Holy Almost End of Summer —
These past few weeks on the east coast the weather has been amazing! It also had me checking the calendar. Camp is almost over, school is about to start, a last chance at a longer than usual vacation. Ahhh!
Not unlike recent summers this one went by fast. It reminds me of Ferris Buller’s famous quip:
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
What would your ‘2022 Summer Highlight’ reel consist of?
Back to the topic at hand. Right after my conversation with Aria Finger, I sat down with someone who is a very special & important person in my orbit: Fyllo’s Jeff Ragovin.
Jeff and I met back in Summer 2010 when I was hired as an inside sales rep for Buddy Media. Jeff, at the time, was my boss and Buddy Media’s Chief Revenue Officer tasked with growing the company’s sales team. His sales leadership was instrumental in Buddy Media working with 8 of the world’s top 10 brands and helping secure over $100MM in outside funding. In 2012, Salesforce bought Buddy Media for $800MM and was then integrated it into what we now know as the Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
Jeff’s career progression:
Jeff graduated from SUNY Oswego. His intention was to become a meteorologist (NBC’s Al Roker is an alumna too). Midway through college Jeff changed his major to Broadcasting and Mass Media. Upon graduation he decided he wanted a different career path and got a job as a technical recruiter. This is where Jeff started to hone his sales and relationship building skills
He was working on 9/11 in his midtown NYC office and saw the planes hit the WTC. The following day his boss asked that him and his colleagues into the office to demand they cold call the employers that lost their employees to the terrorist attacks. Jeff refused and was fired on the spot. It was the best career decision he made!
He was able to get a job in email marketing shortly thereafter then in paid search which helped build his digital sales and marketing chops. All the while parlaying his experience into meeting Mike and Kass Lazerow, his eventual Buddy Media Co-Founders, in 2007 to start Buddy Media
Following the sale of Buddy Media, Jeff co-founded Social Native, became an investor & advisor to other startups (Hello CityRow!) and is now the Chief Commercial Officer at Fyllo, which is as a technology solution that allows cannabis brands to market to consumers in a regulatory compliant way
Giving Back
5 years ago, Jeff co-founded a non-profit near his home in East Hampton called South Fork Sea Farmers, which is educating residents about the importance of the local marine life through oyster gardening across 5 harbors — cool fact: one oyster filters 50 gallons of water per day! South Fork has 250+ families participating
Life coming full circle. In 2019 SUNY Oswego honored Jeff for all his career accomplishments by bestowing him with an honorary doctorate at that year’s commencement. He also delivered a speech to the university’s graduates and encouraged them to reach out to him with questions or guidance as they entered the workforce. Jeff mentioned he had 200 calls! Talk about a compelling call to action. Oh by the way — it’s Dr. Jeff 😉.
What shaped Jeff’s outlook on life
Right before going away to college, Jeff’s twin brother died in a tragic roller blading accident. While tragic and considering this stage in his life was both pivotal yet early, Jeff was resolute. As he said, he had one of two options to honor his brother’s legacy.
This tragedy plus his college experiences invariably made Jeff a high EQ individual — keenly aware of how emotions and putting himself in other people’s shoes is important to fully understand an interpersonal dynamic. One (of many) thing I appreciate about Jeff is he’s always impressing upon me to give without expecting, to do good things when people aren’t looking and to not succumb to cynicism or the impulse to change my behavior when I get ‘burned.’
Jeff is an avid fisherman (no surprise). Follow his fishing exploits on Instagram.
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