Vice President of Guaranty Media, Gordy Rush, has been named one of Radio Ink’s Best 30 Managers!
Gordy Rush credits his success to the people who have mentored him in life and in business. “My father was my greatest influence in my life, teaching me discipline, work ethic, and a fire for competition. I always had a great relationship with all of the people I have worked for in the radio industry, including Eddie Martiny (iHeart Houston), who hired me into the business, Chris Wegmann (Radio One/Cox), Owen Weber, and my current boss, Flynn Foster.”
Staying focused is a challenge Rush faces each day. “The ability to focus on the top three things on my job description – key relationships, driving revenue, and defining the future vision of our company.” He advises, “If something comes up that isn’t one of these three items, it gets delegated to someone else. Stay out of the weeds.”
Focus and attitude are what Rush expects his team to bring to the table every day. Those things are also what he looks for in a potential manager. “We expect for them to bring a positive mental attitude to work and to be accountable for their job. We strongly believe that someone must be able to manage themselves before they can manage a team. This includes their personal life as well as their work life.”
Team-building, in his view, leads to success. “It starts with having a strong team that you believe in, that you can communicate with and that are aligned in your vision. It took a couple of years to get the right people on the bus and in the right seats, but once that happened, it gave us the opportunity to take off as an organization.”
The success of the organization, according to Rush, is the highlight of the past 12 months. “Our ability to diversify our business and hit some of the objectives we put in play for this year, including achieving 30 percent of our gross revenue in ‘pure’ digital media and 5 percent of our gross in television revenue. We have solid buy-in from our team in the direction of our company.”
