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OhHello - Andrea Javor
60 Plays2 years ago
Episode 45 of the OhHello Inc. 🌞☕️ OhHello.io pod - starring a budding novelist, certified divorce coach, and marketing executive -- all within the same episode!
As a reminder, for those that don't catch every episode, here on LI, hit that subscribe button wherever you listen to your favorite pods!
This 'Hello' is an integrated media and marketing professional who brings expertise in leading teams across a range of industries including Alc-Bev, CPG, Financial, Tech, and Cannabis. From OMD USA, MediaCom, Mindshare, to putting her stamp on CPG heavyweights like Beam Suntory, Harvest Health & Recreation, Inc., and Constellation Brands- this exec is passionate about driving digital-first marketing solutions and leveraging data to solve complex marketing challenges in today's fast-paced marketplace.
“Looking back, throughout my career, I wish I was more deliberate about finding mentors, but realize that it's never too late! Building strong relationships with people has been my number one ‘unlock’. My advice to others - find someone that can help round you out and listen. Find people that can provided ‘value-added insights’."
Her #1 mentor- Kevin George - who helped this OhHello mentor realize that when you have 70% of the experience you need for a role, confidence and FSO will help you master the other 30% once you're in it
Her tribe of "Lady Bosses" that help one another: Barbara Liss (a fellow OhHello mentor), Cristina C., Laura Summers, Vanessa Kentris Smith and Krista Mayer
When this 'Hello' is not working as a marketing consultant, she moonlights as a CDC Certified Divorce Coach and is currently writing her first novel. Some of this Mentor’s proceeds will be going to the Alzheimer's Association® as the cause is very near and dear to her heart.
This was fun Andrea Javor - we're excited to have you on the OhHello.io platform (lauching, oh, so soon)!
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Transcript
Greetings and Introduction
00:00:06
Speaker
There we go. Oh, hello, Andrea. Oh, hello. How are you? I'm doing well, doing well. How are you? I'm doing great. I've really been looking forward to this.
00:00:25
Speaker
I have too.
Career Journey in Marketing
00:00:27
Speaker
I've had the pleasure of knowing you and just call it peripherally growing up in this ecosystem together. And it's been fun watching you pivot and grow as a marketer, as a leader. I have the pleasure of knowing you. Why don't you tell our listeners or viewers of the Oh Hello community who I'm speaking with right now?
00:00:50
Speaker
Well, great. Well, first of all, I want to say I'm so happy that you're putting this out in the world. I think we need this in the world. So I'm thrilled and humbled to participate in the Oh, Hello! program. So thank you for that.
Unique Career Experiences
00:01:01
Speaker
So I'm Andrea Javer. I am a Chicago-based marketer. I've been in the industry. Gosh.
00:01:08
Speaker
Over 23 years, I think you and I, again, I love that we have kind of grown up tangentially in the industry together doing similar roles at different places and probably doing a lot of overlapping work and knowing a lot of the same people and meeting people and being part of the same circles. So it's nice to kind of put a pin on it and really focus on a conversation today.
00:01:30
Speaker
But I would say highlights of my career in general. So I had about 20 years in the media, digital and integrated planning space, both from an agency perspective as well as a client side.
00:01:40
Speaker
standpoint, I was at Beam Centauri for a number of years, was at a cannabis company up until the pandemic. And then since the pandemic, I've been doing a myriad of different things. And I have lots of messages for people who are thinking about career changes. I've done everything from become certified as a divorce coach. Yes, that's interesting after decades of a corporate marketing career, and I'm writing a book. So there's lots of amazing things that I've been able to do. So I feel very blessed from my experience.
Operational Experience and Digital Adaptation
00:02:09
Speaker
and one of the reasons why i thought it'd be fun to have you both be a mentor on the as part of the oh hello platform and also be part of our community and being on the pod it's just because of that you have you're not your typical marketer the fact that you know uh cpg you've been in the beverage industry you've been in the cannabis industry but something that i thought is just fun is the fact that you're
00:02:30
Speaker
writing a novel the fact that you also uh are a divorce coach the fact that you have these different flavors outside of just the standard i am a digital marketer now and so um there's a lot more to you for sure what would you say defines what would you say defines you and your overall um the skill set that you're going to be bringing to the oh hello community
00:02:56
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I would say for me, like I've had a really fortunate set of experiences that has helped me both from an operational standpoint, like kind of understanding
00:03:07
Speaker
how do departments slash individuals operate within a larger enterprise? So I've had a wonderful bit of time at Beam specifically being able to build and grow a department from scratch. There wasn't anybody who focused had digital in their title back in 2010 when I started with them. It was kind of a foreign thing. Back then it was all about, we just need to grab our Twitter handle and Instagram was about to launch and we needed to figure that out.
00:03:34
Speaker
So figuring out how do you operate within a company for success, both as a department and as well as individuals and growing and coaching people and helping them with career pathing when you hire someone in with a social media content expertise, how do you coach them up and get them into the commercial planning team eventually? There aren't roadmaps out there for it. So I'd say on the operational side, I've had a lot of really good experiences and I thrive in that.
00:04:02
Speaker
area, like really trying to figure out how do you make things work better together. That's where I've done a bit of integrated planning work. And then I think, you know, on the other side of things, like I love media. I grew up in the media space. I'm fascinated by the trends we're seeing just with as TV ratings continue to decline in a road and streaming comes up as such a big part of what we're talking about, you know, cookies and regulations and, you know, all the things that we have to navigate in the digital world.
00:04:30
Speaker
And then really now I think it's interesting too, just the digitization of retailers and how retailers are leaning into things like, you know, using AI and trying to figure out how do they present a better data story to their own, to their customers for better retail partnerships.
Evolution of the Media Industry
00:04:45
Speaker
So I find the media space completely fascinating and I can go deep on it. I could talk to anybody for hours about just the trends in it and figuring out how do you navigate as a corporation.
00:04:56
Speaker
which is awesome. And the fact that our industry consistently innovates and you have to be excited about it. And if you're not, then it's not the best fit for you. So that's, that's something that's really important. I think about, um, about being in the media space and digital marketing ecosystem. And also that leads us to the next question, which is about mentorship.
Mentorship and Industry Insights
00:05:18
Speaker
What excites you specifically about mentorship and the Oh, hello platform? Sure. Sure.
00:05:24
Speaker
Well, I mean, I think for me, if I look back at my career, I have had mentors, but they haven't been deliberate. Like I haven't deliberately gone out and asked people to mentor me. It just sort of happened, you know, like with the boss I had for a while who really ended up kind of taking me under his wing and giving me a lot of authentic feedback and conversations, investing in me through training.
00:05:44
Speaker
helping give me opportunities. Then as I've gotten further in my career, I've had the younger generation. I have two people now that I meet with regularly who raise their hand in different facets of working with me and saying, hey, I know you're consulting here. You're not going to work here forever, but I'd love to be able to meet with you on a regular basis and just talk to you about my career, what you think.
00:06:06
Speaker
I feel like from a mentorship standpoint, one of the things is I wish I was more deliberate when I was younger, figuring out that I really need to have mentors in my life and I need to think about how someone can help me be as well-rounded as possible. I would suggest that people seek out mentors who can help round them out with experience they don't have, of course.
00:06:31
Speaker
which is people who are more seasoned in the industry that they're in can help them understand things even real high level like the difference in your job in corporate versus startup community like there's a very different. Way of operating like that's a different kind of day to day job right and helping to understand the landscape i think is a really important piece of what a mentor can help you do.
Corporate vs. Startup Experience
00:06:57
Speaker
Gosh, I love that you just brought up the specifics of a big corporation versus a startup. I was having a conversation with someone who reached out to me last week. We reconnected yesterday, and we were talking just about that. And I was trying to guide him. There's a very stark difference. There's an absolute fork, as you and I both know, from being at big corporations and also itty-bitty startups and places in between.
00:07:23
Speaker
you have to like there's a lot of pivoting and navigation and understanding where your skill set fits into a bigger org and how you can develop yourself within a bigger org and just the trials and tribulations that could take place and the politics that go that are involved with that but also at a startup there's no process absolutely none zero you're inventing everything like there's no
00:07:51
Speaker
Yeah, there's zero process. So with that said though, what would you tell your younger self?
Networking and Career Transition
00:07:58
Speaker
Would it just be kind of what you alluded to of ask people for that guidance? Yeah, I think I would tell my younger self to be really deliberate on who you align with in your career, who you work with. I would absolutely lean into the idea that building a strong network, building connections and authentic relationships with people
00:08:21
Speaker
that has been the number the biggest unlock in my entire career having gone from twenty years of really steady corporate jobs to suddenly it's the pandemic. I'm not really sure what's gonna happen i don't know about the entire marketplace is sort of upside down and we're not sure what to do in twenty twenty.
00:08:41
Speaker
to be able to reach out to people who I had worked with for years and say, hey, by the way, I'm not working full time right now. Here are the three things I can do. I'm really great with media strategy. I'm amazing with operations. And I'm also a great people coach and capabilities developer. Do you need any help? What can I do to help you? So I didn't create a website. I didn't start marketing myself on social media for marketing. I was very much leaning into my connections.
00:09:08
Speaker
So I would say for young people from a mentorship perspective, think about your community, your larger community of people who you can reach out to, whether it's someone you speak with once a month or once a year. I think having relationships of people who you know will be there to sit and listen to you and really hear what you have to say and not only
00:09:31
Speaker
help provide examples of how they've gone through similar experiences, but actually can really pinpoint and say, based on what I know about you, Andrea, this is what I think you should consider that maybe you're not thinking about. It's always for me, I want to get on a call with someone, even now, a networking call with someone new. I want to leave thinking, wow, I didn't think about it that way before.
00:09:52
Speaker
Wow, that was really an interesting insight. So you want to kind of find people who can give you those value-added insights that you're not seeing because you're too close to yourself. You know you live and breathe yourself every day. Absolutely. Who are some mentors that have played a significant impact on your life, on your career?
Impactful Mentorship
00:10:11
Speaker
Yeah. So Kevin George, a wonderful guy. He hired me. He was my client. I think, you know, Kevin, he was my client at Unilever when I was on at Mindshare on the agency side back in the day and he had a media post opening. And I literally, I Facebooked messaged him, I think. And I said, I don't even think he really knew me, but I was like, Hey, I saw you posted this job. I'm super interested. And I, you know, again, he gave me the opportunity to come in and, and,
00:10:37
Speaker
And this is another really big piece of advice I've given people recently. The job description he wrote, 80% of it, I'm like, I can do this in my sleep. This is a media and digital role. I get it. But then there were pieces on developing websites and some other things that I'm like, okay, I haven't done that before in my agency experience.
00:10:56
Speaker
But you know what I did? I said to him, look, I was really transparent. I go, these items, I haven't done before, but here's how I would approach it. And this is day one, this is what I would do. And he was convinced, right, that got it. She's going to, the thing she doesn't know how to do, she's going to go learn how to do it. I talked to a lot of people who say, oh, well, you know, I don't have 100% of the skill set that's required in the job description. And I say, you know what, if you're 70 or 80% of the way there,
00:11:22
Speaker
frickin go for it. Like, you got to put yourself out there. And to the point of conversation where you're talking about an offer, right? And it's like you get to that point when you start to get nervous, but don't be nervous in the beginning because no one's going to know everything. So he's been a really big mentor to me. I'm also in a group of women we call ourselves the lady bosses.
00:11:43
Speaker
And we're all women senior marketers. We've been recently unemployed or recently doing more consulting work and looking for work. Right. And we meet on a regular basis. I think, you know, Barbara lists. I don't know if you know Christina. Yeah, Barbara. Christina is wonderful. Vanessa Smith. Laura Summers love Kristin Mayer. I mean, there are some amazing women in that group.
00:12:11
Speaker
that have become mentors to me in the past handful of months as we have gotten together and we sit down and the first thing we say to each other is what can i do to help you what do you look for how can i help you and it's amazing
00:12:25
Speaker
to sit there and listen to the side hustles that people are getting interested in. I think divorce coaching for me is my, I moonlight as a divorce coach and do that on the side, but it's amazing to hear their perspective on how I could show up as a better coach in the community, right? And so it's amazing. So those are some of my mentors right now. That's awesome. Thank you for shouting them out. I'm sure they appreciate it.
Supporting Alzheimer's Association
00:12:50
Speaker
We'll be sure to tag them.
00:12:52
Speaker
Also tell us a little bit about some causes that are near and dear to you. As you know, you're gonna be able to donate to over 40 different charitable causes that are gonna be integrated after each mentorship and coaching session within the Oh Hello Platform. What's a cause that's near and dear to your heart, Andrea?
00:13:09
Speaker
Yeah, the number one cause is the Alzheimer's Association. For me, as you know, my family, we just lost my grandmother. She was 89 years old. I had 40 some years of life with her and amazing memories. I'm the oldest grandchild.
00:13:26
Speaker
and she suffered from dementia for the last four years of her life. And for me, that organization, I think by the time you and I get to that stage in life, I hope that there are treatments, I hope that there are remedies, because I think it's one of the most painful experiences to overcome for the families as well.
00:13:47
Speaker
Yeah, I do too. Having two grandparents that both had dementia and watching one really just decrease and decline and the other decline fast, but not go through as many, just the same kind of tumultuous process. I'm with you on that. That's an important one. All are important, but that one is near and dear as well. Any other parting wisdom, parting words of advice before we end the session?
Pursuing Passion and Creativity
00:14:17
Speaker
I just think follow your passion. Like, you know, we do the things we have to do. I was just telling someone, I have a book inside of me. I am called to write this novel and I can't get the story out of my head until I write it down on paper. So I would say absolutely follow your passion and do the things that you're being called to do on the inside and learn to listen to that. Love it. Andrea, thank you so much. Thank you. Oh, hello community. Appreciate you. Appreciate everyone listening and watching.
00:14:48
Speaker
Take care, my friend. Thank you. Bye, everybody.