Her Story
About Lisa
I've been in the creative field for 40 years, starting with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and going right into design with an internship at Nations Business Magazine in Washington, D.C. I worked at several agencies around the Beltway during the time when computers were just becoming part of design, evolving from traditional design methods. I moved to the West Coast and worked for agencies in the East Bay, usually B2B, working with brands in tech, healthcare, and residential development. Then I moved back to the East Coast, working in agencies in Northern Virginia, and eventually moved to Rochester, New York, where I worked for a boutique agency in Webster doing healthcare and tech work. When the pandemic hit, all our clients stopped services instantly and we were devastated and out of work, which led me to become an in-house marketer for the first time at Council Rock, an energy startup. I found that rather than working for multiple clients and only going so deep, this was the first time I could learn a lot about one client and go very deep, which I actually really enjoyed and found very soothing and therapeutic. Council Rock was acquired by Viridi, another energy startup, and I've been with them as an internal marketer for 3 years now. What makes me unique is that I'm a unicorn blend of art and tech - I have master abilities in Adobe Creative Cloud, can build videos, create illustrations, and do all the creative work, but I can also read analytics and manage the website and do all the backend work. I work in a very male-dominated industry, so I take every opportunity to tell them how lucky they are to have me.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lisa
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would probably attribute my success to my upbringing. I really had to work hard for everything I have and take nothing for granted. I would say a challenging upbringing is what I attribute my hard work to. I didn't come from generational wealth, so when I went off to school to pursue art, I knew that I needed to be able to take care of myself, so I concentrated in design. I was able to combine the two and be able to take care of myself and make a living. I guess I'm practical that way.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received was from a writer I was working with early on in my career. I had made mistakes, and when you make those first mistakes, you're just devastated. She told me that the people who never make mistakes never do anything, so at least you know you're doing something. That kind of gave me a whole new perspective. I wasn't afraid anymore after that.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say embrace new technology and be curious. Speak up. And always promote yourself. I'm running into people who are introverts, and I'm an introvert too, but you can be an introvert and still promote yourself and explain how you've helped and what you bring to the table. I encourage people to sing their own praises. That's actually what I'm talking to the young person who's working for me right now about - we go over that every day, like what have you done, what can we share, and I'm always quick to celebrate her wins in emails out to our leadership team. And done is better than perfect. Spending time forever on something doesn't help anybody. Sometimes done is better than perfect, for sure.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
In my industry right now, I'm in industrial energy storage, which is really the way of the future, but a lot of our commercial and industrial customers are utilities, and they move at a snail's pace. It's hard for them to make a huge leap in energy storage from traditional grid-type power. I guess that's a huge kind of challenge where we are right now. I feel like we're at a tipping point, but it's just a very huge ask of the utilities and the larger industrial customers to decide to invest in energy storage. But I feel like it's coming, so that's a big challenge and an opportunity. We can actually, if we can get off of fossil fuels, we could start to help Mother Earth. So that's the challenge and opportunity right there with battery energy storage.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me are always doing the right thing, being clear about what's right and doing right, and just being a kind, good person. Those things always help.
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