Marketing Happy Hour - If you're looking for a sign to take that job in the big city, this is it! | Liz Dowen of Verizon and Golin

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey there, welcome to the Marketing Happy Hour podcast, where each week we're learning career-defining advice, powerful social media strategies, unique creative tips, groundbreaking influencer marketing tactics, and more from marketing experts that represent some of the world's leading brands. Let's dive in. Grab a drink and join your hosts hosts, Cassie and Erica, for this week's episode. Hey, Marketing Happy Hour listeners. I am so excited for you to hear this week's conversation. We're exploring the world of PR with Liz Doan, Verizon PR Director at Golan. Liz has experience working with many incredible PR agencies on brands like General Motors,

Starting point is 00:00:55 Nestle Frozen Pizza, Got Milk, LG Electronics, Samsung, and now Verizon. She shares about crisis communications, getting out of your comfort zone, why agency experience can be the best path to acquire the most skills, and gives some awesome advice that you could take with you to your next interview. I loved listening in to Cassie and Liz chat all things PR, and I know you will too. So go grab your favorite beverage, sit back and enjoy this week's episode. Hey Liz, how are you? Hey Cassie, how's it going? Good, good. I am so excited to chat with you today about all things PR and I just have to throw this out there because Liz, you and I were roommates back in New York City, so we go a long way back. So super excited

Starting point is 00:01:45 to just hear what you've been up to. Uh, but before we jump in, I do have a very important question for you. Something we ask all of our guests on the show. What is in your glass tonight? Okay. So, uh, Cinco de Mayo was last week. So I feel pretty relevant in saying I have a skinny version and non-alcoholic jalapeno limeade from Trader Joe's. Oh my goodness. I appreciate you need to find it. Yes. Yes. I need to try that. So it's so funny. We had Gina Macera from Girlfriend Collective on the show a few months back. And I think that's the same drink that she talked about, but you were the second person I've heard that from. So I need to go get some and try it. Have some tequila, have yourself a great, great Thursday or taco. I love it. I love it. Well, I too have tequila in a with co there's

Starting point is 00:02:37 this cute little cocktail company that makes these mixtures and it's like a ginger mule type of thing. And I put tequila in it, some fresh blueberries and some soda water, and it is delicious. And so that is what I am enjoying this evening. So fancy. Oh my goodness. Well, I know a lot about your background, but I'd love for everyone else to learn more about your background in PR, how you got started and how you landed to where you are today. So go ahead, Liz, share all the details with us. Sure. I can give the cliff notes version, but it might be helpful just to know the strategy and the rationale behind why I made so many jumps.

Starting point is 00:03:19 I like to share in interviews that I've been around the block for the agency life. I should preface interview. Well, it doesn't matter. I am originally from Indiana. I graduated from IU, worked my way up to Chicago as most people do. Definitely as a pipeline from IU. And I spent my summer internship at MSL group working on General Motors, Sealing Mattress, Missoula Corn Oil, and there was a bit of agency restructuring. So I read the tea leaves and said to myself, OK, let's find something new. I moved over to Weber Shandwick. I was an intern there for a couple of months working on Nestle Frozen Pizza. So think California Pizza Kitchen, DiGiorno, Jack's, um, along with cherry marketing Institute. So tart cherry juice, don't forget it when you have inflammatory needs and to sleep, uh, also new business. And then I got a full-time role, um, as on the got milk team.

Starting point is 00:04:18 So I helped refuel athletes at the end of marathons. That was fun. But the entirety I was in Chicago, I knew I needed to be in New York. I just wanted to be where the media were and call Wall Street Journal whenever I wanted to and have, finally landed it. So I then went over to Ogilvy, spent three years working on the LG Electronics account. I was primarily on the mobile side of things. So I helped launch a new smartphone every six months and wearables and watches and headphones and everything of the like in between. Also went to all of their trade shows. So they have a huge presence at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas every January.

Starting point is 00:05:20 So helping to be a subject matter expert there. Had an opportunity to move over to Allison and Partners and work on Samsung mobile on their first phone after Note 7. So if you ever were flying on a plane at that time, you know what happened with that beautiful phone. Sadly, so I saw it as a great opportunity for crisis communications and to really dip my toe into what that world looked like. So I moved over, spent a few months on that device, the Galaxy S8, and then I moved on to the home entertainment side. So all things TVs and soundbars and solid state drives and all of the geeky, awesome things. I spent two years there and then I had an opportunity to go in-house.

Starting point is 00:06:10 I worked at a Wi-Fi networking manufacturer called Ubiquity for a hot second and decided it was not for me. So now I am at Golan, where I've been for the last two and a half years. Started just before the pandemic hit in January of 2020. And I work on the Verizon account. So it's been a wild, gosh, eight years, nine years that I've been in the industry. Awesome. And I know you have been around the block career wise and just living wise. So you've lived in Chicago, New York, LA. I always tell people because I lived in New York too, how important, especially for young professionals, it is to get out of your small town bubble or wherever you live and to go

Starting point is 00:07:00 to these big cities and get something out of that experience there. How important do you think that is to not just young professionals, but for everyone to get out of their comfort zone and if they're willing and able to go to these large cities and have a new, fresh experience career and personally. Yeah, absolutely. I think that New York was the best decision I ever made for my career. It was the place that I could cut my teeth and be a part of an industry at its core. I would highly recommend, and trust me,

Starting point is 00:07:35 I was not the girl that had like everything available to her from a financial parent's perspective. I was making 30K a year. When we talk about highs and lows of the world, like certainly 22, 30 K working 80 hours is not the most glamorous thing, but I can tell you that my career benefits immensely from it today. So highly recommend. Yeah, I 100% agree. And I will say too, that it is doable while it can be tough to go there, especially early in your career and work in an entry-level position.

Starting point is 00:08:12 It is immensely, immensely beneficial to go and do that. Whether, yeah, you get amazing roommates. I know exactly, exactly, exactly. So go do it. If you're listening to this and I always tell people, if you are even slightly considering getting out of your bubble and going to one of these large cities to take a job, even for a year or for less than that, if you want do it, experience it, learn from it because it is so, so important. So can you tell us a little bit about the highs and lows of working for an agency? And for someone who's only worked in house,

Starting point is 00:08:55 why would you encourage them to maybe get some agency experience? Why is it beneficial? You think? Yeah, I think Lego is mentioning earlier, it's a place to cut your teeth and really just be a part of this brain trust of professionals that all have the same like-minded approach that you do, but maybe a little different approach, let's be honest. So I might be working on Verizon, but within the Golan umbrella, there are a ton of amazing brands. So we've got folks working on Mountain Dew, on Tic Tac, on Nuvis, whatever it may be, some SoCal liquor brand, right? When you pull all of us into a room, you're going to get a ton of different ideas that you might not necessarily have thought of in your one to two person in-house team so definitely a lot of

Starting point is 00:09:47 amazing ideas there's a ton of resources so when we're thinking about analytics or research I have an entire analytics team on my on my side to say hey let's try to find the gray space between what we're hearing in the media and where we need to go and insert ourselves into that equation. So I just think that there is such a holistic approach to agency life. And I know I'm a little biased because I've spent most of my career there, but I really do love it. And it it's been a great, a great stepping stone for my career to learn more. Yeah, absolutely. And I think some people too, when they think about the world of marketing and social and PR, and they think about agency versus in-house I've spoken with a lot of people who feel like they have to choose one path versus the other. So they're only going to do agencies or they're only going to do in-house.

Starting point is 00:10:46 And that's fine if you want to do that, but you can also do a mix. I know for me, I started in-house and then I went to agency and now I'm kind of still in the agency world. Actually, I own an agency. So it's okay to kind of mesh the two. You can learn a lot from both of them. So I think there's a wealth of information and new insights you can gain from both experiences. Yeah. And I think that when I was starting out my career, not even

Starting point is 00:11:10 starting when I was still in college, I would ask my PR professors, like, what's the best path for me to get the most skills? And they're like, go to the agency. And I was like, I don't even know what an agency is, but sure. So I think when we're, when we're in college and just bright-eyed trying to figure it out, like agency is kind of the shop to learn everything. And then you can jump into those skills later into the in-house world. I don't think either path is better or worse, but I'm biased in saying I love, I love to cut my teeth in the agency side. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I do think if you haven't experienced agency life and again, similar to just moving and getting out of your bubble, give it a try because like you said,

Starting point is 00:11:55 Liz, I learned so much just from speaking to different people in different departments, talking to the strategy team, the content creation, the photographers, you can learn so much and you have access to those resources to learn more. And then you can decide where to focus later on in your career. But again, lots of huge benefits from the agency side of things. So because you solely do work in PR, how do you ensure when you're going in to create campaigns or even on the crisis communication side of things, how do you ensure all of your communication or content that you're creating is aligned with the teams within the social and marketing side of things? Yeah. So I think from a PR perspective,

Starting point is 00:12:38 certainly it has morphed into quite the different approach these days. It's not solely talking to the newspapers anymore, but it's pulling in those influencers and earned and paid approach holistically. When we're talking about an integrated agency model, an IAT, if you will, you've got your social teams, you've got your marketing and PR. We all get into a room and talk about what plans we think will work and find a middle ground for everything, right? And then that needs to be sold into clients. So then their teams need to take a look, pull it back together, and then we start to start to execute. So there's a lot of moving parts to it, but I think just keeping everyone in line together. I think my team has quite the unique model in that we all sit under the same parent company. So it's a heck of a lot

Starting point is 00:13:32 easier for us to share information and quickly move on a campaign versus some others that I've been a part of. But yeah, on the PR side of campaigns campaigns I think that it's really interesting seeing how quickly we can work and stand up a program that aligns with these so from the crisis perspective I'm not going to say that most of the time when you have a crisis maybe social and marketing aren't as involved perhaps the social just to make sure that the handle has everything that the feel are super important in the world of PR things that young professionals and people established in their career need to work on improving and really perfecting in their roles? Well, we already said move to New York. So that's step one. Highly important. It's being authentic and empathetic to your audience i think that

Starting point is 00:14:49 one of the big pieces on my team right now is just sitting in someone else's shoes whether they're attending a retail location and checking through that experience or they're hearing this information for the first time as a consumer, how are they going to feel and how do you share it in the most appropriate way? I think we all got our crisis communications degrees in 2020 and navigating those constant news cycles, whether it was, well, a breadth of topics, if we all remember. But yeah, not being afraid to reach out to those journalists and media outlets that you have idolized for all of these years

Starting point is 00:15:34 and breaking down those walls. I think a soft skill is just being human and truly just leaning into the fact that you're gonna make mistakes, but you're, you can also learn from them. And we're all, again, just human at the end of the day. So I remember my first email to Wall Street Journal, I was petrified.

Starting point is 00:15:56 It was like, oh, please, please be nice to me. Please be careful. Please respond. And I got coffee a few times. I was like, wow, you're just human. It's fine. You're just trying to do your work. I'm trying to do mine.

Starting point is 00:16:11 If I can be a resource to make your life easier. Great. Done. And yeah, I think that that's super important. Yeah. Awesome. And that goes greatly into my next question that I have for you. So when building those relationships with different media outlets, do you have any tips for people

Starting point is 00:16:31 in PR looking to grow and really enhance the communication or relationship building aspect to those media outlets that you'd have? Yeah. I think just for the outlet, I always have an interest in the media that you're following. I think that whether you majored in history or science or whatever the degree you maybe got your major or minor, I think it's important to lean into that even in your PR career, because that is an interest and a passion that you can't teach anyone else. So following those news outlets, perhaps leaning into something that you absolutely adore, finding a way in to share your brand message, but also just learn more about them. I think it's so important to be curious in this career. And just one thing that I always do is when I'll

Starting point is 00:17:28 reach out to someone, I'll notice I recently moved to Los Angeles. So as Cassie originally mentioned, and I'm just trying to make new media friends out here. So when I discover that someone's in LA, I quickly shoot them a note. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason. There's nothing behind it other than I would love to have a coffee with you and hear more. Of course, I have a Rolodex of ideas that I'm going to bring to the table, but those will naturally come about in our conversation. Immediately after that email exchange with each reporter, I will add them on LinkedIn to put a face to a name, and then I will add them on Twitter and become their biggest advocate and cheerleader for all of their coverage and just responding to any random stream of conscious thing that they have.

Starting point is 00:18:16 So certainly can't do that with my growing list of contacts on Twitter constantly, but it certainly keeps your name top of mind when it hits their inbox. Awesome. And when initially reaching out to a connection that you do not previously have, do you have any advice for how to approach that initial outreach? What to say, what research to do in advance prior to making that first line of communication? Oh, goodness. I, I actually laughed about this with a few, few of my media friends these last year on my going away, because when I first started out in PR, I was so formal. I was like, hello, how are you? I would like, and I would share like such formal buttoned up communications. And again, we're human. So like taking it down a layer to say, Hey, we'd love to grab a coffee,

Starting point is 00:19:11 like truly using regular human speak sometimes goes a long way. Yeah. You would wear a pencil skirt to, to the office and have these like formal CEO, like communications. Oh my gosh. Well, it's so funny because I got my degree in PR as well. And we literally have classes on how to pitch to news outlets. And it's very much like, okay, include a brief summary of what you're trying to pitch. It's very much about like, this is what I want to share with you. And this is what I want out of this relationship. But for you to say, just turn it on its head and make it more about just that human interaction and connection with that person is so huge because they don't care if you need something from them, but making it more about them and what you can offer to them is so incredibly important in that situation. Yeah. And I think being a resource for them. So

Starting point is 00:20:11 even though they might not necessarily have a story top of mind that they can think of to position your client down the line, they're probably going to be like, oh yeah, who's that girl from Verizon? Oh yeah. I'll message her. Or they'll search me on LinkedIn and find me, you know? And that's what you need for these relationships and get your foot in the door. Absolutely. Well, let's switch gears a little bit to career. So working in large agencies as you have,

Starting point is 00:20:41 how have you been able to stand out and be of value to your team and your past and present bosses? Definitely those media relationships that helps immensely. If you can say, yep, no worries. Let me, let me reach out to my contact at CNN. They're like, well, okay. Okay. Now when you get the hit, that's when it actually matters, but that's, that's half the step. And being able to truly turn on coverage when, when it's needed most and calling on those relationships is huge. I think another piece is just being eager to learn and adapt when I'm interviewing candidates. That's the biggest thing that I look for. And just to make sure that they're open and excited to work together. Getting into the trenches is

Starting point is 00:21:32 part of it, but also just being able to be friends and work through it and be humbled together. It's important. Raising your hand. I think at Golan, Golan is a huge agency. I think we've got like, gosh, maybe 150 in the New York office now at the early onset of the pandemic, we would have twice a week calls with our media team just to get together. And I made it a point just to always be on camera to show my face and say that I'm here. I would say that that has lost its luster in the two and a half years, but I think it's important to put yourself out there and it might be a little uncomfortable at times, but good to raise your hand and have a voice. One last thing though, that I think is just the biggest piece and the biggest key to my success would be always looking at my manager's plate and learning how to ease their workload and

Starting point is 00:22:35 stress level. So if there's something that I know that I can easily take off their plate or follow up on or share a bit more of a lengthy email that explains my next steps and process that they can easily sign off on and say, yep, good to go. That has made a world of a difference throughout my career and something that I fortunately learned early on. And so I've witnessed you go through the interview process for different positions, but, and this is something we don't ask very often, but I love asking people this question. Do you have any key interview advice for approaching any situation, whether it's agency, internal, whatever the position may be, what's something that you could pass along to the

Starting point is 00:23:21 listeners? Do your homework. I think just like you would with a journalist and knowing their background, I think it's so helpful to know the person on the other side of the table from you. And I was just, when you're interviewing with someone and you know, you have a commonality, finding a way to pull that in and then you're able to actually like pull it down to the core as a human being and learn more about their personality is so key last piece to that if you can be friends with them at the end of the day I think that's so important in our industry like it's not er it's PR at the end of the day. Fun, fun phrase we say.

Starting point is 00:24:05 And my men, my Ogilvy boss turned mentor always told us in an interview, could you be stuck at an airport with a canceled flight and still live to see, to tell the story the next day? Or would you just be pulling your hair out because you have to hang out with this person the rest of the day. And that was a telltale sign of yes or no. And I think you're interviewing, but they're also interviewed. They're interviewing you. You're interviewing them as well.

Starting point is 00:24:34 Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of your advice sounds very similar to a past interview that we did with Alice Hampton, who is a PR queen, love chatting with her, but she shared the same thing about just doing your homework. And one of the biggest mistakes she sees people make is spelling the person's name wrong or the brand's name wrong for who she's communicating with. And so just those little details of read over your emails, double check your work, make sure you're coming into this communication, having some sort of information under your belt is so incredibly important and it goes a long way in those relationships in the outreach phase, as well as just in the future also. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. So finally,

Starting point is 00:25:19 we're getting to the end of our interview here, but we love to ask this question on marketing happy hour with all of our guests. Uh, what do you know now, Liz, that you wish you knew at the beginning of your career? Hold on. It'll be okay. I feel like I, we talked about it in depth that really moving to a city outside of your comfort zone. I think that's the biggest piece to it. Um, and the amazing opportunities that it'll afford you later down the line. I didn't wish I did it and I'm glad I did. Yeah. Is that lame? Agreed? No, no, I love it. It's so, it's something I tell people all the time too. And it's funny speaking to New York. I'm just going to title this episode, move to New York or else. Um, but just an example, like when I first moved to New York, my roommate situation, wasn't great. I was miserable. It was just such a big change. I know, I know it was such a big change at first. And I was like, oh my gosh, I am not going to be

Starting point is 00:26:25 able to get through this. I know this is beneficial for me, but I can't do this anymore. And I'm a strong believer. If you are in a situation that you are absolutely miserable, miserable in make a change or figure out a way to make it better. And so for me, it was like you said, reaching out, finding new roommates, moving situations there in New York. And I ended up loving that time that I had there, but same with jobs. I say that all the time. You know, if you have done everything in your power to make that experience as beneficial

Starting point is 00:26:56 to you as possible, and it's just not then change jobs. You're not stuck in any of those situations and you can make a change and make a difference in your life and what you're doing. And there's nothing wrong with that. I also think to that point, New York, now that I live in LA and I understand what work with life outside of the subway is like, there's so many things to do in LA that like occupies your time outside of New York. You go to the grocery store, you like track through Trader Joe's and like, yes, it's terrible, but like, you don't have to worry about a car. You don't have to worry about all of these, a house.

Starting point is 00:27:37 Like you typically live in an apartment situation and every decision is pretty much made for you. You just have to get to work and they, you really streamline your life in that aspect. And I did not realize that until I moved to LA, how different and, um, narrow minded you can be in LA, New York. Yeah, absolutely. And I, maybe not narrow minded. That sounds bad. You're incredibly focused. I'm Mark Zuckerberg. I don't have to worry about what shirt I'm wearing. I just have to get on. And it's true. It's true. Your, your life is almost automated for you. You

Starting point is 00:28:20 know, like you said, exactly where you're going, which subway stops you're getting off and onto. It's just crazy. And so that's another thing too, with going into deciding where to move or where to go for your professional career. Nowadays, remote work is such a big thing, but I still encourage people, even if you are working remote, go to a place where culturally your mind and the way things are in your life are just going to be challenged and changed because you can learn so much that not only applies to your life, but also to your career. So I tell people when they're trying to decide LA, New York, you know, where do I go,

Starting point is 00:28:58 go visit, experience it, see where you would see yourself fitting into that lifestyle. And to your point of what you've done in your life too, even if you want to do both, you know, start in one place, live there for a little bit and then go to another place and experience that too. It doesn't mean you again, have to stay there permanently and have to be there forever and start a family there and do all these things, but just going and experiencing all these different places throughout your life lends so much to your life and career. And just even more than that too. Absolutely. Absolutely. I told myself I'd be in New York for five years. And then I was like, wait, I've been here for seven time out.

Starting point is 00:29:35 What's next. Let's get settled my soul in the, in the place that I truly would like to potentially have a family and have said roots, you know? Yeah. Well, and that's a little career tip too, is just always looking forward, looking ahead, researching, figuring out what's next, uh, you know, educating yourself, getting all these learning experiences and grow yourself professionally so that you can get to that next level is so huge. And again, something that can be applied to yourself personally, but lots of really great insights in that little story. So yes, appreciate it.

Starting point is 00:30:15 Yeah, absolutely. Well, Liz, unfortunately we are about to close out here, but we would love to know where everyone can follow you. I know you mentioned Twitter, but where can our listeners connect with you off this podcast? So I am a very vocal on Twitter. Feel free to reach out and follow me at PR Lizzie tweet. And my LinkedIn is just Elizabeth doing so easy enough. Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on Liz and sharing all of your awesome story and adventures throughout the world of PR. I really appreciate you coming on. You bet. Thanks for having me. Man, I am so sad that I missed out on that conversation with Liz. There's so much more

Starting point is 00:31:07 I feel like I could chat with her about. So hopefully I'll have the chance to do that in the future. But that was so good. And I just totally agree with getting out of your bubble while you're a young professional and getting some really good experience under your belt in a new place, whether that's, you know, two hours outside of your hometown or all the way in another state. I just totally, totally agree with getting yourself out there and learning from a new place. So that was an awesome tip. Thank you so much for tuning in this week. If you enjoyed this week's episode, please remember to rate and leave a review. And as always, follow us on Instagram at Marketing Happy Hour.

Starting point is 00:31:46 That's at Marketing Happy HR.

Marketing Happy Hour - If you're looking for a sign to take that job in the big city, this is it! | Liz Dowen of Verizon and Golin

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