VoxVoices

« Back to all posts

Monday Coffee Meeting -- Vince Dickens

Welcome to another edition of Monday Morning Coffee, wherein we introduce you to some of our latest (and perhaps greatest) staffers here at Vox.

Today we take you inside the mind of Vince Dickens, an old Vox hand who has recently taken on a new challenge. Vince is the former account manager for the NAVSEA account and is currently whipping up productivity and streamlining effort as Director of Client Delivery.

Vince’s Navy career bounced him all over the world and made him an expert in diverse areas of communications, and in his time at Vox Optima he has made the most of that expertise in all of his endeavors.

As an amateur musician and songwriter with a wry delivery and a smile to match, Vince is both a picker and a grinner, a joker and, well we’ll leave the rest to the man himself…Vince Dickens

Vince, welcome back to Vox. Not that you’ve been away, but since you’ve taken up a new challenge here we’re going to treat you as a new employee and give you the Q&A treatment.

Q:  Tell us about your new position. What are you doing, and what is the aim of this new effort?

Vince:  I think everyone at Vox Optima knows that we have a truly gifted and hard-working team.  Because we work on so many projects nationwide, and with so many of us contributing in ways large and small to these, I don’t think we’ve had a good grasp of how much we do or where we’re doing it.  I think, as Director of Client Delivery, my job is to create a clear snapshot of our efforts to help our management team make even more efficient use of the talent we have at our disposal.  It also increases the accuracy of our proposals to give our clients the best value we can. Delving into the realm of our productivity has been a real eye-opener for me.

Q:  What did you do for the company previously, and how did that experience prepare you for this new job?

Vince:  I preceded Tom as the account manager for our NAVSEA account.  I relied on my core team to answer new requirements and they always came through.  I think now my mission is to make sure that we have a place or person to go to for all of our account and project managers to augment their core teams with the full benefit of the skills available from our entire team. 

Q:  How and when did you come to Vox originally? How did you incorporate your expertise into the company mission?

Vince:  I retired from the Navy in 2010 and just as I was walking out the door, I was introduced to Gary by a mutual friend through the miracle of Facebook.   I think like most military people who are constantly thrown into new and challenging situations, I just took a look around and focused on a few basic questions…What are we trying to accomplish? What do I have to work with and what are the restrictions?  What’s the best way I can think of to make it happen?  Then it’s just a matter of committing to doing my best work.  That approach seems to work equally well on the battlefield or in the communication field.

Q:  Your Navy career took you all over the world, and you’re originally from Texas. What’s been your favorite place to live, and where are you now?

Vince:  The favorite place thing is tough…I mean, Bahrain had the best food and shopping, Iceland had the best scenery, Italy had the best attitude for taking a more relaxed pace of living, etc.  I think the important thing is that all of it made me appreciate being back in the U.S., in northern Virginia, where we have a taste of it all.

Q:  What’s your proudest accomplishment, and what is an assignment you’d like to have back?

Vince:  My two children are my proudest accomplishment.  They turned out great despite my best efforts…I blame their mother.  I think I’d like to have all my assignments back. I think I could do them better now… otherwise what’s the point of having all this maturity-related wisdom?

Q:  If you have any downtime these days, what are you doing to relax?

Vince:  Still trying to be Nashville’s next big songwriter…or maybe the next Edgar Allan Poe with a little less psychosis.

Q:  In that vein, dive bar or wine bar? And what are you drinking at the end of a long day?

Vince:  The best bar of any kind is the one where someone else is paying.  I think the people are what make a great bar experience and I’m just as happy with the divers as the winners…especially if there’s karaoke.  I’ll drink sweet tea anywhere I can find it, which is unfortunately becoming harder to do. Who do I talk to about that?

If you’d like to reach out to Vince, check out his staff page here or connect with him via email.

Tagged: vince dickens