Win(e)d Down Wednesdays

Hey, this is Amanda Hammett and this is the millennial Rockstars podcast.

Katie Rose: Hi, my name's Katie Rose Postelle. We just got to talk on the millennial rock star podcast so you can check it out.

Amanda Hammett: Hey there. I'm known as the millennial translator because I help companies attract, retain, and engage top millennial talent. And speaking of top millennial talent today on the millennial Rockstar podcast, we have not one but two Rockstars. Can you see that two rocks are looking at them. They're rock stars. So, um, I will be very, very honest with you. I to be on this show, you've got to be nominated by a boss or a current or former boss or maybe even a coworker. So I know the CEO of communicating USA very well. Shawnee. God One, she is a fantastic woman and I was with Shawnee and her right hand Stephanie one day and I was like, Hey, I need some Illinois rockstars and I want to interview them. And immediately they came up with these two ladies right here. So today we have Nia Tate's and Katie Rose Postelle. Hi Ladies. Well, I am super excited to get to know you guys today and I know that the audience is as well. So Nia, why don't you kick us off, tell us a little bit about you.

Nia Tate: Yeah. So my name is Nia Tate. I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. I live here. I love it, absolutely love it. But we have enough people. So

Nia Tate: yeah. Uh, I went to Georgia State University, studied marketing, marketing, now we're in the market, so it's really fun just to learn all about the field and especially I communicate.

Amanda Hammett: And what about you, Katie Rose, tell us about you.

Katie Rose: Oh, my journey has been a little more convoluted. I grew up in Orlando, Florida, went to school in Virginia and got my degree in English and have since lived in Georgia as well as Texas and took some time traveling but did not know I would end up in marketing, but I've ended up loving it, especially working with communicate married and have a five-month-old baby girl

Amanda Hammett: and um, right. So I'm going to switch it up and since this is a different interview format, because usually you know, it's just one person. So I'm going to ask you guys to tell us a little bit about your career path. So Katie rose, let's actually start with you. Tell us a little bit about how you went from being an English major in Virginia to working in marketing. No,

Katie Rose: I ended up with an English degree because it was what I enjoyed most and I was in the middle of my junior year and said I should probably declare what I'm going to do exactly. And I love reading and love studying it. So I ended up getting that degree when I moved to Georgia without a job actually because my boyfriend now husband was living here and reached out to a couple of different contacts and just said, hey, these are my credentials. I'm looking for a role. And a friend from childhood actually connected me with Stephanie and the rest is three and a half years of really enjoying just seeing the company grow and learning a lot myself. I never thought I would be in marketing, but I feel like I've grown so much and learned a lot of new things through intentional training as well as through, Oh my goodness, this is a project right now. What can I learn on the fly? And so it's been really exciting.

Amanda Hammett: That's really, really, really, really cool. Alright. So your app, tell us about like you from Georgia state born, raised Atlanta girl too to being where you are now.

Nia Tate: Yeah, so originally when I started college I was actually a nursing major, wanted to be a little different.

Nia Tate: Um, but then when I found out nursing wasn't for me into business and I really fell in love with the marketing classes that I sat in on. So I decided to make a marketing major and then at the time I was working at a fast food chain, just learning about just the culture and everything of that nature. So when I graduated from college is when I really kick, started my marketing career. I'm a law firm so it's really cool to just learn about it there. That ultimately got connected with Stephanie and then connected with Johnny and now here.

Amanda Hammett: And how long have you been at communicating?

Nia Tate: A little bit over a year, so yeah.

Amanda Hammett: Okay. Very cool. And then Katie rose, you said you had been there what? Three.

Katie Rose: Just over three years. Three years, okay.

Amanda Hammett: All right. So very good. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. All right, so I know.

Amanda Hammett: So wait for Nia, be very specific. How long have you been out of college

Nia Tate: for three years. This may for three years.

Amanda Hammett: This may. Katie rose, same time. Five years. Five years. Okay. So you guys are still pretty early in into your career. So I mean compared to myself as an older millennial who is a little more established in her career or let's just say that you know, you, you still have probably been through a couple of bumps and bruises along the road. Right. All right. Well why don't you share this with us? Tell us who wants to go first.

Amanda Hammett: Thanks for being brave, Katie Rather.

Katie Rose: Well, I'm going to be candid to please. I did not have an internship. It wasn't a requirement and so on. This essentially my first full time job when I moved here, it took me a couple of years of traveling and trying to figure out what I wanted to do before I ended up here and not having any corporate experience. A lot of it I feel like I've been learning on the fly. For instance, I called Stephanie before this interview and ask, okay, how do I. what's the proper way and what's acceptable, so I felt like I've been learning corporate behavior little by little as we go.

Amanda Hammett: Well that's. I appreciate your candor and your transparency and I think that our younger listeners, actually I was just at the University of Houston. I think that this is something they would love to hear. Fantastic. What about you, Nia?

Nia Tate: Yeah, I would say it's something that was a huge stumbling block was I'm learning more about different companies, so beforehand I did. When I said I worked for a fast food chain, it was great. Everyone was friendly and bubbly and everyone that we connected with us awesome. And then I graduated and got a real job, quote unquote. It was the complete opposite of everything that I had experienced, which the values and everything was things that aligned with what I believe, which are great. And they always, they always went by those, the different personality types, the dern, um, just professionalism, the manner and everything. They were so serious all the time. So it was completely different for that. I was used to. That was something that I really had to adjust to in that atmosphere.

Amanda Hammett: Okay, that's fair. I think that's really fair and you know, actually, that is something I tend to ask a question on is what kind of reality checks did you have coming out of college and into the corporate world? And I think that you both actually explain that really, really well. So thank you for that. We don't even have to go there unless you have another share, another shared thing that you'd like to your liking. I love it. I love it. I love it. Alright. So I am, I'm a big fan of the leadership at your company. I think that, um, I think that they get a lot of things right as far as the culture is concerned. Um, both the women that I know from there are rockstars. I mean Stephanie is just as sweet and kind and just like, hey, let's just do this and this and this as she can be. And Shawnee is just a mile a minute but at the same time just incredibly centered, which is just fascinating to me. Um, and her story is just, it's just fantastic. So is there anything specific that they do at communicating besides the crazy things that I just talked about as far as the culture there? Or are there specific perks there that, that they have or offer that really make you guys continue to say, Hey, this is the place I want to be every single day.

Nia Tate: Right? We have free parking, free food, and the flexibility to be mobile. One of the things that's really big for me was I love being active in my community. I love pouring into women in my community, but I also love my job. So being able to have the flexibility to be all in at my job and then all in when I leave to go do whatever kind of activity I'd like and to be supported in that was really amazing for me.

Amanda Hammett: That I love. I love that. That's great.

Katie Rose: Building on that, um, communicate has been so intentional with practical boundaries. Like we haven't emailed curfew where clients no should not expect to hear back from us companywide after a certain hour because we want to be fully engaged at work and then fully engaged at home and not trying to be in two places at once and communicate. It's been really good about expressing that can meet that expectation to our clients so that it's not incumbent necessarily upon us to say actually I'm not going to be refined to on weekends and things like that. So I haven't felt supported in that way, that there for us

Amanda Hammett: in our culture today. That is so not the way it is. Um, so I, I love that. And actually Shawnee and I have had a conversation about that in the past, but I'm glad to hear that you say that, but you know, I think it's even more important now that you have a little one at home because it's, you know, you do find yourself, especially at that age, that you're up with them at all unusual hours and sometimes you can't go back to sleep. So it's easy to go and just check your email and I'm glad that I'm glad that that rolls in place. So it just takes it out of the equation.

Nia Tate: Yes.

Amanda Hammett: Good. Good, good. All right. So let's talk a little bit about your direct manager and Tanya and, and what is it that Tanya does that keeps you guys engaged? Or is there any way that she kind of helps you work through problems or. Let's tell us, uh, how great she is.

Katie Rose: Well, I'll start. Hang on. Oh, hang on. She is so good about not just what you're doing a great job. Tanya gets to know you and she encourages you on specific. When we were doing strength a couple of years ago, one of her top strengths is blue, whoa, and it talks about her being able to bring people in to know them individually and she's so good at it, so I feel encouraged often as well as empowered. I've been working on particular projects with Tanya and trying to take some stuff off of her plate as well and just learn from her and she's given me a lot of freedom to be able to work through things and even made a couple mistakes sometimes and then we can learn through that as well and she's just. She's great at empowering us to make us feel like we're able to do these things and learn. Yeah,

Amanda Hammett: I love it. I love it. Okay.

Nia Tate: I completely agree with Tanya is extremely supportive. I will say that oftentimes you will have those moments where you're struggling with the amount of work that you have to do and have someone like Tanya come in and check on you and say like, are you doing? Not from A. I'm watching over your shoulder type view, but a really genuinely caring. How are you? How's life? How's work? How can I help? How can I make things lighter for you? If there's a need, how can I fill that need or have someone fill that need so that you don't feel this way? Um, so just extremely supportive and not only just say it, she actually gets things done. So it's one thing for people to be like, oh yeah, I'll help you. Another thing for them to actually take that action and you can see. So it's really great. It looks on yet

Amanda Hammett: so good to hear. I mean, I, you know, it's funny because a lot of times I do work with executive leadership teams and I'm like, look, the direct leaders are, are so crucial and people are like, oh, but we're going to promote them because of seniority to people that can actually, you know, talk to people and deal with people and treat the people that they're leading human beings. And I feel like in her womb status that she does that in her woundedness.

Amanda Hammett: That's awesome. That's really, really, really cool. Um, alright. So you guys were both still pretty young in your, in your career. So as we discussed, is there anything that, is there anything that you guys feel that made you stand out in the, in to the hiring manager at communique? What, what was it about your resume? What was it?

Nia Tate: Yeah, for me I'd say, and it's my personality and very friendly and bubbly. I think outside of those factors, my competence competence is key for me at least. Just knowing what it is that you're going in there to do the job that you're going to apply for, etc. So my competence and then also my skills and experience of course, having certain skills that are needed for the position that was originally applying for. And then also having that experience, whether it's um, even if you're still in school and you're interning so everyone doesn't get to intern. My internship had nothing to do with marketing, so it was like, you know, having some kind of though experience working with, um, within that field is a hand up. So I did have a little bit after starting at before starting and communicate. I worked for another job. But um, so that was my initial way in I guess.

Amanda Hammett: Very cool. What about you? Rose,

Katie Rose: one of the things that I think helped was I was interviewing with communicating and with the potential client on the same day and which was not stressful at all and when I was interviewing with the client, they were telling me about some of the editing work that was involved in a project that was supposed to take about half my time and I'm very detail oriented and not having a corporate background. I'm not sure now if this was appropriate, but they were talking through some of the edits and some of the visual things and creatively what they'd be looking for. Can you just bring me a piece right now and I'll walk through it with you and we can work. I'm not sure if that was inappropriate, but they said okay. And they brought over a piece and I talked through this, this town, overseer, this visual and just work through it top to bottom with them and what was supposed to take half of my time on my project turned into my full time job. So I think being detail oriented and perhaps without a filter to know, I think stand out in some way to be able to get on that project.

Amanda Hammett: You don't have a filter. I would just say that we're eager to take on the opportunity. There you go. That's how I would put it. Oh, you didn't know that. Now. Um, is there anything that you wish that companies and in, in did that made it easier for millennials as they're being brought into, into the corporate fold?

Katie Rose: I would talk about timelines and communication, hiring process. It has to be big, but to give at least an outline of what you can expect this process to take x amount of weeks or x amount of months. And this is the person who will contact you by this date with a yes or a no. It's good to know either way.

Amanda Hammett: Absolutely. Any other suggestions? Nia?

Nia Tate: Yeah. Following up, making sure that they know. Because you said with the hiring process, right? Yeah. Just making sure that people know if they didn't get the position, that was a huge one for me because um, you're out there to suck. Wondering, did I get it? Did I not get it? I don't know. I think what would be valuable though, it's when, if you are turned down from a position that companies would tell you somewhat of a y so that you can learn and grow so that you're not repeating the same cycle every time. So I think that would be really good. Yeah,

Amanda Hammett: I totally hear that on that actual, the timeline issue. Early, early in my career I applied for a job and I interviewed for it and then crickets. I heard nothing four months. And so I had completely moved on. I was like, all right, well, you know, I didn't get the job. Um, and then they called me and offered it to me after I had been at a new job for two months and I was like, is this a joke? That was like six months ago. And they're like, well we have like a temporary hiring freeze. And I was like, well, you could have communicated that. So anyway, I did not take the job.

Amanda Hammett: It didn't, it just didn't work out. Anyway. Well, you guys, I mean this has just been really fantastic. I've really enjoyed the dynamic between the two of you. Um, I think I mentioned this to you before, but the audience did not hear this portion of the conversation before, before we started recording, but as soon as I was talking to Shawnee and Stephanie, I communicate and I said, hey, I want to have, have somebody on. They were like these two and we want them to gather even though Nia is in Atlanta and Katie Rose is in Texas. They wanted the two of them together. So they said they made it happen so that they could be together when we did this in your view. So I am super grateful to Shawnee and Stephanie car for you guys for making that happen. But you two are, you guys are pretty spectacular. I must admit. I mean, you guys both have some great personalities and I look forward to seeing some big things out of both of you. So thank you for being on the millennial Rockstar podcast.

Nia & Katie: Thank you for having us, Amanda.

Amanda Hammett: Thanks so much for joining us for this episode of the millennial Rockstar podcasts. If you are looking for even more information on millennials and some free resources, visit my website at AmandaHammett.com. The link is below. It's AmandaHammett.com. There you can download a free millennial employee engagement guide that will give you all kinds of tips and tricks on how to keep those millennials engaged on a day to day basis because we all know that millennials who are happy at work are more productive at work.