Meet Bassem Girgis | Director of Marketing + Communications

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bassem Girgis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bassem, how do you think about risk?
Risk taking has proved to be the only way to take yourself or your business to the next level. Greatness has never been accomplished without risk. Without risk, you are left with traditional methods, which usually has a predictable outcome. In marketing for example, not taking risk means you need to approach your strategy using traditional methods. In this day and age, you can’t rely on billboards and “sales-y” ads. Instead, you have to try new things, and you have to be authentic. Being authentic brings a level of vulnerability that is potentially risky. You put yourself in a position of being perceived a specific way, or being judged, or simply not connecting with a portion of the audience because you are being as honest as you can, and some of your audiences might not relate to your product and service, but that’s OK. The ones that relate will be much better audiences for you.

During my career, I always took risks. I always had to step outside of my comfort zone. My biggest risk was after building a successful career in automotive and being at the top of my company, I decided that stepping outside of that industry was an important step to my professional growth. The problem was that I have been in that industry since day one of my career. This meant that I had to leave the highest achievable position in my industry (Editor in Chief) and go back to a specialist position, simply because I needed to prove myself all over again in a completely different industry. The risk paid off, and within two years, I was promoted twice, reaching a Director level. Without this risk, my career would’ve been a lot more predictable, but predictability can be unchallenging, which can easily mute your creativity, spark, and drive.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Nothing about my career came easy – I’d say the same is likely true for most people. Coming out of college, I was promised many things, like a great job, great salary, etc.. Then life showed its colors, and I realized quickly that a college degree alone is just a piece of paper. I spent two years looking for jobs and freelancing in the publishing world. I started with $25 per article, eventually making my way into the publishing industry. Five years later, through grueling efforts and intentional professional growth, meaning spending hours after work trying to learn about my industry, I made it to the top of the publishing industry as Editor-in-Chief of a prominent car magazine. I was more interested in social media and marketing, so working in a print magazine (with a great digital presence) just wasn’t going to cut it. I took a huge title cut and went back to a social media specialist, where I proved that the blueprint of not ever letting yourself get outworked actually works. It took two years for me to become the head of Marketing and Communications, where I had to continue improving and learning to be actually good at it.

I couldn’t be more proud of my journey, which is yet to be concluded. I believe I am just getting started. The story has been incredible thus far, but I am excited to continue to prove that with hard work, constant learning, dropping of an ego, and by trusting the process and my work ethics, I can truly accomplish everything. Have I accomplished everything? Not by a long shot. But that’s why I am still driven. Without a challenge, it’s incredibly hard to keep fighting, professionally speaking.

The key to my success, and probably everyone’s success, is to realize challenges, problems, obstacles, ups, and downs will happen, guaranteed, letting them define you or letting them decide your fate for you will always be the difference between success and failure.

Work hard, keep learning, trust the process, and learn from your mistakes and challenges, but keep moving forward, always.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If someone is coming to California, you better believe I am taking them to Laguna Beach. I work in Laguna and I have built an emotional attachment to it. It’s such an artistic and creative town, with quite possibly some of the best beaches in the world. Food is amazing, the scenery is breathtaking, and the arts scene is thriving.

And most likely on the way home, we will end up stopping at In-n-Out, because you have to. Welcome to California!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My success can be attributed to many people who pushed me to be better, and others who pressured me to be better for their sake. Either way, I got better because of both. My true strength, however, is in my work ethics, which has been embedded in me by my father. Never by force, and never by advice, or even by pushing me to work harder, but by being an example for me. No one works harder than him, and for that, I have the mentality of “you can never outwork me.” All credit goes to him for embedding strong work ethics in me by being himself around me, and by sacrificing everything to provide for his family.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bassem-girgis-ba645044/