By Veronica Penaloza, Media Intern
In my past semester as an intern at the agency, I’ve come to recognize that a huge topic for GSD&M’s media department is ad blocking. The following is my reflection on the topic and how we’ve created solutions that make a difference for our clients and consumers.
Ad blocking is a sensitive topic for the media world. With the rise of programmatic, DSPs (Demand Side Platform) and SSPs (Supply Side Platform), GSD&M recognized that turning off banner ads is more than a fad—it is likely to stay, and performance will be improved with time.
According to a survey by Adobe and PageFair, 28 percent of people in the U.S. browse the web using ad blockers. However, we have found that ad blockers directly affect vendor performance and is one of the reasons why partners under-deliver impressions. As such, consumers are at the forefront of today’s interconnected world and will remain so for the long term.
With this in mind, GSD&M has taken a mindful approach to the current digital trend and is moving forward with alternative options that still allow the content to reach the target consumer using a sponsor-content model, which includes native ads.
GSD&M has already had the opportunity to conduct creative and native-ad media placements with a few key clients. LeapFrog, for example, leveraged its unique children’s educational products through “influencers who believed in the brand’s message” on social media platforms. The media team drafted a native strategy that gave community mavens the freedom to create their own content while incorporating LeapFrog’s brand experience into their own personal content. The campaign outperformed initial KPIs on different social media platforms.
To further the brand’s efforts, our LeapFrog media team partnered with BuzzFeed to produce and publish the video “9 Things I’m Excited to Teach My Kids: Presented by BuzzFeed and LeapFrog.” With more than 400 comments and over 600,000 views on YouTube, the partnership succeeded in reaching an audience that might have otherwise never experienced the content.
Looking ahead into 2016, a lot of GSD&M’s media plans will include more consumer interaction and innovative organic placements as more brands express interest in joining the stream of sponsored content. With ad blocking specifically, we recognize its ability to alter the industry, and so we are rethinking how to further grow the relationships brands have with consumers.
Remaining on the vanguard and leading by example, GSD&M will continue to serve ads that organically live in the user path, adapt to publishers’ internal strategies and solve the current challenge of ad blocking. Once again, GSD&M stays ahead of the curve in the digital media space, further exemplifying our vision “Ideas that Make a Difference” into our clients’ media catalog.
By Rachel Swaldi, Account Leadership Intern
My name is Rachel Swaldi and I am an Account Leadership Intern for the Chipotle and Zales teams. CHIPOTLE AND ZALES! When a female college student is told that she gets to talk about burritos and diamond rings all day, she does not hesitate to sign up. The first time I interviewed with GSD&M, I unfortunately was rejected due to my lack of experience, but I quickly decided that wasn’t going to stop me. After getting two more internships under my belt, I came back and knocked on GSD&M’s door. And now, here I am, working for the same company that created the “Baby Back Ribs” song for Chili’s, “Always” for Walmart and “Don’t Mess With Texas.”
My advice: Do not ever give up and always be resilient.
Within my first three weeks working at GSD&M, the Chipotle team entrusted me with the opportunity to research and create a montage of competitive work that would be displayed and shown to the CMO of Chipotle. Not only was I incredibly honored, but at that moment I realized that I belonged and contributed to a fierce team of innovators and creative leaders.
Since then, my team has continued to trust me with projects and tasks that the typical coffee-run intern could never dream of. I have learned how effective time management, communication and dedication to clients can lead to radical creative work and ideas.
I have learned how to transcribe focus groups, generate informative newsletters and analyze competitive spots to make sure we always stay ahead of the curve. In fact, I am fortunate enough to continue working for GSD&M as an Account Leadership Intern in the Spring!
I am inspired daily by the community, freedom and responsibility, curiosity, integrity and restlessness of my team and how they incorporate these core values into their work each day. Specifically, my two supervisors, Cat Snyder and Jodi Bucciarelli, who work their butts off every single day of the week to create groundbreaking work for their clients. They are restless in their efforts to build revolutionary campaigns and they lean on their community at GSD&M to help bring visions to life. Most importantly, they carry out their jobs with inspiring integrity and kindness. With leaders like these, there is no doubt that GSD&M is the place to be, and I am extremely thankful to be here.
By Zinny Bonner, Communication Intern
Today is my last day as a Communication intern for GSD&M this summer. Just yesterday, we were a group of eager interns sitting in lobby waiting for Ayeshia Toy from the “People” department to walk us through orientation and all things GSD&M. Somewhere in between being issued a laptop and the scavenger hunt, and I realized this was it. This was the first day of my dream internship, and I was living it.
The environment at GSD&M is light-hearted and hard-working. I would describe it as a children’s museum if it were for adults and if it were an office. Are you seeing it? Yeah. It’s pretty cool, right? Although some days were slower or more exciting than others, I looked forward to it because I knew I would start my day stuffing my face with Sarah’s breakfast tacos, and leave for the day smiling on the inside because I got to play with an office puppy.
It’s hard to feel unwelcomed or out of place in an office as diverse as GSD&M. Diversity is the key to an advertising agency that prides itself on ideas that make a difference. Those ideas only come from the collaboration of different perspectives; at this agency everyone’s perspectives are valued—even the interns. When I asked interns in the creative, media, and HR departments what their favorite part of being an intern was this summer, everyone agreed it was the valuable experience.
Across all departments, interns weren’t considered copiers or coffee-bringers, but contributors to those difference-making ideas. I can’t recall a time where I didn’t have any work that needed to be done. From start to finish, our mentors all trusted us to complete tasks and projects with little to no supervision aside from approval of the end result. Real world experience like that can’t be fabricated on a resume; you either have it or you don’t.
I came into GSD&M knowing little about the profession I’ve been studying for the last three years, and I’m leaving just as eager to add to the knowledge I’ve gained in my short time at this hub of creativity. Thank you, GSD&M, for all of the lessons learned and memories made. I’m a little sad today, but I’m leaving smiling on the inside just as I had everyday working here.
By Mallory Massa, Account Leadership Intern
“Subway introduced it, Chipotle perfected it and pizza restaurants like Blaze are really evolving it,” says David Tristano, evp of Technomic, about the cook-to-order evolution.
New restaurant concepts have instigated an evolution from fixed foods to fix your foods, a phenomenon that personalizes our taste buds. Customization plays an essential role in build-your-own-meal establishments. While reading the article “The Power To Shape Your Experience,” I had an epiphany: everything I experienced that day was customized—the animatic record I sat in on, my Chipotle bowl for dinner and this article I found on my feedly.com filtered homepage.
Drafting a storyboard for a commercial, known as an animatic record, is like a Chipotle-catered lunch at GSD&M. Last week I had the privilege of sitting in on an animatic record at Pony Sound with a GSD&M account team. Sitting across from a daunting computer screen with a surplus of buttons, I never would have compared it to the mouthwatering buffet of ingredients at Chipotle, but the process of picking and choosing what sounds to include in a spot echoes the process of customizing a meal to my taste buds.
During the record, I learned that the writer and producer choose the sound based on the intended spot’s tang. For instance, certain commercials may consistently convey a sweet-loving flavor throughout them. On the other hand, the account managers build the spot to correspond with the client’s palate. For instance, a writer might think take C had better inflection on a word than in the previous takes. And sometimes editors might use the first sentence from take A and the second sentence from take C. This splice can easily mirror a half-chicken/half-steak order at Chipotle. It is all very personalized.
Once everything is recorded, the sound editor mashes the ingredients into a final spot. Each line piles onto the voice preceding it. While each voice is recorded separately, in the same way each topping is cooked individually, it is the combination that is ultimately served.
After the voices are placed in the order of the script, music must be chosen. Similarly, while I am not a green chile salsa fan, I always ask for a side of the Chipotle vinaigrette because it complements the rest of my concoction. However, when I am in the mood for something milder—in this case background noise—sour cream will suffice. The sound editor is the master of the finishing touches.
In the article, Carl Chang, founder of Pieology Pizzeria, concluded, “Many people like me are Food Network fans, and they love being exposed to how our food is prepared and our technique.” True. As a kid, my grandpa would take me to Krispy Kreme, and I would stand with my greasy hands plastered to the glass watching the doughnuts graze across the conveyer belt. I devoured the doughnut with a sense of pride and insisted on showing off my icing expertise at show and tell the next day. Watching how something is made empowers a person. It makes the mundane and tedious work behind the scenes a little sweeter. Fifteen years later as an intern, I plastered my hands to the recording glass while watching the evolution of an animatic record. I was mesmerized by the process as a whole.
Similarly, the article suggests “food preparation as a form of performance—in which case the sneeze guard is another screen for content.” At an animatic record, GSD&M uses employees to record the lines. Thus, animatic preparation is a form of performance—in which case the recording glass is a screen for voices. More so, intern preparation is a form of performance—in which case exposing us is a screen for potential employment.
To take this one step further, which may be exhausting my analogy too much—my apologies—as interns at GSD&M, we have “the power to shape OUR experience here.” Fill in the blanks. “Our universities introduced us, GSD&M perfected it, and we are evolving it.” I am looking forward to a great summer.
By Kelsey Karst, Studio Art and Design Intern
As the Cannes Lions Festival kicks off this week, marketers and agencies across the globe are anxiously awaiting to discover who will take home the 2015 awards across the Health, Lions and Innovation tracks. “The Cannes Lions will recognize and award the year’s most exciting creative ideas across 20 categories, covering everything from traditional print and film communications to technology and product design,” according to canneslions.com. Ideas and brands will be recognized and celebrated, in addition to introducing new creative ideas for the upcoming year.
This year, the spotlight is on Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snapchat. Today at Cannes, Spiegel introduced what could become the most efficient, influential and useful media platform. Spiegel took the main stage to discuss his plan to open his company up to marketers, which is predicted by many to take the advertising world by storm. Discover partner and Cosmopolitan Editor in Chief Joanna Coles interviewed Spiegel onstage earlier this afternoon about creativity, millennials and what he thinks will excite this generation next.
Spiegel went into detail on the creation of Snapchat: four years ago in a college dorm room at Stanford with a few of his fraternity brothers. He goes on to discuss how “Snapchat is trying to incorporate relevant advertising without being creepily targeted in the messaging.” He touches on the importance of retaining the anonymity and privacy of users while still providing the tools advertisers need to be effective. Spiegel discussed that brands now have the ability to sponsor videos, location-based filters that viewers use when they are within a certain geographic area. He also highlighted the newest advertiser taking part, which is Procter and Gamble, who sponsored Snapchat’s Father’s Day story live-stream. A lot of today’s crowd was just getting introduced to Snapchat, but this talk left both Spiegel and the audience confident in the progression of this app and what it will do for the advertising world, according to Garett Sloane of Adweek.
What is especially worth noting is that, even just a couple of years ago, Snapchat would never have been deemed credible enough to be featured at Cannes. The brand’s evolution is extraordinary. What started as a peer-to-peer-image-sending app soon grew to incorporate video, location and visual graphics. Snapchat then went on to tackle texting by adding a messaging platform. Most recently, Snapchat added the “discover” button to keep its users up to date on news and current events through select media partners like Comedy Central, ESPN, Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan and VICE. In just four short years, Snapchat essentially has it all. It has the ability to take market share away from WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and even Twitter—which is what makes it so appealing to advertisers. It is not a once-a-day use application, it is a 20-per-day use application; this user frequency is advertising gold.
Brands can replicate this style of user behavior to better engage with the Snapchat community. Brands could essentially take more risks in their advertisements if they appeared on Snapchat. They could create humorous ads that could be viewed for that allotted time, and it would disappear. I also think the quick viewing of an advertisement would make it more appealing to users because it’s an interactive video that would only take 10 seconds to watch, rather than interrupting you for 30 seconds to a minute, like YouTube video ads. Because of poor planning, some advertisements come up at an inconvenient time and are too lengthy, causing viewers to be agitated rather than intrigued. If marketers played around with this idea by making the message visually appealing, humorous and/or playful for this younger audience, I think this could be a very successful outlet. Whether it’s a quick snap of a delicious Chipotle meal, or a five-second video of someone trying to shove a burrito down in one bite, it enables viewers to keep the brand top of mind.
Recently, Snapchat showed its powerful impact during ABC’s broadcast of the American Music Awards. Three million viewers tuned in, while Snapchat Live Story broadcasted snippets of the event and drew in 11.5 million viewers, according to the Adweek article, “How Snapchat’s CEO Plans to Conquer the Advertising World. His first time at Cannes, Evan Spiegel is already star of the show.” As Snapchat continues to increase its user base and expand content options, advertising is starting to become part of this platform, as introduced today by Spiegel himself. Both Spiegel and Cannes Festival attendees seem excited to see what direction Snapchat could steer advertising and ideas, if anywhere at all.
Written by Zinny Bonner
Apple announced its newest feat at taking over the world last week. Okay, not really the world, but might as well be. Improvements to Apple Pay, News Apps and their latest venture, Apple Music, proves that Apple continues to be a force to be reckoned with, not only with their ability to create a new phone every five seconds, but in fact, the leader in creating technology that influences the way we listen to music and ultimately, the way we live our lives.
Apple Music has finally jumped on the streaming train but not without adding their own touch. This new feature available to all Apple products (Android and PC later in the year) will have the entire iTunes library, the music added to your personal library, a radio with live DJs and a social media factor that connects artists and fans.
When iTunes debuted in 2003, it changed the way we listened to music and has now become so embedded in our everyday lives that we forget how much of a game changer it was. Now in 2015, iTunes is old news, and Apple Music is Apple’s attempt at reminding people they are still in the business of providing music. One component of Apple Music is, of course, music. This will give you access to your personal library of music you’ve downloaded and also access to the entire iTunes library for streaming songs on demand. Also, Apple “experts” handpick songs and playlists they think you might like based on what you listen to regularly. Jack Epsteen, SVP/director of production at GSD&M and self-proclaimed “Apple geek,” noted that although he’s excited to see how the music library works, he’s not sure that this latest venture by Apple will tear people away from their routine streaming program. “Unless Apple can do what Tidal and Spotify haven’t been able to do—find a real, sustainable streaming model that also pays the curators—I don’t think this will change how musicians do business,” he said.
Another piece of this project is Beats 1, “The world’s local station.” With DJs from Los Angeles, New York and London, Apple is trying to get people to appreciate a shared listening experience. It will be interesting to see how many people will tune into the 24/7 radio stations.
Lastly, there’s Connect. Connect is basically Apple’s own social media and “a place where fans can engage with their favorite artists.” Essentially the feature allows for artists to post directly to the platform, anything from unreleased music to rehearsals in the studio. This is where Apple has taken the risk, as it’s like nothing they’ve done before. As a social media lover myself, I’m curious to know what is going to make people and artists stray away from the traditional tweet or Facebook post that could serve the same purpose.
Jacqueline Coffey, associate media director at GSD&M, said that one somewhat overlooked aspect of Apple Music is that it does not offer on-demand music for free with advertising, and Spotify, YouTube and Pandora do. Although their option of $14.99 for up to six people on a plan is a better deal than Spotify’s $9.99 per person, Coffey said Apple will be playing catch-up and “coming from a Spotify user whose day-to-day life is rooted in digital media, the market is cluttered, and it will take a lot more than the Apple name for users to make the switch.”
On the other hand, David Rockwood, VP/community relations at GSD&M, thinks the goal of Apple introducing this new feature is not to necessarily switch from one streaming program to another, but instead convert all non-Apple device users. “Since there are over 100 million iPhones out there, downloading their new software update with one easy-to-use music service will help them sell even more phones, which is probably their bigger goal, to sell more hardware,” said Rockwood. According to Hardware Top 100, Apple is #20, with HP, Samsung and Foxconn in the top three positions.
So Apple Music could be the next big thing or just Apple’s failed attempt at remaining relevant and shiny in the music business. We’ll find out June 30 when it launches, and I can’t wait to see what it’s all about.
By Zinny Bonner, Communication Intern
GSD&M’s first ITMAD event concluded yesterday after a series of sessions focused on innovation, entrepreneurial thinking and experience design with presenters from GSD&M and guest speakers from Southwest Airlines and Silvercar. As part of the event, we were also able to tour the U.S. Air Force’s latest experiential tour.
Starting off with a bang, or rather a jaw-dropping hologram demo, Heather Hvidsten, senior director of product management and product innovation at Southwest Airlines, presented Honk If You Are Sick of Talking About Innovation! With a father who worked at NASA and mother who is an artist, Heather was raised to think outside of the box. She looks at innovation with the mindset that every single person is perfect exactly the way they are. She encourages, “If you are passionate and not in a group that feels the same way, it’s not you, it’s the group. So change the group.” Innovation is about making something great ever better. To do this, Heather organizes rapid innovation workshops that encourage participants to open their minds and think differently. She puts crossfunctional teams together to accelerate the idea process. Most importantly, however, she engaged every aspect of Southwest Airlines’ team, from finance to creative, by emphasizing the many different roles involved in innovation. “The role of the supporter is just as important, if not more important, than the role of the idea creator,” she said.
The second session of the day, Capturing Moments & Building Stories: Instagram for Business, by Janice Suter, director of social media, and Caitlin McDaniel, senior social media manager, began with a display of how great ideas can come from a platform. With Instagram’s 64 million followers, brands everywhere are starting to notice the influence of the visually pleasing and culturally dominant platform. With Instagram, influencers offer something unique in shaping the story behind a brand —the ability to tell a brand’s story from a personal and genuine perspective. Brands can use these influencers along with unique content their own photo streams to engage audiences and take them places they’ve never been.
Having just opening its ninth location, Silvercar’s Russ Lemmer, co-founder and VP marketing, and Allen Darnell, CTO, presented Silvercar: Better Experience, Better Brand. Car rental is an industry notorious for lack of customer satisfaction and consistency. Silvercar recognized the need for a consistent, mobile-first and modern solution to car rental. To create a meaningful solution, Silvercar focused on taking advantage of all of the amazing tools and current technology available to maximize user experience. Russ Lemmer reminded the audience that one of the most powerful tools for the future of marketing is something we all have: the smartphone. Recognizing the value of smartphone technology, Silvercar is a 100% mobile service. By doing this, Silvercar cuts out most of what makes car rental a painful process in pursuit of their ultimate goal: a seamless product experience and maximum customer satisfaction. The less friction their customers have to endure, the more valuable they consider the Silvercar product.
Rye Clifton, the agency’s director of experience design, discussed Connect the Dots, La La La La: Dissecting the Components of a Startup & Reassembling Them for Your Clients. In this session, Rye pinpointed a few agency clients and other brands that are really paving the way for other companies and across different industries. Rye also chatted about the pros of thinking like a startup and noted it’s best to start small then add on to a brand experience, the big takeaway being the solution to a business problem is sometimes not an ad at all.
At the last session, Amanda Parker, senior media planner, gave an overview on some of the conversations at the recent Ad Age Digital Conference that sparked the original ITMAD idea. In Integrity & Insight: Conversations Sparked at Ad Age Digital, the main points established were everyone’s role in consumer experience management, why it’s crucial to have the right people in the room and how agencies provide platforms for data, tech and progress. When it comes to the consumer experience, a team must remember that everything leads back to consumers. They are what keeps a brand going; however, it is hard to control every aspect that affects the consumer experience, so teams must work together to keep the consumer in mind at every step.
Platforms are the new service that agencies bring to their clients, and the data they house and the innovation they allow are what move business and make good partners. Amanda Parker emphasized the importance of utilizing technology that has already been established, similar to Silvercar’s idea, in order to create a foundation for problem solving through calculated risks. We learned that innovation should be thought of as “70-20-10”: 70% are the things you know for sure work for your business, 20% are tested strategies that are still evolving and the final 10% is the room you have left to take a leap of faith in true innovation. In closing, Amanda said, “There was a lot to be gleaned from the best and the brightest in our industry, but at the end of the day it was really affirmed that we’re in the same progressive track here at GSD&M.”
By Angelica Erazo, Communications Intern
Have you ever had destinesia? How about creattitude? I’d be willing to bet you’re probably feeling a bit of confuzation as we speak.
If you work in a creative industry, chances are you’ve heard these words (or ones like them) before. We’re not sure if it’s the creative energy spinning around our office, the occasional late-work-night delirium, or one too many breakfast tacos, but our people tend to get inventive with vocabulary. These words have become such office staples that Dorian, GSD&M’s SVP of People, has become their official keeper. The back of her door is covered in a post-it note word collage:
Here’s a short list of words to get you started. Don’t worry. There won’t be a test.
Destinesia: You can’t remember why you walked into a room, but know you’re supposed to be there
Awfullyzing: Thinking of the worst thing that could happen
Commutercate: Working while commuting
Twitterverse: The universe of Twitter (OK, so maybe we didn’t actually make this one up…)
Squibble: Not significant enough to be a squabble, but still a conflict
Toilet Texting: Texting on the toilet
Confuzation: Confused about where the conversation is going or what is being discussed, yet continuing with the conversation anyway
Populution: Too many people. *Note: when populution sets in, it’s time to Avoid Humans
Nieblings: A word that collectively refers to nieces and nephews
Accomplicate: A condition whereby things get complicated as you’re trying to accomplish something
Creattitude: Attitude possessed by creatives
Remembory: A combination of one’s memory and ability to remember
Do you have a word to add to the list? We’d love to hear it in the comments below!
By Angelica Erazo, Communications Intern
One thing I’ve learned during my summer internship is GSD&M and Austin have a lot in common. Taco fanaticism, for one. But more importantly, a sense of family that reminds me of the way the students at Huston-Tillotson are rallying around our (somewhat smelly) hero, Professor Dumpster. But I’m getting ahead of myself, so let me back up.
One day last year, I was sitting in a meeting on the Huston-Tillotson campus with Professor Jeff Wilson when he blurted out, “hey what if I told you guys I want to live in a dumpster?”
So now he does. And at the June 27 Creative Mornings session, he told Austin why.
Jeff Wilson, AKA Professor Dumpster, has turned a 33 square-foot dumpster in to a sustainable house and interactive teaching lab. He eats, sleeps, and endures Austin summer heatwaves with no a/c – all in the name of equipping current and future generations with the tools they need for sustainable living practices.
I’m part of a student organization, Green is the New Black, that promotes the Dumpster Project. We kicked things off by targeting East Austin, the second most gentrified zip code in the U.S. The project quickly gained popularity; it’s a perfect fit with “Keep Austin Weird,” and the timing is right – Austin is an emerging hub for green technology and an epicenter for sustainability initiatives in the U.S..
A half dozen students, myself included, have volunteered as ‘tributes’ and joined the dumpster family, even sleeping in the dumpster when the weather is bad, but folks who want to learn more about the project or sustainability don’t have to get dirty to do it. As a result of the Dumpster Project, Huston-Tillotson has added an Environmental Science major and in Spring 2015 they will be holding an HBCU Summit. And anyone can take small steps to conserve resources and/or donate to the cause.
If you are ever interested in an MTV “Cribs”-style tour of the dumpster or want to know more, visit our website or follow Professor Dumpster on Twitter or Instagram.
One of GSD&M’s core values is community – we’re all in this together. To us, that means taking care of each other, our clients and our hometown, Austin. This post is part of a series about causes that are close to our agency’s and our employees’ hearts.
This May marked my one-year anniversary as Communications Intern for the best advertising shop in Texas. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way – not the standard intern advice like to bring a notebook to every meeting, because if you’ve gotten a job that 300 other people apply for each semester you already know that. This is the good stuff: the picadillo in the intern advice taco, if you will.
You might even get a sweet nameplate.
Listen to everything – literally everything. Develop the habit of having your ears open at all times. Even when you’re working on something else, keep an ear out for what your boss is saying in case it’s something that will come in handy (like ‘hey, get ready for literally thousands of SXSW party RSVPs to land in your inbox’) so you can chime in or get ahead of the game. Listen up in the hallways to know what is going on around the agency so you can ask questions or offer to pitch in on a project you otherwise wouldn’t have known about—or in my case, hear something you can put on the Wall of Things You Can’t Tweet (I would share a picture but, you know). Pitching in leads me to my next bit of advice…
(pictured: Things You Can Tweet)
You can stay there, but don’t stay in the same place. If you’re going to spend multiple semesters at the same place, don’t do it because you think the agency is fun and exciting, or (worse) because you’re comfortable there. Make sure your time is well spent. I’ve helped out other interns, picking up knowledge of how the agency works along the way, and met with people from other departments (the strategists here are mind-numbingly cool and the project managers are total bad asses) – there is always so much more to learn. And while you’re busy learning everything and meeting everyone…
Develop a signature move. No, not a dance move you bring out at agency parties (unless you have no problem being That Intern). Hone a useful skill. In my case, one of my favorite parts of the job is planning and promoting internal events like our totally rad 80s Skate Party. If I can plan a fun event and incorporate puns, GIF gags and cultural references in an email invite and take something off my boss’s plate at the same time, I’m happy as a clam. And more importantly, my boss knows she can trust me to do this. That being said…
Live and die by feedback. Your supervisor isn’t trying to hurt your feelings when she says to cool it on the adjectives (or whatever your Achilles’ heel may be) – she’s trying to make you better. Incorporating constructive criticism is one of the most valuable skills you can have as an employee because it shows you listen, you learn, and you can focus on what’s important: the work, not getting a pat on the head and a gold star.
You can reverse Google image search with a picture you already have to find the source. Drag the picture into the Google image search bar from a different tab or from your desktop.
Insert hyperlinks in Microsoft Office products with Ctrl+K/Command+K. You’re welcome.
Now go dazzle ‘em.
