|
Erin Patton (EMBA ’06)
Visualizing Success and Leading by Example
Erin Patton (EMBA ’06) is widely regarded as one of the nation's foremost experts on branding, sports marketing and Hip-Hop culture. After earning his bachelor's degree from Northwestern University in 1991, Patton was handpicked by Michael Jordan to launch Nike's Jordan brand. In the role, he grew the business to $350 million in global revenues and received the prestigious Edison Award from the American Marketing Association.
Patton then went on to found The Mastermind Group (TMG), a market intelligence and brand marketing consulting firm. TMG has counseled an exclusive roster of Fortune 500 brands and pop culture icons, including Pepsi, Motorola, MTV, Mercedes-Benz, Federated Department Stores, Inc., Adidas and Coors Light, as well as global sports icons LeBron James and Venus and Serena Williams. He also spearheaded NBA-star Stephon Marbury's award-winning Starbury brand launch that revolutionized the sneaker industry and earned launch of the year honors from Footwear News and Advertising Age in 2006.
Despite his success, Patton never forgot his roots. He was raised in inner-city Pittsburgh, in a single-parent household by a mother who valued education as the gateway to success.
"She taught us that we were only limited by our own active imagination," said Patton. "I believed her and imagined a future beyond my wildest dreams. Every day I open my eyes now, I watch my dreams unfold right in front of my eyes."
Patton also credits Inroads - a program that prepares minority students for corporate America - for much of the success he has achieved today. It allowed him to create a visual for his future and develop a blueprint for success. Today, Patton feels an obligation to reach back and share the blueprint.
Patton encourages youth by telling them to identify their passion and imagine their future, just as he imagined his. He instructs them to visualize the image in their mind regularly and see it very clearly and tangibly. Their thoughts and actions will then naturally correlate that into action and the physical equivalent.
"I spoke at a high school in Brooklyn recently and a student mentioned he wanted to be a fashion designer," said Patton. "I told him to close his eyes and visualize himself on the runway at Fashion Week in NYC after debuting his new line in front of the celebrity types and fashion icons he aspired to."
Patton is passionate about giving back, and he shares his time, talent and treasure to various non-profit organizations and causes, including Positive Coaching Alliance, which promotes character education and teaching life lessons through sports. He is also a board member of the SMU Athletic Forum; Texas Leadership Forum, which helps high school students develop political and civic leadership; Hispanic Youth Symposium, a program of the Hispanic College Fund; and KaBOOM!, which builds playgrounds in under-served communities. As a staunch advocate for higher education, Patton serves as adjunct professor of sports marketing at SMU Cox where he also directs the Sport Leadership Consortium targeting front-office executives and athletes with innovative executive education programs.
"Young people get discouraged because things aren't happening fast enough or they simply can't see the forest for the trees as the saying goes," said Patton. "As a result, failure looms much larger because it is more familiar and can become habitual and default outcome when success was right around the corner. I tell young people that success, as an object, is always closer than it appears!"
Patton has been recognized with awards from distinguished organizations including the United Nations Honorable Mention, International Public Relations Association, The Network Journal's "Forty Under Forty Award" and the Innovator Award from the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF).
A dynamic public speaker, Patton is sought as a speaker for conferences, workshops, universities and corporations. He has also appeared as an expert on ESPN, CNN, VH1 and BET and has been quoted in USA Today, Time, Inc., BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal and Fortune. He recently published a book titled Under the Influence - Tracing the Hip-Hop Generation's Impact on Brands, Sports & Pop Culture.
|
