Sachs Media Group is Florida’s dominant public affairs communications company for critical issues and one of America’s leading independent communications companies. The firm works in branding, social/digital and crisis communications and engages audiences with the content they seek and share. Read on to learn more about Senior Account Executive Zoe Linafelt, an FSU alumna who started as an intern with Sachs Media Group and later became a full-time employee.
Name: Zoe Linafelt
Graduation Year: 2010
Major: Creative Writing
Occupation: Senior Account Executive at Sachs Media Group
Hometown: Tallahassee, FL
Courtesy: Ginny Fouts
Her Campus (HC): What was your experience like as a student at Florida State?
Zoe Linafelt (ZL): It was really rewarding. There was something happening all the time. Obviously, you had to study and go to class, but if you were looking to go see a movie, there was one playing on campus, and they had all the concerts, musicals and plays. I’m really into music. Even off campus, professors are reading their poetry at a nearby coffee shop—you can go anywhere. So my experience was really rewarding, especially when I lived on campus. I would say everybody should, if they can work it out, live on or near campus just because you’re so present all the time.
HC: Exactly. It gets you really involved in the community, even if you don’t want to be. You’re living there, so you have to!
ZL: Yeah, you’re kind of stuck there! If you have a free half hour, you can go sit out on Landis Green and see who’s out there. Maybe someone’s playing Frisbee, maybe someone has a cool dog—you just never know who you’re going to meet. I lived in Landis; I was right in the middle of everything, so that was really great.
HC: Were you involved in a lot of extracurricular activities or other organizations?
ZL: I was involved with Women’s Glee Club and, really, just focused on school. I took a ton of classes. I came in with two semesters of credit, so I took a Slavic vampires class, I took an underground music class—I took a lot of cool classes because I had gotten some of the core stuff out of the way. I was always more than full-time, so I would say that was my main focus, but at the same time it was fun to eat hot dogs outside and hang out with friends. I went to the Student Life Cinema all the time. It was mostly academic related, but the Women’s Glee Club was really fun too. Also in my last year, I was interning here (Sachs Media Group), which was taking up a ton of time.
HC: Right, definitely. Interning does take up a lot of time.
ZL: I remember Tuesdays one of the semesters I was here at maybe 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., then drove down to campus, had a ten-minute nap in my car and then went to class from about 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Just long days, but very fun.
HC: Absolutely. You said you’re from Tallahassee. So did you plan on staying here after you graduated?
ZL: I don’t think I sat down and said, “You know what, I’m gonna stay here,” but I think it happened really naturally because I had my family and my friends here. I like everything about Tallahassee—the family aspect, the gardens, the parks, the museums and the music. We have an amazing music school here so there’s always stuff to do. I think it just happened naturally throughout college, and then especially when I found Sachs Media Group, which was Ron Sachs Communications at the time. It felt like home so I stayed here, and when I graduated they offered me a position as an extern, so it just all came together.
HC: Well you said you started working here as an intern, right? How was that different than what you’re doing now—working as an intern vs. a full-time position?
ZL: That’s interesting, I’ve never really thought about it going backwards. It was a lot to learn really quickly, getting to know everyone in the office, getting to know protocol, and so it was a lot to absorb really quickly. You kind of get the hang of it; I remember the point where I started being like, “Okay, I can kind of start to anticipate what people are going to ask or what I should do next,” and that felt really good. It was really rewarding after constantly trying to learn as much as possible and trying to get a grasp on everything. The nice thing about now working full-time is that I have more context for a project. I was there when we met a client for the first time, and I was there when they talked about all their challenges, so I have all the background knowledge when I work on a project. As an intern, you have to catch up quickly. If they say, “We need help with a writing project,” you have to learn everything about the client very quickly because you might not have been there when it started.
HC: It sounds like it would be a lot as an intern, just to have to learn everything all of a sudden.
ZL: Yeah, but everybody here was really great, and they’re amazing mentors—it wasn’t a bad experience. My notepad and my pen were just attached to me because if I walked anywhere without writing something down, I never knew where it was going to go.
HC: I’m just curious, how many people are in this office?
ZL: I think there are about 27 or 28 in this building. We have interns that come and go, but it’s a substantial group, all under the leadership of two amazing people, Ron Sachs and Michelle Ubben.
HC: I noticed the building looks kind of small outside, but inside it seems to open up, like Doctor Who, right? It’s bigger on the inside.
ZL: It’s a lot of people too. When I started, we didn’t have nearly as many people in our office. We’ve grown a lot, so it’s been fun to meet a ton of new people.
HC: What exactly do you do as a Senior Account Executive?
ZL: Every day is very different. I do a lot of coordination with clients. A lot of my day is sticking to timelines for projects and thinking through “Okay, so we have a brochure due tomorrow. Let me go check on that,” or “Oh, I know I need to write copy for a microsite or a landing page by next week. Let me do some research.” I have quite a few clients that I keep up with, and I’m not alone on any of the accounts. Different team members work together on different things, depending on specialties and background. Also, I am the Traffic Manager for the Design Department. Along with the client management, I’m sort of the gatekeeper to the Design Department, so if anyone says, “My client needs a website (or a brochure, fact sheet, etc.),” they come to me. They hand me what we call a creative brief, I download it into my brain, put it into a timeline, and work with the design team to see if they have questions, so that’s a lot of management too.
HC: What do you enjoy most about the job?
ZL: The people come to mind first. The people I work with are amazing, and they’re really smart. I feel like it’s great when you’re in a room and there’s a new campaign you have to brand—we’re throwing ideas around, coming up with themes, slogans or logos. Just being in a room with that many smart people is really cool. If there’s a question, there are people here who have worked as communications directors for governors. So there are a lot of people who have a wealth of experience that you can talk to.
HC: It sounds like there are a lot of people with different skills or specialties so you all just build off of each other.
ZL: Right, so say I have a Facebook advertising question. I’m going to go to Ryan Cohn. He’s also very into marketing, so if I have marketing questions I can go to him. If it’s a writing question, we’ve got Jon Peck. Lisa Garcia does the National Hurricane Survival Initiative education campaign from Texas to Maine, so she does a TV program and places it on all these channels; they’ve done it all.
Courtesy: Sachs Media Group
HC: I read an article that you won the National PR Champion, so congratulations on that! How did that happen?
ZL: Yeah, that was a pleasant surprise; thank you! I think a nomination was submitted to the PR Council, and they sent me a list of questions, and I filled them out. So, as for how I was nominated, I think they (Sachs Media Group) sent case studies of projects I worked on and a personal recommendation. So yeah, it was a really great honor. There weren’t very many chosen, so I was really surprised.
HC: Why did you choose a career in Public Relations?
ZL: I really like helping people, and I like how you can make a real difference with public education campaigns. For example, everything from sea turtle protection to abuse prevention or reporting, and hurricane safety, you can really get a message out to help people. It’s not just helping the public but also when you have a company that’s stuck in an old version of who they are and can’t really see outside themselves, it takes someone from the outside to say, “Clear away all the cobwebs. What’s your vision? What’s your mission? Let’s help you refocus and better serve the people that you’re required to serve.” I’ve always been drawn to trying to help make a difference like that, and I was also fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. They (Sachs Media Group) seem to like me, so it worked out. I’ve always liked to write, and writing has been a critical part in this; they’ve said they appreciated my editing skills. It just seemed like a natural fit.
HC: Lastly, what advice would you give to an undergraduate looking into communications professions?
ZL: Interning is always good. Finding an internship helps you get to know what you like, what you don’t like; it helps that person or the company get to know you. You might end up there in the future or you might end up somewhere else, but it’s just an important experience for you to have in the professional world. Attitude goes a really long way. Our interns here don’t just make coffee and copies. They’re attending news events, they’re helping come up with ideas, they’re writing, they’re editing; they’re really involved. Just the attitude of “Hey, anything you need, I’m here for you”—people really like that, and I’ve seen that that goes a long way in a professional setting. I would say the third and last thing is to choose a blog or publication and keep up with trends, so if someone asks you, “What‘s a recent article that you read about the future of marketing?” then you can have an answer for it. So just keep up with some sort of research.
HC: Are there any specific blogs or websites you use that you would recommend?
ZL: It just depends. Sometimes I’ll follow people on Twitter who post stuff, but I like Bulldog Reporter. I get a daily email with news—daily articles about the workplace, articles about diversity, articles about communication, marketing, everything. A lot of companies or agencies will write their own content. We have our own section where Michelle, Ron, Lisa, or anybody will have a piece about a specific strategy or crisis communication plan, so you can look around there too.
HC: Do you have anything else to add?
ZL: Ron’s been an amazing mentor. He’s so smart, and it’s cool to work for people who, like Michelle and Ron both, love their jobs, and I think there are a lot of people out there who just do it because it’s their job. Ron will get here at 7:30 a.m. in the morning and won’t leave until 6:30-7 p.m. at night. He really loves his job, and Michelle is so passionate about hers. I think in this field, you really have to be aware of work-life balance and taking care of yourself health-wise. Otherwise, everything’s always really intense, so you have to take care of yourself and know that the people you work with have your back and you have their back. That’s the one thing—everybody can work remotely now. Online, you can do anything, but being in a physical building with other people—it’s still different. You can saunter up and say, “Hey, I have this question. How’s it going?” or you can see people are visibly stressed out or concerned, and you can jump in and help. Some people work remotely because they need to for whatever reason, but I feel the benefit of working in a building with other people.