August 8, 2023 • 22 mins
Erika returns to the Admigos Podcast to discuss her new roles in both Ad 2 and her career, as well as becoming a new mom!
Chapter 1:https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1248-ad-2-houston-presents-the-107690410/episode/erika-rodriguez-ad-2-national-119559839/
You can find her original episode here:https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1248-ad-2-houston-presents-the-107690410/episode/erika-cherelle-long-senior-account-manager-bello-107690477/
Chapter 1:https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1248-ad-2-houston-presents-the-107690410/episode/erika-rodriguez-ad-2-national-119559839/
You can find her original episode here:https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1248-ad-2-houston-presents-the-107690410/episode/erika-cherelle-long-senior-account-manager-bello-107690477/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Join us on August sixteen at eleventhirty am at the Ballroom at Tanglewood for
this month's af luncheon Healthy Adventures.Listen to John Archidiacono, president and CEO
at the Health Museum and former VPof Marketing and Public Relations at MD Anderson
Cancer Center as he walks us throughthe challenges nonprofits face in the business world
(00:22):
and how they can address him onceagain. That's August sixteen, eleven thirty
am at the Ballroom at Tanglewood.Can't wait to see you there. Previously
on the Amigos podcast. I wantyou to be successful, and I want
to be there, and I wantto support you so in the same way
that I would help with Like atNash I'm gonna let you execute and doe,
but I'm here, like, don'tbe afraid to turn around and ask
(00:44):
for help or ask what you wouldconsider to be stupid question. In my
head, I'm like, until youget the experience to do something, nothing
is a stupid question, right becauseyou've never done it. So how can
I be mad at you for askingquestions about something you've never done. I
kind of want to go back tothe comment you made about you so you're
(01:07):
fully remote your work from home,like you said your your offices in Dallas.
UM, work from home can sometimesbe stressful and you know now you
have a child in the mix.Can you talk about the adjustment to your
work your new work from home dynamic, like working from home with the new
baby. Yeah. I so I'vetold a few of my other co workers
(01:33):
who are also pregnant and about tohave kids to do that. The number
one thing that I was afraid of, UM when I when I returned back
to work was this stigma UM.And I don't think that it's talked about
enough, but there's to me astigma of when women women come back from
(01:55):
maternity leaves that either they're not goingto do their jobs as well as they
were doing the four UM or that'sa distracted UM. And that's I feel
very much, UM like constantly remindedof the distracted side of this every single
day because I work from home,and so it's very easy for me to
be on a call and I'm constantlyyou know, like I'm in the middle
(02:16):
of a conference call, and everytime I speak, I meet myself right
after. The reason why I becausemy baby swing is literally next to my
desk, right and so he likesto literally just hold his feet. Um,
he's in that era right now wherehe's like, oh my gosh,
Mom, look I have toes andI'm like, I know, but this
(02:37):
ALFs to like babble. So he'llhold his feet and he'll just be like
aha. And so you know,I'm very conscientious about that, or what
I can tell he's getting more andmore frustrated, or you know, I'm
on camera and I don't want someoneto think that I'm not paying attention to
them because he's screaming and I hearhim screaming, or he spoke up from
(03:00):
a nap and I hear that,and my eyes aren't you centered on the
screen like they used to be.And so I'm very conscientious about that.
I try my hardest if I knowI have a call at a certain time,
like I'm trying to put him downfor a nap before I have that
call, or you know, I'mtrying to make sure that he said and
he's in his swing and eat ahappy baby. And I can kind of
(03:21):
like put him in his swing orlet him watch his cartoons for a little
bit while I handle the work callthat I need to have. And then
the other helpful part two is thatmy husband is also he works from home
three days a week, and sohim and I also have a really good
routine of like co sharing baby time. So if I'm on a call,
I take the baby, or hetakes the baby, if he's on a
(03:42):
call, I take the baby typeof scenario. So that way we're not
distracted. But you know, there'stwo days a week that he's not here
and I'm a time single mom.In my opinion, how I was trying
to balance, like you have tofeed him and now he needs a diaper
change. And my baby is fullyone that if his diaper is wet or
if it's dirty, he will scream. He will cry. He does not
(04:04):
like wet, dirty diapers. Andso it's just one of those things that
I have to, like, Ihave to attend to that. And like
I said, a lot of thetime, everyone's really cool about it.
I think I wasn't expecting people tobe as cool about it. And I
don't know how long they'll be coolabout it. Right, this is my
first time having a kid, soI don't know after like six months,
(04:27):
which the next one, if we'regonna be like, all right, Erica,
this is getting old. I haveno idea my clients, none of
them seem to mind. All ofmy clients, because when I first came
back from attorney, I let themknow, like, hey, he's still
young. I'm not fully ready asa mother to put him into daycare at
this young age, and so youknow, he's home with me, and
(04:48):
I tell all my clients that,and again clients are like, yeah,
we understand, Like that's fully fine. So sometimes they're like, no,
he can be on the call wheneveryou want him on, or sometimes it's
literally ask where's the baby? Canwe see him? I mean, yeah,
of course, if you want tosee him, I'll bring him on.
And I think that goes back tothat relationship building, right, Like
(05:10):
that's literally my role to build arelationship with these people. And so having
that relationship and being able to like, I have clients that want to see
my child like that's wild to me, That's fully fine, and they're perfectly
content with that. But I thinkthe biggest thing that I've learned with this
adjustment is just how much everyone isstill confident that I can still do my
(05:32):
job effectively even though I'm home witha kid, and I appreciate that.
And it's never this like whole timingissue. Right, So if you know,
from twelve to one, I hadto put in the sleep, I
had to change him, blah blahblah blah. Like everyone's really flexible in
the fact that, like, hey, I got this done, I got
it done at sixty seven. I'mnot missing any deadline. I'm not putting
(05:54):
anyone behind on anything, which isalso really nice. And I think that's
kind of the other adjustment I tomake was Okay, Earth, if you
are going to be home with baby, you got to make sure that you
get all your stuff done in atimely manner. So it's been a priority
for me. I don't want peopleto think that, you know, I'm
always just looking for them to bea little bit more flexible. But I'm
also trying to make sure that formyself, I'm meeting expectations in the right
(06:17):
way so that I'm not putting ahalt on projects. I would imagine it's
a very difficult jumpening on with that, but it sounds like you are very
much on top of it. Yeah, Yeah, it's a it's interesting,
and like I said, it helpswhen everyone's like your baby, that's fine,
and sometimes I have to you know, I'm in the middle of a
(06:38):
call, I turn off my cameraand I'm like, hey, y'all,
I'm so sorry. I turned offmy camera because I had to pick the
baby up. He's a little distracting. But back to your point, and
I'm I'm putting it right back ontopic. So they're not you know,
that taken away from the fact thatI jumped off camera. You know,
but like I said, so farin the last five months, everything's been
(06:58):
good. I've been fine. Workhas been flowing really well. It was
just it's a little bit of anadjustment. Like I said, I have
my tool, so like he hasa sling next to me. My office
is attached to our bedroom, sosometimes I leave him in the middle of
our king size bed. For anybodythat's gonna like try to tell me,
make sure the baby safe. He'sin the middle of the bed with pillows
(07:18):
all around the edges. We can'troll off. But he's doing too many
time and watching our TV in ourbedroom, so that lad you know,
he's distracted and I'm sitting here ona call or I'm cranking out, you
know, some work or typing upan email or making a deck all at
the same time. And sometimes mywork leads into like I have to wait
till he goes to bed, Sosometimes I you know, I'm working at
(07:40):
nine o'clock at night. It's justlooks convenient at the time. So it
all has been shifted, but notin a way that's been affecting anything crazy.
It's just a new adjustment. Likeyou guys kind of pointed out of
Hey, you got a child andyou're working from home, Like how are
you going to balance that out?Yeah, it's certainly a very difficult thing,
(08:03):
but like I said, you certainlysound like you have a good hang
of it. It's great that peopleare flexible. I think a lot of
people are now, maybe more sothan before, and that might be one
of the having this is hard tosay, maybe one of the good things
that came from the pandemic. Rightyeah, yeah, we were all like
inside right now people are chill aboutit. So you know, there's that,
(08:28):
um man, that it does feelweird to say anything good came out
of it, Like a million peopleare here, you have it okay.
Anyways, um So, you know, we talked a little bit about you
know, you're moving up in theworld, right, you're moving up in
your industry? Is your job movingup within that too? Also? Right?
(08:50):
Getting to that higher uh deficious um? So you know, for some
one who's young, maybe if twoyears this week? So how can they
wardswors moving up? Right? Howcan the word tours getting promoted towards you
know, moving up in the ranksso to speak. Something I've noticed I
(09:13):
am part of like our hiring team, so I get to interview different people
from different positions. And at ourcompany, we like to like have you
interview with different roles that you're goingto actually work with. So if we're,
for example, hiring for the analyticsteam, you will meet with someone
from the client service team, andyou'll meet with someone from maybe our feo
or inbound team. Like you'll meetwith different people and that's really for you
(09:37):
to get insight on, like howdo I work with the people? Are
you know, what type of collaborationwhile I be doing which I think is
really helpful. But the number onething that I'm always looking for is when
people are answering questions. And Ithink this goes into when you're looking to
get a role, but also whenyou're working within your role, how are
you taking initiatives right? So Imight ask see a question about a client
(10:01):
problem, or you might be currentlyworking within your role and you have a
client problem. Are you waiting foryour manager to sit there and tell you
what to do? Or are youreally prepping through and walking through scenarios in
ways that you think you can tackleit. I think one of the biggest
things that really helped me be successfulin my career is I've always taken this
philosophy of if I'm going to askmy boss for help, I'm not going
(10:22):
to go in there without some typeof plan in my head. And so
I might tell my boss like,Hey, I have this client. They're
really upset. They want a youknow, seven thousand dollar credits, and
I'm like, you know, here'sthe situation that happens. Here's what I
think we should do. Right.So I'm not just going to my boss
and being like, so what doI do? Like I do? I
just give it to them, Likewhat can you do it? Can I
(10:43):
like, you know, I'm notreally just looking for them to lean in,
but I'm going here's what I think. I kind of start down with
this. I thought about it.You know, I remember, you know,
my coworker went through this two monthsago with this client. I took
the initiative to go ask other peoplewho under this scenario, and then I've
come back to my manager with here'swhat I think could work. And I've
(11:05):
noticed that as I've done that,what it's done for my management team is
they now have a new level oftrust with me. Of Okay, Eric
is not just going to come tome with a problem, but she's gonna
tell me, like, I havethis roadblock, here's the roadblock, here's
what I think I need to unblockthe road. And then what I'm looking
for my manager to do is becausetypically the people that are managing you have
(11:28):
more experience than you. Right,Sometimes it's not about like age difference.
Like, for example, the personthat I work with us on my team,
her and I are literally the sameage. I think we're like seven
months apart, but I have likesix additional years of work experience within the
industry than she does. Yeah,and so that adds to our dynamic.
(11:50):
Right. It's not that I don'ttrust her to handle problems. She's the
same age as me. I'm She'snot some She's smart like, I know
that we're born the same year ninetythree. Babies are smart, we're good.
Right. At the same time,I'm like, you might not know
how to handle this, yes,ninety three, But at the same time,
(12:11):
she might not have had enough experiencegoing through some of the problems that
I have or some of the successesthat I have. So what I'm what
she's looking for for me is isthis the right way to handle it based
off of your experience, right,less of her coming to me being like,
I don't know what to do.I haven't thought about it, but
I really do think that if you'relooking to move up, one of the
biggest things that a lot of managersare looking for is am I hand holding
(12:35):
you through every scenario, even dumplicatescenarios. So you know, did you
credit a client last month or seventhousand dollars and now a different client is
asking you for a two thousand dollarscredit. Are you coming back to me
and being like, what do Ido or did you learn from what we
talked about in the last time wehad this conversation, right, and are
you taking that initiative to say,Hey, I looked at this, I
(12:58):
walked through it, and an initiativestems into a lot of things. If
your boss is like, hey,I want you to start on this project
and you decide not to start becauseyou never got instructions, I'll give you
an example. I know Google Analyticsa little bit better than maybe some of
my coworkers based off my previous position, and so a lot of the times
(13:18):
I'm like, maybe you don't knowit, maybe you want to know it
because you have a client who's goingto be heavily in Google Analytics. Are
you taking the initiative to do sometraining, take some training courses, watching
me to videos in your downtime?Right, Like, are you taking that
initiative to train yourself up or tolearn about something, or to go and
ask someone questions about something so thatwhen you were put in that scenario and
(13:43):
in that situation, I don't haveto worry about like, hey, how
much do you know? I canyou know? You can answer that question
confidently with oh, yeah, actuallyI took some training courses because I wasn't
familiar. And that's okay to say. I feel like people are afraid to
stay if they're not good at something. It's okay to say you're not good
at something. But it's better ifyou can say you're not good at something,
but I've been learning about it,and I've been taking a training class,
(14:05):
or I've been reading about it,or you know, I actually put
thirty minutes on the calendar with Jacoband with Guido so that I can learn
about podcasting because I had no ideawhat I was going to do. Oh
awesome, So did you talk tothem? How'd that go? Are you
good? Right? And then yourmans the initiative, like have a conversation
and to get that experience, likethat's that's fantastic, and it just builds
(14:28):
you up from a credibility perspective.But then for yourself, now you're ahead
of the curve. Maybe all yourcoworkers don't know about podcasting in the way
that you do. And now,guess what, when they want to learn
about podcasting, who are they goingto call? They're gonna call you because
they just heard you talk about howyou gained this, saying hey, what
training class did you take? Hey? Did you was that meeting with them?
(14:50):
You know? Good? Can youtell me what you learned? Right?
And now you become a point person. I think a lot of people
underestimate that value now. At thesame time, if you're looking to move
up because you're just looking to makemore money and you're not trying to be
a manager, I would just totethat line a little carefully because as a
manager, I feel like sometimes I'mlooking at people who are taking initiative.
I'm like, oh, my god, would you do you want to learn
(15:11):
how to manage people? And sometimespeople are like, nah, I'm good.
I do not want to be amanager, Like I want your salary
as a manager, but I donot want to manage people. And that's
okay, right, That's just totallyfine. Like, be honest. If
you do not want to manage people, do not be that person that like
raises your hand to do it andthen dread what you do every day.
That sounds horrible, Yeah, butjust be transparent. A lot of the
(15:35):
times, there's different ways that theycan you know, they can make you
a senior blah blah blah blah blah. And when they introduced you on calls.
I know in my last role beforeI looked at Medium Giant, you
know, I would get introduced onsome calls where I would get put on
certain clients because I was an expertin at the time, I worked out
a programmatic company, but I wasan expert in our like third party vendors
(15:56):
because one of the clients that Ihad only use third party vendors, and
so I had to learn a lotabout third party vendors. And then I
became the expert at the company forthird part So if anybody else had a
client that was onboarding that was goingto use that, they would set up
a meeting with me, and theywould set up a meeting with me and
one other dead person and the twoof us would just walk them through here's
(16:18):
what you need to look for,here's the things, here's some exceptions.
When you point into this, itmight be a little bit different than me.
And if that is the case,like ask me. I'm happy to
dig into the data with you.Right. But you know, there's there's
a space for everyone, and sometimessome companies are willing to make a position
for you, right. So,especially if they know how strong of a
(16:38):
person you are, how much ofan initiative taker you are, it's a
lot easier for someone to make thatdecision of like, hey, I want
to carve out a new position forthem, because they don't want to be
a manager, but like I canreally see them leading the charge here.
Yeah, great, let's let's makethat work great. So that's probably the
biggest thing that I would say fromif you're looking to move up. I
(17:00):
feel like initiative is just one ofthose things that I haven't seen a lot
of people take. At the sametime, from a gen Z perspective,
because my daughter is a GenZ here, that does not mean to let a
company run over you, right,That doesn't mean that you just do all
this stuff like do not. Idon't agree with that approach either. I
think I think that there's some mutualitythat has to come out of you taking
(17:23):
that initiative for a company that valuesyou and that values the initiative that you're
taking, not that takes advantage ofthe initiative that you're taking. There's a
difference there, and just being ableto recognize when that's happening to you and
being able respectfully. This is sofunny because this is what I've been telling
my daughter about communication, that youmight not agree with something, but there's
(17:44):
always a respectful way to say that, right, And there's always a professional
or respectful way to tell your employerthat you're being undervalued or that you provide
enough for that table. Right,just make sure you come with those concrete
facts. Make sure you come withthose written, written proofs and instances where
you've been praised for your initiative oretc. One of the things I tell
(18:07):
my employee that works for me,we keep something called a good girl file.
I guess for men it would bea good boy file. It sounds
so ridiculous, but anytime someone praisesyou in a written form, you take
a screenshot of that and you putit in that file on your desktop.
So at the end of the year, when I'm doing her annual review,
she downloads all of those files intothere. And what that does is it
(18:32):
allows me to say, hey,here are ways that she's been seen from
her peers or a clients who havepraised her, etc. Here are ways
that like they have recognized that forher, and I would consider that like
good like you know, your goodjob at a girl at a boy file
of like, here's some concrete proofwhere people have recognized that I've done something
(18:55):
and they've given me praise for that. Also, you know, on those
really crappy days at work when youfeel like gonna like slam your laptop and
throw it across the room. Thatfile sometimes will save you. Sometimes you
can open up that file and belike, I am not dumb, I
am smart. I don't know whythis is happening, And these are all
the people that think that I amgreat. You can read both comments and
it makes the day a little bitbetter. Yeah, you know that's a
(19:18):
good idea. Probably what I dois just eat. Um. Yeah,
those days so stressful. I mean, if it's done, summit, we
can share it down ere too.I just wanted to touch a little bit
on what you said. There wasa lot of very important, very real
stuff. Um. One of thethings that you said was to go to
(19:42):
your manager with a problem, butalso with a solution, because even if
your solution is wrong, at leastthey know that you were like to try
to get to take care of iton your own, right, or you
had a plan for it. Um. And yeah, I mean there's times
when you need some like a mostsenior person to make it decisions right,
(20:03):
Like yep, that's just part ofany job. Um. But the other
thing the humans was what you mentionedin particular Google analytics. Google has three
classes for all other systems. Soit's like if you if you're gonna work
with it, if are you clientsto work with it, there's really no
reason to like not know it.I mean there's kind of people that are
(20:30):
making like free resources or free YouTubevideos. Like there's so much stuff that
you can learn. I mean,I think at this day and age,
everybody knows that, like you cango on the internet and financial exactly.
So I like that, you knowthe idea of the initiative and being able
to, uh not just look ata problem, but look at a solution,
(20:52):
right, come up with it.And I mean, if it's not
right, it's not right. Butat least you don't show up with your
hands empty. Yep, Yeah,there's glirison't like that. But yeah,
I know those a very very poculways. I take to very much for that
answer. Looks like we've ran outof time this week. Let's stick around
for more of our conversation with Erica, and before you go, here's a
(21:15):
clip for the next episode. I'malways going to speak about public service because
I do think that it's a fantasticbranch of what ACTU National stands for.
It's what sets us apart from allthose other clubs and organizations like AMA or
a GIA. Is the fact thatwe put on a free, pro bono
(21:36):
marketing campaign for clients, and Ithink it's a It's a focal point of
what I what I love about atyou Join us on August sixteenth, eleven
thirty am at the Ballroom at Tanglewoodfor this month's af luncheon Healthy Adventures.
Listen to John our CDFKNO, presidentand CEO at the Health Museum and four
a VP of Marketing and public Relationsat mb Anderson Cancer Center, as he
(21:57):
walks us through the challenges nonprofits inthe business world and how they can address
it. Thank you for joining ustoday. The Art Too Houston AMWOST podcast
is produced at Radio Lounge. ARTWOHouston is a collaborative collective of young communications
professionals X thirty two one number.We're looking to make a difference in the
industry. If you would like tobecoming at me, go join us at
(22:19):
the Number two Houston dot com.You can also follow us on Facebook,
Instagram and LinkedIn at add the Numbertwo Houston. Thank you for listening.
Join us on August sixteen at eleventhirty am at the Ballroom at Tanglewood for
this month's af luncheon Healthy Adventures.Listen to John Archidiacono, president and CEO
at the Health Museum and former VPof Marketing and Public Relations at MD Anderson
Cancer Center as he walks us throughthe challenges nonprofits face in the business world
(00:22):
and how they can address him onceagain. That's August sixteen, eleven thirty
am at the Ballroom at Tanglewood.Can't wait to see you there. Previously
on the Amigos podcast. I wantyou to be successful, and I want
to be there, and I wantto support you so in the same way
that I would help with Like atNash I'm gonna let you execute and doe,
but I'm here, like, don'tbe afraid to turn around and ask
(00:44):
for help or ask what you wouldconsider to be stupid question. In my
head, I'm like, until youget the experience to do something, nothing
is a stupid question, right becauseyou've never done it. So how can
I be mad at you for askingquestions about something you've never done. I
kind of want to go back tothe comment you made about you so you're
(01:07):
fully remote your work from home,like you said your your offices in Dallas.
UM, work from home can sometimesbe stressful and you know now you
have a child in the mix.Can you talk about the adjustment to your
work your new work from home dynamic, like working from home with the new
baby. Yeah. I so I'vetold a few of my other co workers
(01:33):
who are also pregnant and about tohave kids to do that. The number
one thing that I was afraid of, UM when I when I returned back
to work was this stigma UM.And I don't think that it's talked about
enough, but there's to me astigma of when women women come back from
(01:55):
maternity leaves that either they're not goingto do their jobs as well as they
were doing the four UM or that'sa distracted UM. And that's I feel
very much, UM like constantly remindedof the distracted side of this every single
day because I work from home,and so it's very easy for me to
be on a call and I'm constantlyyou know, like I'm in the middle
(02:16):
of a conference call, and everytime I speak, I meet myself right
after. The reason why I becausemy baby swing is literally next to my
desk, right and so he likesto literally just hold his feet. Um,
he's in that era right now wherehe's like, oh my gosh,
Mom, look I have toes andI'm like, I know, but this
(02:37):
ALFs to like babble. So he'llhold his feet and he'll just be like
aha. And so you know,I'm very conscientious about that, or what
I can tell he's getting more andmore frustrated, or you know, I'm
on camera and I don't want someoneto think that I'm not paying attention to
them because he's screaming and I hearhim screaming, or he spoke up from
(03:00):
a nap and I hear that,and my eyes aren't you centered on the
screen like they used to be.And so I'm very conscientious about that.
I try my hardest if I knowI have a call at a certain time,
like I'm trying to put him downfor a nap before I have that
call, or you know, I'mtrying to make sure that he said and
he's in his swing and eat ahappy baby. And I can kind of
(03:21):
like put him in his swing orlet him watch his cartoons for a little
bit while I handle the work callthat I need to have. And then
the other helpful part two is thatmy husband is also he works from home
three days a week, and sohim and I also have a really good
routine of like co sharing baby time. So if I'm on a call,
I take the baby, or hetakes the baby, if he's on a
(03:42):
call, I take the baby typeof scenario. So that way we're not
distracted. But you know, there'stwo days a week that he's not here
and I'm a time single mom.In my opinion, how I was trying
to balance, like you have tofeed him and now he needs a diaper
change. And my baby is fullyone that if his diaper is wet or
if it's dirty, he will scream. He will cry. He does not
(04:04):
like wet, dirty diapers. Andso it's just one of those things that
I have to, like, Ihave to attend to that. And like
I said, a lot of thetime, everyone's really cool about it.
I think I wasn't expecting people tobe as cool about it. And I
don't know how long they'll be coolabout it. Right, this is my
first time having a kid, soI don't know after like six months,
(04:27):
which the next one, if we'regonna be like, all right, Erica,
this is getting old. I haveno idea my clients, none of
them seem to mind. All ofmy clients, because when I first came
back from attorney, I let themknow, like, hey, he's still
young. I'm not fully ready asa mother to put him into daycare at
this young age, and so youknow, he's home with me, and
(04:48):
I tell all my clients that,and again clients are like, yeah,
we understand, Like that's fully fine. So sometimes they're like, no,
he can be on the call wheneveryou want him on, or sometimes it's
literally ask where's the baby? Canwe see him? I mean, yeah,
of course, if you want tosee him, I'll bring him on.
And I think that goes back tothat relationship building, right, Like
(05:10):
that's literally my role to build arelationship with these people. And so having
that relationship and being able to like, I have clients that want to see
my child like that's wild to me, That's fully fine, and they're perfectly
content with that. But I thinkthe biggest thing that I've learned with this
adjustment is just how much everyone isstill confident that I can still do my
(05:32):
job effectively even though I'm home witha kid, and I appreciate that.
And it's never this like whole timingissue. Right, So if you know,
from twelve to one, I hadto put in the sleep, I
had to change him, blah blahblah blah. Like everyone's really flexible in
the fact that, like, hey, I got this done, I got
it done at sixty seven. I'mnot missing any deadline. I'm not putting
(05:54):
anyone behind on anything, which isalso really nice. And I think that's
kind of the other adjustment I tomake was Okay, Earth, if you
are going to be home with baby, you got to make sure that you
get all your stuff done in atimely manner. So it's been a priority
for me. I don't want peopleto think that, you know, I'm
always just looking for them to bea little bit more flexible. But I'm
also trying to make sure that formyself, I'm meeting expectations in the right
(06:17):
way so that I'm not putting ahalt on projects. I would imagine it's
a very difficult jumpening on with that, but it sounds like you are very
much on top of it. Yeah, Yeah, it's a it's interesting,
and like I said, it helpswhen everyone's like your baby, that's fine,
and sometimes I have to you know, I'm in the middle of a
(06:38):
call, I turn off my cameraand I'm like, hey, y'all,
I'm so sorry. I turned offmy camera because I had to pick the
baby up. He's a little distracting. But back to your point, and
I'm I'm putting it right back ontopic. So they're not you know,
that taken away from the fact thatI jumped off camera. You know,
but like I said, so farin the last five months, everything's been
(06:58):
good. I've been fine. Workhas been flowing really well. It was
just it's a little bit of anadjustment. Like I said, I have
my tool, so like he hasa sling next to me. My office
is attached to our bedroom, sosometimes I leave him in the middle of
our king size bed. For anybodythat's gonna like try to tell me,
make sure the baby safe. He'sin the middle of the bed with pillows
(07:18):
all around the edges. We can'troll off. But he's doing too many
time and watching our TV in ourbedroom, so that lad you know,
he's distracted and I'm sitting here ona call or I'm cranking out, you
know, some work or typing upan email or making a deck all at
the same time. And sometimes mywork leads into like I have to wait
till he goes to bed, Sosometimes I you know, I'm working at
(07:40):
nine o'clock at night. It's justlooks convenient at the time. So it
all has been shifted, but notin a way that's been affecting anything crazy.
It's just a new adjustment. Likeyou guys kind of pointed out of
Hey, you got a child andyou're working from home, Like how are
you going to balance that out?Yeah, it's certainly a very difficult thing,
(08:03):
but like I said, you certainlysound like you have a good hang
of it. It's great that peopleare flexible. I think a lot of
people are now, maybe more sothan before, and that might be one
of the having this is hard tosay, maybe one of the good things
that came from the pandemic. Rightyeah, yeah, we were all like
inside right now people are chill aboutit. So you know, there's that,
(08:28):
um man, that it does feelweird to say anything good came out
of it, Like a million peopleare here, you have it okay.
Anyways, um So, you know, we talked a little bit about you
know, you're moving up in theworld, right, you're moving up in
your industry? Is your job movingup within that too? Also? Right?
(08:50):
Getting to that higher uh deficious um? So you know, for some
one who's young, maybe if twoyears this week? So how can they
wardswors moving up? Right? Howcan the word tours getting promoted towards you
know, moving up in the ranksso to speak. Something I've noticed I
(09:13):
am part of like our hiring team, so I get to interview different people
from different positions. And at ourcompany, we like to like have you
interview with different roles that you're goingto actually work with. So if we're,
for example, hiring for the analyticsteam, you will meet with someone
from the client service team, andyou'll meet with someone from maybe our feo
or inbound team. Like you'll meetwith different people and that's really for you
(09:37):
to get insight on, like howdo I work with the people? Are
you know, what type of collaborationwhile I be doing which I think is
really helpful. But the number onething that I'm always looking for is when
people are answering questions. And Ithink this goes into when you're looking to
get a role, but also whenyou're working within your role, how are
you taking initiatives right? So Imight ask see a question about a client
(10:01):
problem, or you might be currentlyworking within your role and you have a
client problem. Are you waiting foryour manager to sit there and tell you
what to do? Or are youreally prepping through and walking through scenarios in
ways that you think you can tackleit. I think one of the biggest
things that really helped me be successfulin my career is I've always taken this
philosophy of if I'm going to askmy boss for help, I'm not going
(10:22):
to go in there without some typeof plan in my head. And so
I might tell my boss like,Hey, I have this client. They're
really upset. They want a youknow, seven thousand dollar credits, and
I'm like, you know, here'sthe situation that happens. Here's what I
think we should do. Right.So I'm not just going to my boss
and being like, so what doI do? Like I do? I
just give it to them, Likewhat can you do it? Can I
(10:43):
like, you know, I'm notreally just looking for them to lean in,
but I'm going here's what I think. I kind of start down with
this. I thought about it.You know, I remember, you know,
my coworker went through this two monthsago with this client. I took
the initiative to go ask other peoplewho under this scenario, and then I've
come back to my manager with here'swhat I think could work. And I've
(11:05):
noticed that as I've done that,what it's done for my management team is
they now have a new level oftrust with me. Of Okay, Eric
is not just going to come tome with a problem, but she's gonna
tell me, like, I havethis roadblock, here's the roadblock, here's
what I think I need to unblockthe road. And then what I'm looking
for my manager to do is becausetypically the people that are managing you have
(11:28):
more experience than you. Right,Sometimes it's not about like age difference.
Like, for example, the personthat I work with us on my team,
her and I are literally the sameage. I think we're like seven
months apart, but I have likesix additional years of work experience within the
industry than she does. Yeah,and so that adds to our dynamic.
(11:50):
Right. It's not that I don'ttrust her to handle problems. She's the
same age as me. I'm She'snot some She's smart like, I know
that we're born the same year ninetythree. Babies are smart, we're good.
Right. At the same time,I'm like, you might not know
how to handle this, yes,ninety three, But at the same time,
(12:11):
she might not have had enough experiencegoing through some of the problems that
I have or some of the successesthat I have. So what I'm what
she's looking for for me is isthis the right way to handle it based
off of your experience, right,less of her coming to me being like,
I don't know what to do.I haven't thought about it, but
I really do think that if you'relooking to move up, one of the
biggest things that a lot of managersare looking for is am I hand holding
(12:35):
you through every scenario, even dumplicatescenarios. So you know, did you
credit a client last month or seventhousand dollars and now a different client is
asking you for a two thousand dollarscredit. Are you coming back to me
and being like, what do Ido or did you learn from what we
talked about in the last time wehad this conversation, right, and are
you taking that initiative to say,Hey, I looked at this, I
(12:58):
walked through it, and an initiativestems into a lot of things. If
your boss is like, hey,I want you to start on this project
and you decide not to start becauseyou never got instructions, I'll give you
an example. I know Google Analyticsa little bit better than maybe some of
my coworkers based off my previous position, and so a lot of the times
(13:18):
I'm like, maybe you don't knowit, maybe you want to know it
because you have a client who's goingto be heavily in Google Analytics. Are
you taking the initiative to do sometraining, take some training courses, watching
me to videos in your downtime?Right, Like, are you taking that
initiative to train yourself up or tolearn about something, or to go and
ask someone questions about something so thatwhen you were put in that scenario and
(13:43):
in that situation, I don't haveto worry about like, hey, how
much do you know? I canyou know? You can answer that question
confidently with oh, yeah, actuallyI took some training courses because I wasn't
familiar. And that's okay to say. I feel like people are afraid to
stay if they're not good at something. It's okay to say you're not good
at something. But it's better ifyou can say you're not good at something,
but I've been learning about it,and I've been taking a training class,
(14:05):
or I've been reading about it,or you know, I actually put
thirty minutes on the calendar with Jacoband with Guido so that I can learn
about podcasting because I had no ideawhat I was going to do. Oh
awesome, So did you talk tothem? How'd that go? Are you
good? Right? And then yourmans the initiative, like have a conversation
and to get that experience, likethat's that's fantastic, and it just builds
(14:28):
you up from a credibility perspective.But then for yourself, now you're ahead
of the curve. Maybe all yourcoworkers don't know about podcasting in the way
that you do. And now,guess what, when they want to learn
about podcasting, who are they goingto call? They're gonna call you because
they just heard you talk about howyou gained this, saying hey, what
training class did you take? Hey? Did you was that meeting with them?
(14:50):
You know? Good? Can youtell me what you learned? Right?
And now you become a point person. I think a lot of people
underestimate that value now. At thesame time, if you're looking to move
up because you're just looking to makemore money and you're not trying to be
a manager, I would just totethat line a little carefully because as a
manager, I feel like sometimes I'mlooking at people who are taking initiative.
I'm like, oh, my god, would you do you want to learn
(15:11):
how to manage people? And sometimespeople are like, nah, I'm good.
I do not want to be amanager, Like I want your salary
as a manager, but I donot want to manage people. And that's
okay, right, That's just totallyfine. Like, be honest. If
you do not want to manage people, do not be that person that like
raises your hand to do it andthen dread what you do every day.
That sounds horrible, Yeah, butjust be transparent. A lot of the
(15:35):
times, there's different ways that theycan you know, they can make you
a senior blah blah blah blah blah. And when they introduced you on calls.
I know in my last role beforeI looked at Medium Giant, you
know, I would get introduced onsome calls where I would get put on
certain clients because I was an expertin at the time, I worked out
a programmatic company, but I wasan expert in our like third party vendors
(15:56):
because one of the clients that Ihad only use third party vendors, and
so I had to learn a lotabout third party vendors. And then I
became the expert at the company forthird part So if anybody else had a
client that was onboarding that was goingto use that, they would set up
a meeting with me, and theywould set up a meeting with me and
one other dead person and the twoof us would just walk them through here's
(16:18):
what you need to look for,here's the things, here's some exceptions.
When you point into this, itmight be a little bit different than me.
And if that is the case,like ask me. I'm happy to
dig into the data with you.Right. But you know, there's there's
a space for everyone, and sometimessome companies are willing to make a position
for you, right. So,especially if they know how strong of a
(16:38):
person you are, how much ofan initiative taker you are, it's a
lot easier for someone to make thatdecision of like, hey, I want
to carve out a new position forthem, because they don't want to be
a manager, but like I canreally see them leading the charge here.
Yeah, great, let's let's makethat work great. So that's probably the
biggest thing that I would say fromif you're looking to move up. I
(17:00):
feel like initiative is just one ofthose things that I haven't seen a lot
of people take. At the sametime, from a gen Z perspective,
because my daughter is a GenZ here, that does not mean to let a
company run over you, right,That doesn't mean that you just do all
this stuff like do not. Idon't agree with that approach either. I
think I think that there's some mutualitythat has to come out of you taking
(17:23):
that initiative for a company that valuesyou and that values the initiative that you're
taking, not that takes advantage ofthe initiative that you're taking. There's a
difference there, and just being ableto recognize when that's happening to you and
being able respectfully. This is sofunny because this is what I've been telling
my daughter about communication, that youmight not agree with something, but there's
(17:44):
always a respectful way to say that, right, And there's always a professional
or respectful way to tell your employerthat you're being undervalued or that you provide
enough for that table. Right,just make sure you come with those concrete
facts. Make sure you come withthose written, written proofs and instances where
you've been praised for your initiative oretc. One of the things I tell
(18:07):
my employee that works for me,we keep something called a good girl file.
I guess for men it would bea good boy file. It sounds
so ridiculous, but anytime someone praisesyou in a written form, you take
a screenshot of that and you putit in that file on your desktop.
So at the end of the year, when I'm doing her annual review,
she downloads all of those files intothere. And what that does is it
(18:32):
allows me to say, hey,here are ways that she's been seen from
her peers or a clients who havepraised her, etc. Here are ways
that like they have recognized that forher, and I would consider that like
good like you know, your goodjob at a girl at a boy file
of like, here's some concrete proofwhere people have recognized that I've done something
(18:55):
and they've given me praise for that. Also, you know, on those
really crappy days at work when youfeel like gonna like slam your laptop and
throw it across the room. Thatfile sometimes will save you. Sometimes you
can open up that file and belike, I am not dumb, I
am smart. I don't know whythis is happening, And these are all
the people that think that I amgreat. You can read both comments and
it makes the day a little bitbetter. Yeah, you know that's a
(19:18):
good idea. Probably what I dois just eat. Um. Yeah,
those days so stressful. I mean, if it's done, summit, we
can share it down ere too.I just wanted to touch a little bit
on what you said. There wasa lot of very important, very real
stuff. Um. One of thethings that you said was to go to
(19:42):
your manager with a problem, butalso with a solution, because even if
your solution is wrong, at leastthey know that you were like to try
to get to take care of iton your own, right, or you
had a plan for it. Um. And yeah, I mean there's times
when you need some like a mostsenior person to make it decisions right,
(20:03):
Like yep, that's just part ofany job. Um. But the other
thing the humans was what you mentionedin particular Google analytics. Google has three
classes for all other systems. Soit's like if you if you're gonna work
with it, if are you clientsto work with it, there's really no
reason to like not know it.I mean there's kind of people that are
(20:30):
making like free resources or free YouTubevideos. Like there's so much stuff that
you can learn. I mean,I think at this day and age,
everybody knows that, like you cango on the internet and financial exactly.
So I like that, you knowthe idea of the initiative and being able
to, uh not just look ata problem, but look at a solution,
(20:52):
right, come up with it.And I mean, if it's not
right, it's not right. Butat least you don't show up with your
hands empty. Yep, Yeah,there's glirison't like that. But yeah,
I know those a very very poculways. I take to very much for that
answer. Looks like we've ran outof time this week. Let's stick around
for more of our conversation with Erica, and before you go, here's a
(21:15):
clip for the next episode. I'malways going to speak about public service because
I do think that it's a fantasticbranch of what ACTU National stands for.
It's what sets us apart from allthose other clubs and organizations like AMA or
a GIA. Is the fact thatwe put on a free, pro bono
(21:36):
marketing campaign for clients, and Ithink it's a It's a focal point of
what I what I love about atyou Join us on August sixteenth, eleven
thirty am at the Ballroom at Tanglewoodfor this month's af luncheon Healthy Adventures.
Listen to John our CDFKNO, presidentand CEO at the Health Museum and four
a VP of Marketing and public Relationsat mb Anderson Cancer Center, as he
(21:57):
walks us through the challenges nonprofits inthe business world and how they can address
it. Thank you for joining ustoday. The Art Too Houston AMWOST podcast
is produced at Radio Lounge. ARTWOHouston is a collaborative collective of young communications
professionals X thirty two one number.We're looking to make a difference in the
industry. If you would like tobecoming at me, go join us at
(22:19):
the Number two Houston dot com.You can also follow us on Facebook,
Instagram and LinkedIn at add the Numbertwo Houston. Thank you for listening.
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