Patrick Smith
Position:
Senior Account Supervisor
Primary accounts:
Sealed Air Cryovac and Protective Packaging
Family life/Living situation:
4-year-old daughter, Callan
What are you passionate about?
Golf, fishing, Gamecock sports, travel, wetlands and wildlife habitat conservation, spreading the word that Charleston, SC is the greatest city in the U.S. and one of the best in the world, public education
Little known fact about yourself:
I am deathly afraid of two things: 1) any mode of transportation that involves being suspended from a cable (cable cars, ski lifts, etc.); 2) porch swings – one crashed through my bedroom window during a midnight thunderstorm when I was 3 years old and I’ve never shaken the traumatic experience. Even typing this makes me shudder.
Favorite sports team:
College: South Carolina Gamecocks; Pro: Atlanta Braves, Carolina Panthers and the U.S. Ryder Cup team
Favorite music:
Mainstream: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band; I saw the last five shows the band ever played at the old Giants Stadium at the NJ Meadowlands in 2009. Lesser-known: Michael McCloud, singer/songwriter who plays six days a week pretty much year round at the outdoor patio of The Schooner Wharf Bar in old town Key West. McCloud wrote the “Conch Republic National Anthem,” and his song “Tourist Town Bar” was stolen by Toby Keith who recorded the almost identical “I love this bar” more than 20 years after McCloud’s song made its Key West debut.
Favorite food: Medium rare Kansas City strip with a really good Cabernet, preferably at the Golden Ox in the Livestock Exchange building in Kansas City’s West Bottoms. Close second: beef brisket sandwich with a side of “crack fries” and a Boulevard Wheat at Oklahoma Joe’s BBQ (yes, one of my favorite restaurants is in a gas station).
Favorite place you’ve ever been and why:
Key West, but not the Duval Street party; I love Old Town, where the locals drink, play music and tell stories all day and night. The food is good, the drinks refreshing, the attitude carefree, the music unique, the weather perfect, the fishing second-to-none…
Charitable affiliations:
Marketing/PR contributor to East Cooper Community Outreach (ECCO) in Mt. Pleasant, SC.
Professional affiliations:
National Sports Marketing Network
How long have you been in communications?
Fifteen years. My parents were both high school English teachers, so the genetics would’ve been questionable had I shown an aptitude for math/engineering. Then, like a lot of successful high school athletes not good enough to keep playing after college I wanted to be a sportswriter, so I majored in journalism. After hearing horror stories of the newspaper business and realizing print reporting wasn’t the fast track to boat ownership and Key West vacations, I switched my concentration to PR. Turns out that was a great move, though I’m still waiting on that boat and I go to Key West far too infrequently.
What about the work keeps you engaged?
Every situation is different. Even for the same clients, practicing the same category of work, there are nuances to navigate and new ideas to bring to the table. To me that’s why we do what we do, and being able to bring new perspective and challenge clients to stretch their imaginations of what PR is and what it can do for their brands is what sets apart the good from the average and the great from the good.
What are you looking forward to most as a new member of the MSL Atlanta family?
I hear the annual office Halloween costume contest is most memorable.
