Marketing Happy Hour - BONUS! Open for Hire: Nicole Hardwick (prev. Quest Diagnostics, Conagra Brands, Redbox)

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

Welcome back to our "Open for Hire" bonus series where we'll be chatting with marketing professionals open for hire - whether they've just graduated, were laid off, or are just looking to take the next step in their career journey - to highlight their background and skill sets and have an open Q&A around job hunting in today's market. Our next "Open for Hire" guest is Nicole Hardwick, most recently the Senior Paid Media and Performance Marketing Manager at Quest Diagnostics. Nicole also has an extensive marketing background, with experience creating content and communications strategies for paid, owned, and earned media channels for Hunt’s, Marie Callender’s, Banquet, Healthy Choice, and P.F. Chang’s brands as Brand and Creative Manager at Conagra Brands, and implementing sophisticated marketing initiatives including customer journeys, learning agendas, testing plans, recommendations, and referral programs as CRM (Mobile) Marketing Manager at Redbox. Listen in! Follow Nicole on LinkedIn | Connect with Nicole: [e-mail] Find Nicole's story alongside other incredible marketing professionals looking for their next roles here: Meet 37 Marketing Professionals Open for Hire Right Now Are you also open for hire? Download our FREE Dream Career Game Plan resource! This 5 step workbook will guide you through defining your goals, building your network, diversifying your skills, influencing where you’re at, and investing in your growth. We created this resource with marketing careers in mind, but the framework can be adapted to any industry!Our hope is that this workbook will help you truly elevate your career, whether you’re in the market for a new position or looking to make your mark in your current organization. No matter where this resource finds you, we’re cheering you on every step of the way! ____ Say hi! DM us on Instagram and let us know which bonus episodes you're excited for - we can't wait to hear from you!  Please also consider rating the show and leaving a review, as that helps us tremendously as we move forward in this Marketing Happy Hour journey and create more content for all of you. NEW: Check out our website! NEW: Join our email list! Connect with Co-Host Erica: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect with Co-Host Cassie: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow MHH on Social: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠ New to Marketing Happy Hour (or just want more)? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download our Marketing Happy Hour Starter Kit⁠⁠ This podcast is an MHH Media production. ⁠⁠Learn more about MHH Media!⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Interested in starting your own podcast? Grab our Podcast Launch Strategy Guide here.⁠

Hey, Nicole. Thanks so much for joining us today. How are you? Hi, Erica. I'm great. Excited to talk about my favorite topic today. Amazing. Well, since this is Marketing Happy Hour, we do just need to know your go-to happy hour drink to get started. Oh, that's easy. I'm actually really boring. I only drink one thing. Red wine. So that's an awesome occasion for me. We love that. That's a classic. Do you have any favorite brands off the top of your head? Brands are all different. I stick to like specific varietals.

So I love Italian wines. I love Cabernet. I love Pinot Noir. Those are kind of my go-to. Love that. Love that so much. Okay, well, let's get to the topic at hand today. Tell us a little bit about your career path so far.

You know, if you were kind of in a job interview right now and the interviewer asked, tell me briefly about yourself, what would you say? Sure. So I would say my background is pretty interesting, I think, for a marketer because I've kind of done it all. I have a dynamic background working in a bunch of different functional areas of marketing as well as different types of industries, agency side, client side. So I say for me, I kind of bring this unique perspective of being able to tie it all together and being very flexible and adaptable to that company specific need. And I really just love to grow and learn. So I've, I've like, you know, position myself to be in

these different areas so that eventually I can become a VP of marketing. That's my goal and my dream. And then I can help, you know, lead a team, having a better understanding of what they do. That's amazing. Well, so what have you learned in your most recent role or just any of your past roles, really? What's a valuable lesson that you'll take with you into your next role that you have? Yeah, I've learned.

So I was thinking about this and I think I have kind of to help guide those out there looking to break into marketing or help, you know, with whatever you're working on in your career. My answer is going to be very specific to marketing. Of course, there's other things you can learn like interpersonal skills and personal professional development. But for me, I think there's three main things, you know, As the industry evolves and data is so accessible, you can get inundated and get a little lost on how you measure your campaigns, how you're providing value to the organization. So the first thing I want to

mention is multi-touch attribution, which for those who don't know, it's pretty much just seeing how your marketing is doing in different platforms. So if you want to see if your email was successful or if your Instagram ad was successful, you can kind of track where your customer saw your ad or where they engaged in your marketing campaign on different platforms. And then did they convert? So did they make a purchase or did they go to your website or did they, you know, whatever action you want them to take? So that's really important because it helps you decide how do you put together your larger marketing campaign and know what's working and what's not. And then I would say evaluating. So kind of taking a step further. A lot of times when you're working at

companies, you know, the ultimate goal is to drive revenue. So some channels, if you're doing a big PR, let's say news release or a billboard in Times Square, it's harder to directly tie that to a purchase, but that doesn't mean that the channel is not effective. What that means is you just need to evaluate the different role each channel plays within the larger marketing funnel. So I think just kind of adjusting the mindset to that kind of, you know, can help you just look at things in a different way. My third thing I wanted to bring up is really spending a lot of time is understanding not just your customer, your existing customer, but who you

want to actually engage. So doing a very robust audience analysis to know where are the people that you want to capture? What are their interests? How do they think? How do you, you know, provide value to them? Are you talking to the right people? It's great if you have amazing creative or, you know, large marketing budget or all of this data, but at the end of the day, it's kind of wasting your efforts if you aren't getting in front of the right people, you know, people are the ones making decisions. So I think understanding their thought process is very helpful. Yeah, absolutely. I couldn't agree more.

And I feel like you've learned that all throughout your career thus far, and you'll continue learning even more amazing lessons like that, that you can share with people in your next role. So I'm curious to hear what inspired your recent job search. Are you just looking to switch it up? Was there a layoff or something? Just share briefly what the process of looking for a new role has kind of been like today. I know the market is crazy right now. It is the craziest I've experienced. I've been in the industry for 12 years. I actually broke into the industry right after the housing bubble crisis and there were no

jobs and I had no experience. So that was very tough, but I found it easier to find a role then than now, as I've had acquired this experience and have these reputable companies, you know, under my belt and grew my network. So I would say it is extremely difficult no matter what situation you're in, but you just got to keep going. You can get defeated. If you stop, that's not going to help you land your role. And then actually loved the company and the people I was working for. So I've just had to reevaluate what direction I want to take my career in. And I would also say it's been a really interesting ride because I have applied to so many positions like most people. I've gotten amazing interviews. There's always this one little thing that kind of knocks you out. And I've also found that the people that you would really not expect anything from have really stepped up to the plate to help you. You know,

I've heard from so many ex-co-workers or random people on LinkedIn, and that's felt so great to, you know, kind of build a community and meet new people. And then, so that's kind of a silver lining. And then on top of that, right now, there are so many layoffs across every, I've found that there's this area of the job search market where people are sort of preying on if you're in a vulnerable situation, whether it's, for example, charging $1,000 to write your resume or giving you bad career advice, or even bringing you through the hiring process and just being very unprofessional and unethical. So I think you just have to learn to navigate that and, you know, trust your gut and stay focused. Wow, that's wild. And also, I think just today, I was on LinkedIn, and I saw someone that works at this particular company post, Hey, guys, there was a job that showed up on our page it's not actually a real job we must have gotten hacked and so sorry they're

like collecting all of your information but it's not us and I was like wow and this is a really big company I don't really want to say the name because I don't want to like put them on glass being like how did you get hacked but um but it was a very reputable brand. And it's just so crazy that there's just so many people out there taking advantage of people in the job market, right? Like you said, yeah, that's super interesting to me. I don't love that very much. I'd say, and I, you know, every time I've been in the job market, thankfully I've been employed. So I've had the luxury to be very selective, take my time, you know, didn't feel in this vulnerable situation. And I think just it's an employer's market right now. So they know there's a lot of candidates

out there, extremely qualified and talented. So they have the power, you know, they can pay you whatever they want. And there's someone that's going to take it right now. It is an imbalance that, you know, salaries are not at the rate that they used to be maybe a couple years ago. But I'll say a positive to this would be, you know, not just with resetting, you know, for me, I've been able to do a lot of professional development and growth and work on my skills and figure out how I can get to the place I want to be and, you know, learn as much as possible with the time that I have where normally you're focused on your role. You're learning things of how to make you better in that role. Now it's kind of like, what do I want to learn?

How do I want to look at other areas of marketing that maybe I didn't have the time to do? And, you know, professionally, that's one thing. And then on the personal side, I've been able to spend a lot of time with family and friends and do things that I just put on the back burner that make me happy. And then when you're happy, you know, you're a better employee and friend and daughter and all of that. Yeah, absolutely. I think sometimes those lulls or moments where we don't have a lot going on are a blessing in disguise to kind of reset because unfortunately, you know, we don't have the luxury like we did when we were kids. We, we didn't have, or we don't have summer break anymore. We don't get that like time just to have fun and relax. So that is a silver lining, I think in there. So I'm glad you mentioned that.

Cause that's a good encouragement for anyone kind of in a similar situation. Being able to reset is important. You know, we're in this, unfortunately, you know, as much as I love to work and I love what I do and have these big goals, it does become a little bit of a toxic cycle where you don't get to have self-care and take time out for you and things that are important in life. And this industry, you know, the job market right now, the economy just shows you how everything can change in a second that's out of your control. So kind of nurturing yourself. And for me, for example, I've started doing freelance work and I'm actually taking the time to grow and start my own business that I haven't been able to do. So I think it's just kind of making it into a positive and just putting into perspective that your job is important, but it's not everything. And who are the people that are going to be there for you

when things are hard or, you know, at the end of the day, when you're retired, you need to kind of plant those seeds and have other things I think to fall back on. Yeah, absolutely. Could not agree more. Well, speaking of that, what are you looking for in a future role or future clients? And are there any dream brands that you would love to work with? Yes. I, so what I'm looking for, for me, you know, there's certain projects you want to work on and certain skills you want to build, but I think the environment is so important because that really motivates you. So being around very collaborative people that are happy and enjoy their jobs and that you can learn something with, for me, is an amazing thing.

And I've had that, luckily, throughout some of my past roles. I want to really focus on this leadership aspect of marketing. I feel like I'm at a transitional stage in my career where I have done a lot of the execution and tactical work and worked for a number of different companies, whether it was a Fortune 500 company or an agency, if I was doing email marketing or paid media, just to give an example. So I think, like I said in the beginning, taking those skills and being able to lead a team and a department would be very fulfilling. I also value innovation and just thinking outside of the box, the market changes so fast as a consumer, our behavior shift as an organization, you have to continually optimize and prioritize how do you stay competitive.

So being in a company that's forward thinking and that you can push yourself to try new things is also very important. As far as what industry or company, I'm very open because I think for me, it also, you know, it matters the type of environment it is and then the actual work you're doing. So can I do something that's going to help me grow that is innovative using my skills and that you could find that in a lot of different industries and organizations. So I don't really sort of marketing case studies that really inspire me. And I've taken a lot of lessons from them would be first Nike. I'm obsessed with Nike, not just because of like a consumer and they make great shoes. It's really the way they've had an impact on people's lives and they sort of create an experience. They're this iconic brand.

Everybody globally knows who they are. I grew up, I'm actually from Chicago. So Michael Jordan is like, I worship him. And what they did with the Nike, the Jordan shoe is incredible. I mean, people standing outside at three in the morning to buy a shoe, hundreds and hundreds of people, you know, because of the demand, they're able to charge an enormous amount of money for a pair of gym shoes. So just seeing how they've thought about their marketing strategy overall and the quality of their ad campaigns, and it's timeless. To me, that's like the ultimate goal of what you should strive to be. And then I'll also say, this is my examples, maybe are kind of givens Amazon. The reason I love them is how they've, it goes back to innovation.

They've adapted, you know, I was buying my college textbooks there. Now you're talking to Alexa or, you know, they're getting into all of these different diversified industries and they're staying relevant. And then at the end of the day, they, what I was saying about audience, how your audiences, your customers matter, they've been so successful because they put that at the front and center of their customer experience and how they're treating their customers so I think that's a great model um and then for you know obvious reasons they've taken over the world at this point also might seem like an obvious so YouTube which falls under the Google umbrella the reason I like

them is really for their advertising and marketing capabilities. And when you advertise on different platforms, you want to make sure that the content is engaging and that you have access to data. And they are the biggest video platform. They've also been able to sort of stand the test of time because although streaming is relatively new, there are so many new players and they've consistently stayed at the top in their segment. So I really admire that. And I think also just they've given people an opportunity to start their careers. I mean, Justin Bieber launched this mega billion dollar business just from putting, you know, videos of him playing the guitar in his bedroom. So that type of disruption, I think, is something that every company should strive to do. Oh, I love those examples. And I'm so looking forward to seeing what your next step is.

I feel a move out west might be on the table considering Amazon's in Seattle, Nike's in Portland, and Google slash YouTube is in LA slash kind of everywhere, but out there somewhere. So I could see that happening for you. That actually is a great observation. Yeah. If you can convince my husband to move, I'll be there tomorrow. We'll be on that. Well, this has been amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your story and all of your learnings and what you're looking for next. Where can everyone follow along with you and keep up with you in your career journey moving forward? Yeah. And I'd love to connect with people. So LinkedIn, you know, first and foremost,

you can search my name, Nicole Hardwick, or if you enter the website, it's linkedin.com slash Nicole dash Hardwick. That's how you can find me. I also have a website coming soon that maybe I can share with you guys at a later date. And then my email address, it's mrs.nicolehardwick at gmail.com. Lovely. Thank you so much again for joining us. We'll link everything in the show notes for people.

And it's been a pleasure speaking with you today. Thank you guys. And good luck everybody out there in this market. It's not easy. currently open for hire. If you're a recruiter or a brand looking for new talent, or you just want to learn from your fellow peers in marketing who are in the job market right now, go ahead, go to the show notes, click the link to the article and read on. We'll see you online. We are so excited to share that our first ever free marketing happy hour digital resource is now available. Download the dream career game plan today at marketinghappyhr.com forward slash freebie. That's marketinghappyhr.com forward slash freebie. This five-step workbook will guide you through defining your

goals, building your network, diversifying your skills, influencing where you're at, and investing in your growth. Cassie and I created this resource with marketing careers in mind, but the framework can be applied to any industry. Our hope is that this workbook will help you truly elevate your career, whether you're in the market for a new position or just looking to make your mark in your current organization. No matter where this resource finds you, we are cheering you on every step of the way. So go check it out at marketinghappyhr.com forward slash freebie to download and make your career dreams come true.