Rolling Sands Consulting

Job Searching in the Time of Covid-19

Job searching is a stressful endeavour at the best of times, and these are not those. Today, I found out that I didn’t get a job that I was excited about. I needed some extra self-care and positive self-talk after getting the news.

How do I…

…stay motivated? – I know what I want to do…marketing! I love strategy, collaboration, creating, mentoring, and trying new things.

…stay hopeful? – I’m deciding that the roles I’ve applied for so far must not have been right for me. The right one at the right company will come along.

…stay confident? – I’m a unique, well-rounded, and experienced marketing professional with great references (and awards) to prove it!

…stay on my game? – I read articles, chat with friends and colleagues, watch webinars, and take online courses…and I decided to build a website. 😀

…deal with being in shared spaces again? – I stay home 95% of the time. Wear a double mask, wash my hands, and keep my distance when I absolutely have to go to the grocery store. That’s all any of us can and should do.

What keeps you motivated and moving forward in these strange times?

Perfectionism vs. Excellence

We’re only human.
No one is perfect.
Live and Learn.

Platitudes we often repeat but do we really believe them? For me, these phrases only applied to other people for many years. As a perfectionist, I did not give myself the consideration that I granted others.

Several years ago, I ran a PPC campaign for a manager. It was part of the launch plan for a new product. He hadn’t yet tried this tactic and was ready for something new. We carefully chose keywords and bid amounts and then pressed the proverbial “GO” button with great excitement!

It soon became obvious that we weren’t connecting with the right people. Lots of clicks, very few leads.

Our keywords were simply too generic. We struggled to find more specific language relevant to the product…to no avail. It was time to redirect our efforts and resources.

I was disappointed and apologised for the failure, but the manager viewed our campaign as a successful experiment. It gave us a much better idea as to which of his products were suited to PPC campaigns.

That day, my focus began shifting from a goal of perfection to that of excellence. It has been a bumpy but much more rewarding road.

Everyone is a marketer…

…even if they can’t or don’t want to do marketing. Every person in your organisation can either promote or damage your brand.

Everyone has a part to play in building your brand and maintaining your reputation.

Ideally, everyone in your company knows, understands, and *buys into* your brand story. You build trust and enthusiasm with your *internal* stakeholders in much the same way as you do for your customers.

Be open-minded, transparent, fair, and accountable.
Ensure that everyone is held to those same standards.
Live your brand values. “Do as I do.”
Share success stories with the whole company, not just your customers/prospects.
- It’s amazing how many people miss the best work a company does because they are siloed in a role behind-the-scenes.
Make sure that everyone knows why they are important and how they contribute to company goals.
Encourage job shadowing to build trust and an understanding of how the whole company comes together to do what it does. They are all on the same team.

Once you have a great company culture, you might want to initiate a formal employee ambassador program, but there are pros and cons. The linked article below offers a nice, quick intro. Is this an untapped marketing resource or too much of a risk factor for your business?

https://spinsucks.com/communication/employee-brand-ambassador-program/