Hitting The Pause Button

In this episode, Christy and Katie from Good Mood Marketing sit down with our very own Amber Pasquarelli, Visual Designer at Catalyst. From web design, to copywriting, to creating compelling video content — Amber just about does it all. So when it comes to wearing many creative hats, it’s important to also have a flexible work schedule and prioritize work/life balance. Listen today to learn more about Amber’s experience and our team’s views on balancing deadlines and life outside of work.

Amber Pasquarelli

Amber Pasquarelli has been working with the creative team as a Visual Designer at Catalyst for almost three years. She’s responsible for creating compelling campaign artwork, video content, and ad copy for a variety of clients. From student living, to multifamily, all the way to senior living collateral – her creative genius knows no bounds. Listen to learn more about Amber’s expertise and insights on marketing agency culture. 

Transcript

Katie Degutis:

Hey there, and welcome back to another episode of Good Mood Marketing. This is Katie, and we've also got Christy here, along with Amber Pasquarelli, a visual designer here at Catalyst. Unfortunately, Thomas is unable to join us today due to a family situation, but we're gonna do our best without him. And due to his being out, we wanted to take a moment to focus today on the subject of flexibility as a small agency and what that means sometimes as far as work-life balance and just generally kind of work balance in general.

Christy McFerren:

Yep. Life's not predictable.

Katie Degutis:

<Laugh>. Amber, do you wanna get us started today by telling us a little bit about your role and what your day-to-day looks like here at Catalyst?

Amber Pasquarelli:

Yeah, I'm super excited to be here. My day-to-day kind of just depends. It varies just like I'm sure everyone's does, but as a visual designer, I do have a focus in branding and video work, but that doesn't limit me to doing physical marking materials and

Katie Degutis:

Onesies on occasions. Mm-Hmm.

Christy McFerren:

<Affirmative>. That's right. Super cute. Onesies. Thank you. Thank you, Leo will be happy.

Amber Pasquarelli:

<Laugh>. Yeah, so it just kind of varies on the day and I jump in wherever I need to.

Katie Degutis:

Awesome. Yeah. Christy and I both also have experience in the creative department just from prior roles, both here at Catalyst and for Christy previously before that too. So definitely understand and I think in both of our current roles as well, the unpredictability that every day brings and kind of getting started in the morning and you think you've got one plan and then all of a sudden we throw a podcast at you in the middle of the afternoon. Yeah. So you wanna come and record with us for a little while. So we definitely appreciate your flexibility and definitely understand it because I think as a small agency and with a small team, it's so important to be able to have people that can and that are willing to jump in from time to time.

Christy McFerren:

Yeah. I think one of the, the biggest keys to flexibility in an agency is, is really like knowing your place in, in an agency and in the workflow. And one of the things that's been a key for me really has become what I call the importance of the pause. And so there, early in my career it was, it used to be very overwhelming to me to get a last minute request or something that was like unexpected or seemed really big. And so I would always say yes, but maybe with a touch of resentment. And that just really didn't serve me. And there was a point in my career where you know, we've all read Stephen, a lot of people have read Stephen Covey's books but he defines this sort of quadrant of things that are important and urgent and things that are important but not urgent. And then there's like below that line things that are urgent but not important, or both not important and not urgent and

Katie Degutis:

Really always the favorite <laugh>.

Christy McFerren:

<Laugh>, thank you for why are we talking about it if it's both of us? But, but no, it really helped me develop what I call the pause. And it's the point where someone asked me to do something and I thought you did it beautifully today. We were like, Hey Amber, come join us on this podcast. And you're like, mm, okay, if there's an outline <laugh>, you know, and it like, that was a perfect pause.

Katie Degutis:

It's probably not expecting us to be like, here's an outline

Christy McFerren:

<Laugh> a little, you dunno who you're asking <laugh>. You know, miss Katie can whip out an outline. But, but no, it was, it's really been a vital tool for me to turn my, what I want to be a no, but I'm gonna give you a yes into a much more confident moment for me. And it's a, it's a key to professionalism and flexibility to be able to maintain composure, to know where you classify this request in that quadrant and that tells you how you're gonna respond. So yes, how about Thursday or, yeah, I'll get right on that this afternoon for you. And you, you've taken some ownership and some agency in that and it feels like unless it's requiring CPR, you have a minute to breathe and take a pause and make a decision about how you're gonna respond and, and really own that request. And what, for me it's done is just create sort of a permanent state of peacefulness in my, my demeanor, in my professionalism. And I think it's, it's something that's really key to being able to be flexible,

Katie Degutis:

I think too, like that acknowledgement that you received the request is so huge to people because especially with us being remote, if someone doesn't know that you've gotten it, then there's this feeling of like, oh, okay, they haven't heard from me. I better follow up where really like, no, it's just not their immediate next step. They need, they need time to either come back to it to get you something fully thought out or it requires some additional workload, whatever it might be. But if someone knows, okay, they've received this, they understand that it's in their hands right now it makes such a world of difference compared to someone just being like, I wonder if that's out there in the ether somewhere, if they ever even got it or anything like that.

Amber Pasquarelli:

Yeah, exactly. And I think it all comes back to just communicating with each other and I say like, as a creative team, like we have great communication within each other where if something big comes through, Lauren I know is first to be like, all right, let's take a look at your list. Let's move some things around. This isn't as urgent as it needs to be. And it's all about just teamwork and whether it's someone else, it's like we can just switch stuff around because we all have just a very unique dynamic of jumping in and helping each other and just working across different mediums.

Christy McFerren:

Absolutely.

Katie Degutis:

And it's always hard, I think, too, to know, because again, with being remote, someone can call you on the side and be like, Hey, I really need this someone, someone's asking for it right now. And it's like, if they don't know everything else that you're working on, it's really easy to think that in the moment but kind of like how do you keep from getting pulled into that where every day there's just constant emergency after emergency. And to your point of like being able to take that pause and step away from it for a second to like, okay, what, in the big scheme of things, what really is the next most important thing that I need to take a look at?

Christy McFerren:

Yeah. It really only takes just a moment too, I think, to prioritize like you're saying and to be able to add a, an element of strategy into how you approach your day or even the given request. And I love the, the way that you can not only like schedule things that way or give it the appropriate amount of urgency if it requires that, but when you do have the luxury and you have treated yourself well enough to take that pause. You're not only able to honor yourself and your own wellbeing, but you're able to honor the assignment and the request as well. Because when it does come up and it's time to do it, you can put your whole self into it and really be a craftsman about your work. And so I think it, it honors both sides of, of the equation and to me there's rarely anything that comes up that's worth subjecting to something other than that as far as the workflow goes. So,

Amber Pasquarelli:

Exactly.

Katie Degutis:

Well, as much as we said that kind of the morning starts not really knowing what the day is going to look like, do you have any kind of morning routine or morning rituals or anything like that that helps set you up for kind of a positive day?

Amber Pasquarelli:

I definitely love my mornings. I try to do a lot of like me time in the mornings I usually wake up and then I instantly go on a walk with my dog and that just kind of sets my mind of just like clearing my head, getting ready for the day. And I even do it during the day too, where it's like, if I start just getting overwhelmed, I will just take a 10 minute walk with my dog. I won't take, bring any of my phone or any technology and it's just, it's just a way to like get outside, get some fresh air and just have a break.

Katie Degutis:

Yeah. I think that's so important. Christy and I talk a lot in our one-on-ones about how that is so difficult for me. So for you to already realize that and like be able to take that break I think is so helpful. I, between an Apple watch and phones dinging and teams on everything, I don't have email on my phone anymore because I would wake up at three in the middle of the morning and go to the restroom and come back and be like, oh, an email came through. Better read it right now because surely everyone's waiting for a response from me on this. Not at all the case, but it was my own mental position on it that I just had to look at it because otherwise it was left undone and it would just kind of weigh on me in a way that was probably not very healthy <laugh>.

Christy McFerren:

Yeah. It's so important. You know, and, and we've all, I think gone through, I think people who are high performers and really care a lot about their work and their outcomes and their team go through that of having to learn, I am still supporting my team. I am still a part of this. I am still contributing, but I am me and I have a boundary boundary and there has to be like a place where you, you know, you end and your work begins and vice versa. Like, I'd be able to pull out from that and separate from that at key times because it will absolutely consume you. And, and you're really the only one that can, can control that. Yeah.

Amber Pasquarelli:

Yeah. I agree. And it just kind of takes like, it's definitely a learning curve. Like I even catch myself making a sandwich at lunch and I hear a ding on my computer and I'm like, oh, mid turkey, I'm like dropping it, checking the message when it's just like, this will take me five minutes and it's like, is it really important that I need to check the message and I don't even know if it's directly to me. It could just be in one of our group chats.

Katie Degutis:

Right?

Amber Pasquarelli:

So it's, it's hard to kind of break that habit, it can be done and it's, it's very healthy to do.

Christy McFerren:

Well and I think social media in different, you know places where we spend our time have conditioned us to that all important notification and oh my gosh, as many notifications as you can turn off and get away with it, do it because there's something to be said. I like how you're talking about walking your dog and Katie, I know you take walks every morning with Reggie too and it's like being outside and being connected to the earth and just not in like necessarily a weird spiritual way, but just like feeling your pH balance reset from being outdoors or even planting something and it's just, it's so critical to stress management and to being able to be fully present when you are on. So...

Katie Degutis:

Yeah, I, I know myself like even on Fridays when I've been off before it, I know that it's the morning team meeting and I know that everyone's kind of like shooting the sh*t a little bit and they're sending memes back and forth and commenting on each other's weekend plans and it's all, it's not really a FOMO of not wanting to be a part of it, but when you see it without the context, it's like, oh gosh, there are all these messages coming through, I better check it. And it's, it's like the most positive way of getting those notifications compared to the like, oh God, what's going on? I need to go. Like there's some kind of fire drill happening.

Christy McFerren:

We've turned into an outright group of clowns on Friday, It's hilarious.

Katie Degutis:

It's the perfect balance though to end out the week

Amber Pasquarelli:

<Laugh> sometimes without context is even better.

Katie Degutis:

I know, and then I'm just wondering the whole time I'm like, what am I gonna go back to on Monday that this was about <laugh>?

Christy McFerren:

A hundred percent.

Katie Degutis:

Well one of the other things that I think has really helped with in our team is the ability to cross train and you have a role that is so like highly specialized and your creative talents are not something that just anyone else can pick up. I know right now we have people on our CX team helping to launch ads and things like that. Some of those kind of more tedious things that someone else can still go behind and look at the strategy and all of that. But how do you find like the balance within the creative department or even within creative and interactive to kind of help load balance one another?

Amber Pasquarelli:

I think it all, like I mentioned earlier, it all just comes back to communication. Whether it's like, okay, some days I have a more of a copy-heavy day where I'm just knocking out six, seven ads and then some days I'm just head down and I'm just working on branding logos, brand guides. And so it just depends on like communication with my team, but also just like not overwhelming myself and not sticking to something too many days in a row to where I'm not just doing copy three days in a row and then doing design work once a week.

Katie Degutis:

I think that does make sense. All of like, it comes down to communication and like you don't wanna get into a feeling of being like a project shop and just cranking stuff out for the sake of the volume. Like you do want to still be able to put the strategy behind it.

Amber Pasquarelli:

Yeah. And exactly. And it's sometimes where it's like even the cross training comes between different departments, whereas Mark on CX, even Fabian on account managers, they can all jump in and help out where it's needed and even if it's like little copy changes and sometimes they'll message me be like, Hey, can I change this? And it's like, yeah, sure. That's fine. No worries. So really it's just all about organization communication and just being a team player.

Katie Degutis:

Yeah. I was not that way when people wanted to change my copy and be like, what do you mean you don't like that <laugh>?

Amber Pasquarelli:

<Laugh>?

Christy McFerren:

Well that's a different problem <laugh>. Yeah, that's a different episode...

Katie Degutis:

Uhhuh <affirmative> sure is. That's a personal one. So I think that I, I totally agree. I think that having the team we do, everyone is so willing to jump in no matter what the project might be, if it's something that they have done a million times or if it's something they've never done before, but someone else can walk them through it, everyone is so willing to contribute and help out. And I think that we've especially seen that this year we've had a couple of team members go through different family situations or emergencies that are completely unexpected just by nature of being an emergency and being able to take a week off or kind of have an unpredictable schedule. They might not be nine to five for a couple of weeks and everyone is so willing and understanding of that and that's not something that you find everywhere. And I think that we're, we're definitely lucky in that sense.

Christy McFerren:

I think it's because everyone, when they are working, which is most of the time, you know, they're working very well and you know, everybody's putting 110% into their work, so when you're, you see your colleagues, you know, leaving it all on the field, so to speak, and then they have an off week or they have something going on that's outside of their control to control the timeline of it, no one is gonna penalize them for that because they, they know, I mean, they know that person is all in. So we're gonna support them for as long as we need to to get them through that because we want 'em back. Like you, we have a team full of people that are hustling all the time in the best possible way. I know that word's gotten to, to have a negative connotation to people, but I don't really think it does if you also have the balance that comes with it. So

Katie Degutis:

Yeah, that's a very similar to an article that I wrote for our upcoming Catalogue. Little plug there, get a read that, that's a good one if you're not already signed up for our newsletter. But it's kind of about like the ability to trust and lean on the team. Because that's definitely something that I struggle with from the standpoint of like, there's a feeling of if you're not busy then you're not valued. And that's definitely not the case just because you've been able to get done what you needed to does not mean like now torture yourself finding new projects, but there's, there's still this feeling of like, I need to be busy to show my value or to show my worth to the team. And I think that the group of people that we have around us here make it so easy to understand when that's appropriate and when you can kind of take that seat.

Christy McFerren:

Well, and there's different roles too that are billable roles like the creative team and the production side, that those hours are billable and, and so they're are always busy, like there's rarely a time when you guys aren't, but there's also more administrative roles like Katie's and mine that we drive value in a different way. And so when we do work, it's putting a lot, it's pushing a lot more forward. But then there's that ebb time where you're not pushing that forward, but you've still driven all the value that you were, so to speak, assigned to create. So I think it's just a different experience too. And having come from the creative side for both of us, it was a little bit of an adjustment to get to what it means to drive value on the non-billable side of the agency because it can be a little bit of a mind game if you're not careful.

Katie Degutis:

Yeah.

Amber Pasquarelli:

Yeah. And I think it comes down to like, even though creative production, we do stay pretty busy. I mean, we do have weeks that are a little bit lighter than others. And I think it's just, it's a good break to have because it's like, even though we're still working, we may just be doing more cleanup jobs. Yeah. We may be working on side projects that aren't for clients and it's just a good mental break to have like, okay, not everything has to be so rushed, so high speed and just go, go, go. It's just, we're gonna take our time on this. We're gonna just kind of go at our own pace.

Christy McFerren:

Well you guys have done a bang up job this year of elevating our marketing and some of the internal work that we, we've got, so it's never a minute wasted for sure.

Katie Degutis:

Yeah. And I think just knowing not to take those moments for granted because a rush of project briefs is inevitably <laugh>...someone's just waiting to be able to get those in too. Yeah. Well, what would you say is one of the things that you do to kind of mentally prepare, either before you're out or like how does the team environment kind of help you to take that time so that you can have more of a work-life balance and, and get those vacation times as needed?

Amber Pasquarelli:

So how I prepare for it is mainly just looking ahead. I want to look ahead as far as possible, make sure that I'm knocking out any big projects when I'm still in office. And also just making sure like my other team members aren't bogged down and I never, never want to be like, oops, sorry I didn't finish this. It's on you now. It's wrapping it up, making sure it's packaged, putting a little bow tie on it and calling it a day. And yeah, definitely just working with Lauren, just working with the other team members and seeing what can shift, what can move around, and even looking ahead at scheduled dates where if it's not even being presented to client in a week and a half, then it's like, okay, well we can start this in a few days. Like it's not gonna be the end of the world.

Katie Degutis:

Yeah. We definitely do have some flexibility with our own processes of where we can like find those times if we do have to squeeze something but still can do it strategically and, and look at the full picture of whatever we're presenting to someone. Well we always end every episode by going around and asking people what has them in a good mood today. So Amber, what has you in a good mood?

Amber Pasquarelli:

Let's see. Besides being on this podcast <laugh> Probably just being in a happy place, being in a healthy place and just having,

Katie Degutis:

I do love that. I like that even as it is. I, I think that that speaks volumes to kind of where people can be mentally.

Amber Pasquarelli:

Yeah. I think just being stress-free right now and just being like happier than I've been in a while.

Katie Degutis:

Oh, I love that.

Amber Pasquarelli:

I think that's probably the highlight of my day.

Katie Degutis:

Good for you.

Christy McFerren:

Congrats.

Katie Degutis:

Well, my good mood today is one week out. I will in one week from recording right now, I'll be at the airport probably enjoying a glass of wine before I board my flight,

Christy McFerren:

Celebrating my birthday.

Katie Degutis:

I'm gonna be toasting Christy and Leo and I will be headed to Europe. So I'm very much looking forward to it. That's exciting. And having none of the stress leading into letting my team members support me while I'm out during that time. <Laugh>

Christy McFerren:

There you go - Flexibility. My good mood is I'm headed tonight to meet up with a group of people that I'm going to be going on a sailing trip with. I've never met them. Well, I've met one of them. But I'm excited about that. We're gonna be chartering a couple of catamarans and I'm gonna be getting a certification in that as well as coastal navigation. So

Katie Degutis:

I can't wait to hear about the coastal navigation

Christy McFerren:

Yeah, I just, you couldn't make me any happier <laugh>.

Amber Pasquarelli:

You guys are so adventurous.

Christy McFerren:

It's gonna be fun. Alright, guess that's it.

Katie Degutis:

Thanks Amber.

Christy McFerren:

Cheers wverybody. Bye.

Amber Pasquarelli:

Bye.

Christy McFerren:

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