Momtalk Maryland

Beyond the Internship: The Evolving Landscape of Digital Marketing

Claire Duarte Season 1 Episode 16

Join Claire and Emma as they reflect on a summer of growth, learning, and discovery in the world of marketing and communications. In this heartfelt conversation, Emma opens up about her journey from uncertain college student to confident marketing intern, sharing how hands-on experience has shaped her understanding of the industry far beyond what classroom learning could provide.

Emma reveals her surprising affinity for client work and data analysis, admitting she's found unexpected joy in projects like Instagram indexing and content creation. From filming on location with local businesses to crafting blogs and managing social media, her diverse responsibilities have helped her identify her strengths and refine her career aspirations within the communications field.

The conversation takes a thoughtful turn as they discuss the importance of media freedom and diverse storytelling voices in light of recent legislation affecting public broadcasting. Claire shares a powerful insight that resonates throughout the episode: "When we lose our storytellers, we lose our stories." This prompts a meaningful discussion about the responsibility communications professionals have in both creating and consuming media.

As Emma prepares to return to college for her PR-focused communications courses, she reflects on how her internship experience has already given her an advantage in the classroom. The genuine mentor-mentee relationship between Claire and Emma shines through as they celebrate what they've learned from each other and look ahead to continuing their professional relationship remotely.

Whether you're a student considering a marketing career, a professional looking to mentor the next generation, or simply curious about what happens behind the scenes of content creation, this authentic conversation offers valuable insights into the evolving landscape of digital marketing and communications. Subscribe now and join our community of curious, supportive professionals navigating the ever-changing world of marketing together!

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Speaker 1:

Hey friends and welcome to MomTalk, maryland. I'm your host, claire Duarte, founder of the Columbia Mom, and this is your spot for real conversations, local love and a whole lot of community. Whether you're folding laundry, running errands or hiding in your car for some peace and quiet, let's dive in. Well, so many, well big feelings for me, maybe not for you, but still For me too. Yes, so obviously we had you on last week and that was kind of fun because it was great to talk about, um, essentially like what you thought about, like influencers, kind of like before and after a little bit, and so, um, if you're listening or watching this, um, obviously I'm here with my intern, emma, my college student, and um, I realized. So today's actually like it's not our obviously our last time in person, but it's like, um, our last day to like in person together for a while.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like I'll see you again, of course, of course um, I just like realized I was like doing like the calendar math and I was like, oh my god, because I go to the beach tomorrow and then when I come home you go to the beach and then I I go on my actual family vacation when you come home and then when I come home you go to school. Yes, I was like wait, the timing didn't really I know. So here we are. So I had to sneak you in for one last podcast. Obviously you're still working, I know, over the next few weeks and obviously I'll still be available too, but yeah, so since last week we did like kind of like influencer, like thoughts, assumptions, kind of before and after.

Speaker 1:

And you know, I thought today could be kind of cool of like, just kind of like reflecting on, obviously like your intern journey. But, like you know, you declared your major earlier this year is when you kind of reached out, and so I thought today could be kind of talking about just like in general, I mean obviously like what you've learned with your experience with us. And obviously you know she's not going anywhere. We're still keeping her on um, so you'll still be um supporting us this fall while you're still at school. Um, because we're not gonna let you get away that quickly or that easily.

Speaker 1:

Um, but yeah. So I thought it would be great for us to kind of get and reflect on again all that you've learned and maybe just talking about the field of marketing and social media, like as a whole, and kind of like I you know, again, being 37, that I am, and again I, my field is not I've never took classes on any of this. So, and obviously I know that you're still, like you know, taking a lot of the gen eds in school, but I'm still very curious about what that experience is like, what you're learning. And again, I know you just finished freshman year, but you have some classes coming up that do sound kind of interesting and I'm like it's just going to be. It'll be interesting to see how that keeps unfolding for you. So I'm excited for that journey for you. But um, but yeah, so, um, but yes, before we jump into, yeah, talk about school and stuff let's talk about. I mean, last week we like I said we it was that was kind of fun to contrast.

Speaker 1:

Yeah that was good yeah, that was definitely good, um, so if you haven't listened to that one, I would definitely give that a listen. Yeah, I got some good laughs out of there, um, too, but um, but yeah, so I mean thinking about, I mean obviously, I mean I know I can speak and say that you've learned so much.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know, um, but uh, yeah, so talk to us about your experience, um, and things that you've learned, or maybe some unexpected things yeah, no, I've definitely like learned so much, like I think I've just been doing so many different things, like you know, like the blog writing and like working like with the website and like creating contracts and like just doing like all these like things for you, and I think that's like really helped me grow as like a young, you know, college student, like still kind of like getting into things and like even like being like when I'm in person with you, because I'm like in person sometimes yeah, right exactly but like when I am like I feel like I've kind of been watching you doing, like you know, some networking and like kind of like just watching how, like you interact with people and like I'm definitely more introverted myself but like you're a very extroverted person and I think most of my team says this yes,

Speaker 2:

but like, I think like that's been good for me to kind of like learn, like, like or like see, like you, like you go after things and like like what you want and like it works for you and works for your company. I think that's been really good for me to like, see and kind of like feel that out as well like I just think like being in person with you has really like helped me.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 1:

Like see, like what the world like what this world is like honestly. Well, and I remember too, when we first met and we were just talking, I mean I remember I was when we had coffee and I was like telling you all about the company, you know, to start in the business, and what we did. But then when we were talking about the summer and you, I remember you specifically asking you wanted some in person. Yeah, I did, and you didn't. And I don't think you had said specifically what you wanted to do in person, but I remember you specifically saying, like you wanted to be in person, you wanted to do some things.

Speaker 2:

I didn't even care what I was doing. I'm not the kind like. I'm more introverted, but I can't just like sit in my house like every day on my couch working Like I, can't like I will drive myself crazy.

Speaker 1:

Same.

Speaker 2:

I need to be in person a little bit Right right, right right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you have.

Speaker 1:

you're the introvert that has a good bandwidth you know, yes, yes, well, obviously, yeah, being extroverted when you have a crazy dog and kids at home means like I, which is funny because ever since building the podcast studio at home, obviously I do actually enjoy being at home a lot, but it's a push-pull with the summertime, with the kids, um, but uh, but no, and I actually, like I said, I mean I have obviously loved, you know, getting to be with you in person. I feel like I do think those experiences are really cool and really unique. Obviously, it's been great for me, I feel like I get to teach you and shadow you. Today you're just sitting in on some other meetings, but it was different than other stuff that we've done, necessarily, but that's been fun for me.

Speaker 1:

Obviously, you got to meet a bunch of our clients. For me to have especially, like you know, obviously got to meet a bunch of our clients, yeah, but, um, and for those of you that are like like listening and stuff like that, she would actually come in and, um, I would have you film for me or film me doing some different things. We would go on site. Gosh, we've done, we did um, trying to remember all some of the ones we did, specific charm city run journey, mindfulness journey, mindfulness uh oh mend.

Speaker 1:

Aesthetics mend, oh yes that was like actually one of your first ones, wasn't it that? Was a cool one that was well it was a dark room and I was like here, it's your first time and also the lighting will be terrible, so good luck, but I like literally, would never have been able to film that myself. Yeah, even with a tripod it would not have looked good yeah, so many angles. I know.

Speaker 2:

No, that was a fun one.

Speaker 1:

That was fun. Men to aesthetics what else we did? The farmer's market last week yeah, I feel like there's been more. There's definitely been more. Oh, stuff done by the Lakefront oh yeah, that was for Dream City run, I think.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, we did a yeah we did a couple yeah, um, lots of podcasts, obviously, lots of podcasts, lots of stuff. You've definitely been um and I went to brain balance. Oh, brain balance, yes, oh my gosh. You've been like, got to see like the start of that journey for us, which has been really cool. You got to meet bath and chris. Yeah, you've really gotten to meet a lot of not all of our client, but a lot, a lot of them right now and and, and what's funny on the other side is like you've been doing a lot of the client work you know for in some of the other pieces yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I would say like that part has been like almost like the most enjoyable for me, like I actually really liked, like the client aspect of things and like kind of working, like you know, like I'm doing, like the Instagram indexing, like I kind of like that stuff like like I love blog writing and all of that as well, yeah, like. I found like the more client aspect of yeah looking at numbers and things like that to be like what I've enjoyed the most, honestly, I think oh, that's interesting, because that's what I thought isn't that funny.

Speaker 1:

Well, I could, okay, so let me explain. The index index, instagram indexing, uh, what we're? I'm sure there's plenty of other. If you're in marketing, I'm sure you have all kinds of ways to measure stats and analytics. So one project that I'm having emma do, that you'll, you know, assuming you still have the hours we're going to keep doing that this fall um, essentially, I just created a spreadsheet. I mean, in Instagram you can see all those analytics, but what I and I'm not having you pull every single analytic in there, because there's just a lot, there's so much.

Speaker 1:

But I was curious to kind of like, because there's a couple different stats that I'm interested in more so for my business, like I'm'm, they're just kind of numbers that we can play with internally. Like you know, I'm like, how many posts did I do this year? You know what I mean? Like I'm really, and I'm also wondering how many of those were, um, paid posts, how many of them were sponsored or how many of them were evergreen. Like I'm interested in some of that. Like I'm just, you know, but we produce so much content so it's hard for me to like keep tracking that on a regular basis.

Speaker 1:

So we, anyways, we set up a spreadsheet. Yeah that, um, the team all kind of, and I asked was like what, what is what data does people? What do we want? What do we? You know if we're gonna, and how far back do we go is it? Do I go all the way back to 2022? I was like, let's see, you know, um, obviously it's never going. And then eventually it's funny because I think I had you start and go backwards and eventually you'll need to catch up.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, that's what I do, is like I do a little bit so it's kind of like mixed up right now.

Speaker 1:

We can sort it. Yeah, we're going to have to do that.

Speaker 2:

Because, some of it's like recent last week, some of it's like two months ago.

Speaker 1:

Well, what you can do this is just administrative one While you're entering it, just don't even worry about it, and then, when you're done for the day, just hit sort and then it'll Okay. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, then, like, because I realized that way you don't have to, like, keep adding the rows or whatever. You know what I mean? Because I feel like, once you put the links to the old post, because I want to repost some old material, because I'm like I know I have these files, that I have videos created, so if I have a, I mean problem is like, yeah, I can scroll back through my own Instagram, but you know, even when you're doing it, right?

Speaker 2:

now. It takes just a while it does. It's tedious work but I enjoy it. I like looking at that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1:

It is kind of interesting when you get through it. I remember I had a college internship Granted again, my degree was in psychology, so I was working for a grad student who was he was doing his PhD dissertation on forgiveness, so he was studying all these things on forgiveness, so my role with him and I was getting college credit. I wasn't getting paid, but I'm pretty sure his name was Ryan and I remember I always used to always joke. I was like, well, my name being the teeny tiny print that you read like on those research articles, like you know, there like the the student, or in the the doctor or whatever, and then my name's in a little tiny font, like it's somewhere and I don't remember what it is, but, um, anyway, so I would have to go through I don't know three to ten empirical articles a week and I was putting them in a spreadsheet and I was trying to and I was pulling out different pieces of data from there, what it wasn't always data meaning like how many times forgiveness or certain things were talked about and anyways, and I'm charting all this basically in another spreadsheet for him and um, doing that experience, I remember like it was oddly like yeah, also kind of enjoying. Yeah, like I remember you'll appreciate this I remember in college I was was one of my best friends.

Speaker 1:

You know, I was in a sorority and we had like our guy friends were in this other sorority or fraternity, I mean basically at that point. But and they had an away weekend in Ocean City and I remember, like sitting in the car and literally like I was like I gotta get these last articles in Granted, I was like I was trying to finish them before we got to Ocean Cities because we were gonna go like hang out and party for the weekend. Not that what you're doing is the same, but like that kind of that similar concept.

Speaker 2:

I've been there. I was like visiting my boyfriend at Washington College like for the weekend, and I I brought my computer and I was like he was like okay, like we gotta go, and I was okay, you need to like hold up, because I'm doing something.

Speaker 1:

I got to post this, Like I need you to wait Right.

Speaker 1:

Exactly Important things, important things. I actually remember when I this was, I finished most of it, but I was finished. I only had like one or two left and I like locked myself and like we were grandma's place at the beach it was like an older trailer park kind of thing I locked myself in some old room and they're all losing their minds and I was like just give me 10 minutes and I you know what I mean. And then we went back to it. Yeah, exactly, that's just life. But yeah, so Instagram indexing I'm not sure what it is, what else.

Speaker 2:

I mean, I feel like the majority of what I do is like you know, like the blogs I do, like I feel like we talked about this last week, like the weekend lineup, who go?

Speaker 1:

happening yeah, events Like events contracts. You've done like a good mix of, like I would say, admin, I mean like admin work, like you know. Obviously I, obviously I've needed, like, doing the contracts, um, you know a little bit of. I've even taught you some of the photo editing, photo shooting, which I would definitely. That goes into like content production. I would say, um, learning your way around canva. Canva is, hmm, tedious.

Speaker 2:

Yes, canva is an art yes, yes, and I have not mastered it.

Speaker 1:

I feel like it's just one of those things that takes time. And you know, what's also funny is like, obviously, with AI, like everybody, every platform now has an AI thing kind of built into it, and Canva is getting better. It's the AI that it is now is better than what it was like a year ago. It's still not where I would want it to be like. I would want to go to Canva like the same way I go to chat and be like hey, like I have these pre-built templates, like here's my vision, and then it helped like bring it to life and it's you have to like.

Speaker 2:

Do everything step by step yourself like which isn't bad, because then you can like it's in your head. You can create it yourself, but it also does it's time consuming.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, I feel like and I tell my team this too, and I've told you I was like, you know, if it takes you more than like we should not be spending one to four hours on something. I mean, hence why I'm like I'm not spending my time on it, but it's like a rabbit hole that you could just completely get stuck in. Yeah, because you're just like tinkering with little things, and so, even for me, I'm like I have to walk away from this because, like I've spent way too much in here.

Speaker 1:

It's necessary, it's a necessary evil. Yeah, you know, but do you guys? Were you ever using Canva at school?

Speaker 2:

Like a little bit. I feel like I haven't really gone into like again like my major classes yeah, so like for the class that I've had, like not really, but I'm sure I will sure I'll come up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, remind me the classes you're taking again this fall.

Speaker 2:

I'm taking sociology oh yeah environmental science and then communication. It's like communications 248, which is like. I think it's like the pr oh, okay class yeah, I'm not like exactly sure, and then taking another communications class yeah I forget honestly that's honestly, that's ideal.

Speaker 1:

You know you should be off the grid and not worry about college right now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm not last semester I took a social media um communications kind of class uh-huh it was like we did like one of our projects on like instagram we did, oh, we uh, it's like we learned about like tv because my uh my professor is a broadcaster oh, yeah, yeah so like we did like a little bit about tv, about radio, about like like social media yeah, so that was a very interesting class. That's cool like I definitely enjoyed that and like I feel like having the knowledge from this job like that helped me like in some of my projects yeah, oh, for sure so like that was definitely interesting.

Speaker 2:

So I'm kind of hoping like I'm taking similar things like that, like I think the PR class, pr, I think will be interesting well I want to hopefully eventually like, do, like, uh, find an internship, like press conferences yes some like sort of that stuff, because I do like um public speaking yeah, like I've gotten told by professors that that's like one of my strong suits, so oh see, this is why it's good that we have you on the podcast.

Speaker 1:

Remember, you're scared to be on the podcast. I was scared but like I do, like public speaking, like I'm not really like camera shy.

Speaker 2:

I was more like scared that I'm gonna like blank and like actually have no clue what to say next.

Speaker 1:

But that's the beautiful part of podcasts is like there's literally no script it's just a conversation, it's literally I know that's how I prep some of my interviews. I'm're like what should we do? I was like honestly, I was like I have maybe four to five points prepared and that's it.

Speaker 2:

You're probably going to forget anyways, because we're just talking. Oh my God.

Speaker 1:

Even the other day I had a page and a half and I was like why did I prep all this? And I was like we're going to get to three of them and if that you Well, I was going to say PR You're kind of witnessing a PR nightmare unfold with the Coldplay concert, oh my gosh. So you don't want to talk about PR. That is crazy, which I feel like I mean I've been, I think, like very fortunate, like we haven't, you know, like had to do a lot of that in the Columbia mom. I don't envy anybody that's dealing with that crisis at the moment, but that is certainly one. I mean it's really like the post scene around the world, literally.

Speaker 2:

Um, yeah, I mean, no, that's like a crazy thing yeah, like when I I'm thinking of pr like have you ever seen like the show criminal lines?

Speaker 1:

yeah, yeah, like you know like jj uh-huh like the liaison yeah, that's like what I want to do.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I can see that like she like, handles it like she's like, yes, like I want to do that, yes, so well, and it's like because to be in that role it takes being like you have to know your shit.

Speaker 1:

You know what I mean. It's like knowing all the facts and it's the research it's you know. It's kind of knowing all the angles of it, right, and then having the right messaging to put out there. Yeah, but it also takes understanding the story and the pieces of it that go into it.

Speaker 2:

And I feel like, honestly, this job is also helps me with that. It that go into it. And I feel like, honestly, this job has also helped me with that because, like you know, when I'm doing like when I'm writing blogs, or when I'm like, uh, you know, putting in events or stuff like that, like I have to do the research, like I can't just, like you know, make it up like, yeah, you know, like I have to research what I'm writing about yeah, so like yeah and like I've learned to like enjoy researching that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2:

So yeah but I'm thinking, like you know, when I'm on a broader right like you know scale, yeah, like I kind of have like familiarity right with that kind of stuff yeah, which is nice well, you know what's interesting.

Speaker 1:

So, funny enough, um, I haven't released it yet, but there I recorded, um, a reel the other day. That's kind of just like off the cuff. I get these alerts because I have signed up with Baltimore Banner and I love getting my news from them. And I saw something it said Congress just passed the Recessions Act and like here's what you need to know, something like that. And I was like because it said breaking news, and I was like what does that mean? You know? I I mean it's hard to keep up with all the government stuff this year, but I don't know what, for whatever reason, I was like, huh, so what I did is I took a screenshot and I went to chat and I was like can you explain what this is like?

Speaker 1:

I had no idea what it is and so what it is is it's permanently ending the federal funding for um, like public broadcast media, so that's kind of like at the state level for, like Maryland public radio and television. So think of, like your programming, like PBS, some of those radio stations, some TV programming that's on like on your state and local levels. And so again, when I was asking chat this, you know it was like well, what does this mean? Who does this affect? Right, you know, it's kind of like thinking like OK, like, obviously, I think some like broad level initial thoughts, initial assumptions, like oh well, who listens to radio these days? I mean, I don't even listen to the radio that often. Right, I mean that's one type of medium. Right, I mean we've seen, for instance, print media, like newspapers, like mostly dissolved, but they've shifted, right, so we're talking about different platforms, different channels for media. Those are just some of them. So some of that it makes sense, because we're always evolving, we're always changing, and that's just part of life. That's just what happens with the landscape always evolving, we're always changing, and that's just part of life. That's just what happens with the landscape.

Speaker 1:

But I thought that what was interesting and this is why, like this is in no way a political post whatsoever, it's just I think it's important when we're talking about media because it kind of goes back to like our freedom of speech, our right to speech and our right and our rights with that, because, you know, being able to have um platforms and media abilities to put messages out there and put stories out there, um is very important and because you know there's a lot of you know, when you think about it from the top level, there's a lot of, like you know, organizations that have a lot of money that can heavily produce a lot of material that can get put out on the national and international levels. You know, you know organizations that have a lot of money that can heavily produce a lot of material that can get put out on the national and international levels. You know, you know whether it's TV or other other forms of media, right, but when you cut off a lifeline, not you know again, I don't have the actual research and stats on what you know that means what that looks like on the state and local levels.

Speaker 1:

But it is this idea, idea of that and the quote that stuck with me is that like when we um cut off our you know, when we lose our storytellers, we lose our stories. And, anyways, this is all coming from just this big old brain dump that I was like going down on chat and, of course, as again, like as an influencer. It struck me because, while I definitely have never identified myself as a journalist or broadcaster because that's obviously like not what I do yeah, but I was like, well, I love being able to highlight and showcase businesses and and find out their stories and share some of that um, which is kind of the purpose, of purpose of the podcast, because allows us to go a little bit deeper. Yeah, but anyways, from that like communications pr angle, that quote just keeps coming back to me and I think it's just it's it's kind of like the sticking point that I like want to make on, obviously on my platform, but that I don't want to get lost in this industry when things are evolving and moving so much.

Speaker 2:

you know what I mean I know that's like the tough thing is like yeah, like you, how you said, like the mediums, like everything changes. But right I don't know like the freedom of speech part is so important because like we're a democracy like people can't put out stories, then like, I mean, that's just, that's like america's bill on that. Like right people being able to like express what they want, obviously, to a certain extent.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

Right. Like they shouldn't be, like they should. They shouldn't not be allowed to.

Speaker 1:

Right? Well, it's the idea that, like we don't want media to be controlled by one entity, yeah Right, we have essentially to have a one sided creative Right People are supposed to be creative honest yeah, transparent, you know, like here are the facts.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, here's, you know, both sides, whatever, all sides you know, and that's that's my sticking point of like you know, in no way am I taking a political stance or whatsoever, but just simply saying that we, you know, I think it kind of just reminded me of like feeling like, yeah, like we do have a responsibility in this industry to, because it kind of it sticks on the point of like yes, we have a freedom of speech, right, but and I think it also goes back to like we might be the ones curating and creating some of these messages to put out there, but let's not forget that we are also the same people that consume it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, just to put out there but let's not forget that we're also the same people that consume it, and if we're the ones creating content, we always have to keep in mind our consumers, right? We talk about that in the business all the time, like when I'm trying to write a caption, I'm like, okay. And same thing when we're writing blogs, we're doing it in a couple different angles, right, because we're like trying to honor the client and make sure, okay, did I capture this correctly? Am, did I capture this correctly? Am I highlighting this? Did I get the points correctly? Making sure our research is correct. And then we're also trying to say it in a way that I'm like, okay, well, if I saw this post, what would make me stop and read it? Same with the blog, all of those pieces.

Speaker 1:

But anyways, going back to just that larger media concept of also our right to education. So I'm talking about we have the right to education, you know. So I'm talking about, like we have the right to have media that is open and free of controls and limits. You know what I mean. And that's just kind of like not my parting gift or wish for you, but like as you keep going in the field that you keep, you know, holding on to that and that I hope that that never gets you know squashed yeah, I know, I hope for the same right I know, I know I mean, obviously, like this recession's act, it's again it's a, it's affecting a what is probably a smaller well I say smaller, it's probably not all that small but, like you know, portion of media.

Speaker 1:

But like a lot of those things that are getting hit are like, again, more of those state and local um things that uh, won't allow people to put out different things on, like cultural programming, cultural education, I mean all kinds of different pieces that go into. Again, I am not an expert here. I definitely, you know, have not didn't go that far down with chat, gpt, but again, it's like knowing I was, like, I know, like these ripples don't, you know you might think, oh, it doesn't really affect me, but it affects our community, affects our neighborhoods in different ways that we might end up affecting, right, exactly because it goes down. And then when we talk about, like you know, we say things like interneation, like you know, people just need to learn maybe three.

Speaker 1:

Well, when you cut off media sources, you're cutting off our, our access yeah you know, and some of us are obviously more privileged, that have greater sources you know and access to certain things, and sometimes these free programmings might be the only thing that some of these people have as their source of news and education.

Speaker 2:

So when you cut off some of that, you're limiting their ability to stay informed and educated and make choices, which then hinders the country, because when people aren't educated, then that's like that's the next generation right, so it's like right it's just a bad cycle, right? Honestly, I mean yeah, I again.

Speaker 1:

I could go down a whole different rabbit hole, but anyways, um so, yeah, so you've taken some cool classes this coming fall. I think I feel like those calm ones will definitely be really interesting.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm excited'm excited for the sociology too. I took that in high school.

Speaker 1:

Oh okay. I took two sociology classes in college and I thought they were going to be a lot more interesting than they were.

Speaker 2:

I mean the one I took in high school. I had a good teacher, so I feel like that also makes or breaks the class. It always does. It always does.

Speaker 1:

We'll see. I mean I also liked my, so, my sorry, my psychology class is more than sociology. I mean I was excited for sociology because I thought they would be a little bit. I mean they are kind of, but it's like sociology is essentially like studying people and culture and communities and I mean it's it's still very cool. Yeah, um, but um, oh, you know, I was also thinking, because you mentioned broadcasting, um forgot about like how we had our experience going down to Great Day Washington. That was so cool for you to come. Do you ever think that you would like want to intern at like a tv station or something like in journalism, in that realm?

Speaker 2:

I used to want to like. I used to want to be like a journalist and yeah, this stuff. Like I took class like classes in high school for that, but I don't love like having to go up to people and like like asking questions and doing interviews and things like that right because, again, like I'm not like a crazy extra like I, I don't think I would want to do that yeah so like I don't know if I would, I don't know, like maybe um I I wouldn't mind, like being on tv yeah, kind of like reading the script, kind of thing but like or even supporting some of like the writers or doing some of the research with it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, writing the scripts, like that's something maybe I'd be interested in. Yeah, like I don't think like going out and like interviewing people yeah like I wouldn't want to be the journalist, kind of yeah yeah, no, I hear you well, and that's a whole different industry too, and the levels of that you know. There's so many pieces that go into that because it's like I'm sure, like I'm sure you'll probably take a class on that eventually. You know what I mean. Well, I guess journalism is its own major right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like I'm in the communications but like public relations track. That side okay, so like it's probably like there was the public relations track and then there was like the broadcasting track, so like I'm probably not going to take as many classes.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so you're calm like PR. Pr, yeah, yeah, okay, that makes sense. Pr, yeah, yeah, okay.

Speaker 2:

So that's like the classes I'm kind of taking, but like that's like because I don't mind broadcasting, but that's like not exactly what.

Speaker 1:

I want to do Right and I it's good to kind of like make those assumptions now, because broadcasting and journalism and communications and PR and marketing, like all five of those things I think that was five are all like, so different. Yes, they all like are necessary and they all kind of like you need all of them. Well, most times you need all of them, um, you know what I mean? Um, or they all just like they're all part of an ecosystem in a way, um, but yeah, they're all so different different.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, right, exactly, so I I can't see myself as much in the broadcasting journalism part of that.

Speaker 1:

Right, right, yeah. Well, it's a whole different grind too.

Speaker 2:

I feel like A journalist, you have to want that story, you have to want to get out there and get that, no matter what, I just honestly don't think I have that kind of thrill. Right, right, right.

Speaker 1:

And their hours are crazy. I want that 9 to 5.

Speaker 2:

I mean, mean shout out to our hard-working journalists and broadcasters.

Speaker 1:

Y'all are doing god's work um that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah hashtag, don't pick me you know, um, but I mean, yeah, it's always like really cool and exciting and y'all do some fabulous jobs, but, um, but yeah, no, I hear you well, and then, like what I mean you kind of talked about this a little bit more with, like pr, like, because again, I think that common pr is very different than marketing as a whole. Again, yeah, they're under the same. I guess, like you could argue that that's all under marketing, yeah, um, but but communications really goes into everything, really, because, like, it comes down to like, even communications goes into just every business, creating their brand voice, like knowing what your brand is, like what your mission statement, like that that's communications. Yeah, you know what I mean, because it's like what, like, what message is being put out there. You know what I mean, and you could argue then like that's marketing too, but it's like you got to know who you are before you even push the message out there and you have to know who you're talking to.

Speaker 2:

Like if I wanted to go into, like you know, public speaking or like doing press conferences, like I need to know my audience, like I need to know who. I'm speaking to when I'm writing a script or something, because I mean that's so important. Yeah, Things like that you have to take into consideration.

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah, no, there's so many pieces, well, and that's what I think, like you know, I guess, like you know, with working with us this summer, you gotten to see kind of like these different pieces, like again, you know, from the client side, from the consumer side, um, obviously, you've done, like I said, the admin support video.

Speaker 2:

I mean, we've hit a bunch of different angles at this point, which is awesome yeah, but like for us, like I have to know, like what I'm angling things to, like if it's like a client blog or if it's an evergreen blog like I have to like change the wording or change how I'm like writing it to the audience. Like that's like another, like important thing that I've learned from you know working for you.

Speaker 1:

Well, and it's funny, cause like um, I mean I I'll say this all the time. I'm like I need these captions and you're like that's what about it. I mean but, and we kind of talked this last week about, like when we were doing the assumptions and breaking those or like myths, that sort of thing, and I remember I mean I talk with this all the time because I'll go to chat, be like, can you just give me this caption real quick? And the chat's like well, like what is?

Speaker 2:

it.

Speaker 1:

You know what I mean like you know, yeah, I need this caption on gymnastics. But like what? Like we know this after doing this, like you know. But like what's the point? Right, like what's the angle here? What's the messaging? And then I get frustrated because I'm like well, I have two seconds and I want this done now.

Speaker 1:

But I realize I got to give this either you or chat like more input. But that's the whole point and like that's why we're paid to do what we do and that's why there is this whole industry as a whole, because there is so much that goes into it. Yeah, yeah, that's crazy. I know it makes my head hurt me too. I know it's why, by the end of the day, I probably scroll my phone.

Speaker 1:

I mean, obviously, like because it's my job, like I'm like it's my job, I'm just yeah, but it's like I get fried from either like writing, thinking of all these things, and then trying to also think of my random offshoot, like I say, my creative ideas, which is it's end up just being random shit that I create, make. Sometimes and again it's just throwing spaghetti at the wall. And that's the other side of it, like when you know. It's just like trying to come up with things and you're not always going to get it right, but you never stop creating yeah, yeah, you never stop writing it.

Speaker 2:

Just it's sometimes like you get lost in your own like head, like you have so many like sometimes, like I'll start one thing and then like you'll text me and you're like, okay, like let's do this. And then I'm like, okay, let's do that. And then I'm like, oh wait, what was I just doing? And then it's like you know, like, and then by the end of the day I actually like lay in my bed with the lights off and decompress what just happened, what is going on, I know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Just wait until you have kids and a dog and a thousand other activities and you're like I'm sorry what I know, I can't even think about that right now. No, soccer's enough for you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think. School, soccer and work. Yeah, exactly, I'm good.

Speaker 1:

You're good, you're very good, I know. Um well, thank you so much for all your time with us, emma, when it's not goodbye, it's just goodbye in person and um, for now, and obviously you'll see, you will still have her, you know, you'll still see her face and we're so grateful and, um, uh, we're so excited for you to kind of keep doing your thing out there and keep bringing your nuggets, that you, anything that's helpful or whatever these Gen Zers are saying that we need to do. We shall or we shall attempt here and there, but cheers to you and cheers for a great end of summer and a good start to sophomore year.

Speaker 2:

Thank you and thanks for being the best boss, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I'm the chaos coordinator. Let's just make that very clear. But we've we've loved having you. Yes thank you thanks for tuning in to this episode of mom talk, maryland. If you loved it, leave a review, share it with a friend or tag me at the dot columbia mom on instagram. I'd love to hear what you think and don't forget to follow the show so you never miss an episode. Until next time, keep showing up, keep supporting local and keep being the incredible mom, woman, human that you are.