Seven Career Stories
1. In college, I was part of the spirit band that played at basketball games. We got a gig before a New Orleans Hornets game sponsored by Zatarain’s. We provided much of the soundtrack for the folks walking in to the New Orleans arena that day. I was a trombonist, and there were 6-8 others in our group that day. This moment stands out as my first paid gig that was not sponsored through my school. It’s also a moment that really speaks to people seeing value in my creativity. What I personally found most valuable was bringing the energy and noise.
2. When I worked as a dispatcher for the meter maids, my creativity bug got the better of me and I decided to create a department newsletter for Right Of Way Enforcement called “ROWE, ROWE, ROWE Your Boat”. In what was ultimately an attempt to make government less annoying to all, I decided to create a semi-newsletter, semi-satire document, talking about the mayor hosting a dodgeball tournament in the foyer and all that. I was the creator and the only person working on this newsletter, which ultimately made it about four issues. This moment stands out to me as this was a job where the people didn’t reciprocate the same energy I gave them but my creativity reciprocated me in spades as a well-intentioned middle finger to those who didn’t like how I operated. The newsletter went over much better than I ever anticipated and I’m glad people were able to let loose momentarily.
3. When I was at Validity, there was a hurricane back in October 2022 in Tampa that rendered every single person on my team without power and not in a workable situation. For the next four days, I was the only support agent across DemandTools, GridBuddy, and DupeBlocker products. I was the point person for any data-related question during this time. This moment stands out as I put millions of dollars of ARR directly on my back and carried us through it when I was still relatively fresh in the role. My tenacity is what stuck out the most to me here – I usually put forth my most inspired work exactly when it is needed and not a moment early or late. I got after it in a way that shocked my coworkers and managers and kept our SLA from tanking during a time when we were at 10% strength.
4. When I was at Validity, the Broomfield office took a company trip to go-kart. I was one of about 15 or 20 coworkers actively zooming around the track. I’m unsure what is the best role for me to claim here, as it is almost a perfect mix of antagonist and competitor. What stuck out to me in this moment is that there is absolutely no competition too small for me to lose my mind over, and what followed was an out of body experience of me screaming at my coworkers, laughing my head off with them, getting cut off, playing mind games about which angle I would hit the turn at to essentially play chicken with the other competitors. There’s a lot of values that this one situation speaks to about me, I honestly don’t think my coworkers ever fully understood my energy until this moment. I was fireworks at a funeral and it was very refreshing.
5. At my first administrative job for the city government, the other guy who was on my project was diagnosed with cancer in the middle of it. Chad and I were the other two people who worked out of the printer room, and we decided to shave our heads when Chris did to show solidarity with our guy. Chad and I also went half on a gift card to an old-school haberdasher and he got himself an exquisite hat that matched his elevated style quite well. This stands out as Chris didn’t ask for any of it but Chad and I could both read a room well enough to understand what we could do as people who spent as much time with him as anybody. That would also eliminate any questions about Chris having cancer, as none of us had hair, and Chris really wasn’t trying to chase any sympathy. The only impact I hope this had is that my guy realized that he was 100% rad and that he had folks in his corner during a rough time.
6. When I worked at a creperie in New Orleans, I was smoking a cigarette on one of my breaks, and some old head came downstairs from the record shop right above where I worked. We got into a conversation about music and he told me he was currently signed to Strange Music and gave me his little promo poster and a nice little note. I looked up this dude’s music when I got home and he was definitely a legendary local rapper (Young Bleed) who was literally just going through his town running business and took the time to talk to me because I was cooling out. It was a nice bit of serendipity in the middle of a warm New Orleans day back when life was a bit slower. I was just a dude on the side of the building talking to another dude on the side of a building and that’s how many of the best conversations in life happen. Curiousity is the main theme of this story and what I took away from it. A little fellowship led to me really liking this dude and studying up on his music to realize he was indeed more of a legend than he put on. I didn’t have much of an impact except a dude who wanted to hear what this man had to say, and that was the right energy for the moment.
7. Early on in college, around the time I was promoting music heavily, I was also a DJ on our college online radio station. I treated this more and more like a job as time went on because I started gaining way more traction than I anticipated, but I was still an 18 year old doing whatever I felt like doing on Friday nights, and that resonated with a bunch of folks from my school as there were nearly as many tortured creative types as there were party types. One night, I decided to grab every musician from Loyola campus that I possibly could and offered them networking and a chilled out atmosphere. At one point there were 22 people in a studio that could comfortably fit 5. There were no less than 50 musicians from campus who came through that night, and it was one of the most spontaneous things I ever did in my musical career. The moment stands out as it crossed genre, crossed gender, race, and sexuality, and had a number of commercially successful musicians on the broadcast, at the same time, forming greater relationships with each other. This is another one where genuine curiousity led to wanting to fit my entire campus in one 12×12 (4mx4m) space, and I did a damn good job at it. I felt my main impact was bringing people together, I didn’t care as much about the setting, I just wanted to know these people in their natural environment on a level they understand.
Career Patterns
3 recurring values in my best moments include curiosity, creativity, and spontaneity.
3 consistent recurring sources of energy are communication, creativity, and ideation.
3 types of impact that matter the most to me are socioeconomic, cultural, and personal connection.
3 environmental factors that help me thrive are stability, nurturing, and creative.
Christopher Sauer 