Career-Focused Education Yields Great Returns For Nathan Murray
Murray Marketing Services offers digital marketing services for businesses across the USA. Not many people know the story behind this successful agency, but those at UNK’s College of Business and Technology remember Nathan Murray, the college senior who spent his spare time growing his business. Nathan’s story is proof that the experiential learning the CBT is known for pays off for students.
From Career Fair to Internship: How Nathan Murray Found His Professional Passion
When Nathan Murray made the decision to attend the University of Nebraska at Kearney, his focus was on the football field. Unfortunately, the world shut down due to COVID, leading Nathan to focus on his professional career as he hung up his cleats. Having attended the Career and Internship Fair earlier that year, he was fortunate to connect with a representative from Kearney Regional Medical Center. Thanks to the preparation he had received in his marketing classes, where he perfected his resume, created an online presence via LinkedIn, and learned how to network, he was eventually offered a marketing internship at Kearney Regional Medical Center. This would eventually become a full-time experience where he “fell in love” with marketing and knew it was the career he wanted to pursue.
From Student to Business Owner
Throughout his academic career, Nathan learned more from his professors than he realized at the time. At the end of his internship at Kearney Regional Medical Center, he made a website for Innermost Design of Kearney. He quickly realized he could “do this for more people” which led to him starting Murray Marketing Services. He wanted to take what he was learning in his classes and apply it to the real world.
This desire has not changed. As a professional, he desires to help his clients reach their potential, something he was given as a CBT student.
Nathan explains that his professor’s experiential style of teaching prepared him for the business owner he is today. In fact, during a group project in his Ad Management class, he worked with Kinnison Homes, a local business, to “develop a custom marketing plan.” He managed the media placement portion of the project which allowed him to offer suggestions he was already sharing with his actual clients. This is just one example of the type of “real-world experience” he was able to use in his classes at UNK. Instead of learning from a textbook, he found himself in situations where he had to think outside of the box and apply the concepts he was learning to help actual clients. This ignited a thirst for learning that he still has today, a necessary attribute in the ever-evolving online world his clients are navigating.
Murray Marketing Services Continues to Grow
Murray Marketing Services has worked with over 75 businesses across 14 different states. This growing agency has doubled every year since it was started and shows no evidence of slowing down any time soon. 
Nathan Murray offers businesses many different digital services, with his main focus being website design and lead generation using his expertise with Google Ads, SEO, and the effective use of social media.
As his business has grown, Nathan has come to realize how much of what he learned as a CBT student helps him give his clients the best possible services. One look at his client reviews on his website or Facebook page clearly reveals the success of his company. Nathan explains how, as a student, he was given an “exact experience while working with a client in (his) agency” while in a controlled environment with the support of his professors. This knowledge continues to help him give his clients the custom marketing solutions they need to grow their businesses.
When discussing his agency, Nathan reflects on how, as a CBT student, he was taught “how to communicate” from professors who were good role models for him. He shares that his time at UNK also trained him to study and retain knowledge, both of which are skills he uses in his day-to-day business decisions. He understands that he is part of a profession that literally changes on a daily basis, but he shares that his classes at the CBT laid the foundation that he needs to excel in his field. This foundation is the core he returns to as he continues to research and learn as a professional.
Nathan Murray Appreciates His Full-Circle CBT Experience
Nathan Murray, who was the Student Entrepreneur Light It Up! Award winner in 2022, is thrilled to continue to be involved at UNK. He was one of the sponsors of the Light It Up! Ceremony last year and is currently partnering with his alma mater in the launch of UNK Advance, a new program focused on microcredentials which allow students to meet their learning goals on their own terms. Having the University of Nebraska at Kearney as a client is a “cool full circle” moment for Nathan, and he is hopeful to be even more involved in the future.
He would like to encourage current CBT students to take advantage of everything they are being taught. He understands now that everything he learned, from accounting to data analysis, has contributed to his professional success.
Murray Marketing Services was once just a marketing student’s dream. Nathan Murray is proof that, thanks to the career-focused education he received at UNK’s College of Business and Technology, dreams really can come true.
