Instructor Spotlight: In the Szen Zone with Gary Szenderski

DCE instructor Gary Szenderski is a true Renaissance man. An author, entrepreneur, and sought-after marketing professional who has taught at UC Irvine Division of Continuing Education for the past 22 years, Gary embraces a wide range of interests that help inform his marketing expertise and writing. It’s a remarkable journey that began as a college geochemistry major and part-time employee at a cable TV company.

Today he shares his expertise and wide-ranging knowledge at DCE, teaching courses in the Digital Marketing certificate program while running his marketing company Emergent, consulting for start-ups as well as established brands, and offering clients innovative branding and storytelling strategies. The Emergent website calls them “survival tools for a world on the move.”

Gary has also written a series of popular books about coping with a fast-changing world, including The Szen Zone and The Book of Szen. In his downtime, Gary enjoys traveling, cooking, and spending time with his family.

He recently took a break to sit down and share his story, his personal and professional journey, as well as insights into his inspirational writing.

Let’s start at the beginning: What inspired you to specialize in marketing? Can you share an “aha” moment when you knew you had to choose branding and marketing as your life path?

When I was still in college, I took a part-time job in sales working for a cable TV company. I learned the value of getting the story right and understanding the nature and problems that customers faced. I then changed my major from geochemistry to communications with an emphasis in marketing. When I graduated, that same cable company hired me as Advertising Director, and I later became Director of Marketing, growing the company to be the eighth largest in the country.

What challenges have you overcome during your journey?

I’ve worked for many large corporations in media and advertising agencies and learned a great deal, but the real challenges began when I started my own companies. Building a business from scratch requires focus, capital, and management by wearing many hats simultaneously. One specific challenge was outside of my scope to avoid, and rebounding presented a significant challenge.

In 1996 we started Ergo Worldwide, the original Emergent Worldwide model. We built a specialized award-winning team that served clients in different parts of the world. We had offices in Paris, Madrid, Miami, San Francisco, and our headquarters was in Irvine. We were growing a reputation with larger brands and clients including Ernst & Young, Cap Gemini, Samsung, Crazy Shirts, and Classic Foods.

What happened with Ergo?

Its business model suffered a tremendous setback and stagnation of growth following 9/11, an event that dramatically changed how business was getting done. Much of our business stopped immediately. We survived but barely, and it took about 18 months to rebuild our client base and to begin growing the agency again.

Tell me about your current company Emergent Worldwide.

Emergent Worldwide is fairly new and specializes in helping brands and organizations going through some type of transition: new products, brand or line extension, new markets, and so forth. I function as a fractional CMO working with my agency partners. I also consult independently for specific clients. Some of our clients are the same ones we had at Ergo, along with newer companies.

Touching on your experience with DCE, what courses do you teach, and how would you describe your teaching style?

I’ve been at UC Irvine since 2003 and have taught essentials of marketing, global marketing, branding, and integrated marketing communications. I’m currently teaching a course entitled Integrated Brand Storytelling using AI, where I share my client experience and ongoing evolution in my company with my students.

Much of the course is built on my own personal experience, so my teaching style is to simplify complex marketing challenges to provide students with tools that they can use tomorrow—very practical, relevant, and fluid to keep up with best practices in marketing. In fact, I have been asked by many students to help them with their companies to achieve success.

What did you learn about teaching from your own experience as a student and as a marketing professional?

I consider myself a life-long learner, and although my student experience was valuable, my working experience has proven to be a great teacher. Because I’ve worked in different categories and industries in different countries, I’ve developed a “what works and what doesn’t” mindset that I share with my students. They’re an inspiration to me, as well.

I very much enjoy my career in marketing and teaching, and when I have time, I like to channel what I’ve learned about dealing with change into writing books that inspire and motivate others to embrace change. After all, change is the one constant in our universe.

Please tell me about your writing. What inspired you to write about positive change?

I began writing inspirational weekly stories for our staff, which they forwarded to friends and clients. The accumulation of these stories became my first book, The Book of Szen — Stories and Inspiration for a Changing World. Szen works great as it’s the first four letters of my last name and the “s” is silent. I still publish a new story every week and have written a total of four books; the last one came out last year, Out of Mind, Out of Sight.

What writing projects are you currently working on?

I have a branding book I’m working on based on my experience and also what I’ve been teaching at UCI. There may be a novel in there somewhere too.

Learn more about the Digital Marketing & Communications Certificate Program.