9:30 AM:

Art joined a live streaming session focused on the Future Proofing Career of blockchain. 

BlockchainDriven is in the midst of launching a consumer focused, live stream educational product for blockchain. They are in the test phase of reception and host live stream sessions to mimic what a user would experience. The sessions will go live at the same time as an online platform BlockchainDriven has developed. The speakers learned their various material and the presentation was practiced to ensure a seamless delivery come launch date. 

The team evaluated how the information is received based on the accounts created, length of time watched and the visits to the educational website. Through the live stream conducted today, the team was able to adjust a few things as they continue to position the product. 

1:30 PM:

After the live stream, Art jumped right onto a call to support his cohort and involvement with a marketing blockchain accelerator for a Columbia University-IMB initiative. 

The Columbia-IBM involves undergraduate and graduate students exploring the industry as the University looks towards building healthcare blockchain; an exciting project for Art and his team to help with as industry leaders. BlockchainDriven is also working on a separate healthcare blockchain project themselves—after all, as the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats. 

The final demo day was about a week away, so Art rehearsed and analyzed a few aspects of the project with his Columbia-IBM cohort. This entailed scanning the slideshow while formulating and exchanging thoughts on how to best communicate the pitch in a way that would connect and resonate with the audience and how they will convey their response to the Coronavirus pandemic impacts. It was a productive, solution-filled meeting. 

The past few weeks have been busy, as the initiative evolved to showcase their thoughts and ideas as to how blockchain can be implemented for progression. With the Covid-19 pandemic, people are forced to rethink how they are working and achieving results. 

In healthcare, for example, strategies to simplify reimbursements are examining paper-driven protocols leading to the removal of hard copy filing systems. The blockchain industry strives to join more and more projects to solve real problems without the gimmicks. BlockchainDriven steps in to shine a light on what is happening, what is relevant and how the new science can drive the economy forward which ultimately matures the space of blockchain.  

To break down what is meant by the maturing of blockchain, think of how the Internet started. The Internet didn’t need a lot of users for it to be proven valuable but for blockchain, you do.

To mature, blockchain requires a substantial amount of users and for companies to become adaptable. Through this process, blockchain can also link with other elements of the economy, ultimately feeding the system as a whole.

2:30 PM:

Art reviewed numbers on various marketing initiatives that are being explored to take place after Covid-19.

Over the course of the last month, Art and his team aggressively adjusted their marketing strategy due to the repercussions of Covid-19. Marketing for Q2 at BlockchainDriven was heavily centered around Blockchain Week; the largest blockchain event in the world set to take place mid-May. The event (along with 200 others) was cancelled as a result of Covid-19 and changed the course of Art’s initial plan. 

Progress is measured in a less concise manner when it comes to blockchain. Depending on the industry, the metrics studied to measure growth involve tracking problems removed or diminished by implementing blockchain technology and alliances built through education. Establishing partners across various industries aids in expanding BlockchainDriven’s reach for the future. Starting conversations, opening new doors and gaining these relationships are all measurements of the company's success.  

In efforts to achieve this, BlockchainDriven is constantly focusing on how to target these new connections. Growing their existing mailing list, utilizing direct messaging on LinkedIn and developing educational webinars to educate current partners are a few implemented strategies. The technology of blockchain is still developing and with the emerging field comes ambiguity to navigate. 

Art and the team are selective with the projects and partners they acquire, to ensure their work remains exponentially relevant and innovative. This process unfolds on a case by case basis, but the team experiences an abundance of regular spamming to sift through in order to get to projects worth taking on. 

With blockchain as the new hot commodity, endless ideas are constantly coming to BlockchainDriven and filtering through these ideas is a tedious part of the job. Trust within a partnership is crucial, as is finding a real need for blockchain as a viable solution.

4:00 PM:

Art spent time project planning for BlockchainDriven’s healthcare client. 

This project entails handling the marketing strategy along with the technology. In their case, Covid-19 had a strong effect on the project and as a result, Art and the team analyzed previous results, adjusted the KPIs and reevaluated the direction of the marketing campaign. Art’s colleague, Peter, oversees the technology development team while the marketing side works on the medical alliance and brand positioning for healthchain.

5:30 PM:

Art wrapped up the day with the daily ‘hands-on’ team call. 

The BlockchainDriven squad includes Art’s three person marketing team, a Shipping Information Officer, tech professionals, a sales team and various project managers. With blockchain a relatively unstable space due to pure novelty, cross checking departments is crucial to the functionality of the organization to ensure a cohesive vision while controlling individual departments from becoming backed up with workload. 

During the ‘hands-on’ call, Art and these individuals share status updates and analyze current data to examine the progress of their internal campaign as well as client projects. The current climate has resulted in complete campaign pivots and developing fresh plans to work with the populations ‘new normal.’ Art receives reports on existing campaigns and finds everything to be unfolding as it should as Covid crisis led to significant ad spend fall across numerous PPC (pay per click) /CPM (cost per thousand) marketing campaigns currently running with improved ROI (return on investment) and CPA (cost per action) across the board. 

Another focal point of the call was checking out the numbers of subscribers on-boarded from the live stream session earlier in the day. A full-day data spread will compute tomorrow and if it’s within the team’s expected benchmark, which Art projects it is, the continued plan of action will proceed. 

Daily activities for the BlockchainDriven team vary from data-focused work, to onboarding new clients and assigning role positioning. The team would normally prioritize conference and event planning but restriction on social gathering has this component temporarily on hold. 

Being an integral part of an emerging industry entails creativity, flexibility and a willingness to roll with the punches. For some, it can feel nerve wracking to navigate the course of uncharted territories but this is an incredibly enjoyable factor for Art. 

11:30 PM:

After work, Art tries to attend as many networking events as possible. Once at home and to wind down in the evenings, Art and his girlfriend relax with their current Hulu show of choice, Top Chef. The show fuels Art’s enjoyment of cooking by providing useful tips with a side dish of competition to keep the couple engaged and entertained. 

Without restaurants right now… Top Chef is the closest we can get!

10:00 AM:

Peter took a call with the Blockchain Developers. 

Conversations like these can be upwards of hours on end, depending on the current workload. Architecture design holds 10-20% of the life-cycle of the projects and as Peter completes this process, fluid communication between himself and the developers is imperative. 

The cost of a small mistake or error can translate into a significant suspension down the road because steps of a blockchain are interdependent. If an adjustment needs to be made during step six, for example, all prior steps will also need adjusting. Blockchain is not the typical IT product with parts that can be modified later. 

Any blockchain-based product must envelop the entire ecosystem and doing so correctly, from the beginning, is vital. All limitations must be known and communicated to the client ahead of time to properly correct the solution, if one is necessary. Once that is completed, the next phase begins. 

Project phases look something like this: 

1. A client comes to BlockchainDriven with a problem. 
2. The architect (Peter in this case) establishes language around the problem and communicates with developers to design a solution.
3. Developers do the job and coding. 

Understanding coding language is essential to be in a role like the developers. This includes; C++, Assembler, Python and C#. Peter serves as a liaison between the client and the developers. He deep dives into each issue and problem to then vocalize a solution while orchestrating the workflow and function of such. 

Peter cannot stress enough the importance of building strong relationships between all members of the development team, from designers to project leads and front-end to back-end developers. To communicate efficiently, he is an advocate for being direct. There are no tricks other than his personal philosophy of speaking from a genuine and authentic approach. Peter speaks immediately about doubts or concerns and delivers any and all news in the moment. Building the proper team of like-minded individuals here, is also important to keep this system flowing.

Communication is the epicenter of moving forward.

11:00 AM:

Peter works on community building, market research and algorithmic strategy for a DeFi project, RoninAi. 

To the naked eye, the prototype of RoninAi looks like a simple, stylish black box. While the latter adjective is true, the former is far from the case. RoninAi is a B2C-decentralized network using a combination of AI and blockchain as well as hardware and software to provide crypto portfolios management while mitigating risk. Think of RoninAi as a program that can essentially trade, sell, manage, invest, analyze data, (what have you), for you. 

The main goal of the RoninAi project is to bring crypto and money management to the masses as a global decentralized network. We mentioned where AI comes in terms of the possibilities of functionalities, but the reason the blockchain is an important aspect to the project as well, Peter said, is because it requires a community around it in the name of transparency and accessibility. For example, with blockchain implementation, the trading fees can be lowered, the transparency of the trades can be provided and the portfolio management can be as transparent as possible. 

People don’t care about buying Bitcoin anymore, unfortunately because it doesn’t go up 10,000% anymore. People care about managing their money… this little guy can solve that.

So far, the device was built under budget and has been distributed to 17 countries globally in which around 12 have reported success. To join the community and use RoninAi, users, businesses and governments from countries all over the world sign up using this Telegram link where you’ll be sent educational materials followed by a free trial. Those who have joined the RoninAi community following their free trial, Peter said, have an “average net worth of a million dollars,” which is why there’s a push to get more users to join so more people of all income levels can garner the benefits. 

Learn more about RoninAi here.

Peter maintains close contact and communicates with these countries routinely, which he attributes to his time-zone flexibility and work ethic. Peter likes to view his leadership style as working for his team, rather than contrarily. 

The B2C (business to consumer) model requires constant communication with the community; prioritizing and recognizing their precedence over technology. The community will tell you what they want, react genuinely to products or services, correct behavior, inspire moving forward and extend love (and sometimes, inevitable hatred.) Peter experiences blockchain projects fail by building first and hoping that the people will come second. 

In BlockchainDriven’s experience, people are always first. This doesn’t mean reacting to each piece of feedback or spending enormous amounts of resources from a community tip, but allowing the sentiment to drive the project. 

Community. Community. Community. Especially with B2C blockchain projects.

1:00 PM:

Peter had a call with the Designers and Front-End Developers. 

(Yes… everything is important!) 

Peter and his team are working on the user interfaces for HealthChain, a blockchain startup focusing on enhancing collaboration and trust between medical companies and hospitals by streamlining the healthcare supply chain. He has a few options to present to the client and after a review is conducted, the feedback will be sent to the designers and front-end development team to create the final mockup of the user interface to be coded in the near future. 

3:00 PM:

Peter and his team utilized the current climate induced by Covid-19 to reflect on the largest problem in the blockchain space: proper education, or better yet, lack thereof. He had a call with the marketing team for BlockchainDriven’s educational Academy launching soon. 

Blockchain is new technology in an emerging field with a substantial lack of educational material and resources. Because of this, BlockchainDriven has spent an abundance of time educating clients, event attendees, potential leads, interns and users about blockchain technology and its implications. 

BlockchainDriven educates 100% of potential clients and in return, moves forward with only 10% after the remaining 90% understand blockchain to be unnecessary for their particular solution, as a result. For these individuals without prior knowledge or a clear understanding of the way blockchain functions, a common misconception is its similarity to an average IT project. 

In reality, blockchain is vastly different from standard technology. Unlike building a website and figuring out the process as the project moves along, blockchain requires a clear understanding and outline of every step before beginning. This can be unattainable for many of the problems clients try and solve through blockchain as it is not the panacea to all. 

BlockchainDriven’s efforts to further education resulted in the design of an Academy geared towards delivering proper resources for people eager to learn the technology. The team took full advantage of Covid-19 as a catalyst for launching the Academy with hopes it supports blockchain enthusiasts to pivot their careers into a new domain.  During the call, Peter and the marketing team discussed the presentation deck, slides and bullet points that needed to be sharpened on the team’s next webinar. 

The message Peter plans to hone in on is the criticality of NOW as the time to dive into blockchain, with Covid-19 as a primary supporting example. 

Peter believes Covid-19 to exemplify substantial inefficiencies in the supply chain, governance and centralized decision making that blockchain could have supported. He goes on to express that questions of PPE availability and staff quantity and how many people with Covid or the antibodies still remain unclear. 

If we were to utilize blockchain here, this data could have been store on the blockchain and distributed to the people or to hospitals and medical professionals, allowing the entering of symptoms in a decentralized fashion, including the IP address and geolocation to figure out the epicenter of the virus outbreak and as a result take proper measures with the proper supply chain. If this happened, Peter claims Covid-19 would not have been so shocking to the economy. 

To summarize, Blockchain could have been used to accomplish three things if implemented during Covid-19:

1. Collect data
2. Decentralize the decision making
3. Optimize the supply chain 

Through increasing education of blockchain, Peter also expects the innovation of the space to propel forward. As said before, the architecture of blockchain is the MVP, so to speak and numerous individuals involved from developers (front-end and back-end) to the client. 

Since all variables have to be considered at the same time when developing the architecture, blockchain isn’t where it should be due to the lack of talent able to fit in these roles successfully. The architecture of blockchain incorporates the interactions of every perspective and the core is there from the start of the project to the end. Without people who understand how to navigate this journey the correct way, progressing forward is slow. 

As blockchain expands, the innovation in industries as a result will be exuberant. 

Blockchain will be implemented in the banking and financial space by decentralizing projects in a way that motivates the hell out of Peter! Other fields with room for improvement through blockchain are healthcare, legal or anywhere with more than one type of entity or enterprise with work needing to be organized and optimized while cutting down on waste. For Peter, making a difference is his utmost concern. 

To be honest, I don’t mind what industry I’m disrupting, as long as I can add value through blockchain.

7:00 PM:

Peter had a call with the Columbia-IBM Blockchain Accelerator team. 

The Columbia Blockchain Accelerator is a profound initiative by Columbia University focused on helping talented blockchain startups progress to the next step of the equation. Peter is a technical advisor for two out of ten participating teams and this call was with one of the two. He is advising on relevant blockchain architecture and potential token insurance. The main and most popular question here is to move forward with public permission-less or private blockchain as the architecture type of the project. 

When working with blockchain and the sensitive material/data often involved, most clients are immediately drawn towards the private architecture type but in reality, that tends to over complicate the projects. With a public permission-less architecture type, anyone can join with access to the technology, allowing for scalability. A public permission-less type in no way means users have visibility to account information on the ledger, as the name evokes. The opposite is true. When it comes to a private type, there is a lack of architectural and infrastructural hard coded elements that ultimately prevents the systems from expanding therefore reaching more users and driving more economic growth. 

Peter is an advocate for a public permission-less strategy, as the data is still very much private and secure. Although this debate is an inevitable one and seemingly never-ending, the answer becomes simple once the business user case is defined. The process, nevertheless, takes days and weeks to decide upon.

1:30 AM:

Peter takes an immense amount of pride in his mission to help the world adopt blockchain. He finds himself circling the subject 24/7 believing a world with blockchain is a better one!

Going to sleep? NYC never sleeps.

9:15 AM:

Rob opened Microsoft Outlook and replied to roughly ten emails that needed his attention. However, that doesn't mean there were only 10 unread emails in his inbox. Rob is copied on multiple emails on a "just so you know" type of basis. Event planning logistics, company announcements, case studies' logistics and findings are topics of those types of emails.

Rob's sent folder is mostly reserved for brand communications and negotiations.  A few examples Rob gave of emails he would need to reply to could concern, "a proposal that was sent out, a rates negotiation, a question about whether a [WWE] Superstar could be utilized in a certain element for a brand," things like that. 

9:30 AM:

Rob prepared for a 10:15 AM presentation around the launch of Coke Energy, a brand new energy drink initiative for Coca-Cola that will occur in early 2020. In preparation, Rob read through a PowerPoint presentation and made notes to discuss while at the meeting. Rob and his team are one of seven brands invited to present their ideas to win the launch dollars around the January Energy drink campaign.

"Launch dollars" is an industry term used to explain the prestige and exclusivity of the partnership. If won, it means the company will be the first to advertise with the product as soon as it hits the market also for the first time.

This isn't WWE's first rodeo with Coca-Cola and their new products' launch dollars—their launch of the Orange Vanilla flavor was an example of a time where Coca-Cola was requesting a proposal to advertise their new flavor exclusively.

Rob and his team for the Orange Vanilla proposal pitched the idea, the perfect pairings. Rob explained their past brainstorming session saying,

"because Orange and Vanilla is a great pairing for you to drink, we went back to the well for us and thought... 'what are the great matchups or tag-team pairings that we've had in the past and how is that relevant?'"

After hashing out the objectives and synergies from the soda to WWE content, Coke went with WWE's idea to advertise the new flavor and sweepstakes were made—that have now expired of course. YouTube content was produced and WWE fans were exposed to entertainment that promotes the message of the advertiser while giving the audience the content they desire. 

This is exactly the type of experience desired this time around for the launch of Coke Energy.

10:15 AM:

Rob took a 10-minute cab ride to Coca-Cola's media agency of record. After he checked into the building, he began setting up a laptop to present, with his marketing team, why the World Wrestling Entertainment audience made sense for the Coke Energy beverage launch in January of 2020.

Accompanying Rob to this meeting is the Marketing Manager who works closely with him to come up with the concepts for the brand pitches.

When asked if he gets nervous for presentations like these, Rob said he feels the opposite. "I get excited," Rob said especially when he knows what's at play and what's at stake.

He continued, "I have to step it up. I have to be articulate. I have to understand who's in the room and I have to pitch our messaging in a way that everybody in that room understands it and is captivated." 

"Getting away from the phone and the computer and actually being in front of somebody is what really makes advertising sales exciting!"

A tip Rob has to rock presentations like these is to, "think of the questions that are going to come about throughout your presentation before actually walking into the presentation." That's why his prep before is so important. While he's re-reading and reviewing the presentation before the meeting, he said he thinks to himself, "what could this person ask as a question?" What are areas of the pitch that's convoluted with in-depth information that needs extra explaining? Dig deep in articulating the answers to those questions in a way a layperson would understand and watch the nerves slowly fade away as you dive into the presentation.

Aspects brands like Coca-Cola keep in mind when looking for partnerships like this are:

1. Reach (how many people could the advertisement be exposed to?)
2. Demographics synergy (does the WWE's demo match the demo the brand is trying to reach?).

Rob and his team, along with the specifics of their creative pitch, leverage their data to try and convince the brand to land their business. Rob said the WWE's demo is interesting because it not only includes the consumer (children and teenagers), but the purchaser (parents), so that's a unique selling point in their arsenal.

The presentation took 30 minutes and a Q&A occurs from the media agency team that lasted roughly 15 minutes. Rob shared the questions asked were related to the specifics of a few scenarios of ideas mentioned in the presentation. In those scenarios, they talked about utilizing certain WWE wrestlers and one of the questions that came up was which of the wrestlers mentioned would be best to reach a certain demographic compared to others. A discussion ensued to try to nail down the right person.

Rob left the agency with his team to head back to the WWE office. While they didn't find out the decision on who won the launch dollars on that day, Rob shared by the time the interview for the article took place, his team won the business!

11:15 AM:

Rob arrived back at his office and jumped on a client call with the head of marketing for Mars Chocolate. The purpose of this call was to discuss renewing their title sponsorship leading up to and surrounding Wrestlemania 36 for the fourth year in a row. Wrestlemania 36 will take place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on April 5th, 2020.

The venues of Wrestlemania have changed throughout the four years Mars Chocolate has sponsored Wrestlemania, which brings interesting logistical challenges, Rob said, adding, "what can we do new and different," this time around? Rob and his team are ensuring their clients, not just Mars Chocolate, that the activation for each partnership will be new-to-market and never done before.

The call lasted 30 minutes and previewed some new ideas to bring to life the Snickers brand and their tag line, "who are you when you're hungry?" 

Wrestlemania, for those who don't know, is, as Rob described it, "the SuperBowl for WWE, it's where all the storylines culminate." It's a 4-5 day event—one the biggest events for WWE out of all 500+ events they schedule for the year—which also means, as mentioned, it's a big opportunity for brands to achieve high visibility and reach among potential consumers. To put the Wrestlemania fanfare into perspective, hundreds of thousands of fans from all 50 states and 68 countries attended last year's Wrestlemania 35. Again, big opportunities available for sponsorships and advertising.

12:15 PM:

Rob met with the head of marketing for Rovio Entertainment—a Finnish video game company best known for the Angry Birds franchise—for lunch at Haru Sushi in Times Square. The purpose of the lunch was to discuss the activities coming up in the days ahead which include an activation within Times Square to count down to the official 10th anniversary of Angry Birds in concert with its #BringTheAnger campaign. This campaign aimed to show how anger can be converted into positive action—who doesn't like to let it out once in a while?!

Rob said, "this is more of a 'thank you' type lunch where we've done all the hard work and now we're seeing it all come to life." This is also an opportunity to exchange more detail descriptions of what each respective company does to pitch a future partnership and to get to know each other personally. The more informed each leader of different companies are about their partners personally and professionally, the better they can serve each other in the future, Rob said.

2:00 PM:

After lunch, Rob walked over with the head of marketing for Rovio Entertainment to their Times Square activation. Rovio unveiled the Angry Birds Venting Machine. The idea behind this Venting Machine was to accept angry actions, like bashes, shouts or shakes, as forms of "payment" for special prizes.

Both parties thought to get the most use out of this furious machine, Rovio debuted the Venting Machine in one of the world’s most infamously agitating destinations: New York City’s Times Square.

To drive larger crowds, WWE's contribution to Rovio's Venting Machine idea was to provide WWE Talent, The Big Show (7'0 441 pounds) to drive awareness for the campaign through an appearance in Times Square to help fans shake the "venting machine"!

The Big Show showed up at roughly 2:45 PM which resulted in a long line of fans waiting anxiously to see the larger than life WWE Superstar. A few Instagram reposts later, the client, Rob and the fans were very happy with the successful outcome!

4:30 PM:

Following the Times Square activation, Rob traveled back to the office. The first thing he did was make a call to the Rovio social media team to let them know WWE's The Big Show has initiated his post on his Instagram allowing Rovio to repost and drive more awareness to the big event.

Following his Rovio call, he prepared for a discussion at 4:45 PM with the Universal Studio's theatrical marketing team. Their team discussed with Rob the 2020 schedule for theatrical releases and brainstormed on which titles would make sense for the WWE audience. 

A couple ways these movies studios and WWE can work together include inviting the stars of the movies to come to a WWE event and sit front-and-center, showing the trailer during commercial breaks/on the jumbotron, producing a mash-up promotional video with clips from the movie and WWE Superstars to air on the jumbotron, showcasing props from these movies for fans to take pictures with, among other ideas.

The objective for the studios to partner with WWE is to get tickets sold, Rob said, adding, "so it's my job to create awareness," using all of WWE's assets in their arsenal to promote these movies. Since the demographics for WWE fans span over generations and the studios want to target a specific age demographic, the promotional strategy will differ. For example, if they're working on promoting a movie geared towards a younger audience, Rob's team will focus on digital marketing vs. television marketing. These are the details that are hashed out on phone calls like this.

Ironically two of their major releases, Dolittle and Fast and Furious 9, will star WWE Superstar John Cena. "The inclusion of John Cena creates a nice synergy for a marketing partnership," Rob said.

5:30 PM:

Upon completing the call with Universal Studio's theatrical marketing team, Rob prepared an email to his internal WWE marketing team identifying the three best titles for us to prepare marketing ideas around. Materials attached could include any foundational information Rob got from initial calls, synopses of the movies, and/or RFP documents. He followed up his email brief with a meeting invite to discuss in person the next steps to aligning their marketing initiatives around the flight dates for the Universal titles.

Speaking generally about how meetings like this typically go, Rob's first step in thinking through these ideas is using his marketing background to brainstorm with the rest of his team. He likes to be involved in the creative process keeping in mind his sales expertise as well—what will be the best approach for the studio to get the best return on their investment?

After they've come up with the ideas, his team will flesh it out further and Rob will present the best ideas to the movie studios in person, similarly to the Coke presentation earlier in the day.

6:30 PM:

It was the end of the workday, so Rob caught a train back to Stamford, CT from Grand Central and arrived home at 7:45 PM. On the train ride, he could be answering emails, but only emails that require a quick response. For most emails, he prefers to use a laptop. If he's not answering emails, he'll check back in on the news that relevant to his industry, like finance and company developments, since he doesn't have time to during the day to do so. From there, he prepared dinner and answered urgent work emails mostly from West Coast brands.

11:00 PM:

Rob’s evening routine usually consists of relaxing by playing a few games of pool and pinball in his home game room before falling asleep by listening to an ’80s playlist on Spotify. What a day!

 

7:30 AM:

The first thing Karissa did when she arrived at the office was to make a cup of coffee with an extra shot of espresso. While she was waiting for it to finish, Karissa got a call from one of the Account Executives on her team. A candidate they had submitted for a UX Designer position was being made an offer! This was a quick turn-around in regards to the interview and offer process. Only two weeks from start to finish! In her experience, Karissa had seen candidates hired on the same day or it can take up to three to four weeks to obtain an offer. While on the call, Karissa discussed details like salary, start date, next steps as she headed back to her desk.

7:35 AM:

After completing this call, Karissa read through and answered various emails. She checked her calendar for the day's scheduled calls/meetings and sent follow-up emails to candidates that needed to submit resumes, portfolios, or questionnaires. Some clients preferred to use online job management tools to work with staffing agencies, so Karissa checked through updates as well.

Synergis uses an applicant tracking system, like Salesforce, to compile all of the data gathered by recruiters. So, once she had the relevant information, Karissa made updates on candidate profiles, logged where she'd emailed individuals, and updated her notes/progress on jobs. Finally, she looked at a collection of internal reports to assess which open jobs needed her attention that day, in order to set her priorities.

7:50 AM:

By now, Karissa was ready to call the candidate who interviewed last week to discuss the offer that had just been proposed. While on the phone, Karissa talked with the candidate about her other opportunities, discussed the offer, and explained next steps to take moving forward. The candidate chose to accept the offer, so Karissa emailed the Account Executive to let her know that they would be moving forward. The next step in the process would be to get the candidate paperwork from the client and submit that for hiring. Karissa logged her notes from the call with the candidate in ATS, the candidate tracking system, and got ready for the next event of the day. 

8:00 AM:

Next on the agenda for Karissa was a daily call with a remote recruiter/mentee on her team. Karissa and her mentee chatted and caught up about their weekend activities, and then discussed the mentee's progress on assignments from Friday. They talked about what coverage/submittals she had completed on these projects, different search strings that she could use for a Quantitative UX Researcher role, and what the mentee's work priorities should be for that day.

8:30 AM:

After getting off her phone call, Karissa headed to the weekly office-wide meeting, held every Monday. The meeting included announcements from the HR team, the Learning and Development department, Consultant Advocates, President, etc. After the announcements were finished, Karissa began a conversation on the priorities of the week, by facilitating a discussion around each Account Executive's open jobs, updates on interviews, and feedback from submittals. The discussion concluded with establishing each recruiter's daily priorities for both the creative and IT teams.  With Karissa's guidance, each recruiter now had clearly established goals for the day and the week. 

9:15 AM:

After the meeting wrapped up, Karissa left the office to head off site for a client meeting.

9:45 AM:

The client meeting began around 9:45. Karissa met with an Account Executive to tour a potential client's offices and meet their staff. For the next thirty minutes, Karissa met with members of the team and spoke with them so that she could better understand their current UX opening. During this discussion, Karissa asked questions to explore their need for creatives. For example, asking what would be the structure of the UX candidate's day to day job expectations, as well as what kind of portfolio and experience would the client like to see from the prospective candidate.

10:15 AM:

Karissa wrapped this meeting up by around 10:15 and left to travel back to the office.

10:35 AM:

Once she arrived back at the office, Karissa set up her laptop and began working on her first priority for the day, working on a UX Researcher position. She started by checking applications from where she'd had it posted online over the weekend. This process involves reviewing resumes and portfolios (if supplied) and reaching out to qualified candidates to schedule a time to speak further.

After gathering several new candidates, Karissa considered individuals found via active sourcing—searching within the ATS database. In many cases, this meant reaching out to people she'd spoken with in the past. Lastly, Karissa would search for prospective candidates through platforms like Indeed and LinkedIn, to see if there were new individuals who were interested and qualified for the role.

11:30 AM:

It was time for the Annual Synergis Thanksgiving Potluck! The staff took a break and gathered in the kitchen. The President, Doug Ross, said a few words of thanks, and everyone dug in to eat some amazing Thanksgiving foods and enjoy some time together. At the end of the potluck, the staff passed around a box and drew names out—almost like a Secret Santa. However, in the version of the game at Synergis, after selecting a name, each staff member had to purchase a toy that reminded them of the person whose name they drew. These toys will then be presented at the Holiday luncheon. The rest of the company will guess whose name was drawn. Afterward,  all the toys are donated to Toys for Tots.

12:30 PM:

After lunch wrapped up, a new role came in that needed to be prioritized. Karissa cleaned and edited the job posting—in order to make it more attractive to candidates—and posted it on several job boards. Next, Karissa started sourcing through the list of candidates situated close to the job location, with relevant portfolios, and backgrounds. Once she established this information, she began cold calling/leaving voicemails, emailing, and texting these individuals about the role.

1:30 PM:

Karissa took a break to have a call with a candidate who had been actively interviewing with one of her clients. Karissa talked with the candidate about how her interview went last week, what her other opportunities looked like, and if the timeline for this role would work for her. While on the call, Karissa worked with the candidate to schedule her availability for interviews moving forward. After getting off the call, Karissa emailed the client to schedule an onsite meeting for this particular candidate to have a secondary interview. She made a note to add this individual's name to a to-do list for the next day, as this task likely wouldn't be completed today.

1:45 PM:

At this point in the day, Karissa pulled up the profile in the Synergis database for the candidate that had accepted an offer that morning.  Her next task involved completing the required documentation to inform the front office (aka recruiting, sales, and leadership teams) and accounting team that they'd made a successful candidate placement.

2:00 PM:

An interview request came in for another candidate. Karissa called and emailed to schedule the upcoming interview, confirming with the client for an on-site interview the next day.  Once this had been scheduled, Karissa continued sourcing on the hot new role that had come in that afternoon. Sourcing is a term used to describe the process of emailing and cold calling potential candidates for a job.

2:30 PM:

Karissa was pulled into a meeting with one of the Account Executives and a Sales Director, to discuss a potential position with a new hiring manager.

The three of them strategized what types of candidates to send, portfolio types and backgrounds, and two to three people already in the pipeline that they could recommend for the job. The team set a deadline of Wednesday to get the specific candidates written up and submitted to the AE and to do a live review with the hiring manager.

2:50 PM:

After this meeting, Karissa went back to her desk to do work. At this point, two junior recruiters from her team came by with questions about a specific client's rates and work agreement. As Team Lead/Mentor, Karissa coached them on how to pitch an idea to a candidate and what further information was needed from the client moving forward. She ended the discussion with next steps for them to complete and follow-up on with the internal team.

3:00 PM:

Karissa completed another candidate call. While on the phone, Karissa talked with the candidate about the UX market in Atlanta, the candidate's background, and relevant experiences. On each and every call, Karissa asks candidates what they are looking for in a position and career. After some consideration, Karissa pitched opportunities with two different clients for the candidate based on what the candidate's skill set looked like and what the client was looking for.

While on the phone, Karissa talked about the candidate's portfolio and made recommendations for some resume edits. They ended the call by setting expectations on interview timelines, walking through what it's like working with Synergis, and explaining what the steps would be moving forward.

3:20 PM:

Not long after that was completed, a client from earlier in the day responded with potential interview times for a  few prospective candidates. Karissa confirmed interviews for two of the candidates, sent prep emails, and documented the details in the ATS.

At around 3:45 PM, Karissa followed up with two consultants to document the hours that they worked last week. Consultants are people who are working on a contract basis through Synergis, that a recruiter, like Karissa, has placed. Once this was completed, Karissa went back to working on sourcing for the urgent role that had been identified earlier that afternoon - sending emails and scheduling calls for tomorrow.

4:30 PM:

At this point in the day it was time for Karissa to go home. Her commute home was usually 30-45 minutes. On that day it was about 50 minutes. To pass the time, she called her parents on the way home.

5:20 PM:

Once home, Karissa let her dog out and followed up on a few emails to get calls scheduled for tomorrow. Once these were confirmed, she logged back in to complete a write up and submittal of the candidate whose resume she had just received, and completed the required documentation in ATS.

10:10 PM:

Sometimes Karissa has to sit on a late supplier call (to qualify a role with a manager) or make an evening call with a potential candidate who isn’t available during the day. She added that frequently she will juggle work tasks while also doing household chores like washing dishes, cooking dinner, or feeding her cat and dog. Karissa usually checks emails and responds to important work things until about 6:30 or 7:00 PM, and then officially closes her laptop.

After this point, Karissa enjoys spending time watching TV with her husband or reading a book. The day after this interview she had the chance to work from home so as the evening wrapped up she took time to set up her computer, headset, mouse, and keyboard in her home office. Karissa did one final check of her email around 9:00 or 9:30 PM to respond to anything urgent. Then, after completing her nightly bedtime routine, she read in bed for 30 minutes to an hour.

9:15 AM:

Jason dropped off his bag, turned on his laptop and hit the floor for his routine walk through the office and plant. He said, "good morning," to each employee and checked for any urgent requests or questions that required immediate assistance. Recent software changes were the priority of the team, so problem solving, retraining, and redefining roles and responsibilities needed to occur as a result.

Jason lives in his role through a genuine and consistent leadership style. While walking the floor each morning, he nourishes the relationships he has built with each one of his team members. He inquires about families, each employee's well-being and how he can provide support to the various departments. Jason describes leadership to be comparable to, "tending to a garden or a plant." He continues to explain, "you cannot take the sum of all of the water a plant needs and throw it on every 6 months or so... you have to ration it and water it daily." The scale of a leader's actions matters less than the repetition of behaviors.

10:00 AM:

Jason called his sales manager and each plant manager at Buckley's other three facilities to casually converse, check for urgent requests or questions and to hear a general update of what their day/week looked like.

The plant managers oversee operations, personnel and health and safety of their respective plant. Jason boasts about these particular managers complementing their loyalty, work ethic, character and vision to be unrivaled. He views his relationships with his plant managers to revolve around providing service as opposed to management. During their frequent calls, Jason checks for operational challenges such as a truck needing service or any equipment issues. He also inquires about personnel details including the health and home-life of the employees and how assistance can be provided to address any concerns. One of Jason's largest efforts during his calls with the plant managers is to, "roll them into the folds of the overall corporate body." With quite a distance between the four plants, Jason extends efforts to ensure the other plants understand their value as an integral component of Buckley's overarching vision.

11:00 AM:

Jason opened his emails for the first time of the day and started to delegate, clean out and work through his inbox. 

Jason’s Executive Assistant, Jill, was introduced to him through some contacts in the local school district and he has admired her performance in the role from the start of her first day. Jason has recognized his habit of saying, "yes," to more things that can efficiently fit on his plate on a given day. In efforts to spike his productivity and control more of his time, he relies on Jill to be the gatekeeper of this calendar. She checks his emails for urgent requests, corresponds to customers and organizes meticulously to maintain an order to the chaos—allotting scheduled time to certain tasks removes the demand.

Before this, Jason would reply to emails as soon as messages would populate, keeping him attached to his devices and fulfilling other's availability expectations at a moment's notice. Since readjusting, he has improved his productivity and gained an ability to be fully present in his day.

Jason has both hands in any situation regarding personnel and delegates other prudent tasks to be handled by a respective manager. Not only does this allow Jason to remain focused, but it gives his managers opportunities to learn and evolve in their roles through experience.

11:30 AM:

Jason sat down for his lunch. 

He normally eats a quick lunch early in the day to avoid lines and because after a vigorous morning... he's hungry! Occasionally, Jason will eat lunch with one of the other executives or one of his managers but most often, he utilizes his lunch period for projects or personal development. He spends this time reading, watching TED Talks, or thinking through any current strategic projects/initiatives.

12:00 PM:

Jason sits on the Board of the National Association of Chemical Distributors and had a call with one of his contacts to discuss the new Sustainability Task Force, where he serves as Chairman.

The mission of the Sustainability Task Force is to improve the industry under the framework of people, planet, profit and progress. The Sustainability Task Force is focused on finding ways to become better stewards of their products and to the community as a whole while committing to constantly assessing where the chemical industry is and where it needs to be going.

To collect data and assess the current state of membership companies, the National Association of Chemical Distributors sends a survey for managers to report on the particular company's efforts of sustainability. Topics here include evaluating idle time of a fleet of trucks that affects emission gasses, community involvement and education initiatives. Jason and his contact dove into these survey results. Afterward, the two discussed Jason's upcoming presentation to the National Board in Park City, UT, during February 2020 and about a March 2020 workshop located in Long Beach, CA that Jason will be speaking in.

The scheduling of vendor, customer and miscellaneous calls between 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM is another intentional strategy of Jason's, aligning with his ultimate motive of maximizing his time and the efficiency of his day. Other calls he takes during this time include unannounced and casual check-ins or handlings a specific customer issue.

1:30 PM:

Jason took a call with the Midlothian Independent School District to discuss a meeting that he was unable to attend the day prior.

Jason serves as Community Co-Chair of the INCubator EDU Program. INCubator is an entrepreneurial curriculum that the school district will roll out in the second half of 2020. Jason's role is to help the district tie the entrepreneurial program in with the business community and to help design the workspace to best serve the students in the program. With an innate passion for both children and business, this project was a seamless fit after Jason asked the school district for initiatives he could become involved in.

2:00 PM:

Jason walked the floor and plant for the 2nd time of the day.

His goal is to walk the facility two to three times a day to check in with everyone; first thing in the morning, once in the early afternoon and once at the very end of the day. Jason doesn't believe effective management evolves from staying tucked away in the office all day. His walks are important to represent his leadership values and management approach.

Jason tries to reach as many of his people as possible and ends every interaction with a question of, "is there anything I can do to help you right now?”

At Buckley, there is an executive committee of four:

1. 1. Chairman
   2. President
   3. CFO
   4.  Executive Vice President (that's Jason)

 

The committee meets every Thursday for about two hours to discuss challenges, operations, new initiatives, personnel and financials. Decisions are made during this weekly meeting to set a framework for the committee and to remain aligned in vision.

Success can be evaluated by lead and lag measures. Lead measures correspond to behaviors while lag measures focus on metrics and finances. Jason is focused on lead measures to analyzes his success in his role at Buckley, as he believes lag results are byproducts of behaviors. 

2:30 PM:

Jason spent 30 minutes going back through his inbox to answer, delegate and clean out his inbox once more.

3:00 PM:

Jason spent an hour and a half making sales calls by phone to current or prospective customers. To compartmentalize his time, he will alternate between the two and focus only on one each day.

A previous mentor told Jason,

"A good leader has to keep their hands dirty."

Jason believes a leader needs to be willing to get in the trenches of their department and stay up to speed on the challenges and opportunities their team faces daily. He showcases this by spending time making cold calls in search of new opportunities for Buckley or by reaching out to existing customers. Priming his calls to prospective customers is ample research of the company. Jason will visit the website, check on LinkedIn for shared connections and scan relevant articles to support the purpose behind his call and better his chances of landing a new account.

Jason also spends 1-2 days a week in the field, making in-person calls or attending customer meetings and 2-4 days a month at Buckley's other facilities to spend time working with the operation's teams.

4:15 PM:

Before leaving for the day, Jason walked the office and plant one last time to say goodbye and to check in with each department including sales, logistics and accounting.

Jason builds and harvests relationships with departments that report to him and ones that don't! He does this knowing that partnerships across the entirety of a brand are incredibly valuable from a big-picture perspective of the health of the company.

Buckley's employees work the typical 8-5 workday and Jason takes it as a testament to the efficiency of the company that everyone can leave on time. He firmly believes that if employees cannot accomplish their responsibilities in a reasonable amount of time and during reasonable hours of the day, there is a poorly designed system in place that needs to be reevaluated.

"Leaders need to protect their employee's life outside of work!"    

4:45 PM:

Jason sorted through his emails for the last time and created a to-do list for the next day. 

Jill sends Jason any relevant calendar invites for him to add to his list, along with an overview of the following day to outline things to focus on. He also includes any self-reflective moments of hindsight to highlight individual opportunities and maintain accountability for his own personal development. 

Jason is diligent about leaving the office on time. He is in his truck and headed home by 5:15 PM at the latest. His day is a full marathon, with a wife and kids at home deserving of the same attention he provides to his career. 

5:30 PM:

Jason returned home from work and before anything else, spent ten minutes greeting his wife and kids. After that, he changed into workout clothes. The outfit swap helps him transition from a work mindset to one of a husband and dad. 

6:00 PM:

Jason and his family ate dinner together, as they do every night. He made the most out of this opportunity and dove into the details of everyone else’s day.

Jason's family plays a huge role in his career and his life. He and his wife are blessed with three, beautiful children; a seven-year-old son, a four-year-old son and a ten-month-old daughter. Jason is equally as intentional with his time spent at home, as he is in the office.

6:30 PM:

Jason relaxed with his kids while his wife ventured upstairs to ride their Peloton for her evening workout. Jason helped with homework, read with the boys, played with his daughter and performed all nightly activities (baths, brushing teeth, etc.)

7:30 PM:

Jason's wife put their daughter down for the night, while he tucked in the boys. After that, he went for another workout. He alters between lifting weights, riding the Peloton and rowing.

8:30 PM:

Jason took a shower and prepared his clothes for the next day. He and his wife drank a glass of wine and watched a TV show together to wind down.

Their frequented TV shows consist of a hockey game, which Jason promises his wife loves, a cooking show or a documentary.

 

10:00 PM:

Jason and his wife got ready for bed spent the next 30 minutes reading before they went to sleep.

Another book Jason is currently invested in, is Bob Iger’s Bio, The Ride of a Lifetime.

10:45 PM:

9:00 AM:

Melanie started the day by checking her calendar and email to see what was scheduled. On her agenda this day was training with a new colleague followed by an interview with another potential candidate to join her group.

Melanie received an exciting email from one of her clients expressing serious interest in a candidate she sourced for a role at a video game developing company for a Finance Management opportunity. The company was in the process of scheduling a final interview and trusting that all went well—an offer would follow.

Although eager, Melanie has learned through experience to postpone excitement until the end of the deal. She explains nothing to be over in recruiting until the hire's first day! Melanie relates recruiting to "carrying an egg in a spoon and walking over broken glass to get a deal to go through." In other words, recruiting is a delicate process needing careful handling. The many moving parts come with the industry and in order to remain steady, embracing the unknown is a crucial component to the role. 

She finally got the interview scheduled after a few back-and-forth emails between the client and candidate, which allowed her to move forward with other tasks.

9:30 AM:

Melanie spent the rest of the morning sourcing.

Matchmaking the perfect candidate to a respective job, or sourcing, is a huge part of the recruiting process and can fluctuate as business peaks. On this day, Melanie was sourcing candidates for a heavy 15 jobs. The lowest she will balance during one time is five with 15 being the max. To source effectively, Melanie sorts through current candidates she has already connected with while also scanning sites like LinkedIn. After viewing a fitting candidate, she will send a message, asking the individual if they are open to new opportunities.  

Melanie's approach here is important to intrigue the candidate, but overall, she is seeking a mutually-beneficial situation. Melanie is never pushy in her initial approach. Her strategy is to craft each message with information that would genuinely appeal to the candidate, while being honest about the role's location or unique details. Trying to bait a candidate on an unrealistic or accentuated first glance would end the deal short. Melanie is keen on transparent expectations and honesty with both the clients she sources for and the candidates. 

While sourcing, Melanie looks for candidates that are interested in making a move for the right fit as opposed to a hasty or short-term intention. She has connected with candidates and placed them upwards of 8 months later. The length of the partnership allows for a bond to form between her and the candidate while providing a pipeline of talent for future roles. In this process, Melanie relies on organization and OneNote to harvest and track these numerous relationships. The candidates Melanie remains in touch with usually strike her with their personality and stand out among the sea of other professionals. 

After spending the morning sourcing, Melanie reached out to roughly 500 candidates and scheduled three calls for the following day. While 500 appears to be a significant amount of individuals, Melanie explains recruiting to be a numbers game. Reaching out to just one candidate could be a win, if it's the right candidate.

12:00 PM:

Melanie attended a working lunch for the team to train, discuss best practices and bond with the new employees. In an industry that is continually evolving and saturated with competition, staying relevant through group training is crucial to succeed as one company. The team worked through collaborating success strategies and problem solving together. 

In training this day, Melanie and team focused on marketing to acquire new clients and jobs while utilizing OneNote as a tool. Melanie spoke to the team on the benefits of OneNote and a few key factors of the application. Marketing is 50% of the job and Melanie suggests cold-calling to be a vital interest and necessary skill for anyone interested in full-desk recruiting.

OneNote fits into the marketing strategy as the primary tool to organize the entire candidate tracking process. Once Melanie lands a job or finds a potential client, all of the related details are noted into the application and outlined to view throughout the life of the project.   

There are a total of 20 permanent placement recruiters sourcing for accounting and finance roles in the entire company. In the Dallas office, Melanie's group consists of three accounting and finance recruiters, including herself and one more joining soon. The group is predominantly males, while in the past, has been mostly female. Each individual balances fun energy with a  'work hard, play hard' mentality that drives their success as a team. There is no competition in the group, rather an understanding of working as one.

1:00 PM:

After the training session and working lunch, the Dallas group's potential new candidate came to the office to meet Melanie and the rest of the team as a formality to his interviewing process. This particular candidate was competitive, money-driven and a relationship-builder; all great traits to have in a recruiter although challenging to gauge someone's success until about 6 months in role. The recruiter has this time to build their pipeline and make something happen.

Melanie believes a few other traits make a successful recruiter. Some of which include being process-driven, having great time-management skills, being personable, enjoying helping people and maintaining a level head. Melanie's degree in education provided her with a significant amount, if not all, of these traits and made her journey connect from start to finish. She remains balanced while juggling and maintaining the composure of each step of the process. 

Melanie later discovered that her team will be moving forward with hiring the candidate they met and she hopes that he will be successful in the role!

2:00 PM:

Melanie made time for a workout at the gym in her building.

She values her afternoon workouts, as it gives her body the ability to move around after sitting for most of the day while simultaneously resting her brain to return to work and end the day refreshed. 

For the past several years, Melanie has been going to a CrossFit gym but has stepped away from the facility with a peak in her schedule. To compensate, Melanie has combined a bodybuilding routine that ends with a low intensity version of a CrossFit WOD (Workout of the Day). This day, Melanie worked out her arms, shoulders and upper back. She ended the workout with ten squats, ten V-ups and ten box jumps for as many sets as possible in 12 minutes.

She had a great workout and felt refreshed, fully ready to finish off the day.

3:30 PM:

This afternoon, Melanie picked up new clients and job orders. 

This is another vital, although not easy, component of the job as Melanie is responsible for finding companies who need help recruiting. Hearing “no” is common in this process, but understanding the business allows her to press on without becoming discouraged. 

One strategy Melanie implements is including a highlight of a few talented candidates that she has already connected with during the sourcing process that could spark an interest in the pitch. This strategy proved successful for Melanie on this day, as a candidate she highlighted caused an uproar of responses that she engaged with for the remainder of the afternoon. 

Melanie responded and scheduled calls with certain companies to discuss more details of what they were needing in the role.

4:30 PM:

Before she left for the day, Melanie received a call from a client that was interested in extending an offer to her candidate.

When Melanie sends candidates into a client, compensation has already been agreed upon and is typically within the client's range. This is to ensure that when an offer comes about, there are no surprises. However, unfortunately at times, the client will present an offer that is under what the candidate was originally presented. 

It is the job of the recruiter to return to the client and ask about the reasoning for the compensation difference. If the compensation is too low, Melanie will often push back on the client. On the other hand, sometimes, the candidate will come back and want more money. Melanie will then listen to the reasoning and return again to speak with the client.

Thankfully, the offer this day was a match to what the candidate had been initially presented with. Melanie called the candidate and gave him the verbal offer. He was ecstatic and promised to let Melanie know the following day. Later on, he accepted.

Although a candidate accepts verbally and even a signed offer, Melanie is not fully compensated until the candidates first day of work. This highlights again the fragility of the industry and showcases handling each process with attention and care, as Melanie does incredibly well.

5:00 PM:

Melanie left in a hurry to head to her son's band concert. She rushed home to her kids and parents, who had already arrived at her house to join the family for dinner and her son’s concert. Plans took a turn—Melanie's son left his pants at home. The family made a mad-dash back to the house, retrieved the pants from the floor and hit the road for her son's school.

11:00 PM:

Melanie returned home after the concert and took off her heels with a sigh of relief. She had a glass of wine with her parents and decided to go to bed early, anticipating another crazy, although totally different, following day. 

Melanie practices having a work-life balance by removing distractions and remaining focused in the present moment. While she is at work, she focuses on work. While she is at home with her kids, she focuses on her kids. She is intentional with her time, but is cognisant of remaining ‘on’ to be available for her candidates should something arise while she is out of the office. She has developed her own style of balance and is grateful for each component of her day.

Generally, Melanie’s evenings are seldom identical with the inevitable fluctuations that accompany teenagers. She frequently drives them to and from various places, attends a choir or band concert, soccer game, or school event. She tries to fit in time with friends, when possible. Melanie and her kids also decided to join service organizations this year and they spend a large portion of their free time volunteering at different charities. They love every minute of it!