Paula Matthies

I attribute my success to constantly learning and improving my skills. I'm always learning, whether through attending industry-type events or just learning from my colleagues. As you grow into different roles and technology changes - like AI is huge right now - you have to keep adapting. Coming from a big background where everything was hands-on or you would outsource to an agency, now you're doing stuff internally and using AI. That was a big learning curve for me, but I stay curious and keep improving. Being a lifelong learner and being adaptable, being able to pivot through changes, has been key to my success.

Collaboration is key. Really collaborating with your other marketing discipline co-workers is essential to make integration work, all the way from leadership down to execution. You want to avoid the silos - some companies tend to either go rogue or siloed and do their own thing, so you don't really have an integrated approach. When you collaborate with a team, you don't have to wear so many hats, and there are other members of the team that are able to do it as well. It's about bringing everybody together and avoiding those silos.

The values most important to me are integrity, honesty, and collaboration. Honesty and integrity go far because we all have our core values, and if we hold onto those throughout the process of whether it's career or personal life, we tend to be better with the relationships in our lives. That takes honesty too - letting family know when you'll be working more, or even if you make a mistake, just saying you made a mistake and keep learning. I also treat my team like a second family. You spend 75% of your time in your job role, so cultivating that healthy relationship just makes the whole team stronger, positive, excited to do new things, try new things, and take ownership.