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OhHello - Crystal Wallace
72 Plays2 years ago
Crystal Wallace, Chief Growth Officer - Platforms is an elevated leader in integrated media, consumer data and marketing technologies. With over 15 years’ experience leading technology, analytics, and media teams, Crystal brings her expertise in marketing, finance, and sales to her role. Crystal is responsible for unifying and managing IPG’s Global IPG partner platforms program, to assist brands in connecting with products and solutions that provides a full end-to-end media experience and delivers growth for their business.
Previously with Publicis Media, where she led Data Strategy, Operations, and Infrastructure, Crystal has been a driving force for critical and profitable innovations and is an expert in finding new paths to tangible gains for clients.
Beyond her love of data and technology, Crystal is most passionate about developing people and helping them become the best versions of themselves. She has had an amplified effect on her employees’ growth because of her self-described servant leadership approach, and focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Crystal leadership resulted her to be featured in Yahoo’s EMpower Ethnic Minority Executives Role Model list.
Crystal has an undergrad in Risk Management and Insurance, a Master’s in Business Administration, and a Master’s in Health Administration, from Georgia State University. She currently resides in Atlanta, GA.
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Transcript
Charlie Brown & Jay-Z Mashup Joy
00:00:07
Speaker
I love the dance. I love dancing in the background too. That's amazing. I love the music. I love Charlie Brown. Who doesn't? When there's a Charlie Brown Jay-Z mashup together, that makes my heart, oh. And then when I see a dog in the background at the same time, your dog was getting into it. That was amazing. That was fun. Yes, yes, yes. This is going to be a fun one.
Introduction of Crystal Wallace on the Podcast
00:00:37
Speaker
Hi, Crystal. Oh, hello. So glad to have you on here. So glad that our mutual friend Jason Smith introduced us. It's been fun getting to know you over the past few weeks. To those listening to the Oh Hello podcast, or those watching on LinkedIn, on TikTok, effort YouTube, thank you. We appreciate you.
Crystal Wallace's Role & Focus at IPG
00:00:56
Speaker
Crystal, who are you? Tell us about yourself. Hi, thank you so much. First of all, I'm so humbled and it's a pleasure to be here. It's been great getting to know you too, Jeremy.
00:01:06
Speaker
I am Crystal Wallace. I am a mother first, a wife, a human, and I am the Chief Growth Officer of the IPG Partnership Platforms Program, driving really data and tech continuity around our network and really delivering on the transformational services on intertized platforms as it relates to MarTech. And that's a little bit about me, but yeah.
00:01:34
Speaker
I'm just a gal. A transformational marketer, a digital native, someone who's been in this ecosystem for quite a long time. You and I were talking about your family. You have a daughter who turns 21 this weekend. So congrats on that. That's exciting.
00:01:52
Speaker
Thank you so much. Yes, I've been in this industry, not my first career actually.
Crystal's Career Journey from Insurance to Marketing
00:01:56
Speaker
I started in risk management insurance. I was a commercial underwriter for AIG and got involved in marketing, a marketing program that was worldwide around the world.
00:02:09
Speaker
Very soon, I was like, my personality is a little bit more than just underwriting. But I love the data and the risk part of things. So I eventually somehow ended up in this crazy world of advertising, more so on the platform side, working for Search Ignite, really in the early dawn of search marketing and really performance marketing, and
00:02:35
Speaker
the opportunity to be in that startup environment. I was, I think, number like five employee at Search Ignite, which was connected to 360i and building an amazing search platform, really kind of the start of real kind of, you know,
00:02:53
Speaker
portfolio management and search bidding. And we had bid scientists before there was even kind of this notion of data science. And I got to wear multiple hats and it got me really steeped on both the technical side of things, but also really
00:03:11
Speaker
how you use applications to drive business outcomes related to really integrated marketing. And since then, I've navigated throughout this industry, working for amazing agencies.
Mentorship and Industry Evolution Reflections
00:03:27
Speaker
I'm at IPG now, I was formerly at Publesis for eight years before that, didn't sue for eight, and have met amazing people
00:03:36
Speaker
smart minds, but I would say really what's kind of kept me, I guess, inspired and kind of meeting kind of my intrinsic need for always learning is really through mentorship and allyship, connecting with people who see kind of the best of me and see kind of my superpowers and my natural talents that I can bring to bear.
00:04:06
Speaker
and have really pushed me to stretch and deliver on really amazing kind of innovative ways of working operations, technologies that I've kind of been able to be at the forefront of some of all this great transformation that has taken place over the course of 15 years within our industry from a digital standpoint.
00:04:30
Speaker
Amazing. So over those 14, sorry, 15 years, how would you characterize the skill set of what you are going to be bringing and sharing to the community just in the sense of 15 years of experience as someone who's worked at three major holding companies, been a part of advertising tech, marketing tech and just digital transformation within itself?
Creating Effective Data Strategies
00:04:54
Speaker
When I bring the table first and foremost is really data strategy.
00:05:00
Speaker
that drives business outcomes and being able to orchestrate people platforms and teams in a way that makes it simple, helps brands realize who their next best customer is, but really how to operationalize that. Being able to create and form great vision strategies from a go to market standpoint, but actually be able to operationalize those and drive it forward, which sometimes is lacking, especially
00:05:30
Speaker
When you're trying to orchestrate and harmonize the data in tech supply chain and make it make sense in a world where you need to drive reach.
00:05:45
Speaker
the consumption and the consumers are changing in terms of their needs, wants, mindsets, and you need to stay at pace with the acceleration of change, which is not necessarily a bona fide scientific theory, but it's playing out as if it is in terms of just transformation and what we're seeing happen and driven by technology. With change and the transformation,
00:06:14
Speaker
the mentorship that you're gonna be providing to this community and just you as a leader within our ecosystem, what would you tell your younger self? You told me that you've got three daughters, two bonus daughters, you have managed many people, you've been a leader. Looking back, what would you tell your 25 year old self? Looking back, I would absolutely tell my younger self that you are worth it.
00:06:44
Speaker
You are special. You have talent and you deserve a right to be here.
00:06:53
Speaker
I, you know, being enabled, so I have a disability and it's taken me a long time to realize that it's not a disability, it's an enablement. Obviously I'm a woman, I'm a black woman in an industry and especially the side of the industry that I sit on is male dominated. There's not a lot of people who look like me. And so several times throughout my career,
00:07:21
Speaker
I've gotten that imposter syndrome. Like I think we all do, but being able to seek out people who look like me, people who have been able to see my talents before I even could and see the hope. I think Oprah has a wonderful quote that a mentor is that person who can see and bring out the hope in you. It's just been, it's been the lifeblood and the acceleration that's gotten me where I am today.
00:07:51
Speaker
I don't come in the normal mold of my peers. And so having that type of support and allyship and mentors who, even if I'm not in the room, they speak on my behalf, they're able to translate and help me with my personal branding, which as an introvert, natural introvert. That's what you told me. It is.
00:08:16
Speaker
even put a spotlight on you. You're spotlighting me and and this is part of my stretch goal. And this is what I love about humanity and experience like you're never done. There's always new things to learn. There's always ways that you can evolve and improve who you are. And so really
00:08:39
Speaker
understanding and having that confidence, being able to, whatever way you do it, speak yourself up, speak life into yourself is some of the things that I wish I had when I was younger and didn't let kind of those thoughts and fears, you know, run rampant to sometimes, you know, it would hold me back for opportunities that really I have the right to win it, so.
00:09:05
Speaker
That was so heartfelt because imposter syndrome is something that takes place for everyone.
00:09:12
Speaker
you're so damn right and you nailed it in terms of what so many people in the industry of tech, marketing, advertising look like. A lot of them look like me. And so to have the confidence and to overcome and accept something that may have been framed previously in your life as a disability and to embrace it, to accept it, and you told me what that is, but also just not looking like ever, and it's up to you if you want to talk about that,
00:09:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I'm dyslexic.
Unique Strengths: Dyslexia, ADD, and Depression
00:09:46
Speaker
I have, you know, attention deficit disorder. And, you know, I have clinical depression and all of those things at face value create challenges, but I've been able to reframe and my dyslexia has me, it allows me to think very differently, but also in an interesting way, make connections.
00:10:12
Speaker
And I'm always looking for analogies and trends, like that's my natural orientation, which lends itself because obviously I'm skilled at data tech and analytics. So I'm able to see that pattern behavior.
00:10:29
Speaker
in all things, whether they be systems or people, and then find kind of intersection points to bring synergies together. And that is definitely unique to my enablement. And my dad, who I always say I'm probably the oldest digital native,
00:10:50
Speaker
born in 80, I've always had a computer because my dad was a system programmer. He worked for the likes of Texas Instruments, Oracle, like, he was kind of really kind of first mover. So I remember, you know, coding when I was three, you know, I was seven years old, I was on BBS board. So before it was really, quote unquote, a scaled internet.
00:11:12
Speaker
You know, I was chatting and unfortunately it was mostly on adult bulletin boards because those were the only ones that could keep their numbers alive because of, you know, their monthly active users. And very early on then I got into the online dating sphere because that was really the only kind of interface that was scaled through love AOL. So before, you know, there was a match.com I was,
00:11:40
Speaker
I was on there like, you know, I met my college friends and it was more so platonic. I just, I always wanted to connect with people. Hence why I love traveling globally. I love meeting
00:11:54
Speaker
different people, because I think diversity is definitely the spice of life. And diversity and, you know, race, ethnicity, I mean, diversity and who people are. And that's how I think life is made living, that interaction of different experiences.
00:12:14
Speaker
And you only get that through connecting with people. So connecting with people, overcoming different obstacles, embracing who you are, being confident, having parents who enabled you and helped you in such a young age.
Inclusivity and Learning on Oh Hello Platform
00:12:29
Speaker
Just tinker with computers as a kid. Pretty amazing. Being an introvert and coming out, being a black woman in our ecosystem and
00:12:40
Speaker
being surrounded with a bunch of people that don't always look like you, that is part of the reason I am creating Oh Hello. I want a marketplace of people and connectivity so everyone can learn from different experiences, different colors, different ethnicities, different skill sets, different ages. And so we're so excited to have you on the platform. I know that you have to go in a couple of minutes for your next meeting. I do wanna ask you this though, Crystal, tell me a little bit more about
00:13:10
Speaker
a mentor or two professionally that's made a big impact on your career. Yeah, I have Helen Lynn, who is a Titan in this industry. I've met her, yep. Yeah, met her at Publix's. And at first I was so, she's a big personality and just a straight shooter. And I was a little intimidated, but she saw something special in me and took me up under her wings.
00:13:40
Speaker
She's just inspired me. One of the first kind of things that really helped me, I think, kind of navigate this industry is she used to tell me how to navigate politics, which is very uncomfortable. And she's like, no, turn it into power. Understand the framing of where people come from in political environments and how you can use that to your effect in a better way.
00:14:06
Speaker
Another person is E.T. Franklin, Esther Franklin. She is chief strategy officer, I believe at Spark, and she was someone who looked like me. So to be able to see yourself in the highest echelons of this industry is really important because that gives you kind of the belief that, yes, you can aspire up this ladder.
00:14:35
Speaker
and you have an example in front of you. And she's so dear. She sends me little cards in the mail, which is amazing. But she helped me really connect kind of in a human way, how to talk tech, how to bring tech
00:14:55
Speaker
data strategy and put it in a framework so that the layman can understand its impacts and how to harness that power.
00:15:07
Speaker
from an end-to-end marketing media standpoint and how to really pull that thread all the way through the value chain. Personally, she was definitely inspirational just to see her progression and understand how she rose throughout her career ladder, but even from a technical, a business standpoint,
00:15:30
Speaker
really helping me land on a talk track that translate a common vernacular so that people can see tech for what it is and it's not that tech-to-tech speak where it's just like, oh, this is too confusing. She was invaluable with that. And then Tracy Young Lincoln, she's just a powerhouse, an innovator.
00:15:55
Speaker
she, me and her, you know, I always say she's thinking to my anger, vice versa, because she has these amazing visions. And I'm like, Oh, yeah, I know the pieces to bring that and put that together and make it a reality. And it's funny because some of the neural language programming applications and AI, those things that everyone is buzzing about right now, like,
00:16:18
Speaker
We did that eight years ago, decades ago. And I always say there's nothing new up under the sun. There's just always evolution of the here and the now. And so just being connected to those powerhouse strong women in our industry, visionaries really,
00:16:43
Speaker
has been amazing. This has been, Crystal, this has been so much fun. I love the vulnerability, the confidence that you exude. So we are so excited to have you be on our Oh Hello platform. This was such a fun one. Thank you so much. Everyone listening. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in. Next one. Thank you, Crystal.