Nicole MacLean

I definitely attribute my success to people and community. I'm based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the community here is just incredible. I was very fortunate early on to get plugged in and learn from a lot of other people in my space. The more you network and talk to people and hear their stories, I think it allowed me to be able to face situations that maybe I haven't faced personally, but through conversations and networking with other people, I remembered their stories or how they handled it or how they wish they handled it, and then could apply those lessons. I was also very fortunate to have some great professional development opportunities throughout my career, like the Orr Fellowship and EDGE Mentoring, and working with professional development coaches and leadership coaches has been very helpful along the way. I've also had some really great leaders who saw potential and were willing to give me opportunities. I grew up in tech and definitely experienced what it felt like to not be in rooms or maybe not feel like my ideas were being heard because I was a woman. But at Composely, our former CEO Mike Leonard never made me fight to be in a room or feel like I had to fight to be heard. When that's no longer on the table, you're able to just show up as your authentic self and do really great work, so those really good allies along the way have been very helpful.

The best career advice I've ever received is to bring a clear perspective or recommendation. Whether you're presenting in a meeting or asking for budget for a new initiative, having a clear point of view, especially when talking to leadership, is one of the things that people miss the most because they're afraid of getting it wrong. It's okay to be wrong. It creates an opportunity for dialogue and coaching. But I noticed that when I started making clear recommendations like, I did this research, while we could do X, Y, or Z, I think we should do X for these reasons," it just really changed how people viewed me. Bringing a clear perspective is something I share with a lot of people on my team when they're growing into leadership.

My advice to young women entering the marketing field is to learn the business. Understand the basic P&L, balance sheets, and what the CFO and the CEO would care about. I think the more you can understand how the business is run, the better you're able to make strategic decisions in the seat you're in. Second, I firmly believe that building a great network is key, and a big reason I'm where I am today. Really try to network and get to know other people. Ask for the coffee chat or intro Zoom meeting, and try to give more than you take.

I think marketing and creative professionals are facing one of the most disruptive periods because of AI tools and technology. There are a lot of leaders who saying 'just use AI,' but I think the businesses that win are not going to be the ones that adopt it the fastest or use it the most, but the ones who really discern how to use it to create efficiency and let their people be more human. Understanding that challenge is really hard. The second big challenge I feel so passionately about is helping the other parts of the business respect and understand what the role of marketing is. There's still this stigma of marketing as arts and crafts, and it's so much more than that. I believe marketers deserve to have a strategic seat at the table and need to be empowered to be more business-minded. As AI tools continue to integrate into marketing workflows, it's important to be able to defend and explain the work of marketing and it's impact to the business and client experience. Marketers and teams who do that will be very successful.

My faith is a key pillar for me, and I actually think I've been more successful professionally as I've deepened my own faith. Just having something that's bigger than the job is really important, and being able to separate your own personal worth and your job has unlocked a lot of things for me. I also believe strongly in people-first leadership. Stepping into any sort of leadership, I've always believed that my people come first. If they're successful, the company is successful. Maybe to a fault sometimes, but the value of putting the people who I've been entrusted with and making sure that their growth shines through is definitely a core value. And I try to leave teams or experiences better than how I joined. If I can help one person find incremental growth, then that is success to me.