Amanda Natividad is the VP of Marketing at SparkToro.

Please enjoy her 374-word Micro-Interview:

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Thanks, Amanda.

Let’s get started:

1) "Do you have a work routine?”

I don’t have a routine. I have guardrails. They are:

3 non-negotiables every day:
(1) Ship at least 1 thing every day (could be an email campaign; blog post; substantial social media post; etc);
(2) No social media break until I’ve accomplished a next task; and
(3) Always pick up my kid from school — it’s the highlight of my day, every day.

Certain tasks occur only on specific days: Monday is my no-meeting day. I ramp up slowly and set the stage for the week. Wednesdays and Thursdays are interview, webinar or podcast days.

2) "What do you wish you'd known about your work when you first started?”

Learn the rules before you break them. This can be hard if you’re ambitious. But taking time to learn something from first principles allows you discover weaknesses in those approaches before forging your own approach. For instance, I didn’t learn SEO until a couple years into content marketing. I should have learned it sooner so I could break the right rules instead of making up new standards on the fly.

3) “What did your biggest professional failure teach you?”

Years ago, I was launching a private online community for a B2B audience. Six weeks out, I didn’t even have a platform chosen. The pre-approved vendor lied to me about their features and I didn’t have the wherewithal to tell my boss. So I stewed in it. Procrastinated for over a week. No progress, and at this point, it was all my own fault.

The lesson? Your boss doesn’t like surprises. Figure out how to clue them in on your struggles early without being whiny. This will involve honesty, brevity, and taking a, "X sucks, but here’s what I’m doing to move forward,” approach.

4) “Has anything helped you shorten your craft's learning curve?”

When it comes to copywriting, I always think: “Nobody cares how you feel about this thing. Show the reader why they need to care.”

Writing to express your feelings is a beautiful thing, and one that’s completely separate from copywriting. Copywriting is about inspiring action, compelling someone to respond. You can’t do that if you’re navel-gazing about your outlook of the world.

5) “Do you have a book recommendation?”

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed. I’ve recommended this book to friends who treated this like WebMD for their romantic woes. (Please don’t do that.)

Now I recommend it to marketers and tech workers to remind them of our humanity. Great writing can get us to feel other people’s experiences — because we can relate to each other so much better than we might think. Few people can reach into your soul and squeeze your heart the way Cheryl Strayed can with a simple, vivid sentence.

6) “Any parting piece of advice?”

The greatest gift you can give someone is to believe in them wholeheartedly. Never underestimate how a simple, “Obviously, you can do X,” can change someone’s life.