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Personally, 2022 was a great year full of personal growth and professional development. I bought my first home, moved out, did a skydive, completed a Tough Mudder, and all-in-all, I really learned to push my independence, step out of my comfort zone and grow my confidence.
When I started at the agency, my role was purely content creation focused, but as the team has evolved and the workload has increased, this has led to a natural progression to a Social Media and Content Manager. It may not have felt natural at the time, but looking back and reflecting it was perfect timing for me. What felt like a fall into the deep end was really an incredible opportunity to learn an insane amount in a short period of time.
Challenges Faced
The quick progression to a managerial role quickly brought on a new realm of challenges, especially when I started managing new staff and not just projects. I found these challenges to be a driving force in my enthusiasm to do a good job and improve. A major challenge I faced immediately, and still do now, was imposter syndrome. Every so often, I doubt my ability and my position within the business, even though there has been no significant event that has prompted this. This feeling of imposter syndrome only makes me want to do better and learn more to try and eliminate it, and my team are amazing at reassuring me that not only do others feel it, but I have no reason to.
Managing staff on top of managing clients and projects has increased my workload, and I’ve had to change my time-management strategies and processes. But, I’ve learned how to work with different people and how to identify and utilise their strengths to work more effectively and efficiently. I love being a manager; I have genuinely found an area within my career that I want to continue, no matter what specialty I end up in. I thoroughly enjoy seeing people develop and grow in their confidence to manage their own work and display independence.
Professional Achievements
One thing I’ve been immensely proud of this year is how I’ve not only solely managed three large accounts within the agency but developed strong and trusting relationships with them too. I would not have been able to do this without also learning how to train new starters and handing on clients to other people. Training new staff was a learning experience, but I have a newfound confidence and a better understanding and awareness of how to learn about people’s working habits and learning abilities. This is something I’m incredibly proud of.
Compared to a year ago, I had not even touched a Facebook ad and throughout the year, I really struggled to understand them as a whole, however, I now run multiple ad accounts confidently and I am still in shock that I can do this. Since managing the Downtown account and running their ads, the video views have hit almost half a million views and have increased by 2575%, which has also caused the link clicks to increase by 306% and the engagement rate by 99%.
If someone told me that this time last year I would’ve achieved that and everything else I’ve achieved in the past 12 months, I would’ve laughed. I have been pushed and challenged, but have had an amazing and fun time doing it and I am ready to experience it all again in 2023.
My 2023 Goals
A new year means new goals, and anyone who knows me personally knows I am the queen of setting new year's resolutions. This year's resolutions involve a lot of gym and fitness-specific goals, a 15km tough mudder, and interrailing around Italy, but I really want to continue developing in my role at Gather Social and make a lasting impact on the people I work with and the clients I work on.
Keep an eye out for more culture blogs to discover more about what we get up to as a team and how we achieve our client's goals.