Renee Robertson

I attribute my success to education and hard work and tenacity. I think that every position that I've ever held has been a stepping stone, so anytime, even if I get laid off or whatever might be because of whatever circumstances, I just think back about what I had gone through. Every position that I've ever held in my life, I'm able to today utilize all of those skills and the different trials or tribulations or whatever that I've gone through have led me to where I'm at today. I'm pretty different, I would say, from other traditional marketers with the same amount of experience, because I've had that breadth of experience with learning how to do things without resources or when budgets get cuts. I had to learn how to be hands-on often, so I can come in to your business and if you need a working manager, I could be a working manager. If you just need that strategist, I could be that strategist. I could help you build your team. The experiences that I've had throughout my career really add up.

The best career advice I ever received was from Maurice at Babcock Davis - he passed away. I was a salesperson, which was a strategic move for me in 2010 to 2012. He was the sales director, and he had just said, 'Renee, just listen to your customer, and they're always going to tell you how to sell to them.' That is the best advice that I had heard, and I used it as a mother to even my children when they were in high school. I said, if you want to go to a party, come to me with all of the answers before that you know that I'm gonna ask, and then you're going to hear a lot more yeses versus nos. To me, life is sales. Doesn't matter what relationship it is, what type of dynamic that is, if it's with your children, your spouse, your partner, your neighbor - we're all selling something to one another.

I'm all about empowerment, so say yes more, but be discerning. I think when people say no sometimes, you limit yourself and your experiences and what's made available to you. I believe in attraction, like law of attraction, so if you're saying yes to things and you're learning from those, more things are going to come to you that are going to align with you and that you can say yes to. But be discerning - don't be naive. Be strong and be tenacious, but still be yourself. Don't get lost in having to become a hard woman in corporate America, because it can beat you up quite a bit, and don't let others tear you down. Just know your self-worth. Say yes and discern. It took me a while, that's why I'm discerning now with the companies that I work with, because I know how it affects my energy, and I value my energy more so than their wallet.

The challenges are that companies are worried over the overall economy, so whether they do invest or not invest is the question for them. The inconsistencies or decisiveness about whether they're gonna bring on someone that can help with solutions, not knowing where the economy's going in America from day to day - that is quite a challenge. That's something I can't control. However, the only thing I can really do is get creative with pricing. For instance, my client right now had to do a reduction in hours, so typically my price goes up, but I held my price knowing that this is just in good faith while they work through some things, because I care about them and their mission and want to continue to work with them. The opportunities are that there's a lot of businesses, especially startup businesses or mid-size companies that have broken systems. What they're not doing is bringing somebody in like myself to identify all of the different gaps. They're just throwing money into knee-jerk reactions into what they think is the problem, and they're just driving more inefficiencies and unnecessary cost. But if you bring in a consultant that can sit back and identify the different gaps and then help you strategize and create plans, then you're going to be more in line and drive efficiencies and fix those systems. Typically it's not the lack of talent - you need to have a good foundation and systems in place to drive feasibility and efficiency. They'll lay off entire departments saying 'we just increased our marketing budget and it's not doing what we need it to do,' but it's because the marketing wasn't the issue. You gotta go backwards - backwards engineer. That's really what you need to start with, is backwards engineer whatever it is. What is your objective? What is your problem? Let's backwards engineer what's going on right now and then start from there. That's what I do.

Equality is very important to me. I'm very particular about the companies at this point in my life that I want to do business with, because I'm very discerning with who I give my energy to, including clients. We need to align on values, so equality, respect, positivity, humanity. If you don't treat people well, I'm probably not going to give you my services if that's what I'm witnessing, because there's going to be a lot of companies out there that I align with better that's gonna be better for my own energy and what I want to have in my life. We need to be good people. We can be different, but we need to be good.