Category: about me

 “I Thought You’d be older” – Life as a Career Driven Millennial

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I manage the internship program that I was once a student of at the office I work. I put a lot of effort into the program and invest a lot of time in my interns – often who are older than me.

“I thought you’d be older,” were the first words uttered by one of my previous interns when they first met me in person (we ran the interviews over the phone because she was coming from out of state for the summer).

I shrugged it off with a laugh and a handshake, but the interaction has stuck with me now months later. What I should have responded with was, “nope, I’m just more driven than you thought.”

Since I was accepted into the Journalism school at CU Boulder, a career that allowed me to write and communicate complex messages was my objective. Now that I have the career, my focus has not changed – It’s still on my career.

I do well at work and move up the ladder quickly because I work my ass off. I work my ass off because I care about what I do and take pride in improving myself and impressing my bosses and clients. Working hard is fun for me
and trying new things is a passion – My success is just the side effect of doing both of those things at the same time.

I tell all my interns who ask about how I landed a job at my small PR agency the same thing: “Solve a problem we didn’t know exist.” 

If you have extra time, or 15 minutes till the clock strikes 5 p.m. and nothing to do, don’t waste that opportunity to look beyond what you are asked to do. You see things in a unique way, apply that insight to a solution.

When I was an intern I was constantly sharing ideas and potential solutions to the roadblocks and challenges I saw my supervisors facing. When I became a PR assistant, I did the work of an account coordinator whenever possible. When I was an account coordinator, I volunteered to take on account executive tasks. Now as a account executive, I reflect the actions of senior executives but with my own insights and twist for process improvement.

Always be looking for ways to streamline and improve not only your processes but also those of your coworkers. You should want everyone and everything to be performing as best as possible. Every idea doesn’t always work out, but an attitude like that gets noticed.

I hope that intern, who is just two years older than me, left my internship program with enough experience, intellect and inspiration that she is also greeted with surprise by potential employers who expected someone somehow more “aged” based off the competence she displayed.

Being ahead of the game means you’re one step closer to winning it.

That’s not to say that standing out from the pack doesn’t put a target on your back or sometimes put you in positions you’re unfamiliar with and alone in. I often suffer the infamous “imposter syndrome,” or find myself thinking, “I can’t do that.”

But, it is when you are faced with those feelings of self-doubt that you know you are doing exactly what you should be in that instance. If you think you can or cannot do something shouldn’t matter, know that you are going to give it your all and do your best best. Instead of focusing on the doubts of those whose expectations of you are low, like my intern was of me, ground yourself on the expectations you have for yourself and deliver noteworthy results.

By filling the roles you take, you grow into them. Take risks, see holes you can fill and always search for opportunity. Fear is a sign that you’re doing it right.

Why I Volunteer for the Women In Leadership Development (WILD) Summit Every Year

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Every year since 2013 over 500 incredible women in business, or students aspiring to become women in business, sell out the Women In Leadership Development (WILD) Summit that inspired me to expect more for and from myself.

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I attended my first summit in 2014, my senior year of college, right as I was entering the professional workforce as a young woman.

Since then, I have supported and joined countless gender equality and #WomenInBiz (or #WomemInTech) organizations, sought out female mentors and even hired young women whose potential I previously would have been ignorant to – and that’s the whole point.

The mission of The WILD Summit is to provide a professional forum for women who want to learn and share; inspire and be inspired.
  • To increase the visibility and accessibility of successful WILD women in the community to students, and each other.
  • To offer a venue for the presentation and sharing of relevant and provocative topics that are engaging to WILD women across university majors, industries and functional roles.
  • To engage a broad audience of WILD women who fit in every place along the continuum of age & experience – bringing together those who are seeking knowledge and those with a desire to share and give back.

I didn’t just attend the WILD Summit that first year, I worked for it as an unpaid PR/Social Media intern. My very first week I was tasked with creating, managing and fostering the summit’s social media strategies and accounts. My boss at the time was on The Women’s Council that put on the summit and our agency offered a small amount of public relations services pro bono to the event.

Before taking on this role, I knew very little about using social media for businesses. My experience/education was based firmly on traditional journalism and public relations. My professors barked at me to get off Twitter, Facebook or Instagram in class so they could continue droning on about print media and other endangered traditional media outlets.

I had little skill and even less supervision.

The first year I created a twitter handle, FaceBook page and event hashtag less than two months before the date of the conference. I created the bland, promotional microcontent detailing ticket information and sponsor gratification that I knew was expected of me and learned how in vain attempts like that will always be on social. I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t want to step on any toes or send out anything that other’s perceived as “off brand” or “low caliber.” Not to mention by the time of the conference, I had only gained 45 followers on Twitter and the FaceBook page was lacking engagement.

But alas, the event sold out. The pressure was off and I continued along as I had been until the day of the event: My first “live tweeting” experience. 

The summit is nine hours long and packed with incredible keynotes from all walks of life and business. @WILD_Summit tweeted less than 15 times during the whole event…

See my blog post, “HOW TO LIVE TWEET AT AN INDUSTRY CONFERENCE – FIVE KEY CONSIDERATIONS” to better understand how little that is – especially at an event where every spoken sentence oozes with inspirational goodness.

So, crazy awesome live tweeting skills and the resulting increased brand awareness created by captive audiences sharing your narrative(s) online can create did not happen in 2014. What did grow was my motivation to do more – for myself, for this incredible organization, other women, you name it – I wanted to be better at everything and I was given the confidence to try by the event that day.

Immediately after the conference, I took complete ownership of the messages the WILD Summit tweets, posts on Facebook or otherwise shares with its online networks. Having attended the event once, I better knew what the brand’s voice was and how to encapsulate it with posts that people would find value or inspiration in – The same sort of posts that I would find value or inspiration from.

At WILD III in 2015, #WILDsummit was seen online by over 10,000 social media users. (2016, 22K.)

WILD messages, lessons and stories shared that day reached more than 20x’s as many people who were actually in attendance. All of a sudden I had the attention and admiration of dozens of incredible female business owners that worked tirelessly to put the event on.

Between 2015 and 2016’s event I became the youngest committee chair member and was asked to put on several presentations on social media basics and live event considerations.

The potential impact of social media done right inspired these women to create their own accounts, better hone their skills and start really engaging on these platforms, both personally and for their businesses. Just as they had orchestrated the event that inspired me, I had orchestrated the social media strategy that inspired them and thousands of others to better spread the mission of the event.

I no longer work for the PR agency that introduced me to WILD, and they no longer do any Pro Bono work for the summit. Instead, I am a welcomed member of the committee with my own individual merit (with designated assistants and everything)! I continue to direct the social media as a volunteer, a much better way to do unpaid work than internships if you ask me, and I continue to be inspired to achieve greatness and help others achieve it too every year.

 

For more information on WILD, tickets and great content from past events, check out the event’s website, http://www.wildsummit.org

 

Use Twitter Lists! My Hidden Twitter Tip + 21 More in Inc. Magazine!

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There are so many tips, tricks and secrets to twitters that it takes a collection of power users to even begin listing them all! Last week, John Brandon did just that for Inc. Magazine. He sent out a HARO request and myself and some other social media badasses answered…

Check out this list of “22 Hidden Features to Help You get the Most out of Twitter” suggested by top twitter pros – myself included! 

From following the 80/20 content rule, hashtag hacks and more the list provides some great twitter tips for new users and those working on their personal brand online. Most are not truly hidden but are all to often forgotten, including my favorite, no.15, “Include an image in every tweet. No excuses.” – Sarah Mitus, Digital Strategist, InkHouse Media + Marketing.” Short, sweet and accurate.

What was my tip?

Take advantage of Twitter lists

“Lists allow you to follow far more people in an organized way. Instead of having a ratatouille of various industry information, personal status updates and cat pictures, utilize categorized, curated news feeds created by yourself or others (Hint: You can subscribe to other Twitter users’ lists) to stay in the know on the specific topics and profiles you care about in the moment.”

I have currently 43 different lists saved and curated on my personal twitter account, 20+ for @CodeCraftSchool.

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A few of my twitter lists. See them all: https://twitter.com/HalieNoble/lists/

Categories range widely. Those I follow for my job as Marketing Manager at a coding school include names like ‘Colorado Tech Influencers,’ ‘Startup & VC News,’ ‘Tech – Code Masters’ as well as a list of all past, present and upcoming CodeCraft students that are active on twitter.I follow just as many for the causes I am passionate about, namely women in leadership and diversity in tech news sources, influencers and affiliated organizations.

On top of that, I have my “Just for fun” lists which include comedians, authors my friends. The amount of “just for fun” accounts I follow is so grossly overshadowed by work and women accounts that if I ever wanted to use twitter for a laugh, I had to section out these accounts so I can easily enjoy. That reasoning is exactly why you create any list on twitter – minimize clutter when looking for specific conversations.

 

What’s in a lead? A blog by any other intro would archive so quickly.

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I could spend hours, days, even weeks trying to think of what I’m typing at this very moment; It would be agonizing and unnecessary.

-Ahhh there it’s done, the first sentence out of my way-

My work persona is a perfectionist; real me does not have to nitpick. At work when I write a news release, or even ghostwrite for a client’s blog, 100% of the time it is the first sentence that takes

This graphic was created in hopes of repurposing original, plain text into a visual item that's more stimulating.

This graphic was created in hopes of repurposing original, plain text into a visual item that’s more stimulating.

90% of my time. While I can be the heroine who catches the “pubic vs. public relations” typo, being positive there is error where there is not can be devastating to my productivity. What if what I say doesn’t capture the audience? What if I could do it better? How do I convey that what I’m saying is essential to my audience?

–Chances are, no matter how spectacularly it reads, the client will want changes-

This is my personal blog. I’m doing it for fun – Not to raise a “klout score,” not to make money from advertisements, or receive free goods in exchange for endorsements. I work in the interesting crossroads of media communications and high-tech. These two industries directly affect one another. Like most bloggers, I have thoughts about the things I discover and trends I notice that I feel are worth sharing [to an empty WordPress].

-My expertise is in written communication, digital or otherwise, that is: 1) Engaging; 2) Concise and 3) Relevant-

That’s how I found myself in the tech world. Software developers can be fluent in multiple languages, all more complex than English (the single language I speak fluently) and yet they often have a difficult time conveying even their most basic principles to their customers and investors their those who can’t understand the code.

That’s where I come in. I act as a translator and articulate ideas that C-level audiences understand not only in a technical way, but that spotlights benefits particular to their business’ situations.
Let me tell you something about being do this while being neither software developer or C-Level: The words do not just flow, inspired from your fingertips. You have to work for it.

This is something I made for a social media campaign in the surprise/cheer category. The easiest content I encounter is for twitter because you can't get too deep in 140 characters- which can also hurt you.

This is something I made for a social media campaign in the surprise/cheer category. Easy when compared to writing actual material over brand new concepts.

Topics like Continuous Delivery, Agile methodologies, DevOps, and the ever-mysterious “Cloud” can hurt my brain but, I’m unwilling to do half-assed work for clients. I will stay with a project for as long as necessary to assure it is above and beyond expectations.

So, when it comes to this blog, which I hope you find resourceful nonetheless, I’m just going to relax, write and enjoy myself. Sure, I’ll run spellcheck before posting and fact check my statements, but I will not spend weeks, days, even hours stuck writing any single sentence on this blog.