Counting my blessings

Today marks the first day of H2 and my second year of full-time employment. It is a blessing that I still have a job amidst this pandemic and I am grateful for that. Coming out of school, I was a full-time model and actor chasing my dream in the media industry but I decided that being in front of the camera was not for me. Fast forward, I am back in the media industry but this time, in the front office of the business in advertising sales for a reputable publishing company.

My full-time employment journey was not smooth sailing, to say the least. I had bouts of burnout from my first full-time role where I tried pushing boundaries and improving business capabilities but my ideas and plans were unwelcomed. I left as I felt unappreciated and my abilities would be a better fit elsewhere. To recover from the burnout I face, I took a one-month break while searching for another job and building Breakaway which has always been my passion.

I landed a job in Heart Media one month later gearing to go and better myself. After the first three months of probation, I was confirmed for the role and realised that sales is my calling. No one really is ever prepared for a sales role, from my knowledge, there is not a course on sales in any local Singaporean university. For students or graduates who are interested in mentorship for sales or are keen to find out more on B2B sales, please do hit me up at [email protected].

The previous half of this year was nothing short of amazing. Together with my colleagues, we secured countless deals that overtook the numbers for last year easily. I myself had the opportunity in securing regional deals that are going to be executed by my colleagues in the rest of the region namely Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. This led to a steep learning curve of the regional markets but with digitalisation and ease of communication with technology, things went smoothly.

Digitalisation in advertising is on a rapid growth trajectory with huge amounts of Ad dollars spent. Securing a regional campaign digitally has its perks with a unified voice online for the brand in all markets. What compliments this is actually print. Print media is still our biggest marketing tool as the branding and heritage of print shows the credibility of the news/media source as we are not focusing solely on reach and impressions but the health of the advertiser's brand. A holistic 360 approach coupled with social media as traffic drivers value adds the whole campaign as a whole. If you want to know more, please do contact me at [email protected]. I strongly believe that there are more upsides during this pandemic as advertisers scurry to gain market share and increasing brand awareness.

Apart from all the numbers chasing, I keep sane with Breakaway. Committing a few hours of my time each day to exercise and to guide the club to achieve what we set out to complete two and a half years ago. This year, we manage to secure our first funding from the Singapore government for our hybrid offerings that we actually started in late 2018. This helped us to accelerate our plans during the pandemic which led to an increase in our database and pool of clients.

My co-founder had the chance to be interviewed by multiple news streams from the local newspapers to international news. We are starting H2 with a webinar and having Harriet Brown who is a World Ironwoman Champion as guest speaker. If you are keen on first-hand news from the Breakaway, join our mailing list here for first-hand insights and promotions, or join our telegram channel here for exclusive drops and to keep up to date with our community if you are not a member yet.

2021 has taught me many things and I am grateful for all the lessons I've learned throughout this pandemic that have made me a stronger person. To infinity and beyond!

p.s. published my first article for Yacht Style here https://yachtstyle.co/ferrari-roma-lives-la-nuova-dolce-vita-in-singapore/