What Is It Like to Be a Marketing Leader? | JobSearchTV.com

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hey folks its Jeff off in the big-game
hunter on the head coach for job search
coaching hq.com and you knew that
already right I'm continuing my series
talking about different careers and in
doing so I've got a great guest
Fabio tombow see and I'll simply say I
met Fabio as coaching him into his new
role he's a former division 1
student-athlete in soccer born in Brazil
a modern marketer builder helping grow
brands in a fast changing digital
landscape he's worked in multicultural
environments in six countries held a
variety of different roles as a global
leader he's also serving on the board as
and as an adjunct professor at Clemson
University's urban center from brand
communications hang in there a little
longer with me folks so most recently he
accepted a role the senior director of
brand communications at a let's see if
you can figure out who this is folks
global apparel and footwear sports fast
fashion company based in Europe
specifically Germany hmm can you figure
out who that might be folks so he's got
a 12 month non-compete with his current
employer and if folks if you're in
sports where you go yeah of course he's
honoring the agreement Fabio thanks for
making telling him on folks he's doing
this on a Saturday morning in some of
mine hey how are you Bob you know I'm
great Jeff thank you so much and just
actually through so like you actually
have met you about thinking a little bit
over ago
so glad to to reconnect with you great
to see you so what was your title what
will be your title yeah
and my former employer I was the global
brand director in digital services for
football category football for the
American folks soccer that was my title
and then my
new adventure is senior brand
communications director can tell you yet
what category because it hasn't been
formally announced but it would be an
exciting journey and getting the family
ready to to head to Europe fantabulous
so I think we have to focus in on what
you've done before so what exactly is it
that you do I love I love that question
because I always joke right I think I've
been trying to explain to my parents or
I do since I start doing it and I don't
think I've ever been able to be but I
think as a marketer I'm a marketer right
and our job is to to connect with people
right and the way I like to explain
marketing is very simple if you were to
think and visualize a Venn diagram or
you have psychology sociology and
anthropology mark is right in the middle
and we have the responsibility and the
ability to bring all those three
together to serve a consumer need right
and I always you know I am a huge
believer that we exist as a marketer to
serve the consumer and then product
should be at the center of enabling the
consumer to either live a better life
fulfill need and so forth so I say I
just work with people okay so that was
the 30,000 foot perspective on what you
do let's get down to four feet so what
what are you do T's responsibilities
functions for the job
so if you were to think in brand
marketing you act a lot as an
Orchestrator right and in a thought a
thought leader in within their
organization so our job is to look at
the product roadmap that's coming for
the next let's say 18 months right a
brand brief to turn that into a
marketing plan brand the brief write in
the brief could you translate that into
language that a old guy like me
understands okay yeah you're this
smarter than that but that's great I'll
try my best
the bright brief it's a marketing brief
to the creative functions that we're
gonna work with their agencies to come
back with ideas the output of this it's
pretty simple it's a marketing campaign
right it's is the advertising it's ad
films that you see is the digital
executions in our case in the sports
industry is how you bring your athletes
closer to your consumers to introduce a
product solution that's coming up so
that's did I do my job you did well now
let's go with the more detail about your
duties and responsibilities and maybe
what the job is like to Johnny I feel
really lucky for a few reasons right I
love people so as a brand marketer in
internally within a big organization
your job is to to bring people on the
journey with you so I think this
perception of oh hey I am the director
take it down at the end of the day it's
people frightened and people are not on
board with you you can have the best
idea you can have the best product in
the world and it's not there I'm gonna
buy and that also will translate into
the work that goes to the consumer so
usually my week would start what I say
is we do an editorial review of previous
like previous week results and that is
me with my team which are the creative
functions retail digital PR comms the
creative team right and they're like hey
what did we do and then we take a
three-week forward look at what's coming
ahead from a communication standpoint
meaning what's gonna go out to the
consumer then we take that make final
adjustments and then we usually would
have between Tuesday and Wednesday a
creative review where the creative teams
will come in we'll plaster the creative
zone
wall and then we'll pretty much walk
like you would do a wall session that we
call walk through the next three weeks
of creative once that gets approved by
leadership we handed it over to the
geographies the regional teams because
they they need to receive the assets so
they can start executing in their
channels in the market and that's a good
a global level right so I say that I
work with three clusters one is the
business the category side and and the
second thanks guy
sorry it's okay the second one is the
geographies right and then the third one
is the creative functions so what I'm
getting is your movie conduct my the
orchestra yeah I would like to think so
we're building maestro maestro being the
special one conductor hey is an ordinary
guy so to what extent is the job what
you expected it to be and you know for
an average Jane or or Joe how much job
security did you have in the role I
think the job security column and this
is so personal right like the job
security comes with your own security as
a person right I've always believed in
something actually you know my father
taught me that you should always be able
just to walk right because at the same
time you've been recruited you
recruiting the company you're gonna work
for right so he has to be a two-way
street so I've never understood like in
my mind the concept of job security
because I've always felt like I'm in the
driver seat right I'm making my
decisions I make and of course it comes
with responsibilities and so forth but
at the same time I am a person that I am
a risk taker but I with
learn how to mitigate risk so it's more
of like a calculated risk because now a
father of a three-year-old daughter can
be reckless anybody should have kids or
not and I'm gonna Detra here for a
second and just tell you folks
Fabio embodies equality that if you
watch some of my other videos you know
that I push very hard
and then his organizations are not
responsible for you in your career you
are you're the chairman of the board of
your own organization and you have to
make decisions that benefit you and
obviously serve the firm that you're
working for - there's a disconnect
between organizational desires and what
serves you in those cases why are you
putting your your career and your future
livelihood in the hands of an employer
I'd that grass for a second thank you so
coming back to you Fabio so you know we
talked in terms of duties and you know
Monday through Friday you know what's
what does a typical day look like I get
up take my daughter to school get to the
office shows about the job okay yeah so
come in usually starts with the staff
meeting take a look at the week I
usually like to arrive before people
because at a global level you work with
multiple geographies multiple time zones
so usually in the morning your email is
pretty crowded and I usually clear out
as much as I can from the email but also
I choose to make two to three important
phone calls to people that I think I
need to have a conversation instead of
just email right I always ask people's
like have you call Jeff right so then
you get on with the team with the with
the team it all depends on what the
priorities for the week but also what
projects you're working on but Monday is
a staff meeting Tuesday was integrated
marketing
meeting Thursday was geography calls you
know eight in the morning with Europe
and then five pm with Asia so that's her
if the interesting thing is even though
there's some structure the week is never
the same and I think that's what keeps
me excited motivated and engaged with my
job it sounds like you had a framework
but it's not like concrete stuff and
deducing correctly by the time zones
we're talking about you being on the
west coast folks you can reroute who
we're talking about his last employer
was who has the non-compete with him so
what kind of hours did you normally put
in oh yeah that you know whatever was
necessary whatever is necessary like
it's so as you grow in the organization
you get like a higher level is this is
not a recommendation so everyone makes
their own choices are hardly set it out
of office right because if there's
something that it is urgent on Sunday
unfortunately you have to attend and of
course I like to always set my
precedence from the beginning so when I
get a new role a new team in your boss
but make sure you know I clarify the
rules of my engagement but also have
good judgment right especially in the
sports industry where do you know most
of the big games actually played in the
weekend and we work with athletes who
are on stage on Saturday and Sundays and
our communication has to be especially
in today's world like you have to be
able to be with from the posts of the
game right like it you know all depends
on the week there are times it's just
super busy sometimes you've got a little
bit of a downtime so it sounds like you
know normally where they ask about
taking work home on the weekends it's
the question is when do you leave the
office
usually at 5:00 p.m. so you leave at
5:00 and you're on call because you've
got a phone with unit you're checking in
with things all the time well one thing
I'm I the last two years since my
daughter was born right he comes with a
huge perspective in life right for those
who have kids or not but I've made very
clear as soon as my daughter was born to
the entire organization 5 p.m. I'm out
of the office I want to pick her up at
school I want to go home I want to have
a little bit of playtime I want to have
bath time with her I wanted to have
dinner and then you know watch some
series with my wife so the evening for
me it's only if is really necessary so
if it's not I won't respond to message
what kind of problems do you tend to
deal with in your room most of the times
is managing personalities right you've
got to build a team that people feel
that they're part of something bigger
than just a job because if you don't
connect at that level it is hard to get
things moving in a cohesive way right so
a lot of the time we spend selling ideas
like as a marketer I also say we're all
salespeople right hmm in dealing with
people even the most difficult part of
our job I love it right everyone is
different right so the way I talked to
Jeff is different the way I will talk to
John and it was different than all of
talked to Jennifer right you have to be
able to read and understand the way you
do it otherwise things just roll that
down what do you do if you can't solve
something on your own if there's some
problem that just beyond your scope how
do you handle it it depends on the
context right for me are you tapping on
something by the way because I think I'm
picking it up on the mic yeah
okay there's my other way so I don't
have to touch it yeah you got energy
going I got you you may look pleased yes
butyou got the tension thing yeah it's
Jeff Jeff gets the best out of people so
your question is like if you can't solve
a problem how do you do it you gotta
understand the context sometimes you
just gotta let things go you don't have
to be right you don't have to push
things through if they're not going
through it but sometimes as a leader
it's gotta make the decision as well I I
love one of my favorite a couple big I
think it's Jeff Bezos says it's like you
got a agree commit right because a lot
of people say oh yeah okay but are you
committed all right and the other one is
about disagreeing to agree
so we disagree - we agree to disagree
it's fine that we don't all have to just
love each other all the time but as a
leader you sometimes you gotta make
decisions they're not accepted by
everybody editorial comment folks the
notion of commitment a lot of you talk
to talk but you're not all in and you're
very willing to quit at times rather
than go all the way and when you commit
as Fabio was talking about you gotta be
wallet I digress
coming back to Fabio so could you tell
folks about a tough decision that you
have to make I mean he's just
back in October when I had to decide to
leave my job for people who know me well
enough know how much I love the sports
the football soccer I'm a former soccer
player and I was heading up Brent for
one of the largest sports apparel
company in that category in the Pacific
Northwest it was a big Northwest dealing
you one of the best players in the world
so but I felt that I need a different
challenge but also I knew they're
heading into competition there was
potential I'm not gonna say consequence
because when I signed the non-compete
I agree to that though making the
decision without knowing what the
outcome was going to be it was a tough
one yeah very very truck how much
flexibility do you have in performing
your role is it all on you to make
decisions how much comes from above it's
it's a tough one because every
organization is different the culture of
the company dictates how you perform
what I love about what happens in
today's corporate world and I'm going to
generalize for the purpose of this
conversation is that proposin are very
well defined so it gives an incredible
canvas for you to create your job right
there's some primary responsibilities
you have to deliver but how you gonna
run that process and even when the more
you move up people expect you to bring
your vision to life people expect you to
create a way of work right but you have
to understand the intrinsic sub
decision-making and every organization
has their own complexity and my previous
job alignment and getting consensus from
different size of organizations from
different levels of the business
right mm-hmm it was one of the most
important part of my job so but also you
know I'm a little bit of the sometimes
call as a maverick and if I to me
sometimes I would make decisions that I
knew there was not consensus but I would
do it based on a few things this is
gonna help the company is the best thing
for the consumer and it's just helping
the team and if you doing those three
things you can go home and sleep well
right so it's not like I was doing
selfish making selfish decisions I was
actually making well-thought decisions
that I knew didn't have consensus but it
was best for the business
at what level with you were you in at
what level did you report I reported to
the vice president of brand and he
reported to to the CMO so that's the
level relative to the organization thank
you how many people reported to you in
the last year I had five direct reports
but what see a lot of people get caught
up with how many people reporting to you
direct right and one thing that did
learn when I start with the process
actually with you and I look I had five
people reporting to me throughout the
year some have laughed and you know but
totals many five people within the year
but then I looked at it hey I have to
create a function right that our doctor
lying to me but they are reporting to
you you know why so I was managing that
the greater functions I had seven people
in this organization more people in
retail one person in PR and columns
dot-com app development so when you put
all that together that's like 22 people
from the creative side the business side
you have product merchandise and all
that
and then you have the geography so I was
leading an organization about 60 people
in a weekly basis fabulous and thanks
for spelling that out for folks so they
get a perspective because I didn't cover
that at the beginning I just wanted to
you know what it is you do and how you
go about doing you know what it's like
but I think it's useful that people get
the perspective that you're not a staff
individual yeah a to day work you're
number two down from the CMO yeah this
well-known sports product so what do you
what did you like or not like about your
role
I mean there a lot of in life there are
things you don't like but you got to do
you got to eat the vegetables that make
you stronger right so like I think
having the mindset of an athlete I
understand that sometimes I'm gonna make
that run and I know I'm not gonna get
the ball right
you got to play without the ball all
right so I have I struggle with ah just
don't like that but I think there's
there's this thing happening in the in
the in the corporate role it's actually
the core theme of the book I'm writing
now which is everything is changing so
fast if you look at the average tenure
of a CMO today I think is like 12 months
right consumers are changing so fast and
then actually because of the speed of
change in the uncertainty of tomorrow
company's going to paralysis and and
that's why you see a lot of startups
just skyrocketing because they have that
culture of like decision making
iterating and moving on to each other
adn moving on so this notion of moving
in packs now like like the world lives
in connected communities I said people
live in tribes I joke with people that
my I made my best friends up until was
twelve years old after that it's just
people I got to know but today's
generation I'm not gonna label a
generation right I'm gonna say today
today's mindset is we have your yoga
friends you have your running crew you
have your beer friends and then you and
then let's say you're running crew
you're the leader because you were the
fast phaser right you've done three
marathons and people look at you as an
authority but when you go to a yoga
group you just started so you're not
taking a leadership position so today's
code for in society it's super
able to were different hats and in-mold
into this ever-changing and continue to
move where organizations are still
structure in silos like horizontal
vertical matrix anyway what are you
waiting for to change alright so I think
that was I kind of you know I don't even
say a derail but go back to what I
didn't like it it was the speed of
decision making or like the rough yeah
like I mean folks you know what I'm
getting from this is each segment of an
organization is structured like the
classic pyramid and within that you know
think in terms of the organization is
operating as a pyramid where information
flows up in order to cya and someone has
to be responsible for the decision so
that they can be held accountable and
instead in organizations that are more
appealing the information flows down and
you're allowed to make your choices live
with them you're not going to destroy
the firm and you know it's very unlikely
you're going to do that right but it
becomes frustrating when you're
constantly dealing in these permits you
stuck that is ultimately you're in the
silo and it's interesting because the
world doesn't live that way anymore so
and any if you expect to be cool it's
almost like to walk inside the barn
and be like oh now I have to act this
way we have an underperforming
organization right so I think that's
that's a big big problem if you could
change anything or could have changed
anything in your previous world because
we're certainly not going to talk about
the new role what was you have changed
about and anything in the olden Dharma
well I think it's it's tough because I
always everything I do in life I walk
away from the situation feeling hey I
gave my best right and and if my best
wasn't enough for the situation I can
learn and try to change things for the
future right so changing the past it's
not a notion in my mind but I think in
my previous role the organization would
have benefit from having a culture of
empowerment but people need to
understand that empowerment comes with
accountability and responsibility right
so just don't ask to be able to make
decisions if you can't take it because
there's a price yeah there was a price
for that opportunity a lot of turnover
in the role generally yeah you see like
I mention a little bit the average
tenure of Asiya morning is now 12 months
right and that if you think at that
level that's what's happening you know
only trickles down to the bottom and and
people are not willing just to sit
around and wait for the opportunity
right like that's how the world lives
now people want the best suits for them
and sometimes the best for you Jeff it's
a 30% increase in your salary for me
might be get a larger team to be able to
be challenged in a different way so I'm
not saying that you know one size fits
all but you've got to be able to read
and adjust to it keep the world cork
organization in the world needs to mash
a little bit man it can be just a
connector so you're welcome inside the
gate of their organization it's you know
what it's kind of like organizations or
mainframe environments and we don't live
in mainframe words many more live in
that work environment right Fabio this
is this has been fabulous how can folks
reaching well a lot of that question I
appreciate you attending Jeff in my 12
months now I am enjoying life I'm
writing a book right I'm doing
consulting and teaching and speaking so
you can't find me a Fabio Tembo see calm
could you spell your name for folks I
know it'll be in the show notes but I'm
warning you it's f8 b io t am b o si.com
Fabio see calm all right also connect
with me on LinkedIn you can find me
first name last name but also on tweeter
F Tembo C so I love to connect with
people a lot to stay in touch I love to
share ideas but also their own being
writing blogs have I'm producing case
studies of my life so we have 12 case
studies coming in the pipeline so check
it out I mean and I'm here like next you
know few months I'm open and love to
connect with more people fabulous and
folks I hope you enjoy this interview
with Fabio you know I want to help you
land your next role so if you're
interested my doing one-on-one coaching
with you connect with me on LinkedIn at
LinkedIn.com/in/TheBigGameHunter
and not
sure that you saw the interviewing with
Fabio because it just lets me know where
he came from and he connected with me
once you're connected send me a message
I'd be happy to work out time to country
hope you have a great day
take care