Showing posts with label new job. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new job. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Fundraising For Coldest Night of the Year

One of the biggest challenges I think in marketing these days is how much is expected of a Marketing
Department. Big or small today marketers have their hands in pretty much every pot at the office. I’m not complaining, I would rather be immersed my organization than caught unaware. Marketing can range from doing traditional roles like creating advertisements and strategies to event planning and employee recognition. I think most of the best marketers are also the best front line employees because they have the finger on the pulse of what is going on and can jungle multiple asks and campaigns while being part of traditional daily front-line operations.

With that being said, for me one of the biggest challenges of being a new employee at a business in a new industry is not having that bare basics knowledge about daily operations that someone who has worked one has. With that knowledge comes respect, for example while I was working in Marketing for McDonald’s Restaurants I gained the respect of the employees I was training and teaching because I understood their roles and what a day in their shoes was like because of my experience working as a “crew member” in high school. That traction was so valuable to me and to the people I was working with.
Taking on my new marketing role with a financial institution has been a challenge. One of the most challenging things I have been asked to do is to take on being Captain of our Coldest Night of the Year fundraising team and organizing our organization-wide fundraising efforts. I am so proud of our team for their amazing work so far. I am used to organizing events, motivating a corporate team is a little different. As you can see on the website listed below we have had nearly $800 in donations and that does not count all of the money donated at our branches by our members. I appreciate how hard it can be to follow the lead of someone new, especially when that person is new to their role and industry and the team here has welcomed me whole-hardily.

Me in my Team Captain CNOY toque
Unfortunately I am a desk jockey and do not have the opportunities to fundraise like our amazing staff.  They truly are amazing for all of the support they have thrown behind making our team successful in supporting Open Arms and the “homeless, hurt and hungry” here in the Annapolis Valley. To help in my own way I am pulling some sweet Valentine’s Day treats from Pinterest and making customized Cookiegrams to be sent between branches and around our area.
In the past 16 hours I have already raised $100 and I am sure there is more to come! If you live in the Annapolis Valley and would like to order some red velvet or sugar cookiegrams please email me k.bruce@valleycreditunion.com

If you would like to help support our fundraising efforts but do not want the cookies you can donate by following this link:https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=2677155&langPref=en-CA




It is going to be a cold night. It has been ridiculously cold lately with wind-chills making it feel like the temperature is in the -30s. There is not another group of people that I would rather be freezing with than the incredible people I work with. I am so impressed with their ability to juggle so many tasks and come out on the successful side with grace and excitement to take on the next challenge.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Creating My Own Marketing Textbook

Creating My Own Marketing Textbook
“2015 a year of learning, exercising and creating”
That has been my mission statement for this year. So far I think I have been doing okay at working on those three things. Today I am blogging about the first priority for this year, learning.
My new job working in marketing is one that requires a lot of learning on my part across the spectrum; learning new techniques, new computer programs and the scariest thing (for me) about banking. Working two jobs has proved to be a little bit much on top of my three goals. We have had a couple of snowdays so my living room has been turned into the University of Kate on the days I have time to dig into my Lynda.com curriculum.
One easy thing I have been doing to keep my brain in “learn mode” and to help build knowledge about Lynda.com is to read. Every day at my new job I sit and I read at least one article online. It can be about marketing, social media, innovation, finances, banking or business in general; whatever strikes my fancy or is trendy or relevant that day. I have learned an incredible amount from slowing my racing mind down for 5-10 minutes and reading an article. I then sum up the key points that pertain to my role at my job in one line on the paper and put it away until the next day.
things within my job that are not being covered by
Yes, it is that easy. One line a day and you are slowly creating your own personal textbook. I often go back and read through the list I have created thus far and reflect on the things I have learned in the past.
I often find my articles on LinkedIN or via my business buddies on Twitter. I have a few blogs that I love one being effUmarketing by Jordan Rycroft. My readings are not peer-reviewed articles or data plugged in and shot out at me to tell me what to think. The readings I do are from people working everyday in their respective fields and who see what is going on the in the world we try so hard to predict and cash-in on. Most of the articles are comprised of data that is complimented by anecdotal evidence or stories to back the overall message but have much more substance than an average blog and much less opinion.
That is just another thing I am doing to help myself learn new things in 2015. As you can see the longer I am at this job, the less time I have to do my readings. Do you have any tips? Leave them in the comment field or you can find me on LinkedIn and Twitter below. Let’s be friends :)
@KateBruce

Saturday, January 31, 2015

My First Radio Ad as an Outsider

Over the past few months this blog has shifted from being a place for me to showcase my on-air work in radio and musings from my daily life to a place for me to post my thoughts whenever I can. Many of my previous posts that were work related celebrated work that I had done, a lesson learned as part of my job, cool things that I got to do as part of my awesome job or rants that started as a short 45 second radio break.

I’m going to try to continue posting here about the things that impact my life. I don’t think I’ll be blogging about the jerks at table 61 who did not tip, but I will be blogging about things I learn or find challenging about my new career path in marketing. I’ll continue to post my random workout thoughts, because I believe being health conscious is a very important part of my life and when things are working out (no pun intended) in that area of my life everything else falls into place.

Even though this is no longer a blog that focuses on my life as a “radio personality” today’s blog is featuring a little piece of work that I did for radio for my marketing job. I am the Marketing Coordinator of Valley Credit Union here in the Annapolis Valley and one of my tasks for our RRSP/Investment Season Campaign was to write and voice our radio ad. This took our radio advertising in a new direction that people around the office really seem to enjoy. It challenged me because my wisdom teeth are slowly breaking through my gums and I had not realized that I was having trouble annunciating until I heard my first run through. Yikes, it was bad!

Writing and voicing this ad really forced me to get out of my radio comfort zone and experience advertising from the other side of the table.

I have been thinking a lot about retirement these days (I guess it comes with the job) and I have
decided what I would like to do about 30 years from now. I think I would make a fabulous "Fairy Godmother". I would love to cruise around Disney Parks hanging out with kids, adults and super fans. I think it could quite possibly be the best job to do during retirement.

Are you going to cut loose from the work world when you retire or are you already planning to have a side job? I'm so worried that I will be bored with all the free time that comes with retirement and I have a fear of being old and cold so I think that being "Fairy Godmother" is the perfect fit!



Here is the ad, I hope you like it!

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

A Proud Moment Thanks to a Childhood Watching Oprah

Both Dane and Oprah are visibly proud of me.
Time has been flying away; it is hard to believe I used to have time to write everyday! 

Yes, my blog used to be part of my job and now that I have branched out into the world of marketing, finance and banking I really do not have time to write my humble thoughts in a trivial blog daily. But, I do miss it. 

Today at work I was challenged by weaving my fine radio skills with the art of ad writing for radio. Normally this is not so much a challenge, but an almost fun creative writing exercise. Over the past week it has not been, it has been a learning experience just to get through all the material I need to know before writing an ad for products that I am still rather naive about. I know have the first drafts of both spots done and I am about to start the editing process and mark up all the beautiful white paper I can. So, I thought I would share the inspiration for the second of the two ads I have just penned because it is a moment from my childhood I will never forget. 

I was 15 when this Oprah episode aired and I remember thinking to myself, "no way Oprah would ever drive one of those cars, she is a better actress than everyone gives her credit for". Today, I called up this moment in television history and twisted it for my own purposes for a radio ad. I will share it when the time comes for it to be produced, if it is ever produced. There is still a chance that it will end up in a paper ball on my floor at home or in a recycling bin in my boss's office. Regardless, nothing can take away the happiness I feel right now as I check this item off my to-do list. 


Here it is: 

I think anyone who enjoys a laugh can watch that without thinking about Dane Cook's bit on the same episode. Honestly, my inspiration was about 1/3 Oprah and 2/3 Dane Cook for the ad so here is that moment as well:


1/3 Oprah, 2/3 Dane Cook not a bad combination right? 

Just in case you are wondering what my inspiration was for the straight ad I wrote, the one I am much less proud of well it was $$$. Dolla-dolla bills.