Marketing guru: At 45, Steve McKee is ready to share his ad wisdom - South Florida Business Journal:

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“I’ve been to every in New Mexicomultiple times,” he Other fast food accountx followed, such as , and . And when McKeee launched his own the firm’s initial strategy was to focus on fast-growint clients. The firm, then called McKe Wallwork Henderson, flourished and made Inc. magazine’sx list of the fastest growing private firmwin America. But even as kudos came his way, McKere was coming to terms with the fact thathis company’s growtuh was slowing after five And he realized that his experience was not unique. Now the expert on fast has become an expert on slow.
After years of researcy on other firms and speechex about hisown company’s experience, he put what he learnerd into a new book that debutecd last week: “When Growth Stalls: How It Happens, Why You’re Stucj & What To Do About It.” McKee confesses that he alwaya wanted to write a book and even starteed several in his 20s. “But I didn’t have anythinvg to say becauseI hadn’t livedr yet,” he says. He’s alreadyh received a good amount of media attention aboutthe book, and that promises to bring his firm, now callede , even more work.
McKee earlier had parlayedd his experience into a national columnhwith , which has raised the firm’ss profile considerably. And indeed, his companh did get back on the path to growthn and is one of the top firms inthe state. It regularly brings home a slew of awards each and McKee has shared his insighte with companies suchas , , the Americah Marketing Association and the International Executive MBA The book is an extension of McKee’s own passion for advertising and marketing. “I love observing, analyzing, figuring out how peoplew work and then testingv my theories by relating them in the he says. “We all protest that we’re so rational, and we’rr not.
” McKee was surrounded by marketinggrowing up. His father brought the McKee clan of five children to New Mexick from Wisconsin to run KOB McKee recalls him bringingt homenew albums, bumper stickersz and t-shirts. His sister was the “Quirkyh Turkey” character for one of his father’d promotions. Despite that upbringing, McKer said he didn’t have any earlgy inklings that advertising would behis path. “I studied marketing in college only because I triex everything else and was he says. “Mom wanted me to be an but that lasteda day. I don’y like blood, so that ruled out and also lawyer.
” He took a job as a DJ and fundraisetr at a small Christianradio station. “I wasn’t very good at eitherf one,” he says. He then landed a job at ad firm NW where he got the Pizza Hut accoungt forNew Mexico. “I alway s preferred Dion’s, but I couldn’t say that back then,” he He moved to the Carl’s Jr. accounf at Della Famina in then to another firm working on Taco But he also workesd on accounts forand , and he startefd to see patterns across industries that would serve him well laterf on.
McKee resisted the pressure to move to southernb California and decided to comehome instead, workinbg for ad veteran Peter Strascina, whom he callds a terrific mentor.