Marketing Happy Hour - Get the Most out of LinkedIn as a Brand and Professional | Jenny Park of LinkedIn

Episode Date: November 12, 2021

We ended the last interview episode of season 2 on a high note with Jenny Park, Senior Influencer & Partnerships Manager at LinkedIn. Jenny not only shares her career journey with us - going from Cheerios to LinkedIn, but she also peels the curtain back on the world’s most famous networking app by answering the questions everyone asks themselves about the platform including “what in the world am I supposed to use LinkedIn for besides hiring?” If you’re looking to get the most out of LinkedIn and become an expert at networking on and offline, this episode is for you. Grab a drink and listen in.  ----- Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Jenny's episode: Influencer Marketing 101: Building and Measuring Campaigns | Geena Massara of Girlfriend Collective Productivity 101: How to Hustle Sanely | Jess Massey of Hustle Sanely How to Build Brand Loyalty | Kara Salazar of Southwest Airlines ____ Say hi! DM us on Instagram and share your favorite moments from this episode - 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! Follow Jenny on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mohae.jennypark/ Connect with Jenny on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferkimpark/ Follow MHH on Instagram: https://instagram.com/marketinghappyhr Follow MHH on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-happy-hour/ Subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter, Marketing Happy Hour Weekly: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/marketing-happy-hour-weekly-6950530577867427840/ Join our Marketing Happy Hour Insiders LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9238088/

Welcome to the Marketing Happy Hour podcast, where you'll hear career-defining advice, powerful social media strategies, unique creative tips, groundbreaking influencer marketing tactics, and more from marketing experts that represent some of the world's leading brands. So grab a drink and join us for this week's episode. It was recently reported that 66% of video ads are less than 30 seconds. In addition, 68% of people will happily watch a business video if it's under a minute. It is no lie that short form video content has been and will continue to dominate social media platforms. We've seen platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and now Facebook add these features to their platform. And the reason being is because consumers love short-form video content.

People have short attention spans. So creating content that is quick, snappy, and straight to the point is exactly what consumers need and want. If you haven't started to focus on short-form video content for your brands or even for yourself, highly recommend looking into it, especially coming into the new year, because this trend that isn't actually a trend will continue to dominate social media platforms. This week, I was so excited to sit down with Jenny Park, senior influencer and partnerships manager at LinkedIn. As you may know by now and listening to our podcast, LinkedIn is my favorite social media platform. And it was so cool to be able to chat with someone heavily involved in the day-to-day of bringing that platform to life. When I started following Jenny on Instagram, she was working for General Mills on the Cheerios brand team and I've admired from afar all of the career steps that she's taken since then. Building a brand is more than what you sell or what you

offer. It's about who you are. And we get to learn from Jenny how to establish who you are as a brand. Listen in. Hey, Jenny, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm doing well. I've been following you for so long on social media. So I'm so excited to speak with you. But before I do, I have a very important question for you that we ask all of our guests here on Marketing Happy Hour. And that is what is in your glass tonight? Well, one ditto, I've been following you as well. So I'm really excited for doing this. It comes it's probably no surprise what I'm going to be drinking, which is an iced vanilla latte with oat milk.

Just also why we're starting a little bit later. I had to get my coffee. But that's what I'm drinking. What are you drinking? Um, well, I actually I think so I think we have this podcast recording or this episode with you coming out at the end of this season. And so everybody will already know what I'm about to say because I think I've said it in every episode prior to this um but I am drinking an onda it's a tequila seltzer that Shay Mitchell came out with um Shay Mitchell from like Pretty Little Liars and she has like the cutest ever like bag brand as well I'm kind of just obsessed with everything she does. Yeah. I love it. I'm not familiar with that drink, but I actually love Babe. Like I have her carry on, I have her backpack, I have a couple of her travel. They're really good products.

I know. I know. And I love their branding and everything that they're also doing with influencers and stuff. I don't know if you've seen some of their like, influencer events that they've been having lately, they kind of incorporate both both base and onda together. It's super, super interesting. Where Where did you get your coffee from Starbucks or somewhere else? So I'm currently on a coffee bean kick, which I think is the most LA thing. Where are you based Erica? I'm actually in Tampa, Florida. Okay. Okay.

So we recently, my husband and I, we recently moved to LA about four weeks ago. And so for a while I was a blue bottle girl just because it's the thing in the Bay and I loved it. But recently I've been getting coffee beans or vanilla powder is super yummy. So I drove to get it. Yeah, it was good. That sounds so good. We'll have to chat all things LA coffee because I have like so many LA shops on my bucket list. I am like dying to hear how they are. So if you've been to them, we'll have to chat after this about that. Yeah, absolutely. So you've been at LinkedIn for quite a while now.

And prior to that, you were at General Mills. I actually think I started following you on Instagram when you were on the Cheerios team there. Could you share a bit about your background and then kind of how you built your career into what it is today? Yeah, I'm happy to. So I started my career actually in advertising. So that's what I studied in undergrad. I went to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They have a really incredible four-year advertising program and a pretty robust chapter, the AAF, American Advertising Federation. And so I got plugged into advertising through that. I didn't have that many connections or

actions. Frankly, I didn't know what advertising was an industry when I entered in college. But through the AAF, I got a ton of exposure to programs and to brands and just to like understanding advertising one on one. So had a couple of internships there in Chicago through different AAF programs and just fell in love with the idea of brand building and storytelling and corporate life of what it's like to like navigate with other teams and work together and build relationships, all that stuff. And so I, my first job out of college was at General Mills and I was there for about four years. And so when I in General Mills, I don't know if they still do this, but they were very much like a rotational type of company, like every 18 months or so it was like

expected that every person in their entire marketing org rotated to different teams. And the whole idea was to give you exposure to small brands, big brands, like frozen brands, healthy brands, whatever you name it, it was just like just to become a really well-rounded marketer and so for those who aren't familiar with general molds they have a whole house of brands from cheerios which was what i worked on all the way to like yo play nature valley larabar um and like hamburger helper progresso there's a lot of fun stuff there so it was just like a huge dream when I landed that job, just because we grew up eating so many of those products, like snacks and you play and stuff like that. So I was there for about four years. Like I said, when I started, I was in this interesting

central function role called the pricing center of excellence. I think that's what it's called. And essentially my role was to be aligned to a certain category and almost like a consultant for that portfolio of brands and advising on their coupon, their pricing strategy, thinking of how it could align to different promotions that were going on and calculating like how much volume it would drive. It was a mess. Erica, like when I joined, I literally did not know how to use Excel. I did not understand how business worked. And so it was bad, but I'm so grateful for that opportunity because I learned like business foundations and business 101. So I was in that role like pretty shortly, not,

not super long. And I was pretty vocal about that my passion and I think and a lot of my was like a lot closer to social and culture. And so I had the opportunity to move over to Cheerios where I was there for the remainder of my time. So then I started on social and then my scope just continued to expand. So then I had PR and comms and then experiential, and then eventually like all of our paid media strategy working with our agency. So it was a super fun time. Just every step of the way, just getting more experience and more understanding of build a brand and build relevance with your audiences. But around the that year when I left one, it was winter and I was in Minneapolis.

I was tired of the below zero degree weather. And then I was also just like really curious about what it would look like to work in tech. I think it was around that time when like those best places to work lists came out. And I saw like LinkedIn and other tech companies just like dominating that list. And I knew that LinkedIn was a very companies just like dominating that list. And I knew that LinkedIn was a very like mission brand, which was something that was really attractive to me and why I loved working on Cheerios. And so I looked at my husband and I was like, these jobs that I'm seeing, like, they're not in Minneapolis.

Like he's like, where are they? And I'm like, they're in California. And he's like, go for it. Let's see what happens. And so it was kind of a whirlwind from there. Like I applied, I interviewed, I moved over. And so I, um, went, jumped over to LinkedIn, my husband and I, we backed all of our stuff and, and moved to California Bay area. Um, and LinkedIn was so great about it because they wanted me to start pretty quickly, but we had like responsibilities in Minneapolis we had a community and so they actually let me for the first few months um do the job kind of remote and fly back and forth like every other week to like have some face time

in the office build relationships but get to like close out the chapter in our life in Minneapolis which was so fun to fly back and forth. So yeah, I came over to LinkedIn, and I've been here now for four years. And even here to my role has kind of just evolved, like every year or so, which I really enjoy just getting a change, like change is something I'm really energized by and like new challenges to solve is something that I really love. So when I started, I was in this like strategy and operations type of role, reporting into our CMOs, chief of staff, and my role was really how do we build greater connectivity against within our whole entire marketing and comms organization. At the time, I think it was like 700. And now we're like growing to 900,000, even more. And so

it was like a quickly growing org um and that's also was pretty serendipitous when that was also the year that linkedin was investing in our brand for the first time like you would be surprised erica i think if you saw linkedin like four years ago we didn't have a font we didn't have a guideline we didn't have colors all that stuff and so as they were kind of building that out there i was i kind of raised my hand and I was like hey I have my background is in brand like I'd love to dedicate some time also supporting the team and so I worked with the team about like 50% of my time and then that team grew and they were like why don't you come over and join full-time so I was on the brand who we want to stand for how is that going to manage itself and in our expression

and then now how do we enable and inspire our entire company of 16 000 employees to like board and internalize our brand and really how to come to life as i'm sure you and so many who are also in the marketing field understand like brand is every single touch point that people engage with you on so how do we get everyone to really adopt this brand? So that was my focus. And then recently, I actually just had the opportunity to now join our influencer and partnerships team where I get to help build out our new function of building greater presence with influencers and really think about it from like a household name influencer perspective. How do we engage with them in different brand activations and longer term partnerships and help them see the value of LinkedIn to help grow their businesses and brands. And so that's kind of where I am today. And I'm on week two of that new role.

That's incredible. I love hearing this story about the early days of LinkedIn. It's, it seems like, you know, they've always had their stuff together. But it's so funny to hear that, like, they go through everything that everyone else does, and just trying to grow into who their brand is. So totally, super interesting to hear that. I'd love to hear just a little more about your current role in influencer. What's LinkedIn doing in the influencer and partnership space right now? Yeah. So I chatted about this a little bit right before we started this interview, but we talked about how LinkedIn is starting to invest really in the creator space. And so just thinking about content creators and finding ways that we can, as a company, really provide value for them and incentivize them for all the great content they're creating. I think not only just LinkedIn, but a lot of social media brands like Pinterest, TikTok, Instagram, they all see that creators are truly the heart of every single social media network. They're the ones that are creating content, creating community with one another, and just inspiring other people to also

express themselves in different ways. What's really beautiful about LinkedIn, and we're certainly not the first to be investing creator, like we are learning a lot also from our peers. But I think what's beautiful about LinkedIn is that because we are tied to jobs, and that like our mission is to create economic opportunity for every member. And like, we really see success as people who have all the talent, but may not have been born into opportunity or born into the right connections to get to where they want to be. So people are just really generous on LinkedIn and wanting to support one another, give each other connections, give each other opportunities. And so we hope that creating content is something that just continues to accelerate that. So anyways, and so we're really

investing in the creator community, especially people who don't just work in nine to five jobs, like, like even this, like, I love that you're doing this. And then we talked about other side, side gigs on our own, but like, so many people are multi hyphen, hyphenates now. So how can we get more of those conversations on LinkedIn, help people connect with other brands and partners and all that stuff. So that's a huge thing that we're trying to invest in as a company. So in that spirit, we also really want to engage influencers and top talent and help them see the value of LinkedIn as we see so many influencers and celebrities out there also building their

own businesses and their own brands. And we see so much opportunity of connecting them to the members on LinkedIn and engaging in that new way. And then also connecting them if they're growing their teams and hiring or just wanting to like showcase what they're building. That's kind of the my job is kind of twofold of like building those relationships with influencers and talent and helping them see the value of LinkedIn connect with members and then also as we think about from a brand perspective any campaigns or activations that we do where we want to partner with an influencer and just have either greater awareness or greater impact campaigns are tied to helping and some members in one way whether connecting with other members and building their community

or connecting them to a job and finding that opportunity. So any way that we can also align influencer who's also passionate about any of those topics as it relates to jobs. And the thing that we saw in the past year was that action of work and intersect of like mental health and work, parenting and work, working remote or

your passion and work, all those things. So like aligning with influencers who are also passionate about talking about those topics and finding ways that we can just amplify that messaging. No, I love that. I love that a lot. And we actually, I think that seems to kind of be like a theme that we're hearing from our guests on this podcast during this season actually is kind of just like what the future of work looks like, because now our personal lives are so much more intertwined to work. And I think that's super important to highlight things like mental health, empathy in the workplace. That's been a big thing that we've focused on and

everything too. So just a follow up question to that, what do you kind of look for in influencers when you guys are looking for those people to speak on your platform? Or, or do you know, because I know, I know that you've only been in the role for a little bit here, a few different approaches. So I can kind of talk it through in those different situations so one when we think about brand campaigns it really depends on like the topic so for example when we did our um there's a few that I can think from this previous year which was like our Black History Month campaign or International Women's Day campaign or Pride Month campaign like of course like let's align ourselves with a with an influencer and talent that can really resonate

with that community or identify with that community and have some sort of like personal perspective to share and inspire others. The second thing that we really are committed to is like creating more belonging on LinkedIn. I don't know if you've ever felt this, but I, I sort of like that fear of like what the post on LinkedIn, you know, your bosses might see it, other people might see it. There is this barrier fear. And so we do want to make people feel like more comfortable posting on LinkedIn and kind of just changing that perception of like, you don't have to be your most buttoned up self. You don't have to act like other people truly be yourself. So are there other influencers talent that kind of also just permeate that

message of belonging and authenticity, but kind of like, still has some sort of like, tie in that people could relate to whether they also work or they have started their own business or their entrepreneur, like having that sort of time is really important. We know that that's like the the theme of LinkedIn is like, sort of that tie. And so we also want to make sure that we're being authentic in that way. So at a high level, those are the things that we look like, like an ongoing evergreen perspective. I think there are a lot of influencers who are not on the platform today, but can hit those few things that we talked about that are aligned with our mission of creating economic opportunity whether

that's through like helping other communities rise up whether it's through mentorship like there's so many people who really are passionate about that in their own person and also have businesses and brands that were like oh you would be so great on the platform and people would love to like connect with you and follow you and like be inspired by you so there are some of of those people who are currently not on the platform that we'd want to, we'd want to engage with it. Yeah, absolutely. That's so awesome to hear. Um, and it's funny, like I just, on just my personal LinkedIn, I just started posting more like personal stuff, mainly just highlighting like local coffee shops and stuff like that. Cause that's, I'm something I'm super passionate about. So I've just been starting to kind of like share

that out and I've seen a really good response to that too. And I think that's something that's totally true is people, people don't know that they can, you know, go beyond just their professional self on LinkedIn. So that's super cool. Yeah, I always say that LinkedIn is my favorite social media platform. I think that there's so much untapped potential in connections that you make on LinkedIn. And actually, that's how we've gotten a lot of our marketing happy hour guests, actually. And it's unique in that connections are kind of reciprocal. So instead of just like following someone on Instagram or, or following someone and they never really see who you are. If you

connect with each other on LinkedIn, it's kind of like they're following you back. So that's one main thing that I apart from other social networks. Is there anything else that you think sets LinkedIn apart? That makes me so happy. That's awesome that you've been able to source people in that way. I'll speak about this like from a personal level. Like I check LinkedIn a lot during my day, like it's on my homepage. So it's an embarrassing amount, but so I can share personally like how it sets itself apart compared to other social networks. And for me, I think there's something. So I think the first thing is like one, like you can control it. And so because that I think I've been pretty intentional about like,

what are the things I want to see on my LinkedIn feed? So I follow a lot of people who are really inspiring or doing cool things. And so because of that, there's something about, there's like this positive of stuff that I'm following that I feel inspired by. So I do follow like HBR. And so they'll always share different articles about whether it's things like here's how to tackle imposter syndrome, or here's how you can like set yourself up in a virtual environment, whatever, like that kind of stuff. And then there's a few other I think I'm really intrigued by the lifestyle and beauty industry don't work in those industries. So I started following some people who work in that and they'll share launches that they've done or different things that are coming. And there's something that I feel satisfied about that I get like a peek into their work life, like what they're working on what they're doing so I really enjoy enjoy that aspect of it yeah

absolutely one person that comes to mind is uh Ryan I don't know how to say his last name I think it's Glick or something um he has obviously this comes back to coffee but he has a company called Coffee and Clothes and he is always posting about their collaborations that they do with like these major brands where they do like experiential stuff where they're kind of like, you know, bringing a coffee truck to whatever city that's all branded with the individual brands, you know, logo and everything like that. And I love following him. I just that's I die whenever every time I see something on my feed that he posts so I totally know that yeah I don't follow him but maybe I will okay you need I'll send him to you I'm sure you'll you'll love it too you also love

coffee and they work with like some pretty big brands like that I think they've worked with like Dior and I know that they've worked with um some like really big beauty brands as well I'll have to send you uh that's really interesting okay yeah absolutely um what advice would you give to brands who haven't yet explored marketing on LinkedIn a lot of our listeners I know are social media managers who are probably wondering, you know, is it important for my brand to have a presence on LinkedIn or should I focus on other channels or what? What do you think is a good piece of advice for brands? Yeah. And I'll think about it both from like small brands and big brands too. I do think so. I think, and tell me,

but the thing that I've seen that's so huge in the last couple of years as a trend, but also for me personally, that there's something about brands that we're really attracted to, but now it's all like, what is their company culture? Like what is their employee experiences? Like what do they stand for? Do they stand for anything? Do they mean it like what do they stand for do they stand for anything do they mean it when they say they stand for something so all of that also feels like it's truly part of how people perceive brands now as like I am but also what I want to work there one day and so because I think that continues to become one in the same more and more and more that is really important in terms of

brands really establishing themselves on LinkedIn, because I think still a lot of people who are looking for jobs or just looking at companies, that's a really good opportunity for them to showcase like who they are, not only as like the products they're creating and, and, and just like that, like vibe that they're exuding, but also the way that they're treating their employees and the way that they're fostering that culture. I think that's a really good indicator to the company. And I think people look at these brands both from like prospective employees,

but also just like people who like want to like a brand or not. And so I think for like all and big, I think that's true. For smaller brands, especially, I have a good amount of friends who are entrepreneurs and they, for so long, we're like, I don't really know if I want to create something on LinkedIn because I'm not big enough to like hire people. And I, and I think

my perspective now on that is like, as there are more and more creators on LinkedIn too, there's something about just like not only using LinkedIn for a hiring perspective, but like a showcasing your portfolio, connecting with other people or like even attracting prospective clients. I met some who said that they would use LinkedIn to attract prospective clients and they would like search who were what, use the in-mail feature to reach out to them. And there was something about the LinkedIn like safety, I guess, that brands and other people would actually respond to them more so than when they just DM'd someone. It just felt a little bit more like a trusted conversation.

And so I think for both of those things, I think that would be a huge incentive for brands. Yeah, absolutely. And I think more and more brands are starting to have those important conversations, starting to take the lead um and showcase that on linkedin kind of like how you said um you know in perspective employees and things like that i've seen like bumble and you know some other people follow in their footsteps kind of um post on there that they're you know giving their employees a week off because they want to just invest in them further and give them a little bit of a break um since this whole

pandemic stuff has been just insane so I think that's super inspiring to see on LinkedIn as well I love that aspect of Bumble so cool too I love following bumble I know they're the best I um I actually applied for a job at bumble like a long time ago I was like and it totally was not a job that would have suited me I just was like I'm just gonna apply for whatever I can it was like when I was I honestly think it was like before I don't't know. It was like right after I got out of college. I lived in Nashville for a while. And it was like when I was living in Nashville right after college, I was like, I'm going to work for them.

They're amazing. But now I just follow them on LinkedIn. So, I mean, it's kind of the same thing. Ahead of your time to recognize Bumble for what it is even back then you know there was there were a lot of events um back then that bumble was putting on for like i think they did like a city rep program or something like that so i was connected with the city rep in nashville and they were doing a lot of events there and that's like the only reason why i knew like who they were beyond a dating app and i think they still have so much

potential and not to like segue conversation have they still have so much potential with their career side of things their bumble biz I think that's incredible so anyway back to LinkedIn and back to you so a lot of your experience prior and then kind of coming into the global brand manager role at LinkedIn revolved around brand building and managing brand expression. So what's something within the brand building space that you're most proud of accomplishing, whether it's at LinkedIn or in your previous experience? Oh, that's such a good question. I think one thing with LinkedIn, so before, like I joke that we didn't have brand guidelines or, like, a font or anything. But what we did about LinkedIn was that, like, our culture was very much, like, what we said it was.

Like, we talked about relationships. We want people to be their authentic selves. We want people to be their authentic selves. We want people to have career transformations. Like we want people to like, yeah, just like have those friendships and true. And so, but what we knew about how people perceived LinkedIn, that they were like, oh, LinkedIn is just for the CEOs or LinkedIn is just for like the ladder climbers. Or there was this perception out in the world about what LinkedIn was. And it just was so different than what the culture worked there. And so a lot of what we were doing when we were creating the guidelines and codifying all of it was really helping employees see, like, we need people, like, members and customers to see LinkedIn the way that we see it. So one of the coolest things I got to do in my job was we did these like

immersion sessions or almost like trainings of being people understand like who we are as a brand and who we want to be and the way that we're going to express ourselves. And I got to go from the world. We did it through Namer or we did it through like the Bay and Chicago and New York. And then I got to go to London, Singapore, China. Yeah. To connect with those employees all around the world. There are global brands. We want to be represented in that way and helping people understand, like almost like feel it, especially just like for a company, it's hard to like your brand or feel it and see it and kind of like

make it feel tangible. Like it's not like a cereal box where you could be like, ah, this is my baby. We really want to help people to see like this is who we are and like how every employee kind of feel that type of like pride and ownership to want to communicate that and everything that they did. And so that was like one of the coolest things I worked on. And I think that's the thing I learned is that like, your employees for every brand need to and not just the brand team and not just the marketing team needs to understand it is and also have a sense of ownership of how they can exude that and everything that they do.

Absolutely. Yeah, that's such great insight. And that's so cool that you were able to travel all around and kind of like bring that to the masses. That's amazing. Well, obviously, LinkedIn is like the top, you know, networking website. So what are your tips for networking, actually? And what strategies can people use on or off LinkedIn to build relationships and really cultivate a career that they'll love? Oh, my God, good question. So I would say on LinkedIn is like, you can comment on people you don't know like, you can comment on people you don't know. Like you can comment and engage with people. That's something that I've started been doing more recently. And I do that on Instagram. Like I'll comment and engage with

people that I don't personally know and kind of build relationships with them in that way. So I've been trying to do that more on LinkedIn. And I think there's something there about it feeling less intimidating that if you don't want to formally invite them to your network or connect in that way, like you can just like comment and engage and see what happens and have conversations in that way. finding a way to connect that maybe it's setting up time for a 30 minute phone call. I know that sometimes it's hard to, especially when people are zoomed out all day to be like, Oh, yeah. So if you could ask a question, and I think people are more than happy to like answer like via text, I think it's a little bit a lower barrier in that way. Yeah, absolutely. I know I get a lot of like, I don't think it's just like random people trying to connect and reaching out to me and just saying like can we set up a 30-minute call and I'm

like oh man well I would love like I would love to hop on a call and help you but I know that you're gonna sell me something or try to sell me something and I'm like oh my gosh so actually just insight from you is that a good tactic or is there another way something. And I'm like, Oh my gosh. So actually just insight from you, is that a good tactic or is there another way of going about it more like, you know, organic and conversational? And then, then maybe a sale will come, you know, later on in that connection. What, what do you see works best? That's a good question. I think so. I think that is what it is because I do think even like selling is still relationship building first. I don't think what it is because I do think even like selling is still relationship

building first. I don't think no one feeling of being sold to no matter what that is. And that's like, like you could immediately suss that out even before, you know, and so I think there is something called building authentic relationships first. Um, and I used to do that a lot when I graduated college, I messaged everyone and I was like, well, you do 30 minute coffee. We do 30 minute coffee. And a lot of people didn't respond. And I realized now I'm kind of like, yeah, that's kind of like good for me. I'm putting myself out there because there are people who want to who have the capacity to do that. But if you don't know them that like, it's kind of like hard to ask them for that other time if you've never met them before, you don't know them. So what's

another way that you can engage with them, whether it's like a five asking them a five minute question directly or just following them and getting inspired by that way yeah yeah absolutely I think that's that's perfectly acceptable I I say that I'm like you know when people reach out and I can tell that they're going to sell me something usually it's of, it's not like the people who are reaching out just like, Hey, can I pick your brain for a hot second? Like, it's more, you know, I have this tool and solution that is I'm like, I'm like, I'm sure it's perfect. And I honestly been there. Like also how hard it is to be in a sales job. So I want to give them the time of day, but at the same time, I'm like, man, I just wish we could connect a little bit more before you just hit me with that. So

yeah, I totally agree with that. I think I think anybody reaching out on LinkedIn should try to build that a little bit of initial connection before before the sale, I guess, you know, yeah, you have something that you can provide them value for, like, sharing a piece of perspective or giving a tip or like, if you really think that what you have to offer is valuable, is different than feeling like you're selling something. Absolutely. I think people just a lot of times will copy and paste. And maybe I mean, the people that I respond to, for the the most part are people that are reaching out that kind of say, hey, I saw that you're interested in this thing.

And this is how I think that I can provide value to you and not necessarily just, hey, this is a copy and pasted message from everybody that is on my sending it to everybody. So totally, totally agree with that. Well, we're nearing the end of our interview here, Jenny, and I loved, loved our conversation. I'm really obsessed with LinkedIn. So it's really fun to talk to somebody who's like in the day to day. Yeah, we love to ask this question here on Marketing Happy Hour. Is there anything that you know now that you wish you knew when you were starting your career?

Yes, that's a really good question. Oh, my gosh. I'm transporting myself. I first started working. I think there's a couple things I think to like be really, really curious about everything. I think there's something about when you're really young, at least for me, I really wanted to prove myself or I really wanted to show that I was capable, that I was smart. And I think, and I was hungry, like I was really curious about stuff. And I think people who might have that same mindset, like I would encourage them to focus on just staying curious and just being a sponge and trying to absorb and learn everything that you can watch the people who are impressing you be in those same rooms try to see what they're doing um see what you like see what you don't like learn some of the fundamental things of like being responsible following through um the soft skills of how do you manage a meeting how do you do how do you you course correct when something goes wrong?

Just being a sponge and just focusing on that. I would tell my 22-year-old self-genius stuff, worry about that. Worry less about what your next title is going to be. And then my second piece of advice might be like be bold to be yourself. I think for me so much also my earlier in my career, I needed to act and look a certain way to be successful. And yeah, there is a little bit of an adjustment of like how do you to be taken seriously? Like I get that there's like different environments

where certain behaviors are appropriate, what's not appropriate. But I think I'm realizing like huh like exactly who I am is actually going to be my strength and like leaning into who I am and like I operate which is through relationship building which is through being curious which is through like in questions if I don't know the answer and that's okay like those are all things that are going to be assets for me and so I would I continue to learn about who they are themselves and being comfortable that some of those things that's in being successful oh I love that that's such a good point and I wish that I knew that when I was starting my career too just to like kind of believe in myself and just you know be true to myself and not necessarily worry about, you know, what, what exactly like what my next

title is going to be or where I'm going to end up one day, it's kind of just like, take the next best step and like, do whatever is is best for you. I think that's such good advice. I have one last question that was not on our little document, but you strike me as someone who knows a lot about podcasts because I know you had your own podcast for a while. So what podcast do you recommend other than, you know, obviously Marketing Happy Hour? Marketing Happy Hour. Oh my gosh. Okay. This is like like I could talk about this all day okay yeah I love second life podcast do you listen to that one too yes uh Hilary Kerr right yeah she's so impressive Hilary Kerr I love second life podcast my favorite episodes are um the one which is

I think that one is super fascinating Reese I think she did Reese Witherspoon. I'm a huge Hills fan, so she did Lauren Conrad. I thought that was super fun. And she also did Sophia something, who was the producer of The Hills, and BFFs with Lauren Conrad. Oh, fun. So anyway, I also love – wait, I'm going to look at my podcast app right now too. That's amazing. I'm like crazy about podcasts and I actually I actually like never thought that I would have a podcast I kind of was like oh I just like to listen to

other people and um actually it was Cassie's idea to actually make a podcast and I was like I'm not sure about it I don't know if I can you know but I'm I'm glad that we're doing it now but I'm, I'm glad that we're doing it now, but I'm always like what other podcasts people are listening to, especially to, when it comes to like, you know, learning more about, you know, who you are and like where maybe you want your career to go one day. There's a lot of career podcasts out there too, that are amazing. I love that you're doing it. The other two are obviously the armchair expert by Dax Shepard. Yes. And then it's a new one, which is called The Financial Feminist from a woman named Tori. Yeah, she runs her first 100K.

Do you listen to that one? Oh, my God. I love her. I think she's amazing. And she's doing incredible things. Her website is incredible. I followed her. I think I saw her first on TikTok

and then I followed her on um on Instagram and she has just blown up recently and she only has like one season of her podcast and I've listened to every single episode I've listened to a few of them twice because I think I was probably just passively listening the first time. I think she's incredible. She is really impressive. Yeah, I don't know when I started following her on Instagram, but she has totally blown up. Yeah, I know. She deserves it. I know. I know. And it's funny, you mentioned the armchair expert. That's I just listened to it. I think their episodes are a little bit long for just like me listening to things. But I listen to the Tom Brady one and the Shawn Mendes one. I just think it's so incredible to hear like different perspectives from these people that you just see everywhere and you never really get to know on a personal level. I think it's so fun to on like a podcast in a different setting than what we're used to. Um, what's your

favorite episode with that one? Oh, wait, did you say already? Dax Shepard. It's so funny. I like couldn't sleep one night and I like literally dedicated an entire Instagram story to tell my favorite episodes of the armchair. There's two that I'll say, and I think I listened to them more recently. So maybe there's, that's why one is with BJ Novak and BJ Novak is from the office BFS with Mindy Kaling. And I think what I loved about that one is like how human they got. They basically just, they were as people and there's something so fun about that. Oh, anyone with Kristen Bell is fun fun i'm a huge fan of her and then um oh this woman why am i forgetting her

name she's captain marvel and you just i just wouldn't have expected her to be so thoughtful and evolved and in tune with herself that i listened to that one a few times. And I even took notes because there was just something about that that was like, I'm becoming a better human being by listening to this. That is so awesome. And that's the goal, obviously, with every podcast. I love that. Well, Jenny, where can everyone find you on LinkedIn, of course, and on Instagram? You can find me on Instagram at Coffee and Honey, of course, and on Instagram. You can find me on Instagram at coffee and honeycomb. And yeah, that's pretty much the main thing, right? I have a YouTube channel. It's called Moje with Jenny Park. And that's another place where you can find me. I post pretty, like, sporadically, so not super consistently. But

I do talk about like financial fluency for women, as well as different career advice conversations. I did a feature on like the AAPI community during AAPI month. And so that's kind of what the focus of the channel is right now. Oh, that's incredible. We'll put everything in the show notes so people know where they can, they can find you. And thank you so much for joining us. I'm so glad that we were able to connect finally after following each other for such a long time. And I'm glad we were able to make this happen. So thank you so much. Likewise. I love this. Huge congrats to everything that you're building with this podcast. Oh, thank you so much.

For the last interview episode of season two, I'd say we ended on an incredible high note. Thank you so much to Jenny for sharing all of her brand building insight with us. If you also enjoyed this episode, please remember to rate and leave a review. And as always, keep up with us on Instagram at Marketing Happy Hour. That's at Marketing Happy HR. to rate and leave a review and as always keep up with us on instagram at marketing happy hour that's at marketing happy hr