I’ve spent years building my story; overcoming challenges, learning and educating myself, helping others wherever I can, so here’s a little insight into me – the face behind You and Your Story!
The only way is up
I knew I wanted to work with people when I was fired from my first part time job during college in a discount store for being too quiet! (If you know me, I’m sure you will be thinking, ‘Reena – too quiet?’) Nonetheless, it was a revelation that really got me thinking. Ever since school, I had always been described as quietly confident, conscientious, reliable, and hardworking so being told I wasn’t right for a customer facing role really hit me hard.
I realised my first job needed me to show more of my personality. Being an introvert, I needed to find a way to communicate effectively and interact with people more than I was doing. Essentially, I needed to market myself better! I know this was quite a deep concept for a 16-year-old, but that realisation helped me massively. Within weeks I was hired by Debenhams as a Customer Services Assistant because of my personality so my strategy definitely worked!
What did I change?
Nothing. I continued to be me, observing the situation and thinking about what I wanted to say before saying it. The difference was – I actually said what I wanted to say this time. I made a conscious effort to interact and engage with more people and found myself naturally becoming a people person.
To this day I still go through the same thought processes and techniques, although it’s much easier and quicker now.
Marketing and psychology
My fascination with how people react to certain things helped me to understand them better. I became very interested in why people make the decisions they did, especially when it came to marketing. I enjoyed learning about businesses and loved studying marketing because it helped me dig further into the consumer’s mind. Over the years this proved incredibly useful in my marketing roles and helped me to decipher and deliver what customers want.
I’ve learnt so much from all the places I’ve worked and the industries I’ve worked in. This includes making sure the Backhoe Loaders were spotless during photoshoots at Caterpillar, figuring out whether a hole in the Belvoir To Let boards would whistle in the wind, and running data capture competitions for the humble Spork at Police Mutual. That’s not all though – I continue to learn from my friends, family and all of those around me.
Onwards and upwards
To this day, I am still described as quietly confident and reliable, but a few more names have been thrown into the mix. Silent Ninja and Smiling Rottweiler are just a couple! Nowadays I embrace these names and shout with pride: it’s who I am – it’s my story!
If you need a Marketing Ninja to help you tell your story, let’s talk…