ISDI Student Spotlight ft. Viviana Talledo
In this weekly series, we’ll be highlighting the student journeys and accomplishments of our future leaders in digital business.
This week we feature Viviana, an SEO savant whose love for digital and internet business lead her straight to ISDI. Read on to find out more about Viviana!
- Tell us a little bit about your background and why you decided to make ISDI a part of your journey?
I have a masters certifications in SEO and web analytics and and have worked in this area for over 6 years.
Although I love SEO and analytics, I wanted to learn more about the entire digital business environment, so I started looking for MBAs in digital marketing. I had been searching for over a year but I couldn’t find the kind of program I was looking for, but then a friend in the class told me about ISDI Digital University. Once I researched the curriculum and found out who was involved I knew it was exactly the kind of program I was looking for and signed up.
2. If your friends and family had to use 3 words to describe you what would they be?
Persistent — when I have a goal I always complete it no matter how challenging
Funny — I make my family and friends laugh
Caring — I just love other people
3. What is your proudest work accomplishment? Life accomplishment?
Work: In the past few years I feel extremely proud when someone emails/calls me about advice in the digital realm, especially in SEO.
In a worldwide company people often turn to me for advice I feel like my voice is heard. It’s great to have that feeling of trust in my craft but I want to go even further and be a Director one day.
Life: I have a beautiful family, I have 2 little boys, my husband, and I have almost completed my second Master’s.
4. What is a surprising fact not many people know about you or something you wish more people knew about you?
It was very hard for me as an immigrant to complete my bachelor’s with English as my second language. I learned English here in America a few years back and through hard work and persistence I learned one of the biggest challenges for an immigrant in the work environment was giving speeches and comprehensive arguments in English.
I like challenge so when I see it, I work harder to make it happen that’s why I’m at ISDI now!
5. If you had to write a book about something, and you knew it would be an all time best seller (as in this message would be seen by millions of people) what would it be and why?
I would write about the importance of digital in a business environment. We see many businesses focusing on different marketing strategies but getting behind the use of digital as the main channel of engagement with their customers still is rare in this day in age. Digital is the new era and customers expectations are higher than ever before, we as marketers need to be loud and proud and educate businesses about the importance of reshaping the businesses models to focus on digital first.
So in this book, I would make an argument how much technology can make business change for the better and educate people this is the way to do business in the 21st century.
6. If you decided to start a business tomorrow what would it be and why?
A shoe store — because I love shoes!
Seriously I do love shoes, but I’d actually want to start a business as a consultant. My friend asked me if I wanted to help her start a business, it’d have a digital first product like an eCommerce site or mobile app.
7. What is a piece of advice you’d give to the younger version of yourself?
Education is very important but one of the things I learned after completing my Bachelor’s is just because you have the education doesn’t mean you are qualified for roles related to your education. You also have to have tons of relevant work experience so always try to get internships, talk to your boss, talk to your advisors, and see the best way for you to get into a company. Ask your higher ups to get to know your goals and ask ‘What else can I do?’, it will open a lot of different doors for you.
8. What is a product, service, company, book, activity you WOM (word of mouth) advertise all the time to family and friends?
I always talk about how amazing Amazon is to people. I have been using their platform for over 12 years and watching how their business model evolved to always have the customer in mind is incredible.
They always do A/B testing to better the customer experience as it’s one of their top priorities and that’s one of the reasons why they’ve been so successful so I love and use it almost every day.
9. What technological innovation are you most excited about in the coming decades?
I am very excited about AI because it’s going to effect all different aspects of marketing and internet business. Working in SEO and I always have to be on top of what Google does to change it’s ranking priorities and it’s amazing to see how much Google’s search engine has changed now working with AI.
10. Give us a digital tip or trick you’ve learned at ISDI!
I’ve learned so much! One tip is to push yourself to be more assertive and ask questions. I try to push myself even though I don’t like speaking in public. Even if question is ‘wrong’, a lot of other students and people in the room may be thinking the same thing — so just ask!
Thanks for joining us on our Student Spotlight Series! For more ISDI blog posts written by our amazing students and our esteemed academic board, check them out at our ISDI Blog here.
Student Spotlight Series: Danette Mashkoori
Student Spotlight Series: Pam O’Brien Betts
Student Spotlight Series: Nicolette Song
Student Spotlight Series: Mandy Llerena
Student Spotlight Series: Steve Schrepferman
Student Spotlight Series: Elizabeth Vasquez
Student Spotlight Series: Matt Reyes
Student Spotlight Series: Georgiya Yoveva
Student Spotlight: Julian Vanderhost
Student Spotlight: Danny Bozzuto
Student Spotlight: Kristine Webb
Student Spotlight: Nion Nawbatt
Student Spotlight: Andy Wright
