We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Victoria Zelefsky. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Victoria below.

Alright, Victoria thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

As a classically trained opera singer with both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in vocal performance, it’s safe to say that I did not study marketing and communications at school. Learning the craft of digital marketing, copywriting, and navigating press and communications strategies was initially foreign to me. I found my very first job in marketing on Craigslist when I was living in Europe in 2015 and looking for extra income and I began creating social media content calendars for Marriott Hotels through a digital marketing firm. I quickly learned that my type-a brain loved the structure of planned content calendars and my creative side loved crafting unique and eye-catching content and this one open door led me down a path of freelance work and trial and error marketing.

At first, I kept pursuing a music career and had multiple side gigs in marketing and writing, but the more I worked in that world, the more I loved it and I can truly say I have learned all the skills I have today from self-educating with online tutorials and classes and raising my hand and doing the work. Knowing what I know now, I still think I would have continued to say yes to all the opportunities that came my way, especially in the beginning, but I may have been more strategic about the trainings I took in my spare time. There are so many amazing free courses online that can teach the skills needed for each expression of marketing and I highly encourage people entering the industry to make time to continue learning.

The most essential skills for a successful marketer are time management and organization and it’s important to master tools and platforms early on so you can do quick creative work. Time is always an obstacle, but if you can organize a social media content calendar and strategic marketing plan, then you can build time into your schedule for continuing education and projects that stretch you creatively.

Victoria, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Over the past decade I have transitioned from being a dedicated opera singer, pursuing an international career in vocal performance to building a career in marketing, leading growth campaigns and building multi-channel digital strategies for multi-million-dollar companies and a writer for international and national publications including Forbes and Hotels.com. It has been quite the journey that led from from the theatre to the creative world of marketing and it has been the determination and grit that I learned in the competitive world of music that has led me to a high-growth career in marketing that is incredibly rewarding.

As a freelancer, I specialize in crafting marketing strategies for brands and SEO-driven, keyword-focused copywriting. I have been a contributing writer for Hotels.com since early 2020, and am a proud member of the invitation-only Forbes Communications Council where I appear often as a featured writer and expert panelist.

When I think back on where I started and how I got to where I am today, I am most proud of my determination and hustle. Every time I get “knocked down”, I jump back up and am eager to find my next opportunity. When I was diagnosed with vocal nodules during graduate school and realized a career in opera wasn’t as attainable as it once was, I quickly pivoted to finding creative outlets and fell in love with the world of marketing. When I was furloughed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic from my comfortable job at Johns Hopkins University, I immediately joined Upwork and applied for over 100 jobs within my first month of unemployment, saying yes to every opportunity. While writing city ghost tours, designing PPTs for tech firms, and building websites weren’t things I knew well, I was eager to learn and turned a dire situation into an avenue for opportunity. When I returned to work at the university I knew the world remained uncertain and I wasn’t willing to sit idle. I applied for dozens of jobs every week, jobs that were seemingly out of reach and a step up in my career and took the best opportunity that came my way as the Director of Marketing and Communications for a real estate company in Washington, DC, a job I still proudly hold to this day!

While much of what I have learned has come from self-education, taking low-paid opportunities that may not have been in my best interest, and from always saying “yes”, I wouldn’t trade it for the world as it brought me to where I am today. The sky is the limit and I am only getting started!

Have you ever had to pivot?

As many other people had to, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically affected my life and made me have to pivot in ways both professionally and personally that I couldn’t have predicted. I was going into my third year as the marketing manager for a large food service company and oversaw marketing at three college campuses including Johns Hopkins University. I was excited about working for a large corporation and for the prospect of moving into a regional marketing role when the pandemic shut down universities and my entire team was furloughed overnight. I took this opportunity to identify the skills I knew I needed to work on, and I began applying for low-paid and short-term opportunities that made me focus on those skills. I figured, if I could get paid even minimally to become better at things I knew I struggled at (specifically SEO, website building, and long-form writing), it would be worth my time – and boy did it pay off!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being creative?

Measuring ROI in marketing can be extremely tricky. Unlike sales, there often aren’t finite numbers or statistics to turn to when it comes to tracking performance of marketing campaigns and this is often discouraging for many. For me, I have adjusted my measure of success to be more about the story and impact of the creative campaigns I run / manage / collaborate on and the most rewarding aspect is hearing from others how they were affected by the work that was created. Going from visualization and brainstorming to finished products that make people feel a certain way or influence them to purchase something, is easily the most rewarding part of marketing for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://victoriazelefsky.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victoriazelefsky/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriazelefsky
• Other: https://profiles.forbes.com/members/comm/profile/Victoria-Zelefsky-Director-Brand-Communications-The-Menkiti-Group/046ff04a-bfca-4213-abe2-6aaf56e98a6e