Kane Trezona’s journey since joining Brafton in June shows that in content marketing, there are many different paths, and the work you start out doing may bear only a passing resemblance to the duties you end up making your own. His story also involves making a connection to somewhere he left behind, separated by many, many time zones.
Joining the team
After traveling all the way from Melbourne, Australia, accompanying a partner who came to Boston to take a role in the biotech industry, Kane was working at a cafe in Union Square. He became a part of Brafton on a temporary basis, when he signed up to do a six-week data migration project for a major client. That work could have been a one-off, but a few events happened in rapid succession to open a new path.
A project management opportunity opened up, making use of specific skills and interests Kane had built up over the years. His work in the state government back during his days in Melbourne had given him experience in this role, which had always interested him. With Prince2 project management training, the match was a strong one.
“As an Australian, I can translate Aussie to Yank and Yank to Aussie.”
Then, the kicker – the new block of work being introduced was based around a group of clients operating in Australia. This created an obvious match because, as Kane puts it “As an Australian, I can translate Aussie to Yank and Yank to Aussie.”
Now, what was supposed to be six weeks of data migration is a permanent role coordinating several clients and writers across an ocean or two.
Working across the world
Kane is back in touch with Australia every day, as part of his new Brafton project manager role. Since clients are based in Australia, Kane has assumed a complicated balancing act, wherein work is ongoing in two far-removed time zones.
Dealing with stakeholders who are more than a dozen hours ahead means starting the day with a 9:30 a.m. scrum to review everything that went on during the night and set priorities for the day ahead.
Every day, the exact balance of work that needs to be done is slightly different. This need to handle the unexpected and adapt on the fly is so integral to project management that learning to juggle a different workload every day is Kane’s No. 1 piece of advice for anyone who would like to follow his footsteps and coordinate projects for a living.
Since the lion’s share of planning and feedback has to be handled via email, and there’s no guarantee of a quick response when one office’s day is another’s night, Kane counts the ability to communicate effectively as an essential part of his skill set.
Time management is also essential, though that’s more of a general project management matter than one specific to his globe-spanning role. Coordinating writers, checking over content, receiving and processing feedback – these are all absolutely vital priorities throughout Brafton.
Coordinating a successful team
Becoming the project manager for a whole unit of the company’s business is no small role for someone to step into, and Kane is rightfully proud of the way the team pulled together to get thousands of words of work out to clients over the course of a very busy month.
Coordinating the people behind the words, graphics and videos is an important part of the project manager’s job.
Planning, writing, editing, delivery and incorporating changes on that much content, coupled with the degree of difficulty introduced by the time zone difference, is a challenging feat of organization and coordination. Now, with that big month under his belt, Kane’s ready for whatever clients can throw at him.
Content marketing isn’t just about the deliverables – coordinating the people behind the words, graphics and videos is an important part of the project manager’s job. This is the part of his role Kane has relished most, working together with his team to solve problems and improve processes.
Taking on the role of coordinating the Australia-focused group from the Boston office, Kane has overseen changes to the way functions are handled within the team, to make them more effective. Having sustainable, efficient processes in place is a way to ensure that success isn’t a one-off, and that the next month’s operations go more smoothly than the one before. All it’s taken to make this happen is a dose of teamwork.
Keeping busy in a new country
Now that he’s settled in the Boston area, Kane has time to devote to both hobbies and the pursuit of more knowledge. He cooks and bakes for fun, plays video games in his off hours, and spends downtime with both his friends and his dog, Scout. Not content with the degrees and certifications he’s already earned, he’s also finishing a degree in construction management.
Having circled the globe and become a full-time Yank-to-Aussie translator, Kane’s story shows just how many interesting possibilities are contained in the world of content marketing.
