Marketing Happy Hour - Behind the Marketing Happy Hour Rebrand | Courtney Cervantes of 99designs by Vista

Starting point is 00:00:00 you're listening to the marketing happy hour podcast where we discuss career and industry insights with our peers in marketing we're here to talk about it all like the ups and downs of working in social media how to build authentic relationships in the influencer and pr space managing a nine-to-five and a side hustle at the same time, how to be productive in your life and career without losing your sanity, and more. Ultimately, we're here to build a community with you because we're all trying to navigate the world of marketing together. Are you ready? Grab your favorite drink and join your hosts, Cassie and Erica, for this week's episode.

Starting point is 00:00:57 Customized branding, how you visually represent yourself can help how you connect with your customers. There are other layers, but that initial kind of an ongoing relationship can really be fostered by how you visually are branding yourself. This week, we're chatting with Courtney Cervantes, Marketing Manager at 99designs by Vista, the global creative platform that makes it easy for you to work with freelance graphic designers from around the world to bring your brand to life through custom, memorable design. We had the privilege of working alongside Courtney and the 99designs creative community to design our new logo and it was such an awesome experience. In this episode, Courtney shares her background in PR, her breakout into entrepreneurship, and how she landed back on the brand side at 99designs.

Starting point is 00:01:38 We also walk through the creative platform, explain why excellent branding and cohesive content can elevate your brand, and uncover how you can utilize the full funnel experience of 99designsbyvista for all your marketing needs. To learn more about 99designs and get $20 off your first design contest, head on over to 99designs.com forward slash marketing dash happy dash hour. That's 99designs.com slash marketing dash happy dash hour and click get started to begin. All right. So we are very excited for today's guest. If you've noticed marketing happy hour recently has been through a major rebrand

Starting point is 00:02:25 in 99 designs is one of the companies behind it. And Courtney is here today with us. And she was a huge part in making all of this happen. A great person in contact that we've had on the 99 design side. So welcome Courtney to marketing happy hour. Oh, thank you so much for having me. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. We're so excited to have you and you are over in tell us where you're at right now I'm in Melbourne Australia yeah I live here I'm so jealous I need to come out that way but yes we're excited to have you Courtney I will I certainly will maybe we'll record an episode in Australia too, at some point going international. I love it. Yes. You can do it in our office. Yes. Oh, I love it. We're

Starting point is 00:03:13 going to make it. Just let me know when you book it. Awesome. Well, as we get into it here, we got to ask a very important question that we ask all of our guests, Courtney, and that is what is in your glass this morning for you but this afternoon for us everywhere I hear and um yeah I'm starting the month with a massive cup of tea yeah I I'm not as I told you guys I'm not against like a 9 a.m mimosa but you know it's Wednesday so we'll just yeah we'll stick with the tea I love it I love love it. I have, I actually just finished a matcha and then I also have a huge glass of water as always, always double fisting. But, uh, what about you, Erica? What do you have?

Starting point is 00:03:53 All I have right now is water. I was going to grab an Anda before this, but time got away from me. So I did not, but I will definitely be indulging after this recording. I'm excited. Have you heard of Anda Courtney? I don't know. I was just going to ask, what is that? You know, Shay Mitchell. It's her brand of sparkling tequila seltzer. It is so good.

Starting point is 00:04:18 And for the first like entire season, first season of Marketing Happy Hour, I was talking about it in every single episode. And then I was like, okay, I'm going to have to diversify my little drink preferences, but I love it. And I don't know if they have it in Australia, but you should definitely look. I will. I'll look it up. I know I will be going back to, I'm from California. I'll be going back in May. So I'll, if it's not here, it's not here, I'll try it then. I love trying new spirit stuff.

Starting point is 00:04:48 Same here. That's why we are marketing happy hour over here. Yeah. This is where I belong, really. This is my vibe. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I love it so much.

Starting point is 00:04:59 Well, Courtney, we kind of know a little bit of your background, but we'd love for our marketing happy hour listeners to hear your career journey up to this point and how you kind of got started with 99designs. Yeah, so I started my career in PR, actually. I was living in San Francisco, and I started working for a PR agency, and I was with them for about five years, and while I was there, kind of my bread and butter became CPG brands, like, or consumer packaged goods, so I was there kind of my bread and butter became CPG brands like for consumer package goods so I was working with spirits wine and spirits and um like Blue Diamond Almond Breeze yeah they called me the queen of liquids which was funny anyway um so I was there in San Francisco and then we had we were bi-coastal so I moved to New York with in the company which is amazing like

Starting point is 00:05:42 being on the ground meeting journalists um and what you kind of figure out over I was there for five years and you kind of figure out what you like and don't like about PR and there was always a part of me that was like I like I loved having these relationships with journalists but I we would like have a we'd be working with a brand partner for example to tell this cool story and obviously our job is to get coverage but I always wanted to see about okay well what social media should we be doing or what paid elements are there that we could be leveraging how can we amplify this and um so it's clearly gravitating to like marketing as well and then an opportunity came up to work in-house at

Starting point is 00:06:21 the swine spirits company so uh i got that gig and there i was definitely more marketing and like brand comms and it was interesting because i had been working with this massive team and like on all these brands and then it was now me in a very small crew um which was amazing learning experience but i was then doing like running our influencer program and um working with our sales team and like doing kind of dipping my toes in paid like ads, that sort of thing. And then after about 40 years in New York, I was like getting a little bit restless. And I also, I really wanted to start my own thing. So one of my former coworkers and I started a company called Wisk, which was about creating these memorable out of office experiences.

Starting point is 00:07:09 So like company retreats, that sort of thing. And that was really cool. And then to supplement like my living expenses, I was doing some freelance work and I was traveling. And I think towards like it was maybe towards the end of 2019, we just weren't bringing in like quite as much as we needed to be doing. So I was working, doing a lot of freelance work and trying, we were trying new things with WISC. And then the pandemic kind of hit and we just decided to close shop on WISC. And I just kept freelancing. And by then I was here in Melbourne that's where my travels took me and yeah one of my clients ended up being 99designs and after working with them for I think it was

Starting point is 00:07:55 like three four months they asked if I'd be interested in full-time work and it was awesome because I you know in contracting with them I got to see how they work, how people treat each other. And, you know, when you're freelancing, you get something that you get, I think, a bit nervous about if you go back to a full-time role is losing some of your freedom, having less control over your work. And because I kind of got this test run with 99designs through contracting, I didn't have that worry. I just, I really, it was kind of a no brainer for me. So yeah, now I'm there and, and yeah, working there for a little while now. Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome. I had a long winded. No, that's, that's so good. And I, I am curious because we've had a couple of people on who have

Starting point is 00:08:42 been in and out of self-employment and they did it for a little bit, went back to the corporate space. What do you feel about self-employment was beneficial for corporate role? Was there anything you learned about organization or just, you know, tell me about that. Like what, how is that beneficial for what you're doing today? Oh, so many ways. I mean, 99designs is a really, is a company that really values people who are self-starters who like want to have, have this idea and run with it. And obviously when you are freelancing and are self-employed, it's your responsibility to just create opportunities for yourself and run with them,

Starting point is 00:09:23 improve yourself. And I think just that energy and that attitude and that experience of learning how to like kind of do that hustle like it just now translates to projects I'm working on for 99 I need to say 99 designs but I keep we just say 99 that's what I mean if it wasn't clear but um yeah definitely the organizational elements like you do figure out kind of how to streamline things and how to work as efficiently as possible because you're managing so many moving pieces especially when you're self-employed and like doing a services-based business so it's your time that's a value. And you just learn a lot while working for yourself. Like, yes, you have a client who's like, Oh, could you also help us with this? And you're like, sure. Yeah. And then, you know, you figure it out and do a test run. I mean, obviously it's,

Starting point is 00:10:20 you know, it's something kind of within the industry, so it's not completely out of left field, but yeah. And then all of those skills just translate. Yeah. So absolutely. Absolutely. And I'm sure it's been beneficial to be able to work for one of your past clients. So like you said, you know, how everything kind of already works, you understand the brand, you get it and everything. And so I'm sure that that takes a lot of that initial kind of shock of going out of the self-employment space and into the corporate world again, to have that familiarity with the brand too. Oh, totally. It was, yeah, I couldn't recommend it enough. Like that is, if you can ever like with a client or, and have that

Starting point is 00:11:00 experience initially, it's invaluable. Like, just like you said, I knew people already. I understood the brand. I, for me, it was a test run. And then when I jumped in, I felt like I could already provide value quite quickly, even though I'd been working in a more limited capacity prior. Absolutely. Yeah. It was awesome. Yeah. So good. Well, let's specifically talk about 99designs here for a minute. I want to kind of dive into the platform, the business itself, how it works and everything. We had such a great experience working with you guys and all the amazing designers that work within the platform. So first go ahead and tell us a little bit about 99designs as a whole. What is the mission and vision and objective of the company? Yeah. So if you're not familiar, by the way, I'm so glad you guys had such a good experience.

Starting point is 00:11:49 That makes me so happy. Your logo is awesome. I'm thrilled. But we are a global creative platform that makes it easy for you, the business, pretty much anyone to work with freelance graphic designers from all over the world um to really bring your brand to life through custom design so um people come to us to get their logos done but then there's so much more like well if you're starting a business you can get your logo and like brand guide then we have if you need social media templates if you need a new website um merch is huge that's one of my favorite things to work on um yeah so pretty much whatever you need and you know our mission is to champion creativity to

Starting point is 00:12:33 create opportunities all over the world and for us like I know it probably sounds like I'm drinking the kool-aid a little bit but we've really seen what design can do for businesses like it elevates them it instills confidence it helps connect with customers and then on the design side we have this amazing community of designers we have why is it over i think 150 000 designers from 192 countries on our platform we had this amazing community um and they can build their careers on the platform, build their portfolios, have the opportunity to work with brands everywhere. You know, like you guys are in Florida, right?

Starting point is 00:13:16 And I don't remember where your designer was from, but you know, you could work with a designer in Barcelona and how cool is that? We just want to break down borders because typically in the past, like, you know, if you're a business or any brand really who needs design work done, you generally might go to, you know, a designer or someone who maybe dabbles in graphic design or a friend of a friend. And this way you can come to our platform and, um, have the chance to, to connect with a designer

Starting point is 00:13:43 from anywhere. And also they might see your brand from a different perspective and can bring this whole new energy to it, which is really cool. Yeah. That's us. I get really talking about us. Cause I just, it's so cool. Like we were, we partnered with the Sydney festival and contributed to the Frida Kahlo exhibit. And my colleague and I, yeah. And my colleague and I got to go last week to check it out in person. And we had helped this one company, the Flower Social.

Starting point is 00:14:17 They make flower crowns. Very appropriate for Frida Kahlo. And they're this small business and they but and we helped them with these um illustrations so people could do their flower crowns and it just it did it just elevated the experience a little bit right and they were so happy with them and you could just tell what having that that addition just did for what they were offering and stuff like that. That just is. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks. I work really cool. Yeah. Big impact and seemingly small, probably in the day-to-day you're like, Oh, what are we, you know, what are we here for? What are we doing? And then you get to step into real life and see

Starting point is 00:14:58 how much impact your company really has. That's so cool. I love that so much. And one thing I did want to point out too, that I loved about the platform is if you are someone that's looking for like a logo, like you said, you know, most of the time you're going to an agency or you're going to a graphic designer or somebody that, you know, that dabbles in graphic design, or you're outsourcing, you're on freelance platforms and you don't know what you're going to get. And one of the things that I loved about 99designs is every designer kind of has their own portfolio of designs that they've created in the past. And it was just so easy to go through and be like, okay, this person's really going to understand like what we want and know how to, you know, fine tune the result to get to where we want to

Starting point is 00:15:46 be and so that was really cool to see too I just wanted to throw that in there oh I love that yeah I mean it's true it's you're it's nice to be able to go to the platform and see people's work and then speak with them directly and see if they understand what you want because a lot of times we just have this idea in our heads of like, oh, this is what we could see happening. And then you kind of might try to do it yourself on a tool and you're like, crap, that's not. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:16:15 So yeah, but you have this vision, right? So when you see it, it makes sense. And then if you find that designer and they can bring it to life, it's really cool. Or you're like Cassie and I and you're sitting at a local bar in Tampa and trying to figure out what you're doing with marketing happy hour and quickly designing something in Canva that takes 20 minutes and doesn't look like what you want it to look like you know that us you know like a year ago yeah yeah totally I mean and that's

Starting point is 00:16:44 we do find that with a lot of people who use the platform it's they like you guys they you know are starting out they kind of just need to see if what they're doing is going to work and then they get maybe a year in or six months in or whatever and they're like okay now it's time we need to look legit yeah like we need to get someone professional who knows what they're doing to jump in and yeah. And help us out. And it instilled like, it's cool. It makes you really confident that I don't know if that's how you guys feel, but absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. No, we, um, we had been talking about it for a long time. We're like, okay, it's been a year and a half. Like it's time

Starting point is 00:17:22 to kind of turn the page and do something else. And Erica and I both have designers in our space, but we did love the idea of having so many options to choose from. And I actually heard about you guys from another influencer who created her podcast branding, I believe through 99 design. So I remember seeing her content and I was like, this is such a great concept. Like we need to figure out how this works and go through the process ourselves. So I do want to talk about process for a second, really quickly. So can you tell us the different ways to create a project and what are some of the types of projects that brands or personal brands or creators can create on the platform? Yeah. So there are two ways to work on the platform. You can do a contest, which you go on

Starting point is 00:18:12 and that we have, like, for example, if you're doing a logo, there's a brief that you fill out kind of like, obviously what you want in your logo, your style, that sort of thing. Regardless of whether you're using our platform or not, you should always have a brief. Yes. Anyway, so you fill out your brief and then you submit it. And then it's available to our creative community to submit their design, their interpretation of what you want.

Starting point is 00:18:39 And of course, if they just, they have the time, the capacity to, are interested in participating. And then you get i mean it depends i forget how many you guys got but you can get hundreds of options that then you sift through offer feedback and you can work with the designers to then get to kind of really what you want um and then you ultimately pick your your winning design so that's contest and then you can also do one-on-one projects, which where you go, we have like, if you go to our site,

Starting point is 00:19:07 find a designer tab that you can go to or even the inspiration and you can look for like the styles you like. You can even kind of filter based on experience or their specialty. And you can find a designer directly and then reach out and get a quote and then manage

Starting point is 00:19:25 that project on our platform. Um, yeah, so those are the two ways you can work with us. Often what we'll see is that someone like, for example, you guys got your logo done through a contest and then you might, you're the designer you worked with now knows your brand, right? And they brought your logo to life. So then you end up working with them on future branding projects um so we see that happen a lot um but otherwise in terms of how people use it like i've said logo a lot i know but um we've seen like so small brands often do get their start brand their start their branding on our platform um but then we also see bigger brands

Starting point is 00:20:05 like the other day i saw one and it was like a award that they're going to start giving to their customers and so they had like that design created um through a contest or like your teams like big companies they want to have like a logo that represents their team so they'll get those done um otherwise your website you can get your website designed. I think I mentioned it before, but like social media templates to create, make sure your social media is all cohesive. You can get like a PowerPoint presentation done. Like we'll have a lot of startups who want, you know, are obviously presenting themselves a lot and they need something that looks innovative and custom. So they get their powerpoint presentation slides created um and yeah

Starting point is 00:20:48 I'm repeating myself a bit but merch is another one that's like pretty cool um but yeah you can really create anything even um last year we had um our a few of our colleagues were going on family leave and we worked with one of our designers to create like an alphabet poster you know those and each of the out like letters with this cute like animal or design oh that's great yeah so and we just we got it printed and framed and I should mention actually I don't know if I have yet but we're um we're part of the Vista family so we were acquired by Vista it was late 2020 and one thing that's or there's a lot of things that are very cool about this, but something is that you can get, you know, your design done. And then like, if you get

Starting point is 00:21:31 business cards designed on our platform, and then you can just get them printed through Vista print. And it's a very seamless process. So nice. That's such like a streamlined effort I love that so much um other things too that I really liked about working with the 99designs platform and just like the designers in general was it was so collaborative I remember I was in New York during this contest time and I was like oh my gosh I don't know like I don't have a lot of time to kind of like dedicate to looking at these designs and all that stuff but Cassie and I were both able to kind of narrow it down really quickly, communicate the things that we wanted to change a little bit. So like, maybe there was a color we didn't like, or we wanted to see it in a different color. Like we were able to really, you know, submit that

Starting point is 00:22:21 feedback and get new designs really quickly, which was so awesome to see and just such a great experience to have. And like, I've worked in the past with other graphic designers and people, and it takes a long time for your feedback to be implemented, but this was almost immediate. Honestly, I think there was, there was probably one time, and maybe this doesn't happen with all the contests, but I think there was like one time we were on the phone together. I was like sitting at this bar in New York and I was like, okay, let's say this to them. Like we want to see it in this color or whatever. And then we were going through some of the other designs and we refreshed the page and we were like, oh my gosh, they just submitted it in like three different

Starting point is 00:23:02 other styles. Like this is so great. So so we seriously when we say we had such a good experience we mean it like it was yeah a great tool so thank you oh I'm so stoked to hear that yeah of course um our pleasure no that is not that's not uncommon for sure like that's that is a benefit of having a global platform right because the time zones like for example what time is it over there like five five thirty right five thirty okay so for example let's just say you just look at your contest and provide some feedback and then someone in Australia is just getting up and like jumps it right in so then when you wake up you know there that is kind of where you can get those quick turnarounds and plus designers get excited about projects like when we start working like um like when with you guys I ended up reaching out to a couple designers who I thought could

Starting point is 00:23:55 be a good fit and you know if they have the capacity they jump in like they get excited by the opportunities and um it's opportunity to practice but also build their profiles and yeah I'm so glad you guys enjoyed it yes we did an amazing experience would recommend do recommend um good I want to hear from you why you think you know excellent branding you know cohesive look all of that is important for a brand. Like what can that bring? We touched on it a little bit, you know, it's nice to have that. It looks pretty, it looks aesthetically pleasing, but why is that important? Does it draw people more into your brand if you have these excellent branding elements or what do you see? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, attracting customers is a huge element. I

Starting point is 00:24:48 mean, if you think of any industry right now that I'm trying to think of one that doesn't have much competition, you know, like, and how do you stand out? How do you differentiate yourself? Yeah. It can be really challenging right and you know customized branding how you visually represent yourself can help how you connect with your customers it's I think about it like an outfit a lot right like if I show up like for you have a job interview do you want to go with do you want to hire the person who's in their trackies or do you want to hire the person who's you know dressed to impress you know like it's the same thing um on connecting like with customers that over time that really helped build loyalty and trust like if some a brand appeals to you you want to invest in it and you want to keep investing it of course there's behind

Starting point is 00:25:45 the branding like you know there's the quality of product and customer service there are other layers but that initial kind of an ongoing relationship can really be fostered by how you visually are branding yourself um and I think we've talked about a bit but just the kind of making sure everything's cohesive so like you know you guys do a really good job with this, your social media, and then like really ties well with even your personalities and then like how you present yourself on your website. Like everything just links together really well. So you want all of that to feel really cohesive and consistent. Again, if you were to like, you know, meet someone who's, I don't know, what are they wearing? Like all black and looking really punk. And then you see the next day and they're really preppy or

Starting point is 00:26:30 something. You're kind of like, yeah, it's just creates a little bit of a, huh? Yeah. Races are important, you know? Yeah. That's such a good analogy. I've never thought about it that way with like the way that, that you appear, um, personally with your clothing and things like that. Cause it's so true. It sends different messages and branding talks to people in a number of ways. That's why there's so much psychology behind it, behind colors and, uh, you know, all these different elements you're using. And it can tell a lot about the personalities behind the brand, but also the brand itself. You know, what is the essence of the brand? And all of that is tied into the visual aspect too.

Starting point is 00:27:12 So I tell people all the time, I'm like, if I go on your social media or if I'm scrolling and I see something that is like way out of left field and doesn't connect to the brand and what I know of the brand, it is confusing to the consumer and it causes them to think more and to problem solve when we should be making people's lives easier, not, you know, more complicated. So yeah. So great. Yeah. We're just becoming more and more impatient. Right. So like, and anything that delays our process to like press purchase or whatever not great not great yeah you don't want to get in your own way so I think it's kind of it's just becoming non-negotiable like your branding should be up there of course there is like we've talked about that you know time where you're just getting started and maybe you know want to see if you can prove yourself

Starting point is 00:28:01 first and if this is a viable option but beyond, like when you really want to be in the game, you just have to invest in, in, in your visual branding. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And if you don't know where to start something like 99 designs is great. Cause you see a lot of different translations of the brand and you can kind of figure that out as you go. So love that element of it. Um, but want to ask you, Courtney, you've talked a little bit about this already, but just working with 99design specifically in your role, what do you enjoy most about working for the company and what you're able to do in your position? Oh, well, I get, I mean, my, I really like my team where everyone, like everyone I work

Starting point is 00:28:42 with is really cool internally. But then I also also a big part of my role is working with brand partners influencers um doing sponsorships um and I love connecting with people everywhere it's just I feel like I get to travel a little bit every day you know like I get to meet new people um so that's something I love about it. And also for me, for my role in particular, there's just a lot of variety. Like we dabble in the, you know, I dabble with social media, not dabble. I do more than different things, but we all are collaborating constantly. And luckily, because of what we do, everything's very creative. And like, there's just no, I mean, there's never any stupid ideas, but really for us, it's just like as weird as you can get, you know, it's, yeah, there's a lot of opportunity. So, oh my gosh, I love that so much. It's so great to work in an environment that kind of fosters that creativity. I feel like

Starting point is 00:29:50 a lot of times we lose that in the day to day and it's just so cool and refreshing to hear from someone who's like, my job's fun. I get to create, I'm excited about it. So I love that so much. But let's talk a little specifically about in brand partnerships and things like your partnership with Marketing Happy Hour. Do you kind of find that affiliate partnerships work well for the services that you guys provide? Is there another outlet that you guys use? Just a little background on what you guys do with brand partnerships would be great. Yeah. So I kind of work with brand partnerships or having that be a part of our marketing program, I guess, is it came about really organically, right? Like

Starting point is 00:30:35 our platform, as you guys experienced, like it's pretty straightforward, but it's not necessarily like a protein powder, right? Like you don't, you kind of have to experience it and have someone walk you through it and, and, and give, provide their experience to better understand it. So that's where brand partnerships have come in. You know, we like to work with people who are also helping businesses in some way. So that we obviously have really aligned values and missions. And we also like to make sure that they've worked on their platform. So a lot of our partners are people that have been customers of 99designs already,

Starting point is 00:31:13 and we connect that way. Because then it's more authentic, right? So when they speak to their experience, like you guys have, they can talk about how it helped them, can even talk about any things to like tips, that kind of thing. And they're spreading the word to their community. And we all know that word of mouth marketing is obviously as valuable as it gets. Yeah, king. They're invaluable to what we do and help us tell our story and make sure more and more communities know about us. Like that's all

Starting point is 00:31:46 we want is to help people grow and find success. And like, we know how important branding is, but you know, we can't necessarily guarantee they're going to just stumble upon our social, our Instagram or our website. So we like to work with brand partners to help spread the word and tell their experiences. That's awesome. Yeah, the world of influencers, brand partnerships has certainly changed over time. So it's just always cool to hear from different companies and how they're adjusting with the times and figuring out new ways to develop those relationships.

Starting point is 00:32:18 But with that, I kind of want to ask too about just what projects or new advancements changes in the business are you the most excited about and how are you going to use some of the brand partnerships or marketing channels to help promote some of those avenues in terms of as we're part of the vista family there's a lot of us trying to show how you use 99 designs and then can take whatever you get designed and have it printed. And all of basically, you know, if for all your marketing needs, you can come here, let me show you how you can do that, you know? And so for a lot of what we're doing, it's showing that full funnel experience. So that's

Starting point is 00:32:56 with a lot of our partnerships, we love to help them get design work done. And then can we print that on t-shirts or can we print on a tote or do you need business cards that kind of thing we want to show like that full experience so I think that's really our goal for um at the moment is to show how streamlined that is and um how welcoming and approachable that experience can be for any small, small business, any business, really. There's so many moving pieces all the time that sometimes you just need help. You just need someone to make it easy for you. And that's what we want to do. Yes. Oh, I love that so much. Cassie and I all have to chat about merch because that sounds like a big endeavor. Yes.

Starting point is 00:33:42 Something we want. Absolutely. I want a t-shirt please oh my gosh well we love to ask this question on the show this is something that I think we've probably asked every single one of our guests without even meaning to it's just always on our sheet that we send out but I love it so much that I ask it every single time um what do you know now that you wish you knew early on in your career? A couple of things. I have two things. Okay. One is that it's really as urgent as someone makes it seem to be.

Starting point is 00:34:15 I remember back when I was an account coordinator, one of my managers, I think, asked me to do this thing. And I was like, oh, if you could like, let me know where, you know, you've got to by tomorrow morning, that'd be great. And I was at office, I think, till like 10pm. And then I was kind of like on the verge of just really hitting the wall. I was like, Alright, well, I've gotten to as far as I can, but I felt all this pressure to get done. And then I find out the next day that this is like an ongoing admin type job that I was basically trying to fit into a night um and I mean I didn't exactly learn my lesson after that but you start to understand that hey look like if you're not able to dedicate enough

Starting point is 00:34:55 time to something and you have a deadline if you're able to give someone enough of a heads up you can say hey like I haven't quite got to this I want to do it right like what do we have a little bit of time um and then the second thing is that I think just no one no one knows as much as you think they do like I have a tendency to get quite intimidated by people and think oh my god they know this all this stuff like I I'm gonna sound just not an unprofessional but I'm just gonna sound like such an amateur or I shouldn't ask these questions because everyone else already knows this and I'm just the idiot in the room but yeah over time I found that pretty much everyone's just a work in progress and learning and probably wondering the same thing you are that's something I really wish I knew yeah a thousand percent yeah I still have to remind

Starting point is 00:35:47 myself sometimes like court you can you know ask your question like or just do your best you know we're all just trying here yeah exactly exactly I loved your first tip too I love both of those we were talking about your second tip on another recording earlier, just about we're all still trying to figure it out. Like I, I get stuck in this mindset of I'm 27 and I'm like, I should know what I'm doing. I'm like this many years out of college. Like I should have my life figured out. And it's like, no, there's people that are much older who are still trying to figure it out. And, um, we can, we can keep being in that, that state of becoming and evolving and stuff personally. And there's nothing wrong with that. So I think that is a just awesome reminder that we do not hear enough of.

Starting point is 00:36:34 And so thank you for sharing that. But the first one too, we were talking to a friend last night and talked about the whole sense of urgency and marketing and that quote it's it's a PR not ER came up and it's like it's such an overplayed quote but it's so true it's like really like nothing on social media or any of that stuff is that urgent ever and I used to work for a hair care company and every time something would be just so stressful. They would always say, we just make shampoo. It's going to be okay. And like, I carry that through like my entire career with me. I don't work in hair care anymore, but I am always like, if a stressful situation comes up, I'm like, it's just shampoo.

Starting point is 00:37:18 Oh my gosh. That's hilarious. It's just shampoo. Oh my gosh. That's going to be our first t-shirt. Like it's just shampoo marketing. Oh my God. So funny. We have it. We're going to, we're going to go to Vista right after this and do that. That's so funny. Oh my gosh. Courtney. So I have one more question on the career topic. So, so you mentioned at the beginning of the episode that you moved or you were raised, you were born in California, right? Grew up there. Okay. And you're in Australia now that is a big move. That's huge. And I think even for us,

Starting point is 00:37:58 like you also mentioned, you went from California to New York. That's also another big move. Um, what was it like taking that risk in your personal and professional life? And why do you feel those kind of leaps are beneficial to you overall? Yeah. I'm just like reliving them. I knew me, met me when I was like five, I had like intense separation anxiety. And then all of a sudden I hit high school and it's like never been a problem ever since now I just want to go on adventures um I just like life to be exciting I think and I like saying yes to opportunities and um I think the more places you experience the more people you meet from different backgrounds just the more tolerant you are

Starting point is 00:38:40 obviously and the greater your perspective is and it applies to like your personal life it provides to your applies to your professional life um and I'm trying to wait what was the second part of your question I already forgot I got I got lost in my memory sorry no you know you're good you kind of already mentioned it but just the benefits of doing so like how does that right yeah how has that enhanced your life personally and professionally? Yeah. I would just say the experiences I've had, the people I've met, like I just have a community everywhere. Like I feel sort of like I am a citizen of the world sometimes. Like I obviously live here in Melbourne and then I have, but I have all my community in

Starting point is 00:39:21 New York. I have my community in California. I have friends in the UK, everywhere. Just, it's amazing. You get really inspired. Like, I think sometimes when I, I mean, it can be as simple as just going for a walk in a different neighborhood. But when you're traveling, experiencing new cultures, you're just like, wow, how can I, whether it's a direct impact or just inspiring you somehow to think differently when you bring that back to your work or and that's amazing and then in terms of your personal

Starting point is 00:39:53 life I mean when you see people living such a different like a different way or you know I remember being in Peru and just seeing like you know there's a lot of impoverished areas and sometimes when you're I don't know complaining, complaining about little things, you're like, well, okay, get a reality check. Yeah. It's just good to have that perspective. So, I mean, the benefits are amazing. I won't say that it's easy. Yeah. Yeah. Moving from San Francisco to New York was fairly easy. That was pretty simple, but yeah, moving here has has no you can ask any of the people who are transplants like visas are not the most yeah but it's all worth it um yeah and you can you really learn that you can get through anything because it's a big challenge and figuring out like

Starting point is 00:40:38 do I want to live here long term and all the effort that goes into that yeah yeah Cassie are huge proponents of getting out from where you came from whether that's where you went to college or where you grew up and just getting out into the world that happened for both of us and not necessarily as far as Australia that I moved right after college to Nashville and she moved right after college to New York and so we were honestly that's kind of York. And so we were, honestly, that's kind of how we bonded because we were experiencing the same thing and just trying to get out there and like get these new perspectives and new experiences and things like that. And I think that's so healthy to do, especially, you know, you don't want to stay in

Starting point is 00:41:20 your bubble, your whole professional life. You want to get out there, meet people. That's what life is about. So I love that so much. Yeah, I know. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Like I said, it's hard, but you, I think also too, when you're able to move to a new place and figure things out, meet new people, get work, like how good do you feel about yourself?'re like oh I've made it in New York or wherever like it doesn't matter how it's just two hours from your house but like yeah re-establishing yourself is not easy and when you do it like once or twice I don't know I I look back at that I'm like you know what court you got this you can you can do it you've done harder yeah love that well we've reached the end here of our interview Courtney where can everybody find you

Starting point is 00:42:13 follow along with what you're up to and what 99 designs is up to I know we have a discount code or a link that we'll put into the show notes for everybody. But where can people find you? Well, for 99designs, go to, we're pretty much 99designs on all social. I think on TikTok, we're 99designsbyvista. So check us out there. And then for me, you can find me on, I would say Instagram,

Starting point is 00:42:38 but I've spent my last like 10 years just on clients or brands, social media. So I actually am not that great with my personal social so anyway but you can find me on yeah oh thank god I'm always relieved to find it's not just me yeah no it's not but you can put LinkedIn Courtney Savantini welcome to come please send me a note say hello like I love to chat so yes thank you so much for joining us this was such a great experience and again we had such a great time using the platform and just kind of you know getting our new logo it was seriously

Starting point is 00:43:12 something that we needed and it came at the perfect time and we're so excited to continue chatting and learning more about other aspects of the platform and everything like that so thank you again for joining us and we'll catch you in Australia at some point. Yes. Come visit. Thank you guys so much for this. I had a really great time. I'm like ready for a mimosa now. I feel like I just want to have a, have a glass of bubbly or something, but this is really fun. So thank you. Yes. Thank you so much. Yeah. Your, your help with the whole process was great too. So just want to say thank you to you personally for your involvement in that process, but yeah, we had a blast. So thanks for coming on and sharing everything with us. Yeah. Thank you guys. Have a good night.

Starting point is 00:43:57 That's a wrap on this week's episode of marketing happy hour. We hope you enjoyed hearing from Courtney and are excited to dive into a new creative project of your own. If you're interested in learning more about 99 designs by Vista, be sure to head on over to 99designs.com forward slash marketing dash happy dash hour to learn more. And if you enjoyed this episode, please remember to subscribe rate and leave a review on your favorite platform to keep up with all things Marketing Happy Hour, follow us on Instagram at Marketing Happy HR and check out our new Marketing Happy Hour website by visiting marketinghappyhr.com. That's marketinghappyhr.com. Catch you next week.

Marketing Happy Hour - Behind the Marketing Happy Hour Rebrand | Courtney Cervantes of 99designs by Vista

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.