SoCo Stars: Dominic Perri
Dominic Perri, known as Dom to his friends, is an old friend of Dena’s from her days as an art undergrad at UMass Dartmouth. I asked Dena to tell me something about Dom for this post, and she said that he’s the guy you want to invite to your next party: people are always excited when Dom is on the guest list because he is a reliably funny and fun person to have around.
He may be fun, but this guy is also incredibly driven. In addition to his full time gig, Dom is the head organizer of the Hollihock Writer’s Conference. His motivation? He is purely driven by his love for writing and the writing community.
In this interview, Dom sheds some light on his day job, the Hollihock Conference, and wearing headphones with no music.
What’s your profession?
Officially, my title is a Media Program Manager at EMC. They call me an ad ops professional or something like that though. I wouldn’t call myself that title though. Mainly, I help traffic and organize ad campaigns across different geos for display media, search, social and content syndication.
Describe a typical work day for you.
I’m a middleman, so it’s a lot of wrangling. I’m the guy reaching out to our internal clients trying to get images, URLs, and banner sizes created so that we can launch campaigns on time. I’m also the direct contact with our agency, so I try to absorb a lot of the pain that each side may feel in launching a campaign. I also handle the back-end of campaigns, creating the tracking codes so that we know if they are successfully launching. Another part of my job is keeping tabs on all of the elements of a campaign to make sure that the agency is properly implementing things.
What’s the biggest challenge you face at your job?
With multiple campaigns and a lot of tiny elements for each, it can be extremely hard to keep track of everything all at once.
Do you have a morning routine?
My morning routine is driving an hour or so to work and crossing my fingers that I don’t hit traffic. I also need to get my day going with a nice cup of coffee.
What are your favorite productivity tips or hacks?
I’ll put reminders on my calendar to follow-up or do tasks because sometimes I’m so preoccupied with one campaign that I can lose track of something small. I also never let my Outlook say an email is read until I actually respond to it. Filing Outlook emails into specific campaign folders is also a huge help in clearing out the inbox. For productivity tips, concatenating columns in Excel is my saving grace! If you don’t know what that is, you can combine what’s in one box with the other. So when I’m building tracking URLs, I can easily add the tracking to a URL in another box. Box A + Box B = Box C. Also, you can make some great looking infographics to make data look more exciting to people.
What do you listen to during the day?
Spotify! It matters what kind of mood I’m in. For a solid month it seemed like all I was listening to was the new Sufjan Stevens album. Now I’m onto more upbeat music from Cruisr, Hippo Campus, Leon Bridges, and Vacationer. Although today it’s Dr. Dre’s new album since it was just released. Honestly, sometimes I’ll just put my headphones on to make it seem like I’m listening to music when I’m really not. Don’t tell!
How do you benefit from using a coworking space?
Coworking spaces are great! Not being in a traditional office setting is more relaxing and I find that I’m more productive. It’s also extremely convenient and works around my schedule. When I need to get work done without any distractions, it can be the best option. But also having a group of professionals that do different things can also make things more interesting. I’m not always talking to people about the company that I work for.
What’s in your digital toolbox?
Spotify, Google Analytics, Adobe Omniture, Excel, Word, Canva, Easel.ly, Lync, Outlook
What is the most surprising or unusual aspect of your life?
I have an undergraduate degree in the music industry and worked at major labels for a while.
What inspired you to organize the Hollihock Writer’s Conference?
I went to Goddard College for my MFA in Creative Writing and I just loved the feeling of being there for our week-long residency. It felt like a summer camp for writers and I wanted to emulate that for others. So I thought that I could create something that would be similar to that. For selfish reasons, I guess. But we need more events for writers, and ones that aren’t exclusive or require hundreds of dollars to attend. The majority of writers aren’t making millions off of their writing and they work regular jobs. And with my experience with writers, they don’t know how to market themselves properly either. There’s more to it than just writing a killer book. And I don’t think you need a terminal degree to figure that all out.
What do you hope participants will take away from the conference?
I want writers to know that although they write in solitude, there is a giant community that welcomes them with open arms if they want to join and share their work and ideas!
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If we managed to pique your interest in the conference, Hollihock is happening in New Bedford from August 21-23rd at the CVPA Star Store. Registration is still open, so register online soon!
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