Speaker 1: You're listening to math and magic production of I heart radio.
Speaker 1: My advice to people, especially females. We are trained to
Speaker 1: make sure that we were protecting ourselves right like not
Speaker 1: putting ourselves into places that we feel like that we
Speaker 1: could be exposed, and I've learned you have to push
Speaker 1: yourself to those uncomfortable places because you'll never grow and
Speaker 1: you'll never learn and you hold yourself back from so
Speaker 1: much good opportunity if you don't get uncomfortable. Hi, I'm
Speaker 1: Bob Diffman. Welcome to math and magic. Stories from the
Speaker 1: frontiers and marketing, where we explore the lessons learned from
Speaker 1: those who use the analytics and creativity of marketing to
Speaker 1: drive business and societal successes. Today we have someone who's
Speaker 1: used the marketer's mind across many industries and has always
Speaker 1: come up a winner. It's susie daring, global CMO for four.
Speaker 1: Susie grew up down south and went on to have
Speaker 1: a pretty remarkable career all over the US and industries
Speaker 1: ranging from Telco to home improvement to tech. She joined
Speaker 1: four in the middle of the pandemic, so I'm certain
Speaker 1: she'll have some lessons about learning a new job in
Speaker 1: those conditions. She's tackled tough challenges again and again, but
Speaker 1: always has done it with her famous smile, thoughtfulness and empathy.
Speaker 1: She's definitely a one of a kind. Welcome, Susie. Oh,
Speaker 1: thank you, Bob. It's so exciting to be here with
Speaker 1: you today. Well, we've got a lot to cover today
Speaker 1: on this episode, but before we jump in, I'd like
Speaker 1: to do you in sixty seconds. You ready to go?
Speaker 1: I'm ready. Do you prefer early riser or night owl? Both?
Speaker 1: MIAMI OR ATLANTA? Atlanta, introvert or extrovert? Absolutely extrovert. Silicon
Speaker 1: Valley or the motor city? A little bit of both,
Speaker 1: because it's merging. CEO OR CMO? CMO. Call her text.
Speaker 1: Definitely text. Disney world or Disneyland? Disney world, slow and
Speaker 1: steady are pedal to the metal, pedal to the metal.
Speaker 1: Bulldogs are gators? Bulldogs for sure. Okay, it's about to
Speaker 1: get harder. Childhood hero, my mom, favorite Disney movie, Lion King.
Speaker 1: First job, babysitting. First car, MAZDA GLC. The smartest person
Speaker 1: you know besides you, ha ha, Jim Farley. Favorite food, Mexican.
Speaker 1: Favorite model of car right now my Mustang make e
Speaker 1: GT guilty pleasure, chips and dip. And the final one,
Speaker 1: your favorite place to visit in the entire world. Italy,
Speaker 1: the coastline of Italy. which part of coastline? The Amalfi coast? Okay,
Speaker 1: let's start with today and what's in the news electric vehicles.
Speaker 1: I think we must have hit the inflection point when
Speaker 1: my elderly cousin in Mississippi was first in line to
Speaker 1: get the electric F pickup. How is the consumer thinking
Speaker 1: about electric cars and are we really at that moment
Speaker 1: when it all begins to change? We are at that
Speaker 1: moment when it all changes and I think that a
Speaker 1: big part of the why we're at that moment is
Speaker 1: because of the f Lin fifty lightning. It changed everything.
Speaker 1: It took what was very familiar in the most popular
Speaker 1: and best selling truck in the country and it went electric.
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden that was something that people
Speaker 1: could look at and say, hold on, that's familiar to me,
Speaker 1: that feels comfortable, I can make that step. And because
Speaker 1: it was so dramatically different than what they were the
Speaker 1: competition was, for those that were early adopters it was
Speaker 1: an easier transition too, because it gave them something more
Speaker 1: than what they had today. You mentioned the point that
Speaker 1: this is the familiar. What is the consumer afraid of
Speaker 1: in this pivot? The biggest fear is range anxiety and
Speaker 1: the charging aspect. Instead of running out of gas, everyone
Speaker 1: is fearful of running out of battery and we know
Speaker 1: that that's a big challenge because for consumers, they know
Speaker 1: where a gas station is. They don't necessarily see charging
Speaker 1: stations the same way or at the same amount that
Speaker 1: they see gas stations, and so that's the biggest barrier
Speaker 1: from a mindset perspective that customers have to to start
Speaker 1: to accept. And I'd add one more thing to that. Yes,
Speaker 1: public charging is a big component of it. But what
Speaker 1: the big shift that we know that we need to
Speaker 1: educate consumers is you actually are basically leaving your home
Speaker 1: every day with a full tank, a full charge, and
Speaker 1: you tell me how many times in a week do
Speaker 1: you leave the house every day with a full tank
Speaker 1: of gas? Probably not. Ever, it's very often that you've
Speaker 1: got a quarter of a tank or a half a tank.
Speaker 1: So it's a big shift as to how we use
Speaker 1: our vehicles and the expectations of how we're actually maintaining them,
Speaker 1: and the shift from gas to electric. It sounds like
Speaker 1: that as a market or your real challenges to get
Speaker 1: people to realize they really don't need charging stations that much.
Speaker 1: But how big a problem is it for travel or
Speaker 1: how many times will they really need that charging station?
Speaker 1: And how does that infrastructure get built? Is it public
Speaker 1: or is it private? Yes, we still do need public charging.
Speaker 1: The infrastructure does need to be built because you are
Speaker 1: going to need to take your vehicle on long distance.
Speaker 1: I think the balance there is a couple of things, Bob.
Speaker 1: One is yes, we are working very closely with the
Speaker 1: government and with many partners within the energy space to
Speaker 1: ensure that we can get the right infrastructure obviously deployed
Speaker 1: across the country, very similar to early days of having
Speaker 1: to build out gas stations, because obviously when the model
Speaker 1: t was created and we saw the adoption of cars,
Speaker 1: that created a whole other stream of infrastructure, highways and,
Speaker 1: you know, gas stations and so forth. We're at that
Speaker 1: same pivot point with electrification. So it's going to be
Speaker 1: a combination of obviously many different entities coming together working
Speaker 1: collectively to solve that infrastructure challenge of the future. How
Speaker 1: does the consumer think about the electric car are they
Speaker 1: excited about it? Do they enjoy driving it? What is
Speaker 1: it that interest them? There we know if we can
Speaker 1: get a customer inside the cab and behind the wheel,
Speaker 1: it's game over and it's so exciting for me when
Speaker 1: I can sit in a cab with someone who's never driven,
Speaker 1: you know, an electric vehicle and it's almost like their
Speaker 1: eyes just light up. It's like being a Disney world
Speaker 1: and you go on that first you know, space mountain
Speaker 1: ride or you know, you get to have this incredible
Speaker 1: experience that you weren't expecting. That's the feel of it
Speaker 1: and I think I can describe it, but until you
Speaker 1: actually experience it you can't get the full appreciation. So
Speaker 1: does the test drive take on a new importance? Yes,
Speaker 1: and it's interesting because I would say that it's maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit more about not test driving the actual
Speaker 1: one vehicle. It's about test driving electric but I think
Speaker 1: initial stages is getting people to just experience it from
Speaker 1: a category perspective of electrification. And you know, Bob, I
Speaker 1: will make a really interesting parallel to this, which I
Speaker 1: think you and I have talked about this in the past.
Speaker 1: The parallels of US going from ice to electric are
Speaker 1: so incredibly similar for me as going from landline when
Speaker 1: I was at verizon, going from landline to wireless, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's infrastructure challenges and same thing in this regard.
Speaker 1: You know, wireless phones, nobody really understood why do I
Speaker 1: really need it? Until there was that need or you've
Speaker 1: got the first experience. There were differentiations, you know, between carriers,
Speaker 1: just like there's differentiation between the vehicles and the design
Speaker 1: line and the overall structure of the vehicle. But really
Speaker 1: out of the gate it's getting those people who say,
Speaker 1: I don't really understand what the buzz is all about.
Speaker 1: They just need to experience electric. So talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about the difference in strategy. How do you contrast between,
Speaker 1: you know, the pure electric car companies and the other
Speaker 1: auto giants that are also making a shift? What sets
Speaker 1: forward apart? Well, I think number one, are hundred and
Speaker 1: nineteen years of experience and know how an expertise sets
Speaker 1: us apart from many of the startups. Number one, because
Speaker 1: we understand the discipline that goes into, you know, building
Speaker 1: vehicles and building quality and building vehicles that people really want.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been making seats inside the vehicle and
Speaker 1: interiors and paint and all of the metal for years
Speaker 1: and years and years, and now with a lot of
Speaker 1: the the startups, those are all learning curves. Right now.
Speaker 1: They're doing a lot of other things that we, as
Speaker 1: an o e m, are just now really starting to perfect,
Speaker 1: which is digital and, you know, transforming software and creating services.
Speaker 1: You take the competitors, that are the startups. That's where
Speaker 1: they started and then they built a shell around it,
Speaker 1: whereas we're the complete opposite of that. You know, the
Speaker 1: know how and the expertise that we have of building
Speaker 1: quality vehicles for safety and other things and making it
Speaker 1: so that it's the interiors or pleasure and it gives
Speaker 1: you that that incredible welcoming sense when you step inside.
Speaker 1: Now we're having to combine that with the know how
Speaker 1: of digital expertise and software, as well as understanding the
Speaker 1: hardware side. So it's a really interesting kind of balance
Speaker 1: of what we're seeing. So I want to take a
Speaker 1: step back and talk about the car. Second most expensive
Speaker 1: purchase after a home, and more people obviously on a
Speaker 1: car than own a home, something most people use a
Speaker 1: lot every day. Often it's a part of work as
Speaker 1: well as getting the work. How do you see this?
Speaker 1: Fundamental relationship of a car and the customer. I see
Speaker 1: the relationship evolving dramatically. I'm not sure if you'll remember this,
Speaker 1: that when I first took the job, you and I
Speaker 1: were having a chat about, you know, the excitement of
Speaker 1: what this role could be and how exciting from a
Speaker 1: time frame, you know, of coming in and the transformation
Speaker 1: and disruption. And one of the things you and I
Speaker 1: talked about was, you know, it's a lifestyle and really
Speaker 1: wanting to embrace becoming a lifestyle brand, and I really
Speaker 1: believe that's one of the biggest pivots for us right now,
Speaker 1: because lifestyle brands become part of your everyday life. We've
Speaker 1: been that, but it's been more in a functionality Um
Speaker 1: component versus it truly being in a surprise delight but
Speaker 1: your everyday moments. We now have the opportunity to truly
Speaker 1: make this ecosystem, you know, that is connected digitally to
Speaker 1: help create experiences. That transforms us into a lifestyle brand
Speaker 1: and so that, to me is a real massive pivot
Speaker 1: from a marketing perspective and also one that starts to
Speaker 1: introduce a very different relationship with our customer. And there's
Speaker 1: a very different customer when we're talking to our retail
Speaker 1: customers versus our commercial customers, the vehicles that create that
Speaker 1: are part of work, that become part of our commercial story.
Speaker 1: There's a very distinctive purpose and capabilities and productivity that
Speaker 1: we need to ensure that we're creating on behalf of
Speaker 1: that customer. And so we're taking all of those pieces
Speaker 1: and saying then, you know what, how do we continue
Speaker 1: to lean in on that and create this lifestyle brand
Speaker 1: that becomes an ecosystem for you, as a owner and
Speaker 1: as a customer to forward versus it just being sheet metal,
Speaker 1: and that's a really unique place for us to lean into.
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting coming post pandemic. I think all
Speaker 1: of us, every company, you're looking at what is the
Speaker 1: new work environment? We know it's not going to be
Speaker 1: what it was, and at our place I think we
Speaker 1: are seeing so many of our folks using their car
Speaker 1: as sort of a mobile office. If you will, can
Speaker 1: you give us the download on the connected car? And,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, twenty years ago a mobile phone was
Speaker 1: for making calls. We certainly moved our phone from making
Speaker 1: calls to managing our life activities. What do we have
Speaker 1: in store for us with this car of the future. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that what we have in store is very
Speaker 1: similar to what we've seen in the transition from, you know,
Speaker 1: cell phones are being sent to end and then the
Speaker 1: transition to taking photos, and then the transition to data
Speaker 1: and utilizing the Internet and now managing, to your point,
Speaker 1: pretty much multiple aspects of your life, working and personal.
Speaker 1: The other interesting thing that I think here is the
Speaker 1: vehicle has always been more geared towards the draw iver,
Speaker 1: not as much to the passengers. You're starting to see
Speaker 1: that change inside the vehicle now. I think that that's
Speaker 1: where this pivot starts to happen very quickly, because content
Speaker 1: can be consumed in many different ways, in shapes and
Speaker 1: forms inside the vehicle. I start to look at it
Speaker 1: more if it's your office from a commercial standpoint, where
Speaker 1: we're obviously putting in even in our fund fifty trucks,
Speaker 1: we have a desk that can fold out, you can
Speaker 1: actually do your paperwork and so forth in the comforts
Speaker 1: of the cab. We do that with the back and
Speaker 1: the tailgates where we create services for you to be
Speaker 1: able to to obviously work. But you're singing that same
Speaker 1: exact thing on the retail side. Of the house, where
Speaker 1: it's becoming a lot more integrated into your multiple facets
Speaker 1: of your life. Can you take the best Webex call
Speaker 1: from your car? Yeah, you should be able to do that.
Speaker 1: Can you multitask if you're sitting, you know, stationary somewhere
Speaker 1: where you can leverage the screens in the car? Yes,
Speaker 1: you should be able to have that capability. So I
Speaker 1: think that's really where this connectivity and the data that
Speaker 1: we can capture to better predict those moments for you,
Speaker 1: you know, just as our phones have become that that's
Speaker 1: really where I believe we have the most opportunity and, candidly,
Speaker 1: from a customer standpoint, is super exciting. Moral Math and
Speaker 1: magic right after this quick break. Welcome back to math
Speaker 1: and magic. Let's hear more from my conversation with Susie deering.
Speaker 1: I'm want to go back in time to get some
Speaker 1: context on you. You're from Miami. moved to Atlanta when
Speaker 1: you were fourteen, two cities that have major transformation since
Speaker 1: that time. Can you paint the picture of that time
Speaker 1: and those places? Absolutely, growing up in Miami, I was
Speaker 1: still born into a family that was a southern family.
Speaker 1: My family was from Kentucky, but we lived in Miami
Speaker 1: and Miami had obviously so much vibrancy to it. I
Speaker 1: grew up very low middle class, but I would have
Speaker 1: never been able to tell you that Bob a child
Speaker 1: because I felt like I had a wealth of love
Speaker 1: and support. So I never felt like I did without
Speaker 1: and that love and support. You know, when my mother
Speaker 1: made the decision that she felt like it was better
Speaker 1: for us to move to Atlanta, she was doing it
Speaker 1: to give us a better wife. She felt like that
Speaker 1: she could get a job, she was a primary breadwinner,
Speaker 1: she had been married twice and she had four kids
Speaker 1: that she raised on her own. You know, managed to
Speaker 1: go to work and cook and clean and take care
Speaker 1: of us and ran us back and forth to events
Speaker 1: and everything else. And I had a very tight knit
Speaker 1: family and my grandmother and I were very, very close,
Speaker 1: my aunts, we were very close. So when we made
Speaker 1: the move, the entire family made the move. Everyone made
Speaker 1: the move to Atlanta. I had always thought that I'd
Speaker 1: live and die in Miami because that's what I knew
Speaker 1: and I loved it. And then when we moved when
Speaker 1: I was fourteen, where we moved in Atlanta was just
Speaker 1: a suburb called Roswell. It was such a quaint community
Speaker 1: and everything was wrapped up in that community. When I
Speaker 1: lived in Miami, we can I commuted to school because
Speaker 1: my mom wanted to put us in a private Christian school,
Speaker 1: so it was a long commute. Um then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden I lived and went to school and my
Speaker 1: my whole world was around the city, this little Roswell,
Speaker 1: and I fell in love. It was just easy. I watched,
Speaker 1: you know, my mom flourished from a professional perspective. She
Speaker 1: just had a lot more opportunities and it was just
Speaker 1: really fascinating, you know, to watch that as a child
Speaker 1: and candidly as a young woman, to see such a
Speaker 1: strong woman who had managed through so much hardship and
Speaker 1: came out on the other side of that. And I
Speaker 1: think that, to me, is what when I think back
Speaker 1: in those two kind of moments in my life, Gosh,
Speaker 1: I feel really blessed. Well, it sounds like your mom
Speaker 1: is the major influence, but what other major influences were
Speaker 1: at work that created the you of today and what
Speaker 1: in your childhood would best predict what you are today
Speaker 1: in business? Yes, my mom was a huge influence. My
Speaker 1: grandmother was a massive influence, she ran a company she
Speaker 1: we're gonna gift shop when I was younger, called the
Speaker 1: Bee Hive in Miami Beach and as a child I
Speaker 1: can remember, three and four years old, going to the
Speaker 1: bee hive that I was so excited to watch her
Speaker 1: work and she'd give me jobs like ompening up the
Speaker 1: packages that would come in, helping sort, you know, all
Speaker 1: the items. Gosh, I loved the adding machine. I remember
Speaker 1: as a child learning the old fashion adding machine. I
Speaker 1: learned how to do that really quick because I loved
Speaker 1: the sound of it, like when she would be doing bookkeeping.
Speaker 1: And then even it was so silly. I can remember
Speaker 1: when I was in second grade we had our desk
Speaker 1: like you would do boardwork and Bob I would literally
Speaker 1: set my desk up like an office. I would pull
Speaker 1: out things and set it up. My teachers would always
Speaker 1: ask what I was doing and I'd be like it's
Speaker 1: my office, and then I'd go to work. I would
Speaker 1: do my board work. So I think that it was
Speaker 1: just always inherently in me. I think some of the
Speaker 1: other influences were when I was in Atlanta, my aunt
Speaker 1: worked for the Coca Cola Company and she worked in
Speaker 1: marketing and I can remember early on just being so
Speaker 1: mesmerized by the customer stories that she would tell and
Speaker 1: the product introductions that she was working on, and I
Speaker 1: fell in love with it. It was like a good novel.
Speaker 1: Every Sunday night, when we had our family dinner, for
Speaker 1: her to come to the House and tell the stories
Speaker 1: of what she was working on just felt like I
Speaker 1: was reading a good book. So I think that those
Speaker 1: were bits and pieces of it. But you know, there's
Speaker 1: many people in my life that I look at, mainly women,
Speaker 1: strong women in my life, but you know, as my
Speaker 1: career started, were you know even you know, I worked
Speaker 1: all the way through high school. I paid my way
Speaker 1: through college. There are so many people along that journey
Speaker 1: that I just stopped and think about often and they
Speaker 1: don't even probably realize how big of an impact they had.
Speaker 1: You have this, as you probably well know, your reputation.
Speaker 1: Have this infectious smile and you're always seen as this
Speaker 1: really positive person, positive frame of mind. Where did you
Speaker 1: get that? I think I get that from my faith,
Speaker 1: which came from my grandmother. Oh Gosh, you want to
Speaker 1: talk about a smile. She had an amazing smile and
Speaker 1: she had these blue eyes that just absolutely sparkled when
Speaker 1: she smiled and she was always that person that you
Speaker 1: went to, you know, with whatever challenge you faced, you
Speaker 1: went to her because the very first thing that you
Speaker 1: would see is that smile would open up and it
Speaker 1: just embraced you. You know, you could talk about some
Speaker 1: really challenging and troubling things, but there was always that warmth.
Speaker 1: When I look back, I feel like that spirit, in
Speaker 1: that mindset really did come from her. My Dad was
Speaker 1: a methodist minister, so I always have a great interest
Speaker 1: in religion. Did you grow up with it, did you
Speaker 1: discover it or did it discover you? I grew up
Speaker 1: with it and then I would tell you that I
Speaker 1: discovered it. It was part of our rituals. As a child,
Speaker 1: we were in church every Sunday morning, very often Sunday evenings,
Speaker 1: and back again on Wednesday nights. But I think, Bob,
Speaker 1: when I graduated from college, I remember feeling that there
Speaker 1: was this void and that's when I would say that
Speaker 1: I feel like I discovered it. I really discovered what
Speaker 1: I had always had but all of a sudden had
Speaker 1: such incredible purpose. Late eighties, early nineties, you went the
Speaker 1: University of Georgia, you studied advertising. Were you preparing for
Speaker 1: this career? I wasn't preparing necessarily for this because, wow,
Speaker 1: I had no idea. I was preparing for Disney. I
Speaker 1: wanted to get a university of Georgia, I wanted to
Speaker 1: be an advertising and marketing major and I wanted to
Speaker 1: work at Disney, and I did that. That was what
Speaker 1: I was preparing for. Ob Honestly, I did those three things,
Speaker 1: and I mean I wouldn't have traded it for the world,
Speaker 1: because it was the best stepping stone for me to
Speaker 1: really truly get a sense of customer and marketing and
Speaker 1: the empower of experience and brand right fresh out of college. Well,
Speaker 1: you actually worked with customers. You were on the front
Speaker 1: line there and some of your jobs, or at least
Speaker 1: part of the job. Yes, in fact, I did my
Speaker 1: internship with Disney and the college program which they put
Speaker 1: you into the parks. You're either working attractions or food.
Speaker 1: I worked at the emporium on Main Street and so
Speaker 1: you had day to day interactions with the guest and
Speaker 1: then when I came back, I was brought back on
Speaker 1: a program called career start. So I came back in
Speaker 1: the same thing and they put you back out into
Speaker 1: the park, because at that point in time you could
Speaker 1: never have just walked into the marketing group, and it
Speaker 1: was there that I met the director of marketing who
Speaker 1: invited me to come in and, you know, see what
Speaker 1: it was all about, and that's what opened up the
Speaker 1: door to my marketing career at Disney. After Disney, you
Speaker 1: worked at on Atlanta Ad Agency, where you worked on
Speaker 1: the air touch salut or account, and then you joined
Speaker 1: verizon in two thousand and one. Did you see this
Speaker 1: huge Telco Revolution coming? No, I definitely did not. In fact,
Speaker 1: the funny little secret of that is when I left
Speaker 1: Disney and I went to the agency side, I had
Speaker 1: never thought of myself being on the agency side, but
Speaker 1: I realized at that point in time that it was
Speaker 1: good for me to understand the full aspects of marketing
Speaker 1: and advertising and seeing on both angles. So I went
Speaker 1: to the agency side. I was working on Atlanta Braves
Speaker 1: and new business and they came to me and said Hey,
Speaker 1: we think that we really would be great working on
Speaker 1: the air touch business, and I laughed because I was like,
Speaker 1: oh Gosh, how boring. I remember thinking this is awful.
Speaker 1: I just went from entertainment too. Now I gotta go
Speaker 1: work on this wireless stuff. Well, needless to say, I
Speaker 1: was a little wrong on that one because I quickly
Speaker 1: realized it was anything but boring. But I didn't see
Speaker 1: it at first, I really didn't, but I will tell
Speaker 1: you it quickly came. I was right there at day
Speaker 1: one when the true transformation from a wireless standpoint started,
Speaker 1: and as soon as you saw it taken off, it
Speaker 1: was like, okay, this is a rocket ship. We gotta
Speaker 1: hold on. What did those lessons at that moment tell
Speaker 1: you about a connected car revolution? You mentioned a couple
Speaker 1: of them, but it seems to me that probably of
Speaker 1: your background, that this probably is the most relevant to
Speaker 1: what you're doing today with a connected car. It definitely
Speaker 1: is the one real obvious place that I look at
Speaker 1: and think marketing wise is the customer pain points. Dropped
Speaker 1: calls was one of the biggest areas of pain for
Speaker 1: the customer because you could give me this device, I
Speaker 1: could pay this money, but now I can't even hold
Speaker 1: a call for very long because that infrastructure, the network quality,
Speaker 1: wasn't there. We're in that same exact place when I
Speaker 1: look at the shift from, you know, combustible engines to
Speaker 1: electric because infrastructure is a barrier. You know, the mindset
Speaker 1: of you know, understanding how to utilize the vehicle the
Speaker 1: right way, the services, what we provide from a service perspective.
Speaker 1: There's all pain points and barriers there that are very,
Speaker 1: very similar to the same thing that we saw on
Speaker 1: the arless side. Left Verizon, you did a short stand
Speaker 1: at home depot and then you took over a CEO
Speaker 1: of the largest digital advertising agency in the southeast. How
Speaker 1: did it feel making the jump the CEO and taking
Speaker 1: on the ultimate P and l responsibility, and any advice
Speaker 1: from that you'd give folks making that jump for the
Speaker 1: first time? It's funny because one of the very first
Speaker 1: responses I had when I got the call from my
Speaker 1: dear friend Dave Pinsky about the role, I said, I
Speaker 1: don't know anything about running an agency or a company.
Speaker 1: He was like, what are you talking about? Yes, you do.
Speaker 1: You've been doing this your entire career. I just need
Speaker 1: you on the other side of the table for once.
Speaker 1: And my husband was the first one who looked at
Speaker 1: me and said, why are you shutting yourself down so fast?
Speaker 1: You can do this. You got it, and I think
Speaker 1: that's my advice to people, especially females, we are trained
Speaker 1: to make sure that we were protecting ourselves right like
Speaker 1: not putting ourselves into places that we feel like that
Speaker 1: we could be exposed. And I've learned you have to
Speaker 1: push yourself to those uncomfortable places because you'll never grow
Speaker 1: and you'll never learn and you'll hold yourself back from
Speaker 1: so much good opportunity if you don't get uncomfortable. Ebay,
Speaker 1: you became CMO in two thousand fifteen. You moved to California.
Speaker 1: I mean you really went into your discomfort zone. You
Speaker 1: were all in. I remember your time there and wow,
Speaker 1: are you articular about it. What attracted you and what
Speaker 1: was the biggest challenge there? That obviously got you excited.
Speaker 1: What attracted me there was how Lawton, who I had
Speaker 1: worked with for a very short period of time at
Speaker 1: emp depot and he and I just hit it off
Speaker 1: and stayed in touch. When I had left emp depot
Speaker 1: and went to Moxie. He took the job as president
Speaker 1: of ebay right after the paypal split, and so he
Speaker 1: called and said, Hey, look, I'm out here and I
Speaker 1: really want you to come join me as the CMO.
Speaker 1: It was really exciting because at that point in time,
Speaker 1: because of the split from paypal. It was giving a
Speaker 1: new life to Ebay. Ebay had been giving everything to
Speaker 1: build paypal for so long and that now it was
Speaker 1: time to put the time and the money and the
Speaker 1: energy back into building Ebay and the brand and repositioning it.
Speaker 1: And so the opportunity was just phenomenal and I kept thinking,
Speaker 1: there's no way I can't make that move to California.
Speaker 1: I had said no too many Disney jobs in the
Speaker 1: past that would have taken me to California. And at
Speaker 1: this point my daughter was a second semester junior in
Speaker 1: high school and my son was at seventh grader and
Speaker 1: we had already moved a couple different times before, and
Speaker 1: so I thought this is not gonna be good. She's
Speaker 1: not going to talk to me for the rest of
Speaker 1: her life and moved across the country and shockingly enough,
Speaker 1: I offered it up to Madison. I said here's the
Speaker 1: opportunity that has come to me. She said, mom, you
Speaker 1: should absolutely go take a look at it. I would
Speaker 1: be all supportive because I'm going to go to college.
Speaker 1: So what's the difference? I just make it sound like
Speaker 1: that I go one year earlier, which blew me away,
Speaker 1: and so I did. I went out, they were all in.
Speaker 1: I was all in. So let's talk something about your philosophies.
Speaker 1: What role does corporate culture play for you and how
Speaker 1: do you design it and use it? Corporate Culture is
Speaker 1: challenging because there's so many different flavors of it. I
Speaker 1: think the part for me and my philosophy is I
Speaker 1: need to be true to my leadership style and I
Speaker 1: want to ensure that I'm building an organization and a
Speaker 1: team that doesn't lead from fear, but they lead from Opportunity.
Speaker 1: I want to ensure that there's a safe place to
Speaker 1: where you know there can be very honest conversations, because
Speaker 1: one thing I will tell you that has always been
Speaker 1: very evident to me is in order for there to
Speaker 1: be transformation, you have to have respect and you have
Speaker 1: to have transparency and you have to make sure that
Speaker 1: everybody feels that they're aligned. And I may not be
Speaker 1: able to influence that across the entire corporation, but if
Speaker 1: I can establish that within my own team and influence
Speaker 1: the teams around me, then great, but I won't falter
Speaker 1: from really making sure that I can at least establish
Speaker 1: that piece of it that I can have direct influence over.
Speaker 1: How about diversity? What's the special power that comes to
Speaker 1: a company from a strong focus on diversity and inclusion? Well,
Speaker 1: it becomes a secret power because, I mean, if you
Speaker 1: imagine that you can bring in diverse thinking and diverse
Speaker 1: people and cultures and backgrounds and really apply it differently
Speaker 1: to your to one just you personally, it makes you better,
Speaker 1: it makes you a better leader, it makes you a
Speaker 1: better human. I know there's so many stats out there
Speaker 1: about the more diverse the leadership team is, the more
Speaker 1: profit the company sees. Candidly, I feel like that we
Speaker 1: still treat it as a pet project and I don't
Speaker 1: think that's what it is. It's part of your strategy
Speaker 1: and it's part of how you just operate, think and perform.
Speaker 1: I know you put a great value on family. How
Speaker 1: do you manage that work life balance? Well, I first
Speaker 1: realized that it isn't balancing. If I was striving for
Speaker 1: something impossible, that was never gonna, you know, gonna help Um.
Speaker 1: I do look at it as making sure that there's
Speaker 1: as much harmony and that I can, you know, live
Speaker 1: up to the priorities that I set for myself and
Speaker 1: I'm very straightforward with my team about that and to
Speaker 1: those that I work with that my priorities are God,
Speaker 1: family and work in that order. If the first two
Speaker 1: things get out of whack, the third thing gets really
Speaker 1: messed up. And so as long as I can keep
Speaker 1: myself honest to that, and I expect even my team
Speaker 1: members and my family to hold me accountable to those priorities,
Speaker 1: that because my guide post, doesn't mean that there aren't
Speaker 1: long hours there, doesn't mean that there's not moments that
Speaker 1: I have to pull away from the family to take
Speaker 1: care of something. It's just that I do that with
Speaker 1: respect and understanding as much as I possibly can. Can't
Speaker 1: tell you get it right all the time by any means,
Speaker 1: but you know, I also expect that I get back
Speaker 1: those moments and being present when I am with my family,
Speaker 1: because if I'm doing that for work, then it at
Speaker 1: least expected that I can make sure that I'm doing
Speaker 1: that back for my family. Let's go back to Ford,
Speaker 1: one of the Great American Business Success Stories. Very rich
Speaker 1: backstory about a founder whose family is actually still central
Speaker 1: to the company, very rare in business. How have you
Speaker 1: found it and how did you find your way into
Speaker 1: that very tight neck club? There's something very, very special
Speaker 1: about the forward family that I don't even know that
Speaker 1: I can truly put full words to explain it. You
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, you know, coming into auto industry, which I
Speaker 1: am not. That's not my background, as we've just established.
Speaker 1: The other thing was I came into Ford during covid
Speaker 1: every one of my interviews was conducted via video and
Speaker 1: what I found really fascinating was immediately, I mean even
Speaker 1: through the interview process and then even my first week
Speaker 1: on the job, Bill Ford reached out, as at Soul
Speaker 1: Ford reached out, Elana Ford reached out, each family member
Speaker 1: reached out to create a personal connection and that was
Speaker 1: mind blowing to me. It's really pretty special and something that,
Speaker 1: you know, I had the pleasure of speaking with bill
Speaker 1: before I took the role and I was amiss, a
Speaker 1: little kind of awe struck, if you will, and now
Speaker 1: just to think that, you know, it's an every day
Speaker 1: that involvement that the Ford family has in one way
Speaker 1: or another is really very unique and special and it's
Speaker 1: truly what I look at and say it's one of
Speaker 1: the key differentiators for us as a brand, not just
Speaker 1: as an automotive company, but as a brand, because there's
Speaker 1: a signature, a Ford signature that is stamped on every
Speaker 1: single one of our products and there's a Ford Signature,
Speaker 1: a human signature, that I get to see prominently on
Speaker 1: the building and prominently in every artifact within our company
Speaker 1: that just keeps reminding you of the humanity, the humanity
Speaker 1: that are and stands for. You, as you mentioned, started
Speaker 1: your job in the pandemic. What did you discover during
Speaker 1: that experience that has changed really the work conditions, and
Speaker 1: what of those change work conditions do you think are
Speaker 1: probably permanent and positive changes to the new work environment?
Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing for me was that it
Speaker 1: taught me very quickly the power of relationships and breaking
Speaker 1: the screen. I immediately jumped on a plane two weeks
Speaker 1: into my role. Even when they told me headquarters was
Speaker 1: closed and that I couldn't come into the building, I said, okay,
Speaker 1: we're still going to let me into the city of Detroit,
Speaker 1: so I'm coming. So I I came here. I said,
Speaker 1: I don't care, even if I just stay in the
Speaker 1: hotel and I work all day, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, reach out to people to see if we
Speaker 1: can go on walks, and I did. I started meeting,
Speaker 1: you know, other team members. I was able to go
Speaker 1: into the facilities that you know, we still had front
Speaker 1: line workers, even a pete see into our production facilities,
Speaker 1: and so I dove into where I could because I
Speaker 1: knew for me, it's not just that I was coming
Speaker 1: in during the pandemic. I'm coming into a company that
Speaker 1: has most people. The longevity here is like twenty five years. So, Bob,
Speaker 1: I was walking into relationships that were deep, deep rooted relationships,
Speaker 1: and I could be the organ that they completely spit
Speaker 1: out if I wasn't careful and didn't take it with
Speaker 1: the same energy and pride of understanding that I needed
Speaker 1: to learn and that I needed to acknowledge and I
Speaker 1: needed to be part of this culture and this family
Speaker 1: of people. I can't let you leave today without asking
Speaker 1: you if you could give your twenty one year old
Speaker 1: self some advice, what would it be? Don't be so
Speaker 1: hard on yourself. I think very often I'm probably my
Speaker 1: worst critic, which I like in many respects, but I
Speaker 1: think some times I beat myself up way too much.
Speaker 1: And I've talked often about the impostor syndrome, because it does,
Speaker 1: it festers that you know it'll infester this thing of
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I'll doubt myself. If I could be
Speaker 1: my twenty one year old self now. I wish somebody
Speaker 1: had given me that advice and almost kind of saved
Speaker 1: me for myself. In many regards. We end all episodes
Speaker 1: of math and magic with a shout out to our
Speaker 1: heroes and influencers, and we break it into two categories.
Speaker 1: Those who are the greats and looking at the world
Speaker 1: of business through analytics, we call those are the math people,
Speaker 1: and those who see the world or business through the
Speaker 1: prism of wildly creative ideas, call them the magicians. Can
Speaker 1: you give me your choices for the shout out for
Speaker 1: the math side person and the magic side person? Absolutely
Speaker 1: my math side would be Gary Vynerchuk. I think he's
Speaker 1: just amazing. Great Business Person, great marketer, Great Leader. He
Speaker 1: really has just a special combination to him. And on
Speaker 1: the magic side, the person who comes to mind, and
Speaker 1: this is really very funny, is Ryan Reynolds. I have
Speaker 1: been absolutely amazed by someone who is very skilled, creative,
Speaker 1: talent Um. One of my dear friends works for him
Speaker 1: and very closely is his his partner, and I just
Speaker 1: had been so shocked because there's a lot of obviously
Speaker 1: you know, actors that try to get into other professions,
Speaker 1: but he has such a skill and creativity to him
Speaker 1: that he's created almost new Ryan Reynolds lookalikes or kind
Speaker 1: of little models because of just how many different businesses
Speaker 1: he's been able to really expand himself into. So I
Speaker 1: really admire that. Susie, you have had a great career
Speaker 1: and I'm inspired and challenged so many folks along your journey.
Speaker 1: Thanks for sharing your insights and experiences and congrats on
Speaker 1: all your successes. Thank you, Bob, and you've been a
Speaker 1: phenomenal partner or a mentor for me, so I really
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Here are a few things I picked up
Speaker 1: in my conversation with Susie. One, turn challenges into opportunities.
Speaker 1: The pandemic has affected every business, and forward is no exception.
Speaker 1: During this time of change, susie is helping forward adapt
Speaker 1: to consumers needs by creating new offerings that transformed forward
Speaker 1: vehicles into mobile offices and match this new behavior. Two,
Speaker 1: history does repeat itself. To develop the marketing strategy for
Speaker 1: electric cars at forward, Susie is borrowing from retirement for rising.
Speaker 1: When the mobile phone replaced the wire line, susie learned
Speaker 1: the principles of getting consumers to make that transition is
Speaker 1: the same no matter the technology or product. Three, get uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: Susie's biggest piece of career advice is to speak up
Speaker 1: about your biggest ideas, even if it scares here. It's
Speaker 1: the only way that you can truly grow and four,
Speaker 1: less work life balance and more work life integration. Instead
Speaker 1: of separating the most important parts of your life, integrate
Speaker 1: them into how you drive your business. This has been
Speaker 1: a successful strategy for both Susie and at Ford, where
Speaker 1: the influence of the Ford family brings a powerful layer
Speaker 1: of humanity and continuity to the company. I'm Bob Pittman.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. That's it for today's episode. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for listening to math and magic, a production of
Speaker 1: I heart radio. The show is hosted by Bob Pittman.
Speaker 1: Special thanks that Susan Ward for booking and wrangling. Are
Speaker 1: Wonderful Talent, which is no small fiel Marissa Brown for
Speaker 1: pulling research, our editors, Derek Clements, Mary do and Ryan Murdoch,
Speaker 1: our producer, Morgan Levoy, our executive user, Nicky eat word and,
Speaker 1: of course, Gail Rhul Eric, Angel Noel and everyone who
Speaker 1: helped bring this show to your ears. Until next time,