No Ducking Around

Meet our newest account coordinator—Abby Meyers!

Alright, Abby! As your mentor at the company, Greg thought it’d be fun for me to do your interview for the blog. I’ll do my best to call you my “mentee” and not my “manatee,” but no promises. Ready to rip, ‘tater chip?

 

Alright, first up…If you were a hot dog, and you were starving, would you eat yourself?

 

Oh man…I forgot how they answered it on SNL. I’m gonna say no, because I don’t like hot dogs, and it just seems…not worth it.

 

Right? I mean, they don’t discuss if its’ painful or what happens…how is anyone supposed to answer that?

 

I know! Because if I’m a hot dog and I eat myself, I die, right?

 

Eventually, I’d think so.

 

I’m gonna say no. I’d rather die of starvation than die of eating a hot dog.

 

[Laughs] That is me. OK, what’s your favorite type of food?

 

I like Chinese food and orange pop.

 

Delicious. Fanta, specific?

 

I’m a Sunkist girl.

 

Mmm, Sunkist, that’s best. Now, if you were Sunkist or Chinese food, and you were starving, would you eat slash drink yourself?

 

Yeah. Yeah. Having my last meal be Chinese and orange pop would be satisfying.

 

Alrighty! Now that we have a deep understanding of your psyche, tell me about when you knew you wanted to go into the industry.

 

Well, my mom taught business at the high school in Waverly for 33 years and I took all her classes. I first did it because I thought I had to—because she was my mom—but I actually liked them really well. I just knew right away it was what I wanted to do. Then I went to the University of Northern Iowa and majored in marketing. I didn’t even consider anything else. A lot of people told me to go to college and do gen eds first and see what I wanted to do, but I just knew that was what I liked, so I guess I can thank her. She always said she thought for sure one of her daughters would become a teacher like she was, but I told her it’s more of a compliment that I went into the industry she taught me. She did a great job.

 

And who knows, maybe one day you will teach! That’s huge props to Mom.

 

Yup, thanks, Carol.

 

So what’s your background and industry experience up to this point?

 

My emphasis in marketing was advertising, and then I got my graphic design degree from Hawkeye Community College and from there I moved to Dubuque and worked at Q Casino as a digital marketer. My ultimate goal was to work at a marketing agency rather than in an internal marketing department, so I was excited when I saw this opening. Now here I am.

 

Awesome, that’s perfect for working between client and the creative team. OK, this is going to be your favorite part. I know your hidden talent is memorizing things—by the end of the first day you had everyone’s names memorized already, which is super, super impressive. So, if you accept the challenge, recall back to me this list of words:

 

  • Garage
  • Soap
  • Exponents
  • Wheat grass
  • Tea leaves
  • Desk
  • Zigzag
  • The rule of thirds
  • Turkey bacon
  • Radio
  • George Lopez
  • Festivus
  • James Bond
  • Gorilla Glue
  • King Kong
  • French Riviera
  • That moment when you’re starting to fall asleep but then snap back awake
  • Cornflakes
  • Purple
  • Waffles

 

Is that it? OK, I might say these pretty fast.

 

  • Corn flakes
  • Purple waffles
  • The moment when you are falling asleep, then you wake up
  • Garage
  • Soap
  • Wheat grass
  • Tea leaves
  • James Bond
  • George Lopez
  • King Kong
  • Gorilla Glue
  • Festival?
  • Desk
  • Rule of thirds
  • Zig zag
  • And I don’t think I can think of any more.

 

All you missed were exponents, French Riviera, turkey bacon, and radio. That is amazing! There are 20 words and you got 16, one of them being an entire phrase. Hot damn, Abby—good memory, that’s incredible. I am seriously impressed.

 

I can’t believe I missed turkey bacon. I even said it after you did.

 

Well, don’t be upset, you listed back 16 out of 20, that is incredible.

 

That’s like, a B minus.

 

Oh, my gosh—that’s an A plus, especially with the curve!

 

 I want to know how they came up with that list. I remembered the last few because you just said them and the first few, but then the others I tried to pair together, like the people’s names, Gorilla Glue and King Kong, desk and rule of thirds are school related.

 

I am amazed. You look disappointed in yourself—stop it! So good. I think I would have gotten four, five tops. I’m glad you’re sitting next to me. You have to help me.

 

OK, moving on. I hear you know Amy (Kemp) Printz? How do you guys know each other? Is she how you heard about this position?

 

So, Amy’s brother Brad is best friends with my boyfriend Adam—they grew up together. When I started dating Adam a few years ago, I met Brad and his whole family—they’re incredible. And I actually first heard of McCullough because Greg (Dietzenbach) is on the board at Hawkeye for the graphic design program. He came and spoke at an event, and I knew eventually I’d be moving to Dubuque, so I remembered MC because it seemed like the type of place I’d like to work.

 

When I moved, I found out Amy worked here, and when I saw the opening on the website I asked her about it. We were both bridesmaids in Brad’s wedding this spring, so we were together a lot. I asked her a lot about the company and working here to make sure I would like it, and she spoke very highly of it. Before all the interviews, I’d tell her who I’d be meeting with and she’d give me a rundown of each person and make me feel really good and confident heading into them. I was still really nervous because I wanted the job, but apparently it went well!

 

Well, obviously! So what’s with your fear of bats and mice? That’s not a nice question.

 

Oh, my. I don’t know if I have a fear of bats, because I don’t have much experience. I don’t want any creature living in my house. It started with mice. There was one in my college apartment, which is when I learned I was afraid of mice. That was five or six years ago. I left the apartment and didn’t go back for two weeks. Figured I might as well move out because it was the worst. But now the house I’m in with my boyfriend, we just found out we have mice in the attic. That happened the first couple weeks of working here, so everyone got to hear about it and learn that about me really soon. Luckily, the mice are all gone now. They were just in our attic, but if they were in our actual living space, no way. We were looking at another house and the disclosure said they have occasional mice and we did not go look at it for that exact reason. Is that extreme? I don’t feel I’m being irrational.

 

Not at all, no one wants to live with mice. And if that’s on the disclosure, they’ve definitely had more than one or two. That’s like, y’all got mice.

 

Right! So that was about a month ago. And the wall I heard them in was the wall of our master bedroom upstairs, and I have not gone back in there since. I’ve been in the guest room, which sucks, because the bed up there is much more comfortable. They can be cute, but if I wanted a pet, I’d have a dog. But I don’t want a pet, so I don’t want mice.

 

What do you do for fun?

 

You know when people ask you what you do for fun, and you realize you’re not a fun person because nothing comes to mind? I like to go to concerts. I like to go up to my parents’ place on the river in Prairie du Chien in the summer—been going there my whole life. Otherwise, I’m pretty much a homebody. I don’t go out much. I like to watch Netflix and stay in.

 

 

What kind of music?

 

Most concerts I’ve gone to have been country because a lot of country artists come to Iowa. But I’ve seen Maroon 5, Britney Spears three times. She’s not really the type of music I listen to but it’s like, she’s Britney Spears, you have to. I’ve seen Eric Church, Blake Shelton, Garth Brooks, Lil Wayne, Keith Urban, Taylor Swift—I can’t think of who else.

Well, that’s fun, Abby! You are a fun person. What are you most excited about in your new position?

 

I love working here so far. What I like most is everyone I’ve met, whether coworkers or clients, everyone is so nice. I don’t think it can be said enough that the people you work with and the work environment can really make or break a job, and yeah, I am totally impressed with the people here and the overall environment of how nice and positive everyone is, and how it’s still so productive. The quality of work, too—it really impresses me.

 

Well, I agree with you and am glad you feel that way! Can you play any instruments?

 

Not as of today, but in junior high I played the flute in the school band. Did that for maybe three years.

 

Oh, c’mon, if you had a flute in front of your face—and you have a good memory—you’d still be good.

 

[Laughs] I don’t know if I was ever good, but I’d give it a shot.

 

How old is the oldest pair of shoes in your closet?

 

Oh, my, if you knew how many shoes I have…Oh! So, my mom had cowboy boots in college that I now own, so—don’t do the math, people—but these are probably from like, 1980? That’s what, 38 years? And I like to wear them—to the country concerts, of course.

 

 

So it’s a pair of shoes that is older than you are.

 

I should probably start calling them “vintage.”

 

That’s probably the best answer to that question that anyone’s ever answered. My last one is stupid. Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or one hundred duck-sized horses?

 

What. OK, so a giant duck, or a ton of little horses... One big duck. And I wouldn’t even fight it, I would just try to run. You can’t run from a hundred things, they’d surround you. And ducks can’t really hit you, they just have wings. This is so weird. Have I ever even seen a duck?

 

They could nip at you maybe, and if it’s a giant duck, his bill would be enormous—he’d like, eat you.

 

I’m gonna stick with duck because they can’t run.

 

And they can’t climb.

 

I also can’t climb…