Another Gardner Couple – And Proud of It!

Employee Spotlight Profiles

Tarah Grogan, Event Coordinator, Association Specialist, Gardner Business Media Inc.

Austin Grogan, Video Production Manager, Gardner Business Media Inc.

Before Gardner Business Media, Tarah was in retail and trying to figure out her next steps in life. She had graduated from NKU the year before and was deciding between moving to a new city and finding a better job or sticking close to home and finding a better job, same goal, different routes.

With the recommendation from her sister-in-law, Sammy Castrucci, and Sammy’s mother, Holly Castrucci, Tarah applied for the receptionist position at Gardner Business Media. Tarah has always been great with customer service and meticulous about learning every part of a job she could – and being good at it too. She knew she could excel and potentially (hopefully) move up somewhere within Gardner’s departments. She had no idea what joining this company would lead to.

Within 6 months, she assisted in Editorial and Events – copyediting PR and Event Directories; Audience and Development – tracking unsubscribed companies and tracking down complete company addresses; and Marketing – cleaning up mailing lists. At the time, some of this felt like busy work, but Tarah wanted to learn all she could about the company and its customers/subscribers.

Approximately a year later, she was recommended for a job to take over for Anne Von Moll as the Association Specialist for The Electrocoat Association, which also led to her joining the Events Department, where she now resides as Event Manager of the Parts Cleaning Conference, Electroless Nickel Conference, Carbon Fiber Conference, and ECOAT Conference.

Austin worked in a wide range of jobs throughout his early life, measuring people for tuxes at a dry cleaner, detailing vehicles at a dealership, working in electronics retail, running cars as a valet, food service, and even a teller at a bank. But these were just steppingstones that helped develop his work ethic and self-dependence. Throughout all of it, his passion persisted in creating videos. Austin would soon get an opportunity to pursue this passion that would lead him down an unexpected but advantageous path.

That path began with a Marketing internship on the other side of the country for the industrial waterjet manufacturer, OMAX. There he was exposed to the world of North American manufacturing. Through writing customer success stories, Austin discovered how unique and interesting this industry could be. How people in this industry weren’t just making things but they were using science and technology to solve problems. During this time Austin was able to get his video fix by creating product videos, but clearly, his intrigue was focused on the stories that could be told. Enter Gardner Business Media.

Through way too many connections to count, Austin found his way into submitting a resume to Don Kline – then proceeded to get bounced around in search of the perfect department for him. Going from Don to Dave Necessary, who after hearing Austin talk about video throughout the interview observed, “You’re not interested in Marketing, are you?” This landed Austin in front of Tom Beard and Kate Hand, who must have seen something because they decided, “We’ll find somewhere to put you.”

And with that, Austin was finally focused on what captivated him most, video and storytelling. Austin has worked vigorously to grow and expand the video capabilities of GBM while finding passion projects here and there like The Cool Parts Show. But if we’re not moving, we’re dying so he’s already eyeing the next step forward, looking for opportunities to start monetizing these new video capabilities.

Have you ever watched The Office? Then you pretty much know the story already. Tarah met Austin a week or two into working at Gardner. He’d stopped by her desk in the lobby to chat, sit with her at lunch, and invite her to group outings – lots of flirting just like Pam and Jim. There was one small hiccup though, also like Pam and Jim – Tarah had a boyfriend! The moment she let that little fact slip, the lunches and stops at her desk weren’t so frequent. Austin was being the gentleman, bowing out as a sign of respect to her and the man she was dating, but Tarah was disappointed to not see Austin around as much anymore.

For reasons related and unrelated to the cute man at her office, Tarah cut things off with the other guy and waited for the right opportunity to drop a hint to Austin that she liked him – and she was awful at dropping hints! Eventually, an opportunity arose.

Austin sent out a general invitation to the young adults of Gardner (or whatever they called themselves at the time) to join him and some friends at a cover band concert of Fall Out Boy and Panic! At the Disco at Bogart's. Tarah jumped at the chance to spend time outside of work with Austin, and Austin thought Tarah was bringing her boyfriend with her to the concert. Surprise-surprise when she didn’t and they had a great Saturday evening with new and old friends, followed by a fun Sunday afternoon and evening at the Oakley Pup Crawl (you read that right, a day full of puppies and beer!), and a few days later at Trivia Night.

At some point in this perfect weekend, Tarah let it be known that she was single and ready to mingle, and Austin gained the courage to respectfully let his feelings for her be known and ask her out on a date . . . but only after he got back from NPE2018 the following week!

Four years later, in May 2022, they celebrated their wedding at the Carnegie Library at Columbia-Tusculum with family, friends, and parts of their GBM family as well. They’re endlessly grateful for the opportunities and connections that they’ve made and continue to make at Gardner Business Media and are proud to be among the rankings of Gardner Couples!

Need more information?

Tarah Grogan, Event Coordinator, Association Specialist
Gardner Business Media Inc.
513-527-8800
LinkedIn

Austin Grogan, Video Production Manager
Gardner Business Media Inc.
LinkedIn

About the Author

Tarah Grogan

Tarah joined Gardner Business Media’s Events Team in 2019 as the Association Specialist/Event Coordinator. She has worked on many of the company’s events over the years in multiple roles – excelling in customer relations and speaker coordination. She accepted the Event Manager position in fall of 2022 and now manages the Parts Cleaning Conference, the Electroless Nickel Conference, the Carbon Fiber Conference, and the ECOAT Conference. She also has continued in her role with The Electrocoat Association as Association Specialist – assisting in clerical, membership, and marketing duties for the Association.

Tarah graduated from Northern Kentucky University with a B.A. in English Writing Studies in May of 2016. She is a self-proclaimed nerd and enjoys reading new fantasy novels, playing video games, and playing Dungeons & Dragons with her friends.

About the Author

Austin Grogan

Austin joined Gardner Business Media's Custom Content Team in 2017 as the company's first videographer. He works with all of Gardner's brands creating engaging editorial and marketing video content for various segments of the manufacturing industry. To put it in a lighter sense, Austin aims to find the beauty in manufacturing and combine it with technical knowledge for both old and new generations to enjoy through an expanding digital platform. Austin graduated from Ball State University with a B.A. in video production. He spends most of his time immersing himself in geek culture and discovering new hobbies related to that culture.