I have always had an entrepreneurial mindset-whether it was adding more readers to my paper route, exponentially increasing our school fundraiser donations, convincing everyone I met that Girl Scout cookies just tasted better, or getting our high school Junior Achievement company to pay for my college. Fortunately I was born and raised in the Bay Area and have worked my entire career in Silicon Valley. I am also lucky to have realized early on in life that I was not an idea-person who was going to come up with the next big thing. Instead-through a lot of blood, sweat, and Peet’s-I learned my strengths lie in strategy. I was the one best suited to take those big ideas, products, and solutions to the market-megaphone in hand.
Fast-forward 25 years my experience includes executive-level positions at Fortune 100 companies and more than 15 startups. I’ve worked alongside some of tech’s best and brightest, including Elon Musk, who really helped me see the potential in almost anything. I remember listening to Elon talk about building a commercial space ship that might someday go to Mars. And I thought to myself, I want to build metaphorical rocket ships for marketing and sales to achieve and exceed all expectations. (I know. I know. Who thinks like that?) So I set my sights on the audience, the market, the viability of the solution, and how the heck we were going to get it to market. Ironically, I recently had a colleague observe how I had been hired to build a fast boat to go to market, but instead, I had built a rocket ship. And that’s really where my passion lies-getting solutions to market, and then scaling them rapidly and aggressively.
And so, in an effort to help marketing professionals become more effective and empowered, grow trust and influence within their organization, be truly impactful, and sway the naysayers, I developed the G R I T Marketing Method. This is the framework I have used successfully for decades with individuals and companies.
In my new book Sway, due out in Summer 2021, and accompanying course and workshops, I outline the G R I T Method and show marketers how to elevate the importance of marketing in their current position, have greater influence and strategic visibility in their company, demonstrate the value and impact they bring using data, build trust with executives, and develop a plan to boost revenue growth.
So if you’re sick of justifying your existence to execs who don’t “get” marketing or are simply ready to blow doors off the industry competition, let’s talk.
