by Lindsay Odom
MEET THE AUTHOR: Communications Coordinator and Columbia native Lindsay Odom received her degree from Clemson University before joining the Endeavor team in May 2017. In addition to social media responsibilities, Lindsay is interviewing Endeavor members to learn (and share) more about marketing, agency life, entrepreneurship, and what it means to create meaningful work for clients.
When I think about the ultimate girl boss, Peyton Burke Lewis comes to mind. She’s a Greenville native and Furman graduate, former VP of a national advertising agency, current entrepreneur, and mother. I’ve observed her walking from her private desk to the phone booth at Endeavor, running to and from meetings, and burying her nose in her computer for a few months now, so I was excited to be able to sit down with her and learn more about the life of a Greenville girl boss.
Peyton may be too humble to call herself a girl boss, but she does refer to herself as the quarterback of her client and agency teams. “The majority of my career has been on the agency account side, working on brand management, strategy, and maintaining client relationships, which is critical, because you have to understand their business, their challenges, and communicate that to the agency to help put together a plan, a recommendation, or an ad to address that particular problem,” Peyton said. “I like it because no two days are the same. It makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes,” she laughed, “but that’s ok.”
What’s one of those pull-your-hair-out moments? Returning from maternity leave the day after Tiger Woods’ personal life became tabloid headlines, when she had spent the previous 6 to 12 months working with a team to build a brand that centered on Tiger. “The only time I didn’t work for an agency was when I worked client-side as a marketing manager for The Cliffs Communities. Tiger Woods was designing his first golf course in North America –– and he chose to do it at The Cliffs. His personal crisis changed the direction of the partnership and that golf course never came to fruition, unfortunately.”
Besides the Tiger Woods incident, another one of Peyton’s once-in-a-lifetime experiences happened this summer when over 50,000 people from all over the world traveled to the “Eclipse Over Clemson” event. “That was probably my favorite, most exhausting project I’ve ever worked on,” Peyton told me. “I had never planned an event with a university before, which brought its own challenges from an approval process and organizational stand point, but in the end, it was very rewarding.”
Catastrophe to me is motivation to Peyton. It’s overwhelming to think about working at The Cliffs during that time, and planning an event that happens in the United States once every century, but Peyton seemed to laugh it off, as if it was just another part of the job.
Remember when she said that no two days are the same? She wasn’t kidding. “Right now, I’m a freelance contractor with four different agencies in town,” Peyton told me. Yes, four! Phew. “I’m covering a lot of ground in client categories –– luxury real estate, home construction, financial services, automotive, manufacturing, and the arts. It’s great to have local and regional clients because there are so many familiar faces and agency alumni in the Greenville community who I love to see.”
Her advice for me rings true to her career. “Variety is the key,” Peyton explained. “If you’re bored because you’re doing the same thing over and over, you likely won’t have the opportunity to learn new strategies or tactics. Be open to trying something new. That’s what keeps life interesting.”
