Lead With Your Brand!™

In honor of Thanksgiving and football season, we’re sharing one of our favorite past episodes. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Having never worked in sports before, Jen Kavanaugh successfully made the move from entertainment marketing and consulting to now leading marketing for one of the top professional football teams in the world.  Jen is a mission-focused leader and knows how to drive fandom through passion and authenticity, in the same way that each of us can in our own career.  In addition to leading the strategic and creative development of the Eagles brand, Jen is active in her community of Philadelphia and works to drive equality for women in sports. 

As part of her fifteen year career in television and entertainment, Jen spent six years as Senior Vice President of Digital at Oxygen network. During her tenure with Oxygen, she drove high-profile, award-winning innovation and original streaming content that resulted in the network being recognized as a multi-platform leader within the entertainment landscape.

Guest Bio

Jen Kavanagh

Senior Vice President of Marketing & Media

Philadelphia Eagles

Jen Kavanagh is the Senior Vice President of Marketing & Media and is responsible for leading the strategic and creative development of the team's brand, original content, marketing, digital, media and experiential strategies.

Under her leadership, the Eagles have grown its programming to include multiple streaming series and podcasts as well as new, interactive strategies and experiences designed to engage the team's 9.5 million fans globally across all Eagles platforms.

Kavanagh has spent more than 15 years in media and entertainment. Prior to joining the Eagles in 2018, she founded and headed a strategic advisory firm working with Fortune 500 companies, television networks and high-growth startups.

Previously, as Principal at BRaVe Media Ventures, Kavanagh led advisory work for media and consumer brands, placing an emphasis on brand strategy, sales strategy, marketing strategy, organizational development and OTT strategy. Additionally, she was responsible for the content acquisition and development arm of the business, driving innovation around packaging for co-production partners.

Kavanagh also spent six years at NBC Universal as Senior Vice President of Digital at the company's Oxygen network. During her tenure with Oxygen, she drove high-profile, award-winning innovation and original streaming content that resulted in the network being recognized as a multi-platform leader within the entertainment landscape.

Links 

To learn more about Lead With Your Brand system, please visit: LeadWithyYourBrand.com

To book Jayzen for a speaking engagement or workshop at your company, visit: JayzenPatria.com

In celebration of Veteran’s Day in the United States, we’re reaching into the vault to share one of our favorite shows from the first season. Jayzen is thrilled to welcome Val Nicholas to the show as they talk about his start in the US Army and how it impacted on his personal brand and media career.

We all pay a premium for the brands that we love. Great brands stand for something and give you a full brand experience, versus just being a commodity product where the lowest cost is all that matters. The same is true of your personal brand and how your career audience sees you. Are you a super-premium brand that commands a higher price? Are you the go-to person that everyone wants on their project team? Or, do you just blend in as one of the herd. To reach your next career breakthrough, you have to stand out like a super-premium brand.

Val is an award winning producer and currently is the Senior Vice President and Creative Director SummitMedia Corporation. Previously, he has held executive positions at several top media companies. Val is a proud veteran of the US Army and has worked extensively to expand workplace opportunities for vets.

Guest Bio

Val Nicholas

Senior Vice President & Creative Director

SummitMedia Corporation

Val Nicholas is the Senior Vice President and Creative Director at SummitMedia Corporation and co-founder and executive producer of Eyes on Target Productions, a production partner of Blumhouse. He is an seven-time Emmy award-winning television marketing and program production executive and has experience both in front of and behind the camera. He has held management positions at top media companies including NBC News & MSNBC, ABC and KCRA-TV. Val is a proud veteran of the US Army and attended the US Army Leadership Training School. He currently sits on the national board of the USO and Blue Star Families.

Links

To learn more about Lead With Your Brand and the Career Breakthrough Mentoring program , please visit :LeadWithYourBrand.com

To book Jayzen for a speaking engagement or workshop at your company, visit Jayzenpatria.com

Please connect on Linkedin and all platforms @jayzenpatria

Jayzen is thrilled to welcome his friend and colleague, Traci Saulsberry, to the show. Traci is a master at setting intentions and making them happen in her career.  Being hyper-focused on what she wanted to achieve, she set the intention of working at NBCUniversal while she was still in college.  Fast forward a bit and she went on to be one of the youngest Black executives at the company leading a team responsible for campaigns for some of the biggest shows on television, at twenty-seven.  

It’s year-end review time!  Tune in to hear Jayzen’s top tips on how to maximize the impact of your year end review with the STAR model (Situation, Task, Action, Results).  This is the perfect time to sell yourself and set the stage for your next career breakthrough in 2024.

Guest Bio

Traci Saulsberry

Communications Executive, Leadership Coach and Author

Traci Saulsberry is a seasoned communications executive, leadership coach and author. At 27 she became one of the youngest Black executives at NBC where she led the publicity team responsible for campaigns across the networks biggest unscripted series such as “The Voice,” “America’s Got Talent,” as well as live events like “Billboard” and “The Golden Globes.”

Most recently, Traci built and led the Originals communications team at Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service, where she served as Senior Vice President, Communications. Under her tenure the streamer launched pop culture hits like “Bel Air,” the dramatic reimagining of “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” the zeitgeist series  “Saved by the Bell,” and Tina Fey’s “Girls5eva.” Her strategic awards efforts resulted in more than 120 nominations for the streamer in less than 2 years of eligibility, exceeding competitive streaming milestones. Hyper-focused on driving growth, Traci’s narrative positioning of the streamers content contributed to building Peacock into a 2 billion dollar company in two years, making it one of the fastest growing streaming businesses.

A leadership coach, Traci specializes in coaching early-career, new leaders and established business owners. She currently consults business leaders, ranging from small business to Fortune 500 companies, on foundation setting and developing strategies for growth. Her passion includes an emphasis on helping audiences find and own their voice while navigating spaces where they are of the minority. 

She is currently writing a book called Inside a Black Girls Journal, a guidebook on how she found her voice through life's small moments. 

As a keynote speaker and learning facilitator Traci leads courses focusing on guiding audiences to know and own their voices in order to become effective leaders professionally and personally. 

Links 

To learn more about Lead With Your Brand system, please visit: LeadWithyYourBrand.com

To book Jayzen for a speaking engagement or workshop at your company, visit: JayzenPatria.com

Jayzen is excited to welcome Odessa "OJ" Jenkins to the show.  OJ is a force of nature who has made it her life’s work to build equity for women and girls.  She is laser-focused through her work as CEO of Bonfire Women and as the founder of the Women’s National Football Conference (WNFC).  She is also noted as the winningest Head Coach in women’s tackle football history. Featured on Fox, Sports Illustrated, CBS, ESPN, Yahoo Sports, NFL Network, The Undefeated, and more, Jenkins was recognized as one of the most influential and powerful women in sports by Sports Illustrated. 

After attending and amazing premier for the new show Fellow Travelers soon to stream on Paramount+, Jayzen was reminded of the power of a fully-branded experience.  Tune in to hear his best advice on how to create fully-branded experiences in your career as you work towards your next career breakthrough.

Guest Bio

Odessa "OJ" Jenkins

CEO, Bonfire Women &

Founder, The Women's National Football Conference

Odessa "OJ" Jenkins is a successful tech/SAAS business executive, CEO of Bonfire Women, and founder of the Women’s National Football Conference (WNFC). An in-demand global speaker/coach, Jenkins is also the founder of multiple nonprofits (Got Her Back). She is a recognized market leader in B2B SAAS tech, DE&I, and Team Dynamics with multiple years of executive leadership experience in privately funded start-ups, and Fortune 1,000 public companies. Jenkins previously served as President of the e-learning company Emtrain and served for several years as an executive leader at YourCause, a start-up that helped to revolutionize the Corporate Social Responsibility industry (exited to Blackbaud).

As a disrupter in sports, Jenkins has built one of the premier sports leagues in the country, creating opportunities, inclusion, and equity in football for women and girls.

She was an inaugural participant in the NFL’s first Women’s Career in Football Forum and is one of the first women to obtain the coveted Bill Walsh Diversity Internship in an on-field position (Running Backs Coach – Atlanta Falcons). Featured on Fox, Sports Illustrated, CBS, ESPN, Yahoo Sports, NFL Network, The Undefeated, and more, Jenkins was recognized as one of the most influential and powerful women in sports by Sports Illustrated (Unrelenting) and voted as Culture in Sports 2022 Sports Leader of the Year and is a 2023 Recipient of The 2023 Leigh Steinberg Denicola Humanitarian Award. 

At 72-2, Jenkins is the winningest Head Coach in women’s tackle football history. She is a Hall of Famer, a 7x National Champion, a 2x USA Football Team captain, and a 3x Team USA Gold Medalist.

Links 

To learn more about Lead With Your Brand system, please visit: LeadWithyYourBrand.com

To book Jayzen for a speaking engagement or workshop at your company, visit: JayzenPatria.com

Jayzen is thrilled to welcome his friend and client, Malaina Matheus to the show.  Malaina started her tenure at Hudson Valley Lighting Group as a coordinator and has continued to grow her career to her current role as company president overseeing the four brands that make up Hudson Valley Lighting Group. She credits her “do the hard work and get things done” attitude as a driver in her career.  It’s about seeing what needs to be done, and doing it, as well as knowing your value and the value you bring to the company that allows you to expand your responsibilities and your drive career forward.

For the fans of the show, you know that Jayzen always asks his guest “if you were a type of car, what type of car would you be?”  It’s always hard to turn the mirror on yourself and think about what your personal brand words are or how you’d describe your brand.  Using this analogy helps get to the root of your style and get your creativity flowing.  Are you an off-roading Jeep because you like to take on challenges and nothing gets in your way, or are you an all electric SUV because you work efficiently and have the space for several projects at once.  This week Jayzen shares his thoughts and a story taking the analogy even further…asking “what type of shoe would you be?”  Tune in to hear his answer! 

Guest Bio

Malaina Matheus

President

Hudson Valley Lighting Group

Hudson Valley Lighting Group is a worldwide leader in the design, manufacturing, and omnichannel distribution of decorative lighting fixtures, encompassing four brands: Hudson Valley Lighting, Mitzi, Troy, and Corbett.

As the one-stop shop for the most comprehensive selection of lighting, HVLG seeks to inspire and support our customers in their pursuit to achieve a home that perfectly reflects their clients. HVLG takes a designer-forward approach to the light-purchasing process — making the experience more inspiring, exciting, and inviting. At HVLG, we believe that great lighting has the power not to just elevate any space but enrich people's lives — and it’s that guiding philosophy that ties our family of brands together

Malaina is the proud mother of three and enjoys life in the New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley.

Links 

To learn more about Lead With Your Brand system, please visit: LeadWithyYourBrand.com

To book Jayzen for a speaking engagement or workshop at your company, visit: JayzenPatria.com

Jayzen is excited  to welcome Nick Bond to the show.  As a marketer and CX expert, Nick has an amazing knack for understanding true customer needs, that is the people represented by the data, and using it to create winning strategies for the brands that works with.  He and his colleagues at Apex Scoring System have developed an AI-powered solution that uncovers and quantifies customer desires that drive brand growth.

As you may know, Jayzen loves to talk about personal brand with marketing professionals.  Recently, he had the opportunity to work with a marketing team to step outside of the brands that they represent and spend a day developing their own professional brand.  Even professional marketers don’t often take the time to use their tools to benefit themselves.  One of the key takeaways from the day was how important it is to get feedback from others when working on your brand.  Ask your colleagues…”what are three words you would use to describe me?” 

Guest Bio

Nick Bond

CXO and Founding Partner

Apex Scoring System

Nick Bond is a highly skilled marketer and CX expert renowned for his commitment to understanding customer needs and translating them into successful business strategies. As the CXO and founding partner of Apex, an AI-powered solution that uncovers and quantifies customer desires, Nick empowers brands to align with their customers' needs and enhance their experiences. 

With a decade of experience in market research, including senior leadership roles with Canadian Tire Group and Ipsos, Nick has honed his skills in understanding customer expectations, motivations, and frustrations across various sectors. His unique blend of data-driven insights and a people-centric approach has earned him a reputation for delivering tangible metrics that have a measurable impact on organizations. 

Nick's expertise has made him a trusted advisor to senior marketing, insights and CX professionals, helping them assess their brand identity, increase market share, optimize resource allocation for CX efforts, and measure and communicate the impact of their initiatives. 

Beyond his professional achievements, Nick is known for his engaging personality and ability to captivate audiences as a guest speaker. His in-depth knowledge of CX, passion for problem-solving, and relatable presentation style make him a standout in the industry.

Links 

To learn more about Lead With Your Brand system, please visit: LeadWithyYourBrand.com

To book Jayzen for a speaking engagement or workshop at your company, visit: JayzenPatria.com

Connect with Nick Bond www.linkedin.com/in/nick-bond-9236953/

Learn more about Apex Scoring System at  apexscore.ai

Welcome to the final week of Hispanic Heritage Month! It’s been incredible!! Be sure to check out all of the amazing career stories and breakthrough moments from the Hispanic professionals in our collection at LeadWithYourBrand.com/latinx.

Jayzen is excited to welcome Lucy Bustamante to the show. Lucy is a 4x Emmy award winner and is passionate about serving the Hispanic/Latinx community and military families. She is the former and founding President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and has been involved with the Naval Officers Spouses Association as well as the NBC Universal Veterans network. 

Tune in to hear Jayzen talk about one of his personally favorite brands, Apple. Having clarity about your brand and who you serve will have people waiting in line to get you on their team in the same way people wait in line for the latest iPhone.

Guest Bio

Lucy Bustamante

Journalist and Anchor

NBC10 and Telemundo62 Philadelphia

Lucy Bustamante is a 4x time Emmy winning morning news anchor and journalist for NBC10 and breaking news anchor for Telemundo62. Fluent in Spanish, Lucy is the daughter of Cuban refugees who migrated to the U.S. in 1969. She was born and raised in New Orleans in a home that only spoke Spanish. The skills she learned as a child, of translating between Spanish and English as a first generation American, formed her foundation for her vibrant role as a bilingual anchor at NBC10 and Telemundo62.

Lucy in conjunction with our partners at NBC News created the “American Vets” reporting series where she and other journalists around the country are covering issues impacting veterans in the states and abroad. In November 2022, she cohosted and coproduced American Vets: Beyond the Battlefield, an NBCNewsNow Veterans Day streaming special that highlighted the issues our veterans with PTSD face.  

Prior to joining NBC10, Lucy served as the weekday morning and Noon anchor at WVEC-TV in Norfolk, Virginia. At the same time, she also served as a daily weekday morning news anchor for La Selecta 103.3 at WVXX-FM, a Spanish language radio station. Prior to that, she served as an evening anchor for WWL-TV in New Orleans where she and her coworkers worked three months straight covering the devastation post Hurricane Katrina. Lucy is a 4x Emmy award winner and a Telly winner and also has co-hosted LIVE with Regis and Kelly with the late Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa. 

Lucy earned a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Loyola University. She is passionate about serving the Hispanic/Latinx community and serving military families. She is the former and founding President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and has been involved with the Naval Officers Spouses Association as well as the NBC Universal Veterans network. Lucy lives in Havertown with her Navy Veteran husband and four children.

Links 

To learn more about Lead With Your Brand system, please visit: LeadWithyYourBrand.com

To book Jayzen for a speaking engagement or workshop at your company, visit: JayzenPatria.com

It’s been an amazing Hispanic Heritage Month! Be sure to check out all of the amazing career stories and breakthrough moments from the Hispanic professionals in our collection at LeadWithYourBrand.com/latinx.

Jayzen is thrilled to welcome Mirian Arias to the show.  As a child, Mirian was always vocal about wanting to work in the entertainment industry, and has built an incredible career doing just that.  Currently, she leads communications for the iconic Harlem Globetrotters.  Throughout her career, she has been able to develop a powerful network of mentors and sponsors that have helped continually breakthrough to the next level.

After returning from an incredible few days with the Comcast MilDev conference, Jayzen shares his thoughts on taking advantage of every opportunity to connect with people in your network and be intentional about building all of those key connections.  When you have a free lunch hour, don’t always just join your co-workers, make it a point to reconnect with an old colleague!

Guest Bio

Mirian Arias

Head of Corporate Communications

Harlem Globetrotters

Mirian Arias serves as Head of Corporate Communications at Harlem Globetrotters & Herschend Entertainment Studios, where she is a member of the executive team reporting directly to the President of the organization.  In her role she leads, creates, and executes all media relations strategies across corporate, consumer, and crisis with focus on global production and development, domestic and international touring, as well as licensing and merchandising. 

Arias brings over 20+ years of communications expertise and has held executive leadership positions at Disney ABC Television Group where she served as the Vice President of Media Relations and Talent Relations, NBCUniversal where she served as Vice President of iVillage and at Nickelodeon where she served as Director of Communications.  

Arias is a graduate of Boston University, where she received her Bachelor of Science from the College of Communication. She resides in Boston, Massachusetts with her husband and two children.

Links 

To learn more about Lead With Your Brand system, please visit: LeadWithyYourBrand.com

To book Jayzen for a speaking engagement or workshop at your company, visit: JayzenPatria.com

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month! Each week we will be amplifying the voices of Hispanic professionals with amazing career stories and breakthrough moments that we all can learn from. In addition to our weekly guests, be sure to check out the special Hispanic Voices collection in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month at LeadWithYourBrand.com/latinx

This week Jayzen welcomes Delia Garced to the show. Delia has created an incredible career for herself rising through the ranks at GE and several other companies.  She shares her personal experience of participating in her company’s employee resource groups and leveraging them to build her personal network, leading to mentors and sponsors who helped pave the way. Now as a senior leader, she is helping others do the same through the Latinx Executive Alliance.

This week, Jayzen talks about the importance of breaking out of your day to day silos of who you interact with and connect with.  As humans, we are drawn to people who are like us and closest to us, phenomenons called self-similarity bias and proximity bias.  It’s easy to hang out with all of the people in your department or who do the same sort of work that you do and who happen to be nearby.  However, falling into that trap all of the time is not great for your brand.  You need to stand apart and not become known as just one of the pack.

Guest Bio

Delia I Garced

SVP Marketing Health and Wellness

Synchrony

For the past 30+ years, Delia has been leading and building global marketing and sales teams across multiple industries. She is recognized as a motivating, inclusive leader who inspires highly matrixed, cross-functional teams to outpace expectations.

Delia joined Synchrony in 2023, leading Client Marketing for the Health and Wellness platform. In this role, she leads strategies to build awareness, drive client/practice enrollment, new account growth and usage among large, mid-market and smaller client practices. Before joining Synchrony, Delia was at the Senior Director of Demand Generation in the Waters Division of Waters Corporation, a publicly traded analytical laboratory and software company. In her role, Delia oversaw content and communications, creative services, digital strategy, and marketing transformation.

Prior to Waters, Delia worked at General Electric (GE) for 28 years, serving in roles with increased responsibility in sales and marketing roles such as Field Sales, Global Industry Leader, CMO and Global Director Experienced Commercial Leadership Program and VP Commercialization Digital tools. During her tenure at GE, Delia built er sales and marketing skills across multiple industries: Plastics, Security, Energy, Financial Services, and Corporate, with a record of scaling global market growth and driving brand awareness.

Passionate about inclusion and talent development, Delia was the operating leader for GE’s Hispanic Forum and is currently a member of Synchrony’s Hispanic Network Plus and the Strategic Leader for the LatinX Executive Alliance.

Delia earned a B.A. Degree in Political Science from the University of South Florida. She lives in Sarasota, Florida, with her husband, Luis Manuel Ramirez and the puppies, Lola and Cici.

Links 

To learn more about Lead With Your Brand system, please visit: LeadWithyYourBrand.com

To book Jayzen for a speaking engagement or workshop at your company, visit: JayzenPatria.com

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month! Each week we will be amplifying the voices of Hispanic professionals with amazing career stories and breakthrough moments that we all can learn from. In addition to our weekly guests, be sure to check out the special Hispanic Voices collection in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month at LeadWithYourBrand.com/latinx

This week Jayzen welcomes Joelle  Martinez to the show. After a successful career as a political consultant for New Mexico Governor and diplomat, Bill Richardson, among others, Joelle turned her focus to help develop the next generation of Latino leaders with the launch of the Latino Leadership Institute. The LLI is an influential leadership community connecting Latino professionals, entrepreneurs, and partners across generations and geography. Together, they are advancing across industry sectors and building a strong and vibrant U.S. economy and future.

Tune in to hear Jayzen break down the most common barrier people face when working on their brand to advance their career… YOURSELF!  We all are raised with certain survival skills, which as an adult can become self limiting beliefs.  When left unchecked, these are the believes and behaviors that get in our way of meeting our potential.  Hear Jayzen’s tips and tricks to bust through them and help get you to the next level.

Guest Bio

Joelle L. Martinez

President & CEO

Latino Leadership Institute

Joelle is a highly respected and accomplished executive, strategist, speaker, and facilitator who has earned national recognition. Prior to launching the LLI, she had a 15-year career crafting impactful strategies for communication, business development, and public affairs across private and public sectors. Joelle's areas of expertise include Neuroleadership, Latino identity, civic engagement, demographic shifts, and workplace diversity and inclusion. In recognition of her achievements, Joelle was named one of the most powerful women by the Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce in 2017. 

Her remarkable contributions to the Latino community were honored with the prestigious NFL Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award in 2019. Notably, Joelle has made significant contributions to various community and business organizations, actively serving on the Hispanic Advisory Council for Coca-Cola, multiple non-profit boards, for-profit advisory committees, and executive committees.

Links 

To learn more about Lead With Your Brand system, please visit: LeadWithyYourBrand.com

To book Jayzen for a speaking engagement or workshop at your company, visit: JayzenPatria.com

Be sure to check out the Latino Leadership Institute at latinoslead.org