Episode #35: Maximize Your Internship with Special Guest Imogen Stephens

As an intern with Williams Whittle, Imogen Stephens shares the skills she learned on the job and her advice on how to get the most out of your internship.

Maximize Your Internship with Special Guest Imogen Stephens Episode Recap

In our 35th Episode, titled “Maximize Your Internship,” we have a special guest, Imogen Stephens, who shares her experience as an intern at Williams Whittle.

Imogen, a marketing student at the University of Colorado Boulder, began her internship with Williams Whittle during the pandemic. Despite being 100% remote, she found the experience rewarding due to the flexibility it offered. With mutual connections and her background in marketing, becoming an intern at an ad agency seemed like a natural fit. Imogen’s journey at Williams Whittle started with a focus on analytics and dashboards. Having little prior experience with Google Analytics, she had to learn on her own. Initially tasked with creating web dashboards, she later delved into research, social media, and writing projects. As Imogen began applying her skills to real-world data and creating data visualizations, her interest in data interpretation grew.

The turning point for Imogen was when she realized the significance of data-driven decision-making for businesses. Analyzing data and presenting it visually became an essential part of her work. Witnessing the impact it had on clients’ strategies, Imogen recognized the importance of data analytics and felt inspired to pursue it further. Her work at Williams Whittle involved creating complex data visualizations using Excel, as the company didn’t have specialized software like Tableau. While she had to watch some YouTube tutorials to enhance her skills, Imogen enjoyed experimenting with different chart formats and colors to make data more visually engaging for clients.

For aspiring interns interested in data analytics and visualization, Imogen recommends strengthening core Excel competencies. Watching YouTube tutorials to learn new functions is perfectly fine as Excel’s capabilities are vast. Additionally, exploring tools like Google Analytics and learning to mine data effectively are essential for success in this field. Imogen’s internship experience at Williams Whittle not only enhanced her skills but also led her to pursue a master’s program in business analytics at the Leeds School of Business. Her journey is a testament to the transformative power of internships and the invaluable lessons they offer to aspiring marketing professionals.

Imogen shares her valuable experiences and advice on how to make the most of your internship.

1. Embrace Self-Learning: Imogen’s journey with Google Analytics started with self-learning. Though her marketing studies didn’t cover it extensively, she took the initiative to become proficient in the platform. Aspiring interns should be proactive in learning new skills and seeking certifications to stay relevant in the ever-changing marketing landscape.

2. Choose a Smaller Agency: Working with a smaller agency like Williams Whittle allowed Imogen to have more one-on-one interactions with higher-ups. The exposure to different projects and departments helped her gain a deeper understanding of the business. Smaller agencies can offer diverse experiences and opportunities for interns to shine.

3. Communicate and Ask for Help: Imogen emphasizes the importance of effective communication. Interns should not hesitate to ask questions or request extensions if needed. Employers appreciate honesty and are willing to help build interns’ skills and confidence.

4. Express Your Interests: Imogen’s interest in social media and writing opened up opportunities for her in different areas. Interns should express their areas of interest and explore new projects that align with their strengths.

5. Reliability and Dependability: Being reliable and meeting deadlines is crucial for interns. Being responsive to communication channels like Slack helps maintain smooth collaboration, especially in remote work settings.

6. Bring New Ideas: Imogen’s creativity and fresh perspectives led her to bring new ideas to the table. Interns should not shy away from sharing their thoughts and contributing to projects in innovative ways.

7. Under Promise, Over Deliver: While some tasks may be straightforward, interns can add value by pushing creative boundaries and delivering beyond expectations. It’s essential to strike a balance between providing ideas and respecting the established workflow.

By following these valuable insights from Imogen Stephens, aspiring interns can make the most of their internships, acquire new skills, build strong relationships, and leave a lasting impact on the organizations they work with. 

Episode Transcript

Kelly

Hello! Today on The Two Marketing Moms podcast we’re exploring the world of internships. Our 35th Episode is called Maximize Your Internship with special guest Imogen Stephens. Welcome Imogen. 

Imogen:

Hello, Kelly.

Kelly:

Imogen has been an intern for Williams Whittle for about a year and a half and we want to talk a little bit about how she became an intern, the types of projects that she takes on as an intern and how she kind of evolved through in her internship to where she is now which is handling everything, everywhere, all at once to quote that movie, correct, Imogen? 

Imogen:

Correct.

Kelly:

Well, let’s talk a little bit about how you became an intern with Williams Whittle. 

Imogen:

Well, perfect. So, I go to University of Colorado Boulder, which is where Kelly went, and I’m studying marketing. Obviously, Williams Whittle is an ad agency so those go both go hand in hand. And then I used to live in DC with my family and Kelly is also from DC area, so we had those mutual connections and it just made sense.

Kelly:

That’s true. And you started in the pandemic? 

Imogen:

Correct. 

Kelly:

So you’ve been 100% virtual for the whole time that you’ve been internship, because I’m in DC, and you’re in Denver, and Boulder, correct? How has that worked? Being 100% remote intern? 

Imogen:

Um, it’s kind of nice, because I can like, do things at my own pace a little bit. And there’s more flexibility there. And with Zoom, and everything, I feel like I’ve, I’ve been face to face with everybody who works within the Williams Whittle team. But there was a bit of technical difficulties with certain meetings, the time difference is big, if I want to join like a 9am meeting. I really gotta work for it.

Kelly:

That’s true. Well, what are you majoring at CU, you’re in the business school? Correct? 

Imogen:

Yes. So, my area of emphasis is marketing. 

Kelly:

And you graduate this year? 

Imogen:

Yeah, in May. 

Kelly:

And then you’re going to do something very interesting, which I hope was kind of inspired by your time at Williams Whittle as well. And what is that, that you’re going to do next? 

Imogen:

So, CU offers a 10-month master’s program that goes from July to May. So, in July, I’ll be starting my master’s program at the Leeds School of Business grad program in business analytics. And if you told me I was doing business analytics, like two years ago, I would have been like, that sounds a little boring. But now that I’ve gotten more exposure to that, I can see the application and I think it’ll be good. 

Kelly:

Wonderful. Well, let’s, let’s revisit that in a couple of minutes. Because I want to talk about kind of the progression of your internship of what you started doing with us and kind of how that evolved. And just to kind of remind both of us, you actually started doing analytics and dashboards, web dashboards was the very first thing that you did for us. And that kind of evolved into research, which evolved into social media, and more writing. So let’s talk a little bit about dashboards. And, you know, I think we, we needed some additional help, we needed someone who understood Google Analytics. And we create these lovely one page dashboards. And there’s a template in Microsoft Excel that you input the numbers based on the data from analytics, and it visualizes your data in a nice way. And it has insights that can be placed in that data. Talk to me a little bit about what your experience was, in learning Google Analytics, is that something that’s school mandated? Or is that something that you did on your own? 

Imogen:

That’s something I had to do on my own, everyone in the business school at CU has to take an Excel class, so my Excel experience was very limited, we just made our own little calculators in there. And I like barely bolded the text to go into these like beautiful graphs and very well organized presentation of the data. 

But someone on your team taught me how to, we pulled a lot of the data from Waze, like the navigation app. So doing that and then the Google Analytics and placing it all in the dashboard, so I now know how to make it more savvy and pretty then what probably I was doing in school.

Kelly:

So you weren’t creating dashboards in school? Is that correct? 

Imogen:

In a way ,probably like elements of it but never all together. 

Kelly:

So how did things click from what you learned in school, to your internships in terms of your applications of doing a dashboard, what and when did it finally click when you realize, okay, this all makes sense. And then beyond that, hey, I’m as interested in this because, you know, I’m interested in interpretation of the data and how this works that I might actually want to get my master’s degree in it. 

Imogen:

It clicked, because the way we were taught in schools, they just gave us like a random data set, and then tell you what to do with it. Whereas this, I’m pulling the data, and then there was some freedom with some of the graphs. So you have to think about the best way to present it rather than then, like my syllabus, just saying, put it in this format. So it kind of forces you to interpret it a little more and think about what the data actually is. So that helped make it all click and make it make sense for what I was actually doing. And then what was the follow up question?

Kelly:

Just how did that kind of inspire you to continue or to want to actually major in it? I mean, didn’t you didn’t just wake up and say, Oh, my God, I love data. What about it is that made you interested in kind of, in majoring it in essence?

Imogen:

So, for this client, in particular, it kind of was helping show where, for social media, where make the made the most sense and most impact for where you were targeting. So I kind of liked learning that because it just makes everything else we do more efficient and gives more strategy and purpose to everything else for that client. So I think learning how important it was to like, revisit that data and continually check on it inspired me and I was like, Oh, this is an important thing, and I can do it.

Kelly:

Well, your work with the basic web and social dashboards kind of evolved. Eventually, we started doing a lot more data visualizations, which were are a lot more complex things. And those data visualizations, we basically gave you a bunch of data on, for example, recycled units. And we told you to chart how many units are recycled in different markets so that we can see very easily that XYZ market was recycling more than another market, which really kind of helps our clients be able to look at the data and say, Okay, well, maybe we need to focus on those markets that are not recycling as much data, it’s one thing to look at an Excel spreadsheet, it’s another to look at a pie chart or a bar chart and to see visually, and then you go, aha, wow, these markets are doing so much better than that market by creating this data.

How was it working on some of those data visualization projects, you know, really just using your knowledge of Excel, because we don’t have tableau or any of those wonderful technologies to do it for us. 

Imogen:

I definitely had to watch a few YouTube videos on, like converting the graphs to different formats, and whatnot. But I had a lot of fun once I understood how to make them and try and experiment with what made the most sense for the data. I know I’m probably sent you like the same chart by pie, bar, line, different colors, like all the works, but it really does make a difference. And especially when you show it back to the client, like looking at Excel and just random numbers is really overwhelming, but when you have it in the chart, it makes it easier to click.

Kelly:

I love a pie chart. And I love art, especially when the colors are different between year over year, so you can really see what year it is that you’re working on. So with regards to dashboards, Data Analytics, Google Analytics, and data visualizations, what kind of skills do you think intern should brush themselves up on so that they might be able to participate in those types of activities at their internship? 

Imogen:

Um, I would say make sure that your basic core competencies of Excel are pretty strong, even if that means, I had to watch a few YouTube videos, if you need to watch a YouTube video or two. That’s okay. Because excels capabilities are beyond, and I learn a new function every time I go on there. But as long as you know the basics, that will really help you. And then Google Analytics and all the like data mining areas, those you kind of just need to like play around with and like once you gain access to that, just kind of like clicking around and making sure that you’re utilizing all the data they give you because there’s usually a lot in there. You have to kind of like search for it to get the best, the best pieces. 

Kelly:

So you were self taught on Google Analytics. You didn’t learn it in school? 

Imogen:

Yeah.

Kelly: 

Have you thought about getting Google Analytics certified? 

Imogen:

I think in one of my classes this semester, they have like a project that makes you become Google Analytics certified. So a year and a half a little late, but I’ll have an edge.

Kelly:

Well, truth be told, I’m not Google Analytics certified. But I’ve been using it since Google and Google started. And the analytics started in early 2000s. So for me, it’s trial and error. And of course, when they change everything to GA for, I’m going to have to really learn it all over again. So it’s good to keep yourself up to date. 

Well, let’s move on to the next topic of projects that you worked on with Williams Whittle, you helped us in research. And we did a lot of research on brand audits, you know, competitive reviews, idea, current curations specific requests for data that clients have on different topics, all sorts of range of topics. Tell me a little bit about the types of research that you did for Williams Whittle. And how you like them or not. 

Imogen:

Okay, um, one of the main types of research projects I’m given are the brand audits. So that’s usually the new clients, or a main competitor of a client. And I, I, or whoever go and look at their website and all their socials and kind of analyze how they’re doing in that department and pull a few examples. And then just give an overview of their company, their mission where they focus, pull all their, like following numbers to see comparatively, how they’re doing. And then I put that in a nice little PowerPoint presentation. So that’s like one of the main ones. And then I’d say the second biggest is just like general trends or competitive reviews. 

I know, for one of our, like hospital-based clients, I did a lot of like guerilla marketing, reviews. And that was actually really fun because guerilla, marketing’s always cool and outlandish. So I’m pulling, like, competitive ads and whatnot, I would say that is the second biggest. 

Kelly:

Yeah, well, that that information is very useful, not only to our clients, but useful to me, the brand audits, I use them for new business pitches. So, I might say to you give me everything, you know, on XYZ topic, and you have to learn it. And that’s, I think, the fun part about advertising. Would you say as you get such a range of topics of things that you’re working on, it’s not boring, it’s not necessarily the same clients, because there’s things that you’re pitching. So you learn about so many different categories? 

Imogen:

Correct. Yeah. And when I decided I wanted to emphasize in marketing, my main like driver of that was, I wanted something new, like every so often, and with like finance and accounting, you might have different clients, but you’re doing like the same income reports and balancing the same spreadsheets. Whereas, with different clients, you have to tap into different parts of your brain and creativity to best serve them. And I’ve definitely reinforced that at Williams Whittle, because there are a lot of and a big range of clients.

Kelly:

That’s true. So have we bored you or not bored you?

Imogen:

I don’t feel bored. And I know since I’ve started the there’s like two or three main clients that have stayed consistent, and there’s a consistent influx of work. But the things that I’ve had to do for them, are ever changing, like, I don’t think – well, except for, I’m really familiar with California zip codes right now- I’ve never done the same thing twice.

Kelly:

Don’t give me a zip code project! Alright, let’s move on and talk about the third category that you’ve really moved into and kind of evolved in over time, you know, relatively quickly, I don’t know what was it six to nine months that you started helping? I think you started helping with Williams Whittle social media. And then that kind of evolved in some other projects. But let’s talk a little bit about social media. 

I guess I’m going to say what I learned from working with you over time was that you’re a very strong writer. And then when we asked you to do some writing for Williams went on social media. I noticed that your writing for the social media posts was rather clever. And so we started to give you some additional work outside of Williams Whittle I think you started with push notifications and you’re really good at being able to do that and get the key message in a certain number of characters and that also evolved into what?

Imogen:

Yes, so I do the social for Two Marketing Moms and copywriting for that and then the push notification client liked my voice and the way I wrote those so they’ve l started specifically requesting for me, even when I took a little break over the summer and Kelly sent me an email was like if you have time, they want you so always feels good to hear that. And then one of your newer clients, I’m on the side helping them run their social copy because they’ve seen what I’ve done with one of Williams Whittle and Two Marketing Moms. So building like my portfolio!

Kelly:

Well, I mean, to me, the social media thing is interesting, because, you know, I’m an account person you think about account people sometimes have to be Jack of all trades. And I suppose eventually do you want to do something be an account person, or you know, something with digital and data, correct? 

Imogen: 

Yeah.

Kelly:

And do you want to work advertising agency side or client side? Do you know yet?

Imogen: 

Um, I used to think client side. But working for an advertising agency, again, I really appreciate the versatility of the different clients, and you can kind of adapt and change and it keeps you stimulated. So I think I would rather do that and it also gives you like, more opportunity to explore and find new strengths. Because prior to my internship, the only Instagram captions I did were my own. And those weren’t super creative or witty and emoji filled. So

yeah, it’s find what works for you. And you might not notice it, I feel like you had to like explicitly say “You’re good at this” for me to click so.

Kelly:

Well, it’s fun to be able to tell people what they’re good at, and then push them a little further to find out what else they’re good at. And I think once we realize that you are a good writer, I think you expressed some interest in also doing graphics for two marketing moms. And I think that two marketing moms was a little bit easier, because we had, you know, we had a brand look, and we had a feel, and it was already inside Canva in terms of the colors, and you had a couple years of content that you could modify and use, but you really kind of took it and made its own with the posts that you’ve been managing. And I love the direction that you’ve taught, you’ve done a lot more creative things. You’ve learned how to use headliner, you’ve learned how to record videos, or to do video clips and audio clips. And that kind of the podcast part of it is a whole other realm. Right? Has that given you another interest area to have expertise in podcasting? 

Imogen:

Um, yeah, a little bit. I think podcasting is cool, just because there’s so many elements of it. Like there’s the audio that, again, we use headliner, and you have to make that interesting with just audio. And then with the video, I was like, I don’t know how to get the video into Canva. So I don’t know if you know this, I pull it up on my phone, and then I screen recorded on my phone, , then I text it to my computer. And then I put it in Canva. So, like, I had to learn and adapt and find what works for me in that process. But with copywriting, whenever I’d write for Williams Whittle, I always wanted to see the creative or whatever the visual post was before I wrote the copy just so it doesn’t repeat if there’s words and it just kind of fits the same tone. So, when I make both, it’s easier to make them complement each other and expand.

Kelly:

Wonderful, wonderful. Well, we’ve talked about three different areas. We talked about dashboards, we talked about research we talked about social media, I would like to find out what your advice is, for interns on how they can maximize their internships based on your experience. Do you have some advice to give? 

Imogen:

Yes. Um, so this isn’t a must but I think it’s a pro that a lot of people might overlook. And it’s working for a smaller company and a smaller agency. I don’t know how many people like seven to 10 for Williams Whittle?

Kelly:

Yeah, in the main area, but we have about 18 on our team, including freelancers. 

Imogen:

Okay yeah, so like the main Slack channels that I see. 

And there’s two, myself and another girl are both interns. So working in a smaller agency, I feel like I learned more than some of my friends that have like, worked for these larger companies, just because the attention you get is more one on one. And for the first year of my internship, I was in the meetings with President, CEO, account exec, like the whole higher up level and then there’s me at school in the meeting. So, I get to see more firsthand everything and then you utilize slack so I’m in all the slack channel. So even if I’m not working on a certain project, I still see everything and it gives you just more context for like the ins and outs of what it takes to run a business and more consideration of like, Oh, I know if I do this, someone’s going to have to re-create this so I need to be more careful. Things like that. So I think smaller agency has a lot of pros that might go overlooked just because they’re smaller. So that’s one thing to look for. 

Kelly:

Great. 

Imogen:

And then a second thing is you’re hired as an intern. So, your employers know that you won’t know everything. And that’s okay. So if you have to ask questions or ask for extensions, I think nine times out of 10, they’ll appreciate the honesty and want to help you and like build up your skills and confidence in whatever area it is, rather than you silently struggling. And then they’re messaging you like, where is this everything okay? Knowing your capabilities and being okay, asking for help is another big one. 

Kelly:

Excellent. And communicating! Communication is important. Where am I on a different project when I’ll be able to make that deadline, etc.

Imogen:

Yeah. And then a last little one would be asking for things you prefer. I know sometimes, like you, since there’s two interns at William’s Whittle, you guys will ask like, “okay, someone needs to take this or one of you needs to do this, and me and her kind of work it out. Or we both kind of already know, our capabilities and where our strengths lie. So I’ll sometimes just kind of leave that one for Jessica. And she’ll do the same for me. So knowing when and what to take and asking for more of like similar projects, like with the social copy, I think now those kind of just come my way. But before I would ask to do those more often than other projects, so being okay to ask for different things, if you want to try a new some new thing.

Kelly:

Love it. Any other thoughts? 

Imogen:

Um, not that I can think of, is there anything that you’ve noticed, you’ve had more interns than my experience? Over the years? If you’ve noticed anything?

Kelly:

 No, I mean, I guess I would say or add to what you said other than you’ve expressed areas of interest that you have. And I think that’s important. If you don’t express it, we don’t know, right? Asking for more work if you don’t have it. Or if there’s not enough on your plate. You know, building your natural skill sets by getting certifications is really good, because that helps prove your expertise. That’s one thing that I would definitely recommend Google Analytics, for example, or Facebook analytics, social analytics, using how to learn how to do you know, those social platforms, and how to how to post social, etc., you know, demonstrating your value, which, which we which you have clearly done.

 And then for me, an intern really needs to be reliable, they need to be dependable, they need to meet their deadlines. You know, if they don’t, aren’t able to meet their deadlines, you know, to have them to ask for an extension. Being responsive is really important. And I think, especially the fact that you and I, we work 100% remotely, virtually, we use Slack, which I know can be very irritating to a lot of people. But because we’re on a different time zones than each other and you have class, it is easy, because I can give you a list, either through slack or we have a Google doc spreadsheet of a list of projects. And then you can grab me and talk on the phone when we need to. I think that’s helpful. Just having a constant influx of projects here, we’re not like waiting for something else to come. But expressing, you know, expressing your interest. 

And then, you know, bringing new ideas to the table. I think that’s something that you’ve done really well with us. In terms of how you write the types of types of creative, you’ve developed some things that we want to do on TikTok and have done on TikTok, which I really appreciate. And I think a lot of it is also, you know, building trust over time. And I think when you deliver in the way that you do as an intern, it makes me trust you as a boss more and to give additional work your way because I know that you’re able to deliver and I know what how much you’re able to, to handle workload wise, but if you always have to speak out, if you don’t have time, if you are overwhelmed, you need to be able to say and tell people that that’s too much. I need a little bit more time XYZ. Any other thoughts on maximizing your internship? 

Imogen:

Um, I think just to summarize, everything you just said is like the notion of under promise over deliver I know, with some of the projects like it’s pretty cut and dry. You just kind of need to do what you need to do and it will be done but with other things, there’s more creative freedom for you to push the limits and like right on day one, you don’t need to be like sending a million ideas and telling them how they should change XYZ. But if you start to notice things like that’s the value you bring, you’re a new idea, your new perspective and they need to take that on board and otherwise they’re not getting their maximize value out of you. And I think you’d rather have someone at the table who speaks their mind than just taking up another chair.

Kelly:

Absolutely virtual or otherwise, right? 

Imogen:

Yeah.

Kelly:

Well, I’ve really appreciated working with you, Imogen, and I’m excited to continue working with you. And I hope these pieces of advice that we’ve given here on this video will help others to maximize their own internships. Thank you so much, Imogen. We’ll talk soon. 

Imogen:

Thank you, Kelly.