We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jacien Bass. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jacien Bass below.
Jacien, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Success means different things to different individuals. But in my opinion, when you enjoy what you do, when you can do it on your terms and when you feel good about the work that you put into the world, you are successful. As someone who is in a leadership role, you have to be willing to surround yourself with people who know more about certain things than you do, and trust them to help provide solutions to challenges that you may face along the way. To be successful, you have to understand that failure is just an opportunity to pivot. If you’re willing to face difficult situations head on, most times you will come out with a renewed perspective. I often find that my ability to see the opportunity in an otherwise less than ideal situation, keeps me focused on the bigger picture. I equate success with providing value first and foremost. Doing so enables all the other pieces to come together in a beautiful way. To be successful, you have to put in the work, trust the process, and problem solve.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I got into this industry by participating in a handful of internship roles in college. It was during that phase of my life that I was able to learn so much, not just about my industry but about business overall. There were certain things that I admired about the people I had the opportunity to work closely with in those early stages and there were other things that I knew I never wanted to tolerate again. I took those lessons and created a clear vision of who I wanted to be, how I wanted to be treated and how I would treat others, especially employees and clients. Not only did this vision shape the nature of my business, but it defined how I would run it. Providing value first and foremost and being very selective in who I work with is what has set us apart from others. We are passionate about the clients we serve because they are making a difference in their communities. We care about their work & it shows in ours. In addition to creating and maintaining an online presence, for brands, I also train marketing teams & help them create an internal blueprint to build authority and maintain a strong reputation in the digital space. Often times, companies have the talent and the resources necessary to execute on a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, they just don’t know where to start and how to manage it. This is my specialty.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I am naturally a people person and that has been helpful in building my reputation, but early on in my career I understood the power of social media. I have never been one to post highly personal content and have generally stuck to an “all business” frame of reference because I knew that it would be beneficial for me in the long run. Social media is a great tool to build authority as an expert and even though I use the term “all business” my content is very unique to me. Content is the global form of online currency and you have to be authentic in your message so that it resonates with the right audience. Contrary to popular belief, the quantity of content that you produce is far less important than the quality of it. I’m never afraid to put something out there for fear of it being less than perfect because I know that the information is valuable and reliable. In fact, I have found that this approach makes me more relatable and subsequently a trusted resource within my market. Provide value, be authentic and don’t allow the desire for perfection keep you from sharing your message with the world.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
First of all, pay your people what they are worth. Greed is so real and that shouldn’t be your legacy. In addition client retention bonuses are a great incentive for high morale, especially if you’ve had the same clients for years. Second, boundaries. Unless its written in their employment agreement, don’t expect your employees to answer you on nights and weekends. People have lives outside of work. We work to live, we don’t live to work. Also adjust your expectations and be a resource. The best managers are mentors. I once worked for an agency who expected me to answer slack messages, emails, write content, and create ads all within the same hour. Context switching is a killer of productivity and will lead to burnout & resentment very quickly. Organization and priorities start at the top, act accordingly. Lastly, be kind! Say thank you, add birthdays to your calendar, and say good morning before you dive right into your requests.
As an added tidbit of wisdom, use your lessons from past experiences and do your best not to emulate any manager that left a poor impression on you in the past. (We’ve all been there.)
Contact Info:
- Website: http://jacienbassllc.com/
- Instagram: @jacien93
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jacien.bass
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacienbass/