Sunday, May 20, 2012

The great outdoors

So, it's been a year since leaving the landscape nursery for a job offer as a director of media (graphics, videos, website, and social media). Ya don't know what ya got til it's gone I guess...  hmmm...in some ways I am very glad for the shift. It has been quite the dramatic change going from working outside, teaching people how to care for plants and what would work best for them - to working inside all the time on a computer in a cabinet. Talk about stepping out of a comfort zone. ha ha ha

There are times I miss working outside. For one, is it just me or do people that work indoors become ill more often?  I also miss the connection with working a more tactile job.  Maybe it's the slower pace, or maybe it's the lack of sunshine...dunno.

Don't get me wrong. The new job was an opportunity to sink my chops into a new area, and I am happy to state that working alongside some great people, we managed to turn out numbers that would make any small company proud.  And on top of it, this job is to connect people with financial education - how to put their money to work for them, instead of the other way around. Trust me, it is no easy task! So yeah, it's definitely a feel good moment. I've learned AdWords, AdSense, the ins and out of YouTube's advertising and ever evolving analytics, Facebook's changes over the past year, as well as becoming more efficient with using LinkedIn for a networking tool for the business.  What is interesting to me is that my crew taught ourselves these tricks, and the constantly changing formats of social media only enhanced our abilities to constantly change with them. And it is nice to know that these skills can be applied to many other types of businesses as well.

Although I've not gotten to do a lot of art per se, this past year has been a valuable learning experience!