I have been keeping a secret for some time now…and today, we are unveiling an amazing piece of news – I am beyond proud to announce Sammy Totah has been promoted to partner over here at BOCA Communications – Woo hoo…
Sammy’s focus will continue to be outstanding client service and as many of us know, he is a media rockstar. Plus, in his new role as Partner he will help oversee differentiated product offerings for our clients, internal operational excellence, and agency growth. You can read more in the press release BOCA issued today – please find it here.
Sammy had me at “Hello” – I am not kidding. The first time we met and I interviewed him – I was so impressed by him. It was 2010 – aka “The Great Recession,” the real estate market was in shambles and layoffs were a plethora. However, BOCA was in full force and ready to grow. We decided to hire our first intern – in steps Sammy.
During the interview, he shared that he was working in public relations AND of equal (possibly greater) importance that he had been in sales and toured on stage with Carlos Santana. In my head, I thought, anyone that has done sales and performed on stage in front of thousands of people will crush it at PR. Guess what? I was right.
Clients love him, BOCAteers love him and dare I say it, I love him. As the founder of BOCA, Sammy embodies all of our key values – authenticity, creativity, family, passion and one of my favorites – savvy – which is to be more than strategic; figure it out; don’t navel gaze; climb out of that boring brown paper bag and turn it into something that sparkles.
You can read the press release to learn about his role at BOCA. I want to use this blog to share fun Sammy facts, outside of touring the world with Carlos Santana.
Sammy Totah Fun Facts:
- Sammy created the first ever “Info-Rap-It.” One may ask, what is an “Info-Rap-It?” We were representing oDesk (now Upwork) at the time. There was a GigaOm conference about the Future of Work. We “pitched in” the concept of Sammy singing on stage about the Future of Work. We ensured the conference organizers that we would have multiple participants within the on stage live Rap performance. He went on stage and the crowd went bananas – it was so fun and a complete success.
- Lover of Food. Sammy has an Instagram account called FoodWookie. I would go as far as to call him a food critic. Go visit his page and you will see the scrumptious meals this man loves. Here is his Instagram description: Connecting real people with real food. San Francisco born and raised. Musician and songwriter. PR Guru. Traveler. Star Wars lover.
- There is a reason his Instagram is called FoodWookie. Sammy is an enthusiast of all things Star Wars. This is omnipresent when you are on a Zoom call with him and he isn’t using a backdrop or a filter. His posters in the background and figurines are of abundance. He loves food and Star Wars – hence FoodWookie.
- Sammy is a Northern California, San Francisco naitve and loves all things “The City.” From the San Francisco Giants to the Golden State Warriors all the way to Karl The Fog – he is a born and bred San Francisco, 49ers kind of guy.
I am beyond excited to welcome Sammy as a partner. The BOCA team is thrilled about this partnership and we can’t wait to see what exciting things the future holds.
Kathleen Shanahan
BOCA’s Founder