But as you consider it, you can’t help but feel a rush of excitement. It’s like discovering a hidden treasure in your own backyard. And now, you’re thinking, “Why not? Let’s give it a shot!” Who knew this opportunity was even up for grabs? But now that it’s on your radar, you can’t help but get a little stoked about the adventure ahead.

This is the exact position I found myself in a year ago! My manager asked if I would be interested in moving to another team within the company and took me by surprise. The team I was on was analyzing data and working with numbers and spreadsheets. The team my manager asked me to move to was more writing-based and allowed my personality to show through my work. While both of these teams are incredibly important to our company’s bigger picture, the team my manager asked me about moving to made more sense for my skill set and my personality! I didn’t know this opportunity was an option but immediately felt like this was a good option for me. 

It can be both an exciting and nerve-wracking experience, especially since you’re just beginning to feel confident in the skills from your current role. Let’s dive into things I considered before accepting my position within my organization and the steps I took for a smooth transition, in hopes of helping others who may find themselves in this position! 

First Step Towards Change

Before you make a commitment to switch to a new team or take on a different role within the company, it’s important to take some time to consider what your daily routine will look like with this change. While you’re already part of the organization, it’s essential to take a step back and assess if this position is genuinely the right fit for you. Let’s explore some questions to consider as you carefully think through your decision:

• How is success defined in this role? 
• What will my new responsibilities be? 
• Will I fit into the culture of my new team? 
• What professional development opportunities are available for this position? 
• What does a typical day look like in this new role? 

These are just a few of the important things to ask yourself before making your final decision. Also, consider having a chat with your soon-to-be team members. I asked A LOT of questions to my coworkers who were on my new team. The questions I listed above are real-life examples of what I asked those on the new team. It’s the ideal opportunity to understand what their typical day looks like and how they tackle their responsibilities.

These conversations can be eye-opening and provide valuable insights into your potential future within the team. So, don’t hesitate to reach out and gather all the information you need to make a well-informed choice. You’ve got this!

It’s important to remember that moving “over” within a company before moving “up” is not a negative thing at all. Taking a lateral move into a new role might actually position you better for your future within the company. Sometimes, finding the perfect fit in a role can ensure that your growth with the company feels organic and aligned with your aspirations. Embracing the right fit can be a stepping stone to bigger opportunities down the road. 

Tips for a Successful Transition

Congratulations, you’ve accepted the new position! 

Now comes the hardest part – the transition. Change is tough, so give yourself some grace. It can be intimidating to be the newest one on a team that feels like a well-oiled machine, but remember, everyone was new at one point! 

Here are things you can do every day to ensure a successful transition: 

• Don’t be afraid to ask questions
• Give yourself grace when learning new things
• Embrace the learning curve 
• Don’t compare yourself to other team members
• Seek out learning opportunities (webinars, internal presentations, networking events, etc.)

These tips might seem small, but trust me, if you make them part of your everyday routine, they can do some serious magic. Imagine them as your secret helpers, quietly ironing out the kinks and uncertainties that usually come with change. Over time, you’ll start feeling more in the groove, more at home, and before you know it you’ll be the one training someone new!

Wrapping Up – Embrace the Journey

In conclusion, transitioning positions within your job organization is an adventure worth embarking on. Don’t be afraid to explore new possibilities, even if it means stepping out of your comfort zone. Be open to learning, embrace the highs and lows, and build strong connections within your workplace. Remember, every step you take adds value to your career journey and shapes you into a well-rounded professional.

Making Moves: Navigating Transitions Within Your Job Organization is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

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What Is a Trend Cycle, Anyway?

If you’ve never heard the term “trend cycle” before, don’t worry—it means pretty much exactly what it says. Trend cycles are most commonly used in the fashion industry to chart the rise and fall of particular clothing trends. These cycles can be short-lived and niche, spanning only a season or two, while others can last decades or longer, becoming beloved classics that never truly go out of style.

What Causes Trend Cycles?

Broadly speaking, trends are driven by the complex struggle between the forces of nostalgia and anticipation. The most common length for trend cycles is roughly 20 years, which is coincidentally about how long it takes for a child to be born, grow up, and enter the workforce. These young professionals are in a unique position to make work inspired by the media environment of their early childhoods, encouraged by the pulling force of nostalgia. However, they are also positioned to reject trends that were popular during their later teen years, and push towards the as-yet undesigned future.

Here’s a quick example. In the early 2000s, many American children had a shared cultural experience of staying up late to watch reruns of the 90s sitcom The Nanny on Nick at Nite. Fast-forward 20 years, and these children have become the adults who determine what’s fashionable, whether they’re designing clothes themselves or purchasing these products and posting about them on TikTok. This is why items like heart-shaped handbags are currently having a moment—right now, looks inspired by Fran Fine’s wardrobe on The Nanny are having an even bigger moment.

How Do Trend Cycles Manifest Outside the Fashion World?

Now, you may be wondering what all this has to do with graphic design. Why should we care what type of handbags are popular if we’re not the ones marketing them? As graphic designers, I believe we stand to benefit from keeping tabs on what’s trendy, whether it be in our own line of work or in others.

If we zoom out from the fashion world to examine today’s media environment, we can see that the essence of the early 2000s is dominating visual culture right now. For example, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air now has a dramatized reboot, as does popular 2000s cartoon Winx Club. Samsung, Google, and Apple are all bringing back pastel colorways for their flagship phones. Pantone’s color of the year for 2022, Very Peri, is another pastel shade that’s explicitly inspired by our current circumstances:

“…our physical and digital lives have merged in new ways. Digital design helps us to stretch the limits of reality, opening the door to a dynamic virtual world where we can explore and create new color possibilities. With trends in gaming, the expanding popularity of the metaverse and rising artistic community in the digital space, PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri illustrates the fusion of modern life and how color trends in the digital world are being manifested in the physical world and vice versa.”

For those of you who’ve been working in graphic design since the early 2000s, I’d imagine this emphasis on the possibilities of digital design sounds very familiar. Whether you were introduced to design software as a professional using the first iteration of the Adobe Suite, or as a child playing around in Microsoft Paint, there’s no denying that these themes have re-emerged at the forefront of our industry’s collective consciousness. In fact, software upgrades to our modern graphic designers’ toolkit are allowing us to recreate the aesthetic of authentic Y2K graphics, which were often a byproduct of early 2000s software limitations. Neat, right?

How to Harness Our Current Moment in the 20-Year Trend Cycle for Graphic Design Inspiration

All creative fields follow the 20-year trend cycle, and graphic design is no different. Graphic designers know that we never create in a vacuum. Everything we produce exists in a context that’s unique to the time period and media environment we’re living in. With that in mind, it’s important to remember that the original Y2K aesthetic didn’t exist in a vacuum, either. In addition to clothing, countless magazines, websites, ad campaigns, and other artifacts were made during the late 90s and early 2000s which can provide us with graphic design inspiration today.

Check out webdesignmuseum.org to view some authentic Y2K webpages, along with helpful timelines for different companies’ sites and overall web design trends. For typographic inspiration, browse the 2000s tag on fontsinuse.com. If you’d like more modern ideas, try searching for Y2K on behance.com to see how the 20-year trend cycle is being applied in real time.

One word of advice for the aspiring trend-savvy designer: remember that modern interpretations of past trends will never be 100% authentic to the time period they’re inspired by. Therefore, when searching for ideas, it’s helpful to research why certain artifacts were created and how they were received by the public in addition to their aesthetic value. If the meaning of an artifact has changed over time, I believe that can tell you as much about it as the artifact itself. With that in mind, any piece of historical media is fair game—let your imagination run wild!

The Takeaway

We’re currently over two decades out from 2000, so it’s no surprise that aesthetics from that time period are being revived and adapted to fit current tastes, as well as shaping what those tastes are. Next time you’re approaching a project for a particularly cutting-edge client, don’t discard everything you liked about the look and feel of 2010s design, but do take the 20-year trend cycle into account. If they’re really, really cutting-edge, consider creeping into the mid-2000s for some inspiration, as well. And if you’ve got a brand in need of a fashion-forward refresh, look no further than the Content Marketing Team at Go Fish Digital.

Graphic Design & the 20-Year Trend Cycle is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

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From being an intern to an entry-level associate, or even as a senior executive that is new to marketing agencies, here are a few tips to help you get your bearings. Agency life comes at you fast, but there’s so much to love about it. Be sure to leverage these strategies where you work to have the most rewarding experience possible!

1. Create a Custom To-do List

No matter what project management tool your organization uses (Basecamp, Trello, Teamwork, etc.), nothing beats an old-fashioned to-do list you create for yourself. This allows you to include or exclude whatever you want or need. It is also easy to personalize formatting however it works best for you. I use this as a homebase for my workday. It’s essentially a dashboard of everything I need to get done presented to me in an easily digestible way.

For example, I organize my to-do list by day of the week so I can visualize which days are lighter or heavier on tasks. I even color-code any tasks that will be easy to knock out for an additional layer of visibility. Beyond that, I have lists of work awaiting team feedback or client feedback so that I’m always aware of where tasks are in the pipeline. Lastly, I have a spot for monthly goals and notes so that they stay top of mind. See the example below.

2. Color-Code Your Calendar

Color-coding is a foundational element of organization, and it really comes in handy when you’re looking at a weekly calendar. This empowers you to quickly take inventory of your day without having to investigate every single event or meeting for more information. You can gear up for a day full of client-facing conversations or put your head down to work on deliverables when all of your meetings are internal.

For my calendar, I keep it pretty simple. I use one color for internal meetings and another for client meetings. This way I never unnecessarily prep for a meeting that ends up being internal or show up unprepared for an external meeting. This is an easy way to stay on top of your day when things get hectic and can make your calendar feel more manageable. Plus, there’s just something uplifting about seeing an array of your favorite colors covering your schedule!

3. Organize Your Emails with Labels

With project management tools and multiple clients and coworkers vying for your attention each day, the emails never stop coming. Instead of drowning in your unreads and letting messages pile up or get lost, creating a system can keep you on track. Many email providers offer customization options, such as labels and color-coding, which are excellent tools to take advantage of.

As a digital marketer at an agency, I come into contact with many different clients on a daily basis, so I never want anything to slip through the cracks. When an email comes into my inbox, I leave it there until I’ve checked it and then I do one of two things. If there is no action needed, I will place the email under a corresponding label so that it no longer appears in my inbox. On the other hand, if there is a necessary action, I won’t move the email until I have completed the next steps.

4. Take Advantage of the Beginning of the Week

It can be easy to feel sluggish or overwhelmed by the week on a Monday, but it’s always best to tackle it head-on. I try to take advantage of Mondays as much as possible to set myself up for success the rest of the week. Oftentimes I can get ahead on one or two things, which frees up room later in the week for incidentals. Getting a little bit ahead also sets the tone for a stress-free week.

This is feasible for me because I generally don’t have many meetings on Mondays, but I’d recommend zeroing in on any day of the week where distractions are minimized. It can be tempting to slack off on days with fewer demands, but it’s always in your best interest to make the most of them. I’ve found this gives me more flexibility to explore other areas of my work, such as researching new marketing strategies or assisting in developing our internship program.

5. Set Monthly Goals for Yourself

Setting goals is something we all do, but sometimes they can feel like a pipe dream. For example, many set New Year’s resolutions and abandon them just a few months in. To avoid this, it can be helpful to incorporate intentionality into your goal setting. Consider what will be reasonably attainable, the steps you need to take toward accomplishing said goal, and a timeline.

At a marketing agency, time really does fly when you’re handling many different projects at once. Because of this, it can be easy to put off your own professional goals. This can limit your growth and your satisfaction in your work. Coming up with a process that works for you is key.

I keep my goals attainable (i.e., write a blog, try a new tool, share a helpful resource, etc.). I think through what will be involved, then I determine which I will do each month in my personal to-do list. Full transparency, I don’t always get to my goals by the end of the month, but having them there and knowing that they are feasible helps me to knock them out in due time.

6. Keep Your Extensions & Bookmarks Under Control

As an SEO, this is a big one for me and the rest of my team. There are numerous extensions, tools, and resources out there just waiting to be discovered and saved. Unfortunately, this can result in some hoarding, which can serve to clutter your workspace and slow down your browser. While it can be tempting to collect extensions and bookmarks, try to limit yourself to only what you really need.

I keep a document linked in my to-do list where I make notes of new tools, extensions, and resources I want to try out. Then I give them a shot for a short amount of time to determine if I really like them and if I utilize them enough. This leads me to audit what I have saved in my browser every few months to remove anything I don’t need access to daily. In turn, my browser is less of a mess and its performance is enhanced.

7. Use a Working Document and Spreadsheet to Avoid Unnecessary Items in Your Drive

When your laptop is your primary workspace and you spend a lot of time remote, it’s no surprise that the random documents and files tend to pile up. Trying to keep your Google or desktop drive organized and tidy is a fool’s errand due to never-ending downloads, screenshots, and other files that continuously pop up. This is one area where I’ve tried and failed to create an orderly system.

Instead, I started using a working document and a working spreadsheet. Essentially I have one doc and one spreadsheet where I draft pretty much everything before I send it in a message. This way I can avoid having a new doc created for every single task, and I can look at the history of all my work in one place. Most of the time, I’ll simply copy the draft to send it in an email or message, but if I do need to put it in a separate document, I have a trick for that, too.

The way I keep track of documents I need to save and those I can trash is by only naming the ones I want to keep. This makes it easy to eyeball my drives and clear them out periodically without worrying about trashing something I linked in a message or sent to a client. It also makes it easy to look up my older work for my own reference.

8. Try to Anticipate the Needs of Both Your Clients and Teammates

When it comes to working at a digital marketing agency, a little bit of proactivity will take you far. Not only will your future self thank you, but your coworkers and clients will, too. In regard to client work, this could mean thinking about the questions your point of contact may bring up and trying to answer those in the initial deliverable. A little bit of extra detail can go a long way when it comes to client relationships.

Furthermore, it’s easy to shortcut tasks in the hopes that you’ll save time. However, it’s more likely that an update will be requested and then you’ll spend more time on it than you would have in the first place. In addition, there are other simple things you can do for your team as well. For example, I like to check OOO calendars before messaging or assigning tasks to anyone, and I always try to find answers to questions myself before chatting with someone else.

While everyone works differently, these are a few strategies I’ve found through my years at a digital marketing agency. That said, creating a system that is best for you takes time and some trial and error! It may be worth your while to experiment with the ideas above and see how they impact your workday. Share your top agency tips below, and connect with our team today for all of your digital marketing needs!

8 Tips for Working at a Digital Marketing Agency is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

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From Accessible to Universal

The Seven Principles of Universal Design

Equitable Use

Provide Flexibility in Use

Simple and Intuitive Use

Perceptible Information

Tolerance for Error

Low Physical Effort

Size and Space for Approach and Use

Size and Space for Approach and Use ensure ease of approach and use regardless of the user’s mobility. This is another principle intended for physical design, however, it can apply to web design as well. One of the easiest ways to ensure ease of use is by making large, clear buttons. Especially on mobile, this helps users with less dexterity. Providing ample negative space also allows users to avoid unwanted actions.

Universal Design and Marketability: How to Improve the Inclusivity of Your Website is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

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In a lot of ways, management is a pretty unique job. Being the best widget maker on the planet does not necessarily make you the best manager of widget makers. Widget making and management may require incredibly different skills, and to be successful in management, those skills must be deliberately learned, practiced, and prioritized.

I learned everything I know about management in my past life as a teacher. As I’ve changed roles, transitioned careers, and stepped into digital marketing, I’ve found that the successful management of students and their education is not all that different from the successful management of adults and their professional projects.

Regardless of the work setting, management requires a clear and measurable vision and the ability to motivate others to work hard in pursuit of that vision, even if they don’t necessarily find it all that visionary. Both require a balance of listening to others, seeking advice, delivering feedback, receiving feedback, and taking ownership over the success of the group. And finally, all contexts of management require a deep commitment to improving the lives of the people you manage.

From the classroom to the workplace, below are the three main pieces of advice I’d give to anyone considering a management position.

1. Take an Internal Inventory

Before accepting or seeking out a management position, ask yourself: Is management truly the best fit for you? I stepped into management rather early in my career and, admittedly, I was swayed by the glamor of the role: the title, the compensation, the influence. I was ready to make big changes and achieve big things. I was not, however, ready for the responsibility that came with it. I was not ready to navigate my new role with people who were more like friends than coworkers. I was not ready for the backlash when my big ideas overwhelmed and irritated others. And I was not ready to balance my workload with helping others balance their own.

Before stepping into a management position, consider:

1. Do you enjoy working with other people and helping them solve problems?
2. Are you comfortable taking responsibility for the failure of projects?
3. Are you comfortable holding others accountable?
4. Will you still find success rewarding when the glory goes to the people you manage rather than yourself?

If your response to these questions is ambivalent or you find yourself thinking, “No, I want to expand my technical skills or improve the product I work with.” Then, maybe you want to consider career advancements that allow you to work on bigger projects or take on more technical responsibility.

This is especially possible in the world of digital marketing where there are always more complex problems to solve. Diving into your area of expertise to be the most technical expert on the team or an influential thought leader in the industry may be the path for you.

Management is only one option for career advancement, and there should be only one reason you step into management: because you care about the people you work with and believe you could make their professional experience better, easier, and more rewarding.

2. Master the Art of Being Direct

Without question, the hardest part of management is providing clear and direct feedback to the people you work with. We’ve all seen managers try their best to circumvent this uncomfortable reality in various ways.

There is the vague, generalized feedback that’s directed at the group but only applies to a few people. “If we could all try and start our shifts on time, that would be great.”

There is the apologetic feedback. “Hey, I hate to have to mention this, but I really need you to start your shift on time. Again, I know you’re busy and I hate to stress you out, but I’d really appreciate it.”

There’s the delayed feedback that comes up in annual reviews, and worst of all, there is the feedback you hear indirectly from other people.

All of these forms of feedback are problematic and erode trust within a group. It is difficult and awkward to say, “Hey, I noticed you’ve arrived late to your shift three times this week. Moving forward, please make sure you arrive at least five minutes early so you’re prepared to start on time.” However, providing this kind of clear, direct, and timely feedback is an art form you must master if you’re going to be a successful manager.

Like any craft, it takes practice and commitment to excel at difficult conversations. I highly recommend the book Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most by Douglas Stone for anyone looking to improve their ability to navigate challenging conversations with peers, coworkers, employees, friends, partners, parents, or even children. Difficult conversations are a fact of life. Knowing how to engage in them with purpose and empathy to reach solutions that serve you and the other party will strengthen your ability to manage and support others, both within and outside of the workplace.

3. Be Relentless in the Pursuit of Your Vision

Lastly, it is important to be relentless in your pursuit of the vision you set for yourself, your team, and your company. People are motivated by clear, actionable, and meaningful goals. As a manager, you have the opportunity to set those goals for others and be the catalyst behind achieving extraordinary things.

This is one of the best parts of management. It can be so energizing to see people come together and work incredibly hard in pursuit of a vision you set. However, the opposite is also true. It can be incredibly devastating to lead people down a path destined for failure because the vision you set was not backed up by careful planning and measurement. There is nothing more stress-inducing than working for a manager who has lofty goals but lacks the ability to manage people and projects in a way that achieves them.

To be successful in setting a vision, you must feel comfortable determining roles and responsibilities for team members, communicating clear deadlines, and holding team members accountable to the expectations you set. After all, you’re the visionary who brought your team on this exciting journey, you also need to be the shepherd that safely guides everyone over the finish line.

At the end of the day, you are responsible for your team. There is a difference between empowering others to make decisions and putting the success of your vision on their shoulders, leaving them out to dry without direction. One is collaborative management, the other is gaslighting, and never has that led to long-term success.

Management is hard, but it can also be incredibly fulfilling work. With dedicated practice, patience (with yourself and others), and good mentors to guide you along the way, you may find that through management you’re able to achieve big things, improve the lives of the people you work with, and ultimately find a bigger purpose in your work.

3 Tips for Becoming a Manager is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

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In the end, I knew that I would regret not pursuing a degree in the humanities. My humanities classes were the only classes I loved going to, and I always left the classroom feeling alive with ideas, my brain spinning and turning with what we had discussed in class. So, reluctantly, I called my mother to tell her my plan to declare a double major in Religious Studies and Humanistic Studies. Immediately after I told her the news, I was hit with the one question all humanities students know well: “Well, what are you going to do with that?”

It’s a good question! And one that plagued me for the next two years of my college experience—what was I going to do with my degree? As far as I knew, there weren’t many companies looking for people to write exegesis or analyze the historical significance of the lute. 

As my senior year came to a close, I ended up landing an entry-level web administration job in Washington, D.C. at an organization I really loved. And so, without really knowing much about working in digital marketing, I moved to D.C. and started my new career. What I didn’t know, and didn’t expect, was just how much my degree prepared me in these three ways for my future work in digital marketing, web development, and online reputation management:

1. Critical Thinking and Analysis
2. Intellectual Humility
3. Love of Learning

How the Humanities and Digital Marketing Go Hand-in-Hand

I use these three skills that I developed in my time in college daily in my job. They are “soft” skills—they aren’t the kind of thing you could list on a resume, but they are the foundation of good, thoughtful work in any field. 

Critical Thinking and Analysis

The first and most essential carry over from my classes to my career is the critical thinking mindset. I look at every project or problem a client brings me like I’m analyzing different texts for a paper: What is the project/problem? What is the client’s goal, and what is my goal? How do I bring together disparate pieces into a cohesive, workable whole? 

Asking yourself questions forces you to dig deeper into your work, allows you to see things from new perspectives, and enables you to creatively solve a problem. I spent time in my classes trying to knit together ideas from different eras and disciplines, and now I use that same skill to bring together ideas from my background in SEO, web development, and digital marketing to my role as an Online Reputation Management Associate. 

Intellectual Humility

Another thing my experience in humanities classrooms taught me is intellectual humility. We approached every topic with the same two questions: What do I already know, and what do I need to learn? 

Being able to admit what you do and don’t know is powerful. It builds trust—your coworkers and your clients know that when you say you know something or share an idea, they can believe you. It also allows you to set smart, achievable goals and avoid the trap of over-promising and under-delivering with clients.

Love of Learning

The other side of the coin with intellectual humility is a voracious appetite for learning. Admitting what you don’t know is the first step, and seeking out that knowledge is the second. In college, that meant hours in the library, but now it means collaborating with my coworkers, exploring industry blogs, attending conferences, and paying close attention to new trends. In a fast-paced industry like digital marketing, where things change daily, you have to constantly be learning and adapting. 

I am grateful that I chose the humanities, and even though I still haven’t found that mythical job where I get to write exegesis or analyze the historical significance of the lute, I know that my studies prepared me well for this career that I love. 

How My Humanities Degree Prepared Me for a Career in Digital Marketing is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

Inspiration can come from the strangest of places. I’ve had creative breakthroughs while at the gym, walking down the street, or while sitting on my sofa watching Netflix. Oh, and you can’t forget the thoughts that come to us while in the shower. 

I’m incredibly thankful I work for a company that encourages continued learning. Yes, we have the standard practices of earning certifications, sharing knowledge, and attending conferences and events. But it goes beyond that. Go Fish Digital offers a unique perk that I, as an avid reader, found to be really exciting when I first joined the team a few years back. Each quarter, we’re given a free e-book of our choice (marketing related or not). It’s the simple things in life, amirite? 

When we realized it was almost National Read a Book Day, the Go Fish team wanted to celebrate. And what better way to celebrate than to share our book recommendations? I spoke to several of my colleagues and asked them to share some of their all-time favorites. I’ve already personally added several of these books to my reading list and I’m hoping that you’ll find some to add to yours as well. 

Erica Prush – Content Production Team 

Book: A Tale for the Time Being – Ruth Ozeki 

“This is one of those books that’s hard to talk about because there’s really nothing quite like it. A Tale for the Time Being is a story that crosses generations, cultures, and even dimensions.”

This a book for you “if you’re looking for a fulfilling story that will push you out of your comfort zone, cause you to question many things you take for granted, and present you with characters you’re unlikely to forget.”

LaRhonda Sparrow – Copywriting Team 

Book: The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins 

“For National Read a Book Day, I knew I had to recommend The Girl on the Train. It’s dramatic, mysterious, and, above all else, surprising. It’s not often that a novel surprises me, and this one definitely did. I almost put it down because, at first, it seemed like a book about a sad woman who lost everything she valued in her life. And while that’s an unfortunate reality for some people, that doesn’t scream best-seller to me. 

But, as soon as I read the last sentence of a random chapter, the plot immediately revealed itself to be so much more than what I previously thought it was. I honestly stayed up all night finishing the book because I had to know how everything resolved.”

Jordan Eller – Project Management Team 

Book: Shogun – James Clavell 

“I love this book because of how immersive it is. I first read it in high school and was blown away by the historical depictions of 17th century Japan and the clash of Western and Eastern culture.”

Jordan has read Shogun five or six times and his biggest takeaway is “to never become ambivalent about life. Empathy and perspective are everything, and neither should be taken for granted. Remember that the ground beneath your feet can always shift and that it should always be questioned.”

Devon Cameron – Content Production Team 

Book: Lethal White – Robert Galbraith 

“I’ve always loved mystery novels and the Cormoran Strike series has become my favorite because the stories are complex and the characters are people everyone can identify with. I’ve read this book, the fourth in the series, all the way through at least 5 times and finished it within 2 days of buying it. Yes, it is over 600 pages and no, I didn’t sleep much those days.

This series is also home to one of my favorite characters in the literary world – Robin Ellacott. She’s such a rich character because we see her coping with past trauma and struggling with her evolving identity throughout the series. My favorite thing about how she is written is that she is fierce and strong and soft all at once, but at no point is she reduced to a hysterical woman. She is always presented as complicated, passionate, and above all, human.”

Emily Stash – Design Team 

Book: Humans of New York – Brandon Stanton

“I have drifted away from leisurely fiction as I’ve gotten busier in life, but I always enjoy purchasing well-crafted, creative, and beautiful books from my favorite artists! It’s a small way to support the people that I get so much influence and energy from. And I just love having them in my home for me and others to look through. I have books from photographers, illustrators, poets, and even van-dwellers. If anything, these books and the authors/artists behind them have reaffirmed for me that inspiration for anything can come from anywhere.”

Rebecca Agocs – Content Promotion Team 

Book: You Remind Me of You – Eireann Corrigan 

“The poetry and prose of [Corrigan’s] voice are almost intimate enough to make you blush. She makes a subject that’s often hidden from pop culture and literature tangible. It’s an easy read but it’s not light subject matter.” 

Rebecca shares that You Remind Me of You taught her that “there’s strength in vulnerability and your story deserves to be told however you’d like to tell it. It’s your story, after all.” 

Brittnee Bade – Design Team 

Book: Paper Girls – Brian K. Vaughan (Author) & Cliff Chiang (Illustrator) 

“This book really sticks with me because it helped me realize that I want to write and illustrate my own graphic novel. I hesitated with my own story idea for a long time and this book taught me to have fun and just enjoy it, no matter how weird or crazy it may seem.”

“Mackenzie (or Mac) [is my favorite character]. She’s just really feisty and tough even though life is constantly knocking her down.” 

Becky Barker – Content Production Team 

Book: Conversations with Friends – Sally Rooney

Becky learned a life lesson from her favorite book: “It’s an old but powerful one – be sincere with the people you care about.”

She also identified with one of its characters: “Frances, the main character, particularly spoke to me. While I’m around the same age as her character, we lead entirely different lives, yet many of her thought patterns hit home for me in ways I never imagined they would. It’s always fun to find pieces of yourself in characters who seem so wildly different.” 

What have you been reading lately? Share your favorites in the comments below and have a happy National Read a Book Day! 

Expanding Our Knowledge Outside of the Office: Go Fish Digital Book Recommendations is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

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While I’m reluctant to share exactly what Go Fish is looking for during an interview (that would take all the fun out of applying, after all), I’m happy to share some of my best advice for interviewees. Whether you’re interviewing for a role at Go Fish or elsewhere, these pointers should serve you well.

Make a good first impression

Lots of companies conduct an initial phone screen. This, unfortunately, puts you at a disadvantage because no one can see your amazing wardrobe or charming smile over the phone. Make sure to put in a little extra effort with that call, and it will start you down the right path. Answering with, “Hello, this is [your name]” is a great way to start off, especially if you’ve got a name with an unusual pronunciation. And pay attention to the old telemarketing trick of smiling into the phone. It might sound a little unorthodox, but interviewers really can hear it, and it sets a pleasant tone for the call.

I also recommend that you do something to form a bit of a rapport. Don’t be afraid to ask your interviewer how their day is going or inquire about any plans for the weekend. Doing that is a great jumping off point for the conversation you’re about to have and it makes you memorable. Just remember to keep it brief – you’re there for a purpose, and you don’t want to waste your interviewer’s time.

Set the scene (in a video interview)

If your interview is being conducted online, make sure you dress professionally and stage the area where you plan to interview. Make your space look attractive and tidy by clearing the background of anything embarrassing or controversial and ensuring that the lighting is sufficient to keep you from being washed out or in deep shadow. Basically, you should treat your home like a TV studio where they are filming a show called, “Courtney Has A Job Interview!”

Make it a conversation

Rather than waiting until the end of your interview, ask questions as they occur to you. A good interview flows like a conversation, and getting into a nice back-and-forth flow is the ultimate goal. If all the interviewer wanted was to fire questions at you, they could have simply sent over a Google Form and saved everyone the trouble of putting on a tie.

Really listen to the questions

I have a semi-weird question I like to ask on a first phone call with candidates. I tell my interviewees that it’s almost like the “greatest strength/weakness” question, but it isn’t quite the same, and that the answer I’m looking for is different. And still, lots of people respond by telling me that “my greatest strength is caring, and my greatest weakness is caring too much”.

One reason I ask this question is that I sincerely want the answer. But, I also want to throw you off your game just a little bit. What I want is to hear how you’ll respond to a question you haven’t rehearsed for. This tells me how good you are at thinking on your feet and responding to the unexpected. But, if you respond with the age-old greatest strength/weakness answer, I’ll know you really weren’t listening to my question. If you’re not listening closely to me on an interview call, I wonder, how will you hear and respond to the needs of your clients or colleagues?

Ask questions of your own

There is no way that a “help wanted” ad can tell you everything you want to know about a job. Everyone has a dealbreaker that will make them pull out of the interview process, whether it’s the hours or the dress code or the expectation that you will work hanging upside down from a trapeze. So, ask about it! Interviewers can tell when you’ve just pulled three questions from a list you found on the internet, so put some thought and some honesty into your queries. Remember, even though the company is interviewing you, you are also interviewing them.

If you want improved work-life balance, ask how the company prevents employee burnout. If you’re changing jobs in order to move up the ladder, ask about how team members tend to advance into leadership positions. If you’re hoping for a company with better benefits, then, by all means, get the tea on those bennies!

Asking a real question about something that matters to you shows that you are seriously considering the company interviewing you. It also gives the interviewer a sense of what matters most to you, which can be terribly important as they try to determine whether or not you’ll be a good fit and enjoy being with the company for the long haul.

• • •

Conducting interviews is a mixed bag. When it goes badly, it’s my least favorite part of my job. But when it goes great, I come away newly energized and excited about the possibility of a fantastic new team member. Here’s hoping that my humble advice takes you where you want to be.

No One’s Greatest Weakness Is “Caring Too Much” is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

When it comes to creating content, especially content for your company or client, it can be easy to narrow your focus and limit your sources of inspiration. We’ve all caught ourselves putting on mental blinders that only allow us to think about content ideas related to hyper-specific topics. Even though it does happen, it doesn’t mean we should just accept that as the normal course of business.

There are so many different ways content creators and marketers can invigorate their brainstorming processes to avoid the pitfalls that come with limiting ideas and sources of inspiration you might consider (either consciously or subconsciously) as “acceptable”. And it would take a lot longer than this blog post to cover them all. Instead of attempting that, I just want to focus on one idea that can help creatives produce great content.

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Look to your own personal passions for inspiration in your marketing efforts.

Using something you love, whether it be sports, a TV show or movie, your favorite store, or anything that you have a passion for as a source of inspiration can produce incredible results. If you are able to marry passion to a relevant topic for a client or company, the final product frequently shines.

There are obvious benefits to this approach:

• It’s easier for you to come up with a way to tie whatever you personally love to your client or company’s message in a way that will make sense and appeal to other fans, since you have the same perspective and know what content you would like to consume relating to your favorite thing.
• You are also more likely to immediately recognize and correct errors in the content thanks to instinctively approaching it from the same angle as other fans, which are your target audience.
• The entire process of putting your campaign together can be more enjoyable than a typical campaign or content piece because you’re researching and creating something that surrounds what you genuinely enjoy.

These benefits only serve to improve the quality of the final product, and that would not be possible (at least not on the same scale) without the inclusion of your personal passion for the subject of the project.

As an example of how this concept has benefited clients in the past, I want to talk about one of the very first projects I worked on at Go Fish Digital. I joined the company in late 2017 with a background consisting heavily of work in the sports industry.

I graduated college with a degree in Sports Communication and spent years in college and after working in that industry, including time spent with NBC covering the Super Bowl and a season with a Major League Baseball team. So, as you can tell, I love sports. A lot.

When it was time to participate in my very first brainstorm of potential campaign ideas for a client, I used my deep love and knowledge of sports as a source of inspiration. The client in question specializes in global relocation services where they help companies transition employees from one office to another in a different country.

So, how do you tie sports to that idea in a way that makes sense while also being newsworthy enough to earn coverage?  At the time, the 2018 Winter Olympics were just months away and I remembered something I had read about previous Games. Some athletes compete in the Olympics for countries other than the one they were born in.

This idea of athletes relocating themselves and their allegiances from one country to another seemed like a perfect fit for the client given the business they were in. While the story had been covered in the past, I knew it was mostly done in bits and pieces. No one had ever done a full analytical review of the athletes.

We pitched the idea of collecting data on every athlete representing a country other than their native land and analyzing it a number of different ways to the client, which they approved. Our team then spent weeks pouring over athlete biographies and official team announcements from different National Olympic Committees. This prep work allowed our team to have data finalized and ready for design the same day as the official cutoff for roster announcements, a little over a week before the Games began.

Without an increased knowledge and interest in sports, we might not have known the best places to look for the information we needed. We almost certainly could not have had it all ready in time.

Thankfully, we were able to get everything squared away, including creating a series of graphics breaking down our findings. I like to think the expertise and passion that my love of sports contributed to the project shone through and made it more appealing to sports fans and journalists alike.

The results back it up, as this campaign – born out of a personal passion applied correctly to a client’s business and interests – was covered by more than 50 outlets from all around the world, including CNN and ESPN. Additionally, it accounted for more than half of the overall traffic on the client’s site during the Olympics.

And that’s just one example of how and why the idea of bringing your passion to work can help you achieve incredible some incredible results. Since that time, I have seen our team utilize this concept to create incredibly successful pieces of content around their own favorite things – from Game of Thrones to Trader Joe’s grocery stores to astrology and the zodiac and so much more.

At Go Fish Digital, we refuse to check our personalities and interests at the door. At the end of the day, it helps us expand our focus and seize some opportunities that could be home runs. If we didn’t, these opportunities would pass us by. So remember to take off your mental blinders and let your passions guide your brainstorming content creation ideas.

Don’t Be Afraid To Bring Your Personal Passions To Work is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

I get a lot of questions from coworkers, friends, and family about how and why I learned to code. I did not complete a Computer Science degree in college, my job title does not contain “Developer”, and many would consider my role to be a “Non-Technical” one. Yet, I invested significant time and effort and learned to code and manage infrastructure and data both on my own computer and in cloud platforms. I have come to believe that every person, in almost every position, can benefit from coding and understanding data. What follows are the tenants that have helped me come to this understanding.

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Coding is about making decisions.

When you think about it, a computer’s main job is to help us make decisions. Many people who have never learned programming have trouble understanding this fact because they see a computer as an unfeeling blank slate, and they find that it’s an impediment. I would argue that a computer is the opposite of that. Writing code allows us to instill exactly what we want into the decision-making process by including data, excluding outliers, and creating or eliminating bias. The blank slate that a computer represents is actually the perfect starting point to help you create and organize logic.

Along with that, computers help us make decisions incredibly fast (when you can translate your desires into the language they understand.) Think about some decisions you make every day:

• Who should I assign this task to?
• When do I need to leave to make the train on time?
• How effective is my team?

Coding effectively translates these types of questions into language the computer can understand. With the computer’s help, you can resolve those decisions millions of times per second. This allows you to answer important questions more completely than you could with your own intuition, freeing up your time for other tasks. Coding is about organizing logic, and it is one of the best ways we have to make you better at being you.

Coding can solve your repeatable tasks.

Computers are good at making a lot of decisions really quickly, especially when they have identical or similar decision-making criteria. Indeed, this is the exact area where we as humans start to feel stress and burnout. We are often faced with a mountain of work that is mostly similar, but just different enough that we have to invest significant amounts of effort to make the decisions required to complete it.

The key to coding is that when you can define your logic in a programming language, you only ever have to do it once. Once the task is defined, the action of carrying it out is infinitely repeatable. When we can automate this mostly repeatable work away, we can focus on more important things that don’t fit this paradigm. Some examples:

• Data Analysis, Excel Sheets, Pivot Tables, Summarization
• Categorization, Tagging, Labeling
• Copying, Storing, Uploading, Downloading
• Modifying, Reformatting, Transforming

I’ll bet that everyone reading that can relate at least one of those topics to the work they do every day. Imagine if you could step back and take a look at the bigger picture instead of worrying about the minutiae. This is what coding allows you to do.

Coding trades one-time effort for indefinite benefit.

We have this irrational feeling that the effort we put into our work is what defines its quality. The painful truth is that the only thing that defines the quality of our work is how it is perceived by others. Pulling an all-nighter is pretty meaningless if what you deliver doesn’t solve your problem. Coding allows you to redefine how you value work. Effort is a subjective metric that you can really only attribute to yourself. Time, however, is an objective commodity that you can’t trade, you can’t get back, and everyone experiences exactly the same.

When I started to think about the work I did in terms of how much time it would save, and not how much effort would be expended, I realized that programming is often the most efficient way to trade one for the other. I put in a tremendous effort to learn how to program and how to apply it to the work I do both at my job and at home. Because I put in the time to learn something that has a lot of inherent value, I now have much more time to pursue the things I like to do than I ever would have if I had left those tasks un-automated. I traded one-time effort for repeatable saved time. I’ve always identified with this quote often attributed to Bill Gates (but probably not):

I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.

Conclusion

I’ve found that “Non-Technical” is sort of an oxymoron because, in my experience, people in the least technical positions can often influence their job performance the most with the use of technology. The bottom line is this: your job title does not define you. Your ability to achieve results most certainly does. I’ve learned that understanding programming has made me undeniably better at achieving results, which has, in turn, lead to me achieving better results than I ever could have without it. I wholeheartedly recommend that everyone give programming a shot.

I’m Considered “Non-Technical” – Should I Learn How to Code? is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.