Family - Lindsay Perraton—Director of Marketing

About Me: At six years old my mother took me to the local arena and signed me up for riding lessons. One day on a horse and I was all in, there would be no more dancing, gymnastics or soccer for this girl I had found my love. I rode and showed all-around horses for the next 14 years spending all my time at the barn. My persistence would take me to the finals at the AQHYA World Show in the Equitation, Hunter Under Saddle, and Horsemanship leaving my youth show career with a Reserve World Championship. Headed to college, where I would be time starved, but unable to give up horses entirely I opted to try something new venturing into Working Cowhorse and Reining. A path I still pursue today…when I am not working or being a mom to my two kiddos. (meaning I ride a lot less than I would like right now:)

 

At a young age I had been scouted to model but being shy I had always opted to spend my time riding. In university my love for fashion and travel drove me to start modeling again. I worked internationally in cities like Athens, New York, Sydney, and Singapore. I was always torn between my country heart and my city life never thinking I would find a career that would balance them so symbiotically. After completing my undergraduate degree at the University of Calgary I continued in the fashion industry working at the local modeling agency as a Development and Talent Agent.

 

After moving on from the modeling agency I took the skills I learned there and catered to my entrepreneurial calling by creating my own Marketing and Promotions agency. After only two years in business we were developing marketing campaigns for major companies such as Budweiser, Jack Daniels, Kokanee, Alexander Keith’s and many large oil companies and home developers. The company was a success but as a perpetual learner my partner and I made a decision to sell the company so I could head to Arizona to get my MBA. After completing my Masters Matt and Amanda Kimes reached out to me and asked if I would consider being part of their team. The rest is history!

 

Why Kimes/My Job: In 2014 Matt and Amanda Kimes brought me on help them rebrand former Longhorn Jean Company. With zero retail accounts and no sales it seemed like a daunting task as the three of us sat across from each other on that first day at the Ranch. Now almost 6 years later the company has grown dramatically and so has my role. As Director of Marketing my job consists of building marketing campaigns, ad purchasing, managing event sponsorships and endorsees and overseeing all of our social media advertising and content management. I now head a team of nine designers, coordinators, event specialists, photographers and PR and marketing interns who push out everything that you as the customer see of our brand. When you see a logo, a sticker, a Facebook ad, a rider wearing our patch or an ad in a magazine that is all orchestrated by my hardworking team. This is a far cry from the team of three that sat across from each other with notepads in hand trying to figure out how to make dreams into reality almost 6 years earlier.

 

I am lucky to say that I love my job. Each and every day I am challenged with new exciting projects and I am able to have my hands in every part of how Kimes Ranch functions. From strategy to implementation I work with our team to continue to forge new ground empowering our team with the tools they need to be successful. My true passion is to find the skills that lie within each of my team members and leverage them to build their confidence so they may niche down on those specialties and focus on what they are good at and what they love. Passion builds productivity and great people!

 

My Values: Most everyone’s biggest challenge in business is himself or herself. In very different ways we are always getting in the way of our own dreams. Whether that is lack of confidence, how we deal with people, how we prioritize, our lack of ability to grow, if we look hard enough we will generally find that we are the only ones standing in our way. I think learning this has been my biggest surprise and my biggest breakthrough. Using this approach makes me accountable to my team but that accountability also filters down to our company culture. If we have failed as a team then I have not given them the proper tools to be successful and that is on me. My father once wrote me a card when I was going through a particularly hard time balancing life, relationships, and dreams. He said “ your life will unfold as it should, beautifully.” Little did I know that my father would no longer be with me a year after he handed me that card, his words however, will last forever as a mantra that I say to myself whenever I need assurance to follow my dreams.