Living the Lifecycle: Meet Carole Strickland

Carole Strickland is a seasoned digital marketer who brings a wealth of experience and insights to her clients. Currently contracting with Adobe full-time, she is able to achieve work-life balance while fulfilling her desire to engage in a variety of work. Carole is a culinary explorer, a street art enthusiast, and a devoted companion to her Chihuahua.

Carole’s Keys to Success

• Specializing in one facet of marketing
• Building strong work relationships
• Making the most of remote work environments

What type of work do you do?

I’m a digital marketer with a specialization in lifecycle and email marketing.

What are you currently working on?

I’m on a full-time contract with Adobe, focusing on Adobe Express which recently had a release for its desktop product. We are ramping up the mobile beta and general announcement happening later this year.

What path did you take to become a consultant?

Since the nascent email marketing years in the early 2000s, I’ve been in the lifecycle and CRM world. I started on the agency side at an email service provider, but was poached by a client on the B2C side. I then moved to B2B and find it to be more calm and conducive to work-life balance, though B2C is more fun and creative.

I had done consulting in the past while I had full-time employment with companies. I’m very curious and like to solve problems. My brain always enjoys doing something novel. That’s how I fell into consulting initially. During COVID, I leaned into doing more consulting work because I didn’t want to work full-time. I had family obligations to meet, with all the difficulties people were experiencing during that period. This Adobe full-time consulting opportunity was perfect for me, so I couldn’t say no. I’m really enjoying it.

What do you love about consulting?

I love the flexibility. As a freelancer, it’s different from being a full-time employee where you’re expected to be at your desk all day. During COVID, I was doing more short-term project work. I’d work for three months and take three months off. I had time to focus on work and then enjoyed focusing on myself.

What has been your biggest challenge about being a consultant? How have you addressed it?

Initially, I was afraid that I would miss the team camaraderie at a company. I’ve had great working relationships with clients, but I’ve also been able to find friendship outside of work. What I love about contracting is it allows me to focus on the work and not necessarily get involved in office drama and politics.

How do you market yourself?

Mostly, I have found my freelance gigs through word of mouth and referrals from folks that I’ve worked with in the past. I do need to focus on marketing myself better; it’s a goal for me in 2024.

What are the things you like to do when the work slows down?

I love to cook different types of recipes, particularly ethnic cuisines I’ve not tried before. I’m learning African recipes and more Asian food. I lived in Mexico for a while, so I’ve been doing some of the more intricate Mexican cooking, like mole, not just tacos.

I spend a lot of time with my sweet, loving Chihuahua that I got during COVID; I think we’ve only been apart for one night. I really enjoy photographing street and urban art, and have an Instagram account dedicated to that. It’s an interesting and small community globally, and I was able to travel and meet lots of people who also have this hobby.

What’s one tip you would give to new consultants?

Don’t be afraid; just do it. If you’re in a position where you’re not really sure what you want your next move to be and you want to try out different things, consulting is great for that.