I am a firm believer in telling one’s story outside of the classic resume and carefully curated LinkedIn profile. So much personal learning and growth has come out of each and every one of my professional experiences, so here is my story in my own words. (If you are keen to just get ahold of my resume, no problem - you can grab it here.) Let’s start at the beginning:
Chapter 1:
the birth years
I was born at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago, Illinois on June 1, 1989. OK, that might be too far back. Let’s skip ahead.
Chapter 2:
The Burberry years
After graduating from Indiana University with a Psych degree, I headed out to London for a 3-month internship working on a net-new team within the customer service organization. The goal was to build out a program for servicing high net-worth individuals (what we called VICs). We worked on everything from creating private events to curating runway experiences to exclusive item sales. As a small team of five, it was all hands on deck. Most of my days were spent building relationships with London-based stores to leverage them as test sites for new ideas, supporting VIC managers on global program rollouts and intaking feedback, and managing an actual client book. (Nothing like getting a call from Elton John’s assistant on a Friday night at 7p.) Well, 3 months turned into 2 years. With this role, I had learned the fundamentals of brand ambassadorship, client management, project management, and team building. My first corporate gig box was ticked, my visa was expired, and the next chapter called.
Chapter 3:
The Salesforce Years
Having never traveled west of the Mississippi, I packed up my bags, bid London ‘cheerio’, and headed out to San Francisco. After working on a startup within a corporation, I felt confident that I could take on actual startup life and was eager to find the next Uber or Airbnb. Instead, I landed an EA gig at Salesforce, working for the Chief Creative Officer. Up until this point of my career, I hadn’t worked with “creative” or “marketing” anything at all. But the job was fast-paced, the company was growing, and the vision for the team exceptionally clear. I was thrilled to roll up my sleeves and get started.
Given that the team was so small (40 at the time), it meant that even as an EA, you could wear many hats. I assumed the role of team catch-all. I was managing multiple execs (inc. a short stint with the CMO), playing culture liaison for the team, and, most importantly, building cross-functional relationships with orgs all over the company. Our CCO’s vision was to build a centralized, in-house agency to support all aspects of brand and creativity - from marketing to product. I knew that the path to success was helping him to establish those bonds and help to position our team in this unique way.
In less than a year, I was promoted to Creative Coordinator. My new charge? To continue to build and streamline the business arm of the group. To name a few things, I was in charge of developing and managing a program for recruiting and onboarding contractors. I had to make sense of the budget and create a process for how funds would be projected, distributed and managed quarterly. I had to understand how to scale the team through agency partners, and how we could onboard and train them to make them an extension of our brand family. Sure enough, it felt like I was learning how to run a small business.
Then came the rebrand. The team had spent a year developing a new brand identity with a local agency. Looking around the room, there was really no resource available to help to get it into the hands of the employees and partners. Given my well-formed relationships and global connectedness, our CCO tapped me to jump in. I was given 2 months to roll out the brand to the company, just in time for a launch at Dreamforce. Needless to say, we did it, and it was monumental.
From there, I was given the title of Brand Manager and became the sole keeper of the brand. 3 creative leads were hired as my partners-in-crime, and together, we created everything on behalf of the brand. From guidelines and templated assets to branded experiences, we decided where, how, when, and why the brand showed up. Most notably, we established the first-ever Salesforce Design Conference; rolled-out the first-ever brand guidelines; created the first Salesforce Swag Store; and launched the first brand awareness campaign. In short, it was a lot of firsts, which only meant endless opportunities for me to learn on the job and further refine my own collection of ‘firsts’.
Chapter 4:
The Impossible Year
After 5 years at Salesforce, I was ready for the next challenge - consumer marketing at a startup. I got the role of Integrated Marketing Manager on Impossible Food’s marketing team. Similar to roles prior to it, they were in need of someone eager to learn, roll up their sleeves, and get work done. And boy, did we get work done. During my year at the company, I was able to help launch the first international market (Hong Kong); execute two brand awareness campaigns, and manage the co-marketing campaign with White Castle. With just a team of 5 marketers, I dabbled in everything. And I mean literally everything. Brief writing, data analysis, and reporting, project management, agency RFPs, event production. Heck, I even had to manage our digital properties. It was startup 101, and I was an absolute sponge, just soaking it all in.
Chapter 5:
The Google Cloud Years
After an incredible year at IF, I got offered an opportunity to work at Google Cloud, joining some of the old tribe from Salesforce to help build out their creative and brand arm. Just like we had done in the old days. I was thrilled at the chance to get in at Google, so I said ‘heck yes’. The first role? Help to bring the brand to the regional marketing teams. As a centralized creative team, there was a real disconnect in how the brand was coming to life in other countries. It was key to build relationships with these teams, hear their needs, learn their markets, and figure out how we could play a supporting role to make them successful. Within the first few months of doing research, I was able to craft a story to share with the global leadership team on the gaps and opportunities. The leads took it to heart and reworked the OKRs (objectives, key results) for the year to inc. the regions. With that heartfelt change, I was assigned as a global creative management resource for any and all international needs. Most notably, I was the creative program manager assigned to manage campaigns with The Football Association in the UK, and the localization lead for the global brand awareness campaign.
After a fabulous year learning about all things international, I was tapped to help with - wait for it - a rebranding effort. The team had spent a year redefining the brand platform, and there was a need to refresh the identity to lean into that new work. And so my second role? Brand Manager. With an agency and 2 creative leads in tow, we set out to refresh our design language and, consequently, all of the supporting templates, assets, and guidelines. As fate would have it, COVID hit and we learned that our current brand site’s CMS was sunsetting. Woof. If there was ever a time to ensure that our global teams were set up for success with the centralized guidance, tools, and assets that they needed, it was now.
After spending 6 months establishing the new brand identity, I kicked off workstreams with our creative leads to update and even create anything that our global marketing teams would need to do work - illustration guidelines, photo libraries, email signatures, end cards, you name it. We even worked on refining our global agency rosters. Another brand refresh in the bag.
After 2 years, my contract with Google came to an end, but my eagerness to find my next career challenge is just getting started. If you find yourself in need of someone with optimism out the wazoo, motivation for days, and a get-it-done attitude, I’m your gal. I am ecstatic to start my next chapter and look forward to finding my next work home.