![\"SMPS](\"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/MemberSpotlight-SuzanneSwistak-1280x570-1.png\")
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In our member spotlight, Suzanne Swistak, CPSM, takes time out of her busy day to chat with SMPS. Suzanne, who\u2019s communications executive at ECS, shares the rewards of her job and the benefits of being an SMPS member.<\/p>\n
Please briefly describe your role at your firm. <\/strong>As the ECS communications executive, I oversee all of our firm communications, both internal and external. This covers a broad range of campaigns regarding our services, employees, company news, and other topics, as well as items like corporate philanthropy, strategic partnerships, growth strategies, and branding.<\/p>\n What is a typical day like for you? <\/strong>Each morning begins with an outlook of the day\u2019s meetings and priorities.\u00a0Because the communications team is constantly working on numerous deliverables large and small, it\u2019s important to do a short list of goals and \u201cmusts\u201d for the day followed by the needs and wants that fit in to the overall program.\u00a0Each day is filled with planning and collaboration with my team and other leaders within the company.\u00a0These regular \u201cmeetings of the minds\u201d are essential and elevate our ideas, positioning, and overall success at what we do.<\/p>\n What has been your most meaningful project to date? <\/strong>The most meaningful project to me occurs when I\u2019m able to impart a paradigm shift by instituting a new method, idea, or output that levels up the old way of doing something and creates the 2.0 (and beyond) version of the mission.\u00a0An example is when I brought a brand new shopping center to market and was looking to get word out about it and drive traffic to the center.\u00a0Instead of relying on traditional expensive advertising commonly used at that time, I designed a program for moms with kids and marketed it by reaching out to local moms groups.\u00a0The organic, word-of-mouth marketing that this generated snowballed and at our first program event we had 500+ people in attendance.\u00a0This was before the days of social media, so I consider it a great success!<\/p>\n How did you decide to have a career in the A\/E\/C industries? <\/strong>Fresh out of college with a marketing degree, I got a job as a junior analyst for a government contractor supporting the aircraft carrier design team for the U.S. Navy. While the work was interesting, my job function did not leave me fulfilled, and I was itching to change careers into something that more closely paralleled my studies.<\/p>\n In the Washington Post<\/em>, I stumbled upon a marketing position in commercial real estate property management for a local shopping mall.\u00a0I got the job and, at the age of 23, I was thrilled to have an office at a place I was passionate about with a job function I was also passionate about (and an opportunity to easily spend way too much money on my lunch breaks shopping the latest trends).\u00a0While it was tough to leave the mall position, I moved on to work for a real estate developer with a property management arm, and through the years had the opportunity to explore working for a small handful of different firms in the A\/E\/C industries in various marketing and business development roles.<\/p>\n Why is membership in SMPS important to you? <\/strong>Membership in SMPS is important to me for two simple reasons: the people I meet and the knowledge I acquire.\u00a0Both have helped propel me in my career in more ways than I can count.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the best career advice you\u2019ve received? <\/strong>Always dress for the job you want, not for the job you have.\u00a0I\u2019ve not always followed that, but I did early on in my career and, without a doubt, it helped to elevate me in my job.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the best career advice you\u2019ve given? <\/strong>When crafting a response to an elevated or heated situation, always let some time pass whether it be a few hours or overnight before hitting the send button or placing that phone call.\u00a0Giving yourself the opportunity to let things die down almost always results in a much calmer, rational, and dignified response\u2014and one that you will be comfortable owning up to as the dust settles.<\/p>\n What has contributed to your success? <\/strong>Diligence.\u00a0My favorite graphic that I have posted on my bulletin board defines success with two lines\u2014one is a straight line pointing up (what people think success looks like) and one is a very squiggly line (what success actually looks like). The second line also ends at that same upward point, but reflects the windy road that most often we find ourselves on to get to our destination.\u00a0That windy road doesn\u2019t always point in the direction of where we\u2019re trying to go, but we must remain diligent in the journey we\u2019re on to get there.<\/p>\n What\u2019s on your bucket list? <\/strong>To get my golf score under 100!<\/p>\n What was your childhood dream? <\/strong>I wanted to become a criminal defense attorney.\u00a0I watched Matlock, Perry Mason, Murder She Wrote, and other crime shows religiously growing up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In our member spotlight, Suzanne Swistak, CPSM, takes time out of her busy day to chat with SMPS. Suzanne, who\u2019s communications executive at ECS, shares the rewards of her job and the benefits of being an SMPS member. Please briefly describe your role at your firm. As the ECS communications executive, I oversee all of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[670,623,18],"class_list":["post-32725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-membership","tag-career-advice","tag-knowledge","tag-member-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}