Vyral Employee Spotlight: Ashlee Boyce

John: John McMillan here with another Vyral Marketing Employee Spotlight. Today we have Ashlee Boyce, a video editor who has been here close to a year, probably.

Ashlee: Yep, I started here last November, so it’s been close to nine months now.

John: So, let’s go back to November. Why did you decide to join Vyral Marketing?

Ashlee: Well, I graduated from UNO in May 2015 and, like any college student I guess, you just start putting your resume out there. Everywhere else wants two-plus years of experience, and you guys are taking people to give them that experience, so here I am.

John: Cool. Why don’t you describe your first impression?

Ashlee: Well, I was nervous because it was my first big girl job, I guess. When I first walked into the office, Laura wasn’t here yet, so we didn’t have like a front desk or anything, so I just walked down the hallway and eventually saw your office and someone like texted you for me, so it seemed chill.

John: After nine months, why are you still here with us?

Ashlee: I’m definitely learning a lot as I go. When I first started, there was a learning curve because I saw you had to use After Effects and stuff, so I gave myself a crash course in animation so I could do my own motion graphics. I enjoy the people I work with. I’m still learning things with different programs and I enjoy it. I can bring my dog to work, so that’s cool.

John: Where do you think you’re headed with your career, whether that’s here at Vyral or beyond?

Ashlee: I don’t know. I have so many ideas of things I want to pursue. I’m an artist and a musician. I’m really involved in the local music scene, so I always thought it would be cool to do graphics and stuff for different bands. I’ve done some T-shirts and at one point I tried starting a magazine about the local music scene, but just by myself it takes three months to do one edition and I don’t really have that kind of time. So I don’t know. I’ll just go where life takes me, I guess.

John: Yeah, that’s totally acceptable. So you mentioned After Effects - what other types of things have you learned at Vyral?

Ashlee: One thing I just recently learned was how to do masks in Premiere in case we need to blur something out of the background. So that’s a pretty cool thing to know now. I’ve learned a whole bunch of different things with After Effects, transitions, and different ways to go about different things.

John: Have you had any breakthroughs in your mindset? So maybe you came out of college thinking things went one way but realized they’re another? Working with clients is a big step.

Ashlee: Yeah, I’m definitely a lot more confident. I’m not really big into html and coding and stuff, but now that I’ve taught myself animation, I feel like I could pursue that down the road. I would say that’s a breakthrough right there. Going back to the local music scene and some freelance stuff I’ve done, I’ve done motion graphics for some people here and there, whether it be music videos or movies, so that’s been pretty sweet to put in my portfolio.

John: So this is your first job right out of college. What makes us different from places your friends are working or places you have worked in the past?

Ashlee: It’s definitely not retail, which is so awesome! I have such a hectic schedule so I didn’t really want to work weekends anymore. I wanted to work a really simple 8 to 4, 9 to 5 schedule. I think you even said in my job interview, this isn’t your typical corporate office space. The people are super laid back and cool, you just fill out a daily report at the end of the day, you don’t have people breathing down your back. I think more employers who do that for their employees get better results than being a jerk, I guess.

John: So, that’s some of the stuff we’re doing well; what could we do better as a company?

Ashlee: I feel like no matter where you go, communication can always be worked on. But we still do have pretty good communication, whether it be in Slack or just between our team. I was trained pretty well and then I learned things as I went off on my own. I guess I would say communication. We’re still learning as the company grows.

John: You’ve mentioned the people being chill, so let’s talk about the people a little bit here. What do you like about working with the people here at Vyral?

Ashlee: Let’s start with the fact that you’re wearing a dinosaur shirt. That’s cool. Everyone is younger here and pretty much right out of college, still getting that experience to move onto potentially bigger and better careers, so it wasn’t intimidating starting here. I felt like I fit right in. I wasn’t working next to someone who’s 30 years older than me, so it was a comfortable transition.

John: Any specific memorable moments you’ve had while working here at Vyral?

Ashlee: Yeah, when I first started in November you wanted people to submit T-shirt ideas for the holidays. I didn’t have that much work yet, so I just messed with an idea. I think I was the only person who submitted an idea, but we wound up putting a graphic I made onto a Vyral sweatshirt, so that was sweet. The Christmas party was very entertaining when people exchanged gifts. Working in the lower level of Vyral, we’ve had some interesting plumbing issues, which just keeps things interesting.

John: Okay. Any time you can remember when you’ve created a video or motion graphic or anything and you’ve gotten feedback from a client, through them or through Maddie, saying that they loved it - can you name an example of that and how that made you feel?

Ashlee: Can I name the client? Is that okay?

John: Yeah.

Ashlee: For Jeff Mistretta, he needed a new logo and was kind of re-branding himself. Instead of having one of our designers do it, I wanted to do it. Maddie and I would get on calls with him and he would give me some ideas to play off of, and finally we reached a decision and he went with a logo we made him. So that was really cool, and I put that in my portfolio. There’s always certain clients that are kind of picky and you have to work a little more with, and that’s totally cool. It’s good to know what you want. I don’t mind making a video and then emailing it to them. “How's this look? What graphs do you want?” That kind of thing.

John: What would you tell someone who is thinking of working here at Vyral?

Ashlee: It’s definitely a good place to come get some job experience, whether you want to be here a couple years and get that experience or move up within the company and become a coach. We’ve got an advertising side of the company that’s growing, too, so there are jobs to move up to. It’s a good place to figure out, “Is this what you want to do with your life? Or do you want to branch off and try new things?”

John: What are some personality traits of someone who probably shouldn’t apply?

Ashlee: If you don’t like sitting at a computer all day - which, we can get up and walk around whenever we want. If you don’t like dealing with clients and want to do things just your way, that’s not going to work because when working with clients, you’re going to have to make edits and just deal with it, but it’s all right.

John: That was awesome. Thanks, Ashlee.

Ashlee: Thank you.