In celebration of the new year, we’ve identified 10 episodes & guests from 2021 whose stories, experiences, challenges, and visions are the reason we do this podcast.

They’ve given us practical advice for navigating through a digital transformation — illustrating clearly what to start doing today and stop doing tomorrow. They’ve presented “better ways'' that challenge the status quo and paint a picture of the future of data & analytics.

But most importantly, they’ve shown us what it means to be a leader in this space.

In this episode, host Cassidy Shield, shares his key takeaways from each episode.

Check out the full episodes featured in the show:

1. Every System will Break, So Build a Culture that Won’t w/ Tim O’Keefe

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data onApple Podcasts,Spotify, orhere.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

Today’s consumers are diverse. One marketing message just doesn’t cut it anymore. Teams today need to create a variety of messages with the same narrative to strike the right chord with their audience. Words matter — and choosing the right ones can mean the difference between a lost opportunity and a lifetime customer.

So, we turned to the expert, Kate Bradley Chernis, who has taken the guesswork out of writing for all of your marketing channels.

She joins us to show how the right words turn customers into evangelists — and how Lately’s AI technology will define the future of content marketing.

Kate is the Founder & CEO of Lately – A.I. that learns which words will get you the most engagement and turns video, audio and text into dozens of social posts containing those words.

As a former rock 'n' roll dj, Kate served 20 million listeners as Music Director and on-air host at Sirius/XM. She’s also an award-winning radio producer, engineer and voice talent with 25 years of national broadcast communications, brand-building, sales and marketing expertise. What she learned in radio about the neuroscience of music helps fuel Lately's artificial intelligence.

Prior to founding Lately, Kate also owned a marketing agency which got Walmart a 130% ROI, YoY for three years.

In the episode we dive deeper into:

• Kate’s experience working in radio

Check out these resources that were mentioned in the show:

• Connect with Kate on Linkedin

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data onApple Podcasts,Spotify, orhere.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

B2B marketers today have access to a more detailed, wider pool of data than ever before.

Yet, even as they bury themselves in data, most marketers have an incomplete picture of performance and their customers.

So in this episode, we turned to Chris Walker to learn more about how qualitative data can be the key to completing that picture — and executing quicker and smarter.

Chris Walker is the Founder and CEO of Refine Labs, a progressive demand generation firm that challenges the status quo in B2B marketing. Fueled by marketing execution at scale, Refine Labs uses real data from real customers to create demand strategy and research for their clients. Before launching Refine Labs, Chris led marketing at two B2B firms where he built the foundation of his unique perspective on demand generation. Chris also hosts the State of Demand Gen podcast where he chats with today’s top B2B leaders to share tangible advice and tactics to over 15,000 marketers.

We covered a variety of topics including:

• Chris’ career journey — from software engineer to marketer

Check out these resources that were mentioned in the show:

• Follow & connect with Chris on Linkedin

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data onApple Podcasts,Spotify, orhere.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

Today, many organizations are pushing for increasing and enhancing data literacy across their business — oftentimes running one-off trainings with the hopes of magically creating a more “literate” workforce.

But, it’s just not working. We need a different approach.

What if instead we focused on making technology more “business savvy” so that non-data people didn’t have to learn every data concept? What if instead of expecting non-data people to speak the language of data, we expected data scientists and analysts to speak the language of the business?

In this episode, we sat down with the one & only Kate Strachnyi, Founder and Community Manager of DATAcated, to discuss this vision for the future of data & analytics and how she educates today’s data professionals through community.

In this episode we also dive deeper into:

• How & why Kate started DATAcated

Check out these resources that were mentioned in the show:

• Connect with Kate on Linkedin

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data onApple Podcasts,Spotify, orhere.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

Data transformation can empower higher ed institutions to deliver excellent student experiences, reduce costs, and stay relevant with the changing demands of students and the educational landscape.

However, higher education institutions tend to be slower moving in modernizing processes. So, how does one accelerate this type of vision? How does an organization bring all of the moving parts together?

In this episode, we sat down with Rob Stirton, VP of Institutional Effectiveness & CIO at County College of Morris, to discuss how he played a hand in transforming the data culture at County College of Morris.

Rob has 25+ years of experience in the data and analytics space and has established himself as a proven leader in educational technology, planning, strategy, analytics, and outcomes. He has spearheaded the generation and implementation of initiatives that have significantly impacted colleges and their students.

Since becoming the Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness & CIO at County College of Morris in 2017, he has led a full blown data transformation that has vastly improved the way they serve their students. With Rob's expertise and leadership, they went from just being aware of data to truly being a data driven college in just 4 years.

In this episode we dive deeper into:

• How Rob’s passion for wanting to make an impact led him to working at community colleges

Check out these resources that were mentioned in the show:

• Connect with Rob on LinkedIn

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data onApple Podcasts,Spotify, orhere.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

In the marketing world, there is an ever-growing divide between creativity and data-driven marketing.

Many creatives worry that the increasing reliance on data will kill the freedom to take risks and pursue outside-the-box ideas. While advocates of data-driven marketing argue that dollars shouldn't be wasted on ideas that aren't guaranteed to generate a high ROI.

Realistically, the best option for success lies somewhere in the middle; where data is used to not only defend the creative process — but inspire it.

In this episode, we sat down with Brandee Sanders, VP of Marketing at Motive Retail, to discuss how creatives and marketers can build shields around their work using data.

Brandee is simply a marketing rockstar. She’s lived across two vastly different hemispheres of the mind, one side of logic and quantitative, statistical analysis and the other, human elementals driven by emotional, heart moving creatives. The deeply embedded world of data storytelling she’s had the pleasure of working in has afforded her the opportunity to collaborate alongside Emmy award nominated multimedia creators and has done her time in the trenches at startups going to IPO. She’s run the gamut from analytics to filmmaking and back again to demand gen and data science Ops.

In the episode we dive deeper into:

• How Brandee went from a performer to a digital marketer

Check out these resources that were mentioned in the show:

• Connect with Brandee on LinkedIn

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data onApple Podcasts,Spotify, orhere.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we shop — increasing the demand for eCommerce experiences. In order to keep up, many brick-and-mortar businesses have been forced to transition to the eCommerce world.

Yet moving a brick-and-mortar business online isn't simple.

Today, ranking on eCommerce platforms, especially Amazon, requires a fine balance of art and science. From item setup and launch to driving search rankings, advertising, and sales — it is clear businesses need a holistic plan to jump into eCommerce.

In this episode, we are joined by 2 experts who help companies make that jump — John Collins and Rick Sauls, Co-Founders of OmniiX and chargeguard.

With a history of building and launching brands on Amazon and other online retailers, OmniiX serves to empower brands with the knowledge, actionable insights and thought leadership to even an unfair playing field. John & Rick work with large CPG brands to thrive on Amazon and create data-backed, sales converting content by working with a team of Amazon experts.

In the episode, we talk about a variety of topics including:

• How John & Rick’s individual experiences made for the perfect business partnership

Check out these resources that were mentioned in the show:

• Learn more about OmniiX/chargeguard

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data onApple Podcasts,Spotify, orhere.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

Imagine this.

You’re starting up another analytics project or initiative for your company. You recruit top talent for your team. They produce great technical work that you’re excited about.

And the excitement ends there. No one uses it. The expected value and return is not realized.

Unfortunately, this is the harsh reality that most companies face today.

But according to Dustin Schimek, Data Analytics Leader and Former Director of Strategy & Analytics at The Master Lock Company, there’s a better way — a way for your analytics projects to “live up to their hype”.

In this episode, Dustin joins us to share his approach to driving engagement, adoption, and tangible impact with analytics projects.

We also dive deeper into:

• Dustin’s career journey

Check out these resources that were mentioned in the show:

• Connect with Dustin on LinkedIn 

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data onApple Podcasts,Spotify, orhere.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

Increased demand, limited supply, and a relentless global pandemic have created the perfect storm in the housing market — forcing prospective buyers and renters to turn to the internet for insight.

And today, thanks to the market research work of Igor Popov and his team, it’s likely their first search result is Apartmentlist.com. As Chief Economist and Head of Product Analytics at Apartment List, Igor leads the research team in publishing original housing market research — an initiative that has played an integral role in driving the companies’ SEO, communication and brand differentiation strategy.

Igor also teaches an undergraduate seminar titled "Housing, Neighborhoods, and Homelessness" at Stanford University, and his research has been published in the American Economic Review. Prior to joining Apartment List, Igor worked as an economist and data scientist at Airbnb and earned his Ph.D. in economics at Stanford University.

In this episode, Igor shares insight into how an external-facing data & research program operates, its benefits, and practical advice for getting one off the ground.

We also dive deeper into:

• How the pandemic & remote work has impacted the housing market

Check out these resources that were mentioned in the show:

• Connect with Igor on LinkedIn & Twitter

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data onApple Podcasts,Spotify, orhere.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.

In building data science teams, achieving a diversity of people, approaches, and points of view is not just desirable—it is critical.

Yet, data science, like most STEM fields, still has a daunting diversity problem.

As a trained data scientist and woman, this was clear to Sadie St. Lawrence at the start of her career. It was this reality and her desire for community that pushed her to take a leap of faith and start Women in Data — an international nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in technology and data science.

Women in Data has been rated as the #1 Community for Women in AI and Tech, and is leading the movement to close the gender gap and increase diversity in data careers. Currently, Women in Data is in 15 countries with over 45 chapters, and has a community of over 20,000 individuals.

In addition to being Founder and CEO of Women in Data, Sadie was the first female data science teacher to teach on the Coursera platform. She has trained over 300,000 people in data science. Her work has been featured in USA Today, Dataversity, and she is the recipient of the Outstanding Service award from UC Davis.

In this episode of Leading with Data, Sadie sits down with us to share how her organization achieves their mission through data science awareness, education, and career advancement.

We also dive deeper into:

• Women in Data’s origin story

Check out these resources that were mentioned in the show:

• Learn more about Women in Data

If you want to hear more, subscribe to Leading with Data onApple Podcasts,Spotify, orhere.

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Leading with Data in your favorite podcast player.