Digital & Dirt
00:37:39 · Ian Dallimore, Lucy Markowitz
[00:37:39] S0: I love you but that would be [00:37:40] S1: No, no, I would wish that on literally no one. But I think that part of it is you need different personalities. You also have to understand that there's different styles of doing things. If they work, have people go with it. And I think that it's making sure that the piece that is structured isn't overly structured to your point that you're just trying to get everyone to act the same way. Because I think those different dynamics is part of what creates unique relationships in the market. I think the other thing too is you can't be everywhere. You need to not be a micromanager, but at the same time, you're also getting a lot of feedback from different teams and it's making sure that we're balancing, ensuring that people have the resources that they need, the ability to have some flexibility in how they want to operate, but also knowing that like we still need to operate somewhat within a framework to still get stuff done. I think that also creating opportunity for people to grow within Vistar. And I think that those paths can both be not just a manager path, but it can also be as individual contributors because I think that's super important that we need to also celebrate people that are really good at their job that can take on more. But that doesn't just mean that they have to manage a team. [00:39:01] S0: Have you seen, inside our note, I've seen your people in the wild and you could tell there's little pieces of Lucy, but they're out there in their own personality.
00:39:01 · Ian Dallimore, Lucy Markowitz
[00:39:01] S0: Have you seen, inside our note, I've seen your people in the wild and you could tell there's little pieces of Lucy, but they're out there in their own personality. [00:39:10] S1: Those could things that I learned from them too. Yeah, [00:39:13] S0: exactly. Yeah. And goes both ways for sure. And so have you had employees that were really, you mentioned the peer to peer and then becoming the manager, obviously that comes with some angst, but have you also seen employees that maybe were in certain positions where you've seen them and you're like, Hey, let's move you over here and try this out. Have you seen those type of evolutions as well? [00:39:35] S1: Yeah. And how [00:39:35] S0: did you approach that?
00:39:36 · Lucy Markowitz
[00:39:36] S1: I think there's a lot of people that are actually receptive to feedback when given the feedback in the right way. Like we have people that are, a little rough around the edges, but at the same time, those might be people that I know that I can count on. And so it's refining some of those pieces that have helped them to continue moving forward in their career. I'd also say one of the things too, you talk about, and I know I mentioned it before of kind of going from people's peer to then moving up. I've also been really lucky to have people around me that they might have a lot more experience than me, but they see the value that I can bring and have actually kind of helped me to build confidence within myself that I can still offer a lot, even if it's not necessarily because I've had X number of years of experience. And so I think part of it is people can prove themselves whether they have one year of experience or ten or fifteen or twenty. And so I think like my perception has changed as well. I think people's want to learn and grow are very different and kind of giving people pointers of where they can refine certain things can go a long way. But also I think I've tried to do more observing of some of those behaviors of even things that work really well for some, but also some of those things might not work for other people. So it kind of goes back to like that same lesson with Michael of like fail fast. That can both be with a new product, but it can all be also be with like trying out a new tactic or something along those lines, whether it's in market or just like a managing style that may or may not work, give it a try. If it doesn't work, abandon ship.
00:41:20 · Ian Dallimore
[00:41:20] S0: Yeah. And I love that managing up is big and that that takes a lot of like trust from your side, but also it takes that like believability that like, hey, your manager's like, hey, tell me more. The other thing that I kind of take away from that is it's kind of like a micro lab, right? You're testing little small things and seeing how that works. But one of the biggest motivators that we've seen in the company is always, to your point, peer to peer. Like giving that ability where you're like, hey, that was a very good job on how you handled XYZ. I want you, not me the manager, not me the SVP and GM, but I want you to go share that with your peers. And then you kind of watch that blossom or fail and how that's received and maybe it becomes replicated. Maybe that becomes one of the ways and the staples.
00:42:07 · Lucy Markowitz
[00:42:07] S1: Yeah. So it's balancing like humility and self advocacy sometimes people won't know exactly what you've done behind closed doors. You don't want to be the show off, but at the same time, like it's important that we celebrate those wins. It's not just telling everyone like what they did wrong or what they could do better. Like I feel really that it's important to make sure that we celebrate hard work. And to your point, that might not be because you closed the biggest deal, but it might be that you worked through a really challenging situation. You're able to win back a client. I think those are some of the things that it's not just about the mistakes and failures that we're going to talk about and unravel, but it's also making sure that you celebrate those wins amongst the entire group that was a part of it.
00:42:56 · Ian Dallimore
[00:42:56] S0: So back half of the podcast here, last couple of ten minutes or so, I really want to dive deeper into two scenarios. So to kind of manage time here. First, we're going to talk about breaking through as a woman in an industry that's been previously very male dominated. And then to wrap up the podcast, I really want you to kind of tell the story how you're talking to brands fresh coming off of Cannes, coming off of a handful of massive events where global brands exist. How are you selling through out of home? So first, in a very male dominated industry, How does someone, and I kind of bragged about you, I'm not going to brag about you anymore on this, but how have you kind of become this? Not because maybe it was a goal, but how have you become like one of the iconic women in this industry at such a young age? And what does that mean not only for men, but also women in this space?