Marketing Happy Hour - BONUS! Open for Hire: Chelsea Johnson (prev. Anheuser-Busch, Dose & Co, Red Bull)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, Chelsea, how are you doing? Hi, I'm good. How are you? I'm so good. Thank you so much for joining me on Open for Hire this week. I'm excited to dive into your experience. And since this is Marketing Happy Hour, we do have to know your go-to happy hour drink. What is it? Okay, this is a hard one. I mean, I love an espresso martini, like with tequila, which is just everywhere.

Starting point is 00:00:25 But one of my like all-time favorite drinks is a honey lavender lemonade, which isn't super common. But anytime I see it on the menu, I'm like, I have to have that. It's so good. Sounds amazing. I am in Michigan right now up north and there's like a lot of lavender fields up here. And my friends and I always go every single year and there's always like a lavender lemonade mix or whatever. So I'm on the same page with you there. All right, let's just dive in. Can you

Starting point is 00:00:52 tell me a little bit about your career path so far? You know, if you were in a job interview right now and the interviewer asked, you know, tell me briefly about yourself, what would you say? Yeah. So no, I've been very fortunate to have a great career path and meet so many amazing people along the way. What's funny is I actually started in college at Red Bull. I grew up in LA, so I was on the wings team, just passing out samples of Red Bull. And I absolutely loved not only the people I met, but the product and the company. So moved up within the company. Like I said, I'm from LA. So took a job at headquarters in Santa Monica doing the digital marketing and consumer sampling. And then I was

Starting point is 00:01:30 like, I want to move. I will go anywhere. And they were like, okay, we're taking you to Louisville, Kentucky. And I was like, okay, that's maybe not where I saw myself, but it was so amazing. I was there for two and a half years doing field marketing, on-premise marketing, partnerships, so many different things, and then was ready for another change and got the opportunity to move to Austin, which is where I'm currently at, worked for GT's Kombucha out here, doing field marketing partnerships, PR, influencers, and then Dose & Co, which is a collagen powder. They had a U S launch. So I was supporting them with, um, their global community management strategies, as well as influencer marketing. And for their launch, we partnered with like Khloe Kardashian. So it's a really,

Starting point is 00:02:16 um, really impactful thing to like help launch a brand in the U S um, so that so many different learnings there. And then my most recent position was at Anheuser-Busch leading entertainment influencers and celebrity partnerships across a ton of brands within our portfolio so a lot of experience I will say like I feel like the past few years I've really honed in on like influencer and celebrity and brand, which I have been very passionate about and I've learned so much there. So yeah, it's been, it's been a good journey, moved around a bit. And so now I'm in Austin and just seeing what's next. That is so awesome. Yeah. We always encourage people when they're trying to figure out what their next step is in their career path, whether

Starting point is 00:03:00 they've just graduated or have experienced something where they, they went through a job loss, we're always like move, like go somewhere, more experiences, like get some more, you know, friends in different places, people, you know, people in different areas, you know, are different than you. So it's always nice to expose yourself to new places and new people. Highly recommend. Yeah. I couldn't, I couldn't agree more. I think it's definitely scary. Right. Especially when I moved to Louisville and Austin, not knowing anybody. But that's the fun part right now. You have so many different connections. You get such a different experience. You see you also from a marketing standpoint, understand how consumers think in different areas. So, you know, the person in Louisville is very different than LA,

Starting point is 00:03:44 very different than Austin. So that exposure, I think just really rounds you out within the marketing space. Oh, absolutely. That's great. In your most recent role though, what is something that is a valuable lesson you learned that you'll kind of take with you into whatever next role you hold? Yeah. I think the one that I just recently learned, there's kind of, there's two ones, but the biggest one I'd say is like, you have to put yourself first and advocate for yourself. And I'm not saying in like a selfish way, but I'm saying you need to put your work and everything that you've accomplished in front of people and you need to build those connections. So you may have a really great relationship with your team and obviously depends on how big,

Starting point is 00:04:29 you know, the company is and all of that, but you might have an amazing relationship with your team, but how can you go beyond that? So how can you set up meetings with leadership or people in different roles that you may, you know, occasionally work with cross-functionally, but sharing out your wins and what you're working on is going to be so helpful, especially as you try to grow. So you may set up like a quick little chat with someone in a totally different department. You may bounce ideas around, and then that could also lead to great collaboration of, oh, hey, I know you're working on this project.

Starting point is 00:05:02 How can we integrate like e-commerce or how can we integrate retail sales? And it just makes that project so much bigger and allows you to learn so much more, but also allows people to really be able to be like, oh, I have a position opening or I actually really want someone to help me with this. You know, Chelsea would be great for that. Versus I, to the start of my career, I was kind of just like, okay, get your work done, do a great job and let the work speak for itself. But at the end of the day, there's so much going on. You really have to like put yourself like at the forefront

Starting point is 00:05:37 to not only get opportunities, but also to continue to learn. I think one thing for me in my past role, I was like, I want to get into merge partnerships, which was not a responsibility of my team. I started meeting with people within that space and I was able to successfully help execute two merge partnerships, which is such a great learning. Yeah. But I wouldn't have had that if I didn't put myself out there in that way, they wouldn't have like thought of me without me putting myself in pitching. So that's kind of a really big one that I learned. And I think that also can expand with outside of the company. So whether that's like LinkedIn, I'm currently working on like building a website portfolio right now. You know, sharing your wins on LinkedIn,

Starting point is 00:06:22 I think is really great too, especially if, you know, in a situation you are impacted by layoffs, cuts, or you're just looking for a new role. So that way it speaks beyond just a resume. Completely agree with you. And that's how I found you, like knowing that you were for hire, I was like, I got to get her on all of your posts on LinkedIn and I've admired everything that you've been up to. So yeah, it definitely is all about relationships and you foster those through, you know, internal partnerships and things like that. And then also externally on, like you said, LinkedIn, social media, anywhere you can go

Starting point is 00:07:00 that you can kind of advocate for yourself and, you know, get some new ideas going with other people is always a good thing. So yes. Yeah, exactly. All right, Chelsea. Well, what inspired your recent job search? I saw your post on LinkedIn, but I'm just going to let you speak for yourself. Yeah. So unfortunately I was impacted by the layoffs at and his Bush, which I feel like right now there's, you know, widespread across so many different companies and fields. So while it is an unfortunate situation, I am just kind of trying to look at the bright side of things and really take my passion and my experience to my next step. So I'm really excited for what is to come. And so yeah, open to work as of last week. And I think one thing I'm just trying to be really intentional with my next role and what that is versus kind of just jumping on the first thing. And if it doesn't feel right, I really want my next position as I grow within my career. I feel like I'm in a very good space just to continue that even further. Yeah, absolutely. Is there anything that you're specifically looking for in a future role,

Starting point is 00:08:06 like any dream companies you'd like to work for any dream, you know, titles or projects you'd like to work on? Yeah, I want to continue within the partnership space. So I know, you know, companies kind of have that laid out different, whether that's like influencer entertainment merch any type of partnership I've like really honed in on some of those within my career um some of them recently that I'm really proud of is like launching low sunday's tequila seltzer in partnership with like Camille Caustic and building a long-term relationship there. You know, within the entertainment team at my company, we did some great like integrations with like movies and TV shows. So of course we had like product placement, but we worked on Stella Artois and the Bears. So that's like a full 360 partnership with the cast and crew, but also product integration, also, you know, getting into events.

Starting point is 00:09:06 So anything where I can like make people come together and like build that experience is kind of what I'm looking for next. So obviously that influencer celebrity space, like I have a lot of work in and I know the impact of influencers and it's crazy, but it's an exciting space that's only continuing to grow. So I'd like to be within that field and also within a company that I can help grow versus that's already so set and established. So helping make new strategies and new processes that are open to ideas and kind of really flexible within that space as well. Oh, I love that so much. There's so much opportunity in like the partnership and experiential space. We were talking earlier this

Starting point is 00:09:50 year. I think our first episode this year actually was talking all about how it's going to be the year of brand partnerships. And that was before we saw all the things happening with Barbie and crazy collaborations that we've seen throughout like the summer even um so it's it's definitely been a really interesting space to watch and I think that's such a fun space to be in so that's awesome for you yeah it's Barbie is crazy like the amount of partnerships that came out of that is wild um and then at my last position I host we had a weekly what we call newsroom segment, which is kind of just like cultural trends.

Starting point is 00:10:28 But I led a part that was called like lit or quit. So I'm like, I'm probably going to start bringing it to LinkedIn because it was so good, but it was just talking about different partnerships. That's like out there, like the mustard Skittles. So it's like, do you think this is lit or quit? And then we would kind of just like deep dive into that a little bit but yeah the partnership space is so intriguing and I think some of them are not ideal and they're kind of like huh but then some of them really bring two different consumers from different groups together and kind of open their eyes to different brand or different um you know passion

Starting point is 00:11:02 point etc so I think it's just such an intriguing place and then you add, you know, passion point, et cetera. So I think it's just such an intriguing place. And then you add on, you know, celebrities and influencers and entertainment, and it just becomes like a nice marriage. I also think to what I was saying, like earlier, like building those connections. Yes. Like you could have something that's really like buzzy and, you know, tied up with a celebrity partner, but really thinking how can you bring that down across like all aspects of the business? So like retail sales, online sales, like PR, is there an event aspect? So that's full 360 beyond just a partnership to me is like very exciting.

Starting point is 00:11:42 Oh, completely. And the more authentic it is to your brand and what you stand for, the better it is. We were talking to about earlier this year, we were talking about creator led brands and things like that, that we're going to see more and more, you know, there's like Chamberlain coffee with Emma Chamberlain. And there's, I think a pet brand coming out with another TikTok creator and another coffee brand with another. So that space is even really cool to look into too I'm like trying to brainstorm ideas of like where you could go next I feel like the possibilities

Starting point is 00:12:10 are endless yeah yeah um I think yeah can it be I might mess up her last name but Yurik she's actually in Austin I saw she's launching yeah yeah love her fun I I don't know what the brand is is it a pet food do you think I think it's toys toys okay yeah I'm not sure she hasn't yeah she hasn't really given much yet but yeah to your point you know I think um even I'm just thinking of Austin with like Jenna Palak and how she's really built out her brand of fun on weekdays yeah um so that is also something I've kind of started maybe toying with is, is it going more of a freelance route and working with creators and helping them grow their side of the brands, managing any type of like talent aspects that they have and like continuing to like pitch them. I think the biggest thing for influencers right now is like exactly what you said. It's like extending

Starting point is 00:13:05 your brand and your persona beyond just social media to make it like long lasting. And like, who knows if these platforms will be around or what social will look like in, you know, five, 10 years. Absolutely. Oh my gosh. I'm so excited for you. And there's so much opportunity, even just within Austin, I'm thinking about water boy, like all those that are like based out there. Oh my gosh. I can't wait to see where you land. That's awesome. What is something that you're learning during this time when you're looking for a new role?

Starting point is 00:13:35 I know you must've recently found out about the layoffs. I don't know how long you've actually been considering a new role and considering what's ahead for you, but what's something that you're kind of learning and taking with you during this time? Yeah. So it's been a week. Um, and I definitely took some time to just like chill, um, and just like reset. I think for the most part, it's like been back to back jobs and, um, it's nice to just, you know, relax and not have so many meetings and just take time to like journal of like, what does my dream career look like? Is it fully remote? Is it hybrid? Is it working for myself or a startup? Um, so I'm taking a lot of time to just like journal and meditate and figure out kind of what's next. Um, but I think I'm learning that you can't just like apply to a role and like

Starting point is 00:14:28 hope it works out um which I think that is something that a lot of people do know and um can you know continue working on but it's like reach out to your contacts that you may have if you find this dream role reach out to like them on LinkedIn, see if you have any mutual connections. And also just don't be afraid to find time with people who you think are interesting, even if it's not the same area, you know, that you're working in. So maybe like I'm chatting with people in PR, which isn't something that I've really worked in that space, but who knows where that connection can go. And it's also just meet great to meet new people. And I think when people are reaching out to others to, you know, try to either ask for a reference or see if they're hiring or et cetera, et cetera, I think it's also important to see if there's any

Starting point is 00:15:20 way that you can help them whether now or at a later date, but don't just make it one sided. Say like, happy to connect you with XYZ as well. Or if you do, like, let's just say you set up time with someone and you're able to connect. And during that conversation, you find out they're really interested in, you know, hiring someone for a certain role outside of, you know, the one you're applying for, or, you know, they, if you're having a personal conversation, they mentioned like their dog and they want new dog toys. And you're like, I just found this brand. So I think having those connections or, um, conversations that extend just beyond you

Starting point is 00:15:58 asking for something, but you being able to provide or just, you know, talk about conversational, like not work topics is really important. Obviously depends if, you know, it's the hiring manager or just another colleague at the company. But I think that's really important as well. It's not just like, I want to take your time and not offer any value on that end. Totally, totally understand that. Yeah. And I think too, I know you mentioned it's only been a week, but I think you're also learning like that. It's important to sit in the space that you're in and kind of figure it out and everything's going to work out how it's supposed to. But, you know, what other time in your life are you going to have the time to kind of sit and really figure out exactly what you want to do? I think that's such a positive thing that can come out of something that seems so negative, like a layoff, you know, and I always love hearing from people when they don't know what's next, because I always get really excited for them, because I'm like, Oh, my gosh, there's so much ahead that you

Starting point is 00:16:55 just don't even know yet. And there's so many people that you're going to meet and so many things that you're going to do, and you're going to love it. And you just have no idea yet. So it's a very exciting time. So I definitely hear that in you as well I'm excited for you yeah yeah I think it's it's so easy to maybe fall into like a negative mind space around this right like I just lost my job you know income etc etc but that word reframing like that you just said is so important. It's, you know, I believe in journaling a lot. So it's like, I allow myself that sad time. And, you know, now I'm into like a reflection time of like, what is next? And I am so excited. I'm like, so energized to bring that all my experience and passion and love to whatever's next ahead of me.

Starting point is 00:17:46 Amazing. Well, Chelsea, where can everyone find you follow along with what you're up to see where you're headed next? Where can we get you on online? Yeah, so I am on LinkedIn. So it's just like Chelsea R. Johnson. And then on Instagram as well. If anybody wants to follow my personal life um definitely more of like a stories gal than in feed but that is uh shelf underscore underscore Renee and then um I am like I said I am building a website which is not live yet I'm still working on that but I'm hoping to have that done by like middle next week so website portfolio but I will share that on LinkedIn so they can follow me along there.

Starting point is 00:18:25 Yeah. And we'll link out everything in the show notes. And if the website isn't up by the time that this episode comes out, we'll update the show notes post, you know, publication. So people can keep up with you there, but thanks so much again for joining me and I'm wishing you the best of luck and cheering you on. And I think you're going to end up in a really awesome spot. So I'm excited to keep up with you. Thank you. No, I'm super excited. And thank you for having me. This was great. I know. I love that the resources you offer to everyone via the podcast, and I was listening to the resume the other day, and I was like, the graphics, I was like, okay, like, let me. Yeah, I was like, okay, good to know. I did not necessarily think about that

Starting point is 00:19:05 because you know, you think Canva and make it nice and pretty and I'm like, might need to readjust this now. I know I took so many tips from that one too. And if you're not sure what Chelsea's talking about, it's the episode with Tim of best culture solutions that we recently released all about perfecting your resume and nailing your next interview. So totally go listen to that if you haven't yet. And Chelsea, thanks again for joining us today. This has been great. Thank you.

Marketing Happy Hour - BONUS! Open for Hire: Chelsea Johnson (prev. Anheuser-Busch, Dose & Co, Red Bull)

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