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OhHello - Marni Gordon "Don't worry so much"
33 Plays11 months ago
“Don’t worry so much!!”
OhHello! It's episode 85 and this above piece of advice applies to all of us c/o Marni Gordon, ACC!
In this episode, our “Hello” (a crowned OhHello.io 🌞☕️ mentor), Marni Gordon, shares invaluable insights on mentoring, career transitions, and the power of paying it forward. Introduced by our mutual friend (and OhHello.io mentor), Julie Fleischer, our conversation unfolded organically, touching on topics close to Marni's heart.
Marni's passion for mentoring and coaching shines through as she emphasizes the value of both giving back and receiving guidance.
Throughout her career, Marni has been influenced by remarkable mentors like Harold Goetz (hello, old friend!), Michael Styles, and Bill Duggan who have shaped her professional trajectory and instilled in her the importance of mentorship.
As an industry leader with over 15 years at the Association of National Advertisers / ANA Educational Foundation, Marni's expertise extends beyond hashtag#marketing to coaching, hashtag#mentorship and hashtag#payingitforward.
Marni's Midlife Marketers newsletter, https://lnkd.in/gtTZcnS8 born from personal experience, is a testament to her commitment to helping others navigate career transitions and thrive.
We're stoked to have you in our tribe, Marni!
Go book time w/ Marni: https://lnkd.in/g74UUvX7
Come join our tribe and sign-up to be a mentor/expert on OhHello.io!
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Transcript
Introductions and Connections
00:00:06
Speaker
Here we go, Marnie. There we go. Oh, hello, Marnie. Hello. How are you? I'm great. I'm great. How are you? Really good.
00:00:19
Speaker
Well, we're starting this off with the typical Oh, hellos.
The Value of Mentoring
00:00:23
Speaker
But, Marnie, we were introduced through our mutual friend, Julie Fleischer, some time ago. And we've talked a few times and would love to just have a better understanding of what excites you about what we're building at OhHello.io. I absolutely am a huge fan of mentoring and coaching. And I've just personally participated in a lot of other mentoring programs in the past through universities and
00:00:50
Speaker
You know, I've really seen the value of not only mentoring as a mentor of giving back, but the value of reverse mentoring and how much I've learned from all the amazing people I've had the honor and a mentor. That's a great response. And also I'm assuming just because I'm a huge fan of what you post on LinkedIn and just the consistently paying it forward and giving it back.
Career Journeys and Advice
00:01:15
Speaker
What kind of advice would you give to your younger self, to your 25, 30, 35 year old self? Definitely don't worry so much. I should probably give that same advice to my current self as well. You know, go and stay for senior week after graduation. You know, that's younger than 25. But really, you know, overall, I'd say your career is a journey and it's not a destination. And
00:01:46
Speaker
your first or second step is not gonna be your last and your life is gonna evolve and your values and kind of what's important to you and don't feel like you need to make something work if it isn't. I really respect that. You don't always have to make something work if it isn't working. You mentioned how everything's a journey.
00:02:12
Speaker
I completely agree. There's no linear path. It's just you make decision after decision every day, no matter what we're doing. It's just constant decisions. What we're going to say next, what we're going to do next, who we're going to speak with next, every
Influential Mentors and Career Development
00:02:25
Speaker
aspect. So really insightful. Who are some of the professional mentors in your world that have made an impact on you, Marnie?
00:02:34
Speaker
Definitely the first, so I didn't, I never had the chance to have a formal mentor, which is why I think it's so important now that mentoring is a thing to give back. But what I'd say is, you know, it was really some of my bosses, you know, have made, you know, important, have been important to me in my career. Like Harold Getz, who was my first boss when I was at MediaCom,
00:03:02
Speaker
I know, Harold, that's from selling out of home, my first, yeah, at Clear Channel, legitimately about 20 years ago. That's fantastic. That's phenomenal. Wow. He's amazing. He really took the step back to kind of make sure that I understood what I was doing as an assistant planner at Gray, working on Proctor and Gamble, to really helping me think forward with my own career development. And then when I was at Mindshare,
00:03:31
Speaker
definitely Mike Stiles, who now works in marketing for, I think, the state of New Jersey. He was, he's just an amazing human being and just, you know, would give you the shirt off his back if he, you know, if he could. And then, you know, I think now also, you know, Bill Duggan at the ANA has been a really huge mentor and advocate for me and just always, you know, helped me open doors with my own career development.
00:04:01
Speaker
Great. That's great. Thank you for paying it forward and mentioning those mentors that made an impact on you.
Marketing Career Challenges and Giving Back
00:04:09
Speaker
Marty, help us understand. Who are you? Tell us who you are. I wanted to switch this episode up instead of just going in the typical flow. Help those watching, those listening, understand who you are as a person, as a mom, as an industry leader, as someone who's constantly paying it forward. Tell us.
00:04:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's like my background is in marketing. I'd say that coupled with my passion for career development and paying it forward is what drives me. You know, what I feel like everybody at some point in their marketing career
00:04:50
Speaker
is either forced to or wants to kind of reinvent themselves and figure out, you know, either I was laid off or I, you know, not really loving what I'm doing anymore. And, and for me that, you know, that came when I was laid off from, you know, advertising agency and, you know, it was really like a great social experiment for me to understand like who I could count on in my network.
00:05:17
Speaker
And I was lucky and got my job with A&A a couple months later, but I still remember all of those people who really went out of their way to help me make connections and, you know, and get interviews. And I felt that was a life changing moment because I always want to be in that pay it forward position as long as I'm able to, to help people find, you know, their next opportunity and to thrive in a career that they love.
Inspiration for Reinvention
00:05:43
Speaker
Tell us about Marty's Midlife Marketers newsletter. Did that come about because of your experiences? It actually did. It really started from my experience as a midlife marketer, as early as in my mid-30s.
00:06:02
Speaker
being forced to reinvent myself. And I knew agency life wasn't really for me anyway, but I, you know, I was like, oh, my daughter, you know, goes to kindergarten full time, I'll figure it out. And the decision was made for me. And kind of ever since going through that experience and then being at the ANA and seeing so many people go through this experience for the last 15 years,
00:06:30
Speaker
I ultimately became this go-to person for our members who were either in transition or were about to be in transition or just was like, I'm not liking this anymore. And they would grab time with me and we would network and, you know, brainstorm some opportunities for them. So the whole concept of the midlife marketer is really around, you know, starting at your mid to late thirties,
00:06:57
Speaker
You kind of have to reinvent yourself because you're either agency side and you look around you and there's very few people over 40 with tons of layoffs and it's still happening. The client side, the tenure of a CMO is very limited and it's the same with media companies as well. You're kind of hit a certain age and you're kind of forced to think about what's next.
00:07:25
Speaker
So I, I really felt like, you know what, I want to try to again, pay it forward and create this newsletter all around that midlife marketer concept and try to help other people figure out what's next and thrive in a career that they love.
ANA Tenure and Industry Impact
00:07:39
Speaker
Amazing. Tell us a little bit more about your role at the ANA. You've mentioned that a couple of times about being at the ANA. Yeah. So, um, I've been at the ANA for 15 years last month.
00:07:49
Speaker
Most of my time I ran a lot of our events, our committees, conferences, webinars, and the last couple of years I've
00:07:59
Speaker
I work at the A&A Educational Foundation, which is all about bringing academia and the marketing industry together to really inspire the next generation of talent to want to come into marketing. So I run a lot of our partnerships there, like our Give the Gift of A&A University membership program, where companies donate A&A memberships to colleges and universities so they could get real live, you know, content from us and our
00:08:27
Speaker
fundraising gala a f honors night and some partnership programs and stuff. That's awesome. Help us understand a little bit more about your your skill set and just as a as a marketing maven as a coach as someone who understands this ecosystem and more importantly than understands the ecosystem understands people just
00:08:48
Speaker
What differentiates your skillset in terms of what are your superpowers?
Coaching and Leadership Focus
00:08:53
Speaker
You're a fantastic connector and you're great at giving advice. And that's what I see, but we'd love to hear from you firsthand.
00:09:01
Speaker
So I guess for me, I'm not only a mentor, but also, you know, an ICF certified coach. I went back to school during the pandemic and got my career in executive coach certificate from NYU. And I'm also credited from the ICF, which is the International Coaching Federation. It's the largest governing body in coaching, right? So I either coach or mentor a lot of folks around, you know,
00:09:26
Speaker
career development, career transition, how do I get to the next level? And then also a lot of leadership issues. How do I navigate difficult conversations? How do I manage up? How do I manage my direct reports?
00:09:42
Speaker
How do I set boundaries for myself? Work-life balance. I actually even call it work-life integration because... It really is. Right? Yeah. So it's almost like you name it, I've either coached or mentored someone around the topic.
Philanthropy and Community Involvement
00:10:00
Speaker
Totally. Marnie, help us understand a little bit more about just a cause that's near and dear to you, because for those watching, those listening that aren't as familiar with OhHello.io, most of our mentors that are on the platform choose to, when they're bringing people up and bringing people forward, they're also donating a portion of the proceeds to 50 plus charities that are integrated into the platform.
00:10:21
Speaker
What is a cause that's near and dear to you or causes near and dear to you? So I picked two. Number one is obviously the A&A Educational Foundation and we're a 501c3 charitable foundation, right? And that's my job is to make sure that we have enough revenue to run. The cause that I'm linked to through Oh Hello is really important seeing Jude's Children's Hospital. I actually ran an event, an A&A event there about 10 years ago on site in Memphis.
00:10:51
Speaker
was lucky enough after the event to be taken around on some private tours to see the hospitals, what they do for the families. It's just unbelievable what they do for children who have cancer and their families as well.
00:11:12
Speaker
That's definitely a cause important to me and why I picked that amazing. Marty, I want to be conscious of time knowing that you have to jump in one
Priceless Mentorship Experiences
00:11:21
Speaker
minute. With that said, what kind of parting wisdom or advice would you give to everybody watching in a couple sentences or less?
00:11:30
Speaker
You know, I think taking advantage of either being a mentor and or, you know, a reverse mentor is really important. It's something that I wish I had earlier in my career developments. You know, I've had some informal mentors, but I think, you know, having a formal mentor and especially something on, you know, a platform like Oh Hello is kind of, kind of priceless. So definitely sign up.
00:11:57
Speaker
You rock, Marnie. Well, we're so stoked to have you on the platform. This was so fun. Thank you for taking the time out of your crazy hectic day to record with us. Thank you, everybody, for watching, Marnie, for listening. Thanks, Marnie. Appreciate you. Thank you. Great.