Each day, I start my day with a podcast and a cup of coffee. If you know me, you would know that I do not follow the Kardashians (or any other ordinary celebrities) on Instagram or any social media platform. I choose very carefully who I follow so that I can ensure I am intaking information and visuals that are only going to lift me up, inspire me and benefit me. A few years ago, a friend recommended to me the Style Your Mind podcast by Cara Alwill Leyba. Just after listening to one podcast, I felt inspired, motivated and grateful. Cara is a best selling author and master life coach and she is obsessed with women on the edge of change! She works with women across the globe to unlock their greatest potential. Cara has written several books about self love, the luxury of self help, manifesting what you dream of and using your passions to drive you. She talks business, love, manifestation, the law of attraction and the beauty in being raw and vulnerable. I relate to this pod cast because it is my goal to wake up everyday and genuinely love my life and love what I am doing – and I am not just talking about my career. I want to love the courses I am taking for school, I want to love and be grateful for the food in my fridge and the bed I lay on each night and I want to love what I am planning for and working towards. What I also find interesting about Cara and other influencers is the type of Marketing they are using to not only fuel their business, but relay a message to the world. This kind of marketing is unique because their followers are not paying them, but what they are doing is influencing a companies decision to partner with an influencer to talk about a certain product, wear a piece of clothing or use a certain product. In today’s world everyone wants to have what is on trend and popular. They want to use or wear what their favorite influencer is using or wearing. Companies use this to their advantage and pay influencers to market certain products. Influencers strategize these sponsorships by making it look “real” and in some cases, they truly may love the product, but you can’t always be sure. Influencers change the name of the game in marketing. This generation cares a lot more about what they have, what people think about them and their reputation on social media far more than how other generations have. Influencers use this to their advantage of showcasing different products that they are being payed to market. Every person is different, but as for me, if Cara Alwill Leyba was sponsoring a brand or a certain product, that does not mean I would jump on it just because I love her. Cara has become vegetarian this year and she posts a lot about not eating meat, but I love my chicken and I will continue to eat chicken and still listen to Cara’s podcast of Style Your Mind.

If you are on Facebook, chances are you have seen the viral video of the little boy who lost his toy tiger at Tampa International Airport and was reunited with his toy tiger after an associate from TIA went above and beyond to bring them back together. The boy’s mother called the airport hysterical after realizing they had left their son’s toy tiger in the airport play area. The associate reassured the mom that they would locate the tiger to ensure they would have it back by the time they came back to TIA. On the associate’s lunch break, he did more than just locate the tiger – he took pictures of the tiger’s adventure around the airport and made a picture book that shared his story of his journey in the airport! The employee went above and beyond for this little boy just because he wanted to. This is a true example of what genuine customer service is. Imagine if we were all treated this way when we go on our shopping trips to Ulta Beauty, American Eagle or even just the grocery store? What is even better is, this story took place in an airport. Not many people have “fun” in an airport and most of the time, we look at it as a hassle. Therefore, we can all learn something about customer service from this over performing associate. The customer service experience was addressed by listening to the emotions and concern of the guest, apologizing and reassuring the customer of what exactly they would do and then proceeding to exceed the customer’s expectations. When these photos and videos went viral, there was over a million likes, comments, shares, etc. all together. The audience was brought to tears on how well TIA Customer Care took care of this situation that could have been shrugged off like it was not a big deal. People lose their belongings in airports every day, right? The experience that the associate gave to the family was one that was life changing and showed millions of people that TIA is a place where you will feel comfortable and right at home!

I believe that social media is one of the greatest tools to build a business, connect with other people, gain inspiration and provide knowledge on all different topics. Although social media is a wonderful resource that is truly a gift, it has changed our lives in several ways that has hindered us from having real life communication skills, keeping private moments private and not always wondering or caring about what others are doing or even caring what others think about you. No one posts about the dull moments of their life on Instagram, only the highlights so we easily compare our lives to other people’s lives. Our lives have quickly turned from private to public as our followers/friends can see the sandwich we had for lunch to every single moment they spend with their friends. I use social media to connect with my friends/family, fitness inspiration, life inspiration, business inspiration and I share only what adds value and positivity to my life. I use Instagram the most and Facebook last. Snapchat I use only for close friends. I do not follow celebrities on Instagram or other social media platforms – I follow those who lift me up, add value to my day and make me feel happy. I make it a priority to filter my social media to ensure that the content I am seeing and taking in is adding value to my life and not negativity. I love using Instagram to also share my passions such as makeup artistry and photography to gain clients. I do not receive emails from companies unless it is for a store that I like to receive coupons and promotions for!

Good Evening! After reading the American Marketing Association’s ethical standards, I thought I would share my thoughts and advice to newbies in the marketing field and how to take on your career. The American Marketing Association commits itself to promoting the highest standard of professional ethical norms and values for its members. As marketers, we not only have the responsibility to professionally represent our organizations but also act as a public figure as we determine important decisions in the economy. In this industry, we need to be empathetic to all people as we know we are making choices for the economy which effects a diverse range of people. We need to foster trust in our marketing system and make sure we do no harm. My biggest advice includes being truthful in all situations, standing behind what is right, offer products that suit and positively impact all people, improving in our work always and being a true representation for our community. It is crucial to embrace all cultures and be open minded to other ideas that you may not agree with or that seem different. Reject manipulations and sales tactics that harm customer trust and always sell in a clear, straightforward and precise way that makes the customer feel valued and comfortable. Stay transparent, value inclusion and always strive to satisfy the customer. If we put the customer first, we will succeed in all that we do as a business!

When creating a marketing campaign, it is important to use the SMART goal planning because it covers everything you need to take into consideration to achieve your goal! It is important to specify what exactly you are trying to accomplish and what your key strategy will be to get there. Measuring your progress and tracking how you will get there and when you want to achieve this goal is important because it will determine how to delegate tasks, when to start what tactic and what you need to do and when you need to do it. It is of the utmost importance to think of what actions you need to take to get to your goal. If there is something you are not doing currently , but need to begin you need to take that into consideration. You also need to ask yourself if this is a realistic goal and is your timing and actions realistic to achieve this goal? The next step is to set a date of when you want this goal to be accomplished. It is crucial to be timely and ensure that you are getting tasks completed to ensure you are on time to accomplish your goal. When planning a marketing campaign, it is important to ask yourself what will be impactful, relatable and emotional for your targeted audience? What will be eye catching and soul catching? Will this idea help us boost sales and create loyal clients? Without using SMART strategy, you cannot have a clear and precise vision for what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it. To support your set goals, you need to have strategies in mind to help you accomplish that goal. I currently work at Ulta Beauty and it is that time of year again that has beauty lovers going crazy…21 Days of Beauty! Each day there is at least two products that are drastically marked down in price. The goal of 21 Days Of Beauty is to boost sales and create loyal clients. Some of the strategies Ulta Beauty uses is the commercials on the radio, the signage in the store, email blasts to customers that are a part of our loyalty program, etc. But the tactics we use are even more important to add onto sales and keep those clients coming back to shop for more! The tactic we use in our store is link selling products to the beauty steal, coaching associates on the brands so that they are able to speak to the products very well and making sure we are signing everyone up for the loyalty program so they are getting those email everyday that states the beauty steals that are happening! We can ensure our SMART goals are being met through KPIs by tracking our progress on social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram. How many like are we getting? How many shares are we getting? What are our customers saying about our products? What are our customers saying about our sales and how it compares to our main competitor (Sephora)? Listening to what our customer needs and wants, ensures that we are setting goals that are specific to what they are asking for because at the end of the day our customer is what keeps us in business and the best way to track what they are thinking is by using KPIs. If it wasn’t for our loyal clients are Ulta Beauty, I would not be able to go into work and genuinely love what I do! As they say, at Ulta Beauty, the possibilities are beautiful!

We all have goals. We all have strategies we use to accomplish our goals. And we all have tactics that help our strategies to accomplish our goal. But what is the true difference between these three crucial parts of accomplishing what you want to accomplish? Goals, strategies and tactics all correlate to each other and they all are needed to succeed. A goal is the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result. A strategy is a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim. A tactic is an action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end. I work as the Prestige Sales Manager at an Ulta Beauty location in New Jersey. I have several different goals that I want to achieve each week that take a lot of time, strategic moves and specific tools. One of my main goals each week is reaching and exceeding our sales goal for the store. I ask myself each week, how can we exceed our sales goal? What will be our strategy this week to succeed? First and foremost, you have to be strategic with scheduling to ensure that there is enough selling coverage so that all of our guest’s can be assisted. My other strategy is creating a focus day or event for the prime selling days. This is when we focus on one brand or a new product or launch product. We focus on selling and demoing the product to each person that is shopping and link selling the product to other products. Tactics I use to help my strategy succeed is training the team on certain products or new launches because you cannot sell what you do not know about! I also use our POS system to track sales and coach to the team where we are at on sales and what our oppourtunities and strengths are. Therefore, my goal is to exceed our store’s sales goal. My strategy includes impactful scheduling and eventing. My tactics are training and using the tools needed to track sales and coach to our team!

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton