Mar 10

Mar 10 Jo and Jacqs Career FAQ’s

We are SO excited for you guys to read this blog post because we feel like we get nonstop questions about our careers - how to career plan, how to stay healthy while having a job, and a whole bunch of other questions that we’ve finally put together here! We’ve preached on our platform many times that we have careers outside of managing Sweat and Tell, and this will hopefully break it all down for you. One of our key missions for S&T is showing you how to fit health and wellness into your everyday life, it doesn’t need to be your WHOLE life. We wanted to give the full recap on what we do outside of Instagram, which many of the new faces probably don’t know!

We’ll walk through our career paths, FAQ’s and some tips we have to be successful no matter what your job or career path is. As always, let us know if you guys have any questions!

What do both of you do full-time?

Jo - I’ve been in sales at a software (CRM) company for almost 1.5 years now. Prior to my current job, I worked at Houzz for over two years in a sales role as well.

Jacqs - I’m currently pursuing my MBA online (was previously working at Houzz too!) and am now in the process of looking for marketing jobs in Nashville.

What are your favorite things about working in a sales role?

The autonomy to manage how you go about your day and being the primary driver to your success is one of the main benefits of being in a sales role. It is up to you to structure your day to be as productive and efficient as possible. Furthermore, there is definitely a sink or swim mentality in most selling roles so if you are competitive and enjoy goal setting, it can be really rewarding (and you can make a lot of money!)

One of the most important things in sales is to sell something you genuinely believe in and that can positively impact people/businesses. You need to have passion. Sales is stressful and requires diligence, persistence and resilience; so if you don’t truly enjoy what you’re doing or feel passionate about stepping into your office everyday, it can quickly turn into a downward spiral of discouragement.

A sales role, regardless of what exactly you’re selling, also helps to improve all your soft skills like relationship building, problem solving, accountability, teamwork, etc. These are skills that should hopefully be strengthened in any career field you go into, and are applicable even if you shift jobs at some point..

Are either of you pursuing health and wellness as a career?

As of now, nope! We both absolutely love sharing our passion for health and wellness, but we also want to pursue careers outside of that space. We enjoy having careers that differ so we can compartmentalize our everyday life and create a relatable approach to fitting exercise into your routine. S&T is our way of expressing how you can fit health and wellness into your life; it doesn’t need to be your entire life!

Do you have any tips for the post-grad job search?

Make a list of what values you look for in a company (culture, benefits, equality, etc), what excites you, what your goals are and let those be the driving factor. You really shouldn’t have to give up much, if anything, on your values + goals list when looking for a career.

Find a mentor, ask people to coffee to pick their brain, network like crazy, reach out to people on LinkedIn. Do A TON of research on job sites / job postings. No one else is responsible for what you want to achieve so put in the time and effort. Also, have a killer LinkedIn and resume (lots of helpful tools online to build this) and make sure to customize everything before you send it to a potential job recruiter. The little things make all the difference!

What were your majors in college and where did you both go to school?

We both went to Chapman University.

Jo received a degree in Business Administration; Emphasis in Real Estate (graduated in 2016).

Jacqs received a degree in Strategic and Corporate Communication with a minor in Broadcast Journalism (graduated in 2015).

Where did you work after graduating?

Both of us worked at Houzz right after graduating. The office had a slide and free food… All we really cared about at the naive age of 22 ;) Just kidding!

How do you deal with budgeting post-grad?

We have an S&T budgeting doc that you can access by clicking HERE. To edit it to your own lifestyle habits / budget simply make a copy of the spreadsheet and then you can save it for your personal use.

Use apps like Mint, Nerd Wallet, etc. Set short and long term goals for yourself for debt repayment and savings. Make it a priority to pay off certain amounts right after every paycheck, or at the end of every month. Make intentional purchases and think about if you should REALLY be spending $$ before swiping that plastic card.

How did you both figure out what you wanted to do?

Jo - I’ve been in a couple different sales roles and knew that was my path as soon as I started walking prospects and clients through sales cycles. I felt like I was naturally good at it because I could be myself and genuinely get people as excited about a service/product as I was.. I love working with different people and businesses to understand their pain points and propose a solution that will benefit them and ultimately make them more successful. If you’re selling a product or service you believe in, it’s SO fun. I’m also very competitive as are most sales people, which helps to keep me motivated and working towards a number (or a quota).

Jacqs - It took me a while to find my path because there were so many different directions I was interested in and they were all across the board. I feel like my right and left brain were fighting for which direction I should take. I love business, the hustle and bustle of strategy and sales, and working with others to get things done, but on the other hand more artistic ventures like branding, content curation, video editing, drawing and graphic design. I took multiple internships in all different areas to get a taste of everything. Marketing is really where all my interests combine and that’s why I am pursuing my MBA with an emphasis in marketing. I plan to continue working in the business development world getting to use my sales and people skills along with creativity. And of course since both of us dream big, we have plans to use our experience and knowledge to grow our own business with Sweat and Tell, LLC.

How do you fit workouts in with a busy career/scheduled?

Plan and book workouts for the week ahead. Every Sunday we book all of our classes on ClassPass and keep one another accountable.

Have a workout buddy (especially one that you work with, same schedule makes it easier). We bring our coworkers and friends along with us all the time.

If you have an evening obligation, squeeze in a morning workout no matter how much you’re dreading not sleeping in!

In full transparency, sometimes working out during the workweek is really f*****g hard so take advantage of your weekend mornings. This has seriously made such a difference in our week since we don’t feel like we’re “falling behind” over the weekends.

Set an attainable goal like 3 times per week you are going to go to the gym at 6 pm. Set a reminder on your phone and don’t let yourself create excuses. Just like you wouldn’t create an excuse and bail on a friend/coworker/family, don’t bail on yourself.

Do you prefer to workout before or after workout?

Jo - Usually after work! Unless I don’t have to go into work until later and can do a 7 am class, 7 am to 9am is my sweet spot!

Jacqs - Morning! I like getting to the gym before my brain has a chance to realize whats happening. After class I always feel so much more awake and ready to take on the day!

How do you find a career that allows you to have a social life and make fitness a priority?

I think that it’s up to the individual to make that balance a priority. Of course some jobs are less demanding than others but you can always adjust and make changes accordingly. For example, I had so much more free time at my last job (was finished with my work before 10 am) and I was honestly really worried I wouldn’t be able to focus on S&T at all when I made the career switch. But guess what, I figured out a way to make it work/am still consistently figuring it out. You just have to be intentional of where you’re spending your time.

What are your career goals and goals for S&T?

We have so many dreams for S&T and are trying to pace ourselves. We want to see which direction our platform organically goes before we make certain moves. Product development and furthering our connection with our audience with personal video and written content is something we are extremely passionate about and pushing towards.

Did you do anything before launching S&T? What kind of things went into your S&T Business Plan?

We created a business plan (two months of planning) before officially launching S&T on 1/17/2018.

This is a breakdown of some of the things that went into our business plan: