Welcome to Vancouver: The Big Break - Part 3

Here is the chapter of what would constitute the best days of my life: the start of my career as a search marketing specialist in Canada, with Intrawest as my starting point.

September 2000. Unbeknownst to me, my name must have gone around a bit because I got an email from Jane Osler, Senior VP Consumer & Market Research, from the Corporate Office at Intrawest. Despite all my work to reach that stage, it was quite a shock because this was unexpected at the time. She was not on *the list*, let’s put it that way. She invited me for a meeting and I did not know what to expect. She vaguely introduced me to a project she was working on and needed some help with. Intrawest Corporate Office was located in Downtown Vancouver, near Canada place, which was an amazing location on the fifth floor of their building, that also comes with a dream view of the Burrard Inlet, Coal Harbour and the Lions Gate Bridge. Going there for a meeting was the absolute best turn of events I could ever dreamed of. I was nervous as a result. I had no clue what I was getting myself into. I got into the elevator and made my way to their office.

Upon arriving at Intrawest, I introduced myself at the reception desk, as you would, so the reception person would notify Jane of my arrival. As I am sitting there waiting, I was observing everything around me and reflecting on the journey that it took to get to this point. That was a dream scenario I had been working on for at least a year, let alone the years prior with the discovery of what would constitute the start of my career in online marketing. That reception area was huge, with framed posters of the different real estate projects Intrawest had been working on. Pictures of Whistler, Tremblant, Panorama, Blue Mountain ski resorts and so many others. There were also pictures of members of the board of directors and the company history since 1976. I felt so overwhelmed as I had never been in such a corporate environment. To be completely honest, I was not even sure how to behave in that situation. My business history was a succession of small business endeavours. This was all new to me.

There are some people passing by, quite calmly. The atmosphere is relaxed, even though I was not. It is quiet and peaceful in that room, a stark contrast with what was going on inside. I just kept on looking around with amazement. The view of Vancouver from their offices was breathtaking.

Bridget Phillips

Then came Jane’s assistant into the reception area. The one on the right in the picture. Yes, I know, it is a 2 for 1 deal. It always has been. We will get to this later. She was very short & skinny, with spiky blonde hair and she must have said something along the lines of: Hey dude, whatsup? She was really cool in her attitude. She was wearing some trendy jeans and a top that made me think as if she just stepped out of a rock concert. She introduced herself: hey, I am Bridget, Jane’s assistant. It won’t be long for your meeting. Do you want something to drink? I said: sure, maybe some water, thank you. That was quite an pleasant introduction and I thought: God I want to work here! I’d have a beer with her I thought. She really helped me feel comfortable in that situation as I calmed down and getting ready for whatever it is that will be thrown my way.

Jane Osler

I got into Jane’s office. Jane was a tall, confident, kind, smart, professional and positive woman. She inspired respect and trust. Therefore, I felt emotionally safe to talk to her. Here is why. Since I had nothing to lose, I gave her the entire blurb about my presence in Vancouver and everything that led to it, from the cancer episode, followed by a relatively long recovery process, SEO reading and learning and practice on small-scale websites, moving to Vancouver, staying at the Jericho Beach Hostel, and finally the never-ending SEO job-hunting process with the ultimate objective to work for Intrawest. I must have said something about meeting with Stan Sprenger & Rob Morrow from Tremblant Central Reservations as well. I was not sure who knows who, so I gave her everything I got. She said, hold on. Wait a minute, you have gone through all this just to work here? Yes mam. I am willing to do anything to reach my goal. I’d sleep in your office if I have to. I have been working on this for quite some time. I know what your websites need in terms of SEO to bring them to the next level. Her curiosity got the best of her and she then started asking a bunch of questions because I felt like she did not quite believe me. It was surreal for me to be there, in her office, we would all agree on this, but what I did not consider is that it was also surreal for her to hear the story. That was the meeting point of what would change my life forever and she was smart enough to acknowledge the critical importance of that moment. It was almost like she was thinking: oh shit, I did not ask for any of this to happen today, but now whether I like or not, I am part of that guy’s story and I am wondering what kind of role I want to play in this. I could see the mental gymnastic she was going through. She had the power to make me or break me, essentially. She had to decide. Nevertheless, since she did not believe me, she was looking for ways to authenticate the story line. Consequently, she asked more specific questions about the cancer episode, the type of cancer I had, the hospital in Montreal, surgeries, doctors, nurses and all that process in the tiniest level of details in some kind of an investigation, almost as if she wanted to catch me lying about something. There was no such thing. It was all 100% true. I had to tell the same story in all kinds of different ways, just to make sure everything checks out for her. She kept on going asking lots more questions, none of which about SEO by the way (!). She was in disbelief that someone would go to such an extent to work for Intrawest, let alone with the lunatic objective of starting a career in SEO. That was the cherry on top in the skepticism WTF department. Fortunately, by the end of the question period, she liked me. I checked all the boxes.

We talked about the online marketing project she had been working on. It was called Passport and it would sit on the Intrawest.net domain. The objective was to obtain between 75,000 to 100,000 new sign ups on that website in the first year, while reaching $5 millions in sales in the process. We had to use all the various online marketing tactics of the time. We had a speculative online marketing budget of $1 Million. Those were the parameters. I thought that this was an excellent opportunity for me to revise everything that I learned thus far, while defining with accuracy the ROI of each tactic and write an online marketing plan with all the corresponding data points.

By the end of the meeting, a 3-month contractual agreement was reached. I would be (one of) the first eBusiness Marketing Manager(s) in Vancouver. I would be paid well to live and breathe online marketing every day from that point on. I would also work from their beautiful offices with a dream view. Like I said, that was the best turning point of my life. I made it to the starting block. Cue the rock n roll celebration!

Up next: Intrawest.net Passport Online Marketing Plan

Writing an online marketing plan for the Intrawest.net Passport project.