Content creation and branding, Part Deux

In part two of this two-part series, an anthropologically-trained book coach (me!) and an anthropologically-trained career strategist (Amy Santee) continue the conversation about best practices for professionals establishing expertise and credibility to get their ideas out into the world.

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Amy G: How did you arrive at career coaching from anthropology?

Amy S: Anthropology is the formalized study of the human experience—past, present, and future—and the application of this knowledge to solve real-world problems. I was never an academic anthropologist, but my training has been fundamental as an applied practitioner and in my roles as a user experience researcher, small business owner, and coach.

What excites me most is doing work that is focused on understanding humans, their experiences, and their brains, and gleaning insights and clarity that can be used for inspiration, decision making, and improving the world. Anthropologist and writer Zora Neale Hurston once said, “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” That’s my career in a nutshell. 

I spent about a decade doing research for product design, otherwise known as user experience. My job was to learn about the experiences and perspectives of the people who use a product or service and incorporate this knowledge into product development and business strategy. Eventually, I decided to pivot from research consulting into coaching, partnering with people in a collaborative effort to make progress toward their personal and professional goals. This not-insignificant shift came about organically as the result of knowing myself well, and paying careful attention to my strengths, values, interests, preferred lifestyle, and desire for impact.

Amy G: Who are your clients, and what do you help them with? 

Amy S: My clients are all current or aspiring user experience professionals, including researchers, designers, content strategists, managers, and other specialists. They fall into two basic categories. Most of the people I work with are looking for a job they’ll love. These are academics going into industry, people transitioning from related fields, and seasoned practitioners. I help them get strategic and intentional about how they approach their job search to accelerate progress and find a role and company that’s truly a good fit.  

The second group consists of folks who are looking for some kind of clarity, direction, and confidence in decision-making and charting a path forward. I do a mix of tactical and strategic work to help people chart a career path, deal with toxic work environments, go up for promotion, or decide if they want to quit their well-paid job at Google. I play a lot of roles—thought partner, coach, advisor, advocate, sounding board, listener, challenger, and confidant. 

Amy G: Something our clients have in common is the desire to get their ideas into the world, which involves figuring out what they want to be known for, who their audience is, and the most relevant platforms or media to use. How do you help people with this?

Amy S: Everyone has something interesting to say, no matter where they’re at in their professional journey. Usually what I see is that people have ideas they want to get out there, but they’re scared to take the leap, or they just aren’t sure where to get started. They might not be used to sharing in public and are concerned about their ideas being picked apart. Or, they are well versed in writing journal articles and giving conference talks, but they aren’t accustomed to non-academic communication formats like visual presentations, audio, or video. They may not be familiar with the functionality and culture of platforms like LinkedIn. 

I encourage those who are wary to get outside of their comfort zone and start with baby steps. If you want to post something on LinkedIn, begin by commenting on other people’s posts. Get a feel for what it’s like to have a public conversation. Look at it as an experiment and an iterative process. Build your confidence. And you want to concurrently build your network so that as you begin posting, there are people around to engage. Otherwise, your efforts will get lost in the algorithm, which assesses how “interesting” your content is based on the amount of interaction it gets. Comments and conversations are indicative of quality and are worth more than a simple “like” or “share”. Your content and your network go hand in hand toward building credibility and bringing professional opportunities your way. If you need some inspiration for content ideas, check out this list I put together with 100 prompts for community conversation.

Amy G: Can you share a couple of examples of people you think have done this particularly well?

Amy S: Yes! I have a past client whose story is my go-to for illustrating the benefits of putting yourself and your ideas out into the world. Emily DiLeo and I began working together about a year and a half ago when she decided to transition from her work as an academic archivist into user experience research. She has a fascinating background, including a Master’s and PhD in ethnomusicology, and a Master’s of Library and Information Science with a focus on archives management. She’s worked in several university libraries, has taught ESL and music, and even worked as a union steward and board member! 

While we were working on her job search strategy and related activities like her resume, interview prep, and portfolio presentation, we discussed how she might go about sharing her unique perspective as it relates to UX. After a couple of drafts, Emily posted her first article on Medium: Why UX research needs archivists. It’s not this long drawn out thing either—just a short essay explaining why archivists are qualified to create and manage repositories for research studies within organizations. 

The post landed her a job offer from Thomson Reuters a week later. How? After sharing it on LinkedIn (see the original post here), her future boss happened to come across it via a comment from a mutual connection. She just happened to be looking for someone exactly like Emily for a research repository and operations role. When Emily’s contract ended after a few months, it didn’t take long to find her next role. By then, she was comfortable commenting and posting content, and had also made inroads into the practitioner community by speaking at conferences, guesting on podcasts and blogs, and contributing to projects to advance the field. She’s really done a stellar job on making this happen for herself in just over a year’s time. I wouldn’t be surprised if one day she writes a book about the burgeoning field of research operations.

My second example is personal. Right after I got out of grad school in 2011, I started a blog called Anthropologizing. As I discuss in this interview, I started it just to have a place to think out loud about practicing anthropology and figuring out my career. I stuck with these themes over time, in addition to writing about working in design and business, and some personal topics here and there. It was a place to reflect, process, experiment, and share. I’ve discontinued this blog, so now it’s an archive of the first phase of my post-education life. 

My new blog on my coaching site is primarily focused on career topics and updates about my professional activities (podcasts, talks, projects, etc.) I’ve implemented a different thinking and writing process than the one I used for Anthropologizing. What I do is post something on LinkedIn to start a conversation. Then after letting it sit for a while, I create a revised piece for my blog, which goes out to subscribers. I’ve been on LinkedIn for 12 years—it’s where I hang out with my professional community, and it’s led to countless professional opportunities that I never could have predicted. I aim to share ideas that are relevant, timely, actionable, and of general value to my audience, and to engage in a way that’s intentional, proactive, authentic, original, professional, personal, and targeted. The more boxes I can check off, the higher quality my posts will be, which means better engagement, and better outcomes for my professional and business goals as a coach. I estimate that about 50% of my clients come from LinkedIn, not because they search for a coach, but because they come across my posts, and see my comments on other people’s posts. I don’t use any other social media, because this is where my people are. 

Amy G: How can people get in touch if they’d like to explore working with you?

Amy S: Check out my website for more info on my coaching services, and come hang out with me on LinkedIn!

Amy Santee (she/her) is a Career Strategist and Coach for user experience professionals who want to design their careers with intention and bring their good to the world. As a personal growth nerd, Amy loves partnering with individuals on their job search strategy to accelerate progress and find jobs they love, and guiding people toward self-insight so they make decisions with confidence. Prior to coaching, Amy built a career as a UX researcher for product development and strategy with all flavors of organizations. In her free time, she enjoys weight training, birding, gardening, and exploring the outdoors of the Pacific Northwest.

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I hope you enjoyed this collaboration. What advice will you implement to get your ideas out into the world? I’d love to hear from you.