Today we’d like to introduce you to Sydney Austin.
Sydney, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in Salt Lake City, UT where I attended private Catholic grade school and high school. I chose to attend University of Hawaii at Manoa for four years, where I studied business and ultimately graduated with a Marketing degree in the spring of 2018. I knew I wasn’t ready to let go of the beautiful weather and beach access so I decided to get a job working as a Marketing Assistant for a local non-profit in Honolulu called Lanakila Pacific. This non-profit organization focuses on creating independence for adults with disabilities and elderly people. While this job was extremely rewarding, the mountains and the gift of being close to my family kept calling my name. I moved home in the fall of 2019, and a month later I landed a job as a Marketing Coordinator for a local architectural resin manufacturer based in West Valley City. I recently was promoted to Marketing Associate at 3form. I’m so excited to continue at a company where I feel valued and passionate about the work we do. 3form creates beautiful materials for innovative design solutions with an emphasis on sustainability always. I am very passionate about leaving the earth better than we found it so this is a dream role it feels like! In more ways than one…
I have always, ALWAYS been passionate about social media. From the dawn of the digital age, I’ve been invested. I got an Instagram the year it came out and I can remember posting non-stop– like I truly loved sharing the human experience! It was such a blessing to be able to have a platform like Instagram while I was halfway across an ocean in Hawaii because friends, acquaintances, family, random followers could keep up with my time spent in Hawaii. While there are many negatives to social media and I don’t discount the toxicity it harbors, I’ve tried to look at it as something to be grateful for as a whole.
Luckily, the majority of my job at 3form is social media! For that, I have truly enjoyed being able to bring the 3form brand to life. Being completely new to this industry, it was fun to learn from my peers, develop 3form’s brand voice online, and grow each platform for the company. I have transformed 3form’s social media presence from something that merely exists to a thriving community that shows consistent growth; 3form’s email marketing strategy from disorganized to a functional step in our lead generation funnel; our ad strategy from old-fashioned to fully leveraging the potential of the digital channels that best reach our target audiences. I feel dedicated and passionate about digital media and observing performance based on analytics with a critical eye on campaigns to optimize accordingly, proactively research new techniques and tools that can be applied to enhance my work processes, and generating new and creative ideas to reach our target audiences. For this, I hope to create my own social media consulting agency someday.
While I don’t at all see myself as an influencer or even micro-influencer, I see the power that social media has in influencing. If an account that I’m invested in because of the aesthetic, the person’s style, or their beauty recommendations, whatever it is that brought me to hit that follow button, I’m going to take their word for what they’re recommending. Brands have reached out to me to collaborate and I always make it a point to make sure I would authentically and genuinely recommend the product or service to my close friends or family. That’s what social media is all about– being authentic!
On the side, I recently created my own hat business called “Syd’s Brimz”, (@sydsbrimz), I like hanging out with my close group of friends and my boyfriend, and I am currently living with my parents to save for a condo in downtown SLC soon. I love the city of Salt Lake and I hope to be here forever. I like yoga, fitness, pilates, hiking, being outside, traveling, yummy foods, coffee with the perfect amount of creamer, and cinnamon rolls with icing not cream cheese frosting.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not been an easy road at all. I see my life as a compilation of challenges that tested me in more ways than one… but I try to never resent or dwell on those challenges because I can see the growth in me that each trial produced.
Growth is a funny thing in that sense. You’ll be engulfed in a challenging time in your life, where you feel like nothing will change or it will never get better, and then one day you’re on the other side and you can physically feel a shedding of weight. You look back 2-3 months ago and compare to the feeling you have in the present moment to where you finally feel peace. Contentment.
Moving away from my family and my hometown was a challenge, but it brought me the most amazing group of friends and experiences that shaped me and my young adulthood.
I was in a moped accident in 2016 while I was living in Hawaii that left me with a baseball sized scar on my leg. It was a very traumatic and difficult time, but it taught me to love my body unconditionally and to thank my guardian angels for looking out for me.
I thought I would become a lawyer someday to take after my grandfather but I didn’t get into law school twice. For that, I would have never gotten my job(s) in Marketing and landed here at 3form in my dream job.
I’ve been depressed and deal with consistent anxiety, but for that I’ve learned the true value in therapy and taking accountability for my mental health & wellbeing so it doesn’t bleed into my life or my relationships.
I’ve been in toxic and unhealthy relationships and friendships but they have taught me to never settle or make excuses for how someone treats me.
Coming to terms with my bisexuality was a journey, but I have never felt more me than I do right now. Seeing the support from my family, my boyfriend, and my true friends has been such a blessing.
Overall I feel very at peace with everything in my life right now, which makes taking on the next challenge in my life exciting because I know I will come out on top even higher than I was before.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Marketing Creative, Social Media Fanatic, Digital Marketing Lover — however you want to say it! I am all in on everything digital media. I mentioned specifics in my work in the first question but I’ll include something my previous boss wrote about me in a year-end review for this question: “All that being said, what I believe to be the most impressive part about Sydney is simply the kind of person she is. She is genuinely altruistic, humble, bright, confident, collaborative, reliable, ambitious, and exactly the type of person you’d want to be your employee, student, or alum. She has shown tremendous growth and professional development in her time at 3form and it’s clear this is just the start of a long and successful career in digital media.”
I am most proud in being able to find a passion in life. I can honestly say that I look forward to going to work and being at my job with my peers. I enjoy the work that I complete and I find myself happier about my personal life because I love my job so much.
If there’s one thing I want people to remember me for is always being excited and happy about little things. I try to show up for people in the way that I show up in my own life. I genuinely want to know about people’s days, what’s going on in their life, or something as simple as their favorite song at the moment.
Get excited for your morning coffee, get excited simply because it’s Friday, get excited because your favorite influencer favorited your comment on their post, or your favorite music artist is coming to concert in your city next month. Whatever it is, get excited about life! It’s so much more enjoyable and we’ve only got one chance to do it.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Don’t put so much pressure on yourself to be perfect. It’s okay to get criticism for your work, it’s okay to change a campaign 5+ times before it’s deployed, it’s okay to take a break sometimes, it’s okay to not get into law school because you might end up loving your job in Marketing. Whatever it is! Give yourself a break, let yourself fail, and know that the slump you’re in is so temporary.
Starting out as a young professional is very stressful. There’s this overwhelming sense to prove yourself constantly and I think that’s been ingrained in us by our parents. Today’s work environments are changing and a lot less cutthroat! Mental health days are encouraged, work/life balance is important, and feeling valued in your work is the key to performance in a job, I believe.
Contact Info:
- Email: sydneyaustin04@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/sydddaustin & www.instagram.com/3form
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/sydthekyd11/
- Other: Tiktok: @sydddaustin
Image Credits:
Cory Lesueur & Kyle Ahlstrom (personal photo 1 and additional photos 1 & 2)
