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Meet Your Mentor - Kevin Reilly

We’re excited to introduce you to one of our Mentors of the Month, Kevin Reilly the Founder & CEO of Fuss Marketing. With over twenty years of experience working on brands such as Indian Motorcycle, Blue Moon, and Miller Lite, he brings to the table a deep understanding of what it takes to build a world class brand.

This month Kevin will be joining us for a 1-hour virtual event to teach us what entrepreneurs can learn from the best brands in the world, and how you can implement those strategies right now as you grow your business.

For now though we invite you to get to know Kevin in his own words and let’s welcome him to the TRIBE!

Photo from Kevin Reilly

Are you an Early Bird or a Night Owl?
I am both.  I slow down in the afternoon.   Love the mornings for productivity.  Love the evenings for comms and follow ups.  

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?
Check twitter… ugh.  But I do get a ton of business news off of it.  Then texts… Then emails… Then I get yelled at for asking my kids to brush their teeth.   

What are you reading now?
A Man in Full… started 3 times… could this be the last time?  Maybe. Also Lovemarks, a branding book by former head of Saatchi & Saatchi. 

What's your favorite podcast or YouTube channel?
Revisionist History Podcast.  

Favorite place to getaway from it all?
A motorcycle for a quick hit… Outer Banks for a deeper level of therapy.  

Photo from Kevin Reilly

If you could get an extra hour today, how would you use it?
I would just hang with my kids.

Do you consider yourself more of an introvert or extrovert?
Extrovert, with some closeted introvert tendencies (anxiety).

What's your favorite food?
A tombstone pizza.  I could lie, but why?

What is your superpower?
I can read a room very quickly.  

What is the least sexy part of your job?
The morning wardrobe is tied with fumbling over managing google docs.


How did your awesome business come to be?
I left my corp marketing gig and had to make a choice… do I live with the regret of not ever doing this… I couldn’t live with the regret…  

Photo from Kevin Reilly

Who inspired you to pursue entrepreneurship?
Every single head of an agency that I have ever met.

Have you ever had a mentor? And how did they help you?
My father.  Pragmatic. Optimistic.  Good at all the stuff where I’m weak or disinterested.

How do you define success for yourself?
Revenue / Profit / Flexibility / Smiles / Laughter.

We all love failure & flop stories! Tell us about something you tried in business that didn't work, and how you moved beyond it.
Did a massive RFP for a large opportunity.  Rallied the troops. Put together a great proposal.  Didn’t work the personal connections enough because we focused on the outputs.  I would have made 2 or 3 more calls or gotten on a plane. Nothing beats a personal connection… nothing.   

What is a recent success that you're super proud of accomplishing?
Picked up a large extension on a former piece of business.  That means the work was good and that’s the best you can do..  

I'm on a mission to...
Change the perception of marketing strategy and agency resourcing… oh and over-schedule myself constantly…

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Photo from Kevin Reilly

Kevin Reilly is the CEO and Founder of Fuss Marketing.  He has over twenty years experience leading strategy, marketing and sales teams across a variety of industries including health care, beverage and power sports. He has spent his career building and executing on brands like Indian Motorcycle, Blue Moon, and Miller Lite and founded Fuss Marketing to provide an alternative to the traditional agency models. By leveraging deep client-side experience, Fuss provides solutions rooted in a deeper understanding of the client’s business needs and delivers marketing & portfolio strategy, consumer insights, retail executions and brand planning initiatives that drive successful and measurable results in market.

TO CONNECT WITH KEVIN DIRECTLY JOIN US INSIDE THE TRIBE! BECOME A MEMBER TODAY AT WWW.HATCHTRIBE.COM/MEMBERSCIRCLE

OR GO TO HIS WEBSITE, CHECK OUT HIS FACEBOOK OR LINKEDIN