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OhHello - Toccara Baker
63 Plays1 year ago
Episode 53 of the OhHello.io 🌞☕️ vod/pod is here!
This 1:1 mentor interview features a stellar “wearer of many hats” "do'er of many cool things" and “explorer” that attracts smiles + respect from colleagues and friends everywhere she goes. In fact, this featured OhHello.io mentor is so talented , and well-liked, that she has the distinguished honor of being a citizen of both the US and the UK!
A seasoned pro w/ a wealth of experience in the Advertising and Marketing industry, this “Hello” (what we refer to as an OhHello.io mentor/expert) has spent 15+ years working in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, and London.
Toccara Baker is a Senior Director of Marketing at TripleLift. She’s held roles at Snap Inc., Adobe, TubeMogul, Inc., Publicis / Publicis Groupe / Starcom, and more. A member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated sorority, and a graduate of Northwestern University, this “Hello” is ecstatic to be a mentor on the OhHello.io platform (where you'll see Toccara and dozens upon dozens of additional faces, in November and beyond, as we're finishing-up our soft launch)
Some tidbits from this convo:
-Using the North Star of saying "YES!”
-The truest form of mentorship is ”guiding people to the decision that’s inside them"
2 best pieces of advice:
💡 Not making a decision is a decision within itself
👟 Run until you get tackled. Just keep running.
Big ups to Toccara's mentors: her close friend, that's like a big sis: Zarpana Kabir (big ups to Z!). A nod to her old friend/colleague, Cristina
Toccara also wants to call out 2 special members of her personal Board of Directors- Phil Cowlishaw ( 🐨 ) and Philip Duffield ( 🏴 )
We recorded this one a while back (thanks, TB), but it felt nice to re-watch and hear Zarpana, Phil, and Phil's names ❤️❤️❤️
Wanna be a mentor, too, or get help/meet some of the best in the biz? Drop us your email, go to ohhello.io, or book some time w/ our batch of OG OhHello mentors!
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Transcript
Introduction and Platforms
00:00:12
Speaker
Yeah, you love it, TV. Oh, hello, Takara. Oh, hello, Jeremy.
00:00:23
Speaker
I appreciate that giggle. It was great catching up just before this and also a few weeks ago. I have the pleasure of knowing who you are. But for our listeners, for our guests that are listening on iTunes and listening on Spotify and those watching on LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, please tell us who I have the pleasure of talking with. First off, that music is great.
Takara's Career Journey
00:00:50
Speaker
I love that little drop. Thanks.
00:00:52
Speaker
So, my name is Takara Baker, and I am originally from Oakland, California, USA, very proud native from there. I have been working in advertising, oh gosh, for the last 15 plus years. And, you know, my path has been
00:01:15
Speaker
kind of interesting, kind of working in various places and ad tech partners, ad tech companies. I started first working in advertising at Starcom Chicago, which is very near and dear to my heart. And mine. Thank you. I worked with you, of course, at Tube mogul.
00:01:34
Speaker
which is also very near and dear to my heart. Worked at Adobe and now currently I work at Triplelift and I am based out of London and I've been here for the last seven years. So at the moment I lead a field marketing team for Triplelift out of London and lead them globally. So that's just a whistle stop, I guess, of me.
00:01:57
Speaker
That's amazing.
Dual Citizenship: UK and US
00:01:59
Speaker
Something that is so special, the fact that I know this about you, but for those that are learning about our new Oh, hello mentor is the fact that you lived in Chicago, you've lived in in the Bay Area, you've lived in New York and living in London. After the past seven years, what about a year, two years ago, you became a dual citizen?
00:02:21
Speaker
Yes, actually this happened in August. I became a citizen. So I'm yeah, citizen of the UK and also of the US. I didn't have to give up my US passport. So yeah, very happy to have them have them both. It was super important to me to really kind of secure that. So yeah.
Guided by New Experiences
00:02:43
Speaker
That's awesome. It's super special. Tell us a little bit more about what defines you just from going having the agency experience to add tech, to social platforms, to add tech, MarTech. You've worn some different hats throughout your career and you've got a lot to give back. Let's hear about what defines you. Oh, man, that's interesting. I think for me, a lot of
00:03:08
Speaker
kind of how I'm led in general is by experiences and really about just kind of exploring new things. I've always kind of, my life has always been guided by that. If I think something is interesting, I say yes. And I've learned down the road that ultimately that opens up to a lot of other possibilities. I just didn't think we're there. And so I try to kind of keep that as my
00:03:38
Speaker
my North Star, it's very interesting. Shonda Rhimes had this book that was all about the year of yes, that I don't know if people, some people might know about it, but it was something I really connected with.
From Film Major to Advertising
00:03:50
Speaker
Because I was like, yes, that actually is how I operate. Someone says something interesting, I'm like, yes, and I don't necessarily think that sometimes, but it's led to a lot of stuff. So like, for me, I, you know, I started out
00:04:05
Speaker
even as just kind of in college as a film major and so that to me was something that I thought was really interesting and I said yes to that and you know from there I'm now in advertising and it's not like I thought in college I'm gonna work in ad tech you know but I thought that advertising was super interesting right and so I took
00:04:27
Speaker
an internship at Starcom Chicago because I had I needed something to do and I thought it would be interesting and I said yes. And then, you know, I was kind of working in the agency side for for work and decided that I wanted to kind of expand my thinking technology was really a big sort of thing that was coming into play. I didn't really fully understand it on the on the advertising side. I don't think anyone else
00:04:56
Speaker
And so I saw a role at a really small tech company that now is called 2BTV. That's now 2BTV that's owned by Fox. And I said yes to that. And I just continue to just say yes to these new experiences. And ultimately, I think it works out for me to continue to guide myself in that manner.
Choosing Northwestern University
00:05:23
Speaker
And how did you decide, when you went from Oakland to Chicago and worked at Starcom, how did you decide to go to Northwestern? Because that was something where it makes you say yes as well.
00:05:36
Speaker
You know what? This one is actually a bit of an interesting one because I feel like if you're from California, there are really great schools out there. And so for me, I looked around and I saw that everyone from my high school or people that I knew were going to schools in California. And I just decided I wanted to go somewhere different because I felt like if I didn't leave California then, I never would have left.
00:06:02
Speaker
Um, and so I actually, I really wanted to go to Georgetown and NYU and I didn't get him. And I applied to Northwestern on a, on a whim. Um, and I got in and I was like, well, I guess I'll just go.
00:06:21
Speaker
So it became a yes based on a whim. Got into Northwestern, I guess I'll go. Yeah. I was like, Oh, okay. Sure, I'll do it.
Mentorship and Empowerment
00:06:35
Speaker
What excites you about mentorship? What would you tell? What would you tell a Northwestern grad? What would you tell a 25 year old to Cara, someone who is growing into their career or even
00:06:49
Speaker
a peer, a friend, someone who is facing some challenging times, as we've seen in this ecosystem, a couple hundred thousand people within tech, MarTech, ad tech, media, SaaS have lost their jobs recently. And you've worked with some amazing companies. So I would love to hear a little bit about the kind of feedback that you would give to your younger self in addition to what excites you about the Oh, Hello program.
00:07:21
Speaker
I would say, first of all, I'll start with mentorship in general. I think it's something that's super important. I think for even specifically for me as like a woman, a woman of color, a black woman in this industry, I remember when I started at Starcom, there was a woman in leadership that was a black woman.
00:07:40
Speaker
And I just kind of wanted to speak to her and I sent her an email. I was like, hi, I just joined. I'm looking forward to seeing you on the elevator. And she was so kind and really sweet. And I think that it's really,
00:07:55
Speaker
mentorship and also being mentored is just really important because you need people to kind of talk to you and bounce ideas off of and also to guide you. And I think it's really key also one thing I would have told myself my younger self is that in many ways you you already have a lot of the tools and you know
00:08:15
Speaker
kind of you know a lot anyway like we are the experts of ourselves and of what we enjoy and what we love and a lot of times it's kind of listening to yourself and really having a clear definition of what you want and then figuring out the path to achieve it is ultimately what i think where i think mentorship becomes really beneficial and it's something that
00:08:39
Speaker
I've really learned as I've mentored other people that it's not about kind of telling people what to do, but really guiding them to the decision that's internally inside of them and then giving them anecdotes about how I've maybe solved problems or navigated difficult situations so that people can then do it in a way that's very, I would say true to themselves. And so that to me is really how I think about like mentorship and why I think it's important.
00:09:10
Speaker
And yeah, like I said before, really just telling myself just to in some way stop doubting yourself. You kind of know, you know these things, but allow someone to kind of pull them out of you. And then once you figure out your direction, just attack it. What you were saying earlier about saying yes,
00:09:29
Speaker
The faster that you say yes to things, the faster you are able to explore new opportunities, tackle those challenges. You had mentioned problem solving, so being able to solve a problem when you sit and just go, that just weighs on you more and more and more and like the weight on one shoulder. So really appreciate how you pointed that out.
Influential Mentors
00:09:51
Speaker
Tell us a little bit more about some mentors in your life. Who are some mentors that have had a profound impact on you personally and more professionally? The first one is actually Zarpana. Zarpana Kabir, who is amazing, who's also a really good friend of mine. But she has been someone for me that has been a really good mentor and sounding board.
00:10:17
Speaker
Oh, I feel like I'm like, why are we going to cry? But I love her. She's just like a great person. But like, I feel like when you find good people that you connect with, that you work with, and that can also give you really great advice, it's important to like foster that relationship and to keep that relationship strong and to go back to them. So the other person I'm talking about is actually her name is Christina. And she currently works at Starcom. And so
00:10:44
Speaker
I actually, world revise, I had met her at a, when I was interviewing for her role. And then I also had met her kind of across the industry when I moved back to San Francisco and we became really good friends and also ended up collaborating together. And she is something that's someone that's really important to me and I use her as a sounding board for
00:11:06
Speaker
kind of any of the moves that I'm making are sort of some of the situations that I'm dealing with or have questions about. So there's the two. Two other people. I like to have what I call basically my like council of people. I think it's good to have different types of people that you come to for different things. So I agree. Phil Coleshaw and Phil Duffield, who you also know, are awesome.
00:11:32
Speaker
I like executive board of people to like help me when it comes to some of the other decisions i'm kind of thinking through like when i was looking at. Getting joining a new company and having a new role they really helps me when i thought about like salary negotiations and even.
00:11:49
Speaker
kind of thinking about if this was the right company and how I should evaluate companies and they really helped me with that. And they've been super helpful. I think like I talked about having women to really talk to, but I also, it's really important for me to have men to also talk to because for, in a lot of ways I asked them, I'm like, well, how would you do it?
00:12:11
Speaker
So I can kind of learn and glean from them, like, well, how would a male operate in this situation in a way that I'm not thinking about it? And so that has been really helpful for me. And they've just been around for a long time. So they've got a lot of expertise there. Love that you called out just having mentors that are both female and male and just come from different experiences, different backgrounds. It's really important for everyone to be able to hear that.
Advice on Decision Making
00:12:41
Speaker
Thank you. Takara, any other parting wisdom, parting advice as you're going to be a mentor within the Oh Hello Platform as we launch soon, what else do you want to share with the community?
00:12:54
Speaker
Okay, I would share like two of the best pieces of advice that I've received in general. And the first one is, as it relates to what we're talking about, about making decisions and how it can be hard, sometimes not making a, well, actually not making a decision is a decision in itself. And so that I think is something that's really important, especially when you're thinking about how you want to grow into your career and what you want to do. If you sit on it, you've actually made a decision.
00:13:24
Speaker
So I think that's one. The other one that's been really big for me, someone actually told me this when I was too mobile and thinking of moving to London and I was really scared about it. And I was like, well, I don't know if this is the right time or if I should do it. And this might be another person you remember, her name was Alessandra. And she told me, she basically told me, she said, run until you get tackled. And I love that because she said like,
00:13:52
Speaker
just go after everything and if someone stops you then you stop or but just keep running and so I think that's also really yeah I actually use that one a lot with people when they're thinking through like imposter syndrome or do I deserve it I'm like yeah you do go take it and go
00:14:12
Speaker
I love that and anyone can, you can use that for business. You can use that for your personal life. You can use that for absolutely anything and everything. Takara, I appreciate you. This was so fun. Thank you so much. We're excited to have you on the platform. Thanks everybody for listening. Thanks everybody for watching. Takara Baker.