Zaira Hernandez

I would say my mentors. My mentors, and always knowing that there was someone else behind, or before me, who was also dealing with the same things. And we still were able to get through it. My loved ones and all friends that have supported me, especially my mom - she's a big inspiration. That stubbornness is in my family for a long time, the stubbornness of being first generation. I'm the first generation who graduated from college, and I'm the first generation that basically decided, oh yes, I want to go to UC Berkeley, and I was crazy enough to get there. I don't know if it's resilient or stubborn, or just trusting that there is something else that could be better. And knowing that with your work, you can help people. For example, right now what I'm doing might be pretty dry, but at the same time, there are people that need it. If you want to connect this to the health industry, they need to identify specific patients to give them care. Or if you want to connect this to the investigative industry, there are people who are out there looking for their loved ones, and they do need the data. So I'm still connecting what I'm doing with how can I help everybody else.

I would say the best advice is to always make sure your strategy reflects your data. Anything that I create, even if it's an e-book, or if it's something bigger like a campaign that's running ads, as long as my data is there, then there is some meaning for that campaign. So there's always a way to measure your success within marketing.

I would say to not doubt your value and what you have learned through your own experience, and to integrate it within your work. There are times that, even if somebody that is a higher rank than you says, this is not how we do things, to still investigate why not. Some good outcomes come from that. And it doesn't have to be tied to a specific company, but at the end of the day, if you follow what you believe in, I've found that it's always positive within my campaigns and within anything that I create for marketing.

I think it's transparency and authenticity. Knowing that my story has a value within the industry that I'm in is important to me. I think as a woman, and also a minority, I'm usually one of the few women in the team, and I really like to bring that perspective in. We wear both the suits and the pajamas - we are able to get in the suit, but we're also this other side of us that is reflected through everything we do. Through marketing, I'm able to show that. For example, there was an ad that really looked like it was framing a specific group of people. I know these things, I've seen these things on the news, so I'm not gonna have something like that go out from my campaigns. I'm able to say, this looks like this is coming from somebody that we don't want to be associated with right now. It's always good to bring my story into my work. I might not scream out loud, this is who I am, but I think my perspective as a woman that I've seen dealing with different challenges and obstacles to get here, it's always good to keep that in mind.