Catarina is a key member of the Harland & Poston Group, having been the one who brought Portugal Homes online strategy to where it is today. With her education in Media & Marketing, both in Portugal and London, and after 8 years of experience working in Digital Marketing & Communications for renowned companies, Catarina has the mission of building an awesome Digital Marketing team and handling the online strategy in more than 38 international markets we communicate with.
Her Mozambican background adds to the office’s ethnic and cultural environment, and her good mood, genuine smile and loud laugh turn her into a very friendly and approachable person. Curious by nature, she’s always open to new ideas and possesses a desire to understand concepts that may be difficult to grasp at first glance. She’s a one-of-a-kind leader to her team, motivated, and keen to achieve above and beyond expectations.
In her free time, Catarina loves cycling through her hometown, Cascais, to read, watch documentaries and take care of her beautiful plants, flowers and cat, Pingo.
If you only had a budget for one digital marketing tool, which one would you choose for Portugal Homes business?
I would say that one of the strongest digital marketing tools at this moment is search marketing. It’s one of the core digital marketing tools that we use to reach global clientele, and I would say that it’s something that we do very well here at the company, to try to communicate with our clients globally every day.
What are the toughest challenges you’ve had working at Portugal Homes?
I believe that one of the toughest challenges was joining the company to start everything from zero. It’s very important to have a vision, and I believe that working with David and Gary allowed me to have that vision, for the company, for the group, and step-by-step, brick-by-brick you end up growing something very special, phenomenal and you take the challenges as a positive outcome instead of being down all the time, and you grow much faster than you would working in an established company, so I believe that the challenges made me a better professional.
What’s the biggest misconception people have about your position?
I believe that people think that I’m sometimes a designer, sometimes an IT expert, sometimes a server and network expert, and I'm not necessarily that. I believe that working in Digital Marketing & Communications is an ally of many tools, of strategies, and not necessarily dealing with so many technical aspects of infrastructures, and etc, even though sometimes they’re connected. When you work with CRM’s and other tools, there’s quite a lot of IT but they’re not necessarily something you manage technically, so I would say that could be some of the misconceptions when they think you’re the Head of Digital Marketing at a company nowadays.
As a manager, what’s one professional skill you’re currently working on to further improve your performance overall?
I’m looking to improve my emotional intelligence and soft skills lately, because I think it’s one of the gaps that’s been in the market. Whether you’re a high performance professional or a junior, I think it’s really important to work on how you deal with people, how you deal with challenges, with difficult situations, how you look at the difficulties and how positive you bring that into your workspace, to your colleagues. I believe that understanding, and speaking to one another, and as people trying to improve your skills every day is really important. I think that you need to empathize with people. It’s really important to be a good human being at the same time we’re being a very demanding professional looking for results for a company, and I would say that one of the special traits that I'm trying to work on is definitely emotional intelligence.
What do you foresee being the next major milestones at Portugal Homes?
One of the milestones that we have accomplished right now is the opening of our office in Dubai, in the UAE. It’s something that we’d talked about ever since we opened the company, and it’s amazing to see what we’ve done in teams of marketing, telemarketing, sales, listings, construction, After Sales, and to be able to live this moment. It’s something that we’re very proud of today. I would say that also seeing Portugal Homes becoming the number one real estate company here in Portugal is something that brings me great pride, and I’m sure to David and Gary as well. It’s been a happy, a very happy journey.
Can you give an example or two where diversity made a difference towards better decision making or in your teams' decision making?
Diversity is a synonym of success here at the company. It’s something that I had at the centre of my worries. Every time I was trying to hire someone to join the company, I believe that working in Marketing and Communications can be so much more enriching to a company when people have different backgrounds, different creeds, different experiences. I also think that it’s something that David and Gary wanted to create while we were creating, of course, Portugal Homes, the Harland & Poston Group and all the other brands that we’ve been establishing since we’re working together. And I really do believe that diversity is the way to move forward.
Curiosities and facts about Catarina:
- She’s always delighted with technological innovations.
- She loves to dance, ride her bike and wander around nature for hours.
- She’s always up for a good challenge.
- As a manager, she understands and supports the importance of balancing work with personal life.
- She’s very competitive when it comes to board and billiard games like snooker.
- She respects and treats everyone equally regardless of their positions.
About Employee Talks
Employee Talks is a part of Portugal Homes - Harland & Poston Group’s digital marketing strategy. Our employees and their backgrounds are the company’s greatest asset, hence our belief in sharing the employees’ thoughts on working at this company shows our ability to differentiate, cultivate and promote our identity to not only candidates interested in working here, but also clients who are purchasing with us. We want our viewers to understand why we stand out from the crowd and think it’s a great opportunity for you to get to know us better.
