Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign welcome to following the Gong, a podcast for Schreyer Scholars, bringing you mentoring on demand from scholar alumni. I'm your host, Shawn Goheen, and our guest today, joining us virtually from the Philly suburbs, is international digital engagement strategist Jennifer Baklini, class of 2011. Jennifer, welcome from outside of Philly.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Thanks so much, Sean. I'm really looking forward to talking with students via this podcast. So go ahead with the questions.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Awesome. I'm excited that you're on the other end of this getting the questions. So in the interest of not bearing the lead, given your background, what exactly is a digital engagement strategist relative to other communications roles?
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great question. So I, I work at FGS Global, a public affairs firm based in D.C. and New York, and hence the global. We have, I think, almost 20 offices around the world.
And digital strategy in particular is managing all of the digital content for our clients to help them hone and kind of spread their messages to targeted audiences.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, I think that'll help with this conversation, having that background. But did you think that that's what you were going to be doing when you were doing your college search or was there something else that brought you to Penn State when you were in high school looking for schools?
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Yeah. So I studied, believe it or not, print journalism is actually what is on my degree. So I have since dropped print from my resume, which is kind of funny, but I wanted to be a journalist. I've always been a really strong writer and I love writing and telling storytelling via that medium. I like that it gives you a little bit more time to pace out the story, to do the research and tell a more in depth story. And I always felt like I was a little bit more articulate in the written form, but obviously. So if you think back, and some of you are probably young enough that you don't really know the time before social media, but it was very new. When I was in college, I think his senior year of high school, I was invited to Facebook by a friend who was in college. You could only get invited with someone with a Edu email, I believe. And then Twitter kind of blew up while we were in college. It started being used to break news.
So the College of Comms at Penn State was quickly adapting to that and offering new classes to kind of understand this new medium to reach people. So again, I studied journalism. I started as a local journalist and really for different reasons have followed the and focused on the digital aspect of that and storytelling through social media websites and communicating with Relevant audiences via that avenue.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Awesome. Now before we dive too much into your career, I do want to talk about your time here at Penn State. First, let's talk about your first half at Penn State Abington. What was your experience like there?
[00:03:26] Speaker B: I loved Penn State Abington and it was only about 30, 40 minutes drive from my parents house. So I was able to live at home to start out my college experience.
Um, which might not sound appealing to everyone, but I did have a goal. I really wanted to study abroad and it gave me time to be able to work and save money.
And also I really thrived at Penn State Abington. It's a beautiful campus. Actually Amelia Earhart went there.
Not when it was Penn State, but it used to be, I believe, an all girls school. So she studied there. So there's some really cool history on campus and they've done a really good job of preserving the older buildings. And so actually my first semester, I haven't been able to brag about this in a long time, but I got a 4.0, so then was invited over time to apply for the honors College for Schreier Honors College. And I was originally in the Honors College at Penn State Abington, but it was a great experience. I loved my time there.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Awesome. And you mentioned when we were trying to doing the prelim work for this, that you were involved in the THON group at that campus, is that right?
[00:04:41] Speaker B: Yeah. So that we had a THON group also at Penn State Abington. And when I did my tour of University park campus during my senior year, I learned about THON and I thought it was so fun. Obviously a lot of people gravitate towards THON because you, you know, it's a big party and for a good cause. And so our group at Penn State Abington raised a lot of money and we had dancers. So that was really fun. Like canning in the Philly area and also going up to University park for the THON weekend to support our dancers.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: Awesome. Now you mentioned that you had somebody trying to tap you on the shoulder and say, hey, you should be applying for the Honors College. What inspired you to say yes to that? In addition to the rigors and the challenges of transitioning to University park from another campus.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I think like many of the Schreyer scholars, I think we've always been strong students. That's where we excel. And it seemed like another great opportunity to push myself to continue to work really hard and stay motivated and. And I think ultimately my goal was to demonstrate that through my resume after college. I don't know if that's everyone's reason, but to me, it felt like a way to show that I worked hard in academics and really wanted to excel and would carry that work ethic into my career.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: And obviously, the building a global perspective, the be in our mission statement really seems to have resonated with you. And you took that very seriously as a student. You mentioned you wanted to study abroad, and that factored into living at home to save up money. Can you talk about those experiences that you were able to have and the impact that they had on you?
[00:06:37] Speaker B: Yeah. So my. I studied abroad this second semester of my sophomore year in Florence, Italy, and that was a really transformative experience. I had never been out of the country before that experience. So it was pretty drastic to go from living at home, not even living away at college, but right to living in Florence, Italy. So that was like a movie moment. You could probably make a movie about that.
And what really surprised me or it really opens my eyes to how many different ways there are to live life. And that was very freeing to me. And I wanted to experience more colleges or more cultures. Excuse me. And so when I came back and went up to University Park, I found out about the Shrier Service Project, the International Service Project. So at the time, there was a group of students going every summer to volunteer at Hoina, an orphanage in southern India. So I applied for that experience.
I have always been into yoga, and I wanted to go to India. It might sound very silly, but at the time it was a good draw. And obviously we had a really great experience connecting and bonding with the. The kids there. And it was really impactful experience to be able to help them out that summer. And then after that, the College of Comms offered an international reporting class trip that you also had to apply for. And we, at the time, it was, I believe, the year after the World cup was held in South Africa for soccer, football. And we went to Cape Town, South Africa, for about 10 days and did on the ground reporting that. We then came back and produced our story. And that was a really impactful experience as well. So I was able to study abroad three times while at Penn State.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: That is incredible. And the times that you were here on campus, you and I were chatting before we hit record. And you mentioned that you had some interesting experiences working on campus nearby to the home of what's now the Bellisario College of Communications up at the Pattie and Paterno Libraries.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: Yeah, so I worked in the cafe. And Sean, you can tell me if it's still there. There is a coffee shop in the back of the library.
And I worked maybe three or four shifts a week while at Penn State at University Park. And it was really fun, actually, because a lot of my professors would come into that cafe and so it was just always interesting, like serving them coffee and getting to see them before they, you know, they caffeinated up, before dealing with students. So that was a really great experience. I also was a Penn State lifeguard, which we lifeguarded at the Willard Building and at the nat. And believe it or not, there are lifeguards that lifeguard for the swim team. And so I swam growing up, so that was kind of fun to see the swimmers. But also the swimmers are like, why are there lifeguards here? But there are lifeguards at the Olympics as well?
[00:09:54] Speaker A: Well, there's this little thing called risk management. I'm sure that probably dictates that you have to have lifeguards at all the pools here on campus, even if they are swimmers.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. I mean, they. Yeah, they are doing more intense things too. So they need us.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: Exactly. You know that it totally makes sense now. And there is. There is still a cafe. It is a very large Starbucks branded cafe. Now I'm sure our scholars are well familiar with that. That's where the Adams family mural, I think is right by there as well. So go check that out next time.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: Wow, Starbucks. That's impressive.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: Oh, yes. It's all about the licensing, right?
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Y.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: So, Jennifer, you could argue that there are like two key components to what you do in all of your work and what I do, at least with this podcast. And there's like a science, there's tech data and then there's the art, there's story, there's style, etc. How did you begin learning both sides of this craft as a student?
[00:11:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that was a pivotal moment for me, especially at first. The advent of social media was really how do we tell a story on social media? So creating videos, podcasts were also really popular and still are. And also breaking news on Twitter, for example. Really understanding that beast and how to make sure that. That your source was properly vetted before you break any wild news were a lot of the key messages when I was in college. But then in some of my first jobs, it started to transition to demonstrating the impact. So it was more than just getting the message out, getting a bunch of likes on your post.
And people really started to develop within the industry tools to measure the effectiveness of your social media or your website, which is probably also really interesting to students these days that these tools didn't really exist at first. So it was a really exciting period in my 20s when they were developing all of these tools. But it was also a challenge for me because obviously I specialized in comms and I had been a good student in math classes, you know, up until college, and I had a few at the beginning of my Penn State experience. But it really became important to understand the analytical side of communications and being able to produce reports for your clients or for your organization on how effective the messages that you were producing were.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: Awesome.
And then speaking of things that you had to produce, obviously you had your honors thesis. Can you talk about that experience and especially any lasting influence that it's had on your career so far?
[00:12:53] Speaker B: Yeah, so I. My honors thesis was on female war correspondence in Iraq and Afghanistan. So during college I wanted to be an international correspondent. That's not exactly what I'm doing now, but later I'll draw out some of the similarities so it all kind of works out.
But I was drawn to that and I was really impressed specifically by war correspondence.
And like, I just seemed like a very scary thing to do, to be honest. And I wanted to understand what motivated them, what it was like for them, because a lot of these journalists are embedded with the troops, which at the time was predominantly male. They're, you know, they're in with infantry, really dangerous situations out in the field in Iraq and Afghanistan. So it was really interesting to interview them. And surprisingly, a lot of like top tier journalists did respond to me, whether it was over email, if that was the best thing for them to, you know, make time to do.
But I think that project influenced my career today because it, it opened up my eyes. Well, I learned a little bit about a very unique kind of phenomenon and time in journalism with these journalists embedding with troops with U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. But also kind of gave me the courage to continue to pursue journalism and communications during a time of uncertainty in the field as it really shifted with social media and digital engagement.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: Yeah, Jennifer, I want to talk more about that flux and that shift. You and I actually got our medals on the same day at the same ceremony, and that was certainly that shifting period. So how did you go about, you know, you get your medal, graduate, you're a Penn State alum, How did you go about finding your first role at full time job after undergrad?
[00:14:55] Speaker B: So that was really difficult. I'll be completely honest. It took me nine months to get a job in my field and it was really difficult for me to process that just how. How difficult it was to get a job. So, you know, you work so hard in college, and I did. I had multiple internships, one in Washington, D.C. i did some writing on campus as well, and also at a local paper, but there just weren't that many jobs. And so, yeah, it did take me a bit. And I ended up getting a job ultimately through the local paper that I had interned for the summer between sophomore and junior year. So the editor and I kept in touch. He was an important mentor to me, Frank Quattrone, and he actually is a teacher at Penn State Abington, or was a teacher at Penn State Abington as well. So he let me know that there was an opening and I applied. And of course, a lot of the staff knew me, that the editor for that paper knew me as well.
And that's ultimately how I got my first job. And it was at a weekly newspaper. So I was covering wild things like school board meetings, which actually, the first day. My first day was a school board that was very dysfunctional, and it really was very wild. Like, there was this big fight. They ended the meeting, and I was like, what just happened? I don't know what to write, but it was. It was really fun. I got some fun assignments as well, because we're in the Philly area. I covered the Philly Folk Fest, and I brought my dad along, and he helped me interview people that were tailgating. So it was a very fun experience to get to know my local community better.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: As a side note there, I love the fact that people in Philly will tailgate, even a folk festival.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Yes, there was some wild parties going on, which I did not expect.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. So for students who are going in, you know, first, for the ones who are maybe having a tough time with job search, what. What advice would you give them? Like, what. How did you mentally get through that? You know, because there are some students who will get jobs before they graduate and then others who have experiences similar to you. What would you say to them?
[00:17:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I. I know it's difficult, and I think it's important to acknowledge that it can be difficult because, of course, you know, we do everything we can to set ourselves up for success. I was applying before I graduated. I was pretty focused, too. I know sometimes students don't know what they want to do, which is. That's kind of another conversation, but relates to the point I want to make.
But I have noticed I did end up getting a job, that first job in my field. But later career moves I deviated. I moved from journalism to more digital roles, and now ultimately I work for a public relations firm. But I think it's important to keep an open mind. So if a job interests you and you have, you know, some of the basic qualifications, because the entry level jobs, they are really looking to shape you and they're open to that. If you can demonstrate, you know, that you're a hard worker and you have some skill sets, some related skill sets, that that entry level job is a real opportunity to kind of grow and learn from your elders or older colleagues. And I think just keeping an open mind and really applying to anything that interests you. Even if it feels like I work so hard, I wanted to be a journalist. But if something sounds cool to you, there's no, there's no reason you shouldn't apply to something that might be a little different. And you never know kind of where that will take you.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: Absolutely. And Jennifer, for the students, once they do secure that job, especially for those in something like what you're doing now or the roles that you had with your local papers, what advice would you give to those students to make the most of those opportunities and be successful early in their career?
[00:19:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I. I still feel really strongly people value hard workers. That's really gotten me pretty far in my career.
And it might. I don't know if it sounds weird to say, but I think if you, you know, continue to work hard and be in communication with your boss or other colleagues, like mentoring within your company, wherever you do get that first job, and continuing to take advantage of connecting with Schreyer alumni or others within your network, Penn State alumni, and other connections that you might have to continue to kind of keep your network broad because especially at the beginning of your career, it's okay to jump around a little bit to kind of feel things out.
And you're able to sometimes make bigger salary bumps or get bigger salary bumps, like get a higher position by moving around. So I think it is really important to just continue to network and ask questions about what people do, because you might not by their title, really know what it is. So I think that's always been really helpful to me, just getting a coffee with someone who I think has a cool job. So I want to know, you know, what do you do on a daily basis and like, what. What are you most passionate about? Do you like your job? I think just continuing to ask questions and keep an open mind about different roles will help open other doors and other opportunities for you.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: Asking questions is usually almost always A good thing, right? So a question I have for you, Jennifer. After a few years on the beat, you, in typical scholar fashion, pivoted from one type of a role to. To another. You went into more of a comms kind of role from the journalism role. Why did you make that change? Walk us through your mindset and your headspace in making that decision.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: Yeah, so it's actually really interesting, I think, because I think people can get discouraged when you're submitting a bunch of resident resumes online, applying online. You know, a lot of people are applying, but I actually did apply for the Institute of International Education role, which was basically, I moved from my hometown to New York City, and that was a social media program officer role. So I kind of followed at the newspaper. I became the social media editor. They called it Community Engagement Editor. So I followed that skill set and applied for this role with the Fulbright Program, which some of you might know, and I'm happy to talk more with you about that if anyone reaches out to me on LinkedIn. Because the Fulbright program is a great scholarship fellowship to apply to when you're graduating from Schreyer, and because you have that thesis experience from Penn State, you're going to be a really strong applicant. So you can either teach English abroad for a year after graduating from your undergrad or pursue a research project. So I ended up applying for that role, and they were actually looking for someone with a local perspective because Fulbright has always been very prestigious. It's a scholarship, a fully funded scholarship from the US Department of State. But they were having a hard time really broadening the reach of the scholarship to more local communities, like outside of the major cities, outside of the East Coast, west coast, and wanted to encourage people to apply for this because the Fulbright Program is for everyone. And I think sometimes people would, you know, self select themselves out of the process. So I happened to have exactly what they were looking for, social media, local journalism perspective, and got a random email about 3 months after I applied, just applied online and ended up having an interview on the phone on Zoom. I don't know if Zoom was around, maybe Skype video, and then went to New York for an interview. So it was very exciting and everyone was a little bit in shock because all of a sudden I was moving to New York City. So really the thread makes sense. In my head, it's not a journalism role, but it was building off of my passion for international affairs, which I started to develop at Penn State, and then the social media experience.
[00:23:50] Speaker A: So, Jennifer, as you go into these social media Roles, something I noticed on your resume, it is just packed with data points and you talked earlier about making sure you demonstrate the impact. Right. What strategies do you use to ensure that first you're making that impact, but then also making sure that you're tracking how you demonstrate it?
[00:24:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a really good question. And that's something. Building those data points into my resume was something that I got actually out of my MBA and working with the career advisors at George Washington University.
Because you know, you can always say like I did this. I was in charge of managing the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter threads, TikTok, whatever. But like how, but if someone reads that, okay, yeah, you know how to do it. But what did you achieve? So I, I personally keep like a Google sheet of when I have a win at work or it is a little bit easier in my role because we produce monthly digital reports for the client. So I can kind of look back at like specific numbers. But if there's something related to your role that has a quantitative aspect that you can really show the impact and obviously it's the highlights. So the biggest, you know, the biggest client you worked on and how much revenue you brought into the firm or you know, you achieved a project in four months that was supposed to take eight months for your client or for your company.
Just kind of keeping track of the wins and also always saving. This is something I recently started doing. But any kudos that you get, especially in writing, is always beneficial if you want to get a promotion or even, you know, for your resume. I think I have a separate folder in my outlook just to say to save some of that, like great job on this. Just simple stuff like that can actually be really important because you have proof and not everyone sees every email.
So that's a good practice as well.
[00:25:53] Speaker A: Not to mention it can definitely be a nice pick me up when you're having a rough day.
[00:25:56] Speaker B: Right, True, very true. Let's go to the kudos folder.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: Absolutely. Make sure you print those too because if you leave at work you lose those email accounts or save it to your, to your personal Google or something.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good, good point.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: So Jennifer, in looking at your resume, you've strategized and ran social for first newspapers and then the Fulbright is a nonprofit. You currently work for a for profit company and in between you were at the State Department for a little bit. What is similar across these types of employers for someone in your field? And then where are there like nuances or stark differences that students should be aware of as they look for the best types of fits.
[00:26:43] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's a good question. I think, similarly, across all of those different roles, storytelling has been the common thread, because in all communications, even though I have worked primarily over the past 10 years with government clients, so the Fulbright scholarship, even though, you know, we're working with younger students, professionals, is a State Department program. So there's a lot of sensitivity or nuance in terms of speaking on behalf of the US Government, but you can have a lot of fun with government clients. I will say, you know, you kind of figure out where the line is and brainstorm, Follow the social media trends. Especially these days with everything happening with TikTok, you know, there's. There's sometimes, or there's often a conversation that's trending that you want to try to creatively think of how your brand can hop into that conversation in a way that makes sense for your brand.
So I think good storytelling, which is definitely something that you can learn how to do at Penn State, is really important and continuing to think about what's going to connect with the target audiences for your brand or your organization.
You know, I talked about the analytical aspect, and that's been something that's been emerging and getting more and more complex, but I do think it still ultimately comes back to good storytelling and effective storytelling.
And I think the other question was the difference between different industries.
I don't know why that. That question's a little bit harder for me, but I think maybe the question is, before you take a role, you kind of think about, are you okay with existing in the world in this capacity? I don't know if that makes sense, but, like, if you feel really strongly about working for a nonprofit, you know, and the mission of the nonprofit, I think that's a really good reason to take a role with that organization.
And the.
Yeah, I think, you know, there's different aspects that I've had. Working for the U.S. department of State was really exciting. My husband's Lebanese, so I travel abroad often. So it's really interesting to get into conversations with people outside of the US about that role and working with the US Government.
And I guess there has been similarities in all of these roles for me, even though they were completely different organizations. So I always kind of just make sure that I feel passionate or strongly about the mission and the overall, like, substance of what we're communicating on behalf of clients or organizations. And I've always sort of felt that way.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: That is really important, no matter what field you're going into. Is Making sure that your values align with what your employer does and says so. Excellent point there, Jennifer. Now, in your current role, you are leading a team rather than being an individual contributor. How did you adjust to that role? When you're in a creative field like social media and digital engagement, where there is that inclination to like do but sometimes you just need to delegate.
[00:30:19] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good, a good question. And I think the way that I tackle that.
So social media is something that everyone thinks they understand and that's not true, I think is what I want to say. So you often get sort of edicts from upper management clients, people you're working with about things that they want to happen that might not be possible or might not make sense in the digital space or especially on social media. So what I do, because that was kind of a conflict point for me or pain point for me and my roles as a content producer is I like to, I feel strongly about staying on top of all of the trends, letting my team also educate me because they're more, even more social media savvy than me. Obviously they're younger, they grew up with social media, they've studied it in school, which we just touched it when I was in school.
So I'm constantly asking them questions like, wait, what are you talking about? Can you explain that to me to make sure that I am not telling them to do something a certain way that really makes no sense. I feel really strongly about that. And then we have weekly check ins. So our team is, we are content producers for our clients. So we come up with everything from the creative idea down to writing storyboards for videos that we'll share on social media, drafting copy helping give outlines for graphics that we're going to share on social media, writing website stories and press releases, all of that kind of stuff. So, but again, you can do that in a very dry way or you can have fun with it. So each week we have a longer meeting that's not going to be bookended by other important meetings where we can brainstorm and we look ahead at our editorial calendar and you know, really just no idea is a bad idea at that stage. We kind of think like, oh, how can we cover that event in a fun way? Like this government meeting between two countries. Like how can we make this interesting? Who can we interview?
Is, can we have fun with this? Or is this one of the more serious meetings that it's just going to be a tweet, it's going to be a press release? Like, let's not get too Crazy. So I think transitioning into just embracing, continuing to have my content producer hat on and learning from my team and brainstorming together, I think keeps the role fun and helps us, you know, have a strong bond and like tackling what we're doing for the clients.
[00:33:08] Speaker A: Excellent. I love that you really bring your team into it and recognize the strength of having employees that are younger than you who can bring that expertise. I know I'm always looking to the students at this point in my career, like, can you explain what is this? Can you explain this? And trying to keep on top of that because I'm slowly aging out of being relevant.
[00:33:27] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's our challenge.
[00:33:30] Speaker A: Exactly. And, and so in that same vein, you know, how, how do you balance, like the business needs, the art, the science in all of that because like, you know, kind of digging a little bit deeper. You work for government clients typically and I think there's probably the inclination might be for the client to be like, I want this very stodgy professional thing. How do you convince clients to be a little bit more edgy or get closer to that line that you talked about?
You know, not everybody can be like a duolingo, I think has a reputation for being like wild, they're social, or even the National Park Service, which is a pretty comical one. Even in their safety announcements.
[00:34:16] Speaker B: Oh yeah, they're really fun.
[00:34:18] Speaker A: So not, not everybody can be quite that. But how do you work with your clients to educate them on what is, you know, can be a fun space?
[00:34:28] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a really good question.
Yeah, I think I'll start with client management aspect of my role. So I, as director, I work really closely. I have a client facing role. So in addition to working with my team on creative ideas and producing content, I manage our relationship with the client and that is really important to client work, consulting work, public affairs work, to understand what is most important to her and to, you know, her bosses. So we have frequent check ins and to ensure that the things that we're pitching to her also make sense with her priorities as well. So I think staying in close contact with your client and understanding, you know, what, what's most important to them, what are their bosses asking them to do is, is really important. So then we figure out what those priorities are and then again, kind of assess where we can have a little bit more fun. So for example, I work with the UAE embassy and they have a really strong space program that they're working really closely with NASA and US government partners on. So obviously if anyone's looked at NASA's social media. They have a lot of fun.
So we kind of follow what they're doing. We don't want to do the same thing. That's always a difficult thing with social media because you're like, oh, that's so cool. I want to do that. But you think of ways you don't want to be a copycat. But space is an area that we've been able to have a bit more fun. So last summer, we worked with the embassy to host a call from space, which is very cool. So there was an Emirati astronaut at the International Space Station with American astronauts. So the two of them, like, beamed down, I want to say. But they did a video call with us, and the ambassador from the UAE to the US is close friends with Steve Harvey. So Steve Harvey actually emceed the event. It was really fun. The astronauts did flips, like, it was social media gold for us. So we had a lot of fun with that. So you just kind of figure out, like. And of course, that still demonstrated the partnership with the US Government, how the UAE and the US are working closely to advance space sciences. So you just kind of think about.
Yeah. Where you can, like, push it a little bit more and have a little bit more fun. And luckily, space is one of the public diplomacy priorities, so we had a lot of fun with that.
[00:37:05] Speaker A: Awesome. And how do you work with your business development folks on getting new clients in or, you know, deciding do you have the resources to support more clients as your firm presumably would want to grow their revenues?
[00:37:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that a lot of the new clients that have been brought in, often there's a relationship that's built. So as we are getting more senior in our careers, the more senior partners, managing directors, directors have relationships with people in the D.C. area or in other ways through other client work or just the way that they're engaging with the community.
And so often it is through relationships. So we'll get contacted or someone might hear.
Maybe they go out to dinner or coffee with someone else and hear like, oh, their company is looking for this service. Like, we can do that. So it's kind of a constant thing that it sounds very all consuming, but I think everyone just always has their ear out for an opportunity. And a lot of the clients that are brought in are through this more organic aspect. And then there also are RFPs, you know, that are some that the firm sometimes applies for to bring in new business. Those are requests for proposals. So there's also a team that's constantly kind of managing Those and then they'll ping team members throughout the organization based on their specialty to help with the proposal to apply for that new work. But there are is a lot of relationship kind of management and maintenance that also goes into bringing in new business.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: Excellent. And you just threw out a lot of the business side here. And you were previously based in D.C. and you mentioned that you got your MBA at Georgetown. You earned it there because that was right in your back. George Washington. I'm sorry, I was just too confused.
[00:39:10] Speaker B: They're similar names.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: Both good stools. Why did you commit to that endeavor on top of all the other responsibilities that you have as a professional and with your family?
[00:39:24] Speaker B: Yeah, so. Well, I think it's kind of a funny story, actually. I might just tell it because I can tell it quickly. So my husband is a US army veteran and was applying for the MBA program and went to an info session, and I had the car that day, so I offered to pick him up, but there was a gap between when I was done work and when it was over. So I just went with him to this info session and by the end, they had convinced me to apply because they had a women in business fellowship called the Forte Fellowship, which. The goal of that fellowship is to get gender parity or achieve gender parity in MBA programs. Because it is. There's a higher percentage of men that are pursuing MBAs, so they're like, you're a great candidate. You should apply. I was currently working at a nonprofit, and so that is kind of how that happened. But in order to commit, I talked to my boss and other mentors to kind of see what they thought, if it made sense with the fellowship, the financial aspect of it worked out a little bit more in my favor. Um, so that it, you know, trying to decide if it made sense for my career was what I started to have conversations with. And I. My boss at the time thought it was a great idea. He wrote me a recommendation, and I think it pushed me a lot, to be honest, because obviously there's a lot more quantitative classes in an MBA program like statistics. I can't stand statistics, so.
But I did survive the class, but I felt like that was a weakness. And with.
With all of the transition to demonstrating impact, I thought I could really learn a lot from better understanding the quantitative aspect of business and all of that. So, yeah, I took myself way out of my comfort zone, and I feel that it's really benefited my career in terms of also taking on this role after my MBA of being a manager of a team.
You Know, it really gave me the confidence to do that and make that transition from a producer to leading and managing a team.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: So how do you feel that the MBA program helped in any way? Particularly maybe that fellowship that was trying to get more women in business leadership?
[00:41:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that it really made me aware of, I want to say girl power, but I became really passionate about that. And I think what's interesting, my client, clients at the UAE embassy, people have, Americans have like certain perceptions about the Middle east. And actually most of the diplomats at the embassy are female.
So I really enjoyed getting to know the female diplomats there and help tell their story. It's a really interesting story for us to share and often surprising to Americans. So I really like that aspect of sort of the cultural awareness and helping to help people understand their culture as well.
[00:42:42] Speaker A: Little bit of myth busting in your storytelling, right?
[00:42:45] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:42:47] Speaker A: So we've talked a lot about responsibilities. You're a manager, you got your mba and it looks like you finished it right during COVID So added stress there. But.
[00:42:58] Speaker B: And I was pregnant and that's a.
[00:43:00] Speaker A: Perfect tee up because at the time of recording here, it's kind of late summer, you're on parental leave, and I know you very much wanted to discuss that. So the question I will ask you, Jennifer, how has motherhood influenced and been influenced by your career?
[00:43:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that it's influenced my career in a variety of ways. So. And I know, Sean, you're a dad, so you understand as well. But I do think it's actually made me more efficient because you're just juggling so many different responsibilities. So I think it's helped me to kind of focus. When I'm focused on work, I'm focused on work. And then I switch to a different hat of being a mom. And I think having to juggle a lot, you just, you get better at it, quite frankly.
And also I think that having. I actually had my. For my son during COVID as well. So in 2020. And my client was also expecting, so we bonded over that experience of both being pregnant at the same time.
And I think the reason I wanted to talk about it was because I was really worried about how having kids would affect my career. And I don't think people talk about that a lot.
But as soon as I started to tell people, everyone was very supportive.
And I think that sometimes you can overthink what people might think.
But it's benefited me in a variety of ways, not only from bonding more closely with my client, but also just again, being able to juggle a lot more and also share that experience and kind of help others at my firm navigate the benefits that we have around parental leave and you know, feel more confident in kind of announcing that they're expecting they're going to, you know, grow their family. And I think, you know, you can, you can have a family and have exciting career.
[00:45:14] Speaker A: Absolutely. It's almost like it's, it's weird trying to antidote to Parkinson's law where work will expand to fill the time. And if you say like, nope, I have family obligations, you know, suddenly you're far more efficient in getting that stuff done.
[00:45:31] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:45:33] Speaker A: Now, if you've been paying attention, I, at the very beginning, Jennifer, I introduced you as saying you're in the outside of Philly like so many Penn Staters, but your firm is based in D.C. where most of the embassies and related kind of companies and words are escaping me. But the places that folks in international relations do their thing.
And so obviously you're working remotely when you're not on leave. So do you have any insights for first scholars who are beginning their careers for remote work and then what about maybe alumni who are kind of at the same stage as us, you know, a little bit further into their career that you've gleaned that might be helpful?
[00:46:22] Speaker B: Yeah, so I did move here during COVID before there was a vaccine. And again, D.C. is really the best place for careers in international affairs. There's obviously all of the embassies are there and of course there's the State Department, there's the CIA. There's a lot of different roles that you could have in international perspective or experience. So I, you know, it was a difficult decision for me, but I think if people are looking and interested in working remote, I can only really speak to mid career professionals in terms of, you know, if you've demonstrated your impact at your organization. I think, you know, thinking through all of the questions that the decision makers might make or might ask you and really having strong responses to that I think is important. But if you have solidly sort of made your role and you can stay engaged remotely. I'm very social person, so a lot of my colleagues, like do we still chit chat? People call me, they message me and you know, call me for advice. And I'm talking to people. It, you know, it might seem weird, but I'm in Pennsylvania, but I'm talking to people in D.C. and New York like all day and you know, it works for me. I think that it, it's different and I Don't know if it's for everything, everyone. I mean honestly, for entry level jobs, like I do think that there is a benefit to being in person even in this day and age because you can connect with people in the cafeteria when you're grabbing coffee.
There's a lot that you can learn in person, but I don't. I think, you know, as you advance in your career there's like more opportunities to just be more flexible. Especially after Covid.
[00:48:22] Speaker A: Awesome.
Now Jennifer, it's not a surprise that as a scholar alumna that you have a lot going on. So given the stresses of working in a foreign policy with all the folks in our nation's capital and you know, you're also raising a family, your husband has his own career and side hustles, how do you seek balance and restoration in your life? And if you can frame it in a way that scholars can use now dealing with the stresses of being a scholar, but then also take with them into their careers.
[00:48:53] Speaker B: So in college what helped me is my dad told me to look at it as a full time job. So I really tried hard to consolidate the time that I was doing schoolwork till 9 to 5 or something like that, which can be difficult. But I think, I think thinking of it that way because I mean some people work well late at night, but for me that was best because if I didn't get enough sleep, I would not function the next day. Sometimes of course there's an exam or you have a paper to write and you're up late. But I really tried to just not go home and go back to bed after class. And I always made sure I had a morning class, maybe not 8am I know some of you have to take 8ams but I knew that that was not the recipe for success for me. But I would always try to have a 9:00, 9:30 class.
So I was just like out and about on campus. I'd go right to the library after and kind of hustle through the work and the reading I had to do.
So that might be helpful to some people in terms of balancing all of the things. I don't really know that I have an answer or a solution.
Schedules help me. I don't like to be too scheduled. So I don't know if that is the best answer. You know, make sure I think also at college I would never do homework on Saturdays because obviously football and having one day completely off is very good for you. So to just go with the flow. So I do try to follow that even now, you know, maybe we're doing chores and stuff on on Saturday, but Sunday we just go with the flow. We, you know, try not to be too scheduled. So I think just having that little day of freedom might be a good way to look at it and kind of keep your balance.
[00:50:48] Speaker A: Absolutely. And if you live outside of Philly, you know that Sundays are for the birds. So clearly leaving that open and available for those of you on the other side of the state, I'm sure you could make the same sentiment for your Stillers.
Now Jennifer, what kinds of questions? Because I'm no expert on this stuff, I might write this podcast, but I have no nothing to compare to what you do in your career. So I'm not an expert. What kind of questions about the topics we've discussed today should have I asked? Should I have asked or put another way, what questions do you get from your interns, your junior employees, your mentees or maybe even family and friends?
[00:51:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I think I didn't really touch exactly on what I do on a day to day basis basis. So that might be helpful to some people to better envision what a digital like director in digital might do. So. Excuse me. So you know, at my level there are a lot of meetings, so I think that's important. So you're communicating with your client team. So our, our team within our firm to make sure we're all on the same page. We all have different client contacts at our client. So we frequently have check ins to hear, you know, you know, what did so and so say what did like what's on another client's mind. And we kind of merge everything together to help prioritize what the team's working on. And then I also of course have meetings with the client, weekly meetings where we talk specifically about all of the digital projects and to DoS that are going on.
And then at my level I'm also reviewing my team's work. So we have an editorial calendar that they maintain as well as a social media monthly calendar. So they're drafting copy for the month ahead and then drafting storyboards for videos.
So it's a combination of reviewing and working directly with my team over the phone about, you know, to shape different comms products of course, in addition to the meetings as well as kind of looking and planning ahead. So I think that can sometimes be difficult to manage on a day to day basis. You're thinking about either like the fire that you have to put out or like the most immediate tasks. So I, like I mentioned earlier, I do try to set a Aside some flexible time each week to not only like connect with my team, ask them how their weekend was, talk about what, however, what everyone's, what's going on in everyone's life, as well as brainstorm. So we do try to have one of those flexible meetings every or open meetings every week, which I think is important. So I think my only other advice is I try to protect my schedule from too many meetings. So that might be helpful to some people if you can opt out. Sometimes it might be better to opt out so you can actually get your work done. So that's my other little two cents there.
[00:54:07] Speaker A: Amen to that. Jennifer.
[00:54:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:54:11] Speaker A: Now we're going to move to our reflective wrap up questions here at the back end of our conversation. This is your chance to brag. Jennifer, what would you say is your biggest success to date?
[00:54:23] Speaker B: I think my biggest success to date is my mba, which I did talk about and really passing those quantitative classes, specifically statistics, as well as being a Forte Fellow at George Washington University. And I am happy if anyone wants to reach out to me to ask about that, to answer any questions about Forte.
[00:54:48] Speaker A: Awesome. And Jennifer, what on the other hand would you say is the biggest transformational learning moment or mistake that you've made in your career? And most importantly, what you learned from that experience.
[00:54:59] Speaker B: So I actually, when I had looked at this question before, I thought about an experience actually at my commencement. So Woof Blitzer was our commencement speaker, you know, which was kind of exciting. He's a big deal. And so he actually gave his speech and I don't remember exactly what he said or what story he told, but he ended with never settle was the point that he was trying to make. And it's something that I come back to pretty frequently in terms of whether or not I want to take a big leap with my career or apply for something different or pivot. So I think about if that's really going to make me happy, then I should probably go for it.
[00:55:47] Speaker A: Excellent. I think that's really good advice. And speaking of advice, something we haven't really touched on too much in our conversation. So I'd love your thoughts here. How do you approach mentorship both as a mentor and as a mentee in a way that is helpful for our current scholars to hear.
[00:56:03] Speaker B: So I think first, I do love looking at resumes.
So Sean, it meant a lot that you mentioned my resume, you know, has a lot of data points. So that's really great at demonstrating your impact. So, you know, hopefully I won't get a flood of resumes but if anyone wants to reach out and would like me to look, I'm happy to take a look. Writing is my strong suit. So I really enjoy helping people make their bullets more concise or challenging them to kind of draw out that impact more. But also in terms of mentorship, I think a lot of times we all, and I have done this as well, self select ourselves out of opportunities.
And so I often am asking people, well, why not? I think sometimes people even stop before actually applying for a job, a fellowship, an opportunity that's just completely different. And I always say that the application doesn't commit you, first of all, so you don't have to really make all of those decisions before you even apply. You know, you can, you can still do the interview and turn it down and really don't worry about what people think. I think is important in that, in that regard.
[00:57:20] Speaker A: Excellent.
Now, are there any professors or friends from your scholar days that you want to give a shout out to?
[00:57:29] Speaker B: I had a professor in the College of Comms, Kurt Chandler, who was really impactful, very kind person, and also, you know, would get his hands dirty with us when we were working on our projects. So he actually started the multimedia journalism class at Penn State, which, like I said, was brand new. And you know, none of us really, we took pictures on our phones, but we had, you know, not a lot of video photography skills.
So he, you know, helped us really work through learning all of that stuff from like the very start. So that was a really impactful class because it really was the future of journalism. We might not have known it for sure then, but, you know, we were just trying everything and it was a true period of experimentation. And, you know, I think he let us make mistakes or, you know, not to say that he didn't grade us hard, but he let us, you know, just really give things a shot and pitch stories that, you know, anything that we were interested in. And we thought we could do a good job telling that story.
[00:58:37] Speaker A: Excellent.
Now, as we're wrapping up our time, what is a final piece of advice that you would leave with our scholars to make the most of their time at Penn State in the honors College and have a successful early career?
[00:58:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I think to summarize that is a, is a little bit difficult for me, but I did really seize every opportunity, you know, that I could, you know, and I say that with a little bit of caution because I think at times I was definitely over committed because of course, you know, you are there to take classes to learn, but, you know, just keep an eye on when you're starting to feel like maybe there's too much. But for the most part, there's so many opportunities at Penn State, especially being a Shrier Scholar, you know, from support to for internships, unpaid internships, which I think was really helpful for me in particular to study abroad opportunities to really intelligent faculty and staff that you can really learn a lot about or a lot from. So, you know, ask professors to get coffee, go to their office hours. I think sometimes people might be afraid to do that, but they really do want to talk with you and they're there to help you learn about life and of course, their expertise.
[01:00:06] Speaker A: Awesome. So how can scholars reach out to you if they want to connect with you?
[01:00:12] Speaker B: I think LinkedIn is probably the best. So I think Sean will share the link maybe in the description, but it's Jennifer Bacclini. I have my MBA listed in my title on LinkedIn, so feel welcome to reach out to me, send me a message there. I do check that pretty often.
[01:00:31] Speaker A: Awesome. And finally, if you were a flavor of Berkey Creamery ice cream, which would you be? And most importantly, why would you be that flavor?
[01:00:41] Speaker B: So the first flavor I thought of is butter pecan, which was my grandmom's favorite flavor. So that does spark my interest in it. And Sean has challenged me to connect it to my career. So I'm going to say it's a really good analogy for storytelling. So the butter aspect. So you want to make a story approachable, to seem sweet, exciting, and then the pecans are the message or sort of the nuggets that you want to convey and the impact story that you want you want to tell.
[01:01:18] Speaker A: I absolutely love that Jennifer. I think that's a really good rationale for picking a favorite flavor, but tying it into your profession with storytelling.
I want to say thank you for joining us and sharing your insights. And you won't see this in the final, but we've had a couple technical hiccups on my end. So I appreciate Jennifer, you handling that with poised just like any true journalist or comms professional. Before I let you have the last word for our scholars, if you're watching the YouTube version, make sure you like subscribe all that good stuff. You know the drill. And if you're on the audio only version, make sure you subscribe on the version that you're or whatever app you're listening to us on Spotify, Apple podcasts or similar.
And with that, Jennifer, I'd love if you could close us out here. The floor is yours.
[01:02:08] Speaker B: Thanks John, this was a lot of fun going down memory lane, but also talking about kind of where I am now. I touched on a lot of different opportunities that are open to all of you scholars. So if anyone wants to reach out about the Fulbright program. I'm not an official spokesperson anymore, but I do know a lot about it. I'm happy to talk to you about how it might benefit your career as well. As I mentioned the Forte Fellowship, but I hope that everyone is enjoying their time at Penn State, and I look forward to connecting.
