Katina Zinsmeyer

I have spent my career in marketing, but some of the most important lessons I have learned have had very little to do with marketing.

They have been about people.

My career has given me the opportunity to see business from very different sides. I have spent years in the corporate world, but I have also been an entrepreneur and built my own business. I have worked with established global organizations and startups. I have helped companies build marketing strategies for growth, supported businesses preparing to sell and be acquired, participated in due diligence, and worked through the realities that come with acquisitions, rebrands, and organizational change.

Because of that, my work has rarely stayed neatly inside the boundaries of Marketing.

It has touched Sales, Product, Customer Success, Operations, Finance, technology, leadership, customer experience, and the many decisions that ultimately shape how a business grows.

That perspective has changed the way I lead.

Throughout my career, I have been incredibly fortunate to have leaders who saw something in me, trusted me, challenged me, and gave me opportunities to grow. They showed me that you can be kind and still hold people accountable. You can give someone autonomy while expecting excellence. You can care deeply about your people and still drive meaningful business results.

Those leaders helped pave the way for me, and I carry pieces of what they taught me into the way I lead today.

I have also experienced the opposite.

I have worked with different leadership styles and in environments that taught me just as much, although sometimes in very different ways. Those experiences helped me understand what brings out the best in people, what does not, and ultimately what kind of leader I wanted to become.

Both shaped me.

I don't believe leadership is something you simply inherit with a title. Respect is earned. Trust is earned. And one of the best ways to earn both is to work hard alongside the people you lead.

GET IN THE WORK, THEN LET PEOPLE FLY

I have never believed leadership means standing on the sidelines telling everyone else what to do.

Get your hands dirty.

Understand the work. Ask questions. Jump in when your team needs you. Sit beside your colleagues when something is difficult. Celebrate with them when something works and own it with them when it doesn't.

Be part of the journey.

I believe people are much more willing to follow a leader when they know that person would never ask them to do something they wouldn't be willing to do themselves.

But there is another side to that.

Eventually, you have to get out of the way.

Hire talented people when you have the opportunity, but also recognize and develop the talent already in front of you.

As leaders, we often inherit teams we didn't build ourselves. I don't believe leadership means walking in and immediately deciding who fits your way of working. Take the time to listen. Learn what people are good at, where they want to grow, what motivates them, and what may have been holding them back.

Sometimes leadership is hiring the right person. Sometimes it is recognizing potential in someone who is already there and giving them the opportunity, confidence, and support to show you what they can do.

Teach people what you can, and be willing to learn from them, too.

Give them context, resources, and support. Help remove barriers.

Challenge them when you know they are capable of more. Create opportunities for them to stretch beyond what they may have originally thought they could do.

Then trust them enough to let them fly.

But autonomy does not mean absence.

That is important to me.

Giving someone ownership doesn't mean handing over an assignment and disappearing. I still believe in being present throughout the process. Check in. Ask questions. Review the work together. Make sure what you are creating is accurate, thoughtful, and moving in the right direction.

To me, autonomy needs guardrails.

People should understand the goal, why it matters, what success looks like, and where they have room to make decisions. They should also know they can come back and ask questions, disagree with me, or say, "I think there is a better way."

Sometimes my role is to coach.

Sometimes it is to ask the question that makes someone think differently. Sometimes it is connecting them with someone who knows more than I do. Sometimes it is catching something before it becomes a bigger problem.

And sometimes, as the leader accountable for the outcome, I have to make the final call.

That doesn't take autonomy away. It gives it direction.

I also want people to know that trying something new isn't always going to produce the perfect result the first time.

We have to leave room to test, learn, adjust, and occasionally get something wrong.

Accountability shouldn't create fear around mistakes. What matters is what happens next.

Did we learn from it? Did we listen? Did we fix it? Is the next version better?

That is growth.

I don't want to build a team that needs me to make every decision. I want to develop people who become increasingly confident making decisions themselves because they understand the strategy, the standards, and the bigger picture.

I want people on my team to challenge me. Bring me an idea I never considered. Tell me when something could be better. Take ownership and make something their own.

And eventually, I hope they become leaders who are even better than I am.

That is leadership impact to me.

THERE IS NO ONE SIZE FITS ALL

As a global marketing leader, I have had the opportunity to lead strategy and people across North America, EMEA, APAC, and LATAM.

One of the greatest lessons global marketing has taught me is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

A strategy that works beautifully in one market may fall completely flat in another.

Customers are different. Cultures are different. Markets are different. People are different.

Global strategy requires a consistent vision without assuming the execution should look exactly the same everywhere.

Leadership is no different.

No two people on your team are identical. They have different strengths, communication styles, experiences, motivations, and ambitions.

One person may need you to push them. Another may need you to step back and give them room. Someone else may need more context before they feel confident taking ownership.

There isn't one formula.

You have to know your people well enough to understand the difference.

MARKETING CANNOT OPERATE IN A SILO

Perhaps because my career has crossed both the corporate and entrepreneurial worlds, I have never seen Marketing as an isolated function.

When you own a business, you learn very quickly that Marketing cannot exist separately from everything else.

You think about the customer. Revenue. Costs. Operations. Reputation. Sales. Partnerships. The experience someone has after they buy from you. You learn to look at decisions not only as a marketer, but as someone responsible for the health and growth of the entire business.

Working with startups reinforced that perspective even further.

I have had the opportunity to be part of companies' growth journeys, helping develop marketing strategies intended not simply to generate awareness, but to build value. In some cases, that journey ultimately led toward a sale or acquisition, which gave me exposure to due diligence and another side of business that marketers do not always have the opportunity to experience.

You start to understand that the work you are doing today can affect what someone sees when they look under the hood of the company tomorrow.

Brand matters.

Customer experience matters.

Data matters.

Processes matter.

How teams work together matters.

And what you can actually prove matters.

My career has also included building and repositioning brands, global rebrands, acquisitions, go-to-market strategies, new customer acquisition, existing customer growth, demand generation, events, partnerships, and turning real customer experiences into case studies and proof points.

Some of the strongest marketing work I have ever been part of, however, has happened outside of the Marketing department.

Great marketing requires understanding the organization you are marketing.

That means sitting at the table with Sales, Product, and Customer Success, but it also means working alongside DevOps, Engineering, Solution Architects, Professional Services, Operations, Finance, and executive leadership.

Talk to the people building the product.

Talk to the people implementing it.

Talk to the people solving problems when something goes wrong.

Talk to the people who speak with customers every day.

Talk to the people trying to sell it.

Talk to the people looking at the numbers.

And listen.

Marketing cannot tell an authentic story if we don't understand the people, technology, customers, and experiences behind that story.

Some of my proudest work has come from bringing those different voices together around the same goal.

The strongest strategies rarely happen when everyone protects their own lane. They happen when people are willing to cross those lines, learn from one another, and solve the problem together.

WE ARE AT AN INTERESTING CROSSROADS

Technology and AI have made this an incredibly interesting time to be a marketer and a leader.

Things are moving fast.

We can automate more than we ever could before. Look at the world around us. AI-generated responses, chatbots, virtual assistants, robotics, predictive analytics, and tools that can accomplish in minutes what once took someone hours.

The data and analytics coming from this evolution are incredible. We can understand audiences, identify patterns, personalize experiences, and measure results in ways that would have been difficult to imagine earlier in my career.

I am excited about it.

But sometimes you just want a human on the other end.

I know I do.

And especially in marketing, we have to be careful that we don't automate away the exact thing we are trying to create: connection.

People want convenience. They also want to feel understood.

Customers may appreciate getting an answer immediately from a chatbot, but there are moments when they just want to talk to another person.

That human touchpoint still matters.

I think of AI almost like having a very capable junior assistant.

It can help you research, organize, analyze, brainstorm, challenge an idea, and get through the first stages of something much faster.

But you are still responsible for the work.

If a junior member of my team created something important for our organization, I wouldn't automatically send it out into the world without looking at it. I would review it. I would ask questions. I would check the facts. I would make sure it represented who we are and what we are trying to accomplish.

Why would AI be any different?

Fact-check it.

Question it.

Review the data.

Make sure the work is accurate.

Make sure it actually sounds like you.

Make sure it represents your organization or your business.

And please, make sure it resonates with the human being on the other side.

Efficiency should never become an excuse for sloppy work.

Something being produced quickly does not automatically make it good, accurate, strategic, or meaningful.

There still needs to be someone willing to ask: Is this true? Does this make sense? Is this right for our audience? Does this represent our brand? Would I put my name on this?

That human accountability matters.

I also don't think AI should make talented people less valuable.

Used thoughtfully, technology can give us more time for the work where our value matters most.

If it can remove some of the repetitive tasks, great.

Use that time to think.

Talk to a customer.

Develop the bigger idea.

Look beyond the dashboard and figure out what the data is actually telling you.

Build a relationship.

Mentor someone.

Create something informed by experience, context, emotion, and judgment.

I don't believe leaders need to pretend they know everything about AI or where technology is going next.

I certainly don't.

Things are moving too quickly for any of us to assume we have it all figured out.

There is a lot of strength in being able to say, "I don't know yet, but I'm willing to learn."

The pace of change makes curiosity a leadership skill.

Learn the new tool. Ask questions. Listen to the person on your team who understands something you don't. Work with your technical teams. Pay attention to what your data is telling you. And be willing to change something you once believed was right when better information tells you otherwise.

Technology should be an extension of what we are capable of, not a replacement for who we are.

No matter how sophisticated AI, automation, or robotics become, there is still something incredibly powerful about knowing there is another human being on the other end.

Someone listening.

Someone thinking.

Someone who understands the context.

Someone who actually cares about the outcome.

That matters in leadership.

And it absolutely matters in marketing.

KINDNESS DOES NOT MEAN LOWERING THE BAR

I believe deeply in kindness, positivity, and empathy.

I also believe deeply in hard work, accountability, and results.

Those things are not opposites.

Being a people-first leader does not mean avoiding difficult conversations. It doesn't mean accepting mediocre work. And it certainly doesn't mean lowering expectations because you care about someone.

Sometimes caring about someone's growth means challenging them.

You can set the bar high while giving people the trust, resources, and support they need to reach it.

My own career has always been results-driven. I have helped build award-winning brands, lead global brand transformations, develop go-to-market strategies for acquisition and customer growth, elevate customer voices as proof of impact, and build strategies designed to deliver meaningful business results.

But I will never take sole ownership of those accomplishments.

Behind every campaign, brand, case study, event, strategy, award, and business result are people.

• People who brought the idea.
• People who challenged it.
• People who built something.
• People who fixed something.
• People who took a chance.
• People who believed we could make it better.

Never forget those people when the results arrive.

SUCCESS SHOULD EXTEND BEYOND YOUR CAREER

I also believe impact should extend beyond the company you work for.

Giving back and nonprofit work have always mattered to me because success means more when you can use your skills, time, voice, or platform to help someone else.

You don't need an executive title to make an impact.

Sometimes it is mentoring someone who needs confidence.

Sometimes it is connecting someone with an opportunity.

Sometimes it is volunteering your expertise or supporting a cause that matters to your community.

And sometimes it is simply being the person who looks at someone and says, "I believe you can do this."

I know how powerful that can be because other people have done it for me.

I will never forget it.

And I hope I never stop paying it forward.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON I HOPE TO INFLUENCE

There is another part of my life that has changed how I think about influence entirely.

I am a mom to an incredible daughter, along with two very loved fur kids.

Of all the people I may have the opportunity to lead, mentor, or inspire throughout my life, she is the person I hope to influence most.

I want my daughter to grow up knowing that she can work hard and achieve incredible things without sacrificing kindness.

She can be ambitious and compassionate.

Strong and positive.

Confident and humble.

Successful and still reach back to help someone else move forward.

I want her to understand that respect is earned through how you show up, how you treat people, and what you are willing to contribute, not simply through the title next to your name.

I want her to know that she never has to make someone else smaller in order to make herself bigger.

And I want her to see that leadership is not about being the loudest person in the room.

Sometimes leadership is speaking up.

Sometimes it is listening.

Sometimes it is standing beside someone while they find their footing.

And sometimes it is knowing when to step aside and let them fly.

Right now, she may not understand what a go-to-market strategy is or why Mom spends so much time on video calls.

But she understands kindness.

She understands encouragement.

She understands positivity.

And she is watching how the adults around her treat people.

That may be the most important leadership responsibility I will ever have.

THE LEADER I CHOOSE TO BE

I am still learning.

I hope I always am.

Every leader I have worked with has taught me something. Every person I have had the privilege of leading has taught me something, too.

Being an entrepreneur taught me something.

Working in global organizations taught me something.

Startups taught me something.

Acquisitions and periods of change taught me something.

Customers have taught me something.

And now technology is reminding all of us that learning can never stop.

There will always be another market to understand, another challenge that stretches me, another technology that changes how we work, another person who sees something differently, and another experience that forces me to grow.

I don't have a perfect formula for leadership.

I don't think anyone does.

But I know what I want to keep carrying with me.

• Think globally, but listen locally.
• Work hard and never believe a title puts you above the work.
• Earn respect instead of expecting it.
• Get your hands dirty alongside your team.
• Recognize the talent already in the room and help people see potential in themselves they may not see yet.
• Give people autonomy, but never confuse autonomy with absence.
• Set the direction, create the guardrails, and stay close enough to support the journey without controlling every step.
• Understand the business beyond your own department.
• Listen to the people closest to the problem.
• Bring different teams, expertise, and perspectives to the same table.
• Stay curious enough to admit what you don't know.
• Use technology to extend what people are capable of, not eliminate the humanity behind the work.
• Challenge people and be willing to be challenged yourself.
• Give credit generously.
• Remember the leaders who opened doors for you and hold those doors open for the people coming behind you.
• And once you have helped someone discover what they are capable of, trust them enough to step aside and let them fly.

I am incredibly grateful for the leaders who showed me this kind of leadership was possible.

I am equally grateful for the experiences that challenged me to decide what kind of leader I wanted to be.

Both shaped me.

And now being a mother gives me an even greater reason to keep becoming that person.

At the end of the day, I don't believe our greatest impact is simply what we personally accomplish.

It is the brands we help build, the businesses we help grow, the communities we strengthen, and the people who become more confident, capable, and successful because we were willing to walk part of the journey beside them.

You can work hard.

You can expect great results.

You can hold people accountable.

You can embrace technology and change.

You can admit you don't know everything.

You can give people autonomy without leaving them on an island.

You can be ambitious.

And you can do all of it with kindness, positivity, curiosity, and humanity.

We don't have to choose.