Bethany Eierdam

I definitely attribute my success to my parents, 100%. Even though, you know, as far as finances go and all that, there weren't a lot of resources, but in every other way possible, they were the biggest cheerleaders I could have in my life. They set me up in every way possible to be able to make good decisions, to prepare me to be an independent adult. They are definitely the reason that I am at where I am at. They both display a lot of work ethic and a lot of discipline, and I get a lot of that stuff from them.

Being the youngest at the table just means you're doing something right. When you're the youngest, you sometimes feel like you're not qualified, or you don't deserve to be there, or you haven't felt like you've earned that place, but in reality, it just means you're somewhere else that other people have not been for a long time. It means you show great promise and potential, and that's something to be proud of, even if you stick out a little bit. I would also say that if you just have good work ethic and a good idea, you're already going to outperform most and make more of an impact. Not to steal Nike's quote, but just do it.

Speak up, and ask for things that you want. Absolutely, those two things. I think I see a lot of women, especially in a very male-dominated industry, which is the manufacturing industry. Women don't even seem to realize how much men in certain aspects just assume that they're deserving of something. I think there's a quote out there where it's like, a man will say an idea if he's only 70% positive about it, and women will say it only if they're 110% positive about it. You just need to go out and say what you're gonna say. No one should feel entitled to anything, right? But we try to make ourselves small, and not inconvenient, and that's not the way that we should be doing things all the time. Don't be afraid to use your voice.

As far as challenges go, I would say in marketing, a challenge slash opportunity is AI. That's coming out pretty quickly, right? A lot of businesses are panicking, trying to figure out how to adopt AI into their daily work, and I think there's a lot of opportunity for marketing in the industrial sector to use AI to streamline a lot of repetitive or redundant tasks. In the industry specifically, industrial marketing, B2B, is a very, very complex field to be in. You have to be able to learn a lot of information very quickly and be able to process it and spit it back out to your customer base, which is a difficult thing to do if you're not processing the information correctly. Another challenge is demographic. Manufacturing is a much more male-dominated industry, and there's also an age demographic component, so a lot of them are older, in those generations up there. There are opportunities to be able to communicate and bridge that gap and have some empathy to understand where they're coming from versus where I'm coming from as a Gen Z, and be able to communicate my ideas so that we're able to work efficiently together. There's a big, big knowledge gap between Gen Z and some of the older generations as far as technology goes, especially with AI now.

In work, I would absolutely say staying hungry. I always try to be looking for something to be passionate about, and be ready to make an impact, high energy, ready to go. Being humble is also super important. I think humility is a very important trait to master, even if you have a history of doing good or being this or that, because displaying humility is important. I prioritize loyalty and honesty, and that applies to both personal and professional life. I would say honesty, for sure. I've had some good words in the past, but yeah, the humble, hungry, and honest, and work ethic, hard worker, drive, those types of things.