This week at work!

What I’ve been creating:

1. A handbook for an email marketing software

Even though I’m in the process of transitioning from process-oriented work into the content-and-brand-focused work, there are still some pieces of documentation that simply make more sense for me to create. One of these was a guide for how to use one of our new email tools. 

I completed three sections of this guide before discovering that this tool is actually going to be discontinued. So I halted work on this project for the time being until I can learn whether or not it’ll be sticking around. It was fun while it lasted. #startuplife

2. An improved process doc

Again with wrapping up and handing things off. I sat down with my new colleague who will be focusing on operations as I move into marketing, and we came up with a game plan for creating onboarding processes for new hires.

The best way that I can make sure this handoff goes smoothly is to clearly distinguish the high-level process from the step-by-step process. Right now these are intertwined into one massive document. It’s comprehensive, which is great, but overwhelming and relatively inefficient for finding pertinent information quickly. Separating these out will be one of the last things I do to ensure that the information my colleague has to work with is as up-to-date as possible.

3. A marketing plan

And the other half of this big role-switching endeavor is to create a plan of action for what, exactly, I’ll be doing in this new space. 

I’m overwhelmingly grateful for the time that I spent in operations, learning all the nitty-gritty details of the services that we offer, for multiple reasons. First of all, knowing how we do what we do (and having an intimate knowledge of the tools we use) allows me to not only pitch in to help colleagues when they need a hand, but also answer questions about the technical end of things if ever one were to arise. (Granted they just hired a whole new person to do that, but please just let me have this.)

Secondly, I’m now set up to be a quadzillion more times more effective in content creation and brand building because I actually know what we do. And, more importantly, why we’re doing it. 

During my time working on the process, I worked closely with our founder to document what he was building as he was building it. It allowed me to get a much closer look at the what, how, and why behind everything that we’re doing. 

I learned a lot more about our company through this than through reading any of the onboarding materials, that’s for sure. And because I now have this personal understanding of what, how, and why we’re doing what we’re doing, I’ll (hopefully) be able to communicate this with more clarity to the outside world. 

That’s the plan, anyway. 

What I’ve been learning about:

1. What goes into building a brand 

I spent a solid chunk of time researching best practices for building a brand from the ground up. There are many people on the internet who apparently have everything figured out, so I will gladly take the time to learn as much as possible from them. 

2. Content strategy with HubSpot Academy

The HubSpot Academy is a wealth of knowledge and opportunity just waiting to be discovered. There are so many courses on there that I want to complete that it was hard to narrow it down, but I ended up going with one on content strategy because it felt the most relevant. 

If you’re just starting your journey into sales or marketing, I 100% recommend checking out the resources that HubSpot has available for free in its Academy. It’s worth at least checking out, even if you’re not using HubSpot.

Pro tip: if you hate watching/listening to videos because your brain doesn’t retain auditory information, download the transcripts! You can read literally all the same content, and you don’t have to sit through 17 hours of their awkward teaching voice!

3. The power of dividing up your time ahead of time

Being organized and effectively prioritizing my tasks has been an area that I’ve actively been trying to improve in for the past couple of weeks. This week I tried something new.

At the end of every work day, we’re all expected to fill out a checkin form outlining what we did and what we’ll be doing the next day. Up to this point I’ve been less than intentional with the information about the next day—listing things that I knew needed to be done, but not really thinking through how that was going to happen.

Well, this week I tried outlining how long I was going to spend on each project each day. Just a rough outline to help give an idea of how big of a percentage each section was going to get. It turned out to be incredibly helpful the next day—instead of accidentally working on one project for five hours, I only spent as much time as I had pre-allotted to it. 

This helped me be more intentional with my time (because I felt like it was limited, which it was), and also to be more mindful of the balance between the current duality of my role (being in both operations and marketing during this transitional time).

It was a helpful exercise and I plan on continuing it this week.

This week in New York City!

I received an email from my church on Tuesday morning that had a subject line that made me feel like I was in an alternate dimension. 

“The Rewards of Fasting Equipping Event • Dwell • Praxis Course • And More Announcements”

Praxis Course? 

What is this?? 

A quick look at their website homepage showed what they’re all about: “Advancing Redemptive Entrepreneurship.”

And thus began a trip down a rabbit hole that I truly, with my entire being, did not want to come back out of. 

The long and the short of it is that they are an organization that is all about supporting entrepreneurs who are wanting to make an impact on their culture through their entrepreneurial endeavors. 

I instantly signed up for the course (which was starting the next day—nothing like a last-minute signup to make a good first impression), and for the rest of the day it took every last ounce of self-control within my body to not read every single piece of content on that website instead of getting my actual work done. 

There’s going to be a full blog post about this experience coming down the pipeline soon, so stayed tuned for that. In the meantime, know that I feel like I just discovered a missing piece to the puzzle that I didn’t even know existed. The Lord is good.