My first experience of sales and marketing was when I was 18 and I interviewed for a job with an electrical/telecommunications retailer who tossed a blue BIC pen on the desk between us and said “Sell me this pen” my natural instinct was to start talking, and to anyone who has known me for a very long time, I didn’t stop for a number of years.
Telecommunications retail dominated most of my career where a very brave/ambitious (possibly stupid, though I was grateful) young State Manager for an International Telecommunications brand took a gamble on a 19 year old with only three months experience as a casual sales person and promoted me into a management position of a brand new site on the South Coast. I moved quickly from store to store with this company before moving interstate where my first experience with marketing evolved from simply sales. I enjoyed the creation side of marketing, primarily visual, digital marketing was a thing at the time, but even now it’s still fairly new and grossly underutilised so my experience was mostly in concept.
Some years later I found myself in a position where I was working for a photographer and this is where I was reintroduced to Photoshop – I had used it a little in High School and enjoyed it as a hobby but becoming an adult and getting a job, it sort of moved into the background of hobbies best left behind. Working with the photographer, I found very quickly that photoshop and other programs had so many possibilities, and while primarily I used it to “correct” photos, I very soon began designing and creating the marketing for the photographer, again primarily for print.
When I returned to retail and telecommunications some time later I could not let go of my passion for Graphic Design and Marketing and while performing my duties as an Area Manager, I was integrated into the role of Marketing Manager as well. Since then I have worked for multiple retailers in management positions but was never able to let go of the Marketing Bug. Having been described as a natural sales person and a natural retailer; marketing was always the goal. Concept, Design, Print, Merchandising – I enjoy it all thoroughly and am excited to now be working for a company engaged in the latest and most underutilised frontier in marketing; Digital and Social.
My passion is Graphic Design, my background is Business Management. Between these two I am now the Operations Manager, Graphic Designer and Video Editor for Think Tank Business Services, where I can really workout my creative juices!
I started my career in hospitality working all aspects of a restaurant from back of house cook to front of house server, bar and management. The last 15 years of my career have truly been a journey of discovery. I have worked for some of the major telecommunication brands in Australia as Sales both in store and B2B, Manager, Trainer and Marketing. I have worked in the Job Services industry which in my role I was exposed to many different businesses and curious as to how they operated. I also returned to Telco only to discover I had a passion for wanting to do my own thing. I am a keen learner and Social Media was not only fun but the biggest change to marketing since television.
Karen Denny is a real powerhouse who is both driven to succeed with a clear understanding of how to get there! Karen comes from a diverse background with a plethora of qualifications behind her.
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