Digital & Dirt
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?
00:43:48 · Lucy Markowitz
[00:43:48] S1: Well, thank you for that. I think one is both at my time, working in finance as well as actually being at Vistar, There's been a lot of senior people that are women, whether they're my peer set, whether they're on our C suite. So I feel like to me it's not as though it's just been a one size fits all. And I think that especially being driven, our C suite, we have Janet who's our CFO. But also outside of that, I think we have a bunch of males that I would say are like very pro whoever is the right fit for the job. And we see that throughout our entire company. I think that there's a lot of diversity in a lot of different ways. I think also an aspect of it is we'll call it, how are you gonna get what you want? Part of that is not gonna be just by brute force. And you also have to be realistic that there are certain stereotypes that might be associated with acting a particular way. So I think that one of the things over the time of my career has also been like much more data driven about the things that I'm saying. So that there really is no rebuttal and trying to act as fearless as possible and put myself in the same rooms that I want to be in. And part of that is something that I try and ignore the gender piece. And I feel like if you don't really make that something that is in the back of your mind, in a lot of ways it doesn't really inhibit you. But it obviously does exist and I think there's a lot of other great women overall in the marketing and ad tech world that advocate really hard for both like how brands are approaching females and equality and also female equity, which is obviously different than just the equality piece. And so I also look at what these women are doing in other places. And I think having it be more of a conversation as opposed to it being something that people are kind of like silently suffering or discussing. I would say I've been again fortunate to not necessarily be surrounded with that in my own company, but it's also helping people that are other companies and kind of talking through some of the scenarios that they might be in and trying to work through it.
00:46:17 · Ian Dallimore
[00:46:17] S0: Yeah. It's super powerful because I love that. Because what you having two daughters myself, you don't want that to be a number, right? Like, Oh, well, Lucy got this because of X. But so it's almost just becomes what the way that I look at it and our producer Faith, I know has reached out to you a good bit of constantly like taking these five minute calls, but also just women from afar that maybe aren't talking with you, and even males looking up to the Michaels of the world, looking up to the Christians of the world that kind of help flourish. Oftentimes there's not much that needs to be done other than Lucy just being Lucy and saying, hey, this is... I've got where I've gotten because of my work, my passion. And also you can have this way as well. And if you're in a company and in a situation where it's not fostered this way, then find another company because there's plenty out there that are embracing this. And so what with that, what is, does it give you a bit of pressure that people are now reaching out to you and saying like, Hey, how did you get here?
00:47:18 · Lucy Markowitz
[00:47:18] S1: Honestly, I love it. I think it's funny this summer, is the first summer I've, our team has an intern. Obviously, I've worked a lot with faith and sharing some of my advice and thoughts, But also I think it goes both directions. I think I've had the opportunity of some of the people that I work on a mentorship level with, come to me with really great questions and things that are thought provoking. I think it also flexes a different muscle to a degree of what are the things that I wish someone had told me that I kinda had to figure out on my own, fumbling through and could have done better. So I feel like a lot of it is trying to also give people real information, not just like what would be the nice boilerplate response to And sometimes those are hot takes. I think that's the other thing as well of just sort of saying it how I feel to be true. But I do think it's really important to make time for others. Think, I joke around with especially anyone that starts my calendar, it looks like a war zone, but I say, I'll always figure out a way to make So I think that's important too to make that time. I think what goes around comes around. And I feel like a lot of people did that for me. And to be honest, still do that for me. Because I want to believe this is just kind of the start. So I feel like I got to pay it forward.