Own Your Career Podcast — Follow Your Passion and Take Risks: Meet Erik Batista

Listen to the Podcast, here! Transcription provided, below.

Janelle (Host): Hello and welcome to the Own Your Career podcast! My name is Janelle Jordan, and I’m a Program Manager on our Talent, Performance, and Engagement team, and I am so excited to be here with you. Throughout this series, you will hear inspiring interviews with employees who have achieved achieved career growth at GoDaddy through internal promotions and movements. In addition, you will hear tips and best practices and advice to support your career journey. Career management is necessary for a successful journey, and we hope you’ll walk away ready to own your career. Thanks for spending time with us today. Now let’s jump into our career spotlight with our guests.

I am here today with Erik Batista, who is a Team Lead in our Account Management Services department at GoDaddy. Hey, Erik, welcome to the podcast.

Erik (Guest): Hi. Thanks for having me.

Janelle: Let’s get to know you quickly. Can you share with our listeners a little bit about who you are?

Erik: Absolutely! So, I was born and raised here in Texas and went to school in Texas. I’m married. We have a dog. His name is Zeppelin. He’s a Dalmatian, and we love him so much. I am married to my wife, Ashley. We’ve been married for six years. Really kind of my big hobbies: I love playing soccer. I love watching soccer. But also I play some music, so I play guitar. Currently, I’m taking banjo lessons, so I am trying to get better at that instrument. I brew beer, I travel, and really just enjoying and living life.

Janelle: Awesome. Thanks for sharing. Erik, who is the soccer team that you follow?

Erik: So I am a huge Austin FC supporter. It’s a brand new MLS team — second year that they’ve been playing, and we’re doing really well right now. Just coming off a road win in Denver.

Janelle: Oh, that’s super exciting. Congrats to Austin. All right, well, thank you again for being with us today. Can you give our listeners an overview of your career journey here at GoDaddy?

Erik: I graduated in 2012, and I started working for this energy company in Houston called NRG Energy. You might have heard of them. I worked on mass advertising campaigns. I have a marketing background, so I was on commercial shoots, doing radio, stuff like that. At this time, I was really passionate about sustainability, and I wanted to get into solar. And working for that energy company, that was a good opportunity to do that. So, I started working in their commercial and industrial solar sales department. That’s where my career went into more of a sales role as opposed to marketing. I was, again, super, super passionate about solar, so I wanted to bring that to the residential sector. That’s when I moved here to Austin and started selling residential solar. I also worked for a solar manufacturer, and I say all that to lead you to why I was really excited about getting the job at Main Street Hub and GoDaddy. When I worked for the solar manufacturer, I had to work with local solar installers across the country, those local heroes that GoDaddy is all about. And that’s where I really fell in love with working with those types of people. An opportunity came up to work for Main Street Hub as an Account Manager, and I joined Main Street Hub in July of 2018, right after the acquisition was announce. So, Main Street Hub is now GoDaddy Social, which is now the marketing services premium product. But, I started off as an Account Manager. I moved up to an Account Manager Level Two, and then right in April of 2020, that’s when I became a Team Lead.

Janelle: Thanks for sharing. A couple of questions. Well, first, you’re one of the few people that I’ve ever met that was actually able to combine what they were passionate about with a career. Right off the bat, you were passionate about solar and sustainability and all things, and then you found an energy company and fit yourself right into the department where you would be able to have to make an impact in doing the thing that you are passionate about. That is super rare, but congrats on that, and I love how that led you to where you are. Can you share this quickly? What is it that you do right now?

Erik: We work with businesses across the country, and we build social media, social media posts. So, we post to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and then we also respond to reviews across Google, Yelp, and Facebook.

Janelle: Very cool. Tell us, Erik, what is it that you love most about your job?

Erik: I mentioned before, I love talking with people. I love learning and hearing about their passions and their pet projects. There’s also, like, really niche, unique businesses out there that you’re like, man, why didn’t I think of that? And when you get to talk to them, it’s really awesome just to hear their passions. So, that’s really what I love most about the job. But I also love being creative. Like I said, I had that marketing background. That’s why I went into marketing was because I like to be creative. So, brainstorming content ideas with these local business owners that maybe don’t have a right idea of where they want to go with their social media posts. I just love being creative in that aspect.

Janelle: Creative and an ability to consult with these business owners and have an impact. Can you tell us what is the most important lesson that you’ve learned over the course of your career?

Erik: I think the most important lesson that I’ve learned is to take risks. When I moved to Austin, I moved from that commercial and industrial solar to residential solar. It was a risk. I moved from a cushy nice job working on these big projects, but I wanted to bring that same passion to the residential sector, and that was a 100% sales commission job. So, that’s a lot of pressure and again, a lot of risk. But I think it led me to where I am today, so it was a good reward.

Janelle: That’s great advice. Sometimes the best things are on the other side of the really hard things. Exactly. Yeah. Here’s a fun question for you. What is the common myth about you rjob, your department or your field, Here at GoDaddy?

Erik: Everyone thinks that social media is really easy to do. We hear a quote a lot where they’re like, oh, I’m going to hire my ten year old nephew to run our social media for our business, which they can do that if they like, but social media actually really is a lot more difficult to do. It’s not just posting information and then that post goes viral. You have to get the information out there in away that’s going to make people double click their phones so that you can get more likes and more engagements. The way that the algorithm works. It’s the more likes you get, the more visibility you’re going to get on that post. And I don’t think a lot of people really understand that algorithm, like what’s happening behind the scenes when we’re posting to social media.

Janelle: There’s a lot of research and science behind this, which looks like it might be kind of chaos, but it’s really more strategic is what it sounds like.

Erik: Yeah, exactly. And you want people to like your post, but you also want those posts to be within your brand guidelines. You want to have a certain voice with your post. Do you want to be that more professional sounding business? Or maybe you’re a more fun bar, so you want to have more casual language. There’s a lot of great communication that can happen over social media and it’s just really interesting to see.

Janelle: Thank you for sharing. Last question. What advice would you give to any of our listeners out there who may be learning about this team of yours and what you guys do for the first time and might bethinking, well, how do I get started with that? Or what can I do to kind of present myself or prepare myself for a position that might come up in your area?

Erik: I would definitely say I can speak for our department. We’re all really friendly, really open. Just come and talk with any of the team leads, any of the managers. We can point you in the right direction and even provide information about any of the roles. What does the day-to-day look like?100% open for whoever wants to reach out to learn more. They can reach out to me.

Janelle: What’s the best way for folks to get in touch with you?

Erik: Slack is always a great method. You can check out my LinkedIn as well. It’s LinkedIn/ErikMBatista. Yeah, those are going to be the best ways to get a hold of me.

Janelle: Great. Thank you so much, Erik, for spending time with us today and sharing a little bit about yourself personally and professionally with our listeners. And thank you everyone, for listening to the On Your Career podcast. We aim to inspire, motivate, empower our employees to meet and achieve their professional goals. As you heard, Erik is more than happy to connect with you for professional mentoring, networking, or just to learn a little bit more about his team. If you are interested in being a guest on a future episode of this podcast, please visit the My Career Portal Career Spotlight page and complete the interest form. And while you’re there, check out the many resources and articles that are available. And as always, reach out to us with any feedback, questions or ideas. We’d love to hear from you. Thank you, Erik. It was great getting to know you.

Erik: Thanks Janelle. Thanks everyone.

Are you enjoying this series and want to know more about life at GoDaddy? Check out our GoDaddy Life social pages! Follow us to meet our team, learn more about our culture (Teams, ERG’s, Locations), careers, and so much more. You’re more than just your day job, so come propel your career with us.