Her Story
About Emily
I've been working in the consumer packaged goods industry for 10 years now since graduating from Western Michigan University in 2016 with a degree in food marketing and business administration. What really jumpstarted my career was Western Michigan's Food Marketing Program, one of only two in the country, where we were taking category management classes in college. I'm really proud of working for some of the largest and hardest companies to get a job at in the world, including Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Kellogg's. Currently, I handle all the sales, pricing, and promotions for major brands like Carnation Breakfast Essentials, Vital Proteins, Orgain, Boost, and Nature's Bounty, selling them into Publix at the headquarters level. I've been in this role for about a year and a half, and I'm actually getting another promotion when I come back from maternity leave. Before this, I worked on the value side with Family Dollar, Lidl, and Aldi for about a year and a half, and prior to that I spent 3 years on the Walgreens business. I've been all over grocery, actually. My typical day involves speaking with our buyers at their headquarters, making sure we have inventory, ensuring we don't have any issues with our accounts, and working together to grow the business by aligning our internal team's goals with the buyers' goals.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Emily
01What do you attribute your success to?
I always want to learn and challenge myself. I think outside the box, and I'm not afraid to share my opinions and new ways of doing things. A lot of corporate in general, from my experience, has been very status quo, and I'm not afraid to challenge the status quo. That's really what I attribute my success to.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
This advice came from my older sister, who is a successful lawyer in Chicago. Her message was basically that most people don't know what the heck they're doing, and work hard. It sounds simple, but it's kind of true and has really stuck with me throughout my career.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I'd say most people are just like us. As I've grown in my career, and now I'm part of upper management, I've learned that most people are just average like us. Early on in my career, I was so nervous about sending emails, or being wrong about something, but at the end of the day, we're all people. I think just knowing that we all come from the same thing, we all want the best for us as well, and not to be intimidated just because someone has 30 years of experience and you're new in your career. That's the advice I would give.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge in the consumer packaged goods industry is that it's an ever-changing industry. Think of all brands like baseball cards or baseball players that are constantly being traded. There's always acquisitions, always another business buying out another part of the business. So it's not being afraid of change, because there's constant change in this industry, and there's constant moving around, moving of brands, and changes of leadership. You have to be able to adapt quickly. The biggest opportunity is definitely having more diversity and more women in upper leadership. It used to be really just male-dominated, and it's changing, but just not changing fast enough. I was the only woman on my team for around 2 years, working with all men in their 60s, white men in their 60s, which was very intimidating.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity and trust are my two most important values. Just having the right integrity and trust in yourself. A newer value in the last 3 or 4 years is being confident in myself. I think something that has taken me a while in my career is just to be confident in what I say and believe in myself. That confidence has become really important to me.
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