Young & Hungry - An Industrial Marketer's Journey

In this episode, Jordan interviews Niamh Field, a marketing professional with experience in the industrial industry. Niamh shares her journey of moving to the United States at a young age and adjusting to a new culture. She discusses her college experience and how she discovered her passion for marketing. Niamh also talks about working in the industrial industry and the unique challenges and opportunities it presents. She shares her insights on marketing styles in the industry and offers advice on finding a balance in content scheduling. The conversation covers topics such as social media management, monitoring analytics, targeting younger audiences, leveraging LinkedIn, reaching out to the trade industry, marketing to the younger generation, and transitioning from orthodontics to marketing. The guest, Niamh, shares her experiences and insights in these areas.

Connect with Niamh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niamh-f-field/

SPONSOR LINKS:

• This Episode was brought to you by David Turner at Process & Automation Specialists. https://processandautomation.com | 
  •  Visit Process & Automation Specialists at The Assembly Show South in Nashville on May 1st & 2nd at Booth 1360! Use code PASVIP for free registration.
  •  Connect with David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-turner-enterprises/
•  CAPTRON, the cutting edge manufacturer of capacitive touch sensor solutions. Follow them on LinkedIn ( https://www.linkedin.com/company/captron-na )  or Check out their website ( https://www.captron.com/ )
  • Make sure to visit CAPTRON at Automate 2024 in Chicago, IL at booth 2886.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:14

Hello everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Failing For you. It is me, your host, jordan Yates. That's me. It's me, your host, jordan Yates, with Neem Field Guys, what's wrong with me? It's Friday. I'm so happy to have Neem here with me. She is super cool, bubbly marketing girl. She is from London, has moved over here when she was about 10 years old to the States up in Cleveland I say up because I'm down in Texas and she's had a really interesting journey throughout her life of adjusting culturally and then has had a cool journey that crosses with mine in marketing for industrial companies. So I hope I didn't lose you guys in my messy introduction but nonetheless say hello to everybody.

Speaker 2: 1:05

Hi everyone, Happy to be here today.

Speaker 1: 1:09

But real quick. Before we get started, let's hear a quick message from our sponsors.

Speaker 3: 1:14

Hi there, I'm David Turner from Process and Automation Specialists. In our world, process improvement isn't just a phrase. It's the key to unlocking efficiency in your operations. With over 20 years of hands-on experience in the heart of manufacturing plants, I've walked in your shoes, worked alongside teams like yours, and understand the ins and outs of your daily challenges. My journey from the plant floor to leading process solutions means I know exactly what it takes to elevate your operations. Interested in transforming your process efficiency? With a partner who's been there, let's connect on LinkedIn. Don't wait for the future of automation, let's create it. Process and automation specialists engineering efficiency together.

Speaker 4: 1:57

Go ahead, push our buttons. Actually, you don't have to physically push our buttons at all. Here at Captron, we specialize in innovative capacitive sensor technologies, which means better ergonomics for your workplace and, unlike mechanical buttons that break or malfunction after repeated use, our sensors are rated for 100 million operations. Durability is the name of the game and we're winning, and you can be too. Visit Captron at Automate 2024 in Chicago, illinois on May 6th through 9th at booth 2886, or visit captroncom. Captron. Install once, replace never.

Speaker 1: 2:44

We're happy to have you. Yeah, I set the bar super low so there's nothing you can absolutely do wrong now. But I'm so excited so you messaged me a while ago to come on. What inspires you to come on the podcast and tell your story message me a while ago to come on.

Speaker 2: 3:00

What inspires you to come on the podcast and tell your story? Yeah, so I just graduated from Cleveland State in December, and I've been in the marketing space for a few years now. So I'm finally looking to kind of strengthen my personal brand a little bit and I've seen a couple of your podcast episodes. I've listened to them and I was like this is really cool, like what a cool way to bring up the way people have like turned something negative in their career or something not as fun and made something out of it and took a shot in the dark. I was like you know, like my story could be a little interesting. Like you know, I'm a younger person. Usually don't see younger people doing these kinds of things. So I was like you know what? Like I'll just take a shot in the dock and send a message, say hey, I'm interested in being a guest for season two. So yeah, and that worked out great. I think I'm really excited to be here.

Speaker 1: 3:42

Yeah, no, it's. It's so fun. And I think it's funny when people come across the podcast for the first time because they're like, wait, like you got here, because it's hard when you're younger and you look up to people and you're like I'm never going to be able to achieve that, I'm never going to be able to figure out how they got to this place, and it's like I feel like so much success is gatekept because people want to make it seem like it's so easy and perfect and you have to be so special to be successful. But I don't think that's the case. I think people mess up all the time. But anyways, enough of my spiel. Tell us about when you moved to the United States and what that was like.

Speaker 2: 4:26

Yeah, so I moved here with my dad and my brother when I was about 10 years old and we loaded up our house on a shipping container and I didn't know that we weren't going to see that stuff in six months, until six months later. So I came here with just like a backpack, a couple of clothes, you know, and my. I had a teddy bear and my Nintendo DS and that was what I used. That was what I all I needed. And I remember getting here and it's just like, okay, well, we have no house, no car, we don't know anyone. Like what, what now? And you know, my dad did a great job at playing it cool, but you know, I could tell he's a little scared too. I was like, yeah, me too. Like you know, we're on the same page right now. Um, and then a week later I started, uh, school and some of the kids were like wow, like this is cool, like you're from a new place, yeah, other kids were like you wow, like this is cool, like you're from a new place.

Speaker 2: 5:19

Yeah, other kids were like you know, I've heard what my parents say about immigrants, like that must be true about you. And it was just like, oh goodness, you know, like kids are mean and you know kids are silly, so that kind of carried up with me up until high school, like people were just strange. And then I got to college and I felt like I really blossomed, so that was good. Yeah, I made a lot of friends once I got to college and I was finally a cool different, not a weird different. So that was definitely a good change for me.

Speaker 1: 5:56

You know I don't think I've ever achieved cool, different. I think I've maintained weird, different most of my life. So I one day hope to relate to that. But I try to convince people I'm like no, no, no, I'm quirky, it's cute, but it's funny because it just depends on your atmosphere, who you're around and who embraces the differences, where some places can be so clicky. And I think a lot of people can relate that even growing up here and going through the school system K through 12 just kind of sucks, unless you just happen to have great friends and your life is easy. But I think it's just so awkward going through school and it's so nice getting to have that big change going to college. And so you go to college. What do you do there?

Speaker 2: 6:35

So I went to college and I originally was going for music. Um, I was a big music kid in high school. I did theater, I did choir, I did like competitive singing, like vocal, vocally, all that good stuff, um, and then I got there and was like I cannot afford this, so what now? And my dad was like, oh, you should be a lawyer, like you have a great sense of right and wrong, you know the facts and you stand by it. And I was like, oh, the law, like a science, like just different things.

Speaker 2: 7:04

And my intro to business class shout out, professor Lisa Lewins, she's the best. And she just inspired me. Like we did an intro course and it was just the best thing ever. I loved it. I love the whole marketing aspect of it. We had a marketing unit and this was right before COVID. So everyone's kind of like, oh, you know, social media is cool, it's on the rise. You know, not knowing that, like it was going to be the only way that we would be connected in a couple months, yeah, semester. And it was like, oh, I'm going to go to school, I'm going to party, I'm going to have so much fun, I'm going to be so smart. And then COVID happened. It's like, okay, well, it looks like you're going to lose your job. You're going to sit at home.

Speaker 2: 8:05

You're not going to hang out with anyone, You're just going to do school all work, no play. It's just that kind of happened there and put a halt to the college experience a little bit.

Speaker 1: 8:14

Yeah, no, that's that sucks Because, like for me, COVID hit during, like my second to last semester, so it was like I'd had the normal experience and well as normal as I could doing engineering. And then I get to the end and I'm like, well, this is really anticlimactic. Like I'm like, you know, graduation, we're all wearing masks and it was like so weird and eerie and you can only invite like four people, and so it was definitely odd, but it's. It's kind of cool, though, how you chose to go more marketing once. That happened, because we really did enter, like this super duper digital age. Yeah, and it's cool that, like you did try different things out because I mean, yeah, I, I don't know the career path for singers and how that works, but I imagine you can always sing on the side if you still like it yeah, yeah, like, I'll definitely do that.

Speaker 2: 8:58

Still Like, if my, if my partner's gaming, I'll just say, oh, you know, I'll just go noodle on the piano for a bit, I'll go play the guitar, I'll go sing to the cat, you know like. But in terms of school, it's just like it was expensive, like the community college I was at. You had to participate in three practices a week that were like three hours long.

Speaker 3: 9:21

And.

Speaker 2: 9:22

I couldn't do that. Like I worked, I had to work. I worked probably, I think, four or five days a week, so I'd go to school and then go to work and then come home, do homework and rinse, repeat, so yeah, that was just like it was just too much for me. So I took a different route and I'm happy I did. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:40

What about, okay, so, when you were in your businesses class, your marketing class, when what did you like, like originally, that like really clicked for you and you're like this feels so good to me, like I really enjoy this, or did it gradually grow, or do you have like any defining moments of when you really realized you loved it?

Speaker 2: 10:01

you have like any defining moments of when you really realized you loved it. So, um, the moment I realized that it was for me was, um, it was like, I think it was like the first.

Speaker 2: 10:05

It was the first day of class and in that specific class and um I got there and I'm sitting in the row next to next to a guy and, uh, he was super cool. We like chatted up. He is, he was like 10 years older than me, um, super cool. Um, he's been working full-time, decided to go back to school and then, um, there's two guys in front of me and uh, the one in the front row, uh, was sitting there, and the one, the guy in the back row, sneezed, yeah, and the guy in the front row made a joke about it and all four of us just started dying laughing and no one else got like the joke except us, and we've been friends since.

Speaker 2: 10:39

Like I keep up, I don't have. Unfortunately, I don't keep up with two of them because we just lost touch. They moved, yeah, but the one I'm still friends with and we'll get lunch occasionally and just the people like like they were just like so fun and like-minded, they were driven and were hungry, like uh, a lot of other college kids were like, oh, you know, I'm gonna go home, sleep and then go drink with my friends. Yes, these guys were like me.

Speaker 2: 11:01

They're like I'm gonna go to work after this and I'm gonna go home and do homework like maybe you want to get lunch this weekend, like that's all I have available and I kind of related to that um. But in terms of class content, I would say I started reading, like the case studies and things like that, about um specifically like just things that have gone wrong in businesses, like so I guess this kind of applies here, like the failures that happen and some of them I'm just like what were they thinking Like, what were they thinking Like? And so it kind of inspired me, like you know what I want to be in this space, so that, like dumb mistakes aren't made like that, because that's just crazy to me.

Speaker 2: 11:34

So yeah, that's kind of where I got my inspiration from to stick around and do all that good stuff.

Speaker 1: 11:40

That's really cool Because I feel like I had the opposite experience in school of every time I took a new class. I'm like, why am I doing this? I hate engineering. This is so hard. Like the people are weird, Like when is it going to be over? Like I, it's like every step further I got towards it. I'm like this is not affirming any sort of excitement, but I was like I'm in too deep, I have to do it. But I love when people actually get to enjoy what they're studying and feel that passion. It's so cool. I definitely feel it now in my career. But yeah, I think it's weird, Like you were saying, how some companies, the way that they run their marketing.

Speaker 1: 12:15

It just seems so illogical and I think it stems from, in my experience, it's either like lack of effort, lack of budget, or it's like they have all these people who are doing their job and there's no marketing department and they're like, okay, let's all pitch in and help with marketing, but there's no plan, there's no one with any training, and so it comes out looking super weird and that's if they're doing anything at all. And so I think it's definitely unique, especially in our more industrial industry, that marketing is done a little differently, because it's the B2B world and we want to be able to establish ourselves as experts but also try to be relatable, and it's a very hard balance. So I'm curious what drew you into working for a more industrial company?

Speaker 2: 13:00

Yeah. So my dad is actually an engineer. He's got an engineering degree and he's been doing it ever since. So when I was looking for a job after college, I was like you know what? I'm going to get an internship. And I saw that this place was hiring the Trade Association and I was like, oh my gosh, I know what this like yeah, I don't think anyone else would know what this is. I told my dad about it. I was like what do you think? Like I don't know anything about manufacturing industry right now. Like do you think it'd be a good fit? And he's like, yeah, he's like you know about men, you're a little bit about metals from me, you know. Like you know, okay.

Speaker 2: 13:35

So I interviewed, went great and, yeah, I fell in love with it. I had my internship there and I was like you know, like this is great to me, like I loved you know it's definitely an older industry in terms of age. So I personally like that, I feel like I draw a lot of value from that. People that have lived it and been through it and have seen it all like or close to it all. And in another way it's also cool because I'm the next generation of that. So it's kind of cool to be like you know what I'm the next wave, like here's what I'm going to keep, here's what I'm going to change, kind of thing. So that's what I love about it right now, like it's just a really cool space to be in.

Speaker 1: 14:14

It's pretty niche too, which I like does it give you and your, your dad, more to talk about, like now that you're in a more similar industry?

Speaker 2: 14:21

like does he find it exciting yeah, yeah, 100.

Speaker 2: 14:25

He'll be like oh, I have a friend that works. I'll be telling about a company. I'm like, yeah, so this really cool company on lines and I'm kind of jealous of their marketing. Yeah, that's good. And my dad's like oh, my buddy used to work, that's such a cool thing. So we have fun about that. And he'll know it out. Sometimes I'll say, hey, do you know what this is Like? I'll show him a stock photo and he's like oh, that's this. And it's like a 15 minute tangent. I'm like that's cool, that's cool. So I love that. I love talking to him about that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 14:49

Yeah, I have that same thing with my stepdad. He's a machinist and then was a welder and getting that technical experience and I'll send them stuff now and I'm like, oh, this made me think of you and it's fun because it's like other than that we don't have a lot to talk about your stepdad. I don't see him as much, and so it's fun having legitimate things in common with your parents to riff off of, when normally it's just like oh, how are you doing Like all the normal stuff. So it's cool to actually be able to geek out with them a little bit and I love having that as well. But when you entered this industry, was it weird? Like? What did you find like cool about it? What did you find weird about the marketing styles that kind of give us your first impressions?

Speaker 2: 15:37

So in terms of cool, I think that it was really neat to see how other people are doing it and everyone's kind of taking a different route in this space, because it seems like a recent thing that the manufacturing industry is kind of an industrial industry, is kind of stepped into marketing. It's kind of like new area for them, and so that's really cool to me, that now it's like, oh cool, like we're all doing this. Now what's everyone else doing? Like hey, have you tried this yet? Like have you tried this? Like it's all a bit trial and error, which I think is really neat. Still in that kind of like what are we taking, what are we leaving? Phase.

Speaker 2: 16:10

And in terms of what I found strange, I think the different style of content is strange because I would say about 75% of my marketing work is creative right now in terms of video editing and recording, like graphic design for socials and things like that, and so you're not going to want to post like some ditzy cursive, like pink something on trade association sites. You got to think like what do these people want to see? So that was kind of hard for me because I'd been making college content for so long. Oh, it's fun colors. You know it's crazy like fun stuff, cool stuff, to hey we had this event. It's a little more professional, you know, so maybe the word weird is wrong for that, but it's just different, it's very different and the target audience is very different as well.

Speaker 2: 17:00

it's a very small target audience, so you also don't want to overwhelm them. It's really easy to overwhelm them, I feel like with content, because it's like, well, you know, there's 20 of them over in this industry, but there's five of us over here and you're hitting us with the same amount of content. So I think that was a strange thing to learn for me as well, that hey, you can overload people with content. And yeah, yeah. So that was kind of a wake up call for me a little bit when I first started out.

Speaker 1: 17:27

It's definitely a balance. Trying to find out, like, how to market, especially like LinkedIn and social medias like that, where it'll show somebody a post from like two weeks ago and I noticed like sometimes my boyfriend will log on to LinkedIn and it'll be like 10 posts from me, because I post, like you know, four or five times a week and it's like he's trying to catch up and I'm like am I flooding people's pages? Am I overwhelming them? Am I too much? And then you also have the other side of like okay, well, I don't want them to forget I'm here, so I need to. You know, keep it up.

Speaker 2: 18:07

Do advice for the listeners on, like how you've kind of found a balance in approaching the I guess content schedule for industrial marketing.

Speaker 2: 18:10

Yeah, so to be completely transparent, I actually use Hootsuite shout out Hootsuite and I use that to schedule content and I use their analytics pretty religiously in terms of when people are active online and I also like to do a bit of digging myself. I kind of go through every few months, months, and I'm like okay, what do people like? What do people really not like? Like is it this worth posting about again? Is this worth it?

Speaker 2: 18:27

And I like to go through my feed as if I'm like LinkedIn has that view as a member feature. So I'll do that sometimes and I'm like what would I look like if I went to my page? And I'll go through sometimes and be like, oh, like why is this post in here three times within three weeks? Like that's a little much. So things like that, I think, is a great way to make sure that you're not overwhelming people. And Hootsuite has like the best time to publish feature and they have like competitive analysis things like that. So that kind of helps kind of benchmark anyone that's maybe new or just stepping into the marketing space in a manufacturing or industrial aspect. I would say those are pretty good tools to use. I'm not sure about other tools, but for me personally, hootsuite was what worked best for me and has worked best.

Speaker 1: 19:16

Yeah, I listened to somebody that worked at Hootsuite on a podcast for marketing a couple months ago and so right after I downloaded it and was like, okay, I'm going to try it out. But I only tried it on my mobile phone because I was traveling and so I was really overwhelmed and I was like no, I'm going to cancel it and try again later. I get so overwhelmed trying new platforms sometimes because you get so comfortable and in your rhythm with certain ones and then you add a new one and it's hard to determine when it's time to add that next step. But it sounds like Hootsuite is worth getting to know and learning. Do you mostly monitor the analytics from like socials?

Speaker 2: 19:51

or does it monitor anything else? Yeah, so it mainly monitors socials, um, on our run. That's what I have it set up to do. And then, um, I use google analytics for um website and website ads, website traffic, things like that, but Hootsuite's all socials for me. So we use Instagram, twitter, we don't use TikTok Facebook, we use LinkedIn, we just use Apple. So it's pretty simple. They have my streams and things like that. You can kind of see it all. But, yeah, that would be my main tool and main advice, I think.

Speaker 1: 20:23

There's a lot of back and forth debate on whether or not it's worth investing the time and posting on platforms like Instagram. What's been your experience there of? Are you seeing any return? Are you building brand awareness? This is something people are like, especially if you're 50 years old and you're running the marketing department. You're like I don't even know this Instagram stuff. What is the real? Do you personally find it worth the time or what's your experience there?

Speaker 2: 20:49

Yeah, so my experience is that for us, we are a trade association specifically for forging, so it's a very small industry and it's an aging industry for forging. So it's a very small industry and it's an aging industry. So we're trying to reach younger people to say, hey, we exist, we have good job opportunities If you're looking for something in trades or something that's the non-traditional route, not going to a four-year school spending a ton of money and so I think our best bet has been to use Leverage LinkedIn for that kind of stuff. Yeah, that's where our audience is mainly.

Speaker 2: 21:24

Uh, instagram's a funny one actually, cause, um, as you know, linkedin you can't post links or anything like. It's just like it's a picture and a caption and that's kind of what you're working with. You can tag people, sure, you can put a location, sure, but, um, in terms of usability, for us, we typically keep it down to just event recap, things like that, like pictures, I feel like do best on there. So we have like an industry event. We'll post pictures from it people drinking, having fun, you know and we'll post some of the exhibits and things like that.

Speaker 2: 21:58

But in terms of other content, like LinkedIn, we'll post, like our event registrations, like news things like that, um, but in terms of, uh, other content, like linkedin will post, like our event registrations, like news things like that, uh, our video content does go on instagram as well, but we don't see that it performs as well with reels, yeah. So I like linkedin's algorithm the best, I think, because it kind of pushes relevancy and what your connections interact with, instead of just like hey, here's a story, it's in a circle, click on it or don't. Yeah, literally that's what I've noticed, at least. I can't speak for everyone, but just from my perspective that's what I've noticed.

Speaker 1: 22:33

Yeah, it's hard because there's this balance of like I mean, I'm 25, you're 22. We're a bit younger and, especially in this industry, we're like literal babies. But it's weird because our buyers are going to be on LinkedIn most likely. But then we have this concept of okay, we do need to show the younger generation who we are, what we're doing, and we are going to find them on Instagram, tiktok, things like that. And so it always overwhelms me because for my marketing I'm more focused on I want the ROI, I want the sales, and it's like it's sometimes harder to convince people to spend the time on TikTok and Instagram, because it really is brand awareness, it's more the HR marketing for like, hey, come work with us, kind of stuff. So it's it's hard to put like a dollar sign on that. But do you personally have like any passion towards, you know, showcasing our industry to the younger people, or is it just kind of like, meh, like, whatever? Like what's your approach, like what's your thought with it? So my thought with.

Speaker 2: 23:30

That is younger people like us, like we've we've seen. We've seen it all Like we've. Like the economy is not what it should be Like, inflation is like a million percent and it just feels so hard to keep up sometimes. So we're looking for the sexy, well-paying jobs off the bat. We're like we're going to go to school, spend a bunch of money, but we're going to get a job that pays really well right out of that. Not the case. So my passion there is that I grew up in a rural, small town, so a lot of the people out there tend to lean towards the more trade jobs and things like that, stuff that doesn't require that you go and spend a bunch of money on a degree. My passion kind of lies with them. It's like, hey, these guys still exist, they're still out there. They may not be on LinkedIn, they're not there.

Speaker 2: 24:27

Sometimes it's best to take a more traditional approach with those kinds of people, especially with like word of mouth. So if I see like someone on Facebook being like oh you know, I have this. Like I'm looking, I weld, I'm looking for a welding position, I'd be like oh you know. Like I work for trade association. I see that this company's hiring a welder, like go check it out. So I think that's kind of the approach with that and people aren't really looking to work in like in a million degree environment and I don't blame them. But at the same time we need people to, otherwise we can't fly. We can't drive, we don't have the things that we need to or the parts we need to be able to keep up our lifestyle. So I think my approach there is just to try and post on like the younger audience platforms I guess, like Twitter and Instagram, but sometimes the track just isn't there because they don't know.

Speaker 2: 25:14

So I think a lot of it comes from making sure you're following the right people, making sure you're interacting with the right people and just making sure you're staying well connected with the younger generation. They're out there and they're looking. There are people that don't want those sexy, high-paying jobs they want to do the dirty stuff, because that's what their parents did. So just not forgetting about them and just making sure that you're hitting them when you can is, I think, extremely important.

Speaker 1: 25:40

Yeah, that's such a good point because the traditional college route isn't for everybody. Even my little sister right now she did a semester in community college and she's like I don't see the point of a lot of this stuff. I don't feel like I'm getting anything out of it. I want to get to work now, and so we've been looking at different trade schools for her, different routes of things that she can do.

Speaker 1: 25:58

And it's weird because we grow up thinking like either I go to college or I don't. It's like where's the in-between there? Where's the other routes? And it's always the basic do I want to be a doctor or a lawyer or whatever? And it's all these incredibly difficult to achieve, things that take 10 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to school, and that's a really privileged thing to do.

Speaker 1: 26:19

And so it's nice to think like, hey, like we can tell the kids now like there are other options, and sure they're not the sexiest, but they do pay well enough, you can get good benefits, you can really contribute to making the world function, you know. And it's like we just don't think about this because it's not advertised as much, and so I I like that you bring that point up because it is so important. And I know there's always the big push of like oh, we want to show diversity, we want to show this and that and all the other things. But for me I'm like, let's just show we exist, let's just start there, and then I guess other people can really hammer in the finer points. But I'm like, let's just tell people about this stuff and I think LinkedIn's really caught on to that lately and it's it's been very fun.

Speaker 2: 27:15

But before you were in the industrial side, you had some fun in the world of orthodontics. So tell us a little bit about that, how you ended up school and you know, I had a restaurant job at the time Like it was fine, like it was like what everyone else does. It was paid, paid the bills and then COVID happened Everything shut down and I could not find a job to save my life.

Speaker 2: 27:37

I applied at grocery stores and they're like listen, we've hired a bunch of people we can't do anymore. I applied at grocery stores and they're like, listen, we've hired a bunch of people we can't do anymore, um. And so in the end I just kind of like was like, oh, like, what am I gonna do? And I got a job at a grocery store for a little bit, but that was excruciating, to say the least. Like this, this, this place, was not, was, was not what it should be. And, yeah, I, I wish nothing but the best for everyone still works there, um, but so I'm working there, I'm miserable. And then one day I'm sitting at home, I'm with my dad and his girlfriend's like, oh, you know, like work's been so busy, like everyone's so scared because of COVID, everyone's quit and, um, because they're working their mouths like I get it that's like the worst of the worst, like in a pandemic like that, and she's like we're covering.

Speaker 1: 28:23

We're literally wearing masks to cover that.

Speaker 2: 28:25

Yeah, and I'm like I wish I had someone to like come in and help. You know, and I'm sitting there like I can help, like how much they pay, what do you need? And she was like oh, like you know, we're just looking for someone to, you know, help with some admin things, and so I started with them. I did that for a bit and as I'm doing it, I'm uh, like just seeing people. I'm washing instruments, things like that. I'm so I'm running the autoclave and doing that stuff. And then I'm like watching people. I'm like this is kind of cool, like watching people get braces and they're just like in there. It's like it's incredible and, um, so I'm like what does it take me to do this? Like, what does it take me to actually be putting braces on people, making people smile, you know, make people feel better about themselves?

Speaker 2: 29:08

10 years of school, yeah, and she was like well, you can do tons of school or we can give you training. It's gonna take about three months, um, but we can do it. And I was like I'll take the three month route, I'll keep doing this for a couple months. And so we did that. They trained me up, um, and then after those three months I was assisting on people and um covid was still full swing. Like we'd be working, we'd have to wear a mask, we had to wear goggles and then like a shield over top of it.

Speaker 2: 29:36

So it was just very intense and you know, I'm still applying at places, still being like hey, but just nothing, like it's just crickets. So I stuck it out at this place and I felt I did fall in love with it. I thought it was great, um, you know, just seeing like the satisfaction of people getting their braces off, oh, and just like watching people improve and you get to know people, like it's like they come in, like how's your family, how's your job, how's your life, and you know, I love that, I love having that connection with people. And, yeah, like just the emotional roller coaster that was going through, something like that, like getting a long term medical procedure it's not easy and, you know, help people through that was very satisfying. And then I got promoted to lab manager so I was running 3d printers and things like that. I was like making retainers, building people's like treatment plans with a doctor. He worked. He works at a college so I would even help him with like case studies and things like that that he was working on. So that's just some really cool stuff there.

Speaker 2: 30:30

And I started kind of getting on his case about hey, let me start marketing stuff. You know, like, I know you have an Instagram page I haven't been touched in years. Yeah, so I started doing of getting on his case about hey, let me start marketing stuff. You know, like I know, you have an Instagram page that hasn't been touched in years. Yeah, so I started doing that when I could. I was very busy over there. Yeah, I couldn't get a lot of content out that I wanted to, but I did do that for a bit and that was fun. People love seeing themselves online, like that's me.

Speaker 2: 30:49

I got three students and they're like check out my new smile, you know things like that. So that was always super fun and that's kind of how I did that. But I got to a point where it was like it's not paying enough for me.

Speaker 2: 31:01

I can't afford it right now and it's not what I want to do long term. And I kind of found myself like a rut. I'm like, wow, all my friends are getting these like really cool marketing internships and I'm here playing in people's mouths like it's not, it's not what I want to do. Yeah, it's different, yeah, yeah. So that's how I kind of came out of that and that was my little uh I like to call it a little like hiatus, I guess, from my career journey, but it did help, it did. It did teach me a lot so, yeah, no, that's so cool.

Speaker 1: 31:31

Thanks for sharing. Um, I guess now, like we've, we got to know you a little bit and we're getting towards the end of our time. So I know, before we got on, we were kind of talking about building personal brand, connecting with people. So I guess, I mean, I think people, if they've listened this far, they'll like you, they'll want to connect with you. But what's kind of your elevator pitch of why people should connect with you, what you're going to be doing, moving forward, and what they can expect to see from you in the future?

Speaker 2: 31:57

So I think my, in terms of elevator pitch, I like to just say I'm young and hungry. I really am. I'm so eager to learn all the time. I ask way too many questions and I'm a quick learner. It takes me a little bit, but I will learn it, and I think as well. I bring a quick learner. It takes me a little bit, but you know I will, I will learn it and I think as well. I bring a unique skill set and a unique perspective on things. Like moving like was a big step for me. Like learning how to connect with people was massive for me. In terms of like finding common ground and being able to talk to anyone about anything. I think yeah.

Speaker 2: 32:35

And so I would say that my biggest like, if you want to connect with me, I would say you're gonna. You're gonna be talking about a lot of different things. I can talk about anything without music. Great, won't talk about the manufacturing industry, let's do it once. I want you ate last night. That too, um. So yeah, reason to connect with me is I'm you know, I'm driven and I want to learn about you. I love talking to people, so yeah, amazing.

Speaker 1: 33:01

Well, we'll put your LinkedIn in the description of the episode so anybody can reach out to you that wants to. But I guess, yeah, guys, that's all the time we have for today. So, neem, thank you for coming on. This was really fun. I was really excited to get to talk to you and it was hard because they wanted to keep talking to you before recording. But I was like, no, you're saying too many good things. I need to get her on the record so everyone else can get to know her at the same time and I don't have to make her repeat herself. But, um, yeah, guys, thanks so much for listening to another episode. Don't forget to like and subscribe and all that stuff. Someone recently messaged and said you never tell people to like and subscribe. You should say that. So here I am saying it. Shout out, jared. Anyways, thanks so much for listening. As always, I'm your host, jordan Yates, and in the meantime, I'll be failing for you. See you next week.