The story behind our cross-country move to San Francisco started months before anyone knew, and as I am reminiscing in memories from this time last year I want to bring you along.
The first question I always get when I meet someone new is “Where are you from?”. That is quickly followed by “What made you move from Flint to San Francisco?”. I get it, it was a bold decision. I’ll tell you exactly how it happened.
I started my first job in radio at CK 105.5 in Flint in January 2006 after interning there for a few months. My program director (boss) at the time told me two things that have always stuck with me:
1: The radio industry is a very small world. You will most likely work with all the people in this building again at some point, so treat everyone like they may be your boss someday.
2: If you aren’t going to dress in business casual attire, wear station gear.
I still follow both those guidelines almost 14 years later. He was very correct about it being a small world. I have worked with him three different times at three different companies.
Fast forward to September 2018. I get a call from my first Program Director, turned friend. He had worked in San Francisco for a few years and needed some input. His (now my) company wanted to put a larger focus on live events and live event sponsorships in 2019, and they needed some input for a position they were creating. Along with doing the afternoon air shift on Cars 108, I was the Live Events Manager for all the Townsquare Flint stations, so I had experience in the revenue stream they were trying to grow. He said his Director of Sales would be contacting me to ask me some questions.
At this time I was not looking for a new job, I had been at Cars 108 for seven years and my coworkers had become my family.
I checked Linkedin for the first time in months in October 2018 and saw a message from the Director of Sales at Bonneville International in San Francisco asking for some input. He had messaged me two weeks before I even saw the message. I apologized for my delayed response and set up a time to chat with him.
After we talked a few times about Live Event Manager roles, what I was responsible for, what had worked well for me in the past, and what his goals were he asked me if I would like to officially interview for the job he was creating.
I panicked.
I waited anxiously for Aaron to get home to discuss this new development with him. His response was “What do you have to lose?”. He was right.
I interviewed with the Director of Sales over the phone on Halloween 2018. He asked me a lot of questions trying to determine if a cross-country move was realistic. During this conversation, I asked him to job leads for Aaron. I told him I can’t move to the most expensive city in America without some leads for Aaron. He asked what Aaron did, I told him radio sales and the conversation changed a little bit. As it turns out, they were also looking for salespeople, and after that initial conversation, Aaron started a separate interview process.
After a few different phone interviews, Steve (my boss) said he wanted to fly us out to San Francisco for in-person interviews. We picked a Friday that worked for both of us, and he sent over travel details. We then decided to tell our immediate family what we were doing.
On Thursday, November 29, 2018, we flew to San Francisco. I had not been on an official job interview in years, and I was equally nervous and excited. We knew the trip would be fun. It was a new city, new experiences, they had a station concert that weekend that we were invited to, it would be great. What we had to determine was if we could see ourselves leaving our jobs, friends, and family to move to a new place where we knew two people.
We arrived in the city on Thursday evening, navigated the subway system (Bart) to the apartment we were staying in and found some food.
Friday morning we had to be at the station at 9 am for a full day of interviews. They split us up and shuffled us around until lunch. We went to lunch with Steve and another manager, then we finished the day with more interviews. Steve took us out for a drink after the day was over to ask us how we were feeling. In one word – overwhelmed.
The next morning we looked at some apartments to see what our life would look like in San Francisco and walked around the city for a while. Then we went to the station concert at SAP center. Going back to radio being a small world, we saw a former boss of mine at the concert. It was very awkward. He knew we had no reason to be there, and we didn’t want to tell him why we were there. It’s crazy because that concert is next week, and I can’t believe I was here a year ago.
We flew home on Sunday and were told we would hear more soon. Less than five people knew where we were that weekend or why we were there.
The story will continue with part two next week.