Darren McDuffie

Hello there. Thank you for viewing my profile. I've been to college off and on through the years. As a result of having a growing business, I finally began to take college seriously a bit later in life. With that said, I am a husband and a father of three beautiful girls. My wife and I have been together for 17 years. I am a combat veteran and previously served two tours in Iraq (Mosul & Bagdad). I actually celebrated my 21st birthday in Mosul. I'd say that was an interesting but good day. I am currently a lieutenant in the Buffalo Police Department. Before ranking up to a police Lieutenant, I've worked in several units throughout the city such as: E and A district, Strike Force Task Force and community police officer. I began my first stint as a Lieutenant in Central Booking, and I am now currently the 911 Communications LT. This unique experience of working in several units throughout the department has provided me an extremely vast understanding of our department and our city as a whole. Lastly and most importantly, I currently own and operate a growing small business: McDuffie Marketing LLC. I am a full service marketing agency currently providing marketing and web design services to multiple companies throughout the United States and Canada. A vast amount of people often ask, "why are you back in college?" In short, as a result of not requiring a license or degree, the marketing and consulting industry has a free lancer problem. If you want to grow a business providing a professional service, people must trust you and there are multiple ways companies build trust so that potential clients are confident in spending their hard earned money for your services. How you present yourself, your professional background, client list, having an office downtown, being registered with the BBB all are actions that will help a potential client trust you enough to pay your agency 2k per month. Even though attending college does not provide a skill set in my industry, during business meetings I am often asked, "so how did you learn marketing and web design"? If my answer is "self taught", this simply lowers the trust of that company paying me 5k per month for services. All in all, in the next few years my answer will not be self taught. I will be able to add MBA next to my name on my business cards, profiles, ebooks etc... This will simply be another tool for clients to have trust and confidence in my services. There is certainly much more to come in my journey of entrepreneurship and service to my community & country. Thank you very much for reading.