Kristi Gamboni

I don't think my undergraduate degree in marketing and business management helped at all - the textbooks were antiquated and from 10 years ago. What's really made the difference is being willing to fail, test, and iterate quickly. I'm not scared to try new things or ask stupid questions. I've realized that everybody has to start somewhere, and the quicker you're willing to fail, mess up, and sound stupid, the faster you learn and grow. I don't care what anyone thinks, I don't care if my questions sound stupid, or if my ideas don't work - I'll be better for it because I tried. A lot of people's innate instinct is to protect their ego, but you have to really put that to the side to be able to grow. I've also benefited from continuing education courses that are very specialized on specific topics, like MOPS training and AI training, which helped me elevate quickly in areas where I needed to expand my skill sets faster than just learning on my own.

Get a thick skin. The more you try to grow and learn faster than everyone else, the more you can get targeted - people can talk behind your back, try to diminish your success, or take credit for your work. As women, we get talked over a lot, and we get our ideas stolen a lot. As a woman working in an industry like tech, you have to realize that no one's gonna have your back the way that you probably deserve, and no one's gonna prop you up like you deserve. There are things and tactics you can learn along the way to prevent stuff like that from happening, but ultimately it's about being resilient and bouncing back when things like that happen. It's about how you respond, not dwelling on it, and not letting it permeate into the other things that you do. This advice has been some of the greatest I've gotten because it prevents you from stifling yourself.

You gotta get tough, you gotta think like a man, and don't apologize or ask permission. Don't shrink your presence at the table - take up space and be vocal. Try to have confidence even when you feel like you don't have it. Go after things that you think are out of reach and apply to roles you think you aren't suited for, because 9 times out of 10, your male counterpart is doing just that. A lot of women self-reject because they think they're not cut out, when in reality, a lot of it's just this false confidence other people have - and you should have that same thing, because it's even more likely that you're more qualified, you're just scared to put your neck out. Don't overthink it. Set clear goals for yourself, even 5 years out, have them pinned on the wall in front of your desk, stare at them every day, and just do them.

The biggest challenge is obviously the elephant in the room: AI. Everyone's trying to learn AI as fast as they can so they can't be replaced. Every day something new's coming out and the field is drastically changing. There are whole categories of technology products that are gonna be erased off the planet, like the metaphor of the typewriter - that stuff's happening in front of us. You have to learn quickly and not be stagnant, even more than ever. People who have grown into leadership roles are feeling like they have to start over in what they think they know and learn all over again. It's a very humbling exercise, but everyone needs to do it if they want to keep their job. The people that think they know enough or they've gained enough experience and they're set are gonna be the ones jobless. The opportunity goes hand-in-hand with that challenge. Opportunities are in being the one that knows how to work the fastest, be the most efficient, apply what they know, and test and iterate quickly - and that can only be done with AI. If you're not learning and using AI and your counterpart is, you're gonna look way behind the eight ball. You want to be the coworker where other people are like, 'How does she do this? How does she work so fast? How is she getting all this done? She's everywhere, she's doing everything.' The only way to do that is to use AI in everything you do - whether it's writing emails, writing campaigns, collating lists, building reports. Everything you touch, you should be using AI to make it faster and better. If you're not, then you will not have a job.

Honesty is a huge one for me. I don't think there's ever really a good reason to lie, and it can really suffocate progress in a team if people are shielding the truth, covering up their mistakes, or over-emphasizing the success from things. I see a lot of marketers lie and say things performed well when you get down into the brass tacks, it didn't - and it doesn't benefit anyone to lie. I think a lot of people are in this CYA mode that they can't get out of because they think it's what helps them keep their job, but I think what helps you keep your job is being honest, being forthright, and being willing to fail in public, work in public, and test and iterate and grow, and be honest about results. There's this pervasive instinct in marketing, maybe in other fields too, to just make things sound better than they are, but that doesn't help the business at the end of the day make a profit. I really try to exhibit honesty myself, and I think people appreciate that. A lot of people come to me because they know I won't lie, and leadership comes to me for things because they know I'll be forthright with information and not cover up anyone or anything.