Leadership
How I lead, and how I got here.
How I came into this work, how I tend to lead, and how I think a hard problem through. I have kept it plain on purpose.
Background
I am based in Lehi, Utah, with 17+ years in marketing. Fifteen of those years were spent inside one consumer brand, Amber NaturalZ, where I moved from customer service into social media marketing and then into marketing leadership. The last seven years I have run independently under Catwalk Advisory, working with owners and operators on the same kind of problems from the outside.
I am deliberately going back in house. Independent work sharpened how I diagnose a business and how I write a plan, and it let me see a lot of companies from the inside in a short window. What I miss is being on one team and living with the results of my own calls quarter after quarter. That is where I do my best work and it is where I want to spend the next chapter. I have a bachelor’s in Marketing Management and a master’s in Digital Marketing to back the practice up.
How I lead
Do the work to get the decision right, then be willing to make the call when the evidence runs out.
I lead with evidence where I have it and with judgment where I do not, and I own the result either way. I would rather spend the time to name the real problem than move fast against the wrong one. But I have also learned not to let the wait for certainty turn into an excuse to avoid deciding. Both parts matter, and most of leading is knowing which one the moment calls for.
Core strengths
Product launch and commercialization
Taking a product from a decision to a shelf. New SKU introduction, launch kits, story, packaging call-outs, and the sell-in a rep can actually use.
Retail and channel activation
Getting an independent reseller to sell a product the brand is not in the room to sell. Point of sale, merchandising fixtures, catalogs, and the training that goes with them.
Brand and creative direction
Setting the voice, the visual system, and the argument the brand makes across packaging, print, and digital, then holding a creative team to it.
Executive diagnosis
Finding the real problem underneath the presenting symptom, grading the evidence, and naming the call before the team commits.
Systems and repeatability
Solving a problem once, then making the answer hold without me in the room. Playbooks, standards, and the accountability to keep them.
Executive communication
Moving a group from disagreement to a decision it can defend, and writing it down plainly so it lasts past the meeting.
How I work through a problem
Eight steps I run when a problem is hard and the answer is not obvious.
01
Figure out the real question
I get clear on what is actually being asked before I touch the presenting symptom.
02
Decide what matters
I separate the decision that moves the outcome from the noise, and spend my time there.
03
Find the actual cause
Marketing is often where the problem shows up, rarely where it starts. I trace it to the cause.
04
Get the evidence straight
I weigh evidence before acting, and I say plainly when something is a judgment call.
05
Build the plan and the system
I build the plan and the system that runs it, so the answer holds week after week.
06
Get people aligned
I get the people who have to live with the decision to agree on it before we commit.
07
Make the call
When the evidence is clear the call is easy. When it is not, I make it anyway and adjust.
08
Run it and keep the standard
I build in the accountability so the plan keeps working after I am gone.
What the approach comes down to
Evidence over assumptions.
I weigh the evidence before acting and flag a guess as a guess. That is most of what makes a recommendation worth trusting.
The inside shapes the outside.
How a company runs internally decides what it can deliver externally, so I treat internal alignment as part of the strategy.
Build the system, not the one-off.
I solve the problem once and make it repeatable, so the next ten decisions do not start from scratch, and I keep the system as simple as the problem allows.
Decide when it is time.
I do the work to earn the call, then make it when waiting would cost more than it is worth.
How I communicate
Listen first, then say the true thing plainly
Tell people what is real.
I tell people what is true, including the inconvenient parts, so they can act on something solid instead of something spun.
Listen before I say anything.
I listen for what someone actually means and needs first, because a message only works if it meets a real person where they are.
Sound like a person.
I write and speak the way I actually talk, warm and direct, so people feel met rather than managed.
If it is confusing, that is on me.
When a message does not land, that is my problem to fix. I make complicated things plain, because clarity is the most respectful thing you can do with someone’s attention.
Hire me in house
I am looking for an in house marketing leadership role at a consumer or commercial brand where I can own the launch calendar and the channel. Director or VP of Marketing, Brand, or Growth. Consumer products, retail and wholesale, and multi channel businesses are the fit I am after.
Direct Vanessa@catwalkadvisory.com