What are your job responsibilities/duties?
I am a writer and a teacher. Through my company, Humans at Heart, I help go-getter brands and entrepreneurs with copy and content marketing. I conduct customer research, help with marketing strategy, host workshops, and write web copy, email campaigns, blog posts, biographies, and other written content.
As a teacher, I run an after-school program to teach human-centered design (aka creative problem solving) to high school students.
What does a typical day look like?
The days of my week are split with client work, teaching work, and writing time. I try to keep my mornings consistent and prioritize the first hour for reading and writing. Then, I outline the 3 biggest tasks I need to accomplish in the day i.e. plan a lesson for my students, write a blog for one client, prepare for a call with another client. Then all the non-essential items get put on the to-do list and tackled throughout the day.
What do you most enjoy about your job?
The people. The entrepreneurs, employees, and business owners I help. The students I teach. The strangers I interview. The professionals I am lucky to call partners and friends. Both writing and teaching are inherently human. That's what I love most about my job. The human side of things.
What is the most difficult aspect of the job?
Putting your head down to do the work takes discipline. Perfectionism can seep into creative work and paralyze you or suck all your time. The most difficult challenge for me is giving myself the space to dive into deep writing work and not let the smaller tasks or emails take me out of the zone. Finding balance between all my responsibilities is a constantly evolving process.
What on-campus activities were you involved with? Where did you gain relevant experience?
On the advertising front, I was in AAF, participated in NSAC, and wrote and sold ad space for the Black Sheep Newspaper. I also interned at the Technology Entrepreneur Center and loved every minute of it. There, I was introduced to the world of entrepreneurship through the lens of a marketer.
In addition, I worked as a FY-CARE facilitator which I found to be one of the best growth opportunities. Learning how to talk with younger students about difficult and taboo topics made me realize how much I loved teaching and helping others communicate.
How did your experience at ILLINOIS and in the College of Media prepare you for your professional life? For this specific position?
I look back at ILLINOIS as a land of opportunities. While I learned the ins and outs of advertising through the College of Media, the most relevant experiences happened because of the courses and opportunities I pursued outside of advertising. Learning how to apply marketing principles to entrepreneurship was perhaps the thing that prepared me most for my professional life.
What advice do you have for students interested in this field?
You know that feeling when you walk into somewhere alone and you hate it and want to look at your phone or get out or hide or find someone to talk to ASAP, SOS? When you feel that, you should stay. Sit with that feeling of being alone and stay. All by your solo self. The most you will learn and grow in life will be from the steps you take when you are alone and you hate it and want to look at your phone and get out and run away. Sit with the stress. Do the hard thing. If there's one person in life that you need to count on, it's the man in the mirror. You've got this.
What is one thing that you know now that you wish you had known when you started in the field? When you graduated from the College?
There are so many awesome, fulfilling ways to use marketing skills outside of a mondo advertising agency. Be creative about how you use what you learn.
