Top 10 Reasons to Hire Robert G. Bain

30 years of marketing in BC! It is a long time to be responsible for growth. When I started, the internet was just beginning and everyone was using super slow modems with dial up connections. Marketing has changed a lot since then but 30 years means I learned a lot of lessons along the way. 30 years experience means I’ve been there and done that!  

I love what I do. So when I wake up in the morning – I’m up and ready to face the day. When I hire people, I always look to find those that want to run to work instead of walking there. The employee and the employer both play a role in that, which is why I’m picky about where I’ll work and with who. I like to work beside the decision makers and for the last 30 years that has been the owners. It doesn’t always have to be owners but when we make a decision to go forward with something, I hate having to sit on my hands. I move quickly, love what I do and I thoroughly enjoy winning.

K.B.O. has been on my resume for decades and it stands for Keep Buggering On! A quote made famous by Winston Churchill to never give up. I never give up – I always keep trying when I believe something is right. I may change strategy but keep going, moving forward, trying again. I have worked with people throughout the years that say “they told the boss and they didn’t like the idea, therefore they are giving up and moving on”. I never understood this. Do you believe that is best? Then try again. Your boss is paying you to give them your best every day and giving up easily isn’t your best! Pitch again, convince, get others on board, rally, adjust your presentation, bring it up every chance you get, be persistent – they are paying you for your best. Keep Buggering On!

Truthfully, I don’t have time for anything else. Let’s just be adults and be clear with each other and get it all out on the table. Honesty is key to success with a Director of Marketing specifically because we may have strategies between us that we aren’t sharing with others – we are a tag-team and work together for the wins. We have to be honest. Without honesty, I will find the relationship frustrating because things aren’t making sense.  Honesty is a two-way street, where we both need to communicate clearly in order to find the wins. We are a team and you are paying me for honesty so that is what you’ll get.

I am the energizer bunny. This is part of the reason I speak of wanting to run to work instead of walking there. When I find the right company where I want to hang my hat full-time, I give it my all. Often, I am the first one to work in the morning and the last one to leave. I answer internal email and texts quickly so the team knows they can count on me whether at 9:00pm or 7:00am, Tuesday or Sunday. Vacation means I get to enjoy my time but I’m not released from responsibility. In 2018, I spent a month in Maui and decided I would deal with emails every morning for an hour and it was the best vacation ever. Oh, also, when something needs to get done, I am the first one to jump in because I want to lead the team to understand that we all give our all and I’m not going to ask you to do something I don’t do. Let’s do it together. Truthfully, I believe that part of energy comes from a positive attitude.

I have more to say below but aren’t you ready to get together and have a conversation face to face about working together?  30 years of Director of Marketing experience, yup 30.  Reach out to Robert Bain!

When I was 21 years old working for Woodward’s Stores in Edmonton as a Department Manager, I attended a leadership seminar in Vancouver with a select group of future leaders which included attendance to a Tom Peter’s conference that I found to be groundbreaking thinking around excellence. BHAG was a term that was written about a few years later that always stuck with me as a roadmap to excellence. Think big. You just won’t attain excellence without imagining what the future can be and driving towards it. Set your BHAG goals and then focus and let that drive everything you do. I can give you a list of BHAG goals I set which were attained throughout the years and they were certainly Big Hairy Audacious Goals!  Let’s set some new ones together for you at your company and drive some excellence!

I have spent a lot of years as the lead individual when it comes to hiring.  I have seen tens of thousands of resumes and have hired some absolutely fantastic people. I hire people based largely on attitude and want to extract who candidates really are, getting past the standard interview questions and canned answers. I have learned that the power of the team is much more powerful than the power of one. I learned how to build a team of very unique and interesting individuals who come together to best serve customers which I see as a very important component for continued organizational growth. After all these years of building the best team possible, I am very proud to share that many of those individuals will stand up and share their opinion of me as a leader, marketer, team mate and friend. But again, 30 years as Director of Marketing at four different companies as a full-time employee should tell you I’m probably pretty darn good! 🙂

I have been a leader since I was 16 years as part of the Work Experience class in high school. I started work right after school and worked until 1:00am (my teacher never found out as that wasn’t allowed – I was just a kid after all). After 3 months, I was promoted to Manager and I’ve been a leader ever since. The list of accolades enjoyed throughout the years is extensive as I love to win – while that is more about marketing than leadership, they both work together. As a leader, I create winning teams because we are all way more powerful together than we are on our own. 

I am what I consider to be ultra-healthy and strong like a bull. At my last FT employer, employees were able to earn 24 hours of annual sick time. On my final day after nearly 11 years, I had 192 hours of unused sick time showing on my earnings report which is 8 full years of unused sick time. It is important to note that we didn’t introduce the sick day program until I had been there almost two years. I have never been hospitalized (I still have my tonsils) and take no medications except for a baby aspirin each day to ensure I remain healthy as a 56 year-old guy. I largely attribute this to my lifestyle and the fact that I have always loved what I do for a living. 

I love that I work on Vancouver Island where I can enjoy all the island has to offer but I have nothing tying me down. My wife (together for 20 years) and I choose to live here because we love it here, but I can jump on a plane tomorrow and spend a month in Halifax if needed. No pets to take to a kennel – we just do what we want, and it has always been this way. She loves what she does, and I love what I do. Often, she will join me when work takes me away from home so that she can find new inspiration for her art as a professional artist – together – smiling! Many times, over the last 20 years, office emergencies would mean that I am needed in Edmonton or Kelowna, and I would just drive for the next ferry. No other responsibilities take me away from what needs to be done to find the wins at work.

30 years across four companies as Director of Marketing! I don’t walk in and leave for the next big opportunity; I decide where I want to work and I make that the next big opportunity where I stay for years to come. Could I have jumped around throughout the years for better paying jobs or searched for the next opportunity and increased my earnings – sure, but I love what I do each day. Three of the four companies where I worked, I left because we sold them and the 4th I left because the owner wanted to bring his daughter in to the organization in my position as he planned for retirement – but I worked for almost a year as a consultant for them. Truthfully, the companies I have worked for I considered to be MY company, it just so happened that someone else owned them. So enough is enough, reach out to me and let’s get together and discuss if we should work together to improve your business.