How did your career journey lead you to become an agile coach?

When I first entered university, my goal was to become an aerospace engineer. I didn’t get the right scores to do that, so I pivoted to studying computer systems engineering.

Two years in, I hated programming. I didn’t like long hours in front of a computer, typing code, and missing out on human interaction. I still liked building things, so I decided to study electrical engineering and business management.

During university, I joined an international student organization that allowed me to travel abroad, attend conferences, and meet people around the world, which was an eye-opening experience. I applied to join the organization’s national committee in Taiwan and was accepted.

This was the biggest culture shock and learning experience of my life. I found myself selling to businesses in Taiwan while training Taiwanese students in sales. It took six months to crack it, but once I did, I thought, “This is cool. Let’s keep doing it.”

In addition to sales, I helped with social media marketing. Eventually, I applied to join the organization’s international team as the global community manager, where I managed Facebook channels, branding, and online conferences.

After returning to Australia, I said, “Right, I think I like social media and digital marketing better, let’s try to find a job in this.” I applied to places with my one and a bit years of PR, social media, and marketing experience. Because I didn’t have a degree, I didn’t get anywhere.

I then took a look at global internships, applying to positions in Germany, Singapore, and Sweden. I was offered a job as a product marketing specialist in Stockholm, Sweden. I moved to Stockholm and had a good stint at that company. I gained valuable experience in product marketing, working on various projects and learning from my mistakes.

After about a year and a half, I joined a Swedish communications company as a product marketing specialist for a unit focused on DDOS attack prevention and file protection for large companies. This was a six month stint. During this time, I was also working on integrating into Swedish society. I volunteered at numerous music festivals and tech events.

At one Stockholm tech event, I unknowingly met my future manager. We struck up a conversation, and a week later, I walked into an interview and realized he was the hiring manager. After a round of interviews with him and other people, I was offered the job.

The company was a startup that served as a talent network for the Nordic region. My role began as a community manager and eventually evolved into an experience manager. In this role, I was responsible for shaping the experience of those joining our online network and attending our physical events. I worked on brand development, email campaigns, onboarding, and maintaining engagement.

Whenever I'm given a job, I focus on improving or automating processes before moving on to the next thing. Doing the same thing over and over doesn’t challenge me. So eventually, I worked myself out of that job and moved on to a role at a Bluetooth device startup, where I led their marketing team.

A few months later, I transitioned to another startup in a digital marketing role. I managed Facebook, Google SEM, ads, and content creation. This startup was a digital tech company offering services similar to MailChimp, SurveyMonkey, and SMS marketing tools. We were working on an international expansion that didn’t go as planned, and we had to downsize.

I found a new job a couple of months later, which is where I currently work. I initially joined a fashion brand within the company, tasked with building their digital marketing strategy from scratch. After a year, we decided to close down the brand, but we pushed the lessons learned to other areas within the group.

From there, I transitioned to the global marketing team, where I worked on different projects, including the company’s YouTube strategy. It was incredible to have such a significant impact on a major brand without even realizing it. I had the opportunity to revamp the YouTube channel, which gave me exposure to Google and Facebook. I gained a deep understanding of how these platforms operate.

I then moved into my current role as a business developer for the company’s smaller brands. I help these brands with their digital marketing strategies, run training events, and guide them on learning journeys. I get to move people’s experience and knowledge up to the next level. It’s very cool to see how I can impact someone’s life, helping them grow, learn, and move forward.

We’ve recently had a reorganization, and I’ll be transitioning into an agile coach role. In this position, I’ll work with different product teams, coaching and training them to develop better products.

Looking at my career journey on paper, it seems unconventional, but it’s all driven by my desire to inspire others to reach their full potential. My goal is to help people change and grow in the best possible way.

In all jobs I do, I do them and have fun with it. As opportunities come up, I’m happy to try them out. If things don’t work out, I’m very happy to say, okay, bye, and move on. I’ve built up a safety net and a runway, so I’m okay to not have a job for a while.

Which role has been your favorite, and why?

To be honest, they were all valuable experiences. Each role taught me something unique, and I would still go back and do those jobs at any time. I wouldn’t replace them, because they not only enabled me to have the network and connections I have, but they allowed me to explore different types of work. Every job had its challenges but also its rewards. They came along at the right time for me to learn and do the things I wanted to do.

What’s your preference between big companies and startups?

Working in big companies was fun, but also quite limiting due to their slow pace. You could have an idea, but it had to go through multiple layers of approval—this person needed to review it, another person had to agree, then it required sign-off, and finally, it would be added to a six-month project plan.

That’s what I’ve liked about working in startups. If you had an idea, you could discuss it, and by the next day or week, you could test it out and see how it goes.

At my current company, I joined a startup division within the larger organization, so I had the ability to test things out while still having the backing of a major corporation.

How did you learn about digital marketing?

It involved a lot of reading, experimenting, and listening to different podcasts to discover what worked and what didn’t.

Rather than subscribing to a single mentor, I look for people who do interesting things and I follow those niches. I gather bits of knowledge from each person and use them to build my own sphere of knowledge. From there, I chart my own course to attest if those ideas can be successful.

I believe that everyone shares knowledge shaped by their perspectives, biases, and experiences, so it’s important to gather insights from multiple sources—especially well-rounded ones—and use them as input for your own experimentation.

This approach is why I started exploring my personal channels—Instagram, Facebook, Google Analytics, and my own website. I practice skills like Photoshop and publication editing in InDesign. I give myself the space to fail.

For online courses, I took advantage of free offerings in the Google network to learn about advertising and SEO.

Overall, I spent a lot of time reading blogs, staying updated on industry trends, reviewing trade reports, and constantly absorbing information. I prefer reading over listening because it helps me digest the information better.

My recommendation is to figure out which types of information and input works best for you in different contexts. For example, when I listen to podcasts, I like ones that make me think and allow me to be in my brain. But when I'm trying to learn the best way to do something, I’ll read about it, because I want to be able to test it right away on the platform.

Alongside that, having conversations with people in these industries has played a massive role, especially with my career in Sweden. I also observe and analyze different brands to understand the methodologies and reasoning behind their actions. Since societal trends change daily and weekly, it’s important to stay informed about how these shifts impact brands. Understand your own implicit and explicit biases too, because what you think may not align with the perspectives of others or your target audience.

How do you see your career path moving forward?

When I returned to Australia after living abroad, I bought the Business Model You book and completed all the exercises. Through this process, I mapped out my "north star," which centered on societal, organizational, and behavioral change.

As for what I’ll be doing towards that, I still have no idea. That’s okay, because it keeps me open to any opportunity that comes my way. Eight years ago, I never imagined I’d be in this position, living in Sweden in my own apartment. Even four years ago, I wouldn’t have predicted I’d be here, in this job, or transitioning into agile coaching.

As long as a job aligns with my values, excites me, challenges me, and allows me to make a decent impact—whether in the world or in my specific work area, personally or professionally—I’m okay to take that opportunity, run with it, and see where it goes. In the worst case, if it doesn’t work out, I move on to something else. I approach every job as an experiment.

What career advice would you give to your younger self?

Start saving early. Enjoy every moment of every opportunity and the lessons that come with it. Be kind to everyone you meet. Never discount the connections you make, because the people you meet in one phase of your life may come back and help you in another phase, and that’s extremely valuable.

One thing I’ve learned is that as we advance in our careers, our professional networks become more interconnected. As we move up, there’s going to be a smaller group of people there, and those people are more likely to know each other. Keep the networks there and keep nurturing them.