where are they now? volume 2!

A couple of years back I blogged about a few former coworkers who have gone on to do amazing things using the skills that made them successful in their time at CVWmedia. You can read that blog here. Any great story deserves a sequel, and I have three more former CVWers to introduce to you.

First up is Jeff Sublett, former Creative Director. Jeff was with us for over ten years, and during that time helped refine our work and culture. Jeff’s tenure at CVWmedia spanned what was probably our most diverse collection of clients and projects.

While at CVWmedia, I was able to be on the field at the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium, as well as loads of exciting OU football games, and stand beneath/inside giant wind turbines. Some of the projects I worked on with the CVW team have been seen by hundreds of thousands of people. My first day at CVW, I was making assets for a video game! Our projects took me not just across the country but also areas of Oklahoma that I would have never thought to travel to. I never knew where new projects were going to take me, creatively or geographically.

Sometimes great things must end, but in this case our ending with Jeff was also his new beginning.

Toward the end of my time at CVWmedia my wife and I knew we were leaving the state and about to have our first child. I began staying home to raise my son while simultaneously starting my own freelance business. We moved to Oregon in 2020, so most of my time is spent exploring our new city and the beautiful Oregon outdoors with my family. Here, I have access to some great local roasters, which I frequent. This newfound hobby led to my brother and I coming up with an idea for a coffee brewing logbook to be used by other brewing enthusiasts, professional baristas, or anybody that wants to track their brews to make better-tasting coffee.

You can pick up a copy of The Coffee Brewer’s Logbook here. I did, and it’s awesome.

I used to call Jeff “the conscience of CVWmedia” because he held us to the highest of standards as a team, and now that he’s been away for a while I was curious to know what lessons he took away from his decade+ here.

As you work with a team on more and more projects, you learn that your vision is better with team feedback, iterations, and collaboration. You learn to let your vision serve the project, rather than the project serving your vision.
Everyone at CVW was just so great at communication, and I didn’t realize how much the team had rubbed off on me until after my time at there. It was an odd feeling being in a business-related, group email exchange and thinking, ‘I’m the most responsive person on this thread.’
You can be professional without being dry. CVW taught me how to cultivate trust while also being fun to work with.

All great reminders, and many of the habits we developed while Jeff was here continue to serve us well.

Chris Brydges, presumably “sampling the product” at Whole Foods Corporate HQ

And speaking of being professional without being dry, let’s see what decidedly not-dry former Office Manager Chris Brydges is up to.

I left CVW to pursue a master’s degree at OU, with an eye towards becoming a professor and teaching/researching for a living. While doing so I realized teaching wasn’t as magical as the movies make it seem. So instead of pursuing the PhD, I fled to Austin, lived the funemployed lifestyle for a bit (and Austin is very accommodating of this lifestyle) before eventually scoring a job as a checkout dude at Whole Foods.

As great as Chris is interacting with the public and representing a quality brand, my take on this man is that he’s not the type of person who is at his best in a role that doesn’t change from day to day. It turns out Whole Foods feels the same.

I’m the Team Leader for a couple of groups at Whole Foods Market’s corporate headquarters in Austin, TX. As part of the broader Global Workplace Experience Team, I run the Office Team and Conference and Media Services Team, each tasked with making Whole Foods the best place to work in Austin.

At first glance, you might not think that going from Office Manager at CVWmedia to a Team Leader at Whole Foods Corporate HQ would be a natural transition, but in hindsight it makes perfect sense:

I really appreciate how much I was able to try things out at CVW. I started as an Office Manager, and by the time I left I was still kind of an Office Manager but also I was holding regular one-on-ones focused on personal and career development with everyone in the company, ran a weird weekly Quality Control tracking system and contest, got to interview and manage our interns, and was an active proponent of lunchtime basketball and Friday cookouts and beers…oh and also I starred in everyone’s favorite action series, (Handlebar Jones, CVWmedia’s in-house short film series from 2010-2013). Those experiences helped me dip my toes into leadership and gave me the confidence to try new things and go for it when I got the chance.

Yes to all that, and also indeed he did star in everyone’s favorite action series, and by everyone I mean us.

If there’s one thing I wish I’d have figured out earlier in life, it’s that everyone should explore the world the best they can, as early and often as possible. Some time after Samantha Marquette worked here, I caught wind of her extensive travels (Thanks, social media!), and then I watched from afar as she explored parts of the globe that astounded me.

After working at CVWmedia, I graduated from the University of Oklahoma and moved up north to Chicago where I was able to work for WaterStreet Studios, an art gallery in Batavia, IL. My time in Chicago help me grow as a person both personally and professionally. After a few years, I realized that I wanted to experience more of what the world had to offer, so I decided to leave America for New Zealand. When I arrived, I bought a camper van and began backpacking the country. Even though I was alone, I met some wonderful people along the way that changed my life forever. This experience inflamed my passion for building relationships within a community and volunteering for organizations that share similar values. Some of these organizations include Greenpeace in Australia, the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand, and multiple WWOOFing experiences across Oceania and SE Asia. After this, I continued traveling to twenty-six countries, ultimately living in four of them, spanning roughly five years.

I don’t know about you, but this makes me feel like I have a lot of catching up to do in the whole see-the-world category. Now that Samantha has racked up a zillion frequent flyer miles, she’s closer to home, putting to work the skills she sharpened during the time she spent with us:

My time at CVWmedia was a wonderful foundation for my future career in digital media. Not only was it my first office experience, but I was able to learn the necessary skills such as Photoshop and working with a variety of camera equipment, and I was given the opportunity to expand my knowledge in video editing.
Now I’m a Digital Media Manager, where I oversee the digital efforts for ten addiction treatment facilities nationwide. I also freelance as a videographer and video editor, where I typically work with producing music videos. I was recently accepted into a graduate program for International Psychology, where I can gain further experience working with diverse cultures and understanding the environmental impacts on society. Eventually, I hope to use this education to provide mental health support to the immigration and expat communities using tools, such as art therapy.

You can see Samantha’s work here.

Entrepreneurs with fresh ideas, to leaders-of-people at the best place to work in Austin, to world travelers who discover a passion that becomes a career…I never enjoy waving goodbye to good people as they move on to other pursuits. But given time, it’s always worth it when I get to see what people like Jeff, Chris, and Samantha make of the talent and personality traits that contributed to who were then and where they are now.