Meet Sarah Benoit

 

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sarah Benoit. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sarah below.

Sarah, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

After over 20 years in the marketing industry and my experience creating content in multiple platforms, styles, and mediums I can say the intentional steps I take to keep my creativity alive is an essential part of my success and the success of my clients and students. When your job is to create and distribute effective messaging that drives interest and sales every day, week, month, and year without an end date in mind it can be easy to start to feel drained and uninspired over time. Especially if your working environment, workflows and leadership do not allow you to innovate, experiment, and refuel yourself.

I focus on 5 main things to stay excited, motivated, and feeling like my creative spirit is being nurtured:

1. Do not work too long in an isolated or siloed situation. Designate time the you can meet with others and cross-pollinate and share ideas and goals.
2. Center yourself around the mission, vision, and values of the brand. Whenever you start to feel creative fatigue go back to that core foundation and be reminded of why you do what you do. That brand clarity allows you to infuse every marketing channel with clearer purpose.
3. Have a self-care plan. When you are “over it,” do something. Give your heart, mind, and body a chance to recover. If you are in leadership and manage creative professionals make sure you build a culture where people feel comfortable saying when they feel burnt out and give them opportunities to deal with it.
4. Make space for experimenting and trying new things. This can help you gain new perspectives and insights you would not get otherwise. It’s not about being perfect and always knowing what’s right. Through experimentation and risk comes creative discovery and vision.
5. Don’t always surround yourself with people who think and feel the way you do. New ideas are born when you get out of your own patterns, expectations, and biases.

Much of what I am sharing comes down to the cultivation of emotional intelligence in your own life, both personally and professionally. This is a choice i make every day so that the stress and grind of being a human doesn’t get me down or tax my energy. It’s how I protect, nurture, and increase my creativity.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I have lived in Asheville, NC since 1999 and started my first SEO company in 2003. Since then I have worked in the web design, SEO, digital advertising, and social media fields and began teaching classes on related subjects in 2006.

As President of Creative Original, Inc. I create and optimize small business websites and provide consulting services to a wide range of local brands. As Co-founder and Lead Instructor of the JB Media Institute, I leverage my experience as a digital marketing strategist to create timely, relevant, and engaging educational content for clients and events across the United States.

I speak, present, and teach on digital marketing topics at conferences and events throughout the year focused on travel and tourism, food and beverage, the arts, health and wellness, creative entrepreneurship, small business development, and community organizing. In addition, I consult with marketing teams of all kinds and support them in creating work environments that strengthen and reward creativity and innovation.

I am also co-founder, producer, and curriculum developer for the DIY Tourism Marketing Conference held in Asheville, NC and I manage an online course called the Content Strategy Roadmap. Our online subscription program is a small community of tourism marketing professionals, small business owners, marketing coordinators, and social media managers who have access to:

1. Our online course the Content Strategy Roadmap featuring on-demand video classes and activities that can help you create an actionable content marketing strategic plan.
2. Weekly office hours and coaching calls with me.
3. Monthly, virtual AI training sessions where we discuss the latest tools, changes, and opportunities in the marketplace.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

My best skills as an entrepreneur and creative professional are my self-awareness, my commitment to life long-learning, and my passion for storytelling. These are the three qualities that have helped me accept constructive criticism as a path to growth, learn important lessons from my failures or missteps, and take time to celebrate and enjoy my accomplishments. These three traits also always kept me centered on the thing that mattered most and for me, it was building relationships with partners, colleagues, clients, and students that will last a lifetime. If you are early in your journey, whether it be personal, professional, or both, I highly suggest you dive deep into emotional intelligence and find the ways you want to deepen your relationship to yourself and the people around you. When you intentionally make time for this work you feel lighter, more inspired, and more courageous. Practically what this means is:

1. Make empathy a practice
2. Know your strengths and weaknesses fully
3. Accept yourself
4. Listen to others
5. Ask questions

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

Collaboration has been an incredibly important part of my business success over two decades. I certainly learned the value of personal relationships and partnership in 2008 when my company was able to rebrand and continue in the midst of a stressful economic time for our country. Then in 2011 one of my biggest local competitors came to me with an idea and we began the work that became JB Media Institute. and the DIY Tourism Marketing Conference. Essentially by combining forces with my competitor, I achieved even more than I had dreamed before.

In the coming year I am looking for events, conferences, digital marketers, educators, and creative professionals that want to develop educational programming and experiences, design trainings and workshops that teach hands-on skills, shift their marketing departments to a new paradigm, and build community resources so more people can have a voice online and in the world.

These collaborations can come in the form of client or student relationships, keynotes, sponsorships, co-presented trainings, virtual and in person classes, partnership marketing strategies and more. I am always open to hearing ideas and having virtual coffee. You can reach out to me at [email protected].

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Sarah Benoit

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