About Me

Gary Paul Hagins

Professional

I am a Marketing Professional with over 20 years of experience who specializes in Digital Marketing and Marketing Operations.

By trade, I am a Website Designer and Developer. Before that, I also worked as a Software Developer, Technical Customer Service Advisor, and IT Specialist. My core creative drive drew me slowly toward taking a variety of web work online during my time attending college–designing, developing, and optimizing websites.

That foundation as a developer helped move my career forward and allowed me to grow into a manager–first as a project manager, then a department head, a product leader and, finally, a chief operating officer. During that first leg of my professional journey, I worked closely with hundreds of clients and employees. I trained new managers. Not one day did I ever stop learning or want to employ my craft to help others–a drive that still propels me forward to this day. And although I was sad to leave, I was never once fearful for the future.

My ten years of agency experience prepared me very well for the corporate world. That experience solidified in me a thoroughness in my approach and a bias toward action. Planning, managing, research, and reporting are all second nature. It can be hard to find the right niche to employ all of these skills outside of the C-suite.

Marketing operations is one of the few jobs that can provide me with the runway to utilize all of my skills and experience–as a designer, a developer, a manager, and a leader.

I excel in independent environments with growth potential, because one of my goals is often to try and work myself out of a job, whenever possible–and I am eager to apply my talents wherever I can. Growing together is always the best way to move forward in any environment.

Education

Rewinding a bit, I graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. "Wait," you think, "not Communications, or Marketing, or Sociology, but... Chemistry?" Yes! I earned a degree in a 'hard' science because of my deep curiosity about the world and desire for a challenge (which made it very difficult to not go with Physics–a subject I would love to teach someday, given the chance).

As far as this relates to my professional work, it means that I have a formal and very rigorous foundation when it comes to Math, Data Analysis, and Reporting. I also have a deep-seated curiosity, an abundance of tenacity, a healthy amount of objective skepticism, and a desire to find the core truth in all things.

While I paid my way through school doing software and web development projects, I discovered that as much as I loved Chemistry, I unfortunately did not particularly enjoy working in a Chemistry lab. Such is life! So, I decided to pursue a career in a field where I already knew that I enjoyed the work–design and development.

Personal

I was named after my grandfather and my father. I was always a curious child, who loved to read (and am now an even more curious adult, who still loves to read). Always a bit of a nerd, I excelled at school and am a lifelong competitive chess player. But I also crave physical activity–I've played hockey most of my life, in addition to doing martial arts–as well as working with my hands–drawing, painting, sculpting, and woodworking.

People often find me quiet, because I prefer to listen and observe. I like to tell people that I consider my only true talent to be that of learning.

Yet, I have always loved to work and work hard (and not just professionally)–be it in the yard, working out, crafting a project in my woodshop, or working on a piece of art. For me, there has always been peace in repetition.

Hobbies

Now, don't worry about my degree going to waste–I'm an avid and experienced homebrewer, and my love of Chemistry and Beer helps me craft a wide variety of ales. I build my water profiles from scratch and carefully track many points of data while going through the brewing process–temperature, pH, O.G. (original gravity), S.G. (specific gravity), etc. Not only when brewing beer, I am scientific in my approach to most things in life.

My twin loves of design and development shine through in my hobby (and side hustle) as a woodworker and cabinet maker. I handcraft beautiful furniture for family and friends, and also on a commission basis. The style of woodworking I do is known as hybrid woodworking–utilizing hand tools and the skills of craftsman of old coupled with the ease of use and speed of modern power tools.

If you have made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read a bit about me! If there's any way I can help you, I hope you'll be reaching out soon so we might be able to work together.