When I started out in my public relations and marketing career, I had no mentor – Not present near me, not in my field. I had Jay Levinson and his earliest work on Guerilla Marketing.
Today, we mark Jay’s passing, and I write of his impact on me, personally.
It was before the Internet and before I found the good marketing practices to match my own values in the crowd of communicators that did exist around me.
Now, my field is full of smarts and the very real science of influence and persuasion that I sought when I was developing myself as both a quality and an effective copywriter and marketing maven.
There were, however, book stores.. and there were libraries. These are still amongst my favourite places, in general.
And there was Jay Levinson. The Guerilla Marketer.
I bought his first shiney and white soft cover book on my lunch hour from my ‘day job.’ I was straight out of university and quickly become the in-house Sales Coordinator (with seniority!) at Canada’s flagship multi-function events facility in the late 1970s, the Winnipeg Convention Centre.