Life as an AYS Team Member - Interview with Nemo

G'day members of AYS, welcome back to a rather exciting blog series, for those of you who missed part 1, take a read here. In this week's edition, we dive deep into the story of Nemo, who is a Discord Growth Expert with AYS, and have been for 13 months. Coming up!

Can you tell us a bit about your role and responsibilities within AYS?

The name Discord Growth Experts, in short DGE, is self-explanatory. Our aim is to help AYS Community Members make progress when growing a Discord Server. To reach this goal, we answer growth questions as well as write up reviews on members' advertisements or servers. On a paid basis, we also participate directly in server growth by creating custom advertisements, posting advertisements, and adding servers to listing bots & websites.

How did you first get involved with AYS, and what attracted you to this position?

AYS has always been one of the largest advertising servers on Discord, I first got involved with AYS in hopes of receiving more attention to my Discord Server, and I definitely did make progress! In the long run, I found out that I felt more comfortable being a part of running a server, rather than owning a server. After trying out several other positions in AYS, I gained proper knowledge of how Growth works and was eager to help others with what I knew. Hence, I settled down in DGE, where I am today!‌

What does a typical day look like for you as a Discord Growth Expert?

Each morning, I would check out AYS's Modmail Support threads and queue Free Advertisement Review requests on our team's To-do list. The time in the afternoon is generally for posting advertisements on a vast amount of advertising servers, either for my clients or myself. At night, I would sit in front of my computer and do some "typing" sort of work. It could vary from answering growth questions, writing up reviews, or creating an Advertisement based on given information!

Can you share any achievements or moments you've felt proud of your work and impact at AYS?

Turning a client into my friend is what I consider to be a great achievement. As a part of my work, I  join customers servers and observe their "Growth" from day-to-day operations. I required extra permissions when performing the Moderation Review (a section in our Premium Server Review!) to access staff areas. That particular server I was mentioning was called 'Degenerates', the people there were really friendly, and I was very happy to receive beautiful compliments from its owner FifiSkittles. Fifi was proactive in adopting suggestions and making her server a better place, I was delighted to see my suggestions actually come true. As the service ended, we parted ways. It came to my surprise when after a year or so, Fifi appeared in AYS Chat and called out for me. Even though Degenerates no longer exist, she still remembered me. We had many fun chats and became friends. Until recently, I decided to administrate a server, Fifi brought her friends and contributed a ton to the activity. Of course, they are now staff! This is just one of the memories I have, and I feel extremely proud of what I have done throughout the years.

What are some of the challenges you've faced in your job, and how do you overcome them?

Procrastination is the biggest challenge I have faced in my job. I have received a few not too great scores for missing important deadlines. My team leader Jephu was smart enough to ask talk to me about decreasing the amount of big tasks I took on for a while and focus on advertisement reviews. These reviews are relatively small tasks as our team members distribute the workload fairly. Well, poor scores also look bad so achieving better scores is an incentive to get rid of procrastination. Sometimes I would work exceptionally hard to get the trophy aka the title of Team Member of the Week!

How do you stay in sync with the continued updates to how growth works?

As I have worked in DGE long enough, I have created a template for how I respond to different requests. I make adjustments to stay in sync with the continued updates of Discord functions. For example, when Onboarding for community servers is published, I would advise people to give short but clear instructions on their Welcome Screens to increase member retention. Discord has also made updates on its Markdown functions. In advertisements, Headers can now be used to help the audience catch the server name at first sight and Masked Links can help to create clickable Slogans or hide long, messy banner links.

Balancing work and your personal life can be challenging at some points, how do you manage to find a healthy work-life balance?

Unfortunately, I have not managed to find a healthy work-life balance yet. As a university student, I sometimes feel tired and tend to be emotional (yes, n-emo) when I am alone in the middle of the night. I would try flushing the negative feelings away by listing out priorities and taking breaks from the rest. Speaking of which, I once felt so overwhelmed with my work that I chose to take a break from AYS Staff as a whole and returned this year in July. It is sometimes important that you take breaks for yourself when you need it.

Do you have any hobbies/activities you like to do outside of AYS/Discord?

Oh! I like art. I once performed services on Discord as a GFX Designer, even though I don't do that anymore, it remained as my hobby in real life. I love sketching human portraits and animals, and I have been consistently learning to turn pictures into cartoon models. Other than art, I am also a fan of Genshin Impact and Minecraft!

What is one key piece of advice you would give to anyone wanting to work in your position or in AYS?

I encourage everyone to give AYS Staff a try, but one key piece of advice is to think carefully before you join. Why do you want this position? Do you currently have a lot to handle in real life? Are you sure you can handle the workload? Are you ready to work as a team? The work environment is really cool, but sometimes you may get overwhelmed with the amount of information you receive. If you have made your decision, then BOOM, be sure to comply with the rules and keep up your effort! (DGE is a fast moving department with extra heavy workload, think twice!!!)

What do you think are some factors that are key to making a Discord server successful?

One of the many factors is uniqueness. Basically, every single Discord server is called a community, and some categories like gaming are clearly saturated. To stand out, you must have something special related to your server theme. Make sure to highlight that in your advertisement and tell the whole world about it. Of course, it has to be feasible and not empty talk. If you find it difficult to think of something unique at the current stage, then you should try to perform exceptionally well in existing areas of community management. The most important factors are consistency and perseverance. Very often, members would ask DGE for more though they haven't even done the basic advertising, which can be difficult. Of course, if you have done a lot regarding Growth and received little to no effect, I am more than glad to initiate a constructive conversation with you. The owner and their staff team should never give up. You might not be able to maintain long-term engagement 100% as you will always experience Ups and Downs, Peak Periods (Christmas, New Year Holidays), and Dead Periods (Start of school in September, Examination Periods). The solution is to not cry over spilled milk and get ready for Peak Periods. Let's say, Christmas! How about a well-planned series of countdown events? Be ready to welcome people back at the start of the holidays and showcase activity right at the moment.

What's something about you that most people in AYS might not know?

Nemo in the movie might be a clownfish, but I can't swim. Firstly because chemicals in swimming pools trigger my allergy and secondly because I just CANNOT understand how the Breast Stroke works. (And I abandoned my swimming lessons)

Do you have a favorite quote, book, or movie that inspires you?

"Just Keep Swimming!" This quote gives us the hope we need to reach our goal – to stay strong, and to persevere through the hard times. Essentially, to never give up. This is one of the most significant lessons taught by Finding Nemo.

That's it for today's edition everyone, I hope you found this first interview exciting, I myself found it intriguing when interviewing Nemo, who I'd like to just thank for their time and detail in our interview. If you liked what you heard today, and would be interested in joining the Discord Growth Experts team here at AYS, please consider applying via this link. Next week we will be interviewing a Developer at AYS, so stay tuned!