What happens when you land your dream job at Apple, only to realize comfort zones have expiration dates? In this episode, I sit down with communications strategist Fana Yohannes, who shares how she went from being an early listener of this podcast to revolutionizing social media at Apple and Instagram—and eventually walking away from it all to build something on her own terms. We're unpacking the invisible excellence trap, why having a sponsor matters more than a mentor, and how to know when it's time to Switch, Pivot, or Quit® (even when everyone thinks you're crazy for leaving). Plus, Fana drops truth bombs about AI, overcoming imposter syndrome, and why being "delusional" might be the secret to her success.
Fana's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fyohannes/
Fana's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fyohannes/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, good people, and welcome back to another episode of
the Switch Pivot Quit Podcast. I am your host, Ayana Angel,
and this is the space where we talk about change. Honey,
I've been there and done that, so I am trying
to bring you the conversations that will hopefully help inform
some of your changes, some of the decisions that you
need to make, because I know it's not always easy
(00:22):
when you're looking for insights, tools, stories, other people's experiences
that can help just give you a glimmer of hope
when you're trying to make your best decision and there
really is no such thing as your best decision, right,
all we can do is use the tools that we
have at our disposal in front of us at the time.
And I'm hoping that this podcast will be a tool
(00:44):
for you. And so today, not only do I have
a tool for you by way of this podcast, I
also have a treat for you. And so today we're
gonna be talking with Fauna Johannes, who is a communications
and social media strategist who has spent over a decade
revolutioning how major brands connect with next generation audiences. As
a Bay Area native in the heart of tech, Fauna
(01:07):
pioneered social media initiatives at Apple during a time when
the company had virtually no social presence, creating their first
creator and publisher Cohort. She later brought her innovative approach
to Metaslash Instagram, where she mastered the art of leveraging
emerging trends and even convinced Anna Wintour Honey to approve
(01:29):
the first ever meme correspondent for the Metgala coverage. Yes,
the met Gala coverage. You know the met Gala. Yes, okay,
I said that enough on Today. Fauna runs Flora by Fauna.
It is her own consultancy company where she helps brands
and creators flourish in the algorithm driven social landscape. Beyond
(01:52):
her corporate success, she's a community builder at heart, though.
In twenty twenty, at the height of the pandemic, Fauna
launched Here to Help, which is an initiative that started
on Instagram and has since connected over two thousand professionals
with new career opportunities. From getting Adam Morrissey on the
Breakfast Club to hosting creator summits with Mark Zuckerberg, Fauna
(02:15):
proves that authentic relationship building and creative thinking can open
doors that traditional corporate communications never could. Honey, she is
the ultimate creative. She's a forward thinker. Fauna is always
looking for what's new and next and noteworthy. I am
(02:36):
so pleased to be in conversation with Fauna. You're gonna
see her energy is contagious. She is just a wonderful human.
I've known Fauna for years and if you keep listening,
you'll hear exactly how we met. So let's hop into it.
Ya Hey, this is the history of the making for
me amazing. Welcome to the Switch Pivotal Quick podcast. Fauna.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
It's such a pleasure to have you.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Thank you so much. This has been such an honor
to be on the podcast because literally you saved my
career and we are going to get into that in
a little bit, but I am so honored to be here,
and I like the Switch Pivoter Quit community is amazing,
So thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yes, like, so we don't leave people hanging and wondering
what the sort of like relationship is and why you
say I saved your career. Fauna was an early listener
of the Switch Pivoter Quit podcast, and I remember receiving
a message from you and this is one that I'll
never forget. You were like, I'm so happy I found
your podcast. Thank you so much. Because if I hear
(03:38):
another white man telling me that the answer to all
of my problems is waking up early at five am
in the morning and drinking a green juice, I'm gonna scream.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
And I was like, I can't believe you still have
that message. You're totally right for contests everyone, Like the
year was twenty seventeen, so like the podcast circuit, the
podcast network was nowhere near what it is today, right,
And it was like all these extremes of either you know,
CEOs or people who are adjacent to CEOs kind of
(04:09):
like advocating this leadership style. Like it literally was like
this kind of like echo chamber of like if you
want to succeed, you have to wake up at five
am men, drink your green juice and meditate and so
on and so forth. And hey, maybe it worked for
people back then, but I think looking back, like you're
really a trailblazer in this space because you were really
about having honest conversations about what it looked like from
(04:32):
all perspectives of success. And that's something that I really
appreciate because also at the time with the podcast top charts, like,
there were not many people of color outside of like
I think like the Read was probably like the only
podcast that was like, you know by somebody who was
you know, a person of color. Right, So I gravitated
to your podcast immediately because I was in a position
(04:54):
where I needed to make my switch, pivot it and
or quit. I didn't know what it was at the time,
but you to me through your podcast, you know, I
eventually found the answer, which is something that I'm really
grateful for.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, I'm so happy that you shared that, Fauna, and
I am just in awe of you and.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
How your career has progressed.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yes, throughout the years, because we ended up connecting offline
because your message touched me, and we ended up connecting offline,
and we had sort of an informal mentor mentee friendship relationship.
I even came to visit you at your job at
Apple at a time, and so let's think back to
those Apple days.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
What was that experience, Like, I guess.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
What were some of the highlights and what were some
of the low lights, Because that's an ideal job for
so many people talk to us about what you were
doing there, how you got to Apple, and like what
your experience was when you were there.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
My job at Apple, it was very much like the
Devil Wars product moment, where it's like a thousand girls
would kill to have your job. It was the dream
job for me. Like I'm from Valley born and raised.
I remember the day that Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone,
like I remember that iconic stage and seeing what that
meant for history and these completely like innovative products that
(06:13):
changed the world basically, and I was really drawn to
that mission. So when I joined. Actually backtracking when I
was in college, when I was an undergrad, I remember
applying to open roles on the career site for Apple,
and I would always get a rejection right. Sometimes I
wouldn't even get a reply back right. And it wasn't
(06:33):
until one of my professors came to me one day
and said, hey, like, I'm in touch with this kid
at Apple. He's on you know, the iPhone PR team.
They're looking for a new PR intern. Like, I think
you'd be a great fit. And so that connection was
my entry point to Apple, because at the time Apple
was kind of like a fortress, like you had to
(06:55):
know somebody to get in versus like your chances of
getting in through application was like very slim. So I
met with this contact who ended up being like a
close colleague of mine, and he was kind of like
my sponsor throughout the whole process, right, And this is
something that I think is really important, especially as we're
thinking about the current job market that we're in. You
always want to have a sponsor, especially because right now
(07:18):
we're in the hidden job market where eighty percent of
jobs are not being posted online. So I like to
say that my claim to fame is like I've never
applied for a job postcrap. That job came from a referral, right.
And so while I was at Apple, I mean they
have a saying that this is where you do the
best work of your life, right, And I do believe
that I did some of my best work in my life.
(07:40):
I characterize myself as an innovator. If I had to
like write a memoir, I would also say like I'm
like Steve jobs as like worse Nighter. I never took
like the status quo on projects, like I was always
thinking about how can we make this better or how
can we literally think different about this approach. So my
claim to fame was literally looking at the structure of
(08:01):
public relations and media relations and dynamically shifting the team
from thinking about traditional PR in terms of going to
the icons at the Wall Street Journal, Recode, New York Times, etc.
And looking at, hey, there's a big pivot. There's a
big shift happening right now. So when I joined the
team in twenty thirteen, we were taking a very traditional
(08:22):
approach to PR. The team was very keen on working
with the tech titans at the Wall Street Journal, the
New York Times, Recode, so on and so forth, these
like powerhouse journalists that would be reviewing the iPhone first.
And I noticed that social media is on the rise
right These YouTubers were having conversations with different tech CEOs
(08:44):
and reviewing products and receiving millions of views online. Consumer
media is also starting to shift from digital dot com
media to video on Facebook, video on Instagram. So I
saw that as an early opportunity to really shift our
strategy and think about social first communications. So I was
often the person who's talking to let's say, the one
of the first employees at BuzzFeed and thinking about, like, hey,
(09:05):
how can we make a video segment about our products
or if anyone is in like the niche tech circuit,
like you'll understand who these folks are. But like I
was the first person to work with MKBHD on his
first tech review or invite content creator named I Justine
to her first Apple then and these are like if
you're in the Apple community, like you'll know who these
people are. But basically, like I was the driver of
(09:26):
first in terms of how to approach social media communications
in a way that teams even now don't understand. If
you're in the PR space, you think that like communications
and social media are separate, like in terms of like
marketing and PR. I helped clear the air on that,
and so I worked on several global launches. I launched
five iPhones. I brought air pods to market, which at
(09:48):
one point we didn't know if AirPods would be the
global success that it is today. It is largely in
part of memes and social media culture that helped take
it off. So it's incredible to see products go from
zero to one. It's often hard to like quantify that
success because people ask, you, know, what are your KPIs,
like what is your impact? And it's like cool, So
this thing didn't exist before we got our hands on it,
(10:11):
and now it's like a global success, right, So it's
very humbling. But you know, I got to a point
in my career where, you know, Apple is very like ritualistic. Right.
When the formula works, it works, right, It's kind of
like a if it's not broken, then like why fix it?
And a lot of people are comfortable with that, Like
a lot of people stay you know, ten twenty plus
years because they believe in that mission, they believe in
(10:34):
those values, they believe in that structure. But a couple
of things happened. So I heard a podcast in twenty
thirteen from a tech analyst that said, you know, hardware
is only going to get us so far. It's software
and applications that are actually our future. And so at
the point that I was at in twenty seventeen when
I started thinking about and taking inventory about my career,
(10:56):
I started looking around and I was like, okay, so
like all the lights are on in the building and
we're paying the electricity bill, but like what's next? Right?
And so I was definitely curious and started hearing this
like little buzzing in my ear about trying to figure
out like what, like what is the next move? But
I was paralyzed in fear because again, like I didn't
(11:16):
know how to quantify my skills. In a space like that,
you kind of underestimate what you bring to the table
because you just assume like I just do this, like
it's what you just.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Did your job.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
I just did my job right. And then also, like
more importantly, and I'm sure a lot of people listening
can resonate with this, I just had no idea where
to start, right, especially when you're comfortable and you're like
working at a job where you're like, I'm going to
be here for the long haul. I could see my
entire life here, or I dedicated my life's work to
this place. Why would you want to leave? Also, you
have share, you have benefits, and you have you know,
(11:50):
all of that, all the perks, So why would you
want to leave? And it wasn't until I started listening
to your podcast that I actually started understanding from the
stories that were being shared from different executives, from different
thought leaders, just from different people who were like exploring
their switch, their pivot or they're quit and hearing these
stories that kind of like led me to understand what
(12:12):
could be possible and also more importantly, how to get there.
It's almost like you created a roadmap and I found
that map and I started slowly running with it, and
it took me a while, Like it took me like
two years from start to finish, from like understanding that
it was time to figure out what's next to actually
committing and taking other roles. And what I will say
is you, actually, besides the podcast, but bringing it back
(12:35):
to that offline relationship, you were actually the catalyst to
my slitch because you introduced me to the first hiring
manager that I spoke to while I was on my
journey to leaving Apple, and that, you know, that was
somebody at Nike right that I interviewed with and had
the best experience, because that taught me that I have
skills that are worthy and valuable outside of the current
(12:58):
role that I was in that could really lead to
something great. So again back to the gratitude, I really
am indebted to you and everything that you've done because
I wouldn't have been able to make that first switch
outside of Apple if literally if it wasn't for you.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
I just wish you to give you a big hug,
virtual hugs, virtual hug. Yes, you know you've You've touched
on so many things that I think are important. I
want to pull those threads. But the first one that
I want to go back to is you taking a
chance to use your voice to say, why don't we
(13:36):
try this idea? Why don't we go bigger?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Ooh?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I know it's getting good.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
But we'll be right back after we hear from our sponsors.
How long did it take you to find the courage
to suggest those grander ideas and to find your voice?
A lot of times people get into these storied companies,
these companies that are larger than life, and they feel like, oof,
(14:04):
I should just play my role, whatever my role was,
and whatever they're asking of me, I should just do that,
and I should just show up in that way and
I can coast because, like you said, some of these
companies offer so much that it makes it easy to
get comfortable. So how did you find your voice to
push the boundaries and how long did it take you
(14:26):
to find that voice?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Totally? I mean, the advice that I have for anyone
that's new to a job is to listen and observe.
So the first thing that you want to do is
listen and observe. Now, I'm going to give you my timeline,
but in today's world, in today's economy, in today's job cycle,
the windows is much shorter. Right. I was working in
an environment where people stay again in ten twenty years.
(14:50):
I was there for six and a half years, So
my timeline is a little bit wider. But I basically sat,
listen and observed for about a year before I started
making suggestions. If I were to do this differently today,
like I'd say probably like two to six months, I
would spend time listening and observing because we don't have
We don't have all this time. You have to you
have to take the first step to listen and observe
(15:12):
and really understand how do things work at a company? Right?
And then from there you can take the steps to
understand what can you add, what can you contribute that's missing? Right?
So for me I quickly identified that, hey, like there
are really talented people who are overseeing these tech reviews.
(15:33):
I'm not going to fight for real estate to get
visibility on those projects because that's already handled, right. That
is not my ministry, that is not my area of expertise.
But what I can bring to the table is an
understanding of next generation thinking in terms of like social
media pushing things forward, bebanping communications. Because I have observed,
(15:54):
I've listened, I've seen, and I understand the media business
is going to shift dramatically because of ThePrint, dot com
to social. That's the biggest part is listen, observe, and
then act. And so you know, that year set me
up for success for the rest of my five and
a half year tenure there. That really set me apart
(16:15):
from the rest of the team and really solidified my
place as a first The other piece of advice that
I'll give folks is you always want a co signer
or a sponsor at an executive level. So none of
the ideas that I came up with would have been
possible to execute if it wasn't for the executive vice
president on my team who was my co signer and
(16:35):
was my advocate and was my champion for these crazy
outlandish ideas that I had at the time. Like that
just you know, people were just kind of taken aback
as in like, oh, we don't do that here, we
don't that's not what we do, right, So you have
to have somebody at like a senior level who can
co sign your ideas, and that takes a bit of
relationship building in that early stage that you're in uh
to make sure that things are a success.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
So in thinking about pushing those boundaries, you also were
in a situation where you were seemingly observing what was
happening around you. You were taking cues from the market,
you were taking cues from the media, you were taking
cues from I don't know, articles, peers, what have you.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
How do you go about information gathering to help inform
some of your next decisions.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
The way I like to kind of describe my approach,
especially at a company like Apple where everything was on lockdown,
super secure, like you had to be briefed on projects,
et cetera, is I'm the person that thrives outside of
closed doors, Like I don't need to be invited to
the closed door conversation. I basically secure my seat of
(17:48):
the table outside of closed doors. And I'm a firm believer,
like you don't have to be in the inner circle
to understand how to optimize your job for success. Right,
you can take the initiative to be the thought leader.
You can take the initiative to be a contributor and
not wait for your invitation to participate. Right, You shouldn't
wait for somebody to invite you in to be a
(18:10):
part of the conversation, like make your way in, but
also learn how to like read in between the lines. Right.
My job at Apple taught me a lot about navigating ambiguity.
It's kind of like that scene and Hidden Figures where
the lead scientists had to read through all the redacted
papers and make her own conclusions to create her own formulas. Right,
So you kind of have to read through the redacted
(18:30):
lines to create your own formula for success. And a
couple of ways and strategies that I did that was podcasts, Right,
podcasts in your industry that can help you refine skills.
So you know the reason why I've been so successful
in understanding future trends because I listened to analysts podcasts
about technology. So you know again, you know, when I
first started my job at Apple, I was very consumer focused.
(18:53):
I didn't understand the tech landscape of things. So I
was asking around in my office like how do I
get like up to speed, et cetera. And they're like,
listen to this analyst podcast, and so I've immersed myself
in that podcast for a couple of weeks and I
got an understanding of Okay, this is the history of Apple,
this is how analysts think about Apple, so on and
so forth. Another hack is also like Twitter lists or
(19:13):
even on Instagram, creating like Instagram bookmark lists and following
different accounts and really training your algorithm, Like we're in
a place right now that if you like and engage
with certain accounts, if you hit like interested, not interested,
et cetera, that can kind of help you curate an
immersive world that can help you reach and kind of
optimize your learning about your expertise, especially like, for example,
(19:38):
like I'm now teaching myself about AI, so I follow
a lot of like AI creators on TikTok and Instagram,
so I get that news directly delivered to me in
a way that's like consumable. I want to really emphasize,
like YouTube university exists. A lot of information exists online.
It's just a matter of like taking it and understanding
how to analyze it and reading between the dots to
bring it back to your job and kind of elevate
(19:59):
yourself as a expert on your view.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
I love that love that love that.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I also want to think back to what you said
about from the moment you realize you wanted to figure
out what was next, and you didn't identify whether it
was what was next for the company or what was
next for you personally, but that question what was next
was looming for you. How did you go about making
(20:24):
a plan? And you said it took about two years
before you sort of activated. What did that time that
in those two years, what did that time consist of
you doing?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
What did that look like for you? What was that journey?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
That time was really dedicated to curiosity and active learning?
So in that time I learned one how to manifest
things and how to journal and how to vision board.
So really having deep conversations with myself about what do
I want to do next, like literally just like pouring
out ideas of like what kind of lifestyle do I
(20:59):
want to have? How early do I want to wake up?
Where do I want to live? Like all these different
things you just have to like brain up on paper
and just like organize them. Some people are like, oh,
I'm going to go on Pinterest whatever. Like sometimes you
can just like write it down and plain text right.
A friend of mine actually taught me a vision boarding
activity where you write down categories in terms of like
lifestyle positions, titles, companies, and tours, et cetera. And then
(21:23):
you just spend one minute rapid fire writing down all
the thoughts that come to mind and sharing those posts
in each section. And like, I've done that since twenty seventeen,
and you wouldn't believe that, like ninety percent of what
I write down comes to fruition. And if you ever
like doubt yourself or you're running out of ideas, like
you can always refer back to that vision board. So
(21:43):
vision boarding was a big part of my process during
that time. And then just like being curious and like
having candid conversations with people inside and out of your network. Right,
So I approached you and I was like, hey, like,
I'm in this situation, what do you think I should do?
Like I'm really interested in new opportunities And you're like, okay, Like, Beth,
here's a new opportunity that just came my way. You know,
a couple weeks later, I think you'd be a great fit, right.
(22:06):
Or One of my favorite conversations that I had with
a friend that worked at BuzzFeed was you know, I'm
in this position where I want to figure out what's next.
I don't know what to do, And she was basically like,
take advantage of the opportunity that you're in to work
on some amazing projects, get some wins under your belt,
and then figure out what's next. Right, So really thinking
(22:28):
about like, even when you're unhappy in the current role
or situation that you're in, who's that time to write
down your skills gap, start working on projects that close
that skill bills gap right, and make the most out
of your time there instead of kind of like looking
at it like I'm struck. I'm just gonna clock in,
clock out. Let every day be the same. And then
the other thing that I think was really important was
(22:52):
seeking out new opportunities within the company. So while I
was trying to figure out what to do, I kind
of raised my hand for different projects that didn't necessarily
align with my today. So I actually did an interim
job placement in New York, working on a different team
and doing kind of like a study abroad situation in
New York, and that really helped me clear up the
(23:14):
fact that I want to move to New York. And
I want to try life in a different city, and
I need to find an opportunity that's going to help
me get there. And it wasn't really until I started
attending networking events that it all solidified what I was
supposed to do. And as we talk about kind of
like my career position switch, that was what kind of
(23:35):
laid the foundations for my next move going to Instagram
because Instagram and Facebook were hosting these networking events that
I would go to and I would get exposure to
so many people on the team and keep you know,
in contact with people on the team that it just
felt really natural to think about that as my next step.
So vision boarding, trying new opportunities, being vocal about what
(23:58):
you want next, going to networking events like that was
kind of like the foundation to planning my switch and
figuring out what was next and actually getting to that
point of committing to it.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
And so how did you start to quantify what you
had done so that it looked good on paper because
you mentioned, you know, you may be a part of
these larger teams and you launched these wonderful initiatives and
you're working on these projects. But sometimes it becomes a
little difficult to tell that story to someone externally, and
(24:32):
also with I'm sure Apple being so secretive about so
many things. It's like what can I say versus what
can't I say?
Speaker 2 (24:38):
And all of that. So how did you start to
wrap your mind around the storytelling of your career?
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Sure, well this was twenty nineteen, So if I was
in this position today, I'd say, pick your GBT of
choice and let AI do the work for you. You know,
like I, you know, can easily see myself like up
my resume to a GPT platform and doing this exercise
with it, right. Or I like to have what's called
(25:06):
a bragsheet literally instead of rewriting your resume from page
to page and kind of starting over from scratch when
you're tailoring your resume, like have a bragsheet of all,
like everything that you contributed to stats of like you know,
quarterly results, if you have like a performance review, include
those bits and then literally work it out with Chat.
(25:27):
That's like my answer for today. Six years ago, Chat
TOPT was not accessible to the average person. It was
being developed in a lab somewhere, so I literally had
to do all of that manually. And I definitely think
the stars the universe, et cetera. Aligned because when I
was interviewing at the Nike position that you put me onto,
They're like they are very KPI and numbers driven. So
(25:51):
I actually had to do a case study, right, So
I had to do a case study of all, like
all the ways that I've had touch points to impactful
campaign and what the results were. So I literally had
to do the exercise of gathering all of my key
wins and literally quantifying them in a way that kind
of made an overall portfolio of my work. And that
(26:12):
was probably the most eye opening experience because I was like, oh,
this isn't secret of work. Like again back to that,
you know, not being in the closed boardroom, I'm like,
I'm not revealing any secrets. Like I am basically sharing
my positioning and my original strategies that could be a
value for a different company. It's not an Apple secret.
(26:34):
It's a it's fun a secret sauce, right, So that
was a really eye opening experience. And also like as
a PR, communications person or even as a marketing person,
like you can share an openly available campaign you can
speak to like links are receipts essentially, So I've started
to lean into those receipts as I kind of like
(26:54):
talk about like my work and positioning it. But that
was the catalyst to understanding how to quantify my work
versus you know, the we work or the company work
at hand, and really trying to tell a story that
was really impactful in terms of numbers. That was done
all manually and it took a lot of time. But
now we have chat GT we have different tools and
there's really no reason why we can't tell our story
(27:15):
in a unique way that separates us from like confidential information.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, yeah, I want to We're gonna touch back on
the chat GPT of it all.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
I'm a Claude Girley myself.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
But listen, Claude is tea for writing, like yeah, masters
and like literary writing because it makes makes chat GBT
look like a high schooler.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Like absolutely absolutely, but they all serve their purposes and
I definitely want us to get back to that because
I love the recommendation that you say about just throw
all of your key elements from your career, your resume,
your bio if you have one, some of your key wins,
all of those things, roll that together into an AI
(28:02):
program and see what it spits out, and you don't
have to use the first thing that comes out. You
should also finesse it as well and go back and say, well,
why don't we lean in a bit more here, Why
don't you talk tell me more about.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
This incorporate that just make it work for you.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
So we're gonna talk more about the AI of it all,
because I know you've been really digging in with AI.
So after you realized that you were in the midst
of this change period in your career and in your
life really, and you had done the manifesting, you had
done some of the research and everything, what did things
(28:40):
look like for you in that What's Next phase? Break
it down for us that What's next phase? How did
we go from you activating in that phase to where
we are right now?
Speaker 3 (28:52):
So I think like the result of those pillars that
I built for myself in the What's Next phase give
me a lot of clarity, right. It gave me the
clarity to say yes to opportunities that made sense and
then to say no to opportunities that don't make sense,
and to really give a clear direction of what I
(29:14):
wanted to put out into the universe. That is the
job searching universe, and it really kind of like again
like I don't know if I'm like the biggest person
that's like into woo woo, Like like the woo woo
is like if you have alignments in what you want
and what you're looking for and have these deep conversations
with self, it will attract new opportunities. And so with that,
(29:36):
literally my job at Instagram was manifested by the fact
that a recruiter had reached out to me out of
nowhere one day, but they had reached out to me
about a policy role, which is if folks aren't familiar,
like policy communications roles are about, you know, doing that
heavy lifting of maintaining the company reputation for all the
(29:59):
not so good stuff, So all the not so great
stuff happening on Instagram, I would basically have to like
reply to create messaging and basically manage. And I was like, like,
that's not for me, right, knowing myself right and knowing
that I'm not in a place of like I'm gonna
take anything that comes away, I said, thank you so much,
that is not for me. But that inspired me to
reach out to a former Apple colleague who was now
(30:22):
at Facebook working adjacent Lee to Instagram and I was like, hey, like,
you know, if there are any open roles at Instagram,
please let me know. And then she was actually like, actually,
you'd be great for Facebook. And I was like, Okay,
that's a little bit different than Instagram, but like why not,
let's you know, let's let's explore this right. I was
an exploratory phase, even though I knew what I really wanted.
So I was in the middle of the interview process
(30:44):
and I'm, you know, giving all these great answers and
one of the hiring managers in the loop was like,
you're a really great candidate, but honestly be a better
fit at Instagram. And I was like, my gosh, like
thank you so much. Great, Like what's next step? So
I had a candid conversation with my former colleague and
she was totally supportive, and she connected me with the
head of Instagram Communications at the time, and we hit
(31:06):
it off and that's how I landed my next role.
So having deeper conversations with yourself about what you truly
want leads you in the right direction when opportunities present themselves.
And this is something that I tell people a lot,
especially in the content that I'm making around here to help.
It's like, define what you want before a job board
tells you what you deserve, because a lot of people
(31:26):
enter the job search and they're like, I'm just gonna
take whatever's open, like I gotta get this done, like
I'm on deadline, Like I gotta you know, I got
bills to pay, I got I need insurance, I need whatever.
Which all of that's valid. But like if you think
about it and how an athlete performs, you know, the
last few seconds and a fourth quarter tied game, they're
not panicked. They're operating the same way that they would
(31:48):
you know, the first quarter of the game when they're up.
You know, so you kind of have to like adopt
that same athletic mindset and be very very clear on
what your must haves are, your do not wance our
so on and so forth. Otherwise you will complete a
cycle of like having the Sunday scariers and like engaging
in roles that like don't align with what you really want.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Okay, hold type for me for just one minute. Okay,
maybe two, but our promise we will be right back
after we hear from our sponsors. So you mentioned here
to help you started here to help while you were
working at Instagram, right, Yeah, talk to us about the
(32:32):
pool to start here to help? What sort of made
you feel like you wanted to start it? And I
guess the company was on board with you having a
side venture.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Yeah, totally. So what I loved the most about Instagram
as a company is that there are so many people
there that had kind of like side ventures, side hobbies,
side pages, or like side careers and like social media
because again it's it's Instagram. It's a very natural integration, right,
So yeah, it was all good on their end. Actually,
like the company was actually super supportive of this initiative.
(33:05):
But before we get into that, I started here to
help in twenty twenty during the height of the pandemic
and we were all on lockdown. And actually, what is
really fun about the initiative is that it was all
inspired by Beyonce, just kidding. It was inspired by Beyonce's
Publishist event, who was doing a zoom event, right, and
she was talking about how everyone is at home, everyone
(33:26):
from executives to assistants to everyone in between. They're all
at home, right, So she was talking about how can
we come together and put out some good in this
world and kind of like pay it forward to make
sure that we're looking out for each other. And I
was like, wow, this message really resonates, And a couple
of weeks later, I found myself like reading all these
headlines about layoffs and how new grads are like really
(33:49):
struggling to find jobs. And when you think about it,
like the new grad experience the seniors that were graduating
from college at the time, like they had their college
experience basically like completely raised. Their graduations were postponed and
or canceled and or virtual and then there were no
career fairs, there's no career center, like there's basically like
any and all resources were basically like erased. Right, So
(34:11):
I decided to like share a post in April twenty
twenty that basically said like I'm really passionate about helping
people with like resume writing, answering career questions, so on
and so forth, like if you're interested, I'm going to
share like five hours of my time to the first
five people at reply send me a DM. And then
(34:32):
before I even got any DM replies from then mentes,
like I started seeing people reshare that post and they
were like I'm going to match this and like I'll
offer X amount of time, and then another person would
we share, and another person that we share, and it
spread like basically like chain mail. And so by the
end of that day, I'm pretty sure we got like
thirty to forty sign ups where people were like, I'm
(34:54):
here to help. I'm here to you know, open my
DMS and basically like sponsor people to help them figure
out like what's next or provide support. And so that
was a worth of fear to help. It was like
an accident. And then after some time I started a
dedicated Instagram account and by the end of twenty twenty
(35:14):
going into twenty twenty one, we had helped about two
thousand new grads and eventually like laid off employees on
new opportunities through networking support. And it was incredible. By
twenty twenty one, you know, it kind of fizzles because
everyone was back outside, but it was a really special effort.
(35:35):
And what was awesome about doing this while I was
at Instagram is that people at Instagram were largely the
biggest supporters. Like some people who have a large Instagram
following who worked at the company were participant, like the
earliest participants. They were leveraging their platform to bring people over.
They brought over somebody like mentors and advocates and kept
(35:57):
on resharing every week. Even people who worked at Instagram,
We're offering their time to host you know, webinars, seminars,
et cetera. And it just really brought out the best
of people. And I am really appreciative that I was
able to start this while I was there, because it
was the perfect alignment of having a side project that
was motivated by good but then also recognized by the
(36:19):
company that I worked at as something that is additional
to what I do and not just something that I
have to hide, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you've now had.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
A few career transitions and your ladist is that you're
working for yourself, right, yeah, yeah, talk to us about that,
what you're working on and how we got here to
you working for yourself, because people will hear these big
name companies and they're like.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Why isn't she still there?
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Most people, like you said, with the Apple situation, some
people plan to retire from companies like that. So how
did we get here to where you're working for yourself?
And it feels like you are happy and aligned with
your purpose, with the work that you're doing.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Now, I actually had an unexpected like medical event that
happened where that essentially forced me to quit. I now
left the comforts of a stable tech job that you know,
I couldn't go back to, right, And so basically like
that kind of was awakening for me where I was like,
(37:28):
oh wow, like I have been in this tech game
for about ten years now, I've been given it in
my all. I'm definitely in a state where I also
like need to listen to myself. Right. As glamorous as
these rules are, like the unspoken rule kind of our
unspoken green Juice five am, you know, like routine rule
(37:49):
is that it's very easy to get burnt out and
you kind of ignore a lot of health warnings, a
lot of health symptoms to just keep on pushing right
to do that other thing or to go on that
work trip, or oh I have this big thing coming up.
I can't you know, let myself fail. And it's like
again back to like athlete and analogies like in order
(38:09):
to be the best athlete that you can got to
you gotta stretch, you gotta rest, you gotta hydrate, right,
so I was forgetting to stretch, I was forgetting the hydrate,
I was forgetting to do all these things. And so
it got to the point of a breaking point, right
so I had to take some inventory. I took a break.
(38:31):
It's what the kids are now calling micro retirement. So
I took my whole micro apartment and I just had
to like sit and like really take inventory of like
my lifestyle, what I wanted to do. And at the
time that this all happened, you know, I was living
in New York also living my dream life that I
built for myself. I got to where where I wanted
to be, and essentially overnight, like it all went away.
(38:53):
After quitting this job. After leaving this job and realizing
like New York is probably the worst place to be
when you're employ you might have some sort of stable income,
and at this point, I was like, I'm not in
the best shape to do that and provide that for myself.
So I needed to go to a place where I
can find peace, and peace for me was moving back home,
right to California. And there there was a bit of
(39:16):
shame at first, you know, like nobody wants to go
from living a certain lifestyle to then moving back home
with your parents. Like again, like I worked at Apple,
I worked at Instagram, like I worked at these like
titan companies. You mean to tell me, like you're back
at home, like you know, Like it took me a
lot to not see that as a failure and now
(39:37):
I'm looking back at it, and I really see this
as an opportunity, right, especially in the economy that we're in,
Like you can't look at things like a setback. You
have to look at them as a as a comeback
or an opportunity to really redefine yourself, whether it's you
find yourself unemployed and you don't know what to do next,
you've been laid off and you're trying to figure things out,
(39:58):
Like take a second and kind of decouple yourself from
the norm of you know, having to have a like
a skyrise apartment or all these luxuries that you have,
like decover yourself from the financial aspect of things and
really think about, like where can I be that allows
me to be comfortable and thrive creatively, And if you
don't have the comforts of like moving back home, like
(40:20):
you know, figure it out with your chosen family, Like
how do you want to split things up, so on
and so forth. But you know, in this time of uncertainty,
moving back home was actually the best opportunity for me,
because again, I'm back in Silicon Valley, right, I'm back
at the home and the hub of technology. And I
had a conversation with one of my young nephews. I'm like,
(40:40):
oh man, I'm like, I'm home, Like I don't know
how I feel I left New York and he's like, dude,
but you're in the tech capital world, like you can
do literally anything, right. And so when Flora Bayafana was born,
it was stem from that. Like the first client that
I had was this major AI company that was started
by to ex Apple people that helped invent the first iPhone,
(41:02):
and so I kind of rushed to start at LLC.
I got my name down, I didn't even have a
website for a year, but I was like, I'm gonna
use this as my restart, right, So after the switch,
pivot or quit, then comes the restart, right, then comes
to the revival. Since then, I've made very intentional decisions
to really get into my skill sets and as somebody
(41:24):
who's transitioning from a full time role a salaried role
to freelance. The biggest culture shock is really taking inventory
and looking at how you want to quantify your not
only quantify your skills, but put a price tag on
your skills and put a price tag on what are
my offerings, Like, what are my unique skill sets that
I can break down and offer to people as a package.
(41:47):
This process is not linear. You're going to take you know, packages,
You're going to redefine them, You're going to rewrite them,
so on and so forth. Like if I look back
at some of my initial thoughts about what I'd be doing,
like they're completely different than what I offered today. It'll
probablyme case in a year. But you know, I was
able to redefine how I wanted to engage and interact
(42:08):
with people from a business perspective, from a client perspective.
And so the short of Flora by Fauna is that
I offer social media advisory services by day and AI
is essentially my future, right, AI education is my future.
With that on the social media side of things, I
help brands and creators navigate the algorithm to get the
(42:29):
most visibility on their campaigns and projects. And then by
you know, in terms of like future thinking, I'm really
passionate about AI education, ensuring that everyone has a chance
to find an entry point to AI tools and services
to find success within the Fourth Industrial Revolution that is
coming our way. And essentially, like my consultancy is very nicheless,
(42:53):
I don't have a niche. I don't have a certain bucket,
but I am really fortunate to be at many different
touch points, whether it's working with larger companies, whether it's
working with startup founders, so on and so forth to
really help empower them from a social media communication standpoint,
from the learnings that I've had from Apple, Instagram and
different startups.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
So, yeah, I feel like I should ask you, is
there anything burning that you want to share with us
with your thoughts around AI and the average person and
maybe where we are with it because I know you've
been embedding yourself. I think you even got some certifications
(43:35):
in AI. So what comes to mind that you want
to share with the average person listening about AI now
knowing what you know?
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Yeah, AI is definitely one of my passion points. And
what I want to emphasize to people is this is
a new space. Everyone is on a level playing field. Yeah,
everyone's trying to figure it out. People are trying to
make it a lot more difficult than it is. It
is really simple to figure out. If the information that's
being provided is very confusing intentionally because if everyone was
(44:06):
in this space at the same time, like everyone's gonna
thrive at the same time, so like in order to
slow things down, Like the information that's being put out
there is very confusing. But once you figure out your
roadmap and once you figure out how to leverage it,
it becomes very simple.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Thinking about you and where you are right now and
the fauna journey.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
What's one decision.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
That you made in the last year that your past
self would be proud of.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
I would definitely say being extremely vocal about my ideas
and thoughts and like doubling down on my opinion, right,
and not being scared, yeah, and not being scared of
sharing my thoughts right. I was thinking about this the
other day. I used to be scared to share feedback
or to share ideas, you know that stepped outside of
(44:57):
the line of like management or how things you know
we're done, or how things operate within the scope of
my role. And so I would have these great ideas
and I would just kind of like keep them to myself, right,
or I would have opinions and I would just kind
of keep going to myself. I'd see. My time at
Instagram was really great at kind of like helping me
discover ways to be more vocal, because Instagram is a
(45:19):
culture where you can, like, if you have something to
say to a manager or a leader, you can say
it like you can articulate, you know, whereas like some
of my earlier you know, some of my earlier time
at Apple, like that wasn't the case. Yeah, And so
I got a little bit of foundation from Instagram of like, okay,
like I'm allowed to, you know, share my thoughts, which
(45:39):
is different, but I think now, especially as somebody who
is now an independent operator, a free agent, so on
and so forth. I I got coined recently by a
friend and a connection that like, I'm I'm somebody that
drops truth bromds on LinkedIn. So I'm a truth bomber now,
and I'm like, okay, the truth bomber because I share,
(46:03):
like I share like unfiltered takes about different marketing and
social media case studies and so yeah, like I'm very
vocal about like, hey, this thing's working versus listening is not.
I'm not afraid to share my unfiltered take on different
things that are happening in the industry. So I'm really
excited to lean into that. And I think my past
self would have been proud of that because I definitely
(46:26):
let a lot of these ideas or a lot of
these suggestions like fall onto the you know, the cutting
floor basically, So I think former me would have been
really proud of that. Yes, you know, keep making her.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
Proud, Yes, as you should.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
And I think that's one of the best things that
we can do is like find those areas where we've
been sort of.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Like playing small, if you will, and.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
Really lean into it and acknowledge that we're leaning into
it and say, I'm going to keep leaning into it
even on the days where it feels uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
So totally and getting comfortable with that awkwardness is super
super yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
Final question I want to ask you, Fina, is about success.
We have talked about a lot of aspects of your journey,
and I'm sure that, like you said, so many of
your past lives other people would look at in awe.
But I want to hear from you in this moment
(47:28):
today because I know it could change. But right now,
what does success mean to you or what does it
look like for you?
Speaker 3 (47:37):
Yeah, I think success for me in this moment is
literally being delusional and reaching for the stars. Like I'm
in my delusional Delulu era. Right I'm just kind of like, hey,
like this could be cool, Like let's see like what
we could pitch here, or like, hey, this could be interesting,
like let's see where this goes. Like it's a very
like disjointed kind of journey that I'm on a bus.
(48:00):
But I'm really passionate about just being multifaceted and not
having a niche and not having a box to be
put in, and just really exploring how I can stretch
myself sustainably to accomplish things beyond like my wildest imagination.
And right now success doesn't look like the idea that
I had for myself ten years ago. Right I'm living
(48:20):
at my parents' house, you know, Like I don't have
the dream apartment, I don't have a structured job. But
I every day whenever I get discouraged by that, I
literally say, okay, but like more is coming, Okay, but
like your blessings are still coming, Like there are so
many things that you have not thought of yet. That
can come from any opportunities and you have to remain
(48:41):
open to it. And I'd say the final thing about
that is success is overcoming imposter syndrome. Imposture syndrome has
been a theme that has followed me throughout my entire
career of am I good enough to be here? Am
I supposed to be here? Like so on and so forth.
Even of being on this podcast, I'm like in a minute,
like there's so many executives that have been on here.
(49:02):
I mean you even have like Vanessa Simmons, like like
so many there's so many icons on here, like why
would you want to talk to me? And so like,
you know, I had to overcome that and be like okay,
but like you are here in your career and there's
alignment here and if I you know, I mean, I
wouldn't have said not this opportunity. But like you know,
like if you just kind of like don't accept the
(49:24):
opportunities that are coming your way, then what would success
look like? So I'd say, I'm in my delusional era,
I'm in my overcoming imposter syndrome era, and I can't
wait to see what's next.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
Me too, thank you so much for saying yes, Fauna.
Thank you for believing in yourself. Thank you for continuously
evaluating yourself and being so self aware, because that is
something that helps to push us forward, whether we know
it or not. And just thank you for allowing your
voice to be heard even when it feels uncomfortable, because
(49:54):
it is valuable and way more valuable than I think
you even know in this mo and it is going
to continue to carry value, and I'm just excited for
what we're going to see from you, all the amazing things.
Speaker 3 (50:07):
Thank you so much, and thank you for having me.
Thank you for you for creating this platform. Thank you
to all the previous guests that have been here that
I've really like changed my life. And also I hope
that whoever's listening to this knows that even in this economy,
even in this time like it is not impossible to
listen to yourself and make that switch, that pivot, that quit,
(50:29):
or even that restart that you want to make. So yeah,
thanks for listening, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Love it, and as always, you all, thank you for listening.
Just like Fana said, thank you for spending time with us,
thank you for allowing our conversations to.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Reach you wherever you are.
Speaker 1 (50:45):
I hope that you are well, sending you big virtual
love and until next time, be well,
Hello, good people, and welcome back to another episode of
the Switch Pivot Quit Podcast. I am your host, Ayana Angel,
and this is the space where we talk about change. Honey,
I've been there and done that, so I am trying
to bring you the conversations that will hopefully help inform
some of your changes, some of the decisions that you
need to make, because I know it's not always easy
(00:22):
when you're looking for insights, tools, stories, other people's experiences
that can help just give you a glimmer of hope
when you're trying to make your best decision and there
really is no such thing as your best decision, right,
all we can do is use the tools that we
have at our disposal in front of us at the time.
And I'm hoping that this podcast will be a tool
(00:44):
for you. And so today, not only do I have
a tool for you by way of this podcast, I
also have a treat for you. And so today we're
gonna be talking with Fauna Johannes, who is a communications
and social media strategist who has spent over a decade
revolutioning how major brands connect with next generation audiences. As
a Bay Area native in the heart of tech, Fauna
(01:07):
pioneered social media initiatives at Apple during a time when
the company had virtually no social presence, creating their first
creator and publisher Cohort. She later brought her innovative approach
to Metaslash Instagram, where she mastered the art of leveraging
emerging trends and even convinced Anna Wintour Honey to approve
(01:29):
the first ever meme correspondent for the Metgala coverage. Yes,
the met Gala coverage. You know the met Gala. Yes, okay,
I said that enough on Today. Fauna runs Flora by Fauna.
It is her own consultancy company where she helps brands
and creators flourish in the algorithm driven social landscape. Beyond
(01:52):
her corporate success, she's a community builder at heart, though.
In twenty twenty, at the height of the pandemic, Fauna
launched Here to Help, which is an initiative that started
on Instagram and has since connected over two thousand professionals
with new career opportunities. From getting Adam Morrissey on the
Breakfast Club to hosting creator summits with Mark Zuckerberg, Fauna
(02:15):
proves that authentic relationship building and creative thinking can open
doors that traditional corporate communications never could. Honey, she is
the ultimate creative. She's a forward thinker. Fauna is always
looking for what's new and next and noteworthy. I am
(02:36):
so pleased to be in conversation with Fauna. You're gonna
see her energy is contagious. She is just a wonderful human.
I've known Fauna for years and if you keep listening,
you'll hear exactly how we met. So let's hop into it.
Ya Hey, this is the history of the making for
me amazing. Welcome to the Switch Pivotal Quick podcast. Fauna.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
It's such a pleasure to have you.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Thank you so much. This has been such an honor
to be on the podcast because literally you saved my
career and we are going to get into that in
a little bit, but I am so honored to be here,
and I like the Switch Pivoter Quit community is amazing,
So thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yes, like, so we don't leave people hanging and wondering
what the sort of like relationship is and why you
say I saved your career. Fauna was an early listener
of the Switch Pivoter Quit podcast, and I remember receiving
a message from you and this is one that I'll
never forget. You were like, I'm so happy I found
your podcast. Thank you so much. Because if I hear
(03:38):
another white man telling me that the answer to all
of my problems is waking up early at five am
in the morning and drinking a green juice, I'm gonna scream.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
And I was like, I can't believe you still have
that message. You're totally right for contests everyone, Like the
year was twenty seventeen, so like the podcast circuit, the
podcast network was nowhere near what it is today, right,
And it was like all these extremes of either you know,
CEOs or people who are adjacent to CEOs kind of
(04:09):
like advocating this leadership style. Like it literally was like
this kind of like echo chamber of like if you
want to succeed, you have to wake up at five
am men, drink your green juice and meditate and so
on and so forth. And hey, maybe it worked for
people back then, but I think looking back, like you're
really a trailblazer in this space because you were really
about having honest conversations about what it looked like from
(04:32):
all perspectives of success. And that's something that I really
appreciate because also at the time with the podcast top charts, like,
there were not many people of color outside of like
I think like the Read was probably like the only
podcast that was like, you know by somebody who was
you know, a person of color. Right, So I gravitated
to your podcast immediately because I was in a position
(04:54):
where I needed to make my switch, pivot it and
or quit. I didn't know what it was at the time,
but you to me through your podcast, you know, I
eventually found the answer, which is something that I'm really
grateful for.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, I'm so happy that you shared that, Fauna, and
I am just in awe of you and.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
How your career has progressed.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yes, throughout the years, because we ended up connecting offline
because your message touched me, and we ended up connecting offline,
and we had sort of an informal mentor mentee friendship relationship.
I even came to visit you at your job at
Apple at a time, and so let's think back to
those Apple days.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
What was that experience, Like, I guess.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
What were some of the highlights and what were some
of the low lights, Because that's an ideal job for
so many people talk to us about what you were
doing there, how you got to Apple, and like what
your experience was when you were there.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
My job at Apple, it was very much like the
Devil Wars product moment, where it's like a thousand girls
would kill to have your job. It was the dream
job for me. Like I'm from Valley born and raised.
I remember the day that Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone,
like I remember that iconic stage and seeing what that
meant for history and these completely like innovative products that
(06:13):
changed the world basically, and I was really drawn to
that mission. So when I joined. Actually backtracking when I
was in college, when I was an undergrad, I remember
applying to open roles on the career site for Apple,
and I would always get a rejection right. Sometimes I
wouldn't even get a reply back right. And it wasn't
(06:33):
until one of my professors came to me one day
and said, hey, like, I'm in touch with this kid
at Apple. He's on you know, the iPhone PR team.
They're looking for a new PR intern. Like, I think
you'd be a great fit. And so that connection was
my entry point to Apple, because at the time Apple
was kind of like a fortress, like you had to
(06:55):
know somebody to get in versus like your chances of
getting in through application was like very slim. So I
met with this contact who ended up being like a
close colleague of mine, and he was kind of like
my sponsor throughout the whole process, right, And this is
something that I think is really important, especially as we're
thinking about the current job market that we're in. You
always want to have a sponsor, especially because right now
(07:18):
we're in the hidden job market where eighty percent of
jobs are not being posted online. So I like to
say that my claim to fame is like I've never
applied for a job postcrap. That job came from a referral, right.
And so while I was at Apple, I mean they
have a saying that this is where you do the
best work of your life, right, And I do believe
that I did some of my best work in my life.
(07:40):
I characterize myself as an innovator. If I had to
like write a memoir, I would also say like I'm
like Steve jobs as like worse Nighter. I never took
like the status quo on projects, like I was always
thinking about how can we make this better or how
can we literally think different about this approach. So my
claim to fame was literally looking at the structure of
(08:01):
public relations and media relations and dynamically shifting the team
from thinking about traditional PR in terms of going to
the icons at the Wall Street Journal, Recode, New York Times, etc.
And looking at, hey, there's a big pivot. There's a
big shift happening right now. So when I joined the
team in twenty thirteen, we were taking a very traditional
(08:22):
approach to PR. The team was very keen on working
with the tech titans at the Wall Street Journal, the
New York Times, Recode, so on and so forth, these
like powerhouse journalists that would be reviewing the iPhone first.
And I noticed that social media is on the rise
right These YouTubers were having conversations with different tech CEOs
(08:44):
and reviewing products and receiving millions of views online. Consumer
media is also starting to shift from digital dot com
media to video on Facebook, video on Instagram. So I
saw that as an early opportunity to really shift our
strategy and think about social first communications. So I was
often the person who's talking to let's say, the one
of the first employees at BuzzFeed and thinking about, like, hey,
(09:05):
how can we make a video segment about our products
or if anyone is in like the niche tech circuit,
like you'll understand who these folks are. But like I
was the first person to work with MKBHD on his
first tech review or invite content creator named I Justine
to her first Apple then and these are like if
you're in the Apple community, like you'll know who these
people are. But basically, like I was the driver of
(09:26):
first in terms of how to approach social media communications
in a way that teams even now don't understand. If
you're in the PR space, you think that like communications
and social media are separate, like in terms of like
marketing and PR. I helped clear the air on that,
and so I worked on several global launches. I launched
five iPhones. I brought air pods to market, which at
(09:48):
one point we didn't know if AirPods would be the
global success that it is today. It is largely in
part of memes and social media culture that helped take
it off. So it's incredible to see products go from
zero to one. It's often hard to like quantify that
success because people ask, you, know, what are your KPIs,
like what is your impact? And it's like cool, So
this thing didn't exist before we got our hands on it,
(10:11):
and now it's like a global success, right, So it's
very humbling. But you know, I got to a point
in my career where, you know, Apple is very like ritualistic. Right.
When the formula works, it works, right, It's kind of
like a if it's not broken, then like why fix it?
And a lot of people are comfortable with that, Like
a lot of people stay you know, ten twenty plus
years because they believe in that mission, they believe in
(10:34):
those values, they believe in that structure. But a couple
of things happened. So I heard a podcast in twenty
thirteen from a tech analyst that said, you know, hardware
is only going to get us so far. It's software
and applications that are actually our future. And so at
the point that I was at in twenty seventeen when
I started thinking about and taking inventory about my career,
(10:56):
I started looking around and I was like, okay, so
like all the lights are on in the building and
we're paying the electricity bill, but like what's next? Right?
And so I was definitely curious and started hearing this
like little buzzing in my ear about trying to figure
out like what, like what is the next move? But
I was paralyzed in fear because again, like I didn't
(11:16):
know how to quantify my skills. In a space like that,
you kind of underestimate what you bring to the table
because you just assume like I just do this, like
it's what you just.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Did your job.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
I just did my job right. And then also, like
more importantly, and I'm sure a lot of people listening
can resonate with this, I just had no idea where
to start, right, especially when you're comfortable and you're like
working at a job where you're like, I'm going to
be here for the long haul. I could see my
entire life here, or I dedicated my life's work to
this place. Why would you want to leave? Also, you
have share, you have benefits, and you have you know,
(11:50):
all of that, all the perks, So why would you
want to leave? And it wasn't until I started listening
to your podcast that I actually started understanding from the
stories that were being shared from different executives, from different
thought leaders, just from different people who were like exploring
their switch, their pivot or they're quit and hearing these
stories that kind of like led me to understand what
(12:12):
could be possible and also more importantly, how to get there.
It's almost like you created a roadmap and I found
that map and I started slowly running with it, and
it took me a while, Like it took me like
two years from start to finish, from like understanding that
it was time to figure out what's next to actually
committing and taking other roles. And what I will say
is you, actually, besides the podcast, but bringing it back
(12:35):
to that offline relationship, you were actually the catalyst to
my slitch because you introduced me to the first hiring
manager that I spoke to while I was on my
journey to leaving Apple, and that, you know, that was
somebody at Nike right that I interviewed with and had
the best experience, because that taught me that I have
skills that are worthy and valuable outside of the current
(12:58):
role that I was in that could really lead to
something great. So again back to the gratitude, I really
am indebted to you and everything that you've done because
I wouldn't have been able to make that first switch
outside of Apple if literally if it wasn't for you.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
I just wish you to give you a big hug,
virtual hugs, virtual hug. Yes, you know you've You've touched
on so many things that I think are important. I
want to pull those threads. But the first one that
I want to go back to is you taking a
chance to use your voice to say, why don't we
(13:36):
try this idea? Why don't we go bigger?
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Ooh?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I know it's getting good.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
But we'll be right back after we hear from our sponsors.
How long did it take you to find the courage
to suggest those grander ideas and to find your voice?
A lot of times people get into these storied companies,
these companies that are larger than life, and they feel like, oof,
(14:04):
I should just play my role, whatever my role was,
and whatever they're asking of me, I should just do that,
and I should just show up in that way and
I can coast because, like you said, some of these
companies offer so much that it makes it easy to
get comfortable. So how did you find your voice to
push the boundaries and how long did it take you
(14:26):
to find that voice?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Totally? I mean, the advice that I have for anyone
that's new to a job is to listen and observe.
So the first thing that you want to do is
listen and observe. Now, I'm going to give you my timeline,
but in today's world, in today's economy, in today's job cycle,
the windows is much shorter. Right. I was working in
an environment where people stay again in ten twenty years.
(14:50):
I was there for six and a half years, So
my timeline is a little bit wider. But I basically sat,
listen and observed for about a year before I started
making suggestions. If I were to do this differently today,
like I'd say probably like two to six months, I
would spend time listening and observing because we don't have
We don't have all this time. You have to you
have to take the first step to listen and observe
(15:12):
and really understand how do things work at a company? Right?
And then from there you can take the steps to
understand what can you add, what can you contribute that's missing? Right?
So for me I quickly identified that, hey, like there
are really talented people who are overseeing these tech reviews.
(15:33):
I'm not going to fight for real estate to get
visibility on those projects because that's already handled, right. That
is not my ministry, that is not my area of expertise.
But what I can bring to the table is an
understanding of next generation thinking in terms of like social
media pushing things forward, bebanping communications. Because I have observed,
(15:54):
I've listened, I've seen, and I understand the media business
is going to shift dramatically because of ThePrint, dot com
to social. That's the biggest part is listen, observe, and
then act. And so you know, that year set me
up for success for the rest of my five and
a half year tenure there. That really set me apart
(16:15):
from the rest of the team and really solidified my
place as a first The other piece of advice that
I'll give folks is you always want a co signer
or a sponsor at an executive level. So none of
the ideas that I came up with would have been
possible to execute if it wasn't for the executive vice
president on my team who was my co signer and
(16:35):
was my advocate and was my champion for these crazy
outlandish ideas that I had at the time. Like that
just you know, people were just kind of taken aback
as in like, oh, we don't do that here, we
don't that's not what we do, right, So you have
to have somebody at like a senior level who can
co sign your ideas, and that takes a bit of
relationship building in that early stage that you're in uh
to make sure that things are a success.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
So in thinking about pushing those boundaries, you also were
in a situation where you were seemingly observing what was
happening around you. You were taking cues from the market,
you were taking cues from the media, you were taking
cues from I don't know, articles, peers, what have you.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
How do you go about information gathering to help inform
some of your next decisions.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
The way I like to kind of describe my approach,
especially at a company like Apple where everything was on lockdown,
super secure, like you had to be briefed on projects,
et cetera, is I'm the person that thrives outside of
closed doors, Like I don't need to be invited to
the closed door conversation. I basically secure my seat of
(17:48):
the table outside of closed doors. And I'm a firm believer,
like you don't have to be in the inner circle
to understand how to optimize your job for success. Right,
you can take the initiative to be the thought leader.
You can take the initiative to be a contributor and
not wait for your invitation to participate. Right, You shouldn't
wait for somebody to invite you in to be a
(18:10):
part of the conversation, like make your way in, but
also learn how to like read in between the lines. Right.
My job at Apple taught me a lot about navigating ambiguity.
It's kind of like that scene and Hidden Figures where
the lead scientists had to read through all the redacted
papers and make her own conclusions to create her own formulas. Right,
So you kind of have to read through the redacted
(18:30):
lines to create your own formula for success. And a
couple of ways and strategies that I did that was podcasts, Right,
podcasts in your industry that can help you refine skills.
So you know the reason why I've been so successful
in understanding future trends because I listened to analysts podcasts
about technology. So you know again, you know, when I
first started my job at Apple, I was very consumer focused.
(18:53):
I didn't understand the tech landscape of things. So I
was asking around in my office like how do I
get like up to speed, et cetera. And they're like,
listen to this analyst podcast, and so I've immersed myself
in that podcast for a couple of weeks and I
got an understanding of Okay, this is the history of Apple,
this is how analysts think about Apple, so on and
so forth. Another hack is also like Twitter lists or
(19:13):
even on Instagram, creating like Instagram bookmark lists and following
different accounts and really training your algorithm, Like we're in
a place right now that if you like and engage
with certain accounts, if you hit like interested, not interested,
et cetera, that can kind of help you curate an
immersive world that can help you reach and kind of
optimize your learning about your expertise, especially like, for example,
(19:38):
like I'm now teaching myself about AI, so I follow
a lot of like AI creators on TikTok and Instagram,
so I get that news directly delivered to me in
a way that's like consumable. I want to really emphasize,
like YouTube university exists. A lot of information exists online.
It's just a matter of like taking it and understanding
how to analyze it and reading between the dots to
bring it back to your job and kind of elevate
(19:59):
yourself as a expert on your view.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
I love that love that love that.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I also want to think back to what you said
about from the moment you realize you wanted to figure
out what was next, and you didn't identify whether it
was what was next for the company or what was
next for you personally, but that question what was next
was looming for you. How did you go about making
(20:24):
a plan? And you said it took about two years
before you sort of activated. What did that time that
in those two years, what did that time consist of
you doing?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
What did that look like for you? What was that journey?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
That time was really dedicated to curiosity and active learning?
So in that time I learned one how to manifest
things and how to journal and how to vision board.
So really having deep conversations with myself about what do
I want to do next, like literally just like pouring
out ideas of like what kind of lifestyle do I
(20:59):
want to have? How early do I want to wake up?
Where do I want to live? Like all these different
things you just have to like brain up on paper
and just like organize them. Some people are like, oh,
I'm going to go on Pinterest whatever. Like sometimes you
can just like write it down and plain text right.
A friend of mine actually taught me a vision boarding
activity where you write down categories in terms of like
lifestyle positions, titles, companies, and tours, et cetera. And then
(21:23):
you just spend one minute rapid fire writing down all
the thoughts that come to mind and sharing those posts
in each section. And like, I've done that since twenty seventeen,
and you wouldn't believe that, like ninety percent of what
I write down comes to fruition. And if you ever
like doubt yourself or you're running out of ideas, like
you can always refer back to that vision board. So
(21:43):
vision boarding was a big part of my process during
that time. And then just like being curious and like
having candid conversations with people inside and out of your network. Right,
So I approached you and I was like, hey, like,
I'm in this situation, what do you think I should do?
Like I'm really interested in new opportunities And you're like, okay, Like, Beth,
here's a new opportunity that just came my way. You know,
a couple weeks later, I think you'd be a great fit, right.
(22:06):
Or One of my favorite conversations that I had with
a friend that worked at BuzzFeed was you know, I'm
in this position where I want to figure out what's next.
I don't know what to do, And she was basically like,
take advantage of the opportunity that you're in to work
on some amazing projects, get some wins under your belt,
and then figure out what's next. Right, So really thinking
(22:28):
about like, even when you're unhappy in the current role
or situation that you're in, who's that time to write
down your skills gap, start working on projects that close
that skill bills gap right, and make the most out
of your time there instead of kind of like looking
at it like I'm struck. I'm just gonna clock in,
clock out. Let every day be the same. And then
the other thing that I think was really important was
(22:52):
seeking out new opportunities within the company. So while I
was trying to figure out what to do, I kind
of raised my hand for different projects that didn't necessarily
align with my today. So I actually did an interim
job placement in New York, working on a different team
and doing kind of like a study abroad situation in
New York, and that really helped me clear up the
(23:14):
fact that I want to move to New York. And
I want to try life in a different city, and
I need to find an opportunity that's going to help
me get there. And it wasn't really until I started
attending networking events that it all solidified what I was
supposed to do. And as we talk about kind of
like my career position switch, that was what kind of
(23:35):
laid the foundations for my next move going to Instagram
because Instagram and Facebook were hosting these networking events that
I would go to and I would get exposure to
so many people on the team and keep you know,
in contact with people on the team that it just
felt really natural to think about that as my next step.
So vision boarding, trying new opportunities, being vocal about what
(23:58):
you want next, going to networking events like that was
kind of like the foundation to planning my switch and
figuring out what was next and actually getting to that
point of committing to it.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
And so how did you start to quantify what you
had done so that it looked good on paper because
you mentioned, you know, you may be a part of
these larger teams and you launched these wonderful initiatives and
you're working on these projects. But sometimes it becomes a
little difficult to tell that story to someone externally, and
(24:32):
also with I'm sure Apple being so secretive about so
many things. It's like what can I say versus what
can't I say?
Speaker 2 (24:38):
And all of that. So how did you start to
wrap your mind around the storytelling of your career?
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Sure, well this was twenty nineteen, So if I was
in this position today, I'd say, pick your GBT of
choice and let AI do the work for you. You know,
like I, you know, can easily see myself like up
my resume to a GPT platform and doing this exercise
with it, right. Or I like to have what's called
(25:06):
a bragsheet literally instead of rewriting your resume from page
to page and kind of starting over from scratch when
you're tailoring your resume, like have a bragsheet of all,
like everything that you contributed to stats of like you know,
quarterly results, if you have like a performance review, include
those bits and then literally work it out with Chat.
(25:27):
That's like my answer for today. Six years ago, Chat
TOPT was not accessible to the average person. It was
being developed in a lab somewhere, so I literally had
to do all of that manually. And I definitely think
the stars the universe, et cetera. Aligned because when I
was interviewing at the Nike position that you put me onto,
They're like they are very KPI and numbers driven. So
(25:51):
I actually had to do a case study, right, So
I had to do a case study of all, like
all the ways that I've had touch points to impactful
campaign and what the results were. So I literally had
to do the exercise of gathering all of my key
wins and literally quantifying them in a way that kind
of made an overall portfolio of my work. And that
(26:12):
was probably the most eye opening experience because I was like, oh,
this isn't secret of work. Like again back to that,
you know, not being in the closed boardroom, I'm like,
I'm not revealing any secrets. Like I am basically sharing
my positioning and my original strategies that could be a
value for a different company. It's not an Apple secret.
(26:34):
It's a it's fun a secret sauce, right, So that
was a really eye opening experience. And also like as
a PR, communications person or even as a marketing person,
like you can share an openly available campaign you can
speak to like links are receipts essentially, So I've started
to lean into those receipts as I kind of like
(26:54):
talk about like my work and positioning it. But that
was the catalyst to understanding how to quantify my work
versus you know, the we work or the company work
at hand, and really trying to tell a story that
was really impactful in terms of numbers. That was done
all manually and it took a lot of time. But
now we have chat GT we have different tools and
there's really no reason why we can't tell our story
(27:15):
in a unique way that separates us from like confidential information.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, yeah, I want to We're gonna touch back on
the chat GPT of it all.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
I'm a Claude Girley myself.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
But listen, Claude is tea for writing, like yeah, masters
and like literary writing because it makes makes chat GBT
look like a high schooler.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Like absolutely absolutely, but they all serve their purposes and
I definitely want us to get back to that because
I love the recommendation that you say about just throw
all of your key elements from your career, your resume,
your bio if you have one, some of your key wins,
all of those things, roll that together into an AI
(28:02):
program and see what it spits out, and you don't
have to use the first thing that comes out. You
should also finesse it as well and go back and say, well,
why don't we lean in a bit more here, Why
don't you talk tell me more about.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
This incorporate that just make it work for you.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
So we're gonna talk more about the AI of it all,
because I know you've been really digging in with AI.
So after you realized that you were in the midst
of this change period in your career and in your
life really, and you had done the manifesting, you had
done some of the research and everything, what did things
(28:40):
look like for you in that What's Next phase? Break
it down for us that What's next phase? How did
we go from you activating in that phase to where
we are right now?
Speaker 3 (28:52):
So I think like the result of those pillars that
I built for myself in the What's Next phase give
me a lot of clarity, right. It gave me the
clarity to say yes to opportunities that made sense and
then to say no to opportunities that don't make sense,
and to really give a clear direction of what I
(29:14):
wanted to put out into the universe. That is the
job searching universe, and it really kind of like again
like I don't know if I'm like the biggest person
that's like into woo woo, Like like the woo woo
is like if you have alignments in what you want
and what you're looking for and have these deep conversations
with self, it will attract new opportunities. And so with that,
(29:36):
literally my job at Instagram was manifested by the fact
that a recruiter had reached out to me out of
nowhere one day, but they had reached out to me
about a policy role, which is if folks aren't familiar,
like policy communications roles are about, you know, doing that
heavy lifting of maintaining the company reputation for all the
(29:59):
not so good stuff, So all the not so great
stuff happening on Instagram, I would basically have to like
reply to create messaging and basically manage. And I was like, like,
that's not for me, right, knowing myself right and knowing
that I'm not in a place of like I'm gonna
take anything that comes away, I said, thank you so much,
that is not for me. But that inspired me to
reach out to a former Apple colleague who was now
(30:22):
at Facebook working adjacent Lee to Instagram and I was like, hey, like,
you know, if there are any open roles at Instagram,
please let me know. And then she was actually like, actually,
you'd be great for Facebook. And I was like, Okay,
that's a little bit different than Instagram, but like why not,
let's you know, let's let's explore this right. I was
an exploratory phase, even though I knew what I really wanted.
So I was in the middle of the interview process
(30:44):
and I'm, you know, giving all these great answers and
one of the hiring managers in the loop was like,
you're a really great candidate, but honestly be a better
fit at Instagram. And I was like, my gosh, like
thank you so much. Great, Like what's next step? So
I had a candid conversation with my former colleague and
she was totally supportive, and she connected me with the
head of Instagram Communications at the time, and we hit
(31:06):
it off and that's how I landed my next role.
So having deeper conversations with yourself about what you truly
want leads you in the right direction when opportunities present themselves.
And this is something that I tell people a lot,
especially in the content that I'm making around here to help.
It's like, define what you want before a job board
tells you what you deserve, because a lot of people
(31:26):
enter the job search and they're like, I'm just gonna
take whatever's open, like I gotta get this done, like
I'm on deadline, Like I gotta you know, I got
bills to pay, I got I need insurance, I need whatever.
Which all of that's valid. But like if you think
about it and how an athlete performs, you know, the
last few seconds and a fourth quarter tied game, they're
not panicked. They're operating the same way that they would
(31:48):
you know, the first quarter of the game when they're up.
You know, so you kind of have to like adopt
that same athletic mindset and be very very clear on
what your must haves are, your do not wance our
so on and so forth. Otherwise you will complete a
cycle of like having the Sunday scariers and like engaging
in roles that like don't align with what you really want.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Okay, hold type for me for just one minute. Okay,
maybe two, but our promise we will be right back
after we hear from our sponsors. So you mentioned here
to help you started here to help while you were
working at Instagram, right, Yeah, talk to us about the
(32:32):
pool to start here to help? What sort of made
you feel like you wanted to start it? And I
guess the company was on board with you having a
side venture.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Yeah, totally. So what I loved the most about Instagram
as a company is that there are so many people
there that had kind of like side ventures, side hobbies,
side pages, or like side careers and like social media
because again it's it's Instagram. It's a very natural integration, right,
So yeah, it was all good on their end. Actually,
like the company was actually super supportive of this initiative.
(33:05):
But before we get into that, I started here to
help in twenty twenty during the height of the pandemic
and we were all on lockdown. And actually, what is
really fun about the initiative is that it was all
inspired by Beyonce, just kidding. It was inspired by Beyonce's
Publishist event, who was doing a zoom event, right, and
she was talking about how everyone is at home, everyone
(33:26):
from executives to assistants to everyone in between. They're all
at home, right, So she was talking about how can
we come together and put out some good in this
world and kind of like pay it forward to make
sure that we're looking out for each other. And I
was like, wow, this message really resonates, And a couple
of weeks later, I found myself like reading all these
headlines about layoffs and how new grads are like really
(33:49):
struggling to find jobs. And when you think about it,
like the new grad experience the seniors that were graduating
from college at the time, like they had their college
experience basically like completely raised. Their graduations were postponed and
or canceled and or virtual and then there were no
career fairs, there's no career center, like there's basically like
any and all resources were basically like erased. Right, So
(34:11):
I decided to like share a post in April twenty
twenty that basically said like I'm really passionate about helping
people with like resume writing, answering career questions, so on
and so forth, like if you're interested, I'm going to
share like five hours of my time to the first
five people at reply send me a DM. And then
(34:32):
before I even got any DM replies from then mentes,
like I started seeing people reshare that post and they
were like I'm going to match this and like I'll
offer X amount of time, and then another person would
we share, and another person that we share, and it
spread like basically like chain mail. And so by the
end of that day, I'm pretty sure we got like
thirty to forty sign ups where people were like, I'm
(34:54):
here to help. I'm here to you know, open my
DMS and basically like sponsor people to help them figure
out like what's next or provide support. And so that
was a worth of fear to help. It was like
an accident. And then after some time I started a
dedicated Instagram account and by the end of twenty twenty
(35:14):
going into twenty twenty one, we had helped about two
thousand new grads and eventually like laid off employees on
new opportunities through networking support. And it was incredible. By
twenty twenty one, you know, it kind of fizzles because
everyone was back outside, but it was a really special effort.
(35:35):
And what was awesome about doing this while I was
at Instagram is that people at Instagram were largely the
biggest supporters. Like some people who have a large Instagram
following who worked at the company were participant, like the
earliest participants. They were leveraging their platform to bring people over.
They brought over somebody like mentors and advocates and kept
(35:57):
on resharing every week. Even people who worked at Instagram,
We're offering their time to host you know, webinars, seminars,
et cetera. And it just really brought out the best
of people. And I am really appreciative that I was
able to start this while I was there, because it
was the perfect alignment of having a side project that
was motivated by good but then also recognized by the
(36:19):
company that I worked at as something that is additional
to what I do and not just something that I
have to hide, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you've now had.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
A few career transitions and your ladist is that you're
working for yourself, right, yeah, yeah, talk to us about that,
what you're working on and how we got here to
you working for yourself, because people will hear these big
name companies and they're like.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Why isn't she still there?
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Most people, like you said, with the Apple situation, some
people plan to retire from companies like that. So how
did we get here to where you're working for yourself?
And it feels like you are happy and aligned with
your purpose, with the work that you're doing.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Now, I actually had an unexpected like medical event that
happened where that essentially forced me to quit. I now
left the comforts of a stable tech job that you know,
I couldn't go back to, right, And so basically like
that kind of was awakening for me where I was like,
(37:28):
oh wow, like I have been in this tech game
for about ten years now, I've been given it in
my all. I'm definitely in a state where I also
like need to listen to myself. Right. As glamorous as
these rules are, like the unspoken rule kind of our
unspoken green Juice five am, you know, like routine rule
(37:49):
is that it's very easy to get burnt out and
you kind of ignore a lot of health warnings, a
lot of health symptoms to just keep on pushing right
to do that other thing or to go on that
work trip, or oh I have this big thing coming up.
I can't you know, let myself fail. And it's like
again back to like athlete and analogies like in order
(38:09):
to be the best athlete that you can got to
you gotta stretch, you gotta rest, you gotta hydrate, right,
so I was forgetting to stretch, I was forgetting the hydrate,
I was forgetting to do all these things. And so
it got to the point of a breaking point, right
so I had to take some inventory. I took a break.
(38:31):
It's what the kids are now calling micro retirement. So
I took my whole micro apartment and I just had
to like sit and like really take inventory of like
my lifestyle, what I wanted to do. And at the
time that this all happened, you know, I was living
in New York also living my dream life that I
built for myself. I got to where where I wanted
to be, and essentially overnight, like it all went away.
(38:53):
After quitting this job. After leaving this job and realizing
like New York is probably the worst place to be
when you're employ you might have some sort of stable income,
and at this point, I was like, I'm not in
the best shape to do that and provide that for myself.
So I needed to go to a place where I
can find peace, and peace for me was moving back home,
right to California. And there there was a bit of
(39:16):
shame at first, you know, like nobody wants to go
from living a certain lifestyle to then moving back home
with your parents. Like again, like I worked at Apple,
I worked at Instagram, like I worked at these like
titan companies. You mean to tell me, like you're back
at home, like you know, Like it took me a
lot to not see that as a failure and now
(39:37):
I'm looking back at it, and I really see this
as an opportunity, right, especially in the economy that we're in,
Like you can't look at things like a setback. You
have to look at them as a as a comeback
or an opportunity to really redefine yourself, whether it's you
find yourself unemployed and you don't know what to do next,
you've been laid off and you're trying to figure things out,
(39:58):
Like take a second and kind of decouple yourself from
the norm of you know, having to have a like
a skyrise apartment or all these luxuries that you have,
like decover yourself from the financial aspect of things and
really think about, like where can I be that allows
me to be comfortable and thrive creatively, And if you
don't have the comforts of like moving back home, like
(40:20):
you know, figure it out with your chosen family, Like
how do you want to split things up, so on
and so forth. But you know, in this time of uncertainty,
moving back home was actually the best opportunity for me,
because again, I'm back in Silicon Valley, right, I'm back
at the home and the hub of technology. And I
had a conversation with one of my young nephews. I'm like,
(40:40):
oh man, I'm like, I'm home, Like I don't know
how I feel I left New York and he's like, dude,
but you're in the tech capital world, like you can
do literally anything, right. And so when Flora Bayafana was born,
it was stem from that. Like the first client that
I had was this major AI company that was started
by to ex Apple people that helped invent the first iPhone,
(41:02):
and so I kind of rushed to start at LLC.
I got my name down, I didn't even have a
website for a year, but I was like, I'm gonna
use this as my restart, right, So after the switch,
pivot or quit, then comes the restart, right, then comes
to the revival. Since then, I've made very intentional decisions
to really get into my skill sets and as somebody
(41:24):
who's transitioning from a full time role a salaried role
to freelance. The biggest culture shock is really taking inventory
and looking at how you want to quantify your not
only quantify your skills, but put a price tag on
your skills and put a price tag on what are
my offerings, Like, what are my unique skill sets that
I can break down and offer to people as a package.
(41:47):
This process is not linear. You're going to take you know, packages,
You're going to redefine them, You're going to rewrite them,
so on and so forth. Like if I look back
at some of my initial thoughts about what I'd be doing,
like they're completely different than what I offered today. It'll
probablyme case in a year. But you know, I was
able to redefine how I wanted to engage and interact
(42:08):
with people from a business perspective, from a client perspective.
And so the short of Flora by Fauna is that
I offer social media advisory services by day and AI
is essentially my future, right, AI education is my future.
With that on the social media side of things, I
help brands and creators navigate the algorithm to get the
(42:29):
most visibility on their campaigns and projects. And then by
you know, in terms of like future thinking, I'm really
passionate about AI education, ensuring that everyone has a chance
to find an entry point to AI tools and services
to find success within the Fourth Industrial Revolution that is
coming our way. And essentially, like my consultancy is very nicheless,
(42:53):
I don't have a niche. I don't have a certain bucket,
but I am really fortunate to be at many different
touch points, whether it's working with larger companies, whether it's
working with startup founders, so on and so forth to
really help empower them from a social media communication standpoint,
from the learnings that I've had from Apple, Instagram and
different startups.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
So, yeah, I feel like I should ask you, is
there anything burning that you want to share with us
with your thoughts around AI and the average person and
maybe where we are with it because I know you've
been embedding yourself. I think you even got some certifications
(43:35):
in AI. So what comes to mind that you want
to share with the average person listening about AI now
knowing what you know?
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Yeah, AI is definitely one of my passion points. And
what I want to emphasize to people is this is
a new space. Everyone is on a level playing field. Yeah,
everyone's trying to figure it out. People are trying to
make it a lot more difficult than it is. It
is really simple to figure out. If the information that's
being provided is very confusing intentionally because if everyone was
(44:06):
in this space at the same time, like everyone's gonna
thrive at the same time, so like in order to
slow things down, Like the information that's being put out
there is very confusing. But once you figure out your
roadmap and once you figure out how to leverage it,
it becomes very simple.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Thinking about you and where you are right now and
the fauna journey.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
What's one decision.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
That you made in the last year that your past
self would be proud of.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
I would definitely say being extremely vocal about my ideas
and thoughts and like doubling down on my opinion, right,
and not being scared, yeah, and not being scared of
sharing my thoughts right. I was thinking about this the
other day. I used to be scared to share feedback
or to share ideas, you know that stepped outside of
(44:57):
the line of like management or how things you know
we're done, or how things operate within the scope of
my role. And so I would have these great ideas
and I would just kind of like keep them to myself, right,
or I would have opinions and I would just kind
of keep going to myself. I'd see. My time at
Instagram was really great at kind of like helping me
discover ways to be more vocal, because Instagram is a
(45:19):
culture where you can, like, if you have something to
say to a manager or a leader, you can say
it like you can articulate, you know, whereas like some
of my earlier you know, some of my earlier time
at Apple, like that wasn't the case. Yeah, And so
I got a little bit of foundation from Instagram of like, okay,
like I'm allowed to, you know, share my thoughts, which
(45:39):
is different, but I think now, especially as somebody who
is now an independent operator, a free agent, so on
and so forth. I I got coined recently by a
friend and a connection that like, I'm I'm somebody that
drops truth bromds on LinkedIn. So I'm a truth bomber now,
and I'm like, okay, the truth bomber because I share,
(46:03):
like I share like unfiltered takes about different marketing and
social media case studies and so yeah, like I'm very
vocal about like, hey, this thing's working versus listening is not.
I'm not afraid to share my unfiltered take on different
things that are happening in the industry. So I'm really
excited to lean into that. And I think my past
self would have been proud of that because I definitely
(46:26):
let a lot of these ideas or a lot of
these suggestions like fall onto the you know, the cutting
floor basically, So I think former me would have been
really proud of that. Yes, you know, keep making her.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
Proud, Yes, as you should.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
And I think that's one of the best things that
we can do is like find those areas where we've
been sort of.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Like playing small, if you will, and.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
Really lean into it and acknowledge that we're leaning into
it and say, I'm going to keep leaning into it
even on the days where it feels uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
So totally and getting comfortable with that awkwardness is super
super yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
Final question I want to ask you, Fina, is about success.
We have talked about a lot of aspects of your journey,
and I'm sure that, like you said, so many of
your past lives other people would look at in awe.
But I want to hear from you in this moment
(47:28):
today because I know it could change. But right now,
what does success mean to you or what does it
look like for you?
Speaker 3 (47:37):
Yeah, I think success for me in this moment is
literally being delusional and reaching for the stars. Like I'm
in my delusional Delulu era. Right I'm just kind of like, hey,
like this could be cool, Like let's see like what
we could pitch here, or like, hey, this could be interesting,
like let's see where this goes. Like it's a very
like disjointed kind of journey that I'm on a bus.
(48:00):
But I'm really passionate about just being multifaceted and not
having a niche and not having a box to be
put in, and just really exploring how I can stretch
myself sustainably to accomplish things beyond like my wildest imagination.
And right now success doesn't look like the idea that
I had for myself ten years ago. Right I'm living
(48:20):
at my parents' house, you know, Like I don't have
the dream apartment, I don't have a structured job. But
I every day whenever I get discouraged by that, I
literally say, okay, but like more is coming, Okay, but
like your blessings are still coming, Like there are so
many things that you have not thought of yet. That
can come from any opportunities and you have to remain
(48:41):
open to it. And I'd say the final thing about
that is success is overcoming imposter syndrome. Imposture syndrome has
been a theme that has followed me throughout my entire
career of am I good enough to be here? Am
I supposed to be here? Like so on and so forth.
Even of being on this podcast, I'm like in a minute,
like there's so many executives that have been on here.
(49:02):
I mean you even have like Vanessa Simmons, like like
so many there's so many icons on here, like why
would you want to talk to me? And so like,
you know, I had to overcome that and be like okay,
but like you are here in your career and there's
alignment here and if I you know, I mean, I
wouldn't have said not this opportunity. But like you know,
like if you just kind of like don't accept the
(49:24):
opportunities that are coming your way, then what would success
look like? So I'd say, I'm in my delusional era,
I'm in my overcoming imposter syndrome era, and I can't
wait to see what's next.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
Me too, thank you so much for saying yes, Fauna.
Thank you for believing in yourself. Thank you for continuously
evaluating yourself and being so self aware, because that is
something that helps to push us forward, whether we know
it or not. And just thank you for allowing your
voice to be heard even when it feels uncomfortable, because
(49:54):
it is valuable and way more valuable than I think
you even know in this mo and it is going
to continue to carry value, and I'm just excited for
what we're going to see from you, all the amazing things.
Speaker 3 (50:07):
Thank you so much, and thank you for having me.
Thank you for you for creating this platform. Thank you
to all the previous guests that have been here that
I've really like changed my life. And also I hope
that whoever's listening to this knows that even in this economy,
even in this time like it is not impossible to
listen to yourself and make that switch, that pivot, that quit,
(50:29):
or even that restart that you want to make. So yeah,
thanks for listening, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Love it, and as always, you all, thank you for listening.
Just like Fana said, thank you for spending time with us,
thank you for allowing our conversations to.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
Reach you wherever you are.
Speaker 1 (50:45):
I hope that you are well, sending you big virtual
love and until next time, be well,
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