Here is a transcript generated by Otter.ai of The Content Mix podcast interview with VeraContent’s Kyler Canastra and UK-based Sorana McCarron, on marketing in the charitable sector:

Sorana Duca 0:13
Hi everyone, I’m Kyler from The Content Mix, and I’m excited to be here with Sorana Duca, a senior marketing communications professional with over 12 years of experience in organizations across the EMEA and the US. With a growth and continuous learning mindset, Sorana’s career has been defined by her commitment to translating organizational strategy into effective performance with people being at the heart of any successful endeavor. As a global citizen, having family on three continents and speaking five languages. Sorana has recently earned her MBA in marketing as well and has become a certified product marketing manager with AIPMM, the Association of International Product Marketing and Management. In conjunction with her MBA thesis, she’s dedicated to doing pro bono work in the charitable sector, especially with the high demand for marketing assistance in light of this pandemic. It’s a pleasure to have her on the show with us today. So without further ado, welcome Sorana. Thank you so much for joining us on the on The Content Mix.

Hi, Kyler. Thank you so much for having me. That was an awesome synopsis. Thank you so much for putting that together.

Kyler Canastra 1:20
Before we dive in. I’m just curious, what five languages do you speak?

Sorana Duca 1:24
So native Romanian, English, Italian and Spanish because they’re very, very close to Romanian. And German just because I thought it’s good to learn a language that is a bit more challenging.

That’s amazing. Yeah, your English is fantastic, by the way. I know you’ve been living in the UK for a while. But with that in mind, can you just tell us a bit more about your background like how… you’re from Romania, and kind of just how you got to where you are today?

Sure, sure. So I have started working right off the college desk when I was 18. And I started working in advertising. After holding several roles, pretty much for about a year in various advertising agencies back home in Transylvania—I forgot to mention I’m a vampire actually… you’ve got one of those—I basically made a switch from advertising to marketing, because while I was managing accounts, within the advertising sector, I really enjoyed actually working deeper on a particular product or a particular service. And when you have such a big turnover of sales and accounts that come and go within your portfolio, sometimes you don’t get to dwell deep into marketing for one particular brand that you really click with, so I have made a switch to marketing. I have a BA in communication and public relations. And I also had a position as internal PR manager for an advertising agency again, back home. And I guess my strongest year for me has been 2010 when I was a deputy marketing manager for Adevarul Holding. I managed 12 magazines and launched OK! magazine and Forbes magazine in Romania. And I literally had the highest marketing budget that I’ve ever managed in my whole life, to this day. It was 7 million euro per year.

Kyler Canastra 3:34
Wow.

Sorana Duca 3:35
And I realized those were the times when we were spending loads of money on outdoor advertising on really sexy, shiny one-pager adverts in glossy magazines, which costed an arm and a leg. So I’m very familiar with those prices. And I was actually very relieved when online kicked in strongly where we could actually control budgets, we could actually measure how many eyes were seeing your ad work, right. So then immediately, the budgets plunged down and they became fair. Basically, every single penny was counted and accountable. And we could finally manage and, you know, show our return on investment on our spending as marketeers and connect all the dots throughout the organization with a sales team and the PR team. So just going back to that particular role, I was really hungry for an MBA because I felt the need to kind of up a level. And I remember working late on Friday evening in the organization and I came across the network on a website for the City University of Sheffield who advertised the full scholarship.

Kyler Canastra 4:57
Wow.

Sorana Duca 4:58
And I don’t know whether it was, you know, being tired at the end of a week or something, but I thought, heck, I’ll just apply and see what happened, right? I literally did the application there and then. It took me about six hours, way towards Saturday morning by that time. And two weeks later, I got the confirmation that I got the full scholarship, I had 100% scholarship for City University of Sheffield, for an MBA in marketing.

That’s fantastic. And did you live in Sheffield, by the way? Because it’s a lovely city.

Only for a few weeks. So the structure of this program is that it involves countries from from Europe, Romania, being my country, but also Bulgaria, Greece, I think Slovakia, Slovakia many other countries, basically, and England as well, of course, as a host if you want host countries. And people gather from all these places for the core of the MBA program, which lasts two years. So I did all the studies and the exams, and I got my postgraduate degree. But then I moved to the UK. So in the with the culture, and I mentioned, you mentioned at the beginning of the interview that I have family in the US. I just chose the UK because I felt really connected and I felt that the culture is on the same length wave with me if that makes sense in terms of the people and the business.

And I feel that way too as an American, it’s just the UK is different, obviously. But it feels very familiar. So if you have family in the US and you’re familiar with my culture, I guess, then it’s something that’s kind of in between the two worlds. Yeah.

Absolutely. I mean, with the American culture, for instance, in my latest role with OUTFORM, I have worked very closely with the US team, and they are absolutely wonderful people there. I think for work, it’s so strong, that there isn’t such thing as this can be done. Or we can meet this deadline. I am absolutely in awe and inspired whenever I work with Americans. That’s absolutely their strong point. They’re absolutely resilient and full of energy. When it comes to working with British people. One thing that is really reassuring is the fact that they follow quite strict guidelines. And you feel safe, if you’re within those guidelines. But then also when it comes to innovation, they are at the height of their of their game anyway.

Right. And that actually kind of leads into my next question, because you’ve worked in different markets. But also, you know, Romania, for me, at least, is not a market that I actually know a lot about. And I know that you have a lot of media and advertising experience, as you mentioned before in Romania, so kind of how did that shape you today and kind of what differences have you found between your home country and then in the UK, for example, or other countries you’ve worked in?

Romania has some amazing professionals. If in the UK, we do social selling, so you have to kind of get on with the person that you’re going to do business with. Maybe you start with some niceties at the beginning of the meeting. Romanians are quite to the point and quite straightforward. And I think this is something that started because we were an ex-communist country. And we really need to get… we needed to get stuff done. So we didn’t have time for all the nicetie. We were used to doing business with people that maybe we didn’t get on that well, but we kept it professional and we got the job done. Yeah, definitely. That’s definitely something that I immediately had to understand and turn turn over really quickly when it came to my first job in the UK, especially since it was in sales.

Yeah, and that’s kind of the opposite for me. I feel like Latin cultures in general. So like, you know that the Romance-language speaking countries, and they’re more direct, at least, cause I’ve lived in Spain for a long time. And that was a shock for me. I think we’re more similar to the UK, you know, like, I don’t know, not as we’re kind of not beat around the bush. But we’re a bit more, we have to like kind of warm up to people in order for us to like collaborate well, so it’s definitely a shock and something that, like those cultural differences are so small, but really make a big difference, especially if you’re trying to work in those markets. Now, I also wanted to ask you about, something that was really interesting was that the dissertation that you wrote for your executive MBA, which you did in Sheffield, and we were just talking about before, was called Contemporary Marketing for the British Charitable Sector during COVID in post Brexit which sounds really, really interesting. So could you explain it to us a little bit about why you chose this for this topic and why the charitable sector and kind of how you ended up doing this and kind of implementing that into your career?

Absolutely, yeah. There’s a bit of a story here if if you want, I would, I would love to share that with you. So I mentioned I got the MBA scholarship in 2010. And maybe you’re wondering also in 2021, have you been hiding under a rock all this time? But in actual fact, I finished my studies and exams, and I got my postgraduate degree, and I was right and ready for the dissertation, right? But life kicked in. So I was living in Kent, I moved to the UK in the meantime. And it wasn’t that easy to start. The first year was quite tough. Both from a personal perspective, I was actually engaged to be married. And that didn’t work out. And also from a professional point of view, I decided that I would like to move to London to pursue more career opportunities there. So I actually had to put my dissertation on hold. So my initial topic was quite commercially oriented,

Kyler Canastra 11:02
Right.

Sorana Duca 11:03
And then after living in London for about a year, I thought, Okay, it’s time to get the ball rolling. Let’s start this, let’s finish it off, I don’t like to leave things pending. So I proposed a second topic to the university. And I actually had to pay some money towards the study, because at this point, I was actually not on the clock, so to speak. My scholarship had finished so I had to support the actual academic support that I was getting. And I proposed a second topic, which was, again, quite commercially oriented. And then COVID kicked in. And when that happened, obviously, for everyone in this, in this world, we all really had to dig deep and find out what’s happening with us, we had so much time to reflect. And yes, I was in a job. So I was busy, like everyone else, juggling meetings and everything, but at the same time, with family in New York—my mom, my brother, my father, they’re in New York, and my partner’s family in Australia, and some family in Romania—we were on our own, right? So it really came down to actually what really matters is human connection, growth, warmth, mental well being. Health. These are the most important things, it doesn’t matter that I have 12 pairs of high heels that I don’t wear anymore, right? Or a great Ferrari that’s sitting (which I don’t by the way), that’s sitting in the garage, and I can’t drive it because it’s locked down. What really matters is my health and who I am as an individual, and how am I supporting and lifting others. And this was the moment when the shift happened with me. And I decided to write about the charity sector. And obviously focusing on the UK because this is my adoptive country. Yeah. And I thought, I’ll see how this goes.

Yeah, I think a lot of times too like, when we think about the pandemic, we always focus on the negative or like I say, we as collectively, we focus more on the negative and all this stuff, but I like just like you, kind of really loved this time to reflect and to realize and like, also to see like the positive side of humanity. Although we see a lot of negative things all the time about like society and what’s going on. Obviously, there are negative things, but it was, it did bring out a lot of positive things in people. And in myself, for example, because just like you always, you know, locked in my apartment here in Madrid by myself for three months, and my family was in the US and I have other family in different places. And it was just really stressful, I think and, you know, but made you realize kind of different things about yourself. And I really think that’s great that you kind of looked at it and kind of took it into some like, took it to like the next level, and put it into your dissertation. But also you’re working on, you’re a founding member of Marketing Kind, which is a leading organization in the UK, which brings together senior marketeers who offer pro bono consultancy and support to the charity sector. So that’s kind of linked right to your your thesis. So how did that come about?

Yes. So one element that I haven’t mentioned is that I have always been passionate about fundraising for family and friends. My grandfather had cancer and unfortunately he passed away.

Kyler Canastra 14:26
I’m sorry.

Sorana Duca 14:27
Thank you. And in Romania, unfortunately, the health system is not greatly set up in the sense that the large operation surgeries are not supported by this by the system you have to physically pay for. Pretty much probably like in the US. Yeah, if you don’t have a very comprehensive insurance, however, in the UK, they’re obviously covered. So I had to raise money via social media for my grandfather, for my best friend Simona who passed away, and for my best friend Tobius. So I had three very close family members, I would say because they were my best friends who were all touched, unfortunately, by this terrible disease, and I became very consumed with how I can support them and get not only a community around them to support them morally, but also the money needed for the surgeries. And lastly, I was very interested in maybe getting that awareness out on how to prevent this from happening in the first place.

Yeah, and fundraising’s a lot of work. So I mean, it’s that’s definitely helpful that you have, you know, marketing and advertising experience, especially doing it online, you know where to put it and what channels to use. But that’s really, it is nice to hear, like how you kind of took something that you were, you’ve done personally, now you’re working it into kind of Marketing Kind and doing that work. And when did that start, like Marketing Kind, when was that established?

When I was doing my research for a dissertation, I came across a cause called Peak My Cause where the organization was connecting volunteers in order for them to offer their marketing experience pro bono. And then they talked to me, Ana and Paul from this organization, they pitched me the idea of marketing kind, which was an early, early thought at the time, right, and they said: “Listen, we need a few good founding members that want to really get involved, be hands on and drive this forward. And the idea is that you will have to allocate some time towards this. Are you in or are you out?” So I did not hesitate? And it’s the best thing I did. And I’m very, very interested to help and support further. One of the closest causes to me is Metal Cancer, which is an organization that organizes or is an organization that sets up sports events, and attracts people to participate with fundraising while while leading by example,

Like, I love, I just yeah, I think especially with marketing and advertising, I think a lot of people don’t associate like that we actually can do good things, and help people and the power of marketing in general. So it’s really cool to see like how you hadn’t had this shift to like, you wanted to move to London and you know, have more career opportunities, which is amazing. But then you also got that and then also now are kind of like giving it back. I think that’s really admirable. And I like that. I don’t know. It’s really nice to hear that. And also, I guess, to add to your list of things that you’ve been up to, you also received a certification as a product marketing manager for which we talked about in the intro, from the Association of International Product Marketing and Management. So why did you decide to pursue that certification? And can you tell us a bit more about your work as an ambassador for them?

Yeah, absolutely. So as a quite generalist marketeer, you tend to do a lot. I was wearing a lot of hats, most of the time doing the social media, business development, you know, all the CRM and creating more leads, generating more leads, doing the PR side of things. And what I realized is that, ultimately, you really need to know how to launch a good product or good service. And with that, I became obsessed with “Why do consumers want a particular product or service?” I noticed during lockdown that the economy received some sort of a shift. It’s now driven by the consumer. And brands need to be very, very careful and really listen to what consumers need, because we have become very picky and very clear in what we want, what we appreciate, and also to whom we are loyal to. So for this reason, creating a good product or a good service that answers this question for the consumer, creating a good life cycle, offering good customer service. But not only that, I think the shift has also turned towards the end of the product cycle, where now we’re thinking sustainability. What happens with all the products that are launched out there in the world, right? What happens with all the masks that we use? With all the plastic decorations that we use for advertising all the time? And all the POS that we use in shops? So we’re now thinking about the end of the cycle as well. And within AIPMM, the framework actually covers all the steps. And I found it incredibly educational to learn about these things and really add to my marketing experience those core ideas that will help me drive forward and create awesome products and services.

That’s fantastic and it’s so true what you said. I think the power of the consumer has really increased. It has been obviously for a long time. But now we have a lot of say what we want in our product. And that’s presenting a big challenge. So it’s really great to hear that you’re kind of reacting to that and taking advantage of the opportunity to make it better for the consumer. Now, on this show, in general, we obviously we have people on to kind of share their insight and give some advice to people who are working in marketing, whether it be for, you know, years, or just starting out. And I’m just kind of want to dive into some pieces of advice that you could offer us about your work. And so you’re involved, obviously, in strategic communications, and brand marketing. So how did you like, what advice do you have for those two areas? But also kind of what skills do you think are important for marketeers nowadays?

I think other than the technical skills, which we all gain in various ways, there’s so many schools now, from the free LinkedIn platform, which is absolutely amazing, LinkedIn Learning, to AIPMMM, which I mentioned, and I think highly up to higher education, such as MBAs, whether you have a scholarship or you pay your way in, we can learn so much. They’re amazing podcasts, amazing YouTube videos that literally break down for you every single step that you need to implement in order to perform an activity, whether you’re opening a wine bottle, or you’re creating this amazing product. So we do have the knowledge there. But I think what’s very, very important is to have kindness and empathy. Yeah. And it may sound cheesy, but without it, I don’t think we can work and thrive in this world with the people around us, our teams. We can’t really manage teams very well, we can work with others. We do not understand consumers. And I think we should put people first no matter what type of awesome techie products or services we deal with. That’s my first advice.

Yeah, I think that’s really important, I think it’s something that we forget a lot, or maybe we’re kind of being like this shift right to everything being online. And you know, you can manage teams online, you can promote a product online without even physically seeing the consumer. But that makes us less empathetic in a way, it’s kind of, you know, we’re just looking at emails, and we’re not thinking about the person behind the email or, you know, giving orders like, you know, help me with this or kind of, you know, managing people, and then maybe you might come off in a way that’s not empathetic. And I think that human aspect is something that we really need to maintain, especially now like moving forward into the world of like, 2021, where we have remote working and, you know, which are great things and convenient things, but we can’t forget about the humans who we’re working with, who we’re working for, etc. But I also want to know, from your experience, what’s like a campaign or a piece of content that really, really worked well for you, and why?

Yeah, sure. I think rather than giving you maybe a specific piece of content that I worked on, I will say that it’s important to utilize your strengths. So if you’re in a position in a company, where you have to talk about a certain product, and you’re not very familiar with it, then you really need to get to the bottom of it and use it and be familiar with it, so you can speak about it from a user perspective. You have to put yourself in the shoes of the user. Whenever I had to talk about a product that I wasn’t quite familiar with it, I didn’t feel familiar with, I didn’t feel that the flow of the content was very good, either. So yeah, talk from experience. And to the question you asked earlier, regarding what advice I would give to marketeers, I would say create two lists of things that really energize you when you work with them and around them, and things that really depict you from managing, okay, and try to stay with that list that is positive for you, because you’ll be able to find endless ideas of content. And you’ll be just pouring out ideas of content. For instance, I have a little notebook on the side of my bed, and I write down ideas of content, posts, articles that I have. And then in the morning, what I do, I write them on notes on my phone and then from notes they transfer on to my computer, right. And I have this inventory of thoughts that sometimes make sense, sometimes don’t, sometimes I say something along the lines of: “Do that article regarding the donkey.” And then in the morning, I won’t remember what it was. So that can happen as well.

Yeah, so I think one thing that comes from what you just said is passion, like your passion, like your career really needs to be some, I think we kind of again forget that sometimes. I think people want to get a job and make the money and you know live the life that they in their minds think is the right way to to live. But we forget our passions and like you said, like having that creative energy and like, that’s what you’re passionate about, then in your field, for example, it’s gonna really help, right? Because you’re really gonna be brainstorming and using that creativity and touching into, like, tapping into a side of you that’s kind of what you love. And I think that’s what kind of will translate into success in the end.

Absolutely, yes, and to your point, that passion, also transcends to others and you will meet people that are on the same lengthwave with you. You will bounce off ideas with them, and that will in turn generate even more amazing stuff. So it’s very visible when someone doesn’t feel comfortable talking about a certain brand or product, they don’t feel familiar, they don’t shine and, and we sell socially now. That magic comes across with more and more use of video in our marketing content. It’s impossible to fake it right? You have to be an incredible actor to talk about the latest broom that you purchased yesterday, if you’ve never used the broom, and you’re not into domestic cleaning at all. You can’t fake it.

Yeah. And I think that ties again, ties into my next question, which was about kind of making sure your content resonates, whether it be in a certain field or in a certain market. So I kind of wanted to know, like, how have you found content marketing to be within the charitable sector, and then also in EMEA because you have a lot of experience in this region, and it’s also a very diverse region. So I want to know, like, kind of how that’s been for you, and kind of making sure your content resonates across different countries, different markets, different regions and sectors?.

Sure. So that’s an awesome question. Actually, I’ll try to break it down, break down the answer. You mentioned at the beginning that you were a translator?

I started out as translator, localizer, did content creation and marketing.

So we have that in common actually. Yeah, I’m also an authorized translator for Romanian, Romanian-English. And, as you know, when it comes to localization, you don’t just translate a text, you have to actually catch all those nuances and talk in the language of your audience. If it’s more of a laidback audience, and you describe a restaurant or something, then you use a certain language. If you talk in any technical terms, you use a different language. And the text in itself could be fairly similar, but the nuances will be different. So one thing I’ll say is that when I create content for EMEA, I obviously not only utilize the right language—English, Romanian, German, Italian, whatever it would be—but also the right tone of voice and localizing it to that particular area as much as I can. However, I am not a superhero, and I fully believe in delegation. So when it comes to localization, for instance, I thoroughly use companies that are located in that area, because they know the best. They have the tone of voice. You have to hire the right people. You can’t do everything yourself. And they will bring that authenticity to your content. But then, generically speaking, when it comes to content, obviously, you need to know your target audience. You can’t bore people with stuff that is irrelevant for them. And there are three types of groups if you want. You’ve got the community, where everyone cares about each other, and they interact a lot. You have an audience where you’re on a pedestal and you talk, talk, talk about yourself, or whatever you care about. And you have followers, and the followers are people that they listen to you, they can come and they can go, right. You’ve got followers, audience and community and in my marketing content, I always always try to create for community because that’s win win, and I think people are not there to listen to us like they would on TV, right? Yeah, we’re not just watching a show listening to someone, I can’t interact with them. Now we want to interact. So I loved that during lockdown, I’m sure you’ll agree, there were so many free shows and Facebook Lives and Instagram lives. And there were so many amazing ways that we could interact with our favorite singers and actors. And I think it really, really brought home how important it is to have interaction with the brand.

Yeah, it’s so important. I think the access to content has been amazing in general, but also I really liked your your point about translation. And I think that’s one of the things that, and localization. It’s not frustrating, but sometimes people just think that what we do is just, you know, translate the words and put on a piece of paper and call it a day. But it’s just so much more than that to get the nuances and understand like you know, your target audience and how they’re going to perceive this and knowing we know what type of language to use and which tone and style and all these things But that’s also something that translates, I had to put that pun in there, it translates into marketing. You know, you really need to understand with whom you’re speaking and kind of the best way to connect with them, even though it’s the same message. So it’s kind of putting your message in a way that is understood and well received.

Yeah, very good point. Very good point. And you mentioned towards marketing, yes, it all comes down to the goals, isn’t it? What’s the purpose of this content? Do you want to sell? So do you need a clear call to action? Do you want to create awareness? Do you want to change a mindset to create a shift? Do you want to draw people towards your brand? Do you want to create loyalty? It really depends on your goal. So within, within the MBA, actually, what I really love is the fact that I learned a lot about things that I haven’t worked in, such as logistics or economics. I basically got all the other pieces of the puzzle, if that makes sense, from an organization. And now I understand how does someone in logistics, how can they utilize the the content or copy that I create? What do they do with it? And how does it need to sound for them? Likewise, what will the accounting department look for when it comes to the results that I produce? What are they interested in? So it’s not just marketing for the sake of marketing, it’s actually creating, being a part of the big picture.

Exactly. And that ties into what we said before about empathy, and kind of, you really need to understand the end user who’s reading this and kind of how your content or your, you know, advertisement is going to help them or whatever for your advertising. Now, unfortunately, we’re coming to like towards the end of the interview, which is, you know, a shame, because it’s been a really great conversation. And I really enjoyed learning more about your work, especially in the charitable sector, but also your experience working in different countries and in different markets. But my favorite part of our interviews, as I mentioned in our conversation before we started recording today’s episode, is the recommendations. I love learning more about kind of from different people what they use on their date, you know, in their daily lives, or to help them be more productive. And I always think it’s great to share that insight with our listeners. So let’s dive into that part of the episode and kind of want to know, what’s your favorite software tool or app at the moment?

Yeah, I use quite a few. I’m a big fan of productivity, just like yourself. For instance, when I watch videos, or I try to listen back to any in demand web webinars, I use Otter to transcribe the video and audio into text. And then utilize that text to whatever purpose I need to use it, rather than taking notes throughout the actual listening. That’s one of them.

Kyler Canastra 33:01
I love Otter. Yeah, it’s a great tool.

Sorana Duca 33:05
And then obviously, for content, I use HubSpot. And then when it comes to design, I became absolutely in love with Canva. Big shout out to them. Yeah. I wasn’t the most skilled when it came to any of the Photoshop programs. So I use them scarcely here and there. But when it came to Canva, it’s so user friendly, they immediately understood what content creators need quite quickly, they give a lot of tools. And I found it very easy to create. Just just simple design, minimalistic, that represents the brand very well, whether it’s a personal brand or company brand.

That’s fantastic. And you also mentioned, we were talking before about the Calm app, and I kind of want to know why you like the Calm app.

Which one, sorry?

Kyler Canastra 33:55
Calm, I think the Calm app.

Sorana Duca 33:58
Yes, yes. The Calm app. Yeah. Well, it’s literally my go-to app. I probably use it too much. I, actually, if you can believe it, I’m such a loyal fan that I acquired a life membership.

Kyler Canastra 34:12
Really?

Sorana Duca 34:13
It’s literally the only app where I got a life membership. I can’t remember how much I said, it wasn’t that much. I totally, it was worth it.

Kyler Canastra 34:21
I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, but I never used it myself. Why do you like it so much?

Sorana Duca 34:25
During lockdown, I started meditating. It’s been something that I always knew I had to get on with, but I didn’t have the patience to stay still. And believe it or not, I can pretty much stay still for about 10 minutes and be calm and get into the zone. So I’m getting there. But I generally use Calm because it has a lot of incredible tools. I go to sleep by listening to Calm and I do have a partner so he actually got on board very quickly with that. It’s an amazing way of relaxing, either listening to a sleep story or to a meditation in the evening. And then throughout the day, very often I find myself sitting at my computer listening to just background noise, whether it’s nature, or the city, city noise or rain or something more complex, such as a song of some sort. Because the trick with using, for instance, YouTube for music is that I always fall through the rabbit hole. And half an hour later, I’m watching some sort of tutorial on how to bake the best pizza.

Yeah, so funny, too, you can get caught up in that and really distracting, which was, it’s good sometimes, but it’s, you learn a lot, that’s really important.

Yeah, I’m trying to stay productive. And I’m actually looking for a new role. And I’m trying to align my mission with that of a company that resonates with me and bring my best to support them. And during this time, I realized that I needed to utilize my own personal time very well. So I don’t have any notifications on my phone other than the call, and no notifications on my computer. And in terms of productivity, I’m really trying to focus on getting there, basically, and doing work for Marketing Kind.

I admire that. Because you know, it’s very easy to, with notifications, it’s hard to kind of shut off sometimes, so that’s really great. Now, also, we spoke about sleep right, and the Calm app helps you sleep. But one of your favorite books is Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, which has come up in these episodes before and I haven’t read it. So why that book? Why is that a great book to read?

Well, because I’m a researcher myself, and it’s something that I learned while doing the MBA thesis, Michael has put a lot of research into the science of sleep, and I really understood a lot. It’s not just turning the lights off and going to sleep, you have to get into an evening routine, you have to dim the lights. And we all know that, the ABCs: dim the lights down, and you put a candle, you listen to some meditation, you reduce screen time, you have to get into the zone, what you eat before sleep, what you drink before sleep, it all kicks in. And one of the best things, one of the best pieces of information that I learned from him is actually connected with coffee. Though with coffee, what I learned is that it lasts the effect lasts longer than a day. So it’s not just drinking the last coffee at 4 or 5pm. And you may or may not be able to sleep, but it really affects you the next day, you will wake up not refreshed in the morning, next morning, you will wake up very groggy, you will feel like you have a hangover. So it’s just getting ourselves educated. And my absolute favorite app during lockdown has been Audible, when it came to reading, I have developed a 1.7 speed while listening to audiobooks. And I find it really useful, because I can consume a bit more. And if I really need to kind of tame it down and take some notes, then I’ll go back to one or 1.2. But if I’m streaming or traveling, I will listen to Audible and it is absolutely amazing.

Fantastic. Well, we’ve come toward the end of the interview today. And again, I want to thank you so much for coming on. But as you mentioned before, you’re looking for a new job and you kind of want to connect with a lot of people. And I was wondering besides LinkedIn, because you’re on LinkedIn, as most people are, what are other ways for people to connect with you? I don’t know if you have like other social media accounts.

I’m actually minimizing my activity on all the social media accounts. And I keep in touch with my family on Facebook, and that’s about it. So anyone that wants to reach me, I would say, drop me an email on Ducasorana@gmail.com, just as my name@gmail.com or just connect with me on LinkedIn. I’m happy to support other students who may be interested in AIPMM or the MBA. And I’m definitely interested in career opportunities where we could, you know, make some magic happen.

Yeah, for sure. Well, thank you, again, so much, Sorana, for sharing your insights with us today. And thanks, everyone, for listening in. For more perspectives on the content marketing industry in Europe, check out www.veracontent.commix. You also can find this episode and blog post that accompanies it there as well. And keep tuning in to the podcast for interviews with content experts, and we’ll see you next time. Thanks again.

Thank you so much, Kyler. Take care

Transcribed by https://otter.ai