Michaela Underdahl, Senior Community Manager at Nimble
Michaela heads up Nimble’s community growth and engagement. She is responsible for developing social media, PR, and influencer marketing strategies and manages the brand’s relationships with the press, influencers, ambassadors, partners, and customers. She’s passionate about teaching people how to use a CRM to grow their business, and she does so by hosting various online events and by developing educational content. Michaela’s favourite part of her job is working with prospective and current customers and helping them to use Nimble to become more productive.
What is your favourite social media platform?
My favourite social media platform is Instagram. It's where I connect with friends and family, and it's also where I am able to keep in touch and nurture relationships with my professional network. I love Instagram Stories and think it was a brilliant idea. I also love Twitter for work. I love that I can connect with anybody and don't need permission to do so. I am a big fan of Twitter Lists and can organize people this way so I don't get distracted (too much) and can immediately focus my attention on the people I am currently working with. Clubhouse is my third favourite at this moment. I am one of the passive listeners there at this point and love to room hop. It's a great way to learn about a lot of things from a lot of people from various different backgrounds and industries. It's helped me to expand my horizons.
Tell us about you and your current role or area of interest.
I am responsible for managing and growing our community of customers, influencers, partners, and press. It's a very rewarding job. I have seen many social media connections develop into not only our power users and evangelists but also people that I now consider friends. I love working with the team on coming up with ways to collaborate such as hosting webinars with some of the smartest people in the sales and marketing industry.
What do you like about your career or area of focus?
I love the relationship aspect of my job and that my role is customer-facing. I very much enjoy talking to customers and the influencer we work with face-to-face and helping them come up with solutions to their problems using our product.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Treat people the way you want to be treated.
What inspires you, motivates you, or helps you to move forward?
I have always enjoyed making friends and meeting new people and I feel lucky that building and nurturing relationships are my jobs now. I get inspired by people's stories and hearing back from them about me helping them is a great source of motivation to me. I also think that me being an immigrant is a big part of what motivates me to move forward, work hard, and succeed. I have been always looking at my job as an opportunity to prove myself to my new country.
What are you proud of in your life so far?
I'm proud of always ending up trusting my gut feeling. I'm also proud of my perseverance and doing even the things that scare me.
What is your preferred way to meet new people/network?
Oh how much I miss meeting people over good food and drinks and while travelling.
What skills or qualities do you feel have helped you?
Determination, empathy and honesty.
What do you wish you had known when you started?
I wish I had known I could lean on myself more than I used to.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles and why?
Simon Sinek. I love that he inspires organizations to create environments in which employees can be happy, feel valued, and motivated by feeling like they matter.
Outside of your professional/work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
I love travelling and discovering new places and trying new food and drinks. I also need to get back to regular Ashtanga yoga practice. Another thing I have always enjoyed is watching documentaries. I love real-life stories of all kinds, especially about self-made people that achieved great things.
Has the pandemic had a positive or a negative effect on you and/or your business, and how have you been managing it?
The pandemic hasn't affected our business very much which I'm grateful for. Our team has adapted to working remotely pretty well. And personally, I feel like I was unknowingly preparing for this for several years, haha. I moved from a busy Los Angeles to a very quiet town south of Atlanta and when Covid hit, I had been working from home for around three years. Remember the meme that was circling around that said "Oh, so my daily lifestyle is called quarantine?" That's me! I have been ok when it comes to dealing with the no travel and going out thing. However, to be honest, it's been very hard for me to deal with how much Covid divided us, the amount of misinformation out there, and the lack of true leadership that is necessary in order to successfully navigate a crisis.
Do you have a mentor, or have you ever mentored anyone?
I have actually been keeping an eye out for a mentor for a while. I believe the saying that goes: "when the student is ready the teacher will appear". I kinda know who I'm looking for, but I have not quite found her yet. I do feel very fortunate to have worked under Jon Ferrara, our CEO, who's been encouraging me and mentoring me for almost seven years now. I have not mentored anybody myself yet. But once the time and the right opportunity comes, I will be more than happy to do so.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work or interests?
Be prepared to work hard, ask for feedback, take every single opportunity that will allow you to learn something new and grow.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
When people don't feel a strong connection to what they do and when they don't feel valued and appreciated.
Is there a phrase, quote or a saying that you really like?
Be the person you needed when you were younger.
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
I like how Chewy makes you feel like you and your pets matter to them. They send birthday cards for your pets and also a little gift to brighten up your day when you have to cancel a subscription because your pet is no longer with us. I am also amazed by some great ideas that emerged from the pandemic. Goldbelly allows you to order from many restaurants, small and big, across the entire United States. So even if you can't travel to your favourite bagel shop in NYC, the bagel can travel to you. I think Instacart is also a brilliant idea. They've made it easy to order a delivery from almost any grocery store keeping people safe and saving them time while giving jobs to many during the pandemic.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience/readership?
Real success is when you feel content about both your professional and personal lives.