Samantha Sprouse

I would say some of my strengths have been having that more quantitative background in statistics. It has helped me a lot. I'm also very systems oriented, really looking at the whole picture rather than just focusing on one campaign or just generating leads at a specific point in time. I'm really thinking about things from a systems perspective. I also really try to stay up-to-date on the latest best practices, because marketing is always changing. If you aren't learning the latest skills and the latest frameworks, you'll fall behind really quickly.

My manager Jen Lever provided both good practical, technical, hands-on advice when it came to actually running the programs themselves, but also guidance on the soft skills and influence side. I learned how to work with sales teams, how to present data and campaign performance. She provided a lot of guidance on both the hard skills and the soft skills, which has been invaluable to my career.

I would say to look for other women who are in a similar position, or at least were at some point, and look at the women in the positions where you want to go. If they have some form of thought leadership, engage with their content to understand their thinking and how they got to where they are. Maybe even reach out and ask about their career path. I think there's a lot to be learned from looking at where you want to go and then reverse engineering from there. Even if it's not somebody within your own company, just someone in similar fields or similar disciplines can be really valuable.

Some of the challenges for women in general is that as you step into bigger and bigger roles or take on more and more scope, it can be seen as just being helpful or just being responsible, whereas if a man takes on larger scope, it can be seen as leadership and taking charge. I do think there's a double standard when it comes to that, so it's important to always be communicating the value that you have to offer and the impact of your work. A lot of women were socialized to keep quiet and let the work speak for itself, but I think that's where you can be seen as just being helpful or keeping things running. Really communicating out that value is really important.

Some of the values most important to me are to always be learning. Marketing's always changing, so I'm always learning new methodologies or frameworks and understanding how AI and technology are changing the field as well. I think taking a holistic perspective is important to me, really understanding the long game of marketing. A lot of times there's a focus just on quick results or just generating as many leads as possible, but you have to think about the long-term sustainability of programs as well. And then also, it's kind of cliche to say honesty, but just being open with your team and your coworkers, being realistic about the challenges that you're facing or the opportunities that you have. People can sense that, and it builds a lot more trust within the team when there's that openness.