Over the past five weeks I had the opportunity to intern for an up and coming media marketing firm called EyeTraffic Media. I interned at EyeTraffic Media last summer for three weeks, and I must admit that I am amazed by the growth and improvement that the firm has made in only one year. Last summer, the principal manager’s office was located on the seventh floor of a shared office building on Connecticut Avenue. Now the principal manager, George Assimakopoulos, and the rest of the Washington D.C. team work in EyeTraffic Media’s very own private office located on Wisconsin Avenue. Not only is the office beautiful, but it is conveniently located right next to Guapos and the Whole Foods Market, and it is only a short walk from Chipotle. I haven’t brought lunch from home once! (Quick shout out to the hot dog stand guy just down the corner… he is the man!)

The change in location is only one of the many developments I’ve noticed from one summer ago. The number of clients that EyeTraffic Media works with has nearly tripled. The company even added three more clients (The Pew Forum, The Museum of Modern Art and the Kogod Business School at American University) during my time here. If I thought the principal manager was on the phone a lot last year, there was just no comparison to how much he was on the phone this summer. It is no exaggeration when I say that the headset is attached to his head every minute of the day. The account manager, Keith Vera, definitely has a lot more on his plate and in my opinion has really stepped up and taken a leadership role in the company. This year there are also three new media coordinators, all of whom work very hard with their assigned clients. In addition, there is an office manager who comes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She has constantly kept an eye on me, but at the same time has helped make my job easier. The family environment that has been created here at the office has made my time here very enjoyable, entertaining and pressure free.

During my internship at EyeTraffic Media, I completed various assignments. Last summer, I uploaded all of the company’s research into the EyeTraffic Media Wiki (the company’s online Encyclopedia). This summer, I scanned over 800 business cards and uploaded them into the company’s shared contacts folder in Microsoft Outlook and then transferred all of those contacts into the company’s master contact list on salesforce.com. After completing this assignment, Mr. Assimakopoulos gave me daily tasks to complete that involved a wide variety of different activities.

While I learned many life lessons this summer by having to do these daily assignments, such as how to drill properly, I think the most valuable thing I learned from my experience at EyeTraffic Media is how much work goes into running your own business. I realized that the success of a business is not solely determined on its’ ability to sell. Yes, that may be a key factor, but I firmly believe that a business can only grow and prosper if it is filled with good people who don’t only work for the money, but who also work to fulfill their potential as individuals and for the business. The EyeTraffic Media team has these kinds of people and this is why EyeTraffic Media has made so much progress in only a year. With an ambitious principal manager who refuses to say no and an eager and talented supporting cast, I am more than confident that EyeTraffic Media will become a force to reckon with in the media marketing world for a long time.