Her Story
About Amanda
I've been in the industry for 25 years, since 2001, when I entered it while I was still working through my college degree. I lead the marketing team at Darley, where I was onboarded in 2001, and we continue to build out our responsibilities as well as our cascading goals and strategy. I lead the creative and branding, as well as the marketing strategy from planning and execution all the way down to implementation and reporting. We are an internal marketing team that does marketing for all of the verticals at Darley, primarily supporting fire and defense, which are our two core markets. There's a lot of overlap between those, but there are also different customer profiles and journeys that are unique to each of them. We have an extremely collaborative and supportive team, so we're in constant communication with one another, and we're always willing to jump in and help where needed. It's been quite the ride. I've really enjoyed all of it. There's so much more to learn - every day is a new opportunity to continue learning. The job is never done, learning never ends.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Amanda
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to passion, support, and drive. I really feel that everything I touch reflects personally on myself as well, and I always want to put my heart and my passion into everything that I do. There's always just so much more that can be accomplished, and so it's really important to set achievable goals that you can measure. SMART goals are really important to set, and it's just really motivating to know that the job is never done. There's always something new that you can learn from each person, from each role, from each person in the room. I treat everybody with respect, and know that no matter who their title is or who the person is, there's so much that you can continue learning. I just have this passion for learning and incorporating it into actionable insights. So you're not just learning and checking a box - you're actually thinking of how you can take that knowledge and turn it into positive momentum moving forward, or actionable insights.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say that it's really important to believe in yourself and always continue your journey. Stay strong, and as I mentioned before, believe in yourself, and know that you can always achieve what you set your mind to, and support one another. Build collaborative relationships. There's so many insightful women out here, and it's really important to turn to each other to support one another, build those relationships. I just feel like it's really important to have that connection and support one another, and just be confident and strong.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Marketing is constantly evolving, very rapidly. The key is making sure that you're adapting to those changes, but not just going on what's the newest trend. It's making sure that you're having a really great balance of proven technologies and proven strategies, but then are able to quickly adapt to the new technologies and pivot where needed. But making sure that it's always aligned with your core business strategy, and that you have your cascading marketing strategy as well. It's really important that you continue to think about those different factors and align where you can.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The top values that are most important to me are empathy, which would be one of the number one values in my personal and professional life. Support, trust, team building - those are incredibly important to me. And integrity.
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