Amanda Brinkman
Tate Carlson
AS A HIGH SCHOOLER, upon being informed that she had innate writing ability and might someday make a great journalist, Amanda Brinkman cold-called the Star Tribune, asked for a job and got one. And so began her extraordinary tale.
What’s interesting about Amanda Brinkman, however, is that for being so extraordinary, she’s pretty darn ordinary. During our conversation she managed to make her polite laughter in response to my marginal attempts at humor seem genuine, and even offered me her shawl in jest of my complaints about the drafty coffee shop window. She also does normal things like running in the morning while professing herself not a morning person, and dedicating weekends to hanging out with her husband.
Then again, Amanda Brinkman sky dives, she bungee jumps and she recently accepted her second VP role—vice president of branding and creative services at Allianz Life. And, oh yeah, she’s only 30.
However, to truly understand why Amanda Brinkman is on our radar, you must understand her ridiculous rise. Since graduating in 2000 from Winona State—in only three years whilst working 20 hours a week—Brinkman has ravaged the corporate ladder. After a spell as an account exec at Campbell Mithun, Brinkman moved to Fallon and worked her way from account exec to director of business development. From there Brinkman was recruited to join United Health Group, where she founded and managed their marketing services and consumer engagement agency, Carrot, as VP of creative services, aka Chief Gardener. Then Allianz Life took notice and sold her on the notion of doing something similar with their in-house marketing efforts.
And that’s just the linear portion of the Brinkman opus. She spent three years during college as a contributing writer for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, she was the president of the Advertising Federation of Minnesota, was the president and founder of AdFed 2, she sits, and has sat, on many committees including Free Arts Minnesota and the American Marketing Association, and she teaches at Brainco: The Minneapolis School of Advertising, Design & Interactive Studies—not to mention the regular work she does with her church.
“I love being busy,” professes Brinkman. in case you couldn’t tell.
Loving being busy and being able to process a not-enough-hours-in-a-day-type workload are not traits that automatically align, however, and the fact that for Brinkman they do explains a lot about her staggering early successes and unlimited future prospects.
“I feel like I get more done between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. than the normal person just because of how I operate,” she says of her innate ability to manage time. “It’s like this wonderful little portfolio of time, and that’s how I think of things.”
It also has to do with a trait Brinkman shares with her millennial peers.
“I think the younger generation really understands work/life balance in a totally di erent way. That’s a huge part of why I can drive at this rate, because I have a ton of time for fun and things that I personally enjoy. And because I have that balance I can be mentally balanced,” says Brinkman, adding another truly generational touchstone: “I’ve done it because I just have a lot of passion. I’ve done it by using creativity to solve problems. I have a real passion for using creativity on all levels.”
AMANDA BRINKMAN
VP Branding and Creative Services, Allianz Life
Age: 30
Education: BA, Winona State University; Richmond University
First job: Babysitting
Family: Husband
