It’s time to meet Jerry, our Quality Assurance Officer!

What is your official job title here at Brain Host?

Operational Quality Assurance Officer

What do you do on a day-to-day basis?

I test any and all changes in daily operations. I also field any issues that arise throughout the day to ensure that business can continue to flow as efficiently as possible.

What’s unique about the Brain Host?

Brain Host is an international company with local values. While we may do business around the world, we have never forgotten where we are and what’s important in the community.

While working at Brain Host, what has been your best memory?

It has to be being able to participate in the Akron Marathon in 2011. The experience was amazing and it’s something that I’ll never forget. Being able to achieve a personal goal all while helping raise money for St. Jude Children’s Hospital was as much of a gift to me as the funds that were raised.

How would you describe working at Brain Host?

This has been my favorite and best job to date. I have never once gotten up in the morning and not wanted to come into work. I work with great people, and that means a lot to me when you have worked on the opposite end of that spectrum.

You used to work as a Brain Host Customer Support representative. How has the transition been to the Operations side of the company?

It’s a different pace working on the operational side of the company. It took me a week or so to get used to being on the opposite side of things, but everyone made it easy. The hardest part was changing my mindset from a supportive customer service mentality to a much bigger role in assisting here at Brain Host.

What is the number one activity on your bucket list? 

I would have to say to visit all 7 continents in the world. Big dreams, but it keeps me motivated.

What is your favorite TV show?

As of right now, it’s a tie. My favorite shows on TV are Dexter, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Archer, and The Walking Dead.

What do you like to do outside of work?

I like to read, watch movies and hang out with friends.

If you could only listen to one band or artist the rest of your life, who would it be?

Deftones.

What’s one thing you could not live without?

Music.

Meet the Team – Jerry is a post from: Brain Host Web Hosting

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Today we’re going to meet Blue, our Media Producer.

What is your official job title here at Brain Host?

Media Producer

What do you do on a day-to-day basis?

I mostly make tutorial videos and custom videos for our affiliates.

What’s unique about the Brain Host?

The people at Brain Host are unique. I often feel like I am on all-star team due to the talent we have at Brain Host.

While working at Brain Host, what has been your best memory?

I really liked the talent show, we raised some money for St. Jude and we spotlighted some local talent.

How would you describe working at Brain Host and the company culture?

The people at Brain Host take pride in their work and they love to have a good time.

What’s your favorite project you’ve completed thus far?

I’ve enjoyed several projects. I really liked the St. Jude video. Basically I enjoy interviewing people and then telling their story. I like to say, “I mine the mountains that I call people and produce their stories which I call gold.”

What is the most challenging aspect of your job?

There have been a few video people before me, so there are lots of old files. Occasionally I am asked to modify or find an old video and it can be very hard to find.

What is one fun fact about yourself?

I am part Cherokee, on my father’s side.

What is your one achievement that makes you the most proud?

Winning the 2009 Akron Film 48 hour film competition. The competition was “The Fake History of Akron” and we had to explain why marbles are found in the ground and why blimps are in the sky in Akron. The elements of the film were given on Friday at 6pm then we had to complete the film by Sunday at 6pm. We came up with an idea that the blimps are living creatures that breed in Akron and the marbles are petrified blimp eggs. 15 teams entered and we swept the awards with Best in Show, which was judged by a panel, and we took Audience Choice. It was tremendously hard, and now I can say that I am an award winning filmmaker.

Link to the film: http://vimeo.com/8006883

What is your favorite film?

Citizen Cane is my favorite film. My favorite directors are Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson.  Citizen Cane is a classic story that all filmmakers should watch as it pioneered camera and storytelling techniques. All you need to know about film making and storytelling can be found in Citizen Cane.

I love Tarantino’s style of storytelling and I love the dialog he uses. The beauty of Tarantino is that he has borrowed from other great filmmakers and gives it back to us in great real life films. Paul Thomas Anderson films are beautiful and he has a way of getting the audience to like genuinely bad people. The camera work in his films is off the hook, with many continuous camera shots. In the opening of Boogie Nights the camera starts in the air above a club, it lowers to the ground and continues into the club and you meet all of the characters in one continuous camera movement without any cuts. Most people don’t notice, but as a filmmaker I love it and respect how hard it is.

How did you first get into making videos?

The first video I created was in the 2nd grade. It was hand drawn and was done as a class project. It taught me to be a storyteller and that creating a film took some work. I remember watching the class view our little movie and I was hooked. The thrill of seeing others enjoy your work is one of the best feelings that I can describe. At the time it was one of the projects that I excelled in and I made the realization that I was a creative type.

What is one thing that people would be surprised to know about you?

I love to DJ and would someday like to do a show once a week. I was a DJ in college and spun vinyl.

What’s one thing you could not live without?

There are actually three. Computer, my wife and my daughter.

Meet the Team – Blue is a post from: Brain Host Web Hosting

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In this Meet the Team post, we’ll be talking to Travis, one of our developers.

What is your official job title here at Brain Host?

Officially? “Developer” – but I’m lobbying for “Code Monkey.”

What do you do on a day-to-day basis?

I work with the rest of the programming team to develop software products and online tools for Brain Host’s customers.

What is the main project you are working on now? Can you tell us about it?

We’ve been working on some upcoming changes to Brain Host’s online ordering. I don’t want to jinx anything before launch day by going into detail, but our users will be happy with the updates.

While working at Brain Host, what has been your best memory?

Flying to Boston for the Certified ScrumMaster Course in September with two other developers. It was a great time and we came away with shiny new certifications. The trip was especially memorable because I’d never flown before.

Wow, your first flight! What did you think?

I was a bit nervous, of course. Nobody told me about how much pressure you feel on takeoff. After that, though, I couldn’t stop staring at the clouds and at the night lights over Boston on our way in.

How would you describe working at Brain Host?

Everyone at Brain Host works hard, but no one escapes their day without laughing. That’s especially true for our merry band of programmers.

Which programmer is responsible for causing most of the laughter?

Jeff. I think he wakes up with an agenda every day to be as ridiculous as possible. Everyone will agree with me on that.

What is the most challenging aspect of your job?

Keeping on top of new technologies and practices. Programming is an ever-evolving trade, but that’s what makes it so fun.

What is one fun fact about yourself?

I minored in Japanese in college. I’m woefully out of practice, but I can speak a dialect of gibberish fluently. I’ve always been a language person. I had a semester of German, dabbled in Spanish and French, won awards for English in high school, and now I’m a programmer. Japanese has the benefit of lacking god-forsaken gender nouns. You don’t have to hurt yourself with guttural noises to speak it, and the written language is much more interesting than adding a tilde hat to an “n”. It’s great fun to learn.

What is your one achievement that makes you the most proud?

Making it as far as I have. My career started by tinkering on a keyboard in middle school; ten years later, I work alongside sharp professionals at a rising web hosting company. Sometimes, people even confuse me for a professional myself. I never imagined my first web page would lead to coding for hundreds of thousands of people.

The programming room has a lot of funny wall décor – what’s the story behind it all?

You see, the giant dog stickers represent learning from past mistakes, while the professional wrestling posters represent perseverance. They encourage us to pound code into the mat and lay the smackdown on bugs. It’s really all about creating a work environment to best channel our potential. What’s funny about that?

What is your favorite TV show?

Dexter on Showtime. Everyone loves a good antihero.

What are the five things that you could not live without?

Caffeine, electricity, broadband internet, a computer… Should I list “family” here? I think that’s probably the right answer.

Meet the Team – Travis is a post from: Brain Host Web Hosting

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In this Meet the Team we’ll meet Melissa, our Director of Client Services.

Fill us in on your day to day tasks.

There are five teams within my department who are all responsible for different functions: Quality Assurance, Retention, General Support, Tier 2 Technical Support, and Client Development. I have Team Leads and Managers handle the day-to-day reporting and management of each group, so my days are kept pretty busy with overseeing everything that they do plus interacting with Operations.

What is the main project you are working on now? Can you tell us about it?

Right now, my biggest initiative is getting my entire CS staff onto a new dialer system. We are about halfway there now, using it for outbound calls, but all of our inbound calls will come through the same system when it’s all said and done. The goal is to maximize productivity, and this system provides me with much more advanced analytics. It’s quite an undertaking, but everything we take on is in an effort to improve the customer experience, and this will definitely accomplish that.

What has been your favorite memory at Brain Host?

The first employee “fun day” that we had to celebrate 50,000 customers was pretty unforgettable, not just because of the event itself, but because we established such camaraderie as a staff that day. We played laser tag and whirly ball; both were so much fun! I may have endured a minor injury, but it was totally worth it!

What did you do before Brain Host? What made you decide to join our Family?

I was a supervisor in the collections department of a large jewelry company for about 4 ½ years before coming to Brain Host. Brain host was only a few months old at the time, but from my very first interview I knew that I had to join this team. The most appealing thing was the idea that I could have such a voice here; I would be able to make my mark on my own department while also being involved with the growth of the company as a whole. That’s the most ideal work environment for me – one that is challenging, fast-paced and team-oriented, while absolutely everyone is held accountable. Luckily, all of those things are still true today!

What is the most challenging aspect of your job?

Time! Everything within Brain Host moves at rapid speed because we are all so eager to see what’s next. It is a conscious effort to slow down and outline processes and procedures both cross- and inter-departmentally. More than ever before, I have learned that if I don’t delegate, I don’t sleep.

What sets Brain Host apart from other web hosting providers?

Besides the fantastic service we provide our customers? I’m kidding – but I’m not. Client Services is by far the most common topic of discussion in this company. Everyone understands that we are on the front lines, and we take that seriously! We take into account all of the feedback that we get from our customers and work hard to implement changes right away. I don’t believe you’d see that from many other companies.

If you weren’t working here, where do you think you’d be?

Some beach, somewhere.

What is one thing that people would be surprised to know about you?

I have been on BET three times!

Why were you on BET?

I was in a hip hop group for a couple of years, and after a ton of local performances we started sending tapes and auditioning for bigger things. Our first time on BET was to compete in their Spring Bling special, Revamped. We traveled to Miami, worked with the celebrity judges and came in second overall! We came away with some good connections at the network who got us more shows and competitions in New York, but most importantly, they brought us back to BET! We got to perform on their show, Wild Out Wednesday, twice – once when Mariah Carey was the guest and once when it was Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.

What do you like to do in spare time you find?

I like to be as active as possible, so I try to find different ways to do that. I run, do yoga, I sometimes go to boot camp, but my favorite is when I get to take dance classes! I also like to read.

If you had the chance to go back and re-live any day of your life, what day would it be and why? OR favorite childhood past time?

Growing up I was really involved in musical theatre, so that was basically all that I cared about: singing, dancing and acting. This resulted in me forcing – I mean, inspiring – my neighbors to put on backyard performances pretty much every day… and many, many Spice Girls reenactments.

Do you have any secret talents?

Oh goodness! Yes – and they were all outed on our Viral Video! I don’t know how that happened! The one talent that was a secret is that I can roll my tongue into a clover shape (along with some other strange tricks).

What are the top three things to do on your bucket list?

Complete a triathlon; become certified SCUBA diver; fly an airplane or helicopter or something I really have no business controlling. Ya know, something unsafe.

What’s your favorite thing to do in the Akron area?

I really like going to farmers markets and flea markets during the summer. I just discovered them this year and nothing beats fresh fruit and vintage jewelry!

Meet the Team – Melissa is a post from: Brain Host Web Hosting

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Today we’re going to meet Corey!

What is your official job title here at Brain Host?

At this point, I don’t think I have an official title since my responsibilities constantly shift. I guess you could call me the full time floater. My primary role is Marketing and Product Development.

Fill us in on your day to day tasks.

My day-to-day is working on our internal marketing efforts, including SEO and PPC. I also still work with our customer service team, the rest of the marketing team, and the programmers to ensure things are moving together and everyone understands what the other is doing.

What is the main project you are working on now?

I’m mainly working on our organic search engine optimization and other marketing initiatives.

What has been your favorite memory at Brain Host?

Watching the company evolve over the last year has been amazing. Seeing something start so small (a simple PSD and an idea) and now turn into a fully fledged company is quite impressive.

What did you do before Brain Host? What made you decide to join our Family?

Prior to Brain Host, I did sales in the telecommunications industry. I found out about Internet marketing through various forums and blogs and thought it was interesting how people tried to game the search engines like Google. I read up on it more as a hobby until I met someone who got me into the industry full-time, and I have loved it ever since!

What is the most challenging aspect of your job?

Staying organized! By nature, I’m not a very detailed person so I have to put a lot of energy into making sure I keep on top of all the changes going on around me.

What sets Brain Host apart from other web hosting providers?

We value our customers and want them to succeed. Hosting can get pretty technical, and we continue to find ways to make it easier for our customers to use their hosting accounts, and along with that, we help them use their websites.

How would you describe yourself in three words?

Energetic, Driven, Friendly

If you could be on any reality TV show which would it be and why?

Shark Tank because the entrepreneurs on the show are really awesome and entertaining.

What is one thing that people would be surprised to know about you?

I’m 1% Brazilian…. I’m not really, but I consider it my adopted percentage having lived there for a little over 3 years.

What do you like to do in spare time you find?

I really spend a lot of time on the Internet even if I’m not at work. I consider myself an amateur domainer and like working with some of my domains and websites. I also have a wonderful wife that I spend my free time hanging out with along with our 2 dogs, Oscar (Beagle) and Moose (Husky).

Corey's husky, Moose

Corey's beagle, Oscar

What’s your favorite thing to do in the Akron area?

Michael Trecaso’s Italian Food (also known as Mary Coyles, the ice cream part) http://www.marycoyle.com/ and going to an Aeros games at Canal Park.

The word around the office is that you have quite an extensive collection of free t-shirts. Why?

I like free things and t-shirts are one of those things you can get at conferences and other events.

Meet the Team – Corey is a post from: Brain Host Web Hosting

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This week we’re getting inside the head of AnaMarie, one of our financial analysts.

What is your official job here at Brain Host?

I am a financial analyst in the Accounting Department. I deal with affiliate commissions and create and analyze reports. However, I’m going to be moving over to the web team here shortly. I’m currently going to Akron University for web design, and I will be slicing and coding websites when I switch teams! I am ecstatic to be switching over!

What do you like best about your job?

I love the employers and the employees. My bosses are awesome. I also love that I get to wear whatever I want to work.

What is one thing you cannot live without?

My family and friends… and my cats. I have two cats – one boy named Tago who is 9 years old, and one girl named Sondra who is 4 years old. I adopted them both on August 21, 2010 (the day before my birthday last year) as a birthday present to myself.

We send around company birthday cards to everyone – why did yours have the Steelers on it?

I’m a huge Steelers fan and have been since I was 11 years old. My step-dad hated the Steelers and I was a rebel, but I really do like the Steelers now! My favorite player is #43 Troy Polamalu. I just want to rub my hands through his hair!

I see a cheek piercing and a few tattoos – what else do you have?

I have five tattoos and 8 piercings. I went alone on my 18^th birthday to get my first tattoo because I wanted one that badly. I got cherries, which are my favorite fruit. I want to get one more tattoo of the Chinese dragon because it is my other zodiac sign; I already have the Leo symbol.

If you were an office supply what would you be and why?

I would be a paper clip because they help keep things organized, and I’m a pretty organized person.

Describe yourself in three words?

Funny

Random

Loveable

If you could be on a reality show- which one?

I would be on “Hell’s Kitchen” because I would want to take charge and be a leader. I like being the leader and being bossy.

So you would rather cook food than bake a dessert?

Yes! My favorite thing to cook is chicken stir fry with onions, broccoli, bell peppers, and spicy peppers over steamed rice. I love Asian-style food!

I always see you wearing sunglasses on your head around the office, do you love them?

Yes I do. Sometimes I forget I am wearing them and I’ll go to lay down for bed with them still on. I own about 7-8 pairs, but I have 2 favorites that I usually wear.

Meet the Team – AnaMarie is a post from: Brain Host Web Hosting

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Hi everyone! We’re starting something new here on our Brain Host blog.  Every month we’ll be interviewing a member of our team for a special “Meet the Team Spotlight” to give you guys a look at the people behind Brain Host.  This month’s interview is with Ryan, our Media Manager.

What is your official job title here at Brain Host?

My official title would be office hunk. Jeff rivals me, but overall I bring up the office attractiveness by about 23 percent. (Ryan is actually a Media Manager, it is up for debate who is the actual office “hunk.”)

What projects are you working on right now?

This morning I was tracking our PPC and re-targeting campaigns. We got really good news about the re-targeting campaign this morning.

What did you do before Brain Host?

I was and still am an entrepreneur. And I ran my own business from my condo.

What do you like about your co-workers?

How laid-back everyone is and that no one takes themselves too seriously.  It isn’t a very rigid environment. I can be myself and it is appreciated.

What sets Brain Host apart from other web hosting providers?

The customized website solutions. The fact that we create custom websites for each of our customers based on what their personal needs are.

What is one thing that people would be surprised to know about you?

That I created an alter-ego that I used in college that I used for stand-up comedy routines.  I wrote and acted in a sketch comedy group and then there was also a stand up competition every year that I did.

If your life had a theme song, which song would it be?

Eye of the Tiger, for sure… or White and Nerdy by Weird Al Yankovic.

If you could be on any reality TV show which would it be?

Survivor. I’ve auditioned for it twice already and I’ll audition again in the fall.

What did you do for an audition?

Well, they have open auditions where you just come and they give you a microphone and they say “tell us why” and I just go up there and try to make people laugh. It hasn’t worked yet.

Why Survivor?

I like the strategy behind it. I’m a very strategic person.

What do you do in your spare time?

I don’t have a lot of that because I am involved in so many businesses. But I like watching the Cleveland Indians and Ron Paul videos.  I also like travel in my spare time. I’ve been to Vegas like seven times, Ft. Lauderdale and I’m planning my first two international trips this year going backpacking in the UK this fall and Thailand this winter.

Do you have any secret talents?

Yes, yes I do. In high school I was famous for my ability to “gleek” on command.  And I’m actually a closet good cook.

What’s your favorite thing to cook?

I make a mean vegetarian chili, which you can find on YouTube if you search “Gutbuster Man Chili.”

What is your one achievement that makes you the most proud?

I started my first company right after high school at age 18. It was an internet marketing company doing affiliate marketing and some product development. I ran it all through college. I was pretty proud of that.

If you could travel to anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Australia, the Philippines, and Thailand.

What are the top three things to do on your bucket list?

It changes all the time. I don’t have things that I’ll do someday. I have things that I do and am doing all the time. On my bucket list before was I wanted to go to Thailand, now I’m planning that. Or I want to do a 90 day road trip of the U.S. by myself, and I plan on doing that in March. I guess the one thing that would be on there would be to always be free enough to do things stuff like that. And I have crafted my life to be that. I run businesses so I can have a free lifestyle. I don’t care about material things because I care about freedom more. Materials hold you down. I don’t own a house because then I’d have to be there. I don’t have a lot of things because I’d have to store them somewhere.  I don’t drive a fancy car because I can’t take that on the road.

Meet the Team – Ryan is a post from: Brain Host Web Hosting

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