Welcome to the Green Room, a new monthly feature where we will be evading security yet again to go backstage with our Rockstar CMOs and pose them a question that’s top of mind for us back at the Rockstar CMO penthouse.
This month we are joined by Christine Bailey (CMO of Valitor), Wendy Bryant-Beswick (VP of Marketing at Service Credit Union), Robert Rose (Content Marketing Guru and Chief Trouble Maker at The Content Advisory), Ted Rubin (Social Marketing Strategist, CMO Photofy) and Jenni Young (the CMO of tappit).
This issue we are publishing the week after Thanksgiving and with the holidays in their minds, we asked the obvious question for this time of year:
What are you thankful for in 2018?
The results are insightful. There is are common themes around people, the gratitude for having been inspired, great teams, great leadership and the latitude to get the job done. All of which are consistent with the Rockstar CMO Rider the things we would insist on in our next marketing gig).
Over to the rockstars:
Christine Bailey
As a marketer, I’m thankful to be working for a company where I get to be a “real” marketer; conducting market research and gathering customer insights to create a new mission statement with purpose and new value proposition – transforming a 35 year old payments company in an industry that is traditionally perceived to be ‘pale, male and stale’.
I’m thankful that I get to experiment with new marketing tactics – working with a color psychologist to analyze the meaning and impact of our brand colors, working with an old friend with a new digital advertising platform, learning new things about social selling, reconnecting with my original social media coach and seeing what an impact she had in teaching our sales and marketing execs to be social ninjas, having the pleasure of switching off the old intranets and moving to a single new employee advocacy platform.
I’m thankful to work with sales leaders who are open to new ideas and believe in the power of ‘smarketing’. I’m thankful to be able to feed my brain with articles and marketing books, attend inspiring conferences and meet amazing new people. I’m thankful to be able to help out people in my network and to know that help is always there for me when I need it.
But most of all I’m grateful for my support crew – an incredible team who are talented, diverse in gender, age, nationality, skill set and experience and most importantly, really fun to work with!
Christine Bailey is CMO of Valitor, an international payment solutions company headquartered in Iceland. Forging a career in the tech sector, she’s led European marketing for Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems, and writes frequently for Forbes Woman. Read more.
Wendy Bryant- Beswick
I am thankful for the latitude I’ve been given this year as I rebuilt both infrastructure and a team at my current organization. It’s always a challenge implementing change and shifting traditional skill sets to where marketing is today and where we are going. I appreciate all the support and confidence my peers have given me as I navigate an environment that isn’t always open to change.
It’s also terrific to now be located near Boston where I can leverage so much expertise and participate in events that I would not otherwise have had the opportunity to. I am constantly amazed at how marketing has evolved and continues to change and flow with the ever-changing business landscape. Wendy Bryant-Beswick is an award-winning marketer with 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry. She is currently VP of Marketing at Service Credit Union. Go backstage with Wendy.
Robert Rose
Gratitude is such a powerful force. But this particular year I’m grateful for something my grandfather taught me – and that, interestingly, business leader Peter Drucker would remind me of years later.
In his book Management Challenges for the 21st Century, Drucker wrote about what he called the “value conflict” .He said, “What one does well – even very well – and successfully may not fit with one’s value system.” My grandfather used to say something similar.
On one of my many visits to his house in Iowa he would say, “remember, just because you’re good at a thing, doesn’t mean you have to do the thing. And just because you don’t know how to do a thing, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do the thing.” In Drucker’s story of change. He quit his job as a successful investment banker because it didn’t match his values. He said, “I saw no point in being the richest man in the cemetery.”
Now, the range of our freedom to change direction in our lives depends on so many things: confidence, talents, skills, and yes, certainly privilege. But I do agree with Drucker when he said, “values should be our ultimate test.” And – as per my grandfather – I’d add interest and passion.
So – my tip that I’d add from both my grandfather, and Drucker, is not to get stuck on one idealized form of our career – but rather, focus on constantly increasing the range of options we have to change our career based on our values, our interests and our passions. It has certainly helped me this year.”
Robert Rose is the Founder and Chief Troublemaker for The Content Advisory, the education and consulting group with the Content Marketing Institute. Best-selling author and speaker, he has hung out a bit at the Rockstar CMO penthouse and you can read his articles here.
Jenni Young
Open mindedness. I believe this is key to success. Businesses who are open minded about taking risks, collaborating and embracing new technology, will win.
I’m also particularly thankful that this year there is greater awareness and discussion around diversity and the need for marketing to be open-minded and inclusive. Think Rihanna Savage x Fenty, not Victoria’s Secret….
Jenni Young is both Managing Director – Partnership for Growth & Innovation (LBHF & Imperial College London) and the CMO of tappit – a cashless payment platform for event organizers. Jenny suggested we throw “Can I get PR on this” into the Rockstar swimming pool. We were only too happy to oblige and you can learn more about Jenni here.
Ted Rubin
We leave the last word to Ted, although I did suggest to him that my Britishness would prevent me from sharing this…
I’m thankful that I got to work with Ian Truscott and write for Rockstar CMO
Ted Rubin is a leading social marketing strategist, keynote speaker, Photofy CMO/advisor, MC/host for Brand Innovators Summits, speaker, author, provocateur Ted is our resident rockstar, he tells it straight in his regular column and we are thankful to have Ted on the team.
Right back at you Ted!
Thank you
As Editor of Rockstar CMO, I am thankful for all of these guys and their contributions, for how they generously share their advice and to their organizations for giving us their time. More importantly, I am thankful for the fantastic community we are building, not just amongst our contributors, but also our readers and all the people that like and share our content. We are creating something useful, which has been our intention.
Please take a look at our Sleeve Notes, where we credit all of the writers and the organizations, they represent.
Would you like to join us in the Green Room? If you are a senior marketer and would like to share your experience – get in touch.
Ready to rock?
Fancy a chat about this? Or maybe we can help with our advisory services or get in touch!
Subscribe
Join hundreds of your peers and get your weekly fix of marketing street knowledge from the Rockstar CMO community.
Share this article
Author
