Creator's Block

Over the past week, I've enjoyed stalking Marcella's Instagram posts to live vicariously through her while she enjoyed a week beach vacation.

Though I'm always happy for my friends and coworkers when I see their vacation posts, I can't help but feel that ping of jealousy knowing I have a week of work ahead of me when they have a week of lounging and relaxation.

This got me thinking: how often am I comparing my life to others? Do I live too much in a negative state, diminishing my life moments when I see others sharing seemingly perfect moments?

Comparing yourself to others (or even to the ideal version of yourself) is oftentimes rooted in insecurity and jealousy, but it also seems to happen on a daily basis.

Is there a way to avoid or change this way of thinking? Is it possible to have a positive experience when comparing yourself to others? How do we overcome comparing ourselves to our colleagues?

In this episode of Creator's Block, Marcella, and I navigate through these questions and more.

Have you ever had a challenging week only to realize later that the conversations and obstacles you faced pushed you to do and be better?

This was one of those weeks for me.

I've had some tough conversations with team members both on and off my POD, and while it's never fun to have challenging discussions, I know we're growing because of it.

I've mentioned on past episodes before but I recently moved into a managerial role as Account Supervisor, managing a team of 6 Account Executives. Since I was an Account Executive before, I feel I have a deeper connection and compassion to the issues and concerns they face.

That doesn't automatically make me a good manager though.

Having an honest and true connection with your manager where you can share your thoughts and feel like you're making a difference doesn't happen overnight. It's something we all must work towards.

I recall the days of feeling like my voice wasn't being heard and questioned whether I was truly valued in my role and at my company.

We're fortunate here at IMPACT because we are provided with trainings and resources to coach us on how to effectively communicate with all team members.

Marcella, Vin and I discuss what we've learned to help ensure you can speak with your manager and have your voice heard.

Because after all, I truly believe it's because of tough and honest conversations that I am stronger and more confident in my current role -- ultimately enabling me to lead a team myself.

As I write this, we're exactly one day after the wrap of IMPACT Live 2018.

It's been a crazy couple days and I honestly feel like I could sleep for 48 hours and still be tired.

However, one of my favorite parts of IMPACT Live is that I basically have no choice but to unplug from work and actually focus on some professional development (PD).

One of the great things about our culture at IMPACT is we are encouraged to work on our own professional development, especially through events.

To be frank, IMPACT Live is a big investment for our company.

It's all hands on deck and we all have assigned roles, but we're also there to learn and absorb as much as possible.

I was able to sit in on most sessions and I not only felt like I was learning, but like I was recharging my passion-o-meter.

One of my favorites was on Sonic Branding with David Meerman Scott and Juanito Pascual, which basically is how music can serve your brand. (How cool is that?!)

This all was a welcome intervention for me, because I am actually REALLY bad at doing professional development on my own.

It's not for a lack of desire or passion; I've got lists of articles, books, online courses, and even a Google calendar reminder recurring DAILY to get me going, but when push comes to shove, the first thing to get pushed in a client crunch is this time I've set aside.

This week's episode is going to be a little bit of the blind leading the blind, but Justine typically has it all figured out so, I'm hoping she can magically fix all my problems here.

How do you make time for professional development? What tools do you use to help you? Let us know in the comments!

Recording this week's episode with Marcella was extra special because we were able to record it together, in person!

As a remote employee at IMPACT, I only get to come to Connecticut and see my fellow IMPACTers a few times a year.

The annual August trip has easily turned into my favorite because it's IMPACT Live week.

(For those of you who don't know, IMPACT hosts a two-day event where marketing and sales leaders come together to learn, collaborate, and make valuable connections.)

The week is action-packed with amazing events, learning sessions, and happy hours, but that also means we're all a little tight on time when it comes to our traditional work activities and responsibilities.

Marcella and I started chatting about what the best "time savers" were and there was one thing we both kept bringing up: templates.

Now, templates can be an array of things -- from templated website pages to playbooks for ABM strategy.

Listen in as Marcella and I discuss the pros and cons of templated work!

What kind of templates do you use? Let me know in the comments!

For decades, we've been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F**k positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let's be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn't sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let's-all-feel-good mindset that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up

All work and no play makes marketers and creatives dull guys and gals, right? Well, actually, it's a lot more than that. This week, Justine & Marcella unpack how to avoid burning out at work, when everything gets to be too much. 

The past couple months have been very exciting for me at IMPACT as I transitioned to a new role of Account Supervisor.

In addition to being the point person for a select few clients, I now manage a team of six Account Executives. 

Without even realizing it, this new role and added responsibility has been something I've been working towards for a while now, all stemming to what I consider my passion in my career: helping people. 

Though "helping people" is a super generic passion to claim, it's something that encompasses so many aspects of my life.

But determining that passion, honestly, has not come easy... and that's OK. 

All too often we are pressured to follow our dreams and pursue our passions, but what happens when we don't really know what our passion is?

My first job out of college was as a copyeditor for a small shopper marketing agency where I worked on in-store offers for Kraft Foods.

Though I learned a lot in this role, I will never forget the day my Mom asked me how things we're going and I broke down in tears saying "I will never care enough about macaroni and cheese!"

I realized I lacked passion and actually questioned if I would ever find it in my career. 

Though that was a scary realization, it taught me how to be successful in the moment and identify my passion later in life. 

Join Marcella and I as we navigate the rocky road of finding passion in your career and explain why it's OK to not always have one particular passion defined. 

The previous version of this episode was corrupted, and we sincerely apologize for that.

This is a big week for Creator's Block. In fact, it's quite a milestone for myself and the podcast. 

In a couple of weeks, Creator's Block will return (on July 17, to be precise), just in time to celebrate its second anniversary. But I will not be returning with it, as Marcella's co-host. 

While it's bittersweet for me to leave the podcast I founded two years ago over lunch with Jessie-Lee, I'm excited to share the reason for my departure. 

On July 11, the premiere episode of the Content Lab -- hosted by yours truly -- will be launching as a new weekly podcast for IMPACT. (Click that fancy link to learn more about my new show and to subscribe to updates!)

But my departure also brings with it an exciting announcement -- a new co-host. Justine Timoteo!

In fact, given that it was her first episode, Justine got to pick our topic. And it was a great one.

In her words, here is what we talked about this week:

"Improving my overall health is my biggest goal for 2018, and a huge part of that is my mental health.

Mental health is so intertwined with physical health but can oftentimes be overlooked -- people tend to focus a lot more on diet and exercise. For me, mental health is how I'm doing emotionally, psychologically, and socially.

Back in January, I realized I was suffering from severe stress and after having my first panic attack, decided to take things seriously and be proactive in seeking help and working to improve my mental health.

Though mental health seems like a heavy topic, it's all too common and if we continue to talk about it often or address it, (hopefully) there will be less of a stigma."

So, this week, that's what we're unpacking. How do you handle and manage stress in the workplace, or when work is causing unreasonable amounts of stress and anxiety that leaks into your personal life?

Ah, work-life balance. It's kind of like parenting and finding true love -- everyone has an opinion about it. 

"There's no such thing as work-life balance, only work-life blend."

"There's no such thing as work-life balance, only LIFE!"

"You can only spend X number of hours a day doing work, without ruining your personal life."

"If you're not committing X number of hours to work, is it even worth doing or being passionate about?"

The sheer number of opinions about work-life balance can be exhausting to sift through. It's unfortunate since it's a necessary conversation, given that remote workforces and having clients that span the globe are much more commonplace, making it harder and harder to "punch out" at 5 p.m., on the dot. 

So, this week, we invited our very own Director of Strategic Partnerships Vin Gaeta back to the podcast to unpack this popular topic. (He recently just got married and has a little baby girl on the way, so he had a lot of great thoughts about finding that perfect balance.)

Enjoy! 

I don't know how it happened, but I sneezed and somehow we're now weeks away from the end of yet another quarter -- and not just any quarter. The second quarter. Which means we're almost halfway through the entire year.

WHAT?!

While I'd love to say that I've got all my ducks in a row, and all of my plans to "crush my goals" or whatever are going along swimmingly, I would be lying.

Here's the thing though.

Now that the finish line is in sight, I've noticed a lot of people saying, "I don't have time for this, I don't have time for that" -- myself included, I'm not immune -- in a way that makes me wonder if that's really the case.

Do we really not have enough time? 

It doesn't matter if it's crunch time or a slow down period, time is a commodity that's always in short supply.

And while there are definitely instances where I genuinely, in good faith, do not have the time I thought I would have, I don't think we're always willing to admit with how much control we do have over our own schedules.

If I'm being honest with myself about my own behavior, I believe that sometimes we make the choice to not make the time for a task, no matter how big or small we think that task is.

I'm tired of hearing myself say, "I don't have time," when I probably do. Moreover, I'm tired of others saying it to me, when they want to offload a content project or something else that no longer fits in with what they want to be doing. 

So, this week, Marcella and I are taking a stand.

It's time for this cycle of kicking the proverbial can down the road to end. How do we stop lying to ourselves about how much time we do and do not have to get our work done?