This week’s Meet the Roger CPA Review Team Q&A Series is with Dallas Miles, Director of Content. Learn more about how her current position influences her passion for planning, her summer plans and her love of Sid and Marty Krofft.
What do you do at Roger CPA Review?
I hope you find this as exciting as I do… I’m responsible for overall content strategy for our social media channels, as well as editorial planning for the Roger CPA Review blog. I plan our social and content campaigns based on student feedback, industry trends, online conversations, performance metrics and brand initiatives.
I also provide ongoing reporting and key insights to the eCommerce team in order to refine our social media and content strategy goals over time. This helps elevate our customers’ experiences across our social and content channels.
What’s really nice about our company is that we all work together to ensure our CPA candidates are receiving the most up-to-date CPA Exam and industry news – as it happens – so I get to have daily conversations with people on different teams within the organization. Working with cross-functional teams provides even greater insight into which content is most beneficial for our students.
What’s your favorite thing about working at Roger CPA Review?
This may be cheating a little, but I have three: the people, the culture and the leadership team.
When I started my career, I wanted to find a way to travel the world and live in different parts of the country. The best way I knew how was to become a contractor, taking both short-term and long-term jobs in both public and private sectors. By doing so, I was able to immerse myself in very diverse roles under the marketing umbrella – which gave me tremendous learning opportunities. During this time, I learned a heck of a lot about people and how companies work.
It’s that experience that gives me the confidence to say Roger CPA Review is by far the best example of a company that empowers its employees to have ownership over their work, treat each other with respect and enjoy what they do. I work with some of the smartest people in their fields, feel fully enabled to do my job every day and am wholly supported by our leadership team.
How does your current position influence what you’re passionate about?
I love planning. It’s what I do. Some might (and do!) call it OCD. I call it being ready for anything!
Seriously, though, as cliché as it sounds, my passion is planning and that’s what I get to do every day in my position. The best part is that I have data to back up my monthly strategy. Data improves user experience and helps us deliver the best content to our students based on their feedback and engagement.
Who has impacted you most in your life and how?
Well, there are three people. My parents and my daughter.
Before leaving home for college, my parents wanted to equip me with three main things: a spiritual life, integrity and a strong work ethic. I remember having to do chores with my brother every Saturday morning and how much I dreaded getting up early. I just wanted to sleep or watch Saturday Morning Cartoons. But looking back, I now see my parents were just instilling a strong work ethic in us from an early age. Remember, “Nothing worth having comes easy!”
The second biggest impact in my life has been my daughter. She has taught me so very much during the two short years that she’s graced our planet. She’s taught me that I have strength that I never imagined, that I need to appreciate the very smallest things in life that normally go unnoticed and that I am able to love someone more than I ever thought possible.
If you could go back in time and do one thing over, what would it be and why?
Invest in Apple in 1981. No, honestly, I’d spend more times with loved ones. I’ve lost a lot of friends and family over the last few years to cancer or other tragedies, and I regret not spending more time with them. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own lives and careers that we forget those who are most important to us in life.
What piece of career or life advice would you give to recent college graduates?
Take the time you need to figure out what you want in life. If that means traveling the world with a backpack and getting odd jobs to get you to the next location on your journey, do it! Figure out who YOU are before trying to become what the world wants you to be! Also, when trying to figure out if you’re making the right career choice, read a short, but powerful article by Derek Sivers, entitled, “Happy, Smart, and Useful.” It might give you some much needed career insight.
What are your plans for the summer?
I live in the desert where temperatures get up to 120º F (49º C) during the hottest part of the summer, so my family will be taking short trips over the weekends to cooler climates until the fall weather returns. I’m hoping to do some outdoor camping in the high desert, catch a few outdoor music festivals and of course, visit my friends and family in Texas. I’m sure we’ll throw some trips to the ocean in there somewhere.