What 20 Years at DMA Taught Me About Work, Life, and Leadership

May 15, 2025
6:00 am

Posted by Marci Allen

What 20 Years at DMA Taught Me About Work, Life, and Leadership

Twenty years is a lifetime. In many ways, I don’t even recognize that 29-year-old version of me that took that leap with a brand-new company. I was still in my first five years of marriage when I joined DMA Solutions and the same month that I started, I celebrated my oldest daughter’s 1st birthday and got the shock of a lifetime when I found out I was pregnant with my 2^nd. So much newness and uncertainty in that season, and yet so many things that I was sure had led me there.

My journey to this new startup did not come out of left field. Right out of college I took a job with Ben E. Keith. After a lengthy training period, I was offered a unique sales territory that included only high-end hotels in downtown Dallas. That customer base required me to make daily trips to ethnic grocery stores, specialty restaurant suppliers, and most significantly – the produce houses around the Dallas Farmers market to source all the exotic food items these chefs could conjure up for a special menu. The guys at Coosemans Dallas took great care of this 20-something sales rep who was in over her depth with intense and demanding chefs who loved to send 911 messages to my beeper at 6:00am looking for specialty produce items I had never heard of before or who loved to personally blame me for the quality of the produce that had shown up at their dock earlier that morning. Those were some major growing experiences.

Coosemans eventually invited me to join their team as their Business Manager, which opened the door to yet another opportunity with Standard Fruit & Vegetable a couple of years later. If you know anything about the history of DMA Solutions, you know Standard Fruit & Vegetable is really where it all began.

I joined Dan’l in the marketing department at Standard just a few months before the company sold to Del Monte and was fortunate to stay on with them after the acquisition. If you’re keeping track, that’s four employers over a 5-year period. I can’t say I would recommend that career strategy to anyone else (even though I did not invite all that change), but in hindsight I know those years were for a purpose. They are why I’m here today.

I share such a lengthy history prior to DMA, because I think these past 20 years at DMA were possible in part to the experiences I gained in those early years. Lessons learned from different leaders – good and bad, different business types, different customer service needs, different degrees of business management and financial responsibilities, and maybe most importantly – different challenges that taught me perseverance and integrity. For a marketing agency that deals with a breadth of business types in our industry, those experiences have been priceless in helping me understand the industry, our customers’ challenges and to be able to strategize with them about the future. But just as importantly, it also prepared me for the challenge of helping to grow a startup and the endless growing pains that come with the territory.

Starting a business is no easy feat and getting it past year 5 is a slim 50% reality. But if anyone has the vision, gumption, and energy to make it happen, it’s Dan’l Mackey Almy! Somehow I recognized those traits in her right from the start and knew I could trust the direction she was going, so I jumped on board with no clue what this new journey would look like. Armed with all the lessons learned along the way, I dove right in. But man, building a business is not for the faint of heart, and doing it with two small babies and a husband that traveled 3-4 days every single week felt damn near impossible much of the time. Something in the endless list of responsibilities is always lacking and work/life balance is an epic joke. Shame on whoever introduced that ridiculous concept.

But I digress. It wasn’t long before the business began growing beyond what two people could handle. Enter Megan Zweig. As employee #3, she’s been a steady presence for much of these 20 years – often my life raft on stormy days. Thank you, MZ. Your 20 is coming soon!

There are so many others who have played a major role in DMA’s success over the years, making it possible for me to even be celebrating this milestone. It has been a team effort of incredible talent and as many personalities as one can imagine. I feel blessed to have been given this gift. It has helped to provide for my family, it has given me friends that I cherish, and it has taught me so much about marketing, business, and myself. It has stretched me far outside my comfort zone while being a place I can call home.

So, with 20 years in the DMA rear view mirror plus the lessons I brought with me to this adventure, here’s a few words of wisdom I feel only the tiniest bit worthy to share with you:

You’re either a good leader or a bad leader; there is no in between. Choose wisely.
Some employees are only meant to be with you for a season. And even though it is painful to train them and lose them, their time with you has meaning. Their experience with you will forever shape their career and the impact they will have on this industry. Don’t take that lightly.
Growing pains in your career are always temporary. If you’re in a season of challenge, sometimes perseverance yields the greatest rewards. Stay the course.
But also, there will be times in your career when the most unexpected opportunities will knock on your door and require you to step outside your comfort zone. Trust your gut.
Time management is highly underrated. If it’s not your strong suit, invest in the tools to help you improve. In fact, just invest in yourself. You’re worth it.
Recognize the talent around you and don’t take them for granted. They deserve better.
When you’re in a season of drowning, find a lifeline. That’s been a hard lesson for me. I want better for you.
Don’t compare your journey to anyone else. It’s a fruitless endeavor.
Be introspective enough to recognize when you’re a roadblock in moving your team or your business forward. Everybody wins when you do.
If you aren’t familiar with the Enneagram and have not leveraged it to build a smarter culture, you’re missing out. Take the test today.
When you’ve got a choice between work and family, family wins every time. Never doubt that.