In this episode of frankly…
Rachel and Dan sit down with Hexion Content and Brand Manager Erica Tackett for a candid conversation about navigating the shift from agency life to the corporate marketing world.
Erica shares what it’s like working on both sides of the agency-client relationship, how fast-paced agency life sharpened her strategy skills and why understanding the “why” behind the work matters. She unpacks the realities of corporate timelines, data-driven creative and how to more effectively align sales and marketing.
Let us know what you took away from this week’s conversation, and, as always, be sure to rate, review, and subscribe!
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The transcript below is AI-generated and may contain minor inaccuracies. Tune in to the episode audio to hear the full conversation!
Transcript
Transcript
Rachel
Hello and welcome to frankly!
Dan
Hello!
Rachel
Today on the podcast, we have Erica Tackett, who is a content and brand manager for Hexion, but her, or I would say I mean majority of her career, this is kind of corporate new venture for her. Her majority of her career has been in agencies. And so she is talking a lot about the differences and similarities between agency and corporate life as well as kind of working in marketing, being a strategist, and how working at an agency before going to corporate really makes you a good client.
Dan
Yeah, and and also kind of that that mindset of everybody kind of does everything earlier on in your career, how that builds up into being a more effective strategist or kind of learning the ropes for that next step in your career?
Rachel
Absolutely. Yeah. So if you are starting out in a career or just at a college or maybe gonna graduate soon or even a few years in. I think she’s got a lot of good advice and just kind of insight into how your career might shape, or what you might want to look for in a career, there’s a lot of, you know, the good, the bad, and the ugly between agency and corporate, for sure. So with that Erica.
Dan
Yeah, exactly.
Dan
Hi, Erica. Welcome to frankly, thanks for coming on.
Erica
Hi. Happy to be here.
Dan
So so we always start with this, but but tell us a little bit in communications and how did you get to where you are today?
Erica
Yeah. So I like to describe myself as an agency lifer, so currently I am in a corporate role. I work at Hexion, which is based out of Columbus. Very big in the chemical space, not very big in the consumer space so no one listening to this has probably ever heard of them, which is completely fine.
Dan
Right in our sweet spot, yeah.
Rachel
We love a good B2B.
Erica
I mean, within the B2B, maybe, but they’re even small as far as that goes, but prior to joining here, I was agency all the way through. So I’ve been graduated from college for about a decade almost.
Rachel
We’re coming close.
Erica
Thar’s razy.
Rachel
Yeah, we’re coming close.
Erica
Yeah, I guess it’s. Yeah. It’s been like 9 years. So started right out of school at an agency. Weber Shandwick, one of the bigger ones. I really wanted to be in like that fast pace, like, get my hands on everything environment. I mean, Rachel, we went to college together
Rachel
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Erica
So, you know, but like, being in PRSSA at the time, like, you’re touching all these different projects and you’re exposed to all these different industries and I didn’t want to limit myself because being, you know, 23 or whatever, who knows what you want to do in your career.
Rachel
It’s like what I always said, you gotta intern or try agency, corporate and nonprofit. And then you can decide like, like see it all and decide where you want to be.
Erica
100%. Yeah. So, so that made sense for me because at Webber, they had a lot of different clients at the time. So I was able to kind of touch a lot of different things. So I started there as a digital intern and really focused on, I mean, at the time, it was like if you’re in social media, you write the copy and you published the post and you’re also the community manager and like also you maybe do the graphics and everything.
Rachel
And here’s a Canva login and you’ve got to do it all.
Erica
Well yeah, and that also like included analytics. And I did a lot of like YouTube and paid media like it pretty much was a touch everything role for a lot of different clients and it touched on nonprofit clients. We had some consumers, some B2B, so it was amazing and really great. So started there and then Weber Shandwick acquired the Chevy social business. I don’t know a couple of years after that. And then I pivoted to be exclusively on Chevy social and I did that for a very long stint. And then, yeah, I I was at Weber for probably I think 7 years total, primarily focused and social really adapted to be more of a strategist within social. So instead of being the one that was like in the actual programs. Again, like I said prior, social media was like you do everything. And then I feel like if you all remember back in like 2018 it took on this new world of being more like segmented, so you had community managers and you had strategists and you had designers and yeah, became very processed.
Rachel
Well people saw the value of it,
Erica
Totally
Rachel
And how important it was in a communications program that it could no longer be one person running it to actually get everything out of this.
Erica
Yeah, and yeah, exactly and that was at that time. So when that shift happened, I really shifted toward more of the strategy and planning role. So I was managing the clients and then also planning out like, what’s the story that we’re telling, what does the content calendar look like, etcetera and that kind of shifted me toward more of a strategy rule in general. And then I did a couple of different things with Webber after that before going to Finn Partners in Detroit and then spent a few years there before coming to this role. And by the time I transitioned to Finn, I was very focused on marketing strategy so I had even developed out of only digital to be integrated, cross channel focused on what the message is, how the brand is showing up, how it comes to life. And I find that for PR agencies and you can likely relate to this. When you’re in quote UN quote strategy that often is just like naturally more digital for some reason,
Dan
Yeah.
Erica
And then normally you have a earned media like juggernaut that really knows the strategy for storytelling, right? That was kind of what that role was. So I did a lot of the like every other channel but earned strategy and then I worked with the earned team while at Finn, and then I came to Hexion and I’m a brand and content manager, so still doing a lot of that like brand and marketing development as far as like titles go, I view it more as like a marketing manager, like I’m doing all of the marketing strategy across the board. So, today I had a call about the social media for next week that I was reviewing with my team and later I’ll be reviewing some trade show content for a huge event that we have later this year.
Dan
Yeah, a little bit of everything.
Erica
So like I very much am that client that’s touching all of those different things, and it’s very fitting for my background given that I’ve kind of grown through all of those different channels at one point or another.
Rachel
Yeah, focusing really on the like owned, paid shared kind of channels.
Erica
Yep. Yeah, and even like being on the B2B side, which you can understand, there’s the whole trade show component. And all of the like trade journals components. So there’s a. lot of that as well,
Dan
How, I have to imagine that kind of where you started in social on that social side, kind of doing all of those aspects really helped you kind of like grow that strategy of muscle like being able to see the analytics, being able to get in with the content, being able to engage with the audience, like maybe talk about that a little bit. How did that initial role that you had kind of shape where you are today or or guide you towards?
Erica
TI would love to talk about that. I feel very passionately about analytics and insights and I I feel like everybody says that, but not everybody can execute on it and I love building a plan that’s actually based on like a trend that we’re seeing, like even mini plans, right, like a plan for a month like just a promotional plan that’s maybe launching a new product or something, but it’s nothing crazy, but you still can use a little bit of insight for it. Like, I love having the capability myself to still go into Google Analytics and know how to read that information and apply it to a plan because I’m on a very small team and I do not have an analyst who can do that for me. So yeah, that 100% shaped my role and I think has made me a much stronger strategist because even if I’m on a bigger team like at Webber and at Finn, obviously we did have a team that focused on analytics. I did not have to do that once I reached a certain level, but I could speak their language right to where if they’re explaining something to me, I’m able to apply it in a way that. I would give myself credit is very accurate.
Dan
Yeah.
Erica
Versus like you having to explain something to me, that’s almost a different language, right.
Rachel
It’s having enough knowledge to be dangerous is what I always call it right? Like as the people leading accounts or being the strategist. I’m not the digital person, but I know what they’re saying and then don’t need them in every meeting to be able to talk to the client. Right. I think that’s the important part of it that you have to have because having the data is one thing, being able to analyze the data and make decisions from it is completely another I think.
Erica
Yeah. Totally I completely agree and I think starting there to where? Like I was a little baby, like looking at Excel spreadsheets. I mean, I’ll never forget I would tell this story after I graduated. That first job at Weber, Iwas speaking to an analyst who I was helping with the report, and he was walking me through this Excel doc. And he was like, yeah. And then you’re going to take all this data and put it into a pivot table. You know how to do pivot tables, right? I was do I ever know how to do a pivot table and then I went back to my desk and was. Like, how do you do a pivot table?
Rachel
Yeah.
Erica
So I was like really in the weeds to where at the time I didn’t know what I was applying it to.
Rachel
Yeah,
Erica
I was just looking at numbers and putting it into spreadsheets and like sharing it for a deck for a client. But being that in the weeds, yes, later helps me connect the dots for why it actually matters for sure.
Rachel
Between agency and corporate, there’s probably things that are similar and things that are very different. What are the things that you find like a similar thread through and what are the things that you’re like? Oh, I work in a completely different workflow or whatever it might be. What are some of the similarities and differences?
Erica
Yeah, I’d say there’s an equal part of both. I think coming from the agency side, in my mind, I was like agencies do all of the work and the client just looks at the work, right? Maybe you guys think that maybe you don’t, but that’s what I thought I was like, man, we are so busy like these clients are not really making decisions and doing like like tactical level.
Rachel
Sure.
Erica
You know, they’re like looking at plans and they’re planning things and they are thinking ahead and then having their agency execute. And lol for anybody that’s on the client side. They’re like ohh Erica and I know now it is so much more like tactical level actual execution than I would have thought.
Rachel
Yeah.
Erica
I’m actually doing a lot more of day-to-day stuff than I would have expected, and honestly, even more probably than when I was at Finn because I was so high up at Finn that I had a lot of team members that did that. So I was almost more in that management leading role, whereas now being back in-house like, I mean I jump into Canva and yeah, making graphics like full stop.
Rachel
Yeah.
Erica
You know, and that’s not maybe what I expected. I’m fine with that to be clear, but like going back to your question of like, how did those you know, early roles working in the platforms help me like big time because I’m using them again completely.
Dan
Yeah kind of a full circle moment where, like especially like you said, if you have a smaller team within a within an organization like everybody kind of has to have a lot of hats that they wear in that that case.
Erica
Yeah. And I think too like so I would say that’s like one of the areas where there’s a lot of similarities. I think the biggest difference is like the speed at which things happen. I mean agency notoriously is very fast-paced. Maybe you’ll work weekends, maybe you’ll work events, maybe you’ll like be online longer, right? Clients need something you have to do it. That is real. That stereotype is accurate. We all know that.
Rachel
Yeah.
Dan
Yeah.
Erica
And I would say that accurate stereotype on the corporate side. It is also true that it is slower. It is more 9:00 to 5:00.
Rachel
I always say hurry up and wait, is how I feel about corporate like there will be this. We need to get this done. We need to do these things like we’re working on all of this stuff and then I’ll be like, OK, great and I’ll put in deadlines and due dates and project managing it getting my team ready and then they’re like, oh, that was pushed to next quarter and I’m like oh, sure.
Erica
100% The nice thing though, and this is why I would definitely plug to start on the agency side and I’m happy that I grew my career to a certain level before shifting because I know that, right. I’ve been in that position of working my butt off to get something done very quickly.
Rachel
Yeah.
Erica
And then, yeah, waiting months or maybe honestly it never coming to fruition at all, which is the worst. So I really want to try to not do that to my agency because I do have an agency now I am in the client spot, right? I try not to do that. And if I do, I always provide an explanation and I at least really push forward internally like I am, you’re not trying to have a meeting with me where you’re telling me you’re gonna delay something that I had somebody rush on for months like I’m really gonna be a brat about it because it does take a lot of effort from the agency side, makes you.
Rachel
Makes you a good client.
Erica
I try to be a good client. The client you can call my agency separately and ask them, but I think that I’m OK.
Dan
Yeah, I mean, that’s all anyone can really ask for is that there’s like an effort to push things forward or that you know where it makes sense you kind of stand up for the work and things like that.
Erica
Yeah.
Dan
Everyone gets that the ways are inevitable at some point
Rachel
Absolutely, yeah.
Dan
Like things are going to change, priority shift, something big comes up, it’s bound to happen, but as long as you have the explanation and you understand why, and hopefully you use it down the line somewhere then I think everybody’s pretty OK with that.
Erica
Yeah.
Rachel
I agree. I agree. I think it’s harder on our side because we’re working with budgets
Dan
Right
Rachel
And you’re like, I’ve got people programmed now, we’ve spent a bunch of money this month and against your budget that we’re not using,
Dan
Yeah.
Rachel
And now we have to shift right. It’s just it’s just it’s a different way of looking at it, but.
Dan
Yeah, you never love it, but you get it?
Rachel
Yeah, absolutely. OK. You talked about marketing strategy. Talk a little bit more about that. What do you see are the most crucial parts of a marketing strategy? What are you always ensuring that are there? What are you doing first? What can come later? Talk through that process.
Erica
A little bit, yes. This is like my favorite topic. I’m I’m going to say that about every topic because I do love talking about things, but. For marketing strategy, that’s the thing I like the most about going client side is that when I was on the agency side, what drew me to marketing strategy was making sure that the work we were doing was rooted in some meaning. Right. I don’t want to just put up social to put up social. I want it to be rooted back to a broader purpose that goes back to a social plan, which the broader purpose is probably specific to social and that’s tricky but everything in marketing should go back to a marketing plan, right?
Dan
Yes.
Erica
Social should, I would say the PR should and thought leadership should. Web should. It’s all connected. And that marketing plan needs to be based on a business objective.
Rachel
Thanks. That is where we start every single strategy conversation is please share your business gals. Yes, we shouldn’t. And then they say, well, what about marketing goals? That’s fine, that can be part of it.
Dan
Yeah, we’ll get there.
Rachel
But I want your business objectives and what you are trying to do as a business.
Erica
Yeah, because. I cannot, and being on the client side now, I know that I cannot provide my agency with proper direction on a marketing plan unless I know what my CEO is trying to do this quarter, yeah. And that changes a lot transparently. Like I can understand on the client side now why you will get changing directions so frequently, like I absolutely have space for that and I get it now. But I still, as the person sitting on the marketing team, I’m always going to try to connect it back to like what we’re actually trying to achieve as a business. So yes, that is my favorite part of marketing strategy is like making sure that we are connecting the dots between the marketing channel and the main business objective. The other thing I like so much about it is getting to kind of like pull different benefits from across the company into a like reasons to believe style story from marketing. So I having been on the agency side, I know I keep saying that, but like going back to that lifestyle, what I would build plans for a client and I was thinking about like marketing strategy. I wasn’t thinking about like the story as much as sometimes thinking about the channel and I think that’s a natural kind of happy accident of agencies, we have really become channel experts, which is great like you need those people. I do need somebody that knows CRM better than me. I need somebody that knows social better than me. But what ends up happening is sometimes I think the story becomes more about the channel it’s on versus the actual business story. And when you’re in a marketing strategy role, I think you get to think about that business objective and then think about the stories that kind of support it, right, like for Hexion like we’re trying to grow this year, growth is the main goal. So we were trying to scale our business across every single avenue that we are in, every segment we’re in.
Rachel
And then you gotta go what kind of growth is it? Organic growth? Is it acquisition growth? Like where are we going to grow from to then figure out, right cause that changes the story.
Erica
I mean most importantly, from a marketing strategy point of view, we can’t grow unless I have reasons to convince people we should. And that is the story. And I love that part of marketing because I get to then work with all the different people across different departments to explain that to me like. Well, this product is XY and Z and that’s better than our competitors and it’s leading in the industry and that is why we should grow in that department, because if you’re not working with us in this specific segment, you’re missing out.
Dan
Yeah.
Erica
And there are so many like once you’re inside the house, if you will, there’s so many examples of that, that day-to-day business leaders just don’t realize would be a great marketing story. So that’s like my other favorite part of strategy is kind of like pulling that all in to really be the almost pillars for why we’re talking about what we’re talking about.
Rachel
I love the access that you have to those people internally. I think that’s one of the challenges in an agency is just having access at your fingertips. You’re relying on your client to get you that or understand why it’s worth the time and energy versus in-house. You can say like I’m gonna spend this week like I’m gonna set up meetings with every business group that we have here.And like, really dive deep with them and not even talk about marketing, but get them to tell me the story.
Erica
Ohh and I, you can just do that. That’s my favorite.
Dan
Yeah,
Erica
I literally just do that. Isn’t that crazy?
Dan
Yeah.
Rachel
I’m a little envious.
Erica
It’s just funny because, like on the agency side, you’re I remember being in meetings and being like, do this do this, do this, do this and it maybe would never get done. And now I get to do it. It’s amazing.
Dan
Right. Yeah, just check that box right now.
Erica
And I have an amazing manager and, like, Hexion, really trust marketing’s role, which is great so I do have autonomy in a way that like a very large corporation likely wouldn’t.
Rachel
Yeah.
Erica
So I’m not saying that, just anybody can do that, but I can and it’s been very wonderful.
Dan
Yeah. And that’s like honestly like that’s that’s where we get the best information to kick off a strategy usually with clients is like we’ll set up 1/2 day where we just kind of rotate through all the different business units or rotate through the different leaders and kind of talk to them about what their goals are. But a lot of times for us, we’ll try to do that on a regular basis, but sometimes it’s like, you know, you get everything up front and then maybe it’s another, you know, six months maybe it’s another year before you’re able to reset. That is such a nice kind of feature to be able to go back to, like you said, just. As you need just be able to stop in. And say, say hello. What’s new for you?
Erica
Oh yeah. I mean, I I remember being on the agency side and trying to set up those meetings and being frustrated that it was so difficult to get it scheduled. And I will. I have been humbled because my agency is currently trying to do that with us, which I do want to do
Dan
Yeah.
Erica
Because I 100% see the value. But when I tell you we are so busy that I. I mean I I I logged off yesterday and like could have taken a nap, you know, like we were busy just like on the agency side in a way that I really don’t think I understood before being in-house.
Rachel
Mm-hmm.
Erica
So yeah, just another example of things that are different, but also the same.
Rachel
Yeah, that’s fair.
Dan
Yeah. So, so thinking back to the agency side of things, you said you worked on consumer nonprofit, obviously auto with Chevy like what how did you kind of come to your current role or come find your spot within the B2B industry like what did you what do you love about nonprofit? Or, what do you love aboutB2B that like drew you away from that and and into this side of the business?
Erica
Yeah, that is a great question because I have a very funny niche and that I have found myself not just in B2B. But then, like chemical manufacturing, B2B, which like what?
Dan
Deep.
Rachel
And Dan knows that all too well with some of the weird, weird stuff that he’s worked on.
Erica
Yeah. So well, previously when I was working on auto, I actually was like I love this and I could do this forever and I still really do love automotive and it’s an industry I could see myself coming back to. I mean, for when we’re from Detroit, it’s great to get away from it, but I also, I really do like love it. Like I really enjoyed working on it and it’s it’s some of my favorite projects looking back on my short career, but career nonetheless worked during that time so. I’ll I’ll give a plug for how much I do love auto. Like if you’re listening and you’re a formal client, yes, I do still love you. But when I moved to Finn, I really got more into B2B. Just naturally they are a little bit smaller of an agency that has a little bit more niche practices. And one of the clients that I was put on right away and I was put on it because it was like marketing. So it was not public relations or earned or like thought leadership. It was very specific marketing. And it was specifically like content development and creative strategy. That is my creme de la creme. I can do that all day and that’s actually kind of why I was brought to Finn because we were trying to build that up in the Midwest with strategy side of creative, got it because they had hired a creative director. They had some creative team members, but they didn’t have the person that could connect the dots to put together a really smart brief.
Dan
Yeah.
Erica
Or direct them on what sort of content they should make so that’s kind of why I was hired there to begin with and it was for this specific client that was a chemical distributor. OK. And when I say chemicals, I would like to preface that I am very ecologically aware.
Dan
Not all chemicals are bad.
Erica
Yes, exactly. These are like the good chemicals. Like the chemicals that are put into, like, makeup, right. Or the chemicals that are put into, like, we worked a lot with the, like, beyond meat style food. Yeah. Like the type of soy that makes soy chicken nuggets that you buy at Whole Foods, right, like. It’s very up the value chain, but it’s very specific within chemicals and. I just my brain gets it like it. It’s tricky. It’s kind of complicated to understand a lot of the chemistry behind the marketing and for some reason my brain is like, yeah, totally. So I would be in these rooms with these clients and I’m just like picking it up left and right and it it became a very strong like strength for me, right because it’s tough to understand that. I mean, you work in mobility, I’m sure it’s similar. Like sometimes your brain gets it and sometimes it doesn’t and mine does for chemistry.
Dan
Right. Yeah.
Rachel
It takes it. I mean I know how many times we’ve tried been like, OK, we need be to be copywriters and that is one of the hardest things, especially at the lower level because you either can take that complicated stuff and make it make sense, or you can’t. It’s it. I don’t. It is a brain thing I don’t know.
Dan
Yeah, that was that was my absolute favorite thing in like earlier in my career.
Rachel
Mm-hmm.
Dan
It was like opportunities to interview engineers and try to, like, synthesize that and turn it into an article that is for maybe a roughly engineering audience, but also to try to. Like. Get some branding out there and make it understandable beyond that, that was my absolute favorite thing to do.
Rachel
It’s a challenge. I always tell people that are in consumer like I love what you do. That’s the fun, easier like there is a day in, day out challenge when you work.
Erica
Ohh yeah.
Rachel
In the B2B space and get I mean chemistry is a whole other you know thing what chips and connectors and stuff like you know but yeah I get where you are going.
Erica
Yeah it is and I I loved it cause to your point. I’m. I have worked on flashy cars right? And like yeah, people are like, oh, I could work for Nike like, you know, I’ve thought a lot about that and like, working for Nike, you’re always going to be kind of telling the same story, of course, I’m sure a Nike strategist would want to wring my neck because that’s not what they think.
Rachel
They’re probably not listening so that’sOK.
Erica
That’s totally good point. But on the B2B side, like I’m trying to explain to a up the value chain customer of mine, why our chemistry like helps would stick together better like that literally is like what I am trying to do. That is incredibly challenging and I am talking to an audience that like, doesn’t really want to hear about marketing, right? Like there’s so many barriers that makes it fun, and I love it.
Rachel
Yeah. Great.
Erica
So yeah, the chemistry thing ended up kind of like catapulting me into like chemical B2B. Yeah. So then I ended up when I took this job, obviously it was within the same industry. Like, I’m doing exactly what I was doing with my last client so it’s not something I sought out, like, I did not start at fan and was like, hi, I would love for my specialty to be B2B specifically chemical manufacturing. No, but now that I’m in it, I’m happy to be here.
Dan
Yeah, I I feel like that’s something that we say often is just like, especially if you’re just getting into your career, like, give those types of jobs and those types of industries a shot because. You know you’re not alone and that you weren’t seeking that out. I feel like very few people come out and are just like, oh, yeah, I’d love to do PR for a chemical company, like, specifically out of college or something.
Rachel
Well, you don’t even realize it’s an option.
Dan
Right. You don’t know it’s there. But like, when the opportunity comes up, a lot of times you kind of find something that you love.
Rachel
Mhm
Erica
When I started working in this, especially at Hexion like so, we make we literally make the glue that holds together wood products like this table very likely has our product in it. We touch like everything. When I was in college, excuse me, I’m not an engineer.
Rachel
Yeah.
Erica
I was like, yeah, that’s a table, yeah.
Rachel
And I see it for nothing more than that.
Erica
Exactly I didn’t realize that that was an and it’s such a large like. Once you get into it, you’re like, Oh my God B2B. Like of all the, there’s so many little nuanced stories across all of these different industries like it’s such a wealth of information and interesting stories.
Rachel
Yeah. There was a girl that I followed online whose husband was a chemical engineer and he specifically worked in wet wipes. That was what he was chemically engineering which like again things, and I’m like it’s just a wet wipe. Nobody did anything like.
Erica
Ohh I’m sure but like to keep that wet wipe wet.
Rachel
Yep.
Erica
I mean, I’m sure that’s very complicated.
Rachel
And it’s got to be sensitive because it’s going on skin. So what are you doing better there? Yeah, it’s a whole other thing. But talk a little bit about in your marketing role. Working with sales, so something that we experience here a lot with B2B companies is if marketing can sometimes work in a funnel and that is where it fails, right? We know that think about the funnel, the funnel ends with conversion. We need salespeople to help with conversion. So talk about your relationship with marketing, working with sales and why you think that’s important.
Erica
I would love to talk about this because I you’re completely right. It marketing breaks at a certain point if you’re not working with your sales team, and I think a lot of companies are still structured that way. Most of the clients that I worked with when I was on the agency side were structured that way to where I felt like we were doing all this amazing upper to mid funnel work and then gets to that conversion point and like if we convert great, but like it doesn’t matter if the sales team isn’t on the same page with the message or the story that we’re telling like there’s so many ways that it can break at that intersection.
Rachel
Yes.
Erica
So I have to plug Hexion in a like supportive way for this because our marketing team is actually grouped with the commercial team. So we’re all working together, it’s great. It is amazing. I I pinged one of the like sales leaders for a product that I’m doing marketing for literally today and I was like, hey, building out this like new web page, I don’t think that this image is entirely accurate. Can you just gut check this for me? You’re in the field. Do you know what the customer wants? And he was like, yeah, I won’t go. And we had a back and forth on like, why that image didn’t make sense. And that is a very specific and weird example but like that in my opinion is really how you successfully connect the 2 is making sure that what I’m doing on the marketing side is going to work with the sales team and the only way I’m going to know that is if I work with them.
Rachel
Yeah, well, they’ve bought into your strategy because they know the client better than or potential client customer better than anybody else can, right. They’re the ones talking to them.
Erica
It’s funny because I on that note, I’ve heard a lot and I’m sure you’ve both heard this as well that like there’s this weird conflict almost between marketing and sales, right where they’re at odds with each other. Whether that’s true or not at a lot of companies is beyond the point. But I think that that kind of relationship is known. Yeah, that is not the case of Hexion at all. And I have to give us credit because I think a lot of it is the way that we again grouped the team. Like I think if you position sales and marketing as teammates that are on the same team with the same goals leading up to the same leader, it just really helps, I think define that sort of relationship from the jump like I’m not even questioning if my sales team has bought into the marketing plan because like of course they are.
Rachel
Yeah, yeah.
Erica
We’re all working towards the same goal and it just feels that way. And I think like setting up a team a certain way can really make that difference, like very simply, just being like, yeah, we’re on the same team. Great. It feels less controversial for some reason when you’re trying to convince each other of why sales matters and why marketing matters, if that makes sense.
Dan
Yeah. And and I could I can understand kind of like the annoyance between the two groups, like going both ways, if if you’re not on the same page about everything,
Erica
Oh, totally.
Dan
From a sales perspective, you know if marketing is sending you a whole bunch of stuff that is just like, oh, you have to use this, but is it hitting home like obviously that’s not gonna be fun for anybody. And then the other way, if marketing is sending a bunch of stuff and sales isn’t using it for any purpose and it just kind of goes to die then.
Erica
Totally. Yeah. Well, and I think about from a sales point of view, especially for B2B, a lot of them are working with a customer like on their phone. Yeah. Like they’re like Mike just calls me. What do you mean? And I respect that. I think that’s tremendous. That is a that is proof that our sales team has a great relationship with our customers. And I think a lot of sales within B2B are that way. But yeah, they don’t need marketing and I don’t need to give them marketing. I’m not actually worried about that relationship. That one’s locked in. I need to worry about all. These other ones, right the. Exactly. And when you’re working closely with your sales team, you understand that difference right to where I’m actually providing them with materials that won’t help with the Mikes because we know him. It helps with the Janets who we don’t have a relationship with.
Rachel
Yep. Right. Makes sense? All right, one final closing question. We like to ask and we’ve gotten some really good advice out of this I think. But what advice would you give your 21 year old self, so Erica that’s coming out of Michigan State that is taking her first internship at Weber, knowing everything you know now what? What advice would you give her?
Erica
That is a very hard question, gosh. I think I would tell her to be a little bit more humble in the early stages to be honest. I mean, we were part of a like girl boss, millennial era. So I was walking into Weber like I am so smart and I have these little kitten heels and I’m ready to rock everyone’s. And like, yes, that definitely that’s true. And I I took feedback and I obviously grew. It’s not like I didn’t take feedback at any point, but I think had I had a more humble perspective, it would have been easier for me to grow with that feedback. And when I was in my early 20s, I think I just thought I knew everything, which obviously I did not.
Dan
Yeah.
Erica
And now that I’m further in my career, it’s funny because I want feedback, and like I just do not get as much.
Dan
Yeah. It’s harder to get.
Erica
Because you just naturally, right? You’re just, like, not that you’ve learned everything, but you do get to a point where it’s just not as accessible, I think. And yeah, I wish that I could appreciate that and like, soak up that feedback a little bit more than what you know, I definitely did when I was 22, which was not nearly as much as I should have.
Rachel
Yeah. It’s funny because in college Erica ran everything, right?
Dan
Okay!
Rachel
Like she was leading PRSSA. She was leading the student agency. She was leading. So like, I can see what you mean when you say that because in college you were in everything, doing everything at the top of everything and you don’t realize when you go into then that first role like you are at the and there’s nothing wrong being at the bottom.
Erica
But you are.
Rachel
But like you are going completely from the top to the very bottom and realize that there’s a lot you don’t learn sitting in the classroom very quickly.
Erica
And I think for what it’s worth, that advice I would give to anybody as well, like even a lot of the recent grads that I work with now, I just want them to know that feedback is positive. And of course, it naturally is going to feel like a diss and it’s going to feel negative.
I always say don’t take it.
Rachel
I always say don’t take it personally.
Erica
Yeah, it’s not personal, and it’s such a great opportunity to learn about other people’s opinions and perspectives. Like feedback isn’t just a note on writing, it is a note on the world, right? And and like you’re not going to understand that unless you’re open to it. Yeah. And yeah, I wish I could just humble. Like I said, just like, throw that back a little bit. I think I’d be smarter now, but it’s fine.
Rachel
It’s like having the confidence, but also being humble.
Erica
Totally.
Rachel
Because I do think how you carry yourself through it and being confident is so necessary, but it’s being humbled to be able to then, like, take that and feed your confidence back.
Dan
Yeah, it’s what gets you the opportunity. But that means you have it being open to kind of changing or rethinking how you approach it.
Rachel
Yeah.
Erica
100%.
Rachel
Well, thank you.
Erica
Yeah. Thanks for having me.
Rachel
Really appreciate all of the good insights and conversation. We’ll link your LinkedIn in the description of that episode too, so if anybody wants to reach out or connect with you, they can do that.
Erica
Ff anybody wants to talk about chemicals, hit me up. I know it’s such a hot topic.
Rachel
So I’m always interested. Yeah, so. See ya. Thanks.
Dan
Well, thank you so much to Erica for coming on. Really enjoyed that discussion and getting into a lot of the, I don’t know, it’s always interesting to hear from someone who’s been on both sides of the line for agency.
Rachel
Yeah, yeah, that’s what I thought she’d be a good person to talk to, having just come out like her switch has been within the last year or so, yeah. So it’s like, really fresh?
Dan
Still fresh.
Rachel
Yeah. And she’s just she’s. I went to college with her. So she’s always been someone that’s been really smart and in the weeds and and just has some good, good thoughts. I think so. Thanks again to Erica for coming on and we will see you next time.
Dan
See ya.
