The Professional

  • Trusted advisor with a record of finding and implementing creative solutions, on and off the job
  • Champion of clear communications, exceptional experience, and conscious business practices
  • Certified Trainer of Happy for No Reason program
Michele L. Rousseau (AKA The Creative Wild Card)

COMMUNICATIONS

When it’s time to put in place a communications strategy, you need a “winning hand,” each and every time. Let the Creative Wild Card’s experience and success in a wide variety of industries and functions benefit your business as well.

Digital/Online Strategy
If the whole digital “buzz” has got you feeling a little overwhelmed, never fear… Creative Wild Card has the solutions you need. Having managed remote and high-speed digital connections since the early days, the groundwork was long laid for the transition to Web site development and marketing.

  • Strategy & User Interface – Creative Wild Card has played a critical role in determining the strategies used by numerous Web sites. From writing business plans to identifying logical, easy-to-use interfaces for site visitors and developing the back-end processes, procedures, and communications for e-commerce sites for both products and member-based services, it’s a matter of “been there, done that” when you hook up with the Creative Wild Card.
  • Project Management
  • Marketing – Creative Wild Card has worked to market numerous sites through both traditional and online means, from print advertising to SEO, PPC campaign set-up/monitoring and e-mail campaigns. Identifying keywords and links that improve your site’s placement in searches are old hat. And PPC (pay-per-click) is business as usual. But it can cost you a lot more than it needs to if you don’t set it up and manage it effectively. Then there’s the beauty of automated e-mail follow-up campaigns – a great personalized way to convert prospects to customers and then retain those you converted.
  • Content
  • Analytics

Marketing/Development
The Creative Wild Card has practiced marketing in some form or fashion for more than two decades. From strategy and planning to implementation and tracking, you can bet on gaining valuable insight. Experience includes:

    • Consulting – New market opportunities, marketing planning, brochure/Web site development, communications strategy, press release creation, managing change, organizational development
    • Product/Project/Vendor Management – Budgets, forecasts, P&L, strategy, market planning, process & procedure development & implementation, customer service/sales/technician training & documentation, multimedia advertising campaigns, telemarketing campaigns, public relations, customer surveys, focus groups, tracking, process improvements
    • Marketing Communications – Brochures, newsletters, press releases and kits, direct mail & e-mail, display & classified advertising, multimedia (TV/radio/print) campaigns, copy & script writing, layout, interactive demonstrations, Web sites, branded promotional items
    • Customer Relationship Management – Lead development, sales contact, prospect surveys, networking, training
    • Analytics/Media
    • Promotional Items

NVPower Promotional Items

Written Communications
If your goal is error-free written communications, Creative Wild Card can deliver. Whether you need materials developed from scratch or just want to make sure what you already have gets a good going-over before you publish it, you can’t go wrong with Creative Wild Card. Whether your project involves advertising, business plans, newsletters, books, customer relationship communications, web content, product descriptions, technical writing, or procedure/training manuals, you’ll get the skill and experience you deserve when you put Creative Wild Card into play. Services include writing, editing, layout, proofreading, and word processing.

Pre-/Post-Sales Support (Clientele & Staff)
If effective communications are key to “making it sell” (whether “it” is an idea you want your employees to embrace or a product you are offering your customers), training and documentation play a key role. The Creative Wild Card brings extensive experience to the table in these areas as well.

Federal Mogul Annual Report

  • Training – The Creative Wild Card started out in business as a trainer with a Fortune 500 company, instructing automotive and industrial warehouses throughout North America on how to access and effectively use the supplier’s computerized inventory search and order entry system (and this was in the days when PCs were still a novelty!). Training has continued as a focus ever since, from analyzing the needs of warehouse staff for training on new parts lines to identifying the stumbling blocks in selling and servicing telecommunications products and then developing the training and support materials that meet the needs of the target audience. Or developing new services and training all staff involved, from sales to service, on all the ins and outs. Whether facilitating college courses in traditional or accelerated degree programs (in other words, to “typical” college students and/or working adults) or creating/facilitating training on customer service and leadership, the goal is always to bring real-world applicability to the subject matter through specialized activities.
  • Documentation – With experience developing user documentation for educational SaaS, order entry/processing, gaming, purchasing, e-mail, and other business-related computer software and systems (directed at those with minimal exposure to computers), you can depend on the Creative Wild Card to deliver the documentation your staff needs to carry on even in the face of change. In addition, you can take advantage of the Creative Wild Card’s experience researching new products and documenting the “need-to-knows” for everyone from customer service and sales to warehousing staff.
  • E-mail/Phone Support

Layout/Graphic Design

  • Graphic Design (flyers, brochures, mailers, magazine ads)
  • Book/Newsletter Layout

Senate Mailers 2012

Senate Race Mailers & Letterhead/Logo

Best of all, the Creative Wild Card brings this experience to bear while communicating effectively with everyone from seniors to Gen Z, in digital media as well as traditional. Keeping up with the times is part of what makes her tick.

ACCOUNTING & FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

  • High-volume Bookkeeping – Account reconciliations, credit card processing/batching, invoicing, A/P, A/R, job costing, reports, all state taxes and federal deposits, etc.
  • Audit/Analysis – Customer/vendor invoicing and shipping costs against estimates/established pricing
  • Discrepancy/Dispute Research/Resolution
  • Unattributed (“Automatic”) Reconciliation Adjustment Corrections – Audit, identify, and properly account for with limited records
  • Accounting Software Implementation
  • Procedure Development – To ensure consistent entry in the future
  • Budgets/Forecasts/P&L Responsibility – Product and department management positions

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

The Creative Wild Card has considerable knowledge in a wide variety of industries, between full-time positions and consulting engagements, including:

Education Services (Membership-based) • Self-Publishing • Higher Education • Political Campaign • State Government • E-commerce • Retail • Engineering • Automotive/Industrial Aftermarket • Gaming (Slot Development/Advanced Research & Design) • IT Consulting/Services • Manufacturing • Legal Services • Telecommunications • Utilities • Commercial Construction • Tax/Accounting & Incorporation Services • Patented Consumer Product • Rental Property

If this breadth of experience doesn’t tell the story, the Creative Wild Card truly enjoys mastering new skills, taking on new experiences and learning the ins and outs of new environments or industries.

(View Resume)  (View Samples)  (View References)

If you’re ready to put the Creative Wild Card into play, drop her a line today at info@creativewildcard.com