Recruiting Great Talent Through Thoughtful Content

Rogue Creators

Summary

This Rogue Creators episode was stoked to have on a special guest from Harvest Group! Bryan and Loren were joined in the studio by Ella Jane Dantzler, their Senior Marketing Manager. Harvest Group is a full-service retail growth agency serving Walmart, Kroger, and now Target. By word of mouth and social platforms, we have been able to see firsthand how the healthy company culture is pushing Harvest Group to new heights. You will want o to hear how people like Ella Jane are creating a company all of us would want to work at or with! Check it out!

Shownotes

[0:48] Introducing Ella Jane Dantzlerand Harvest Group

[1:32] What are you obsessed with?

[5:10] Harvest Group… Everyone wants to work there!

[6:27] From NYC To Senior Marketing Manager

[10:08] Awards and Recognition with Harvest Group

[10:42] Culture at the heart of Harvest Group

[13:00] Authenticity on social media

[17:40] Creativity withing rebranding

[21:25] Imposter Syndrome

[25:03] What’s next for Harvest Group?

[30:14] Wrap Up

[31:28] Rapid Fire

Links

Bryan Fittin

Loren Lewis

Ella Jane Dantzler

Harvest Group

Quotes

“I think we could all kind of look back and say, ‘thank you’ to our first boss who hired us. Like, why did he hire me? I no clue.”

(7:05) - Ella Jane Dantzler

“I think harvest and the founders really were intentional about the values that they chose and carrying those forward. And 15 years later, we're still talking about those same values.

(11:29) - Ella Jane Dantzler

“Our clients often comment on our culture and how you want to work with somebody who you like.”

(12:09) - Ella Jane Dantzler

“[On documenting, not creating,] And I think that you've done that through a lot... rather than like, Hey, we need to make a social media post. What can we do? And what can we come up with? It's like, I'm just going to document what we're doing and we're just already doing it.”

(12:35) - Bryan Fittin

Culture Creation as Content

This Rogue Creators episode featured Ella Jane Dantzler, Senior Marketing Manager of Harvest Group. Bryan and Loren were stoked to have her hang out and discuss how creating a stellar company culture is synonymous with creating good marketing!

Harvest Group is a full-service retail growth agency serving Walmart, Kroger, and now Target. Harvest Group's track record consists of Entrepreneur Magazine's 2018 Top Company Cultures, Forbes 2019 Small Giants, and Inc.'s Best Workplaces of 2020. Ella Jane has four-plus years of experience in marketing and content management, specifically in the shopper marketing and social media industry. She has experience ranging from social media, public speaking, and editing, companies such as Collective Bias, Stone Mill Bread Company and now Harvest Group.

By word of mouth and social platforms, we have been able to see firsthand how the healthy company culture is pushing Harvest Group to new heights. You will want o to hear how people like Ella Jane are creating a company all of us would want to work at or with! From culture-building to leaving space for creative side projects, we hash it all out on this episode.

Authenticity on Social Media

Harvest Group has taken considerable measures to use social media authentically. We are not all hoodwinked into dismissing the amount of curating and crafting that goes on for a typical companies post. Harvest Group wanted to create a culture that could be documented at any time and continue to push forward its values as a healthy, thriving, and fun company.

With that being said, there still needs to be a strategy; you cannot just throw things out there. Where is the line of between high quality and accuracy without being posed?

A key ingredient for Ella Jane is to ask herself if the post would be adding value. Would it add value to the team, to the client, to the person scrolling?

"if I'm scrolling through LinkedIn, Actually learning something, or if I'm not learning something applicable about my business, I'm learning something about harvest group."

(13:46) - Ella Jane Dantzler

Although Ella Jane's background was in curated photography flooded feeds, she is helping shape Harvest Group as using the platform to tell who their people are. In some ways, it is a more journalistic approach. Then by telling the story of people's heart for their clients and positions, it can give actual value rather than being a feedback loop of self-promotion.

​​" Social media presence gives you a chance to kind of get to know who they are and their personality a little bit more than those other venues."

(14:55) - Ella Jane Dantzler

Bringing Creativity into B2B

Over the past year, we noticed a change in Harvest Group branding and learned Ella Jane got to head up that mission! Bringing thier own creative flare, she was able to take charge in starting up a noticeable change in the content designs for social. Little did we know, she was pregnant at the time, and during the final days of deciding on the logo concept, she ended up having her son.

"And he [her boss] was like, 'Is it gonna stress you out or make you feel really glad to see like these final concepts that came through?' I'm like, 'Yes, please! Oh my gosh, it would make me feel so happy!"

(20:43) - Ella Jane Dantzler

Imposter Syndrome Along the Way

"I think we could all kind of look back and say, 'thank you' to our first boss who hired us. Like, why did he hire me? I no clue."

(7:05) - Ella Jane Dantzler

Ella Jane and many of us have similar stories of stumbling into the careers we have now. With her first experience to today, she was able to walk us through what her interaction with the dreaded imposter syndrome has looked like.

Working with employers and colleagues who believed in her and her abilities made all the difference. Instilling confidence to take risks and own mistakes became a culture she wanted to multiply out.

"Having the learner mentality and having the vulnerability to, you know, both acting confidence, but also ask questions… but you can't just sit back and be like, let's just wait for it to sink in, but [you have to be] going after it and then giving yourself the grace to really learn before you act."

(22:43) - Ella Jane Dantzler

Ella Jane, A Rogue Creator

Initially, we were stoked...