Marisol Ramos

Today’s profile is highlighting an incredibly strong and creative woman. Marisol Ramos is a graphic designer for Dronethusiast and she has agreed to talk with us about what it’s like to be a woman in such a male-dominated hobby and lifestyle! As we conduct the interview, her answers will be listed below the headlined questions. We are really excited to share her experience with you all!

What made you decide to apply for Dronethusiast?

I really enjoy flying drones! I got started in the hobby when I was much younger. I thought it was really neat to be able to fly them, and when pictures and videos were integrated I was hooked!

It was a really awesome way to combine my passion for flying with my love of creativity and graphic design. I’d send the drones out to capture pictures, and then incorporate them into my websites, graphics, logos, and more!

When Dronethusiast went looking for a graphic designer, and I saw it come across my screen, I knew I had to apply. It was a perfect outlet for both of my loves – design, and drones! It was a great fit, and I’ve been a part of the team ever since!

What do you do with the company?

I’ve been with the company for about 5 years now. I started by redesigning their site. I came up with all of the graphic design for their website and brought it into the more current aesthetic. I wanted to keep it clean and simple, but also unique.

I’ve also started doing a little bit of work with their social media marketing team. It’s so important to have a great strategy that ensures everyone is on the same page with the aesthetic and tone of the site.

I’ve worked closely together with the rest of the team. Kennedy is amazing. She’s so talented at creating very artistic videos, and her skills with drones are insanely good! She’s got such unique content, that I want to be able to highlight it perfectly.

Andrei and I also work closely together because he is our lead technical developer. He’s great at taking my crazy creative whims and making sure that they all work technically perfect on a laptop or a phone. He’s also in charge of keeping our online presence smooth and seamless, so in a very literal sense, we wouldn’t have a Dronethusiast site without him!

So you are a marketer as well as a designer?

I guess I am, yeah. In a small company like ours, we all wear a few different hats to make sure everything runs smoothly. A few years ago, Dronethusiast didn’t have much of an online presence at all. I wanted to change that because what they have to offer is so cool.

They’ve got some great news about all the different things happening in the drone world. Luis is really great at keeping track of the changing laws, red tape, and breakthroughs in drone technology and Kennedy can write it up in a way that even beginners can understand really well!

I worked pretty hard to come up with an effective social media strategy that would get our name out there and start bringing attention to our site. I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished together.

I also developed all-new digital marketing for the company. We were a little behind the times, and once the website got updated our strategy needed to be upgraded, too. Digital marketing is constantly changing, and it can be really hard to keep up if you’re not careful. I worked with Andrei to develop a marketing campaign that would saturate our focus group and make sure everyone in our target market knew who we were.

Is it difficult for you to work on a team that is almost entirely male?

I don’t think so. It takes some adjusting because men and women don’t always communicate the same way or have the same ideas, but everyone is really great. I think the key to succeeding in a male-dominated field is through confidence.

Most of the time, your coworkers are going to be really great and responsive. Especially in such a small team as ours, everyone really pays attention and collaborates. When you’re in a small team, every voice matters, you know?

I like to think that my work speaks for itself. I don’t try to justify myself or apologize for stepping on any toes. My work is good, and I know that, so I just expect to be treated the same as anyone else who contributes strong work.

If you make a mistake, own it and fix it. It’s that simple. I don’t need to apologize if I haven’t made a mistake, and it honestly drives me nuts when women are constantly apologizing because someone decides to get upset with a woman just because their idea wasn’t as good as hers and they know it.

If you’re in a healthy team, there’s no room for ego. Especially in small businesses. Everyone just contributes ideas equally, and once you adjust to the specific personalities in the group the communication flows a lot easier. You just have to build the trust and rapport first.

The great thing about our little team is that we already know we have things in common. All of us are passionate about drones, which is why we love our jobs. It’s nice to be able to share a hobby with your coworkers because it allows us to let off some steam and relax together. And any time a new toy comes out on the market, we are all clamoring to get our hands on it and fly it around together!

So you have a very collaborative and fun environment?

Absolutely! We work great as a team, and we all have our areas of expertise. While we all love sharing ideas and being creative together, I will always default to Andrei’s technical expertise, or turn to Luis for the latest updates. And they will always turn to me when it’s time to roll out some new graphics or a marketing campaign!

We also like to play together. As I said, when a new drone comes in it feels like Christmas Day at the office. We can’t wait to unbox it and get it going. We race a lot of the time. It’s always fun to put the drones through their paces and see who comes out on top. It’s usually me!

Thanks to Jamie Brown