Colin Englebright went from balancing multiple jobs and studying full-time to running social media at Hunt and Fool Company and he did it all while staying humble, teachable, and willing to take risks. In this episode, Bobby and Karl dive into Colin’s journey from intern to full-time Social Media Manager, the importance of relationships and feedback, and why sometimes a pay cut is the best career move you can make. Plus, hear about his love for the outdoors, his musical side hustle, and his dream career!
Show Notes:
Bobby Hodge 00:12
welcome T birds to the career Cafe podcast. I am your host. Bobby Hodge, I'm here with my co host,
Bobby Hodge 00:20
still. Carl, yeah, and we are here with our awesome guest, Colin. Oh, I should have asked you how to pronounce your last name. Colin engelbright,
Speaker 1 00:29
pretty close, dang it. Engelbert. Englebright, yeah, yeah. Well, sorry, no, you're good. You do way better than everybody
Bobby Hodge 00:36
else. What is, what's the usual mess up
Collin Englebright 00:39
people, some people don't even try. They don't even attempt. They're just like you don't. Maybe I should have done that.
Bobby Hodge 00:47
Well, welcome Colin, thank you. I've got your LinkedIn pulled up here. We're just gonna do a quick run through. You are currently the Social Media Manager for hunt and fool company here in Cedar City, and you were at first a media assistant or an intern for them, right? Yep, so that's kind of going to be our topic today. Is how you turned that internship into a full time job. But Carl and I were just poking around here. It also looks like it says independent musician slash artist. That's
Karl Rostron 01:13
correct. You were the hip hop mogul from Cedar City. Not quite hip
Bobby Hodge 01:18
hop. Hip Hop. What music I make,
Speaker 1 01:21
kind of like singer songwriter, acoustic, very stripped back type of music.
Bobby Hodge 01:26
Zach Brian, Noah Khan, yeah. I
Speaker 1 01:28
kind of like that, yeah. I like that stuff. So you
Bobby Hodge 01:32
just got one more follower, all right, and you were a senior here at SU you studying marketing, that's correct, yeah. So tell us. Tell us, really quick, just a little bit about your journey. You started at Suu. What is your college experience look like? How'd you get hired at hunt and fool? Kind of walk us through the past few years?
Speaker 1 01:51
Well, my brother went here first. He kind of paved the way to Suu, and he loved it. He actually put a pause on it for a job opportunity. So he's, I guess, currently a senior. He's coming back, which is cool, we'll get together at the same time. But so I started in the spring of 2023, actually, okay, I got back from my church mission started when it was, historically, one of the worst winters in the last couple of years. So it works. That was a great introduction, coming from a mission in Africa. Nice. So I started here, and then I actually started studying communications, and I loved that, but I soon realized that basically everything that I enjoy and all my passions kind of filter into business. So switched my major to management. And then as I studied more and got to do more of the fun business classes, I realized I like marketing the most. So now my major is marketing. Like you said, I've got a little bit to go until I'm done. But as far as like my job goes, it was kind of, I guess you could say random. I don't believe in like coincidences, but I was currently working for the hospital here in town, okay, and I loved working there. It was awesome. I got treated great, and I loved being able to work with people that came in there. But one day, I was just like, for whatever reason, I hopped on handshake. I love handshake. I actually like it probably the most out of the job posting websites nice. And I came across this job posting for hunting full. And I was like, oh man. As someone who grew up hunting and going to expose and stuff, I already knew what they do and what they were, and I was like, Man, that would be so cool to work there. But in my brain, I'm thinking, well, I already have a job, and it suits my needs, you know, like we make enough to live at the time I had just got, well, about to get married to my current wife. Current wife, all right. Well, sorry, like I only heard it
Bobby Hodge 04:05
here, first
Karl Rostron 04:07
first wife. Now you're getting into my territory.
Speaker 1 04:11
That sounded very weird. We won't cut it
Bobby Hodge 04:16
out, but we know we'll
Karl Rostron 04:18
hear about the others later.
Speaker 1 04:21
Well, anyways, no coming back from that one. But anyways, so we've been married. Next month will be a year, okay, but at the time this posting came up, I think we had just got engaged, nice, and everything was telling me to just do it. But then the logical side is, like, you don't have time for that. It's not going to pay you that good, this and that well, because you were planning on keeping the other job, right? Yeah, yeah. My, my boss at the time, at the hospital, like, really liked me. They valued what I was doing, and because Cedar's kind of a smaller hospital, like, they needed me too. So I was like, I don't know if I can do this. Talk to her about it. And I. Interviewed for it, and it seemed like they would be flexible enough to make it work. So I was like, Well, here goes nothing. Interviewed. And I knew that a lot of people had interviewed too, so I was like, I'm probably not gonna get this. And then I got it. And I was like, Okay, here we go. Started doing that, just on the side, life got really busy because I was doing those job school and then this job on the side, and how many credits were you doing? I think it was 1515, so full time. Yeah, that's like, my average per semester. It's not too bad, compared to something, well, with two other jobs, it gets busy. Oh, at one point it was three jobs. And then I was like, that's not gonna work. We're not gonna do that.
Bobby Hodge 05:40
You're gonna lose your current wife.
Karl Rostron 05:42
He's not gonna see that year mark, exactly.
Speaker 1 05:47
So, long story short, what happened is I started as a media assistant, starting to get familiarized with social media content and what they needed me to do. And as time went on and they started to like what I was doing. They started to want to compensate what I was doing more because they were giving me more chances for responsibility. And what I appreciate a lot about hunt for one about my my boss is when they give me something to do, they make sure that they like I said, either compensate it or recognize it or reward it. It's not just like, here's a bunch of extra stuff. Good luck, you know. So as I started to get deeper in there, I started thinking, well, maybe I could just do this and quit my other job. It's kind of a leap of faith, because it wasn't quite the same level of I guess money. But I was like, This is what I'm studying. I like it more, and it's risky, but it's something I want to try. And my wife is super supportive. She also studies marketing. Oh, nice, which makes things a lot easier. We're always on the same page with that. So I just took a leap of faith, quit my other job, went all into this job, and took a pay cut, you know, like for a time there, but it was a great risk to take, because, based on what I said, you know, where they they were treating me good. They just kept treating me good, and I kept trying to do a good job. And now, now I could say I'm a lot more comfortable in this position. You know, I don't feel like I'm scraping by, like it's like you said, it's turned into a full time job. So sorry, that's kind of a
Karl Rostron 07:33
long winded, sets the table.
Bobby Hodge 07:35
Nice. Yeah, I want to come back to that, because that's, that's interesting. Of you know, taking the pay cut and everything really quick, though. I want to just know. So what is your current responsibilities at your job? I guess? What did it start as, and what has it grown to?
Speaker 1 07:48
So what it started as is, and I have to address the fact too, like I'm not the only one who's joined the team in recent years. Our team's growing really fast to hunt and fool, specifically our marketing team. So when I got there, our marketing manager. His name is Jay Lyle. He's my direct manager. He was handling a lot of the responsibilities with social and ads and whatnot. So when I got there, it was more of just taking a little bit off his plate, you know, like scheduling out some posts, learning how to do that and learning how to do more of them, monotonous tasks that, you know, he just he needs time to do more important things that's going to bring revenue to the company. So I started learning how to do that. And as time went on, I got more into making creative content and, you know, portraying the brand voice through my own, you know, my own creative lens, kind of and as time went on, I just my current title is a social media manager. So I manage hunt fools social accounts and gear fools social accounts, which is our gear retail store that we, you know, we sell gear to help people get outfitted for their hunts. So that entails, you know, posting, tracking posts. But also, I've recently, in the last like half year, they've allowed me to make advertisements. So now that actually takes up the majority of my time. Is meta ads. Okay? We do this thing called Dream hunt draws, which is every month, you know, we we buy certain hunts, and then we give them away to people. So they enter our drawing, and they people. They want to go on these cool adventures. So I've never won. Have you entered? Yes, oh, every month, keep drawing. I've got an in. So a big thing I do is just making a ton of ads for those. And as I've really increased the amount of ads we get to push out to our our audience, we've seen a huge growth in followers and revenue. And so we kind of all as a marketing team said, Well, this is kind of priority, because this is bringing us revenue. So Colin, we want you. To do that more, but that entailed, like, we still need to get social done organically. So recently, we just went through the process of getting me some help on that, on that side, but that's kind of what I do right now. That's sweet. So
Karl Rostron 10:13
started as an intern, and within a year now, you're hiring interns
Bobby Hodge 10:17
to work for you, yeah, basically, and you still haven't even graduated your
10:21
undergrad, not quite That's awesome. Yeah, that's so cool.
Karl Rostron 10:23
So, you know, your boss, Jake, you know he and I were talking on the phone and and he's, he's great to work with, with Su and bring on interns. And we were setting up kind of a program to bring on more interns for him, and he was doing some ads through handshake, and we started talking about the podcast, and I said, well, and an interesting thing for you is he's not here, right? You're learning everything working with him. Remote. He's in Montana, yep. And so that's another layer that you have to deal with. Is not here. That's crazy. A lot of our teams remote, really? Yeah, cool. And so he says, you know, I'm moving down there, and I'd be interested in coming on your podcast and talking to them. He says, right now, I've got your guy. Says he's an SU intern. I hired him, and he's doing great. And I think you've kind of undersold your mission or your title so far. I mean, it's not just you're some guy, you're it, you're the man when it comes to the marketing. And you know, he has every confidence in the world, in you, and he's seen you grow. But he loves, you know, the desire you have, the willing you the willingness you had to just step in, try everything, figure it out on your own. And he said, That's what I, you know, love about him, and that's why we're making him, you know, the director of this project, and he's going to hire others now to work for him. And so I, you know, I just want to throw that out there. I think you undersold yourself a little bit, but, but, you know, it's quite a journey. And we talked a little bit before this about that, about the things you had to learn, you know, everywhere from programs to then going through the process of hiring someone else now to work for you, and what that was like. Can you talk about maybe the biggest surprise to you about what you've learned about yourself through this journey, and also, maybe just about business in general, going through the process of becoming a boss? So to say, through the process,
Speaker 1 12:19
the biggest surprise, I'd say the biggest surprise is, like, I'm surprised how fast, not just me, like, how fast people can learn stuff, because from a mix of school and also work, it just feels like, you know, you get thrown a ton of stuff where you're like, Whoa. Like, I know I'm supposed to do this, but I don't think I can. And a lot of people are way better than you at that stuff. And then the more that you just like try to do it, work hard, and then take feedback from people that are willing to give you feedback. You learn really fast. And then you look back and like, wow, I already know how to do this stuff. Yeah, you know, and school, I definitely would say, I I have my certain struggles, like we were just talking about, I didn't do very good with math and other things. But even in school, like, I look back and it's crazy how much happens so quickly.
Karl Rostron 13:10
So like say, when you're willing, like you said, to try hard, to put in the work, to listen to criticism or constructive help, whatever you want to call it, you can learn quickly and and, you know, that's one of the keys that employers have mentioned, and even we talked about earlier, is that desire to work hard, even when you don't know, some of the desire to put in the time to learn even you addressed your self doubts. You know, there's better people, obviously out there, and what am I doing? But you didn't let that stop you. You worked to take the information people were giving you, you were willing to put in the time to learn and grow yourself, and put in the hard work to do it. And when you those three factors play in, you know, you can accomplish a lot for sure. And so thinking about that as you were then turning to go through the process this year of hiring someone to help you. Now looking at it through the employer lens, I need somebody to make me look good. You know, I need somebody to help me accomplish things. What mind shift did you have, or what realization did you have, and what did you then look for in hiring someone to work for you, I
Speaker 1 14:23
don't know. I still feel like, it's hard to say, like they're working for me. It feels a lot more like with me, yeah, you know, because we've been able to create a pretty busy schedule that I just can't keep up with by myself. But it definitely feels at first, you know, you know you talked about, like, what mind shift did I have? I guess one that I had is you have to be pretty honest and clear and make decisions and move forward. I try to be really nice to people, kind of people, that's just how I was raised. I love talking to people, getting to know them. And. Was kind of hard, you know, like, in the process where you get tons of applications, you have interviews, and there's stuff you really like about people and other things, where in the back your mind you're like, Well, I know that's probably not gonna work out, but, but you have to say no to something you do, yeah, you all say no, and you have to communicate it clearly, yeah. And the reasons, you know, like, professionally, and so I would say, like that that was difficult for me, just being able to be straightforward, and I don't have, I wouldn't say I have a trouble with honesty. I mean more just getting to the point and saying, You know what, we need to go this direction, and we need to do it fairly quickly, or we might lose that opportunity. Yeah, you know. So that was a good learning experience for me.
Bobby Hodge 15:43
I recently hired an intern. You can say, Hi Kenzie. You just yell, that's Kenzie. We just hired her. You know, going through the interview process, I think that I learned a lot the same thing, of like, a year ago, I'm in an interview, and the next year you're interviewing people, you kind of start to realize why resumes are formatted the way they are not super exciting, but it's like, you got 100 applications. You got to pick through it somehow. Why a cover letter is so important? You know, you Kenzie had a cover letter, so she was immediately, like, bumped up to the next level. But if you don't go through all of like, the steps and really like cover your bases. How can you expect an employer to be looking at you? Yeah, if your resume isn't perfect, it's hard,
Karl Rostron 16:27
because now you realize how much you're going to rely on this person to make your job, not just better, but but complete. So you can complete your job, you need this, and so the sun becomes very important to it's not just, you're not just filling a space, you're not just hiring somebody to check off some boxes. You need to rely on this person, right? And so it's a little bit, you know, I don't think you realize that until you're in the position of having to hire somebody. Just what an important decision it is, not just for that person, but for for you, the person hiring. It's, it's kind of makes or breaks you.
Bobby Hodge 17:06
It's interesting. Like with small businesses, we're a small team, you know, we work at the university, but our team is small, and we hire ourselves. It's interesting when you have those HR reps that show up to fairs, and it's like they're just looking for bodies. You just need somebody to come and sit in the table. But like you, you're dealing with them all the time. You can't just have somebody show up that you're like, after two days, you're like,
Speaker 1 17:28
I can't do and, like, in my position, like, I really care about the work I'm doing, and I really wanted to do well. And I think that plays a factor into where, like, for me, it's not just like, go in there, clock in, yep, clock out. Like, I'm pretty passionate about it doing well, not just to make me or my manager, like, good like, I get a lot of satisfaction out of that and out of doing a good job, so to speak. So, yeah, it's hard when you're like, Well, somebody's gonna take some of this off my plate. That's another thing. Is, like, delegating can be hard to learn. Where you're like, Okay, someone else is gonna take this and they're gonna make mistakes, but that's okay, yeah, you know. And that's kind of hard, too.
Karl Rostron 18:07
So moving through that process in the year, a lot's changed for you. You're going to graduate in the spring, and we were talking about, you want to jump into that master's program, right? You've got this job that, I mean really, you applied for it because it was your passion, your dream, your interest, and so now you've got this position, but you're still talking about completing school, going back for more what role does education play in what you do? And why do you think it's important for you that even though now you would classify maybe I got this cool dream job. Why? Why continue? Why more? Why does education play in that?
Speaker 1 18:46
That's a really good question, especially in today's world. You know, we're like, a lot of people, have their own opinions, and it's great, because there really are, like, a ton of paths you can take to succeed and be happy. For me, the reason I want to keep doing education, there's always the basic reason of security, you know, and having qualifications, so to speak, when job opportunities come up. But I just, I really, actually love learning and education. I'm not always good at the classes, but I, I am really passionate about trying to become as educated as possible, partially because of my beliefs, you know, like I believe that whatever I learn or attain, it just keeps growing and expounding even into the next life. So that's something that I really look forward to. Is trying to improve every day, every year, because I believe it's worth something. You know what I mean, not intrinsically, in and of itself, exactly. So I'd say that's like the biggest motivator for me is just because I'm really passionate about it and I I think it will continue. But yeah, as far as the job goes, I just, I'm lucky enough to have a job that. Also values education. You know that they're not like, well, I guess you're going back to class, so we'll have to fire you or your priorities? Yeah, no, they really value it. So it makes makes it a lot easier for me.
Bobby Hodge 20:13
Part of me you talking about that and like your desire to learn. It makes me think that also translated well into your internship and into your job. It's not a coincidence that you're able to pick up on meta ads and learn things that maybe just a normal intern, that as soon as they get their dream job, they quit school, they might not have the same drive, they might not have the same desire to just learn as much as possible. That's probably the biggest thing that we can we've done a lot of talking on this podcast this season about the value of school and like, why, why you would go get a degree? Because, you know, you're a marketing major. I was marketing major. I think we can both attest to you're going to learn half the stuff that you do at the actual job. Yeah, and your degree does not exactly prepare you for the job, but the process of learning to learn, and learning how to make mistakes and figure it out, and in today's environment of learning online, maybe when there isn't a professor that's a resource to you, 24/7, or you're learning out of a textbook, that process itself will prepare you for your job better than any of your courses will. Yeah, for sure. I agree. I want to. I want to come back to what you talked about, a little bit of just that transition to the new job. So this is interesting to me, just because I had the same thing happen when I was in my senior year, my last semester, I had been working at a bank, making good money like you were at the hospital. Like this is you said it was your breadwinner job. It's what provides for you and your wife. I had two little dog or a dog that needed new chew toys and needed food every week. So a job comes along, and it's like half as much an hour as what I was making at the bank. And originally started as, okay, I'm going to take this job and I'm going to do both of them. And then the one was I was so much more passionate about it. And finally, my wife and I had a conversation and we said, Okay, we need to decide, like, I can't be doing two of these. I was doing 18 credits at the time. You're doing 15. Like, yeah, it sounds like the same story. And you eventually pulled the trigger to say, Okay, we're going to take the pay cut and get the experience. What was that process like? Of like, finally deciding to do it, and how did you adjust to it? Because I don't think, I think the more students go through this than we realize. I
Speaker 1 22:31
mean, I'll start off with the boring part of the process. Go for it. The boring part is I wanted to make sure I was on the same page with them, where they were ready to take me on as a full time employee, potentially and ready for me to function in that capacity, instead of just in and out type of thing. And I'm quite a big number cruncher, even though I'm not good at that. Me and my wife are very meticulous with our budget and whatnot, so I wanted to make sure that we would be okay if I did it at the minimum. So I made sure that was okay first. And then a big part of it, too is my wife and I just talked about it constantly. And we both are religious, so we prayed about it, we made sure that it felt right, and we knew, too, like being this early on in college, that change is going to happen. Yeah, you know, and other opportunities can and will come up, and it's kind of a good time to make mistakes. We don't have any kids yet or anything, so that kind of led me to just say, like, why not? You know, if it goes bad, I can try to find another job and work up from there, because that's, that's kind of what I did when I got home from my mission. I just got a job, and it was rough. I won't get into details, but I was like cleaning bathrooms and stuff, you know, because that's what you got to do. And little by little, it got better. So in my head, I was okay with taking a little bit of a step back, because I knew, if you just keep trying and working hard, it'll work out like, yeah, you'll work back up
Bobby Hodge 24:05
to that point. So yeah, and you say, step back as far as pay, yeah, mostly pay, yeah. That was, like, the thing you were really interested in. You're making good money at the hospital, but at the end of the day, your dream wasn't to keep working at the hospital. Yeah, I think that that's hard for students to go, okay, when do I finally start focusing on internships, especially when you're looking at you guys probably had some savings put away. You're like, dang, we're, you know, we've been trying really hard to grow this. We've been trying really hard to set ourselves up for, like, a good life after college, and to look at that and go, we might burn through this. Yeah, that's tough, yeah, it's scary, yeah, but you did it and it worked out. So what did what did that process then look like? Because you did, you know, you broke out your Excel spreadsheet and you made sure that you guys are going to be okay budget wise, but over the next few months, you're and you're still working full time and doing school. So what did that transition look like?
Speaker 1 24:59
I. So you know what it looked like is things just happened little by little, where it kind of reinforced where we felt like we made the right decision, you know, like, where maybe a small win would happen at work. I'm like, Man, I just learned how to do this. And, like, I did it well, and they liked it, and that was a big deal, because I'm like, Oh, this could turn into more and then another thing would happen where we're like, that's great, and maybe even not with work, you know, something would happen where some kind of money comes our way that we really needed, and it feels like it comes out of nowhere, but we know it's because we feel like we're doing the right thing, and that God's putting that in our path. And so that's, I guess that's I guess that's what it looks like. It definitely wasn't like a internship to where I'm at now, like one step, it was a bunch of small little things, but it felt like it happened really fast, you know, like pretty quick progression, which, again, credit to hunt and fool. They really value people pursuing their strengths, like when they start there, in whatever position it is, if they notice that an employee is really good at something, even if it's slightly out of their job description, they really try to cultivate it and give you more opportunities. So they help me with that a lot.
Karl Rostron 26:19
We were talking earlier, and you mentioned that, okay, you got this internship. It's something that you wanted to do. It's cool. You're enjoying yourself, and now you're getting some accolades, you're getting some more money, you're getting increased responsibility, you're getting more position and title. But through that internship, you didn't even know everything that came with an internship from the college end of it, yeah, you know. And so kind of talk about what an internship was, and what you learned, and what you can teach others about that now.
Speaker 1 26:49
So, I mean, I'm definitely still learning. This is the first semester I've been able to get credit for it, just because that's on me. It was available, but I didn't really know it was a thing, I think just because I am somewhat oblivious, and because the university is growing so fast, where I think a lot of things, a lot of resources to students, people don't know about. And my wife actually told me, she's like, you know, you can get credit for your job, right? And I was like, yeah, like, yeah. But then I was, you know, I'm kind of stubborn. And then she brought up again, and I was like, is that true? Like, can I actually? She's like, Yeah, you actually, can? You just have to, like, do it, you know, go talk to somebody. So I did. I just set up an appointment with my advisor and professor, Michael Croft, he's a marketing professor. He's helped me through the whole process, and it's been, it's been really exciting, you know, just to he's actually one of my current teachers right now, and just being able to, like, talk about it with him, and then for my employer, they really value, right, like you said, where they have this agreement now, where students, if that's what they value is education, they want to go work there because they know they can get credit right for it, and that that company values school. Yeah,
Karl Rostron 28:10
I know I'm talking to your boss through the process, and he's called several times, working out the whole deal, and it was something that was very important to him to make sure he had this set up and it was right, and he could then offer it to the other students who are going to follow you, right?
Speaker 1 28:24
And it's, it's cool to be able to put that on, like, a job posting too, where it's like, yes, not only are we a good job, like, Please believe us, we're a good job. You know, everyone says that, but we'll work with your school schedule, and we'll offer you school credit, and then people are like, Oh, really, yeah, you know,
Bobby Hodge 28:43
great. So I have a couple questions, because we've touched on, you know that you You did a good job enough to the point they're like, We need to bring them on full time. But you know, the topic of the podcast is, how do interns do that? Do you think that there were any like key moments in your internship that proved to them that you were you were capable of taking on a full time responsibility? Or was there any like one thing you did that you felt like flipped the switch in their minds? Or was it a lot of little things over time? I
Speaker 1 29:18
would say it was little things. I mean, naturally though, the way social media goes is you have those reels or whatever, that all of a sudden go crazy. So if, if we wanted to bring that up, those started to come, okay? And that was kind of a big deal, you know, where it's like, okay, these things that I'm coming up with are actually working, instead of just feels like I'm putting out stuff that nobody's seeing. Yeah, so that was we
Karl Rostron 29:44
don't know that feeling, do we?
Bobby Hodge 29:45
Okay? Please watch our podcast.
Speaker 1 29:49
And I was pretty used to that too, like we talked about this. I think it was before the podcast. But I I also write and record music because I love it on the side. And that's kind of how it's been, where it's like, my family loves it, my friends love it. But other than that, like, no one really knows, yeah. So I was just kind of used to, like, putting stuff out, putting stuff out, nothing. And then it started to get traction. And it's exciting, you know, you want to do more. But as far as, like, turning points, or what they recognize, were like, wow, he's doing a good job. I don't think it was one thing. It's just like when I was asked to do something, I did it,
Karl Rostron 30:27
and you figured out, if you didn't know you did it, but sometimes you had to figure out how to do it.
Speaker 1 30:33
Yeah, especially me where, like, I love technology, but I don't consider myself the most technologically advanced, where it took probably double the time to figure it out, where I'm like, Okay, I do not know how to do this. I gotta ask chat GPT for a little crash course.
Bobby Hodge 30:49
Well, let's be honest, meta business suite is a nightmare to deal with. It's a lot. You have somebody come to you and say, oh, you know Facebook, you're Gen Z, and it's like, I've never looked at this my life Facebook.
Speaker 1 31:02
I mean, generally, it's not even us. They use Facebook. It's, you know, yeah, millennials, to answer your question, yeah, just doing what I was asked and then trying to, I guess, like, what's the word? Add my own touch on it, but not go outside the parameters, you know. Like, if they say, do this task, make sure I do what they told me, but then try to make it better. You know what I mean? Without being rebellious, if that makes sense, where it's like, if you ask me to make an ad for a campaign, and maybe I have another idea, I'll make two ads, and then, instead of just like, giving them to post, I'll say, here's one I made, like, let me know if it works or not. But here you go. And just that, like, I think makes a difference, yeah.
Bobby Hodge 31:52
I think that a lot of students we probably get out of school take our first job. We think that we know everything right? I think that we can go conquer the world. And sometimes it takes pumping your brakes a little bit and realizing, like, Okay, I've got to go through the motions a little bit, build some trust. Show these people that I'm competent before they before they give me the full reins, right? And so you probably did that over how long were you an intern before you became full time? Let's see
32:22
about five
Bobby Hodge 32:24
or six months. Five or six months, yeah, five or six months of just consistently, like, I can deliver, I can figure things out, and then they finally say, Okay, you obviously, you're not gonna, like, make us go bankrupt. That's great. Yeah, now you can work. Let's switch gears a little bit, and now let's talk more about, you know, your schooling. So as a full time student and as an intern, you know, what would what advice would you have for students that are either starting an internship or looking at internships? How do they start that process and then once they get to it, you know, what kind of things should they be doing?
Speaker 1 33:00
From a more general standpoint, well, I think is, if you if you're worried about, like I was, like, providing for yourself, or you and your wife, or whatever your situation is, that's kind of number one, making sure you can provide, you know, like I said, I'm a musician. There's a lot of musicians out there that just dive in, and then they can't live like it's good to have a base to help you, and then whatever it is on the side, whether it's a paid internship or free a couple hours or, you know, part time doesn't really matter, just try to do something that you're passionate about, or that relates to what you want to go into in some degree. Because I think it makes a huge difference. Like, even in class, when we're talking about stuff now, I feel like, okay, I know what this is, because I've done it, you know, like in person, I know what all the lingo is. Where before, it just felt like, Man, I can't wait to go put that into practice, you know, but with the technical process, all I did is I met with an advisor, which I'll say is on the podcast I highly recommend doing. So I love meeting with my advisor. They've helped me the whole process of college, like figuring out what I want to do and redoing my plan probably five times, and they're just nice every time and help me. And so I met with an advisor. They told me who to get in contact with, and they gave me a link, so that way, you know, I filled out the application, and I was in contact with Professor Croft, because of marketing. He's over marketing, over the phone and over email, so we just kind of worked side by side through the whole thing, and he helped me a ton.
Bobby Hodge 34:52
Once a student gets an internship, what are some things they should do? Maybe some things they shouldn't do, any mistakes you've made that maybe they can. Learn from
Speaker 1 35:00
in my opinion, this is my opinion, even if you think you know how to do it better than everybody else, there, just be humble and listen to them, especially because they've been there longer than you have, and you don't have much to your name where they're gonna listen if you're like, Nah, I know how to do this. Because, like, well, who are you? You've been here, like, a week, yeah, you know. So, like, whatever it is, just listen and learn, and you don't have to. It's just like me and my wife talk about this all the time. Like, the way you're raised, you don't have to take every single thing you learn and do it all. You can kind of pick and choose. Like, Man, I really like the way they do this. I'm going to implement that. But if you just, if you're close minded and think it's all you, you're not going to even get better, you know. So I think when it comes to an internship, just listen, appreciate what people have to say, and try to build good relationships with them first. And that makes everything easier, in my opinion.
Karl Rostron 36:04
So comparing that with your time at the hospital, What value did you gain from that one, even though that's not one you wanted to stay at? Was that? How did that help you in your journey? What part of the process does that play that job,
Speaker 1 36:20
I'll tell you what. I feel like that job in particular, actually helped me a ton. Because when I started it, I was, I was kind of in that job hopping search where I'm just trying to get something to provide. And then that opportunity came up, and I started to like it. And I even thought, like, Okay, I'm going to study exercise science or maybe start my own physical therapy. It seemed attractive. And doing that job, I stuck with it for a couple years where I kind of really tried to fill it out, like, okay, is this what I want to do? Is this what I really like? And I was able to, I guess, like, assess which parts of the job I really enjoyed, and for me that was helping people and serving them I really loved that, you know, and the things that I realized I needed that I wasn't getting, is, I love the business mindset and the entrepreneurial mindset, trying to be enterprising without being a salesman. You know, like, my view on business is you're trying to help whoever it is that you're serving, to give them value, right? And so working there helped me realize, okay, whatever I'm going to do, I got to be helping somebody, but I really need to fulfill this burning desire to go do some kind of business. And so I knew I couldn't. I couldn't stay there as much as it was good. I was like, I just can't, you know, I have to go find something. So it helped me a ton. Like I said, my my boss was so, so good at working with me, especially in school, and my co workers were amazing, super nice. So I'm super grateful for it.
Karl Rostron 38:09
And you know, we've talked through with several of our guests, just the importance during this time of college, of trying different things, taking some part time jobs, some internships in different areas, and just seeing what you like and what you don't like about jobs, the job, a job, any job, and then being able to move forward with more information about yourself. You know you kind of find yourself through this process we talked earlier, earlier, about not being what mom and dad want you to be grandma, want you to be professors, intern, whoever wants you to be, but figuring out who you are and what you want to do, and being able to have the confidence in yourself and this ability to take that risk, to get to that point, and so kind of talk through how that happened
Speaker 1 38:59
for you. Well, it's interesting to bring that up, because that actually is me. Both of my parents worked in the medical field, yeah. And actually a lot of my the rest of my family does too, like extended so it was pretty easy to say, Yeah, I could do that too, yeah. And there's nothing wrong with that. I I actually really enjoy a lot of the parts of that field, but it definitely was kind of a new venture, you know, like, there's not a ton of people in my direct family that, you know, do marketing and business, and people I can talk to that are have gone through it, and can kind of give you advice. There's a lot of people my same age where we're kind of going through the same process, so we can talk about it, but there wasn't totally somebody that give me those pointers. So I was like, Oh, it's scary.
Karl Rostron 39:46
Well, and even talking to your family, you're talking about something that they may not understand, right? And so I said, Hey, I want to make this career move. I want to do this with my education, and it's something that they may not understand, yeah. And so that another. Level of kind of another barrier that may be there that you've got overcome,
Speaker 1 40:03
and that's okay, yeah, that's something I've realized too, is that I think is actually kind of funny that I've talked to my wife about even now, where I'm like, almost graduated, fully pursuing business, people still have misunderstanding about what I'm doing, people, some people I'll run into and they think I'm just like, a struggling, aspiring musician, that's what I do. And I'm like, no, like, I love to make music. Like, that's just part of my life, you know. And people are always going to misunderstand, but at the end of the day, it's like, if I know where I'm trying to go, especially in tandem with my wife, then it's fine, like, I don't care if people misunderstand.
Bobby Hodge 40:40
I did an internship in high school at Weber State for their sports marketing for a full semester. My mom thought that I just went up and worked at the campus store. So like, you're not alone in the marketing people not understanding. Shout out, Mom. Let's wrap up a little bit. I want to just kind of go through a quick lightning round. These can be super fast, super punchy, or as long as you want lightning round, favorite part of your job as a social media manager,
Speaker 1 41:12
I would say social media is one of those things where, if you're consistent and you work at it, you see results. There's a lot of jobs where, like, you really, it's hard to see, like, with the numbers, if what you're doing is making a difference. But I'm like, You were mine. Like, you can definitely see in the reports months a month, where you're like, Man, this is awesome. Like it's improving so it's quantifiable. Yeah, I really like that part about it, for sure,
Bobby Hodge 41:38
sweet, hardest lesson you learned during your internship, I guess during
Speaker 1 41:43
your job. Hardest lesson I learned is, I'm not that funny
Bobby Hodge 41:49
making I think you're funny. No,
Speaker 1 41:51
but. But you know, when you're trying to make stuff for social media, you kind of don't realize that almost everything that you're scrolling through on your reels. Number one, it's like, relatable if you like it. Number two, like it kind of is humorous in some way, where you're like, that was kind of, that was kind of funny. Like that feels like me. I relate with that. And trying to make content like that, I was like, Man, I am not that funny of a person. I gotta really work on this, you know. So kind of a random answer, but that was, I like
Karl Rostron 42:20
something, yeah, well, I think we're funny,
Bobby Hodge 42:22
yeah. Well, I don't under, I don't understand the Gen. I'm not even that much out of Gen Z. We talked about this, Kenzie and I talked about, I don't get what half the like, the six seven thing, they're talking about, the dead rose emoji. Like, my mom works at an elementary school now, and she knows more about slang and Gen I don't know.
42:41
Hey, only you don't
Bobby Hodge 42:42
need to know. Well, okay, one skill every intern should develop.
Speaker 1 42:48
Teach teachability. Is that a word? Sure it is now just just being teachable. Okay?
Bobby Hodge 42:56
And we'll preface this one say hunt in full, just disappeared one day. Dream brand you'd love to run social media for? Because we know that hunt and full is obviously the number one, right? But if you couldn't do hunt in full, where would you want to manage a social media account?
Speaker 1 43:10
Great question. I would probably want to do either i We haven't brought this up in the podcast, but some kind of like nutrition and performance company. I really love nutrition, or just another outdoor company, probably fishing. I love fishing, probably even more than hunting. I'm a big fisherman, but yeah, that's what I'd want
Karl Rostron 43:31
to do. All right. Well, that leads into the most important question, oh, yeah, yeah, with your time out outdoors, and with all the work that you do with people outdoors, Bigfoot, real or not,
Speaker 1 43:45
no comment. We I'm not educated enough. You
Karl Rostron 43:50
have to be educated.
Speaker 1 43:52
I don't know. I don't know enough. Obviously, I don't know the lore enough.
Bobby Hodge 43:58
All right, okay. TBD, yep. Okay. Barbara, do you want to you want to plug your social media accounts to our 1000s of viewers?
Speaker 1 44:07
Sure. I mean, I'm just like any business. It's not for everybody, but if you like being outside and making memories, either for yourself or with your family, specifically through the medium of hunting, our main account is hunting fool, h u n, t i n, apostrophe, fool, yes, the full redneck pronunciation, not hunting. Full hunting. Fool, nice. And if you just need gear for the outdoors or for your hunts, our other account is gear full. So
Bobby Hodge 44:37
perfect. Okay. Well, thank you so much for coming on, Colin, we appreciated having you on. Thank you guys. Okay, T birds, tune in next time. We'll see you then.