I held 14 jobs in my life before starting FischTank PR, where I have spent the last 10+ as of this writing. Each of these jobs has humbled, challenged and frustrated me. More important, they have created relationships I maintain to this day with the people I worked with. I loved them all (except K-Mart, if I’m being honest) and their unique lessons and people:
The Flourtown Farmer’s Market. I was ten years old shopping with my mom at the Flourtown Farmers Market when I saw some little fella like me scurrying around carrying trash between the food stands and out to a dumpster in the lot. I asked one of the merchants (it was the BBQ chicken guy, to be exact) and the next thing I knew I was told to be there at 8:30am the following Saturday. I would do that job for the next three years, carrying bags for people who couldn’t do it for themselves and throwing out trash for the various vendors. I needed the fish guy to help me lift trash cans of squeezed oranges because I wasn’t strong enough to get them in the dumpster.
I’ve written about my job as a bag boy before, but this job taught me a ton about sales (yes, even a ten year old has to sell) and accountability.
Pet Valu. When I was 13, my buddy Dan’s family opened a pet store chain. I love animals, and was lucky enough to get a job shortly after they opened. Minimum wage was around $5 at the time, but I didn’t care because this job was fun, I worked with a couple of my friends and there were dog visitors all day. It wasn’t all fun. Unloading skids of heavy bagged and canned food during cold PA winters beat me up at times, especially when it was early in the morning. My boss Mr. B was the first person that taught me retail – and I still think of those tips when someone hands me coin change (not inside the bill, not inside the bill!).
Halligan’s Pub. I was maybe 15 when I started bussing tables at Halligan’s, my favorite local restaurant and one of the only non-chains in town. You had to hustle at Halligan’s because those waitresses were tough, and if you slacked they let you know it. I remember getting envelops with cash the following day and knowing immediately who I’d pissed off and who I’d done right by. More notable, I started hanging out with a dishwasher who would soon become one of my best friends to this day. We bonded over music and sports, as well as the abundance of pickles, potato chips and bacon at our disposal.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who have worked at restaurants and those who haven’t. Halligan’s was the first place I learned many lessons from the food biz.
Kids Klubhouse. Would you believe I was a camp counselor? This was a summer job I started around 15, thanks to my awesome mom who drove me three days a week to assist in the youth sports program. After one year, I would lead that program (and drive myself to work). The kids were great, and I learned patience, because if anything will teach you that trait, it’s young and slightly insane human beings. I do remember the pay was very well at the time, and that I made several new friends from the grades above and below me in high school.
Joe’s Seafood – A Return to the Farmer’s Market. After working nights bussing tables I was happy to get back into retail at the market, and joined the fish stand that I had tossed salmon heads and shrimp shells for years earlier. Only blocks from my house, I loved this job and would remain there through the rest of high school and two years into college when I’d visit home. Joe taught me how to clean, and when I say clean, I mean scrub. The elbow grease and attention to detail was something I needed to develop, and Joe made sure I did. My buddy Jon and I had nicknames for most customers, one of them being the legendary Coach John Chaney of Temple University men’s hoops. Coach used to reminder me every day that if I didn’t skin his salmon right, he’d cut my nose off.
Gourmet Pizza. During my senior year of high school the switch went on and I was ready to GET OUT of the town I grew up in. I knew college or full time work was coming, and I needed more cash. I started delivering pizzas one or two nights a week for my favorite pizzeria. I actually think my grades improved because they were always dead the first hour of the night, and I would actually get homework done. One day I came in and my boss goes “were going to need you to work Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night. Cool?” I said I couldn’t do that, and he responded with, “OK, well today is your last day.” Well, alright.
K-Mart. Arguably the worst job I’ve ever had. I was a freshman at college who had gotten bad grades and needed to stay for summer courses. I also needed money, and my buddy Mattman who knows nothing about sports got a job in the sports department. I got a job as a Stock Boy. It was the worst. I cleaned up human feces (in the store) and horse dung (outside the store, Shippensburg, PA is Amish country), pushed shopping carts around on black top in the middle of summer, and hated every minute of it. After less than two months, an answer appeared on the horizon…
GIANT. I knew they were building a GIANT in Shippensburg and one day saw a trailer asking for job applicants. I went in and sure enough – they were hiring in the seafood department, an area I had plenty of experience. I got the job right away and was pumped at the $7.25 per hour pay – $2.00 more an hour than K-Mart. On my first day they tell me “We actually need you in the meat department and it’s 50 cents raise.” I asked, “where’s my apron?” and joined the meat department.
Because I was used to detailed cleaning (try disassembling, cleaning and re-assembling a butcher saw in 15 minutes) it was an easy job except around holidays. In the weeks before Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter I lifted hundreds if not thousands of frozen turkeys and hams from boxes, to carts to the shelf. My fingers felt like they’d fall off. My boss used to buy a six pack to drink on his drive home every night, but was otherwise a sweet guy. Something happened to him and a woman who hated college students took over, which is when I learned that some colleagues you just can’t win over.
Manufacturer’s Country Club. I had restaurant experience, so getting a summer job back in the Philadelphia area waiting tables at a country club seemed like a good fit, which it absolutely was. “Manny’s” was very high end, but I was surprised by how much I liked the people. One guy gave me a $20 every time he saw me, which none of us really understood and is slightly concerning now. Another gave me his Eagles tickets and I saw T.O.’s last touchdown in a Birds uniform. I made a ton of friends, a lot of money at the time, and most important – ate a lot of food that I would otherwise never have been able to afford.
Texaco / Chesterfried Chicken. This gas station and fried chicken “market” was literally 30 yards from my front door during my senior year of college. My boss was Afghani, and spent one hour teaching me in broken English how to use the register and lotto machine. I barely knew what I was doing when he left me for the night, and recall pissing off multiple lotto players. I only worked there for my final six months at school, but a lot happened that I can still laugh about. I caught my boss sleeping on newspaper on the floor; got busted for accidentally selling cigarettes to a 12-year-old (he looked 18+); deep fried everything you can possibly imagine; and cleaned a public gas station toilet and bathroom every night. I loved it.
Integrating Marketing Systems. Ah, myfirst “real job” out of college, although it was no more or less real than anything I’d done before. I had moved to San Diego a few months after graduating, and had no idea what I wanted to do. I saw the word Marketing in the title and figured that was close enough to my Communications/Journalism degree. It was more research and data entry, but it was a fine first job and I had a good boss who believed in me. IMS was also only two blocks from the beach and I would eat at my desk while working so I could go sleep for 52 minutes on the beach each day. Not too bad.
Crown Point Catering. My buddy Tim worked full time for a catering company, doing events but also managing the office and loading area, so I had an “in.” Every event went more or less like this: I would show up at some wealthy estate in the SoCal mountains or maybe aboard The Midway in San Diego Harbor. I would proceed to smoke a bunch of weed. Then enter the event and walk around with a plate of hors d’oeuvres for an hour or so. Then I’d smoke more weed in my car. Then I would bus tables. Then I’d smoke more weed in my car. Finally, I would eat a bunch of the unused food (which was Mexican-influenced and spectacular), clean up and go home.
Avalanche Strategic Communications. Finally, public relations. I joined this small firm in Hackensack as maybe the 9th or 10th employee, but at first as an intern while they tested me out. This one woman yelled at the prior intern so much that he either quit or wasn’t offered a job back, I’m not sure which. I knew it was an opportunity to get into the world of journalism and make real money, so I tried really hard and was rewarded with more responsibility, which ultimately gave me the tools I would need later in my career. It also helped me better understand business development, as working directly with the CEO and VPs on pitches was great experience for any impressionable young person. Most important, I learned how to work in an office with highly functioning, high energy people who demanded results on a daily basis.
United Realty Partners. In late 2011 I took a job I wasn’t qualified for – VP of Digital Marketing – with a real estate investment firm and its affiliated broker dealer. I needed the challenge, the salary was unlike anything I’d seen before, and it was in Manhattan. This job, which turned out to be completely insane, changed me forever.
Leadership had this knack for hiring entrepreneurs – an endless stream of characters who had side hustles, other companies, long track records, and unique ways of doing things. If you were weird and working in the financial district in 2011-2013, you probably stopped by our office. We shared offices with the legendary Morty Davis of DH Blair fame. Red carpets, chandeliers, old carved wooden walls, silver eagles, and more – it was madness every day but I learned arguably the greatest lesson of my career: your job is what you make of it. Titles don’t matter, paths to promotion don’t matter, experience barely matters, and the things we’re taught from day one in school and most workplaces are just total nonsense. I questioned everything I was told. I did what I thought was right to move the company along. I asked for a new title and responsibility six months in. I forced my way into the inner circle because I thought I knew better, and honestly – often I did. That role in that company where anything went made me more creative, resilient and confident.
FischTank PR. I shouldn’t write much about FischTank since this story isn’t finished. I can only say that there is no FischTank without all the other jobs, and there’s definitely no FischTank if I hadn’t learned at United Realty that you don’t need much (or anything) to start a company or side hustle. I decided one day in December 2013 that I was going to start a PR firm, and the next morning I woke up and did it. No business plan. No mentor. No investment from family or friends. Just me and laptop. I bartered with graphic and web designers, my friend Denyse gave me the name FischTank, and I posted on LinkedIn and Facebook and won two new clients. A business partner and many dozens of colleagues past and present have turned the company into what it is today, and I couldn’t be more appreciative.
What’s Next? I’d love to tend bar or wait tables for a few months or a year. Those jobs are not easy by any means and are in some ways harder than what I do now, but they are social jobs that rely on face to face interactions and no keyboards or screen. I don’t remember every texting or emailing when I worked in the restaurant biz. There was definitely no Zoom. I value human interaction that isn’t coordinated over 30-minute calendar invites and don’t require me to be “on” at all times. Life happens in cycles, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself behind a bar or counter one day down the road.
