Using Audience Data, Applying Culinary Skills to your Career and Thriving as an Asian American with SparkToro’s Amanda Natividad

In this episode, SparkToro’s VP of Marketing, Amanda Natividad, talks about building a personal brand, connecting with niche audiences, and the importance of having a media kit.

Amanda Natividad is the VP of Marketing for audience research startup, SparkToro.

Amanda is also a contributor for Adweek, a Le Cordon Bleu–trained chef, and a former journalist. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of The Urban Income Show:

• How being a second–generation immigrant shapes your work and spending habits.
• How to reach new prospects.
• What makes content high quality.
• Ways to identify overlaps in audience behavior across different industries.
• The benefits of using SEO instead of paid media.
• How marketing skills can help you progress your career.
• The benefits of discussing career development with your boss.

Watch Amanda Natividad’s Interview Shorts

Quotables from Amanda Natividad:

11:32 – “You have to collaborate with people that you might not have chosen to collaborate with, right? Just like it’s a bunch of random people, and you’re all working towards the same thing. You might not be friends, but it doesn’t matter, right. You have to work together. So there was the element of that, like you just gotta make it work with people.”

22:04 – “I don’t want to be that for somebody else. I don’t want to tell somebody I worked really hard and did this shitty thing for so many years, and now you have to. I think there’s a way to mentor or manage people and communicate that they have to pay their dues or do the hard work. Yeah. But I don’t think that’s the answer”

49:42 – “It’s never too late to start that blog. That brings me to the menu because I see that you have that and tell me about that because I think everyone should have some sort of side hustle, whether it’s to generate, like build your craft, your personal brand. Tell me about that. And I love your media kit, your media kit set up. I sat back, and I was literally hitting the plate like how to pronounce your name, your last name.”

54:30 – “It’s fun to do, right? It’s fun to have something for yourself where it’s your thing. You get to do whatever you want on it. No one can tell you what’s wrong, you know, it’s just your space. I think it’s fun and healthy for everybody to have that for themselves.”

08:50 – “It was the thing that I wanted to do. Right. And because it was different work, right? Sitting at a desk all day and then cooking all night, like in the setting that is optimized for cooking. Yeah. Because it is a little bit different from just slaving away in your kitchen, for sure. Like, that’s a different feeling. But I was like at a place, I was in my uniform with other students, so it was a change of environment and pace that it didn’t feel exhausting in a way that one might think. Yeah. Like, yeah, when I came home, I was tired, I wanted to go to sleep, but I wasn’t like burnt out, tired. It was just like, oh, I had a full day.”

29:27 – “It is your job as the employee to make sure that you are given a career path and goal and to make sure that your boss is… you’re matching towards that, and you’re having those meetings because, and I think it’s regardless of whether you’re in an uncomfortable situation where you’re, whoever’s treating you and authority is treating you poorly.”

38:22 – “So, Growth Skills is a growth marketing firm. We do like the SEO content market and all that stuff. We had a challenge of reaching the cannabis and CBD audience for a client using paid media. And we couldn’t. And then I said, this is an SEO opportunity, meaning using content to grow organically.”

Continue the conversation on social by following Urban Income, Amanda Natividad, and Lavall Chichester.

Urban Income

Learn how to improve your income & finances

Amanda Natividad

VP of Marketing of SparkToro

Lavall Chichester

CEO and Founder of Growth Skills & Host of The Urban Income Show

The Urban Income Show discusses topics on finances, business, entrepreneurship, and career growth with minority leaders. Watch and listen to The Urban Income Show on all podcast platforms.