Today’s guests were Sergio Sousa, the Director of Marketing at TWIN RIVER CASINO and Megan McGuinness, the Founder and President of McGuinness Media & Marketing, a Marketing consulting agency.    Sergio and Megan were introduced to the Hope High Life Skills class by today’s host, Raymond Perez.

Sergio Sousa, Raymond Perez (center) and Megan McGuinness before the start of today’s class.

Raymond introduces Megan and Sergio to his classmates at the start of today’s class

Today’s topic was ‘Marketing‘, what it is and its critical impact on corporate and personal brands.

Sergio and Megan began today’s class sharing their personal journeys to their present success.

Marketing for companies is telling a story in a way that makes existing and potential customers like and appreciate who you are.   Marketing for people, like our Life Skills students, is telling a story in a way that makes successful people, potential employers and universities like and appreciate who we are.  Our

communication is ongoing!   You can never stop.   And, the better you communicate, the more opportunities for success, for companies and for each person.

Megan shares a lesson from one of her mentors on “communication”.

Sergio speaks about the importance of ‘listening’ in the communication process.  In marketing for corporate and personal success, “you’re always collecting data on how observers react to what you say and how you act” Sergio explained.

Megan then added

“listening and observing are important to communication.  

As marketing experts, Sergio and I continually collect data to determine how our marketing messages are being perceived.   We’re

always collecting and analyzing data to determine how potential and present customers perceive our brand. 

We then turn the data into valuable information to refine and improve our messages.  For personal branding, it’s the same process.  How are people perceiving you?   Then, use what you observe or hear to refine how you are communicating and acting to improve the perception of your personal brand.  Great brands, both personal and corporate, create opportunity for success.”

Megan spoke about several careers associated with ‘Marketing’: graphic design, public relations, data analytics, computer programming and social media to name a few.

At the conclusion of today’s class, we took time to network enabling students to continue their conversations with Megan and Sergio as well as inviting each to be part of their personal networks.

Sergio and Megan exchange business cards and network with Hope High School’s Life Skills students.

Megan and Hafzat speak about marketing strategy for Hope High School student council elections.

Next week will be the last Life Skills class of this academic year.   Students will be completing an anonymous evaluation of this year’s teaching performance of Life Skills teacher, Stephen Cronin, and this year’s Life Skills program.