Robert Gavrilovic is a creative marketing professional with vast experience in “online advertising and growth marketing.”
For his work, Robert Gavrilovic is “driven by discovering insights within data to produce successful, measurable, integrated advertising communications.”
Likewise, Robert Gavrilovic exercises a passion “about helping clients and companies develop successful marketing strategies, discover new advertising channels, and optimize their most effective and efficient campaigns.”
Robert Gavrilovic also “specializes in Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Facebook Ads, and all things online advertising.”
As a marketing expert, Robert Gavrilovic serves as the Director of Online Advertising at Rainfactory. The company is a “full-service digital agency that operates as a Marketing Department for growing brands.”
However, in college, Robert Gavrilovic did not study to become a marketing professional. His original major was in Athletic Training in his university’s Department of Kinesiology.
He spent a semester in the program, and undertook a process of soul-searching. Then Robert Gavrilovic realized that his future professional life badly needed a creative aspect.
Then Robert Gavrilovic decided that his best choice if he wanted to lead a creative and fulfilling professional life was to study advertising.
According to Robert Gavrilovic, it was the “combination of commerce and creativity, left brain and right brain,” that inspired him to complete his degree in advertising.
Check out more interviews with marketing experts here.
I realized that a creative aspect that was central to my personal interests was missing from what likely would become my professional life. Robert Gavrilovic, Rainfactory
Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Robert Gavrilovic: I found my way into advertising a little unconventionally.
My original academic pursuit was as an Athletic Training major within the Department of Kinesiology at my university. After a semester of study, and significant soul searching,
I realized that a creative aspect that was central to my personal interests was missing from what likely would become my professional life.
After a period of deliberation, uncertainty, and a whole lot of hand-wringing, I had an epiphany of sorts: advertising.
The combination of commerce and creativity, left brain and right brain, intrigued me so much that I completed my B.S. in Advertising and began what would become my professional life as a marketer and advertiser.
Luckily I have been able to weave my former curricular pursuit into my fitness and sports lifestyle, and I have not had any regrets about pursuing advertising.
The fact is some of the most incredible people I’ve ever met, from inspiring and wildly smart clients to talented and creative colleagues, have been in this industry.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?
Robert Gavrilovic: While I encountered challenges after graduation in getting a foot in the door, I never seriously considered giving up.
My most significant early challenge was not accepting imperfect roles and culture fits, and instead continued to grind out applications and interviews in pursuit of opportunities I really wanted.
Not all of those opportunities panned out, but some did and my career growth and professional development were better for it.
Trust the process and your team.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
Robert Gavrilovic: One of the funnier mistakes I made was while on a team Slack call when I shared a URL that I had mistakenly mistyped, and found myself instead sharing an “adult entertainment” website.
Not my shining moment.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you please share your “Five Things You Need To Know To Delegate Effectively and Be Completely Satisfied With the Results?” Please share a story or an example for each.
Robert Gavrilovic:
- Check your ego at the door — there are better people in your organization for certain things you currently own.Once you can accept this, then truly impactful delegation is possible.
- Identify what moves the needle — anything that does not make that list needs to be delegated.
- Spend the time now to reap rewards later — short term delegation planning ensures long term time savings that will prove invaluable.
- Coaching, training, and process are critical — your team can own key delegation tasks, but without clearly defined goals and proper instruction/resources they will be set-up to fail.
- Trust the process and your team — this circles back to the loss of control and quality control concerns.Once you’ve solidified the above four elements, you should be in a good position to release control and allow your team and the process to flourish.
One example that benefited me and my organization was the delegation of our Advertising team member applicant review, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding process.
This is a critical initiative, where identifying the best candidates and ensuring the best onboarding experience is vital.
It is also very time-consuming.
I knew that this process could successfully be handed off with training and support, to our senior advertising account manager.
This also allowed him to gain greater responsibilities and the opportunity to develop leadership skills with reports of his own. A win-win for all.
Check your ego at the door. Robert Gavrilovic
Jerome Knyszewski: One of the obstacles to proper delegating is the oft-quoted cliche “If you want something done right do it yourself.” Is this saying true? Is it false? Is there a way to reconcile it with the importance of delegating?
Robert Gavrilovic: That may be true for some things, but not for everything a leader manages.
There are likely individuals on your team that can immediately take over, or be trained to take over less critical tasks.
If that person does not exist, hire them.
A leader should be laser-focused on growing their business, not their task list.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Robert Gavrilovic: You can follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
