ABOUT | DUCKS IN A ROWE

EDUCATIONAL AUTHOR & COLLEGE SPEAKER | MARKETER + HR DIRECTOR
(Oh...And Wanna Be Guitar God)

My Story:
I was fortunate to have 2 great mentors. My dad (St. John's Business School Valedictorian - NYU MBA-Marketing) recommended I be a Marketing Major at Fairfield University, CT.; and my first Brand Marketing boss, the brilliant Connie Humphrey (Sara Lawrence College - London School of Economics - dual MBA in Finance & Marketing from Columbia Business School) told me on day 1 - "Marketing is a disciplined approach to problem solving. Therefore, to be successful here, and frankly anywhere, you need to do two things well - critical thinking to solve problems and communication, both in writing and particularly presenting."

Then she gave me a simple tool that I'm still using today - the simple, 1-page, 10-step, briefing document! It's a simple outline that starts by considering the audience and what you want them to do, then structures your thinking into a logical flow. By forcing it to be on 1-page, you learn how to think, then write (and present) in a CLEAR, CONCISE AND COMPELLING manner.

I call it STRATEGIC WRITING and I believe it is THE MISSING LINK IN EDUCATION!
It goes beyond "persuasive writing", which is important, because the focus is to identify and solve problems, then execute to get things done and achieve results. I call it the missing link because, for the most part, it isn't taught in school.

I've been teaching it to scores of recent grads for decades and I know it works! See my bio, but in essence I've spent most of my career working with recent grads, including as an agency partner / owner I was also HR Director. The format was the foundation for my team to strategically communicate in a consistent logical format. But it went beyond my team. As an outsourced CMO for 10 different companies, I often introduced the format as the foundation for all communication to my clients.

When Covid hit and for the 1st time and my life I had nothing to do, I decided to share this wonderful tool for others to learn and write a book. But having read the top 5 Business Writing books I found them woefully boring without a simple clear approach (admittedly they sell way better than mine - but my journey is self publishing and they focus on executives. My focus now is 100% Education.) Therefore, inspired by great fable, WHO MOVED MY CHEESE, I wrote a fable about 'ducks in business' to explain how the tool works.

I finished and felt there was so much more I wanted to share. I started to write an appendix, but it bored me, so I wrote a follow-up to the fable to teach the entire process from critical thinking to identify and solve problems, to communication, through execution. As a brand guy, I branded the process...The A-D-A-P-T-E-R Method which stands for Analyze - Deduce - Author - Perform - Tackle - Evaluate - Refine.

Once I shifted my focus exclusively to the education market, I have seen significant interest and the books are just now being used in a few colleges to very favorable professor and student reviews. This is now my ongoing Mission. To provide professors with a SIMPLE TO TEACH, SIMPLE TO LEARN, SIMPLE TO SUCCEED tool to fix the skills gap, improve college student critical thinking and communication skills, helping both their career growth and corporate productivity.

My BIO:
CEO / CMO Jim Rowe Marketing (Since 2018)
Proven business owner-operator, team leader, business /marketing strategy and branding, and SOFT SKILLS expert.

The experience, the expertise, and the process to help grow small to mid-sized companies due to a unique background as:

MME: Agency Co-founder, 27 years as one of 3 Sr. Partners, Plus Human Resource Dir:

An Outsourced CMO: A unique aspect of Jim’s tenure at MME was that he functioned for smaller clients as the outsourced CMO including being member of the Executive Management Team, or he was an integral part of larger clients marketing team, for 10 different companies.
This experience led Jim to see the need for the JRM Embedded Marketing Model. More than just a consultant, Jim brings his unique experience as part of your team PLUS a support team of marketing executives and importantly creative talent. This eliminates the need to hire both a marketing team and an ad agency. The JRM Embedded Marketing Model is the most efficient approach to help you grow your company and add value to your business.
Jim also was HR Director where he handled all aspects of HR including creating the Employee Handbook & Policies and Job Descriptions, Evaluation & Review Policies and Format, negotiated all Healthcare Benefit Plans, and office expansion / reconstruction. Jim was also involved in all interviewing (including finding and vetting recruiters), hiring, annual evaluations, promotion, and termination or employee dispute issues. As such, Jim has interviewed many 100's of recent grads, and has been intimately involved in the hiring, training and managing scores who directly reported to him. Therefore, he is intimately aware of their skills immediately out of college and how to train them to succeed.