Building community (and better job opportunities) for creatives: Q&A with Shaunda Lambert of Creative Circle

The Editors
Jul 27, 2017 · 10 min read

Creative Circle is a preeminent staffing agency focused on serving advertising, marketing, digital, and interactive professionals in a freelance and full time capacity. For Shaunda Lambert, who manages community engagement, this means focusing on the candidate experience by helping creatives of all types to build skills, share experiences, and ultimately, find amazing jobs.

We sat down with Shaunda to get the full rundown on the tools, habits, and resources that help her be successful—not to mention a few tips for successfully managing a large, diverse community, and preparing for your next interview.

What does a typical day in your life look like?

To keep my work-life balance intact, I start every morning off the same, Monday through Friday. I wake up at 5:30 or 6 a.m., and I do 10–20 minutes of guided meditation using an app called Headspace. Instead of checking my email, I go to my app, I sit in my meditation chair — it’s in my room, and it’s low to the ground — and I turn on Headspace. I also have an aromatherapy humidifier, and I use different essential oils, and that sets the mood. Meditation definitely sets the tone for my day. I can tell the difference when I don’t do it, and when I do.

Shaunda Lambert

I like to get to work early, before everyone gets in. Creative Circle is a staffing agency, so it’s very high-volume and loud. I have to map out my day, so I like to come in around 7:30 or 8.

My tasks for the day to day range. My whole team is in LA. It’s a blessing and a curse, working remotely. The time difference can either be amazing—I get a lot of things done and I’m ahead of the curve — or it can mean I have to stay at work late. I don’t mind, but I think it’s very important—especially as a creative or someone working in the creative space—to be able to take a break from the 9-to-5 and have interests outside of work.

To map my day, I use my Outlook calendar. I also use a Passion Planner. It’s a planner that goes from Sunday to Sunday instead of Sunday to Monday. Sundays are typically the days you prep for work, whether it’s meal prepping or something like that, so I’m able to set my personal and professional goals at the beginning of the week and it helps me plan out my days. I used to have my work planner separate from my personal, but combining them really makes you evaluate your week.

What other tools do you use to get work done?

Outside of my Passion Planner, I have a notebook. Any meetings I have, I’m writing notes in that. For my todo list, I have a big sticky pad, and I make checkboxes for tasks. I also use my Outlook calendar, and I use Airtable.

At Creative Circle, the marketing team uses Airtable for all of our projects, but I also use it as my personal project management system. I write out the projects that I’m working on for the quarter, and I write in notes on what’s going on with each project and its progress. When it comes to the more granular day-to-day tasks, I write them down on a piece of paper, because it feels so good to scratch things off.

I use my cell phone as a resource too, since all my calendars are synced. I take my phone with me all over the office so I can be reminded of who I’m meeting with.

What are best practices for getting work done in your industry? Are there mistakes that newcomers to your industry make when they’re first getting started?

I always recommend time blocking. When I first entered the industry, I was doing events, so I was running around a like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to do five different things at one time. I eventually learned that time blocking is essential for me. I literally created a spreadsheet that was cut up into half an hour chunks. So for four or five weeks, I sat and wrote down where I was spending my time, and I was able to evaluate: “OK, you’re spending too much time here. You’re doing too many projects.” And it helped me.

Now I think it’s about prioritizing. People don’t prioritize their projects properly. They’ll focus on the projects they’re most excited about. But to ensure that you are satisfying every client that you’re working with, prioritizing and focusing correctly for each project is essential.

Prioritizing for me is time blocking out all my projects: making sure I’m spending the same amount of time on different projects, or making sure I’m spending the right amount of time.

A lot of people go wrong when they try to multitask. When you’re in an interview call or a just a meeting, you need to make sure you’re present on that call, that you’re super mindful. I used to try to send out emails during the call, and my name would be called, and they’d be like, “Shaunda, what do you think about this?” and I’d be like, “Uh…” People like mindfulness.

It’s also helpful having someone hold you accountable. A lot of peers on my team hold me accountable for the movement of my projects to make sure they’re coming along. You can ask your manager, or a peer: “Hey, can you be my accountability partner? I have this project going on, but I just want to make sure I’m staying on task. Can you just check in on me about this project?”

It definitely helps. You’re promising something to someone else, so you have to fulfill that — it’s just something about how the human brain works. I feel more pressure if I tell my boss I’m going to get this done in a certain timeline as opposed to if I tell myself I can get that done by the end of the week and then I procrastinate.

How do you stay on top of news and best practices for your industry?

I split my time up between personal development within my industry, and just staying on top of industry trends. I subscribe to 1–2 webinars a week to stay in the know about staffing industry trends, and advertising and marketing trends. I’ll go to Glassdoor, or Indeed. A lot of job board websites have awesome content and are facilitating webinars.

I also follow various publications: Adweek, Adage, AIGA, AAAA, AMA, etc. I’m also looking at just Twitter. I follow a lot of agencies, and a lot of our clients, just to see what content they’re releasing.

For myself, I read a lot of different types of books. Right now, I’m reading this book called Developmental Coaching, by Martin Sherrington. It’s a professional/personal development program for executives. We have a lot of difficult conversations, because we’re dealing with candidates that may be frustrated with our process, so I want to make sure I’m equipped with the best tools to be able to have those difficult conversations and consult with our candidates to be able to improve their experience. After working in staffing for three years, I can say that’s definitely an approach that you have to take.

Another book that I started is called More Human. It’s about designing a world where people come first, and I’m just starting it, but I love to read books like that. I rarely read fiction. I’m always into self-help books or personal development.

I also read through magazines. I’m always trying to read content and articles around our core jobs, like graphic designers, art directors, developers, trying to see what new technology or skill set they’re using. It helps that all my friends are all creatives, so I tap into them to keep me on top of everything when it comes to industry knowledge. At the end of the day, we’re releasing content to our audience through our blog as Creative Circle, so we have to make sure we’re talking about things that are trending, or that are necessary in our candidate experience.

What have you learned about interviewing during your time at Creative Circle?

It’s a personality thing. A lot of my time was spent phone interviewing people. That was toughest type of interview to have: screening to get a feel for them. To do that, ask broad questions like, “What are you looking for? What are your interests? What types of vertical do you want to work across?” And then ask basic questions: “What salary do you want?” etc.

But I would add a personable element to the call. So I think it’s very important for the interviewer to make the person feel comfortable. You’ll learn a lot more about the interviewee!

As an interviewee, especially when it comes to phone interviews and in-person interviews, you’ve just got to make sure you’re prepared. Whether it’s developing your thirty-second elevator pitch, or making sure you’re showcasing your best you. Our VP, Michael Weiss, is an amazing presenter — he’s done TED talks — and his advice is, before interviews, stand in front of the mirror and do the Superman pose. It’ll boost your confidence up so much. These are the types of things that I used to tell candidates to do — do your research about the client, ask a lot of questions, and show your personality, because it’s your personal brand. Your personal brand is essential.

Our process at Creative Circle is 30 minutes. Candidates come in for an interview. Our recruiters do a great job of doing a casual interview, but it’s also a chance for them to provide feedback to the candidate. We have some candidates come in so nervous, but by the end they feel so comfortable, and they are able to walk us through their work, or talk about their background. It takes practice. Interviewing takes practice from both sides. We try to tailor our content for both sides: interviewee and interviewer.

What are some of the best practices that you’ve learned for building community among people with very different roles?

One trick of the trade for me is to keep it high level when it comes to building the community, and you’ll see the community build themselves.

It’s difficult to speak to a creative audience, because being a creative can mean so many different things. A sculptor or fine artist can be a creative, or a graphic designer or developer or art director or account person can be a creative. So it’s actually doing a lot of research. I break our audience into personas. I’m looking at psychographics and demographics, I’m looking at who we staff for — because we staff junior to senior roles — and asking, “How do I create a conversation that can speak to all of them?”

Going back to Our Notebook, our blog, one thing I’ve learned is that creating content that’s generalized and very high level is super helpful to bring every type of creative to the table, whether that be resume basics, or interview basics. Not getting too granular or in the nitty-gritty. When facilitating social engagements like our Twitter live chat, for example, we make sure we keep the topics very high level, so any type of creative can feel like they can come and join in the conversation.

Everyone has a resume, whether you’re a physical therapist or a graphic designer. If we’re posing questions to the audience, saying, “OK, what are some of your resume dos and don’ts?” it generates a conversation. They are building that community by having that dialog, I’m just here to help facilitate and grow it. Through all my initiatives at Creative Circle, it’s always looking at the big picture, but also doing that core research on our core candidates and our core clients, and saying, “How can we cater to all?”

It’s a tough task, but I think we do a great job of capturing the bigger picture for our candidates.

Who are you most inspired by in your industry, either individuals or organizations?

I get inspiration from my candidates. It’s sappy, but I get inspired just knowing that we’re helping people get jobs. I’m also inspired by peoples’ stories. To see their growth! I’ve been here for three years, and I’m still in contact with some candidates that I met at a portfolio review a month after they graduated— but now they’re an art director at their favorite agency! Those are the stories I look for and this is why they inspire me. The creatives inspire me and make me passionate about what I’m doing.

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The Editors

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We’re the editors for Creators and Creatives. Follow our publication at: https://creatorsandcreatives.com/

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