Marketing Happy Hour - Career Advice I Wish I’d Known: Tips for Growth and Balance | Solo Ep w/ Host Cassie Tucker

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. Hey there, it is Cassie. I'm all solo by myself here today, which I'll explain a little bit more about in a minute. But today I wanted to kind of do a little bit of a reflection episode. I've hit

Starting point is 00:01:01 a couple of different milestones recently just with being self-employed, but also I'm about eight years in now into my career and I have learned a lot recently. And so I'm like, you know what? I'm going to share some of the lessons learned along the way. These are more career driven slash life lessons that I think go towards really any career that you're in. But specifically here, we are either marketers or entrepreneurs. And so these are things that are definitely geared to you specifically. But here's the deal. I'm like literally sitting in my car right now recording this episode. Erica and I are both based in Florida. And if you didn't know, a hurricane just hit Florida, two hurricanes actually. And my house has no wifi. We've had no wifi for over a week now. And so I've just been kind of making it work wherever I can. And so I'm recording this on my laptop.

Starting point is 00:01:58 This setup is hilarious. I should actually take a photo and share it on social. But originally with everything going on, hurricanes, personal things that Erica's dealing with, I was like, you know what? We don't need to post an episode this week. It's fine. We'll just kind of take a break. But then I thought about the fact that we have made a commitment to you. We said we would show up every Thursday. We would post an episode. And so I had to come on here and record something. I don't ever do solo episodes. I have personally been a part of probably 200 plus podcast episodes and I think I've done maybe one solo episode. It's a little weird. It's a little bit like I'm talking to myself,

Starting point is 00:02:40 but I'm talking to you. It's okay. You're here with me. You're tuning in. You're listening. And we're just having a little chat. So please be thinking about us. We're going through a lot. Erica and I both, Erica has some personal things happening with family and just a lot of craziness. So if you think about it, shoot Erica a message, let her know you're thinking of her. I know that's going to mean a lot to her. But again, so purpose of this episode, I put together probably 10 or 11 different just strategies, points, reflections, tips, things that I feel have personally contributed to my growth and quote unquote success or just opportunities over the year, I feel like, you know, success is a relative term, right? I mean, for me, I just want to ultimately be happy and healthy.

Starting point is 00:03:32 That to me is success. But in terms of career, just things that I have done over the years or learned that have helped me get to the next step. And these are things that I did not necessarily have in my tool belt on day one. These are things that I've learned along the way, even things I've learned recently, like in the last few months. And I was actually listening to Will Gadara's Unreasonable Hospitality. His book is absolutely fantastic. If you have not read it, I highly recommend. And a lot of these ideas or thoughts kind of sparked, they were reminders that those are things that I have implemented

Starting point is 00:04:10 into my career and to my roles over the years. And so again, I wanted to share these with you. These are just reflections that I want to hold tight to me. I want to continue to step into these over the years and I hope they're encouraging to you. Okay, so number one, slow down. This is something I am learning every single day, but slowing down is so incredibly important. And slowing down is just in life, it's in your work. You know, it feels good to check a task off of your list. And for me early on in my career, I would try to go as quick as possible to plow through tasks and to hand them in or finish projects or finish campaigns. And I found that there were a lot of errors in my work, there'd be misspellings, there'd be just issues with copy with imagery, whatever. And I've just found that it is important to slow down,

Starting point is 00:05:07 check my work, check it again before delivering it because it's not great when you deliver something and then there's an issue and you have to kind of explain why there's an issue there. Slowing down is really important, but also slowing down in life. I think we try to do too much. We are a go, go, go society and slowing down is really important just for overall mental health, making sure we're checking in with ourselves, checking in with others, etc. Number two, we say this a lot on the show, but relationships are literally everything. I definitely would not be where I am today having the opportunities that I have without relationships 1000%. That is at the top of my list for career, for life, etc. And for me, I've learned that genuinely taking time to get to know people, ask questions, remember details about their life, celebrate them, etc. is really foundational elements to building intentional relationships. And relationships, you can't always approach them with thinking you're going to get something

Starting point is 00:06:10 out of them because you may not necessarily, or it may take a really long time for a benefit to come to that relationship. But I promise you, if you go into that relationship for the right reason, it will pay off in the long run. Number three. Okay, value alignment is also very much at the top of my list. I cannot tell you how many times I have entered into a client relationship, a job when I was in corporate, etc, where I felt like there was a misalignment of values. And this is really, really huge because I tell you these opportunities that you take on are a direct reflection of who you are as a person, the people that you get involved with, the companies that you get involved with. And so having aligned values with those brands, with those clients, even with people and like

Starting point is 00:07:04 normal personal relationships, it is absolutely critical. And so I have had situations where I have felt like originally value alignment was there. And then over time, I started to see things happen, whether it's unethically, etc. And I have had to check in with myself and remind myself of my personal values and asking myself, is this opportunity still aligned with my values? And if the answer is no, it's time to go. It's time to make a change. So I challenge you, if you haven't done so, kind of write down your personal value statement, your personal values, list them out, and you can kind of make decisions against that list of values. Number four, I think, I can't remember if this is number four or five,

Starting point is 00:07:51 but you get the gist. Say yes and figure it out later. Take big risks. Do the big things, especially while you're young. If you're a millennial or a Gen Z or even above that, it is never too late to take big risks, try new things. I moved to New York City early in my career after like visiting the city for the first time two weeks prior. It's an insane decision that I made, but I'm so grateful that I did it and it was so incredibly critical for my career growth, my personal growth, etc. And so if you have an inkling to try something, to do something different, to take on a wild job, take on a wild project, go for it. Like if you feel this genuine push or this inkling inside to take that on, try it out. It's not permanent and you

Starting point is 00:08:41 can always switch it up later. Number six, I think, try problem solving on your own before you go to a leader. So I cannot tell you how many times when I was younger earlier in my career where something was confusing or I couldn't figure it out and I would immediately go ask someone, my leader, a team member, whatever, and ask them how to handle whatever that thing is that I was dealing with. And I've learned over time that being an innate problem solver is so important. Taking initiative to Google to figure things out on my own before going to a leader, it stands out a lot to that leader if you have shown that you have done everything possible to figure out whatever that is before coming to them.

Starting point is 00:09:26 They will take notice in that versus you immediately going to them with every single problem. Not only are you bothering them, but it also shows them that you do not take initiative in situations. Number seven, no matter what you do, you have to be able to articulate why your work matters. And if you feel like you do not have any sort of purpose in what you're doing, it's either a leadership problem, which is not your fault, or you need to do some more self-discovery. You have to have in your heart and in your soul written down kind of like your values, like exactly who you are, what you feel your purpose is, what you feel

Starting point is 00:10:05 you're passionate about, and all of that stuff has to align in your work. It all adds up to something. And so I believe that you truly, I truly have the opportunity to help people and to make a change and a difference in other people's lives and that is directly tied to you doing something that you know you are passionate about, that you have this drive to want to help others, to want to shape the future. And once you find exactly what that thing is, it's huge and it's absolutely career and life changing and you can continue to make decisions about what's next for you against what you feel you are passionate about or how you can make to make decisions about what's next for you against what you feel you are passionate about or how you can make a difference in other people's lives. Number eight,

Starting point is 00:10:50 have a good attitude and do not take things personally. I feel like that's pretty self-explanatory. I don't think there's a whole lot else to that, but a good attitude specifically is so incredibly important. Respect your leaders. I know a lot of times bosses, we don't love the decisions they make. We don't love how they say things or whatever. And we tend to take things personally and we get frustrated. And that frustration comes out. I'm telling you, it is not worth it. I think you can respectfully and very professionally express your

Starting point is 00:11:27 opinion and express your viewpoint, but you have to do it in a respectful way in order to be recommendable, to stand out. We have to have good attitudes about our work, show up with a smile on our face, do the right thing, say the right thing, even if it doesn't make sense. And with that, too, if you feel like you have shown up and respectfully shared your opinion over and over again, and you still disagree with the way a company is being ran with a leader, if the leader's treating you poorly, quietly move on and leave. It's time to go at that point. Number nine, I think. I really should have numbered each of these points. But number nine, humility, humility is important. So this kind of goes along the lines of the attitude piece.

Starting point is 00:12:13 But remembering that you're incredible, you're amazing, you have done and accomplished so much, but also you are not like this huge deal. And the reason I say that is we can't get a big head about ourselves and think we are better than everyone else because we start to be unkind and a little bit rude and kind of that lack of respect starts to come out. So remember that you have the opportunity to constantly continue to learn. You have this opportunity to grow no matter how far along in your career you are. And so looking for those ways to learn, to listen to feedback, to get better each and every single day. Number 10, every day matters most in your career and in your role. So every day matters. Every detail matters. And the reason I say that is because I think sometimes we think that each day while we're working, we're grinding,

Starting point is 00:13:13 it doesn't really matter. There's not a lot of impact we can make in a single day, but it does. I think every action that we take every single day, It's compound interest to our future and it is adding up to that end goal that we have for our lives or for our career. So remember that each decision is not to be taken lightly. Do what you need to do to reach your goals each and every single day. Advocate for yourself and remember that each little little tiny micro step, it's that one percent that adds up to that future that you have for yourself or that you're looking to create for yourself. Number 11, your role is just an assignment. This was inspired by Les Alfred, who has been on the podcast before. She's absolutely amazing. She was also a part of

Starting point is 00:14:01 our panel at an event that we did very recently in New York City. But again, she said, your role is just an assignment. So the reason she said that is because she was explaining how important it is for us to have things going on outside of our life. Things that we're passionate about. People that we're building relationships with. Things that fuel us and that add to the value that we have and hold as a human being outside of our work. I think a lot of times, especially in this generation, we take work as our full identity

Starting point is 00:14:33 and it is not our full identity. It is a part of who we are, but there's so much more to us than just work, our job, our career. This is something I've had to learn very hard. It's a hard lesson I've had to learn over the years because I love to work. I'm not gonna lie. I love it and sometimes I work too much and forget I have other things going for me outside of career. Number 12, I think. It might not work is a terrible reason not to try. This is a direct quote that came from Unreasonable Hospitality that I am reading right now. Again, this kind of goes back to taking big risks.

Starting point is 00:15:14 I think a lot of times we have this imposter syndrome and we have this fear that if we try X, Y, Z, what if it doesn't work? What if, you know, the outcome isn't exactly what we expected? And to that, I say, so what? So what if it doesn't work out? You at least tried. You have lessons. You have learnings to take away from that. And I think you are better off in that situation than you could have been or than you would have been, excuse me, if you didn't try in the first place. So again, do the wild things. Try the thing. Try the project. Try the new strategy in your career, in your role. Just go for it and see what happens. And if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out

Starting point is 00:15:59 and you've learned something. Number 13, I think 14, whatever number this is. This is my last point here to share today, but clarity of communication is everything. In your conversations, in your copy, when you're writing marketing messaging, clarity is so, so important. Do not be afraid to communicate, communicate again, and communicate a third time. Making sure that people around you are understanding exactly what you're saying. Check in if you're unsure of something or something doesn't make sense. Ask. Clarify. Clarity is so important as you continue on in your career. And again, as you write those marketing messages, understanding exactly what you're trying to articulate and being able to simplify that and communicate that to others is so incredibly important. That is all I have for you today.

Starting point is 00:16:53 This was a fun 16 minutes of solo recording. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being here. It's again, it's been a challenging few weeks and even challenging year and so for me to kind of step out and just consider what I've learned over the years is really helpful for me just to see how far that I've come I think a lot of times I'm just kind of in the day-to-day and I'm just thinking about what I accomplished that day and sometimes it feels very small and very minuscule. So looking back and kind of a holistic, grander scale and knowing exactly what I've accomplished and congratulating myself for that is huge. And so I encourage you to do the same. Take a minute to just reflect on what you've learned over time, pass it along to someone else too. I think there's so much knowledge to be shared. And even if you are day one in your career, there's something that you learned in day

Starting point is 00:17:50 one or even learned in school that you can pass along to someone else. And so I encourage you to share. I encourage you to continue learning. Share this episode with someone if it resonated with you and then we have our email newsletter, which I kind of recapped some of these points in today's newsletter as this is going out on October the 2024. But thank you for being here. Appreciate you guys listening. Thank you so much. And we'll see you next week. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Marketing Happy Hour podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please remember to subscribe, rate, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. If you want more of Marketing Happy Hour, but don't know where to

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Marketing Happy Hour - Career Advice I Wish I’d Known: Tips for Growth and Balance | Solo Ep w/ Host Cassie Tucker

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