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When 17-year-old Kayla Amick applied for a job with Creative Marketing Arts in 2011, she didn’t know much about much. She showed up to her interview with a mouthful of braces, no resume and few job skills. During her first week of work, she struggled with the simplest of tasks such as filling out a bank deposit slip.
“I was struggling with everything, I was 17. I didn’t know my voice yet, and I didn’t know how to ask for help.”
“I was struggling with everything,” Kayla said. “I was 17. I didn’t know my voice yet, and I didn’t know how to ask for help.” But little girls grow up, and so did Kayla—right along with CMA. She was soon overseeing the School Program, at the time a mainstay of CMA marketing strategies, logging in hard copy receipts that school parents left in retailers’ drop-boxes and tracking points for school givebacks.
Kayla, who says she was always good at organizing, realized that some of the program’s protocols were vaguely defined, especially protocols for archiving reports from one year to the next. Once Kayla began refining the records system, Kim Kelley, OMG, Original Marketing Guru, recognized that Kayla was much more than a JAG—Just a Girl. “Kayla didn’t take long to take over all kinds of technical tasks and simple strategies with amazing people skills. She is the honey that fills in the hard cracks in my personality. Others feel safe telling Kayla their issues,” Kelley said. Ten years later, CMA specializes in digital marketing strategies, and that is just fine with Kayla.
Her father, Stefan, was the company’s first IT specialist, and she has always felt comfortable in the world of tech. Kayla now serves as Digital Media Director for CMA, overseeing the social media feeds, Google, Yelp, and websites for the company’s clients. She also manages employees and the verbal/visual content they produce for the feeds. “I make their packages pretty and put it out into the world,” Kayla said. Kayla also enjoys interacting with clients personally. She often constructs client presentations detailing the analytics of website visibility and will sometimes be part of a presentation team comprised of Kelley and Director of Marketing, Sara Espinosa.
Kayla is the low talker of the group, which perfectly complements the high-octane personalities of Kelley and Espinosa, who come equipped with their own amp stands wherever they go. “Kim and I may be crunchy on the outside, but when it comes to clients, we are soft on the inside, making them happy with whatever needs that crop up, that’s what makes us happy,” said Espinosa.
It has not been a direct line to Kayla’s becoming one of the faces of CMA, however. Affectionately known as Baby Bop, Kayla has taken two baby breaks to become a baby momma to Ethan, 4, and twin baby girls, Claire, and Brooklynn. She says being a mother is the most important part of her life but is always up for live music or a long hike with her partner Matthew, or most importantly, a day at the spa by herself. “I like to be pretty and girly when I can,” she said.
As a reward for working at CMA for 10 years, Kelley awarded her a bag from Louis Vuitton, a luxurious girly accessory that Kayla is keeping in its box for now. “I don’t want my children to ruin it at the moment,” she said with a laugh. Kayla Amick has learned much since coming to work for CMA, but spend a little time with her, and you’ll come away feeling there is still much to come.
“Some people feel the rain; others just feel wet.”
— Bob Marley