Today’s special guest author is Fatemah Mirza (and co-author Sumayyah Rafiq Haider) and we’re chatting about the non-fiction career guide, Resparking Creativity: A Marketing Professional’s Career Guide Towards Becoming a Director.
During the virtual book tour, the authors will be giving away a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit the other tour stops and enter there, too!
Bios:
Fatemah is a highly sought-after speaker and coach who helps ambitious job seekers find higher-paying, more fulfilling jobs.
Since founding CareerTuners in 2010, she has created free resources that have seen more than 150,000 downloads, helped hundreds of clients increase their pay, and built a network of more than 3000 recruiters.
Drawing upon her unique professional background and conversations with more than 3000 recruiters and top leaders, Fatemah delivers perspective-changing insights to help guide individuals across all stages of their career journey.
In addition to delivering motivational keynotes and half- and full-day workshops, Fatemah is available for in-person and virtual events.
Sumayyah Rafiq Haider is an experienced author and career mentor with a passion for helping individuals excel professionally. With an MBA in Human Resource Management and SHRM-CP certification, Sumayyah has assisted numerous clients in their job search, providing guidance on resume writing, LinkedIn optimization, cover letters, interview skills, and career direction.
Welcome, Fatemah. Please tell us about your current release.
This book focuses on helping marketing professionals break out of their job rut. I’ve worked with a lot of marketing professionals over 13 years and one of the biggest issue they face is how the feel creatively drained. They use so much energy focused on the daily grind and meeting metrics that they don’t feel creative at the end.
I wanted to write a book that would show marketing managers how to evaluate their current standing, strengthen their job application, and be better prepared to make a transition into a director. And at every step of the way, I want them to feel energized and excited about the work they want to do.
And to do that, we’ve got a lot of exercises, questions, and self-assessments in the book that help people get insight into their strengths and get them excited about themselves. That’s a very important part of the whole process.
What inspired you to write this book?
I did answer this above hahaha but yeah. It was just a pattern I started to see the more I worked with marketing managers who wanted to become marketing directors. They knew their career goal but they really felt that their creative energy was lacking. Ultimately, they were hungry for growth, really wanted to be a marketing director, but creatively… they felt lacking.
That’s when the idea started to percolate in my brain that if this is a recurring issue, how do I help these job seekers respark their creativity (that’s where the name came from!) and show them how to channel that creativity and motivation in the right direction.
Excerpt from Resparking Creativity:
The process of advocating for yourself is not inherently aggressive. It simply creates an equal playing field and a two-way communication channel where you and the company achieve a mutually beneficial agreement. Ultimately, there are more reasons to try to negotiate your salary than not. I want you to have the tools necessary to negotiate for the maximum raise you can possibly get in any negotiation.
Let me show you what I mean. I helped one of my clients, let’s call him John, negotiate a $6,000 addition to his annual salary. This $6,000 raise, with a 3% additional annual raise per year, had the potential to translate into almost $400,000 more over the course of a standard 35-year career! And that was a modest 3% raise. Imagine how much you can benefit by learning how to advocate for yourself more directly!
What exciting project are you working on next?
I’m working on is what I’m calling the Careertuners.ai project. I want to merge our services with AI, and use the results to help students in underprivileged countries and universities. I want to empower as many people as possible to elevate their careers in the long run. My goal right now is to reach 10,000 students in the global south using CT.ai by the end of 2023.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I think I first considered myself a proper writer was shortly after I established CareerTuners. The first few resumes and job documents I’d worked on had started to create that thought of, “wow! I’m a writer!” And that feeling has continued across the years even though my role has dramatically changed. Writing is a core part of my work but it definitely started when I started my company.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I don’t write full-time because my primary responsibility to running my company.
One of the first lessons I learned as a business owner and leader was that I had to relinquish control in a lot of areas. So, for any project, I take more of a strategic role where I provide oversight and direction. I make sure that we’re keeping the big picture in mind. That’s what I did for the book.
Otherwise, my work varies a lot so one day I would be working on creating marketing materials, another day I’ve improving our emails. I do write a lot for work but it varies dramatically.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
An interesting writing quirk… I unfortunately cannot think of anything. I think my writing quirk is very “normal” in the sense that, I can’t write without having a strong cup of tea first. I need my caffeine!
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I think I wanted to be a doctor. That’s a professional many people in my family see as a very respectable profession and I really wanted to be someone people looked up to and respected. So, I really wanted to be a doctor.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I would like to share that while this book is directly targeted at marketing managers, it can also help folks who want to get into marketing and folks outside of marketing! Because the core techniques and methodologies we’re shared in the book can be used for professions outside of marketing. So, for anyone who wants to move up the career ladder or make a career change, we’ve got the foundations in Resparking Creativity.
Links:
Website | Instagram | Fatemah’s Amazon Author Page | Sumayyah’s Amazon Author Page | Amazon buy link
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE TO READ FOR FREE ON KINDLE UNLIMITED
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Thanks so much for hosting today.
Sounds like a great read.
This sounds like a good read.
What aspect of this book was the most challenging?