MEMBER SPOTLIGHT | FEBRUARY 2002

Pat Mead: SELF-ISH COMMUNICATOR:
Self-motivated, self-disciplined, self-employed

By Kim Broers

Call Pat any hour of the day. Just don't call her a slacker.

6 a.m., Woodside Racquet Club: As she tackles the elliptical exercise machine, Pat Meads practices her latest client presentation. Aloud. With gestures.
She knows other early-bird workout buffs may think she's loony. But this is not a woman who has any concept of "down time." Why waste precious minutes simply sweating, when you can get a leg up on cardiovascular fitness AND prime yourself professionally? And why take a day off when you can exercise 7 days a week? (Seriously. Pat reminds me of my sister Karen, an ambitious, ridiculously fit Air Force colonel whom we have to literally sit on during the holidays to prevent her going out for a run. Or 5-mile walk.)

Q: Why does Pat work out 7 days a week?
A: There aren't 8 days in the week.

Pat has probably been this way since childhood - or before. One can easily imagine her in the womb, aerobically agitating for another music or language lesson. Mind you, given that she spent her early years in Fargo, North Dakota, the womb must have seemed a cozier place to abide. Pat recalls her birthplace as cold and barren "with nothing taller than a telephone pole." But frigid climes hold no terror for her, as evidenced by her choice of locales for post-secondary education.

At the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Pat took summer school and tested out of French, to emerge at age 21 with a bachelor's degree and a double major in Journalism and English. It took another 25 years to get her master's degree, which she earned in 1999 from KU, an M.S. in integrated marketing communications. Naturally, she studied for the GRE while pedaling and stair-stepping at the gym. She chose to take the Graduate Record Exam in characteristically quick fashion, on a computer, for four straight hours, with immediate scoring. When it was over, she cried out of sheer relief.
Pat's high-speed approach to life works well in her chosen profession - sales and marketing promotion - and is great for Women in Communications, to which she has belonged since 1975. She's held numerous leadership positions, including President, Membership, National and Regional Conference Chair, and currently Finance Vice President. In Kansas City, she's been honored with the chapter's "Leading Change" award and is a member of the Women's Resource Network.

Happy New Year! Officially incorporated January 1, Pat is now owner of a company entitled Promotions on Call. The move is the result of a series of layoffs at Bernstein-Rein Advertising, where she worked in sales promotions and account management for 11 years.

It was the job offer from Bernstein-Rein that brought her to our fair city after she was nabbed by a headhunter in Minneapolis. There, she worked 14 years for Carlson Companies as a director of creative services and marketing services, developing loyalty/frequency programs and promotional materials for state lotteries, consumer manufacturers, supermarkets and other stores.
At Bernstein-Rein, Pat worked on such big-name accounts as McDonald's, Starlight Theatre, the Kansas City Royals, Blockbuster Video, Sprint, H & R Block and the Missouri Lottery. As she's gained expertise, she has used her skills on everything from copywriting and newspaper display advertising to managing trade show booths and conducting store training. Within the community, she's helped direct the Chiefs Red Friday pep rallies and worked on fund raising as a member of the Genesis School Board.

"I'm always out there working," she summarizes.

There WAS one time in Pat's life when she actually took time out to breathe. The uncharacteristic respite came courtesy of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, which sparked campus protests that shut down the university. With classes canceled, the co-ed packed up and went to Boulder to play for a few months ... an excursion she never mentioned to her parents. "Their tuition dollars at work," she grins.

Pat is extroverted, driven, and quick to smile. The baby of the family, she is one of four talented siblings. Her oldest sister, a dancer, teaches at Arizona State, and received KU's first master's degree in modern dance. Pat herself plays the guitar and piano.

Here's my favorite interview nugget about Pat: She sings karaoke.

Working from an office at home equipped with two computers, two printers and a copier, Pat is enjoying herself. Remarkably sanguine about her recent self-employed status, she shows no trace of anxiety about any increased pressure to bring home the bacon; indeed, it appears suspiciously as if she might be enjoying herself. Certainly, she enjoys persuasive writing and doesn't mind at all prospecting for leads.

The most notable change: 7 a.m., Woodside Racquet Club. The new boss allows her to start work just a bit later ... ;-)