to be alone, observe your thoughts, write them down, and consider the things that are truly important to you is a hugely helpful exercise when considering any significant happening in life, including changing jobs or starting a business.
I appreciate that Jon shared this part of his process because it was a significant factor in why he ended up making the decision he did, and it also illustrates the need to be true to ourselves.
Much like Hana Jacover talked about finding out what truly motivates you in our conversation a couple of weeks ago, you should be focusing internally to determine what decision and what outcomes are the best for you as well.
So after all of this, Jon felt confident in his decision to strike out on his own.
Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face
At least so says Mike Tyson.
So we’re now to the part of the story where everything goes smoothly, right?
Wrong.
Jon began the process of starting an agency with a friend of his. He says, “My friend said ‘we’ve been doing this for quite a few years now, let’s take these services and try and sell them’ - and I thought that was a good idea. So I started trying to sell our services, and I failed miserably.”
At this point, rather than focus on his Marketing Operations skills, he was trying to sell website production services, which was the area of focus for his partner. And it wasn’t going well.
In fact, Jon had used up most of the savings he had been relying on during this 6-month window.
“Everybody told me I needed to stick with what I was trying for 6 months. I was almost to the end of 6 months and it was time to start making some money again.”
Despite his best efforts, he had essentially resolved to finding a job, despite his misgivings about working for someone else.
However, as he was about to begin looking for a job, he landed his first Marketing Operations client. A month later, he picked up another, and then another, and things started to build from there.
Reflecting on this time, Jon says, “Once I landed those first few clients, I never looked back. I realized that I was terrible at trying to sell websites. It’s not what I knew. I began focusing on Marketing Operations and I haven’t looked back since.”
Actively looking to the future
Jon says, “When you’re intentionally pursuing a target or a goal and doing consistent, repeatable things to reach that goal, you will eventually get there.” He continues, “Sometimes you may end up shifting to a different goal or to something else entirely that you learned about because you initially took action towards your first goal.”
Action + Intentionality = Positive Progress.
Jon’s intentional drive and focus led him to persist in starting his agency, Voltage Marketing Group.
Whether you’re thinking about scratching that entrepreneurial itch or trying to find a way to direct your career to a specific type of role, remember that these things don’t just “happen” to people. We’re all like ducks, smooth on the surface and paddling like crazy underneath - and the ones paddling the hardest in the direction they want to go will get there.
Editor’s Note - Jon and I did go down a bit of a Justin Welsh tangent in our conversation.
In case you haven’t run into his content on LinkedIn or X (Twitter), Justin posts a lot about working for yourself, doing your own thing, and breaking out of the typical “9-5” routine. We agreed that his rise in popularity has probably convinced quite a few people that the “best” path for them is to do their own thing.
While that may be the case for some people, the “best” path for others may lie in working for a company. It may be that you have the skills and personality to grow professionally working for someone else. As I mentioned earlier, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that there’s a “right” way and a “wrong” way - take the steps to understand what you truly want to do and let that guide your actions.
Working with an Agency
With some experience running an Agency under his belt, I wanted to hear from Jon what teams could do to better leverage the agencies they’re working with.
Here are some things he called out:
Agencies can help you save time in the long run if you can dedicate some time upfront to help them get up to speed
Be very specific and clear about why you are hiring the agency and what you would like them to do
Understand that they will need feedback on an ongoing basis, especially due to the type of work that Operations teams typically do
While saving time is likely one of the most common reasons that a team would turn to an agency, they’re not magic. You wouldn’t hire someone to be on your team and expect them to get up to speed instantaneously without any help from you, so it’s not a fair assumption to make for an agency as well.
Hiring an agency is a great way to get affordable access to a wide variety of expertise, and can be a great way to augment your team through a large project.
In his experience, Jon said that he’s enjoyed working with smaller organizations, like Series A and Series B startups.
Many organizations at these sizes don’t have the budget to hire a fully staffed Operations team. In Jon’s opinion, it’s a better fit to bring on an agency that can jump into a variety of areas, rather than hiring a younger generalist who may not be able to get the appropriate foundation built out to support the future growth of the organization.
Wrap Up
Jon’s entrepreneurial journey is a lesson in self-belief, persistence and harnessing the potential of technology. Whether you’re deep in the entrepreneurial trenches or mulling over taking that leap of faith, Jon’s narrative is equally inspiring and insightful.
The trajectory of Jon's career serves as a reminder that the entrepreneurial journey may not always be straightforward or easy, but it holds the potential for immense personal and professional fulfillment. It's about paving your own path, facing trials head-on, and most importantly, betting on yourself.
If you’re interested in connecting with Jon or potentially working with his agency, here’s where you can find him:
Voltage Marketing Group (Jon’s Agency) - he’s got time (and a special offer) if you’re interested, so feel free to reach out!