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Greetings!! I’m shaking things up again so I hope you all don’t mind. Today begins a new interview series here at DBF that will take place every Thursday from now until the Photoshop World Conference happening March 24-26th in Orlando, Florida.  Once a week I will be interviewing a NAPP Staff member or a PSW Person of Interest. This year’s conference is going to be one of the biggest and best yet so I thought it would be cool if we could get to know some of the awesome people helping to put it together. Also, this is your chance to get your questions answered as each week I will be hitting up Facebook and Twitter to see what you would all like to know about what goes on behind the scenes at NAPP HQ!

To get the ball rolling, I picked the one person who I just knew lives in the thick of everything at NAPP:

Nancy Masse – better known as the social media voice, @NAPP_News

1. What’s the average day like at NAPP HQ, is it like playtime every day? - from @ecaps1 via Twitter

Hahahaha! No. The average day at NAPP HQ is very, very busy. I don’t think people realize what a small close-knit team we really are.

With less than 100 employees, we collectively manage to publish 2 magazines, produce 5 podcasts, manage god-knows-how-many websites, run an international association, hold a worldwide photo walk, produce countless hours of tutorials and classes, and plan & execute two conventions and a string of live seminars every year… am I forgetting something? Oh yeah, and work w/Scott to publish 4 or 5 books a year. And in between all that, we have to market it all… and let’s not forget our in-house shipping and customer service department who manage to make the whole thing run as smoothly as possible for our members.

But, I will say this… not a day goes by here where I don’t break into hysterical fits of laughter at least once. Everybody, and I mean ~everybody~ works just as hard as everyone else here so there has to be levity or we’d all go postal. ;D Walk down the halls at NAPP HQ and you’ll hear people hard at work and bursts of laughter in equal proportions. =)

2. Did you always know you wanted to work in marketing, or was there a brief astronaut period? -from @ecaps1 via Twitter

I like that term “astronaut period” I may have to borrow that. I guess the answer is “Yes and No.” I had a professor in college who told me, “Never ask, “What do I want to do for the rest of my life?” Always ask, “What do I want to do next.”"

I’ve had a gazillion jobs and I have a gazillion stories but when I look back, I’ve technically been in Marketing in one way or another since I was little. My Dad was a Cleo-award winning commercial artist and package designer. His biggest commercial success was the Moosehead Beer label. He worked out of his studio at home and he enlisted me as his sounding board at a very young age. He’d always show me whatever it was that he was working on and say, “What do you think of when you look at this,” and then we’d discuss the concept behind his work. I think he gave me this role because I was the only one in the family who didn’t draw well. I gravitated to writing instead.

I learned marketing and advertising concepts in that studio that no school could ever teach and I’ve essentially applied them to everything I do.

3. Was there a decisive moment that put you on the road to NAPP HQ? -from @jsperryphoto via Twitter

No. It was a series of “happy accidents.” I was building my own freelance business when I was contacted by Kelby Media Group. They were looking for a copy writer. I originally came in with the notion that I was going to add them as ~my~ client, but as soon as I took a tour of NAPP HQ and saw what this tiny team was doing, I knew I had to be a part of it.

Confession Time #1: I thought I had no clue who Scott Kelby was when I first interviewed here. All I knew was that every commercial artist I worked with said the same thing, “Holy cow! You’re interviewing with Scott Kelby?!?! You’re gonna love him! You both have similar writing styles.”

It wasn’t until my third interview that I realized that I was familiar with his work….

Confession Time #2: I know just enough Photoshop to be dangerous and when I was working on my freelance business, I had this graphic in mind that I wanted to create but I couldn’t do it. When I asked my boyfriend, James, for help, he handed me a copy of Scott’s “Classic Photoshop Effects” and said, “Here. Everything I’ve ever needed to know about Photoshop I learned in this book.” I got so caught up in the writing style and tone of the book, that I abandoned my project and spent the rest of the day reading it.

Confession Time #3: When I had my final interview with Scott, I relayed the story above and pulled out the book for him to sign, He laughed and wrote, “Dear James, Nancy RULES!”

4. If you weren’t working at NAPP, what would your ideal career be? -from @ecaps1 via Twitter

This is going to sound silly, but I’d want to be the person who gets to buy and/or make the props you see at Disney. Seriously! Have you ever been on the Twillight Zone Tower of Terror ride?! Someone got to go garage sailing for all those vintage props in the “lobby.” Someone got to find all the eclectic little things lying around at Animal Kingdom. I LOVE hunting for strange kitschy things… It would be awesome!

In reality, my ideal career if I wasn’t with NAPP would be to have a successful freelance career. I’m the only member of my family who isn’t currently self-employed (my brother is the commercial designer behind Skechers and my sister is an artist). However, seeing that I gave up my freelance business to come here, I feel that I am on my ideal career path. =)

5. What has been the biggest, or hardest, lesson you’ve learned during your time at NAPP? -from @jsperryphoto via Twitter

Wow! Good question! Ummm… That it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission? No. Just kidding. ;D

I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is what it’s ~really~ like to work with a team. Like I said earlier, everyone here works just as hard as everyone else. There is no room for slack. If I drop the ball on something, the entire works grinds to a halt. Well, not the ~entire~ works, but it definitely affects everyone around me and vice versa. The momentum is so huge around here, you have to be able to rely on the fact that your co-worker is going to get his/her part of the job done. This forges a huge sense of both responsibility and trust among everyone. Scott and Kalebra put together one heck of an amazing team in order to achieve a dynamic like this. It really is awesome to be a part of it.

6. If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? When? -from @PhotoBugF4 via Twitter

Newport RI… right now. I spent every summer growing up in Newport. I miss it very much and I would love to go back for a week or the rest of my life. Either that or maybe the Charlevoix region of Canada. I love Canada. I think it’s a beautiful country filled with people who love their land… plus, they make some really good beer there. =)

7. What is your favorite part of being @NAPP_News (aka the voice of NAPP)?

Meeting my “Tweeps” at Photoshop World.

Confession Time #4: I like being a person that makes stuff happen “behind the scenes.” When I first started the “NAPP_News” account, I enjoyed the anonymity of it. Unfortunately, that didn’t last too long. I got really freaked out last year when someone called me one of NAPP’s “personalities.” I’m just me, ya know? =)

But the upside to people wanting to know the person behind “NAPP_News” is that I have met some of the most AWESOME people on the planet! I’ve made friends for life here and I LOVE going to Photoshop World just to meet the people behind the avatars. Sure, I only average 2-3 hours of sleep each night but it is MORE than worth it!

8. What inspires you? -from @PhotoBugF4 via Twitter

Everything. I never know where my next idea is going to come from so I open myself up to everything around me… but if you want me to get granular and focus on what inspires my copy writing, I’d have to say the guys who write for Woot.com and The Amazing Ben Thompson, the genius behind “Badass of the Week.” http://www.badassoftheweek.com/index.html

9. What is your favorite part of your work day? And it can’t be “when I get here” or “when I go home”. What task? - from: @roymadstudios via Twitter

Well, it doesn’t happen ~every~ day but I love when I get pulled into brainstorming or planning sessions. There is nothing more inspiring than being in a room full of insanely talented and creative people. Also, I love it when Scott pulls me in on one of his “super secret projects”… Mostly because I get to tease everyone online that I know something that they don’t.” =)

10. What ever happened to the Sea Monkeys? Will they ever return?

Hahahaha! YES! I swear to you, the Sea Monkeys will return! I promise, they will not go the way of “Duke Nukem Forever” or Guns n’ Roses’ “Chinese Democracy! ;D

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I want to thank Nancy for agreeing to this interview. It’s so awesome to have her here! Thanks Nancy!

Next week we will be hearing from the unofficial/official and all around loveable security guard of PSW (making him a PSW person of interest) – Robert Louis Vanelli! If you have any questions for this notorious phone stealer, be sure to let me know via @Firgs on Twitter or on the NAPP Facebook page!