Deanna Nuxoll, the president of Imagine This! marketing group, taught students the value of “getting real” about their futures on Wednesday night in Lumpkin Hall.

Nuxoll has managed her own business, a full-service marketing group, for the past two years, and prior to that worked for a larger business. She presented as a guest speaker for Eastern’s American Marketing Association.

Nuxoll, a former Eastern student, expressed a wish to give students a “very real” idea of what their daily life in the marketing profession might be like.

“You can be successful as long as you know what’s expected of you and what students need to understand is what employers are expecting of them,” Nuxoll said. “If I can help share some of the things I’ve learned along the way to shorten their learning curve, I’d like to do that.”

The theme of the presentation was “get real.” Nuxoll outlined three major points for being successful in the marketing profession, and other ventures, as well. Nuxoll said potential employees must be real good, work in real time and be realistic.

Nuxoll’s professional experience ranges from owning her own business to working for Heartland Dental Care doing an array of tasks. She feels the different perspectives she has to offer will help bring a better picture of life for marketing students.

“If I can help give them a little bit extra, that’s really important to me,” Nuxoll said.

Students were also allowed and encouraged to interact during and after the presentation in a question and answer session with Nuxoll.

Nuxoll describes her invitation to Eastern as a speaker as an “out of the blue opportunity” and wanted to give the students a real sense of the practical aspects of the work environment they will be entering into.

“It’s not textbook. (It’s the) real world. Real life isn’t textbook. This was kind of my own little reality show,” Nuxoll said.

Mel Boydston can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]