Digital & Dirt
00:27:17 · Ian Dallimore
[00:27:17] S0: But I think what you're alluding to is like authenticity. And, you know, I have tons of stories of hanging out with your team. I will share, Katie and Jillian and Brittany on the LA team who I absolutely love. And they, like many others on your team, have done such an amazing job of like creating these experiences. Because look, at the end of the day, there's tons of products out there, there's tons of opportunities, but I think you said it best, like you work with people that you enjoy being around. And so I'll give a shout out to the West Coast team. And they reached out and they were like, Hey, you're coming out to LA, would you like to like partially fund, this concert? And I'm like, Absolutely. Like sounds like a blast. So as we do in the ad space, it's all about like treating the agencies brands and vendors, kind of coming together and having having this special moment. So the short story is, is what I realized is I was headed to an Usher concert, which Usher was my jam because I'm that old. And here Julian and I find ourselves amongst your team and 12 other clients are having the time of their lives as Usher roller skates onto the stage and takes his shirt off. And we realize we are literally like maybe one of 50 men and about 30,000 into its stadium just having the time of our lives. And I ran into a handful of these women in Cannes and they were like, I still remember that moment. And so that authenticity that exists, the connections that you have with clients, and it's not it's not like, hey, you bought me courtside tickets, because you guys are never just buying things and letting your clients go off. It's truly like you're creating experiences, you're creating friendships, And that's what I've noticed about you, is not that you just like to party and have a great time, but it's really just about like creating those connections and then it becomes more meaningful. And you act as like a consultive seller where it's like, Hey, I really enjoyed my time with Lucy, but also she's super sharp. Her team's super smart around data out of home, digital programmatic, the evolution into the future. Do you find your clients are more reaching out to you because of what you've paid for them to go do? Or is it more that authenticity of like, Hey, that was fun, but let's dive deeper?
00:29:32 · Lucy Markowitz
[00:29:32] S1: Yeah. I mean, when you think about just the idea of like what we have the opportunity to do in this industry with clients. I think number one, it makes it really fun, but it also I think is important to sort of pick and choose and sort of these really special moments are one, a great way to build these relationships. And two, it's a great way to celebrate big moments of kind of getting things over the line because often just as much as we're obviously advocating for programmatic, not even just programmatic, but kind of getting out of home to have its day in the light. A lot of times so our clients. And so getting some of these big campaigns over the line, this is actually a celebration for them as well because they've also had to put their necks Especially, on the I would say kind of where we're at now is like the pinnacle. We're hoping to have this be sort of this inflection point going forward. But I think that I've had the opportunity for a lot of these people that, I mean, being in this industry for now quite some time, you have people that you started with that you now kind of see where they're at. Those people, we were all starting out kind of at the bottom and you continue to grow over time. And those can be people that are your level or people that were above you now that have grown into CMO positions, are CEOs of companies, etcetera. And I think to me, I try and always pick up the phone. And if I can't answer a call, I will text someone and say, how can I help you? What do you need? I think that that goes one, it goes both ways. I think that you have to make sure that there's a giving and a taking that happens. But I also think it's caring about people and work just as much as also caring about them as human beings too. And that goes for both clients, but it also goes for your team. I mean, I think I'm extremely lucky to get to work with people that I work with every day. I think many of them are way better at what they do than if I were to do their job for them. And so I think one of the things is to always hire people in a lot of ways that are better than you or at least better at you than a lot of the things that you find that you might maybe is not your superpower, but it's someone else's. And on the client side, it's also like to be gracious.
00:31:57 · Lucy Markowitz, Ian Dallimore
I think people that are going out of their way that are continuing to choose to work with you. One, because we believe that it's a great solution that is gonna help them to run better campaigns than maybe what they were doing prior that are like really thought out and strategic in nature. But at the same time, it's also making sure that it's not just about the work and kind of going beyond that is what's going to have those like lasting relationships go further. [00:32:26] S0: Yeah. You're, they're taking a challenge, lot of your clients, because maybe digital out of home is new to them, programmatic out of home or out of home in general. So the team taking the time, the thoughtfulness, coming up with creative concepts and ideas, backing it with data, that's really taking that chance because on the other side of the fence they have this really really easy button that is buying Google, buying CTV, buying social, and you're like, hey, but this should be a part of that conversation. So so I love that mentality. So kind of evolving a little bit more with that question, Lucy, days was like, let me go a thousand miles an hour, sell as much as possible. You've now elevated into an extremely important role as SVP and GM of The US marketplace, which you guys by far dominate the space on the tech side, but also the sales side. How how have you seen your leadership style change? And as you've kind of grown into age. Yeah. I'm not aging you, I'm just career wise.
00:33:29 · Lucy Markowitz
[00:33:29] S1: Well, I'm definitely older than when I started at Vistar. But I think a couple of things. One is, you know, I was given an opportunity to sort of throw myself into the ring of going from, a seller, one of the first sellers at Vistar to then, hey, what if I try to lead this team? Now that's taking over the sales team, which I'm also going from being people's peer to then being a manager and trying to figure out like how do I balance the friendships that I have? Who do I go to? Who are the people that I should be venting to? How do I also get people to wanna believe in me that I'm the person that is gonna set them up for success and help them to accomplish the things that are important for them and not just look at it from like kind of that selfish mentality. So I think that was the first thing was kind of getting the sales team over that hump. And then over time it's been thinking about like how do you unify a group of folks that are working with clients? How do we make sure that the support teams are not viewed as just support, but as integral to the process? As I've kind of grown and had client services and analytics and partnerships be a part of the team, it's making sure that we're giving resources to all of those groups, making sure that actually we can balance where we need to optimize. And also making sure that I'm not in the weeds on everything anymore. I think I have a hard time turning off a lot of the times, but I think that in the same respect, part of that is there's a lot of people that I've had to learn to really trust. And I do, and I think I'm so lucky to have the team that I have, both the people that are directly reporting and the managers that are within their team that I know like will get anything done. If I tell them, Hey, I need help with this. I am sure that they are the people to do it. A lot of these people would be like my first call in jail as well.
00:35:42 · Ian Dallimore, Lucy Markowitz
[00:35:42] S0: Would Raj bail you out? [00:35:44] S1: I don't know. He'd probably keep me in there for like a little bit longer just to have some peace. But eventually he would definitely Yeah, get me exactly. But I think a lot of it is just like learning to trust a bit more. And I think the other thing I would say is that having a framework and a process is super important because I think if everyone can kind of follow, you don't just have like rogue warriors across. And I think that's the other thing that we've kind of had to learn over time is going from a company of 12 to over 300 people. You can't just have everyone operating roguely because we need to make sure that people are like staying in their lane are also being respectful to all the teams that work around them and kind of figuring out how we have that appropriate handoff process, but where everyone kind of has their like time in the light. [00:36:33] S0: Yeah. And it's beyond that, right? So the opposite side would be not rogue, but also just very structured. Hey, you guys all fit. And then that goes back to the not to knock Goldman in your very early days, but that could have been the same mentality. So it's... I love... And I wish I could name every one of your team members on the podcast, but every single one of them have a different personality. They have a different what drives them and what's important. And, you know, it's beyond what I've seen holistically across your entire team is it's beyond just like, Hey, are you hitting your budget? [00:37:06] S1: Oh yeah.
00:37:06 · Lucy Markowitz, Ian Dallimore
[00:37:06] S1: Oh yeah. [00:37:06] S0: It's very personal. And you have a lot of people that are now aging and have kids and what motivates them and for them to still be a working mom and showing up in a, you know, a solo dad that wants to provide for his family. And it's interesting. So managing personalities is, has that become a learned thing for you [00:37:26] S1: as Yeah. Well, I think it's both managing personalities as much as it also is knowing that you're not trying to develop an army of Lucy's. That would be frightening. [00:37:36] S0: That would be frightening [00:37:37] S1: for Exactly. Everyone on [00:37:39] S0: I love you but that would be