Empowering employees to own their job and move the dial, combined with fostering a company culture that emphasizes work/life balance, are the hallmarks of the leadership style of Kim Damron, president and COO of Paciolan.
She has been on the fast track her whole career and, because of her accomplishments and her flair, is among the 2017 Venues Today Women of Influence.
Damron joined Paciolan 11 years ago, upon meeting with Dave Butler, CEO, and realizing his vision and her vision meshed wonderfully. She was ambitious but balanced, planning a family and expecting to have time to serve them as well. And she loves Orange County. Paciolan is headquartered in Irvine, Calif.
She grew up in Costa Mesa, Calif., and attended the University of Southern California from which both of her parents graduated. “And USC was our first client ever at Paciolan,” she said. How copacetic is that, though, of course, she wasn’t at Paciolan at the time. However, she has embraced it fully, history and all.
Thinking she would become a sportscaster, she interned at PrimeTicket. “The great thing about internships is you experience what the job is like; in college you don’t know what you want.” She learned she did not want to be a sportscaster.
Her next internship, in 1993, was at Paramount Studios, her senior year. “It’s funny because I went to work for a woman, the SVP of media for all advertising of motion pictures. She offered me her assistant job, which was open in January. I wasn’t graduating until May. She said, ‘I’m not going to wait for you and I am who I am and I’m a bitch and I’m not going to change for you.’”
That was Damron’s welcome to Hollywood and she learned a lot from her boss and mentor, Susan Wrenn, about how to be a powerful woman in business, how to manage relationships, and “the main thing — how to survive in Hollywood. It’s such a cutthroat industry. But you can get to the top if you want to, man or woman.”
After more than four years with Paramount, Damron got the itch to explore the Internet of things. “It’s such an exciting space, really the biggest thing since the industrial revolution,” she believed then and now.
In 1999, she joined Buy.com, an Amazon competitor. She was hired to help build the entertainment store, to run the business side, working with key vendors and distributors. And the best thing, it got her back to Orange County. “I love Southern California,” she emphasizes again and again.
She stayed at Buy.com through its Initial Public Offering, until the company went private again. She witnessed its growth to $500 million in sales in the first year. It was on the cover of Fortune magazine. “It was a fantastic run. I learned so much about the Internet and about cutting deals. We did the first linking deal with eBay. Internet advertising was new in 1998.” She left and spent a brief year consulting for eBay, but decided against moving to San Jose, so she looked around.
Tickets.com was based in Costa Mesa, and had just named Ron Bension CEO. “I reached out and they hired me. I stayed there through the MLBAM acquisition,” Damron said. She was VP of marketing and business.
Then Paciolan recruited her. She wasn’t really looking to move, but she certainly had to entertain the offer. She met Dave Butler for lunch and was so impressed she joined nine days later. Butler had joined Paciolan in August 2005. Damron came on board in December 2005.
“I just loved Dave’s vision and leadership. I hadn’t even talked about titles, money or anything when I told my husband, ‘I’m going with this company,’” she said.
Managers have been mentors for Damron all along the way, which may be why she is so fiercely involved in mentoring those she manages. “The number one reason people quit their jobs is who they’re working for, not where they’re working,” she said. “In my career, I have been lucky to work for fantastic mentors and managers.”
That’s the message she has when she speaks at a class at University of California — Irvine on international business. “The first thing I tell them is when you are being interviewed by a potential employer, you interview them as well. Are they going to empower you, are you going to be able to grow with this person?”
Damron, who is married to Jeff Damron, is also a huge supporter of work/life balance. The Damrons have four children: Taylor, 19; Paige, 16; Abby, 9; and Blake, 7. It’s a very busy household.
When Damron had her first baby (two came with the marriage), she had a rocky return to work. “If it weren’t for Lisa Chinn in our development organization, I probably wouldn’t be here today,” she admitted. “I couldn’t balance career, daycare, all those things, and sleep deprivation as well. We bonded over the timing of the birth of our kids.”
Chinn’s support (and it was mutual) made Damron realize there is a need for mentoring among women, so she started a monthly get together for the women at Paciolan. She bought them all a copy of the book “Lean In,” and each woman picked a mentor within the company, just to get the female perspective to help them in their careers. “From my experience that was critical….having a confidante.”
She began to feel okay about being a working mom.
Her answer personally and professionally is to make your children’s big moments a priority. She encourages all Paciolan employees to be with family at those times it matters most.
Damron is very excited about the Learfield’s acquisition of Paciolan this month, noting they are very invested in the arts as well as college sports, having bought MogoARTS, with 200 clients of which 160 are performing arts clients, prior to buying Paciolan.
Learfield is focused on live entertainment, she said. They also own ANC and GoVision, scoreboard/leaderboard companies.
Damron’s ascendency to the presidency of Paciolan has been precipitous. Jane Kleinberger, Paciolan founder, recalls that day when she learned Butler would be sidelined for health reasons for a time, and she was asked to step back in and lead. Her first executive decision was to bring Damron more deeply into the management picture.
“I find her to be one of the most exceptional manager/leaders that I’ve had the pleasure to work with,” Kleinberger said. “Unlike many of us, including myself, Kim has a way of holding people accountable and holding herself accountable. If she says she will do it, she will do it. If someone else says they’ll do it, she expects them to. If they don’t, she will always go back and confront them. Those she’s hardest on care the most about delivering the best. She’s consistent and clear with everyone. You always know where she stands.”
One of the first things Damron did as president was promote Craig Ricks, Steve DeMots, Christian Lewis, Deanna Barnes and Lisa Langam, the core team she’d been working with for 10 years. “I think I empower people to run their business and department. I mentor them more than manage them,” Damron said.
Ricks, SVP of Marketing, confirms that Damron is about empowerment. “She is the best boss. She empowers all of us to step up, take on more responsibility and own our role.
When Damron joined Paciolan, she gradually took over departments — ecommerce, marketing and then, “a few years ago, Dave promoted me to COO, giving me customer support and tech operations, professional services, everything except finance, accounting and development, which Dave ran.” This year, Butler promoted her to president. He is CEO, working on the strategy. All of the business now reports to Damron.
She never thought, early on, that she would be running a ticketing company. “What I love is the vision, leadership and culture here, I’ve never been anywhere 11-12 years, not even elementary school. And I want to work here for the rest of my career, and I’m not that old. I feel lucky I work with these people every day.”
John Herr, her first boss, is one of those mentors who made a big difference in Damron’s career. “He was the first person who actually told me, ‘you can run a company one day.’ When he said that, I thought, what is he talking about?”
He told her the key to her future growth was simple. “Just get out of the weeds. You’re so into detail; you need to empower your team and think more big picture. It’s the best advice anyone gave me.”
Clearly, Kim Damron got out of the weeds.
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EMPOWERING OTHERS
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