um, so it's been a long journey. It's never a straight path, as I'm sure many, many of your participants have have already shared with that. Um, sometimes people have the ability to set a path and set a target and go after it. Um, my path was less structured. I would say. When I first started my career, I really didn't have. I didn't have that moment when I was younger to say, you know, this is what I want to be When when I started my career in terms of things were a little different in terms of the kind of cultural environment I would say, Um, in the US I I without saying my age here because it will date me. Um, young women don't have to worry about that today, but I guess it will just, you know, this is my story. So if you want to find out my story, it is a little different. But I came on that on the heels are actually kind of that cutting edge revolution where women were, you know, it was the power of women and cutting, you know, the burning of the bra and all that stuff and, you know, we are women where we roar all that kind of stuff. So they were breaking out of the bonds of, um, kitchen, even though there were several and a lot of women who had already out in the workforce. But this was really unmasked. I would say it was really a cultural revolution in terms of people wanting to get out there. So, um, from that standpoint, when I say I didn't have a path, um, it's because we weren't trained to have a path. Generally speaking, it was only, um, you know, you you had something internally that you were going for and you wanted to go for it. If you were lucky enough to be in a social structure where you know either your mom and your grand parents or you came from an unorganized family union where people would suggest that you get there, then, um, most of us and my peers, my contemporaries will tell you the same thing. They'll say, you know, we just didn't have that That was not part of what we did back then. Eso we kind of had to find our own way, and that's what I mean. when I say we kind of bounced around from one thing to another and didn't really know what was open to us and where we went. So I learned the hard way street, the school of hard knocks. You know, it was really street smart. And you just kind of found your way and and I will say also to me, I never really thought about that. This is these air women and these airmen. I just like I just went forward. I didn't matter to me. I didn't see that I was. Gender was not a wall that I ever considered. And I and my background and I continue toe always play in the technology field, which was dominated by men. I mean, engineers, a bribe. My father and my brother were engineers, aeronautical engineers. So maybe that helped me. Um and I was, you know, it was part of them. And they included me and everything. So maybe that helped, and I just assumed Oh, yeah, Well, this is the way you know everybody. And they included me. So why not? Anyway? I didn't see that. So maybe that chutzpah, whatever you want to say helped I just never thought of that It was going to stop me or didn't see it. So, um, that was very helpful. Um, I I started off as a graphic designer. To be honest with you, that's a graphic designer, Andi, and then quickly realized that Okay, it was fun. It was cool. You have to remember that this was early seventies, so we're kind of coming out of that very, very dominant, um, sixties advertising revolution where things were really cool and people were understanding what marketing was just beginning to be like. And the power of marketing and marketing was cool. Writers were cool. Designers were cool illustrations. So I wanted to be in a cool place. Um, except, you know, you had. There's also very, very strong creative, and, um, advertising is what it quickly found out. It's not as easy as you think it Z. It's very difficult. And now it's even more difficult. But anyway, to be really creative, that's a gift to be really creative, to find really good, clever creativity to gift. Um, I was not that creative. I could do things I could draw. I could come up with things, but, um, that wasn't I quickly realized that wasn't where I wanted to be. So, um, I went back to school and went into the kind of communications management path because I realized and saw that graphic designers we're kind of at the bottom of that communications pyramid. They were the last to get the job, and everything at the top was strategy. And it was writing. And it was you were much, much closer to leadership at that point, and that was the path that I wanted to go on. And plus, I think it's 50 better. So, um, so that's where I started to head. And after when I started, when I was in the graphic design field I was laying out which you don't see today really circulars for people who know what Those are, um, grocery stores. And, um, you know, a lot of like CBS and things like that would mail those out on a weekly basis. So I was a graphic designer laying out circulars for a local regional grocery store chain here in the Boston area called Stop and Shop, and, um so I used to do a lot of illustrations for products. You actually did illustrations for products. If you could believe that Leinart illustrations s Oh, that was fun. For a while, he was like I said, it was cool eso Because of my illustration background, I was able to then parlay that into more technical fields. Um, technical illustration. So that's where I started to get into the defense industry again. Now, moving from drawing food and stuff that was very soft, if you want to say moving into drawing tanks and guns and things like that because we're a defense contractor. And so I was working on technical manuals again, sitting in a room. I think I recall now I think there were 20 guys in there they were technical illustrators to and there were two women, me and another another person. Um, but again, uh, baby, it was not Habitat, I don't know, but I just didn't even think about it. So, um, that carried me through, um, to another organization called Computer Vision, which is now long gone, knows a hostile takeover at the time, But they were the first in the field. Thio create computer aided design. So cad So it was really early on in the early eighties that this organization was sort of at the peak. And so I worked there doing the same thing. Tech illustration, tech manuals, all that sort of stuff. Then I moved to Lotus. Similar thing. Eso I stayed in that technical arena for quite some time in the tech illustration. Side tech manual tech management. Um then, um, had my Children. I moved to the D C. Area with my husband. Um, so it was kind of little bumpy there. I mean, if we're talking about transparency, did some contract work for quite some time, came back to this area, um, decided to get my masters, And then I worked for a software semi startup, and they were one of the first organizations to actually create the analytic engine for what we know today as advertising that everybody envoys so very much sitting on Google. Um, you know, deciding how you decide how you define, um, personas target audience what that starts to look like. So they were one of the very first to do that. Um, it was around the tech bubble was around 1999 and they went for one of the highest valuations at the time. They were sold and purchased by Vignette Software, which is a, um, customer relations management software company down in Austin, Texas. Course. We all know what happened in the bubble after that. Everything kind of fell apart. Um, after that, I went Teoh, I don't know. It was working. Um, I had a couple of other startups in between because startups were fun at the time, but they were really risky. That was another thing. It was very exciting to me to be in a startup. I am. You got to do a lot of different things. And, of course, the the upside of a startup. Because I saw the upside of the start up with the analytics software. That was that was cool. You know, it's like, got a little got a little taste of the what happens when you sell a startup. So that was great. And hoping to be able to go out and do that again didn't quite work out that way. So I learned a lot about the startup environment. Um, then I went to something safer, so I went to Schneider Electric on. I ran the global marketing um Division for the Buildings Business Division of Schneiderlin for about nine years. Andi, that was really, really great. It was a great role. Traveled a ton, that a lot of great people. I learned a lot about a lot of things at that point. And, um, that was very fun. So I should mention this Prior to my going there I was with a startup that created that had a multiple patents for this new form of electric heating technology and that could have been huge. There were a lot of great things that we did. We brought in our first round of venture capital, and that story didn't end very well. But I can answer that because I saw some other questions on your list that could speak to that so we could go on to that later. But, um, anyway, that's kind of my journey. Had it went thio another organization after that? No, I'm in a completely different role sales. So it's fun. Here I am. Great

um, so your responsibilities. So I'll just take sort of the last couple of roles because they change. Of course, over time. Um, but there's always budget management. Of course. Um, there are rules and responsibilities. Definition of a team. Typically, there are, um, tools, platforms. You know what kinds of software platforms, or what kind of tools are you going to need in order to have your team function? And what do you need to get out of that website, for example? So So those sorts of things, um, development. So I would say budget people, it's people process and technology. Really. All those things kind of stand on that one thing, Um, and then, depending on what the organization is about, those things are just kind of very off of that. Each each company is going to be different, depending on where they are in their maturity, where they are in the kind of market there in eso you could have, um, the market that is price sensitive. So you have to be really careful. Um, you're gonna be very budget conscious. Um, you're gonna be doing things differently versus, um, a product that you sell. That's higher margin that you can, you have a little more leeway. You're speaking to a different audience, those sorts of things. So I would say this really guided by whatever feel whatever you know, market their industry segment. You happen to be in our industry per se. That's but it's three things. Three pillars of any business is the, you know, people, process and technology. So you've got to make those decisions to complement the line with the strategy of whatever going on.Oh, aligning my priorities. My organizations, my specific organizations within my team to really specifically you've got to make sure that you're in line in alignment there because it's all gonna roll up to top priority within marketing. I have to make sure that what I'm doing in marketing is driving marketing, marketing, qualified leads that then transferring to sales that then drive the business. Right. So basically that, um, three prayer. What else do you making? Sure. My team is, um, together, uh, collaborating that we're collaborating, communicating both internal and externally. That's very important. Always transparency. Um, so having that, that's another very another key thing. And then, um finally, I would say, um kind of looking to always kind of being looking out ahead. As marketers you're always trained to. You should always be ahead of the curve, right? So marketing is always considered one of those one of those functional areas that is looking thio. What can we do better? What can we do next? How can we get how can we get into a different space or be before our competitors or it's soobviously looked like everybody else. Right now, it's just filled with zoom meetings of one kind or another. But product launches. There's always a lot of product launches on product launches, PR, internal communication strategy, Um, one on one with my team. Those sort of things fill the day, I would say Bill a week. Generally speaking, no mix of that.

major challenges for anybody in marketing. I would caution anybody who decides to go into marketing to know that marketing is one of those functional areas in an organization where a lot of people don't understand it and don't appreciate it. So you are always going to face and uphill battle typically, unless you work for a B two C company where they have huge budgets for advertising and marketing because they know that they have to do that. And that's where you're going to find a tribe of people internally who get it. If you are on the technology side like I spent my life in, you're surrounded by engineers and finance people who typically drive the company, and they have no clue about the importance of marketing. Typically, they don't eso you, you will find, so that's a challenge. That's a challenge. You will always have another one. So that's the challenge and a pain point. So you're constantly having to educate the masses, um, and fight for money always in trying to justify your existence. Marketing typically is the first to go. When a downturn happens. It should be the first to stay because you need to continue to be out there in terms of drug awareness. Oh, um, major challenges, I would say. So That kind of just touches upon the same thing. Um, politics, internal politics and every organization, is it? You've got to know you're always playing chess with with people. It's not a checkers game. It's a chess game. So you got to know who your who are the key stakeholders who actually has power within the organization. Find your allies, Um, in order. Thio. You know what? What are your goals? What do you want to do? So you need to be able thio, make those relationships and find out how you need to move within the organization. So that's in terms of answering what the approaches are effective in overcoming them. It's all about relationships, and it's all it's all about relationships, really, and helping one another, but also just getting along with people who are going to be able to bring you up. And, um, you know, be an ally for your ideas and how you want to bring things over the finish line. Yeah,