Professionals and college students are encouraged to have a LinkedIn account, but why is it important? Let’s dive into three main reasons why a LinkedIn account will help your career!

Build Connections

LinkedIn is an excellent place for networking with other professionals. Your LinkedIn connections can be people from all aspects of your life, whether you went to school together, met at a networking event, or worked for the same company. These connections are a great way to stay in touch with your colleagues without keeping track of dozens of business cards, emailing back and forth, and playing phone tag. Building a solid network of connections is a benefit when searching for advice, a new position, or a change in your career.

Create Your Brand

Because LinkedIn is the first place many people look when hiring or recruiting talent, it is essential to have a robust profile that accurately portrays who you are. LinkedIn profiles are an extension of your brand where you can share examples of your work, highlight your digital portfolio, and showcase your resume. By developing a personal brand, you increase your visibility as an individual and raise awareness of your company’s profile.

Demonstrate Your Expertise

By writing and sharing articles on LinkedIn, you establish yourself as a knowledgeable professional in your industry. Your expertise can be demonstrated through recommendations and endorsements from your connections, as this shows that you have other experts backing up the skills you claim to have. In addition, connecting with professionals in your industry demonstrates your professionalism. 

LinkedIn is a great platform. We want to know, are you ready to start your professional profile? 

Have you met our intern Jacie yet? We continue to learn so much from Jacie during her time with us at Frances Roy and this week we invited her on the Hello Frances Podcast to introduce her! In this episode, Jacie shares what made her pursue a career in communications, her future career plans, her favorite projects she’s worked on at the agency, and more. Listen to the full episode and leave some advice or words of encouragement for Jacie for her next endeavor! 

As Earth Day approaches, we all can do our part in protecting this beautiful planet that we call home. Here we rounded up what you can do to celebrate Earth Day along Florida's Emerald Coast. 

Support Audubon Florida and the Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance.  

Audubon Florida is the state's most influential conservation organization and fights year-round to ensure our area remains a place for people to enjoy natural beauty and wildlife for generations to come. Consider becoming a monthly donor or volunteering your time and talents to support them. This nonprofit relies heavily on the assistance of people like you who want to advocate for protecting land, water, and wildlife and help conserve our natural resources. 

The Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance is a local nonprofit organization responsible for sustaining healthy local waterways through monitoring, education, restoration, and research. Living shorelines to invasive species removal, CBA strives to improve swimmable, fishable waterways in our community. Support CBA by donating or volunteering your time to help sustain our beautiful waterways. 

Shop with Avantgarde. 

Not all acts to help our planet need to be extravagant. Consider your daily routine and pinpoint improvements you can make that add up to significant changes over time. For example, do you use clean skincare, haircare, and body care? If not, switch out toxic items for clean cruelty-free products you can find locally at Avantgarde Salon in Destin or Niceville. Caring for the planet is at the heart of their mission, and they pride themselves on clean, cruelty-free, vegan ingredients, recycled packaging, responsible manufacturing and sourcing, and more. 

Learn about Our Environment at Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge

Learn about sustainability, and get up close with animals. The Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge will host a family-friendly Earth Day celebration on April 16th from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. All day you will get a chance to learn about marine mammals, recycling, wildlife rehabilitation, and how you can make a difference in our community! Learn more about the event here. 

Do you have additional ideas on how we can help our piece of paradise? Share them with us in the comments below!

Shantelle recently read an article in her alma mater ASU’s Thrive Magazine that reminded her of something she needed to hear. In this episode, Shantelle shares her insight from the article written by May Busch, the former COO of Morgan Stanley Europe. In the article, May shares the 3 Cs you should avoid at all stages of your career - comparison, competition, and conflict. Shantelle breaks down what May wrote about all three pitfalls and shares her perspective on how the three Cs have impacted her career. Have you read any great articles lately? Share them with us at he***@********oy.com. 

While reading this book, my mind kept going back to Siegfried & Roy. Maybe that’s the Type 8 in me, but my memory of the duo was that a tiger ate someone. Period. Roy was mauled and drug offstage by his tiger, Mantacore, but I guarantee most people remember Roy dying in this “accident.” The truth is, Roy died in 2020 from COVID-19 complications. 

Plot twist. 

Herding creative tigers is not for everyone, but it certainly can be done. Creatives are brilliant, more intelligent than you and me but let’s be honest; they aren’t slitting throats here. In my experience, creativity thrives in environments where strong leadership strives, and Todd Henry’s book only affirmed this experience. 

Here is what sticks with me:

“As the leader of the team, you’re holding the loaded gun…Put your loaded gun away.”

Be hyper-aware of your ability to forecast and change the weather. Self-awareness has taught me that my personality and mood set the tone. I can change the temperature in my workspace quickly, and it’s bullshit to walk around like I am entitled to this like a superpower. Lead with transparency; hoarding information is a passive-aggressive power move, and it sucks for your team.

“When you do the work, the capacity of your team never scales beyond you.”

Ok, Henry - I agree, but I counterpoint that this is slightly different for owners/leaders. Most of us started by doing the work, and letting this go isn’t easy. It must be done, however, and as quickly as you can. I remain a work in progress, but I’m getting there - I want Frances Roy to thrive, and it will reach a ceiling if I do not step out of the way. 

“By showing that you recognize your mistakes, your team will see that you aren’t wearing blinders.”

Everyone hates making mistakes - creatives detest making mistakes, and leaders like to pretend they never make mistakes. What an arena. The pendulum swings from an absolute failure to creating something that isn’t a preference. Failures are critical, and owning mine is a daily practice I try to do in front of my team of tigers. I’m comfortable with their mistakes, and I’ll have their backs through every mistake they make. 

“Never violate your personal ethics in order to achieve temporal gain. It’s not worth it.”

Mentors need mentors, and leaders need leadership. I have no idea how other leaders lead without guidance, and I’m not going to try it. Seek counsel at every possible opportunity. No one thinks you know everything because you don’t. Find your value center, plant your feet, and build an army of stronger and smarter people around you. Then go to war. 

In this episode of the Hello Frances Podcast, Shantelle and Hillaree discuss a leadership book they recently read called Herding Tigers: Be The Leader That Creative People Need by Todd Henry. In learning about piloting creative teams, Shantelle and Hillaree share their biggest takeaways from the book. Topics include building and sustaining trust, creating stability, personal ethics, and more. If you’d like to read it too, check out this free workbook that accompanies the book. 

Here at Frances Roy, we seek motivation and inspiration through books, movies, podcasts, music, magazines, blogs, and so forth. Creativity presents itself in many forms and we harness that creativity through these exposures. By sharing our team RWL’s with you, we hope to extend this inspiration and offer it as a platform for contagious creativity. As we present our individual RWL’s, we ask you to share your own RWL’s with us. Where do you find creative inspiration?  

Shantelle P. Dedicke, CMP 
President/Chief Creative Officer

Hillaree Durso, Senior Director of Content & Marketing 
R: Herding Tigers by Todd Henry & FRA Emails
W: Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy
L: Ray LaMontagne

Janae Erickson, Art Director

Kelsey Doar, Marketing Manager 

Jodie Warner, Research Coordinator 

Have you checked out Adobe Creative Cloud Express? In a previous episode, we talked about Canva, a great design tool for those who are not graphic designers. In this week's episode, Design & Content Coordinator Kayla Koger breaks down Adobe’s similar product Adobe Creative Cloud Express. This new tool is easier to use than Adobe Creative Clouds' other design products, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Kayla breaks down the Express features and shares the different options available for your business. Have questions for Kayla? Email us at he***@********oy.com. If you use Adobe Creative Cloud Express, let us know your favorite features! 

As we make our way through 2022, we quickly learn that some things make event planning easier. Our team finds solutions and tactics for each of our clients to help navigate through event planning. The result? We uncovered these top three tips your business should consider when planning an event.

Research Your Tools

Event planning is easier with tools for event aspects such as registration or team management. For events with limited tickets or required registration, use tools like Eventbrite or Whova to help keep track of sales and streamline event check-in. When planning events, you collaborate with your team to accomplish tasks; therefore, a team management tool like Trello or Monday will help keep everyone on the same page. By researching the tools that will fit your business best, you’re one step closer to a successful event!

Be Creative with Digital Content

Digital content continues to evolve in its placement, display, and absorption year after year. Seize a chance to have fun and be creative with your content through polls, surveys, live videos, and more! Always be mindful of your brand’s voice and tone when picking what content to promote your event, whether on social media or through other forms of digital media. Consider content that is easily shareable, relevant, and engaging for your audience to help get the word out about your upcoming event!

Know How to Plan a Hybrid Event

We’ve seen many live events successfully shift to hybrid formats to allow guests to attend virtually or in-person. This flexibility allows guests to attend your event, whether it is out of personal preference to go virtually or because the physical location is too far for them to attend. By having the tools and procedures ready to go hybrid for events, you can save live events from canceling or low attendance by offering a virtual experience.

What new ideas or tools are you implementing into your event planning for 2022?

When so much is going on in the world around you, it’s easy to feel helpless, out of control, and overwhelmed. In this episode of the Hello Frances Podcast, Shantelle shares three things she does to help her get through the days when it seems nearly impossible. Listen to the full episode for practices you can implement into your daily routine to help find balance when the issues around you feel much bigger than anything you can solve. What do you do to stay grounded when things feel out of control? Let us know in the comments!