Marketing Internship

During the Summer of 2019, I applied to a marketing internship at a non-profit organization named New Gateway Solutions. In the beginning, my goal as part of the marketing team was to utilize social media in order to attract more customers for startup companies. Although I had gained some knowledge in school about the different types of strategies that attract more customers, I still needed to learn how to apply these in a real-life setting. When I first started working with the team, we only had a few followers on our Instagram page and our start-up companies had only about 100 to 200 people interacting with the posts that we created. However, after several months of learning and applying different marketing strategies, we had a major improvement with our posts. In fact, we tripled the number of customer interactions with our social media platforms.

Having this in mind, our journey was definitely not easy, it required many hours of hard work and sleepless nights. Regardless, I was very proud that we surpassed our goal and I saw my hard work paying off. After several months of working with different companies, I was given the opportunity to be head of the marketing team. This meant that I was now responsible for presenting and supervising the marketing plan developed for our business. I am currently still head of our marketing team and we have helped a total of 10 companies reach more than 5,000 followers which have led to a drastic increase in sales with all of our products. All things considered, this internship has taught me that when you are truly passionate about something you can always accomplish whatever you set your mind into.

The Time I Got Free Tickets to Disneyland!

As a top seller of my store, one of the many expectations that come from obtaining that position is to make sure that I am always 10% of sales above my managers. This means that I have to make sure that I am building a loyal customer base through engagement. There was one time where I made a really deep connection with a customer. She was so impressed with my selling skills and my customer service skills that she went out of her way to call corporate so I could get some recognition. Several days went by and eventually, she came to the store specifically looking for me. She told me that she wanted to get small prices for an event that she was doing for her company. At first, her idea was to spend $30 to $50 per price, but then I showed her the new items that we have gotten that week and we turned that small transaction into a $2,000 sale. After getting several recognitions from different customers and consistently being the difference between achieving or not achieving our weekly goal; the district manager paid a visit at our store and that's when I was compensated with two free tickets for Disneyland to any day that I preferred. I’ve never been so happy to go to Disneyland, plus that weekend Starwars Land opened up for the first time ever!

10 Important Life Lessons

You miss 100% the chances that you don’t take: Sometimes the fear of the unknown keeps us from making a decision that could potentially help us improve in the future, but believe me when I say you can do it! It is better to try and maybe fail than never trying and not knowing if you could have succeeded.

Connect connect connect!: Building relationships everywhere you go is so important and has so many benefits. Through people, you can find better opportunities to grow and develop. You never know when you may need a letter recommendation, professional advice or overall just a friend that you can talk to.

Sleep: It’s something so basic but so important. Sleeping and resting will pay your dividends in the long run. When you don’t sleep or rest things like driving while your computer is on the rooftop of your car can happen.. (True story by the way!)

Traveling: I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to travel to different countries and explore their different cultures and sociological mindsets. Being aware of the different cultures that are present in this world can open your mind to new ideas and new opportunities to discover. So if you ever have the opportunity travel, travel, travel!

Take care of your health: Having healthier choices is so critical, especially at our age. Our health decisions reflect in our future, so make sure that you are eating all of your veggies and that you find a way to work out that is best for you.

Be grateful: Throughout our busy days, we tend to forget to thank the opportunities that life has given us. Sometimes we need to take a minute and really thank all of the people that support you; co-workers, friends, boyfriend/girlfriend, family, God and most importantly yourself.

Work at your own pace: Never compare yourself to others, we are all different and we all have our personal challenges. Take your time and don’t pressure yourself by what others have accomplished.

Good things don't come easy: I am a strong believer that working hard and giving your 100 to every aspect of your personal and professional life will always give you the best results.

Your reputation is everything: Be the person that you want people to see you as. Make sure that you are nice to everyone, make sure that you are always on time; you want people to see that you are a hardworking and reliable person. Trust me, the moment that they want someone for a better position or job they are definitely going to consider you as their top choices.

Never stop learning: It’s a cliche I know, you learn something new every day, but you truly do.