Karla Salcedo, MBA

I definitely attribute my success to adaptability, which has been huge for me. I would also say being faith-based and faith-driven has helped me tremendously. I grew up Catholic, and that's helped my life feel more spiritual to an extent. I don't consider failures as failures or terrible things that happen to you - they're more so, in my opinion, learnings. That's become easier for me to live by based on my upbringing in the faith. So I think that's also helped, along with being adaptable. My lived experiences growing up exposed me to a lot of change, which made it easier for me to thrive in marketing where there's always something new. Growing up, I was already used to constant change and evolution, where it didn't feel crazy going into the world of corporate.

To remain adaptable, continue learning, and not allow setbacks to define future success. Karla values mentorship and believes growth comes from staying open to new opportunities and perspectives.

I definitely would say, stay adaptable. Also, advocate for yourself - that's a huge one that I've sometimes learned the hard way, especially thinking back through my earlier career. Advocating is going to be equally as important to showcasing how talented you are. Depending on your background, sometimes that becomes harder, and depending on how introverted or extroverted you are. But I think that's one of the best pieces of advice I can give a younger woman going into the workspace - just remember to consistently advocate for yourself and be seen. Stay visible, don't hide your work, don't shy away from showing your wins, because things won't happen if you don't necessarily make them happen. And not to say be pushy about it, but definitely don't shy away from your work, because no one will advocate as hard as you will for yourself.

I would say one of the biggest challenges is brands understanding how technology not only evolves, but how technology should be used. AI is a heated topic for many right now, and I've seen this happen before with every new platform that comes up on social, every new report that says here's how you should be doing things. I think that's a challenge for brands - figuring out how can we stay authentic to ourselves. I always push every time I work for a brand to kind of drown out the noise to overcome that ever-going challenge, because the only constant, especially in marketing and with all technology that's constantly changing, is that things will keep changing. But how does your brand remain authentic to themselves, not stagnant, but authentic? I do see a lot of brands that start sounding the same, and I attribute that in part now to AI. There have been a lot of layoffs, things are getting leaner, and I foresee there's going to be a big challenge in how brands remain authentic and stand out. Humans are still needed in that capacity. The other ever-going challenge is: when is enough enough when it comes to what we're doing for marketing, specifically digital marketing? There's so much you can be doing with a lot of different platforms, and those platforms will only continue to exist. It's finding a balance of having an online presence but also staying true to themselves as a brand.

Definitely honesty is important to me. I'm trying to think of the right way to say this - upholding your authenticity, per se, which ties into morals and ethics and trust. So there's a mix of a few there. Sustainability is also meaningful to me, and I currently work with a couple brands in the space, also nonprofits. That's been one of my most exciting moments in my consulting career so far, where I've had the opportunity to more so lead with purpose in that capacity. I've been really excited to work with brands that are mission-driven, and that's actually been top of my list every time I consider working with a new brand, so it feels like my work is meshed with meaningful purpose, and that's where it feels more exciting for me.