Member Spotlight | Sarah Kinnard
Posted by [email protected] on Jul. 8, 2024 / Subscribe 0
Sarah is the St. Louis region Regional Marketing Manager for FGM Architects, covering our marketing needs in the Metro East areas of Missouri and Illinois. Her responsibilities include vetting RFQs and distributing them to principals for final go-no-go decisions, researching opportunities and threats, providing project information to our communications team for use in social media and publicity, maintaining project information, gathering and generating project collateral for various marketing uses, managing proposal responses, preparing project teams for interviews, and providing input on firm-wide marketing decisions. She has been an SMPS member for a little over a year but previously participated in different education opportunities, classes, and networking events. With a new baby and a busy work schedule, she hasn't been as involved with SMPS recently as she would like but is hoping to find time to become more involved.
Congratulations on recently obtaining your CPSM Certification! What drove you to obtain this professional certification?
Thank you! My goal is never to stop learning. I knew the testing process would provide me the opportunity to grow my knowledge base, push me to stretch my capabilities, and improve my effectiveness as an AEC marketer. I also viewed the certification as an asset to continue propelling my career forward.
If someone were considering this certification, what advice would you give them? Study tips? Study group? Do you have any guidance on how to approach it? Is this something that someone should study for over many months and not just take on a whim?
I recommend starting to study sooner rather than later. I tested in March and began prep in November. I participated in SMPS Philadelphia chapter’s Boot Camp, read each book, created flashcards for each book, and took practice tests. After taking the practice tests I would review the questions I missed and make additional flashcards specific to each topic. The boot camp helped me prepare on multiple levels, including providing an understanding of how the testing process itself worked on the day of testing, presentations covering high-level topics of each domain, and group sessions working through example questions. Going through the questions as a group was probably the most helpful as some of the questions were complex, requiring close attention to detail on how the question/answer was worded. After testing, I felt the only things I could have done to prepare better would have been to reread the books and focus more on the case studies as all the questions on the test are more situation than fact-based.
Professionally, what do you find to be the most rewarding aspects of your job? What do you find to be the most challenging?
FGM Architects is employee-owned, so it’s really rewarding to see my marketing efforts grow our business and knowing that I directly benefit from that growth. As our work focuses on projects that enhance the communities we work in (schools, police stations, firehouses, recreation facilities, libraries, etc.), getting to attend groundbreakings, grand openings, and photoshoots for our projects genuinely makes me feel proud to work for the firm. I think the most challenging part is the general fast-paced work environment, often with a heavy workload, and working with technical staff that are as busy or busier than myself. I understand that each request from marketing adds to their load and do my best to streamline any requests I put forward.
In the AEC industry, we are often handed multiple deadlines from many people and asked to balance even more tasks simultaneously. Have you found a specific way to manage multiple deadlines and tasks while still trying to keep everyone happy(ish) most of the time? If so, will you share your process?
Communicate, communicate, communicate. Our team utilizes Asana which helps organize all ongoing tasks and deadlines. I keep a running to-do list that is updated every day and run a meeting twice a month with the majority of the firm’s Principals and Project Managers to keep on top of needs, initiatives, and all marketing projects for the St. Louis region. This meeting is great for multiple reasons, including letting my team know what I’m working on outside of their projects, helping manage expectations, and providing me the opportunity to follow up on outstanding items or decisions needed for deadlines. I’m also constantly prioritizing tasks and making sure that our amazing marketing and communication coordinators have what they need from me so that I’m not holding them up on their work and ensuring no one is doubling up on tasks. When time-sensitive tasks are added to my workload, I try to communicate if the new task may push other time-sensitive tasks back to ensure the new task needs to take the highest priority.
What was your all-time favorite vacation? And why?
Italy! My brother was stationed in Aviano Air Force Base and myself and parents went to visit when my oldest nephew was born. Getting to see family, meet my first nephew, and explore Venice and the towns surrounding the base was amazing. I spent 7 years living in Germany growing up, and Europe always feels a little like home. We got to visit a lot of places in those 7 years, but nowhere has taken my breath away quite like walking out of the train station in Venice.
At the beginning of this year, what were you most excited about happening? Has it happened? If so, what now?
Having my first baby! He was born in March and is the best baby! I returned to work in June, and while it’s tough to be away from my little guy, loving my job and the people I work with make it easier.
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