{"id":947,"date":"2024-10-11T11:48:33","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T15:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agencemiddle.com\/?p=947"},"modified":"2024-10-16T15:16:10","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T19:16:10","slug":"joanie-robichaud-the-communicator-who-makes-gaspesie-shine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agencemiddle.com\/en\/joanie-robichaud-the-communicator-who-makes-gaspesie-shine\/","title":{"rendered":"Joanie Robichaud, the communicator who makes Gasp\u00e9sie shine"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<section class=\"text-body-a section-block\" data-scroll-section>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"col-md-1 sharer-dropdown\" data-sticky=\"top\" data-sticky-breakpoint-disable=\"sm\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"button-sharer\" data-share-tooltip-wrapper>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<button class=\"button button-icon button-primary button-share\" data-animation=\"buttons\" data-trigger-share-tooltip aria-label=\"Share this article\">\n\t\t\t\t<i class=\"icon icon-share\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"button-mask\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"mask-label\" data-label><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/button>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"sharer\" data-share-tooltip-menu data-share-snippet>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li class=\"facebook sharer-item\">\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"button button-icon button-primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fagencemiddle.com%2Fen%2Fjoanie-robichaud-the-communicator-who-makes-gaspesie-shine%2F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-share-item><i class=\"icon icon-facebook\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Share on Facebook\"><\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t<li class=\"linkedin sharer-item\">\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"button button-icon button-primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/sharing\/share-offsite\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fagencemiddle.com%2Fen%2Fjoanie-robichaud-the-communicator-who-makes-gaspesie-shine%2F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-share-item><i class=\"icon icon-linkedin\" aria-hidden=\"true\" aria-label=\"Share on LinkedIn\"><\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"col-md-8 offset-md-1\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Joanie Robichaud has been self-employed full-time since September 2022 in communications and territorial marketing. She is one of these women you can listen to for hours.<\/p>\n<p>Interview with this dynamic and inspiring woman.<\/p>\n<h2>Can you tell us your path to self-employment, your education, the start of your career, and everything that led and pushed you to start your own business?<\/h2>\n<p>I always wanted to be a journalist, until I started studying in that field. I did a bachelor\u2019s degree in journalism at UQAM in Montreal, during which we had to do a semester in another area. I chose municipal politics, a field that has always interested me. I was able to discover regional development, which was a huge crush. I am a native of Gasp\u00e9sie and I have always been very inspired by the development of the regions of Quebec.<\/p>\n<p>After my bachelor\u2019s degree, I knew I didn\u2019t want to be a journalist anymore and I saw that UQAR, in Rimouski, had a graduate degree in regional development, in which I enrolled. After graduation, I was hired as a Project Manager at the Centre Local de D\u00e9veloppement de la Mitis \u00e0 Mont-Joli, where I worked for a year before I was hired by the city of Rimouski. I spent 6 years developing the communications and social networks of the city of Rimouski, which was very formative because, in the municipal environment, we do everything.<\/p>\n<p>During this period, I had my first child and it made me realize it was impossible for me to consider raising my children in a setting other than the one in which I grew up, so we decided to leave Rimouski and move back to Gasp\u00e9sie in 2019, just before the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>After my maternity leave, I went back to the municipal sector before having the opportunity to join the beautiful organization of Vivre en Gasp\u00e9sie which does territorial marketing. It was a great experience, but having two young children and a spouse who often works out of town, it was also very demanding. I questioned myself about self-employment and realized there was a great need for Gasp\u00e9sie in the communications industry. I decided to go for it this year, and I have no regrets.<\/p>\n<h2>At Middle, we also maintain our clients\u2019 social networks. What type of difficulties have you encountered in the development of the notoriety of a municipality?<\/h2>\n<p>The biggest challenge was to match the communication actions on social networks with what was already being done. At the time, it was not necessarily automatic to think about social networks. We also had to find a way to work together, because there were already many things in place and I was very young when I arrived with my new ideas.<\/p>\n<p>I had to develop a bond of trust with everyone. When I left the City of Rimouski, we had gathered a community of 10,000 people for a city of 50,000 inhabitants, and thinking about social networks had become an automatic response to get information. Internally as well, the employees were thinking about what we were going to broadcast on social networks. It had slowly become a reflex. Of course, there is still work to be done, but compared to the initial challenge of explaining to people that social networks, if used properly, could be useful and relevant, it is a huge step forward. I\u2019ve also been fortunate to work with people who trusted my work and ideas almost blindly and followed me even if they didn\u2019t always understand the ins and outs. I\u2019ve been lucky to have people like that in my life, it sure makes things easier.<\/p>\n<h2>Did coming back to Gasp\u00e9sie help you in your choice of self-employment?<\/h2>\n<p>When I made the choice to come back to Gasp\u00e9sie, I had thought about it, but I was still a bit unsure. Sometimes, we don\u2019t dare to take the step because of financial security, for example, so it took me two years before I realized self-employment was probably the best thing for me in terms of where I was at in my professional and personal life.<\/p>\n<p>Through these two years of experience, I was able to reconnect with the region I had left for 10 years. All my work experiences in Gasp\u00e9sie were useful to learn, especially to build contacts I now use daily.<\/p>\n<h2>Has being your own boss helped you find a work\/life balance? Has it given you opportunities that you might not have had if you hadn\u2019t chosen to be self-employed?<\/h2>\n<p>Absolutely. Being self-employed gives me the freedom that I really needed, not because my employers were not understanding \u2014 far from it \u2014 but because I put pressure on myself and I feel indebted to the people who employ me, even if they were always understanding and accommodating. Now that I\u2019m my own boss, I don\u2019t have that pressure anymore. It\u2019s really nice to be able to choose my contracts, taking into consideration my family life, and choosing contracts that really appeal to me. I\u2019ve always been a communications agent, but it\u2019s such a vast field that being self-employed allows me to choose which aspects I want to focus on.<\/p>\n<h2>This freedom allows you to work on a book, but also to develop a Tiktok account which has good visibility. What role does this account play in your activity?<\/h2>\n<p>I started my Tiktok account to get to know the platform, as I use it for clients, and I really didn\u2019t expect my content to be so popular. At first, I didn\u2019t even know what to talk about because there are so many people and videos on Tiktok that I didn\u2019t see what would make me stand out. Then I thought that my obsession with my region could be a good starting point and today it has become an integral part of my business, as I am approached to do collaborations.<\/p>\n<p>But the fact I can give myself the freedom to speak in the public space is directly linked to my activity as a self-employed person because when I was an employee, I didn\u2019t allow myself that. Same thing with my book, I love creating and I\u2019ve been lucky enough to do it in various aspects and positions throughout my career, but creating as an individual and freeing up time in my schedule to write is something great and something I would never have been able to do if I wasn\u2019t self-employed.<\/p>\n<h2>What are your plans for 2023?<\/h2>\n<p>I want to be able to continue to develop what I have built as a freelancer. People have already contacted me and I am grateful to see that people are thinking about me with regards to my content and my projects related to Gasp\u00e9sie.<\/p>\n<p>For 2023, I hope to have projects that stimulate me and participate in the promotion of Eastern Quebec, but also to continue to develop a balance between my professional and private lives and to develop projects that make me feel good, like my book. To have this freedom and to blossom in all aspects of my life.<\/p>\n<p>At Middle, we are proud to collaborate and learn from women like Joanie. Be sure to check out her social media channels, and if you\u2019d like to see more inspiring interviews, check out our blog!<\/p>\n<p>Photo: Genevieve Smith<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-classifiee"],"acf":{"emoji":"","articles_relies":{"related_articles_title":"Discover other portraits","related_articles_list":[941,925,888]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agencemiddle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agencemiddle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agencemiddle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agencemiddle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agencemiddle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/agencemiddle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":951,"href":"https:\/\/agencemiddle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947\/revisions\/951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agencemiddle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agencemiddle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agencemiddle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agencemiddle.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}