Meet Christopher Kemper

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christopher Kemper. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Christopher, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
In 1988, I started looking at colleges. I grew up in a blue collar household. My step dad was a fireman and my mom was a secretary. We didn’t have a ton of money, but I was always told that I needed to go to college to make something of myself.

I knew that, in order to graduate on time, I needed a scholarship. I focused on the military as a way to pay for school (short term) and then start working after college (longer term).

I competed for a very small number of 4-year scholarships but was not selected. I was sad, mad, angry, and frustrated. The first day of school was coming up and I knew I only had enough money to get through the first year. I focused on entering school, matriculating as they called it, because I knew I had a lot that was going to be coming my way – a very stressful new experience at the Virginia Military Institute.

I had to focus. I knew the stress of the VMI experience was going to make things difficult, but I had to achieve my goal – a scholarship to continue my studies or I would have to take time off to work.

Focus like a laser. I knew that if my grades were good, I would be competitive. Focus on the goal. Long nights of studying led to a 2.8 GPA by the end of the first semester. I had one of the highest GPAs. Yes. Focus. We are going to get there.

I started being noticed by the Army ROTC staff. My grades were the first thing that caught their eye. I tried to make as good of an impression as possible in my ROTC classes so I would be seen. Stay focused.

One of the cadre came and spoke to me after we returned from Christmas break. There was another opportunity to compete for a scholarship. This time it was a 2 year scholarship opportunity. I submitted my packet for the opportunity and was selected.

I cannot describe the joy that came with that notification. I was so thankful for the opportunity. At the same time, there was still going to be a gap that I had to figure out. I knew I was going to have to work hard during the summer to earn enough money to cover the gap year. It was doable. Hard, but doable.

I was back to studying and focusing on my academic performance to bring my grades up, hoping that would give me a chance at other funding streams. Little did I know.

A few weeks later, the same cadre officer came to see me after an ROTC class. He started talking about my performance to that point and I started to think I was going to lose the scholarship I had been awarded. Much to my surprise, he was telling me that I had been awarded an extra 6 months of scholarship time.

I cannot describe the joy that rushed over me. The focus and persistence was paying off. I was seeing it happen and experiencing the benefit.

Without that focus and desire, I would never have achieved my goal of being able to graduate with a degree with my peers.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
My business partner and I founded EMILY Revolutionary Marketing Group in November of 2018 with the goal of providing small businesses with the same experience in digital marketing as their larger competitors. Both of us love a good underdog and we wanted to help small businesses grow using digital as the main means.

My business partner, Samie, is very creative. I am more analytical. We knew that, to be successful, we had to be different from the other firms in South Carolina. We had to marry the creative and technical as our differentiator.

We are a full-service digital marketing team. We have creative, web design, logo development, search engine optimization, project management, and analytics all in house and, more importantly, all US-based. When you have a question, you talk to a member of our team. We work in any industry. Our process is not bound to a specific industry or genre.

We are big believers in giving to the community as well. Both Samie and I have served on a number of non profit boards in our area, including the YMCA, Young Professionals, Miss Newberry Competition, Newberry Opera House Guild, and Rotary. Additionally, we serve as advisors for the local high school Career Center in marketing.

We have a couple of pet projects as well. We live in a very poor community where every child gets free lunch. Our goal is to bring more technology oriented jobs to our area to help grow the local economy from the ground up. We are working with a couple of non profits to bring technical training in IT and Cyber to the community as well.

Communities who help one another will grow. Trust is built. Poverty is reduced. Families feel like they can make it in a small town.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Great question. During my time in the Army, I had some great mentors. I have come to realize that finding a mentor is not as easy as it seems in the civilian world. When we talk to the students in the Career Center, that is one of my pitch points. A mentor is not someone who is going to tell you what you want to hear. A mentor is someone who is going to help you see yourself: good and bad.

In today’s economy, you have to have a skill. This is a skills based economy. The days of getting a degree without a skill are over. Evaluate yourself. See yourself and the skills you have. Then take those skills and parlay them into a career.

Do not, for any reason, go into debt. It took me until I was 35 years old to realize that debt was driving my life. Our grandparents lived a much simpler but more self sufficient lifestyle because they knew how to save and curb their “wants”.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
Building a network of trusted individuals who I can turn to and ask advice when I have questions has been most helpful in helping me overcome challenges. These individuals all have different skills in the areas from business law to strategy to human resources. We in turn provide support in marketing. This has been incredibly helpful.

As for building skills and knowledge, I have always been an avid reader, but have had to train myself to read topics in areas where I am weak. While it may take a while to get through the material, the bottom line is I am forcing myself to learn in a rea that will strengthen skills and make me much better at making decisions.

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