Jim Odom
As a highly experienced product manager with a proven track record of success in developing and implementing innovative products and strategies across various channels, I have a strong ability to maximize long-term brand equity. Throughout my career, I have excelled at developing the customer journey, expanding channels, creating digital marketing campaigns, and utilizing agile methodologies to formulate effective go-to-market strategies.
I specialize in driving market awareness and collaborating with engineering, design, and sales teams to achieve business goals while considering budgets, time frames, and quality. I have built and led cross-functional teams for 16 years and have spent the past four years building a quality assurance platform for mortgage servicers, to ensure compliance with government, agency, and business requirements.
Visionary
I see product management as a mix of art and science to be used as a driver of customer delight. I’m the catalyst that mixes ideas, pushes concepts and finds the best way to energize brands through sophisticated go-to-market strategies.
Strategic
I am an entrepreneur and I think like a entrepreneur. And that means constantly identifying opportunities to grow the business, the brand, whether indirectly or directly through great design and marketing.
Hands-On
I enjoy rolling up my sleeves and getting into the nitty gritty of the work, whether it’s code, design or content, yet my goal is ultimately to be a ‘thought-leader’ and provide more inspiration than ideas.
Problem-Solver
I don’t believe in marketing without a goal. I see product management as a mix of art and science where content, design and technology play a role in creating solutions that improve the consumer experience.
Collaborative
My most important attribute is the ability to build great teams. I work exceptionally well across all key functional areas including sales, technology, operations and customer service. I am the unicorn who can communicate with Coders, Customers and the C-Suite execs.
Ambitious
I’m always looking for opportunities and I’m not afraid to take risks for the sake of making things better. The one quote hanging over my desk… “I fear regret, more than I fear failure” – author unknown.
Part Artist, Part Scientist, Part Gambler
I didn’t realize it at the time, or at least didn’t have a name for it, but I’ve been an Inbound Marketer since I was in Business School in the mid 90’s. I believed that Marketing was about getting in front of the right people at the right time. But what I learned in Business School was anything but that.
I began college life as a marketing major but after several years learning about the cutthroat world of “advertising” I wanted something else. Advertising was about how to yell louder, demand more and focus on the product…rather than the consumer. I was disappointed in how things worked and soon decided to focus on technology rather than Madison Ave.
This change of focus led me into a career as a Content Marketer, Graphic Designer, Web Developer, and SEO Strategist. My interest in the web began in 1994 when I was working as a computer support analyst at a university in Northern New Mexico while attending graduate school. A member of the faculty mentioned this thing called the World Wide Web and asked if I knew anything about it. By the end of that day I knew this “thing” was going to change the world. And I was going to be a part of it.
Fast forward 15 years. By this time, I’ve been involved with the design and development of hundreds of web sites of all kinds. Sites with purposes ranging from a golf statistics repository to social media hubs to the eCommerce platform for a Fortune 100 financial services firm. Every site different. Every one with its own purpose and goals. Each with a unique audience. And each with a different set of challenges.
At some point during my journey, I had my “Field of Dreams” moment when I realized that just because we build a website, doesn’t mean people will find it. I began trying to solve a problem: how can I lead audiences and impressions to these websites? Over the next 10 years, I advised dozens of businesses on UX, SEO and content strategy. Each was an interesting puzzle with varying business priorities and marketing funnel issues to account for.
I earned my degree in Management Information Systems, but I’ve been a storyteller since the early days. I enjoy teaching the process – breaking down complex technical concepts so they are easily understandable to my audience.
So, what’s next? Technology and communications are themes intertwined throughout my career with which I want to continue while channeling my creative ideas into solutions for the most pressing business challenges. My ideal role lets me create products and provides me with the freedom to drive marketing strategy and optimization tactics, building and leading a team of talented project managers, coders, designers, writers, and marketers on strategic projects. Did I mention I’m competitive? I will work tirelessly to make my company stand out from the pack.
The highpoints:
♦ Product Management
♦ Content Marketing + SEO + Strategy
♦ Visual Communication + Graphic Design
♦ UX + Digital Accessibility & Online Media Law
♦ User Persona Development
♦ User Groups + Usability Testing
♦ Generate & Nurture Leads
♦ Mutli-Channel Promotion
♦ Landing Page + Conversion Rate Optimization + Testing
♦ Analytics + Keyword Analysis
♦ SEO, SEM, PPC Campaign Analysis
♦ 360 degree customer view
What’s Around the Next Turn?
I owned my digital marketing firm for 14 years, leading clients through the process of designing, developing and launching new digital products. I built a team of over 30 super-talented people and I was extremely excited throughout the entire journey.
Oh sure, I had days when I held my head in my hands and thought WHY????? But that never lasted more than a few minutes. Maybe an hour. But I always came back to the vision of what was ahead for me.
But one day my vision changed a bit. Not of what was ahead, but of how best to get there.
I originally left the corporate world so I could have the freedom to “do things” without the constraints of dozens of decision-makers all wanting their fingerprints on successful projects. I felt that I could do the job better, faster and more successfully by myself. And I was right, to a large degree.
I absolutely could get things done faster and more effectively than I did before. I completed more projects in a year than I would have previously been able to do in 10. In my position at a Fortune 100 Financial Services Firm, my colleagues and I would often answer the two most-asked questions (only half jokingly) with “Six months, a million bucks.” Oh for that type of timeline and budget now!
I would argue that many times, one smart person will make better decisions, faster than any committee of people who each have different goals, agendas and priorities.
I won’t get into the details of my long-term personal goals here. After all, those are personal. But suffice it to say they involve a legacy that will be around long after I’m gone.
But I do have goals that I want to see come to fruition sooner rather than later. And to achieve those goals I realize that I may have to challenge my thought process. Maybe being on my own isn’t the best path to where I want to be. I am realizing that maybe I need help. And that is a hard thing for me to admit. I truly have the entrepreneur’s spirit. I want to build something significant. And I won’t lie…I want my name on it. But maybe, just maybe, I have more to offer.
More thoughts, ideas and earth-shattering revelations coming soon…
Jim's Introduction and Resume
If you need something to take with you…