I Choose the Ladder

In this episode you meet Monique L. Nelson. Monique is chair and chief executive officer of UWG, the country’s longest-standing multicultural

marketing agency. She took the helm of the agency in May 2012, when founder and advertising pioneer Byron Lewis retired.

Headquartered in Brooklyn, with offices in Detroit, Atlanta and Miami, UWG maintains a list of esteemed clients. Today, this list includes Ford Motor Company, Colgate Palmolive, The Home Depot, Bacardi U.S. and Coca-Cola. As one of the country’s leading multicultural agencies,

UWG services its clients with General Market, Black, Hispanic, Asian and LGBT marketing and advertising, digital and traditional advertising, consumer insight, public relations, consumer healthcare communications and cultural fluency consulting.

Ms. Nelson has expanded the agency’s client list and has led her team in the development of several award winning campaigns that show the wide range of the agency’s expertise, as well as its ability to connect its

clients with the growing and diverse cultures of today’s marketplace. With today’s minorities becoming the new majority, Ms. Nelson sees the role of multicultural agencies as even more important than when UWG was founded 50 years ago.

While a one-size-fits-all marketing campaign might be efficient, it may not be effective, according to Ms. Nelson. Thus, her vision for UWG is to continue its history of providing the deep insight, knowledge and cultural nuance that keeps its clients connected to their consumers.

Prior to joining UWG, Ms. Nelson was the Global Lead for Entertainment Marketing at Motorola, where she ensured that the technology giant’s entertainment and music strategies and alliances lived up to their promise as results-driven strategic marketing weapons worldwide.

Today, her leadership extends beyond her C-suite at UWG. Ms. Nelson contributes to many organizations and charities. She sits on the Advertising Week Global Board, AdWeek Diversity & Inclusion Council, The Brandeis Board of Trustees, The Eagle Academy Board, as well as the New York Advisory Board for The Posse Foundation, of which she is an alumna. She is a participant in the ANA’s Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing. Ms. Nelson continues to give back to her undergraduate alma mater by supporting the Vanderbilt on Madison Avenue Internship Program. She is also a member of the Brooklyn Chapter of Links, Inc., an international, not-for-profit corporation established in 1946, which is the nation’s oldest and largest volunteer service organization of extraordinary women who are committed to enriching, sustaining and ensuring the cultural and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry.

Ms. Nelson has an MBA in international marketing and finance from Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University and a Bachelor of Science degree in human and organizational development from Vanderbilt University. In 2016, she received United Way of New York City's Women's Leadership Council’s Power of Women to Make a Difference Award. Her other distinguished honors include: The Network Journal’s 25 Influential Black Women Under Forty, Ad Age's 40 Under 40, and the 2015 Advertising Working Mothers of the Year.

Some of the things that we discussed that had me ready to pass the collection plate were about:⁠

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1. Handling mistakes.⁠

2. The power of alignment.⁠

3. How COVID has changed her day to day life.⁠

4. The health scare that caused her to reorganize the role that work played in her life.⁠

5. Buying a company, getting married, and having her first child in 12 months.⁠

In this episode, I discuss some of the major-ish career lessons that I was forced to learn during COVID. There may or may not be a special announcement in there as well, so you should probably listen to it.

Happy New Year!!

In this episode you meet Tiana Conley. Tiana serves as the Vice President of Global Cereal for the Kellogg Company, where she is responsible for the $6 billion flagship portfolio with treasured brands such as Special K, Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops and Corn Flakes. Prior to joining Kellogg, she was Marketing Director of global tequila at Beam Suntory, where she led a portfolio of 5 brands and oversaw operations at the Casa Sauza Heritage Center in Tequila, Mexico. Before joining Beam Suntory, Ms. Conley held a variety of marketing roles at Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble, including leading the $4 billion Global Bath Tissue Portfolio as well as leading the P&L for the North American Olay brand. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Business Administration degree from Xavier University Williams College of Business in Cincinnati, Ohio. Tiana is based in Chicago and is mother of two children, Griffin and Ava.

Some of the things that stood out to me during our conversation were about:⁠

- Finding sponsors

- Your authentic self

- Being ambitious while prioritizing children

- Getting an MBA while working full-time

- Imposter Syndrome

We are getting VERYYYY close to that “new year, new me” phase of the year, where most of us start reflecting on what we accomplished and begin to plan for the next year.

For Watchen, that means taking a look at her professional bio and seeing if what is in the bio still accurately reflects the career story that she wants to share with people.

So, in this episode Watchen shares some tips on how to craft a career story that people remember.

Enjoy!

In this episode you meet Amelia Hardy, the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Inclusion and Diversity at Best Buy. She joined the company in 2014 and has held various roles including Category Marketing Director- Home Theater & Digital Imaging and Director of Brand Marketing for Holiday and seasonal campaigns. Most recently she was the Sr. Director Health- Enterprise Relationship Management. She has had over 20 years of strategic leadership roles at fortune 100 companies. Her career experiences include marketing, strategy, brand management, business development, product commercialization and P&L management. Amelia is significantly involved within the community. Currently she serves as the Champion for the Black Employee Resource Group and serves on multiple national and community boards including the Boys and Girls Club of the Twin Cities.

Outside of work, Amelia resides in Woodbury, MN and enjoys spending time with her husband and their 4 kids ranging in ages from 3 yrs old to 15 yrs old. She spends time at dance competitions, soccer and basketball games and at the local playgrounds.

Some of the things that stood out to me during our conversation were about:⁠

- The importance of value alignment in our work.

- The impact of positioning.

- Passion V. Growth opportunities

- The three P's.

In this episode Watchen discusses why you need to get into an accountability group. If your goal is to get a raise, promotion, a new job, or a complete pivot, this is one of the things that needs to be very high on your priority list.

Enjoy!

In this episode you meet Sandra Hurse, Managing Director, Chief Human Resources Officer, GCM Grosvenor. Sandra Hurse is the firm’s Chief Human Resources Officer. She also serves on the ESG Committee

and the Diversity & Inclusion Governing Committee. Prior to joining GCM Grosvenor, Ms. Hurse held various positions at Bank of America, most recently serving as Global Head of Human Resources for

Corporate and Investment Banking. Previously, Ms. Hurse also held leadership roles in Talent Management and Talent Acquisition at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. She received her Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Bernard M. Baruch College and her Master of Business Administration in Marketing from the University of Michigan. Ms. Hurse serves as a Corporate Board Member for the Harlem School of the Arts.

Some of the things that stood out to me during our conversation were about:⁠

- The importance of people being able to see your humanity.

- The difference between humility and hubris.

- Hiring well.

- Understanding value creation in your organization.

In this episode Watchen shares six simple ways that you can invest in your career development today. It's been proven that people are willing to invest in people who have demonstrated that they have some skin in the game and have first invested in themselves.

If you want to be competitive in this changing job market, you have to start by investing in yourself.

Enjoy!

In this episode you meet Lolly Bowean. Lolly is the program officer for Media & Storytelling at the Field Foundation.

Before joining the Field, she worked as a general assignment reporter at the Chicago Tribune for more than 15 years and had a particular focus on urban affairs, youth culture, housing, minority communities and government relations. She wrote primarily about Chicago’s unique African-American community and the development of the Obama Presidential Center.

During her tenure, she covered the death of Nelson Mandela, how violence was lived and experienced in troubled neighborhoods, and the 2008 election and inauguration of President Barack Obama. Most recently, she wrote about the election of Chicago’s first African-American woman Mayor, Lori Lightfoot. In addition, she’s covered Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the last gathering of the original Tuskegee Airmen.

Before joining the Chicago Tribune, Bowean covered suburban crime, government and environmental issues for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans.

She has been published in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, Lenny Letter and Longreads. She has served as a contributing instructor for the Poynter Institute and lectured at the Art Institute of Chicago. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and is the former program officer for the Chicago Headline Club. She was a 2017 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and is a Studs Terkel Award winner. In 2019 she became the first African-American awarded the Gene Burd Urban Journalism Award. She is a Pulitzer prize nominated writer who lives on the South Side of Chicago.

If you attended The CLIMB then you already know about Lolly Bowean, wordsmith extraordinaire. Her "what's your career story?" session had us all thinking about how we effectively articulate this career journey that we are on.

Because everyone loved her so much I thought I'd bring her back so that we can hear a bit of her career story, spoiler alert, she was the first African-American awarded the Gene Burd Urban Journalism Award!

Some of the things that stood out to me during our conversation were about:⁠

- Knowing what your sword is.

- Attracting opportunities.

- Public V. private career battles.

- Shattering glass ceilings.

- Belonging.

Enjoy!

In this episode I answer some user submitted performance review questions.

Enjoy!