{"id":60085,"date":"2024-08-06T08:47:22","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T12:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=60085"},"modified":"2024-08-09T10:47:13","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T14:47:13","slug":"utc-marketing-lecturer-forges-success-with-tenacity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2024\/08\/utc-marketing-lecturer-forges-success-with-tenacity\/","title":{"rendered":"UTC marketing lecturer forges success with tenacity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chattanooga

Chattanooga native Ryan Russell is an associate lecturer of marketing and entrepreneurship in the Gary W. Rollins College of Business. Photo by Angela Foster.<\/p><\/div>\n

By not taking \u201cno\u201d for an answer, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Associate Lecturer Ryan Russell has used his lifelong optimism and tenacity to succeed, even luring Dallas Mavericks billionaire owner Mark Cuban into a Zoom call to a class.<\/p>\n

Cuban, also of TV\u2019s \u201cShark Tank\u201d fame, appeared for 23 minutes on a Zoom call in April with Russell\u2019s marketing class, promising Cuban a $1,000 pledge to his foundation and 15 extra points for each student. In the end, Russell agreed to buy the class Alyssa\u2019s Cookies, one of Cuban\u2019s investment companies, and Cuban told Russell to use any other monies for a class party.<\/p>\n

It was not the first time Russell connected a celebrity and his students. In 2022, he recruited David Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, as a Zoom speaker.<\/p>\n

After a Chattanooga marketing friend had to cancel his classroom visit, Russell asked the students who they wanted to hear. It was Cuban, and it didn\u2019t take much to convince him after sending him a TikTok video of students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were ready for the long haul knowing this is going to be tough to get his attention. It took about an hour and a half. Part of his success is he reacts quickly to things that he likes,\u201d said Russell\u2014who was born in East Ridge and raised in Chattanooga. He graduated from Boyd-Buchanan School, the University of Georgia in 2010 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, and East Tennessee State University in 2018 with a Master of Science degree in digital marketing.<\/p>\n

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Click here<\/strong><\/a> to watch Mark Cuban\u2019s Zoom visit to Ryan Russell\u2019s class. To see Dave Portnoy\u2019s appearance, click here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

======================================<\/p>\n

Russell credits his classroom success to a former instructor, Cheryl Eaton, whom he met while taking graduate classes at the now-defunct Marlboro (Vermont) College.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who attends an MBA program specifically in sustainable business has some sort of passion or concern, or ethical imperative, that brings them there,\u201d said Eaton, managing director of the marketing firm Guru.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the pleasure of teaching Ryan\u2019s marketing class\u2014which was designed to bring to the students the notion of using marketing superpowers for good as well as teaching marketing skills. Ryan always showed up with absolute enthusiasm for the topic and commitment to doing excellent work. He was optimistic, enthusiastic and always on fire in his thinking as he made connections and had epiphanies.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite thing these days is to watch how he uses the same tools he teaches to create specific outcomes\u2014getting interesting and famous people to speak to his class. I delight every time I see that and think to myself, \u2018I could learn a thing or two from this guy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell recalls the time Eaton devastated him after he spent all night working on a paper.<\/p>\n

Eaton had summarized his work as \u201csafe\u201d\u2014as in no thinking outside the box\u2014\u201cand I was crushed,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was one of the best pieces of advice [thinking outside the box] I\u2019d ever gotten. But she believed in me then more than I believed in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

She allowed Russell to rewrite the paper.<\/p>\n

He has held several jobs, including as a \u201cfailed\u201d financial adviser and then as a substitute teacher at Boyd-Buchanan, instructing middle schoolers in math, science and life skills.<\/p>\n

While working as an after-school YMCA teacher, Russell talked his way into an internship at the Trust for Public Land in Chattanooga. Eventually, he started his own marketing company, Russell Marketing; the company later merged with Lift Media Group, where he remains active as a principal.<\/p>\n

Russell said he had no prospects when he got his undergraduate degree at Georgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came out of college and had no idea what I wanted to do when I grew up,\u201d he said. \u201cI took the first job that was offered to me. I was a financial adviser, air quotes. I was a whole life insurance salesman for MassMutual, and then for three and a half months I made negative $50 because I had to pay for a certification.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to my pastor one day whining about how much I hated my job and how I was not getting paid any money and all that, and he said, \u2018Well, you can quit. They let you quit.\u2019 And I was like, this is brand new information. I had no idea, and so I quit my job, something I never thought I would do,\u201d Russell said with a double dose of sarcasm. \u201cI was volunteering as an assistant cross-country coach at Boyd-Buchanan at the time, so I could meet the rich kids\u2019 dads to try to sell them life insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The head cross-country coach told Russell he could substitute teach until he found something more solid.<\/p>\n

His first day, Russell learned the teacher he was subbing for had quit, opening up a full-time teaching position.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo at the end of the school year, I learned a lot about myself,\u201d Russell said, explaining It wasn\u2019t a good fit. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be a middle school teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then told the Chattanooga office head of the Trust for Public Land, a man he knew from RockPoint Church, \u201cI\u2019m your new marketing intern\u201d\u2014a gutsy move because there was no such internship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really give him much of a choice. I told him I\u2019d be there and I hoped he gave me something to do because I\u2019d sit on his front porch steps on Tremont Street, and I\u2019d be back the next day and the next day and the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ryan

Ryan Russell has been a member of the UTC faculty since 2015. Photo by Angela Foster.<\/p><\/div>\n

After deciding that marketing was what he wanted to do, Russell and his wife, Sarah, moved to Burlington, Vermont. Russell chose to attend the former Marlboro College because of Eaton.<\/p>\n

At the same time, he struck out to find a marketing position.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lowest point was when I was turned down for a summer internship for a single A minor league baseball team called the Vermont Lake Monsters. I lost out to a high school junior,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThey said that my Southern accent might hold me back. I was supposed to be the guy who was going to walk around as the mascot to summer camps to try to sell tickets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell said he swamped a marketing company with resumes and landed a position as a social media strategist at AREA203 in Chattanooga and\u2014after the company shut down at 10 one morning\u2014he agreed to revamp a local dentist\u2019s website even though he didn\u2019t know how. He farmed it out to someone who did and parlayed that experience into a position at Chattanooga Bakery.<\/p>\n

After starting his own marketing firm, he joined UTC as an adjunct marketing professor in 2015. Three years later, he was elevated to lecturer in marketing\u2014and last year to associate lecturer.<\/p>\n

Russell, 36, and his wife have two children: Emily, 10, and Andrew, 7. Along the way, he earned a master\u2019s through the online marketing program at ETSU.<\/p>\n

Cuban and Portnoy both preached tenacity, he said.<\/p>\n

His own advice as a college lecturer?<\/p>\n

\u201cLove your students would be my encouragement to anybody in this industry. Care about the person,\u201d Russell said. \u201cIf you\u2019re in this job just for money, there are different jobs that you should probably do. Your kids need to know how much you care about them, too. Tell them all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn More<\/h4>\n

UTC Marketing and Entrepreneurship<\/a><\/p>\n

Visit UTC<\/a><\/p>\n

How to apply<\/a><\/p>\n