Women In Marketing ft. Fatima Alcalde from BirdEye
“You can’t balance your life, but you can anchor yourself to the values that make you feel calm and capable despite what’s happening around you. Create experiences that make you laugh so hard that it makes you cry.”
Fatima Alcalde
Fatima is a Social Media Manager at BirdEye. A believer in the power of mentorship, she also shares why it’s important to listen to others. Oh and she loves her frozen yoghurt! Let’s learn more from her in this segment of Women In Marketing
LET’S GET PERSONAL
WHERE WERE YOU BORN? WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FONDEST MEMORIES?
I was born in Zacatecas, Mexico. I can summarize them in the feeling of going home after school and see/smell what my mom made for lunch/dinner and play with my dog.
SHOW OFF TO OUR READERS. ANY HIDDEN TALENTS YOU CAN SHARE WITH US? A CLARINET STAR IN THE MAKING PERHAPS?
I was part of my State´s swimming team. I participated in national competitions. I also can say I’m pretty good at baking. All of my friends tell me I should sell my cakes/cookies, but for me, it is a delicious hobby.
WE WOULD ALL LOVE TO WIN THE LOTTERY RIGHT? IF YOU WON $10 MILLION TOMORROW, WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH YOUR FORTUNE?
Invest in me travelling and taking “time off” to learn new professional skills I want to know but “don’t have the time” to take the courses. Also, invest in Real Estate and Stocks.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MEAL? THAT ONE MEAL YOU WOULDN’T SHARE WITH ANYONE!
Frozen yoghurt! I LOVE IT. Anything else I can share.
WHAT MADE YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH THE WORLD OF MARKETING? WHAT PARTICULAR MOMENT IN TIME PUSHED YOU TO PURSUE THIS CAREER? AFTER ALL, WE ALL WANTED TO BE DOCTORS GROWING UP, RIGHT?
When I was in my first semester of college, I attended a Marketing Congress and after the first day I was falling in love of Marketing, then it was the time for the Director of Marketing of Coca-Cola of Argentina and he spoke about the campaign “para todos”, at that moment I knew Marketing it was the best decision for me.
IF YOU COULD BE ANY ANIMAL IN THE WORLD, WHAT ANIMAL WOULD YOU BE AND WHY?
A lovely and full of energy dog. Because I love them I know all the positive/good things bring to people.
WHAT’S THE MOST INTERESTING THING ABOUT YOU THAT WE WOULDN’T LEARN FROM YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE ALONE?
I’m a good listener and I know how to read people in the 5 minutes I meet them. This gives me the ability to motivate and inspire others, I know how to encourage everyone to work together to see a project through to the end.
ENTERING THE WORKPLACE
GIVE US A SNEAK PEEK OF HOW YOU TYPICALLY START YOUR DAY. ARE YOU #TEAMCOFFEE OR #TEAMTEA? OR BOTH? YOU BEAUTIFUL REBEL!
Rise and shine! My morning routine is to go for a good run, take a shower, drink my protein shake, and make my tea. After this, I am ready to “kick” my day.
HOW BEST DO YOU STRIKE A WORK-LIFE BALANCE?
The key is to find your center. You can’t balance your life, but you can anchor yourself to the values that make you feel calm and capable despite what’s happening around you. Create experiences that make you laugh so hard that it makes you cry.
If you know the handful of things that give you a sense of peace and purpose, you won’t spin your wheels chasing the impossible. Instead, you’ll be able to appreciate the wild beauty of your crazy, every-shifting life.
WHAT APPS/SOFTWARE/TOOLS CAN YOU NOT GO A DAY WITHOUT UTILISING?
Sprout social, IG, TW, Flipboard, Youtube, and Linkedin
HOW BEST WOULD YOU DEFINE GREAT LEADERSHIP?
A real-life leadership definition digs deeper into the nuances of what it means to be in charge.
When you’re running a business, you’re leading people, and that means you must develop people skills in addition to business know-how. To be an effective leader, you must be able to consistently interact with your staff, colleagues, and clients to achieve your goals. Great leaders don’t force collaboration – they invite it, leadership is about inspiring people to accomplish what they thought they couldn’t do, whereas management is about persuading people to do what they never wanted to do.
JOB HOPPING IS A COMMON PHENOMENA ESPECIALLY IN THE DYNAMIC WORLD OF ADVERTISING AND MARKETING. WHAT’S YOUR OPINION ON JOB HOPPING? DOES IT HURT OR AID ONE’S CAREER?
There are times when changing jobs could be beneficial. It’s a good way to strengthen your professional experience and achieve incremental salary increases. For more experienced professionals, job-hopping every few years can help you build your salary and skills faster than you might in staying with one company. It may not be such a bad thing given the de-stigmatization of job-hopping and, for women, it may be a way to increase your salary if you didn’t negotiate as strongly the first time.
Frequent job changes might even be the norm in some industries or professions, like if you work as a freelancer where contractual terms tend to be shorter.
FOR OUR INTERVIEW WITH YAEL TAMAR FROM SOLIDBLOCK, SHE REMARKED THAT WOMEN ARE MOST LIKELY TO OCCUPY THE CMO ROLE AS COMPARED TO THEIR MALE COUNTERPARTS. WITH WOMEN CONTROLLING OVER $20 TRILLION IN GLOBAL SPENDING, WHY HAS IT BECOME INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT TO HAVE FEMALE CMOS IN YOUR OPINION?
Women pay more attention and tend to be more empathetic to people than men do. Successful marketers and leaders are empathetic. They have the ability to see things from the viewpoint of the customer and the employee. Deep customer understanding yields better products, lower-friction processes, and higher sales.
COVID19 HAS BROUGHT WITH IT AN UNPRECEDENTED DISRUPTION TO THE WORLD. SEVERAL COMPANIES ARE NEARING BANKRUPTCY WHILE OTHERS HAVE BEEN FORCED TO SHUTDOWN OR LAY OFF THEIR STAFF. WHAT SHOULD THE BEST COURSE OF ACTION BE ESPECIALLY IN THE MARKETING CONTEXT AS WE ADAPT IN THIS ENVIRONMENT? HOW HAVE YOU AND YOUR DEPARTMENT COUNTERED THE EFFECTS OF THE PANDEMIC?
Particularly in times of crisis, a customer’s interaction with a company can trigger an immediate and lingering effect on his or her sense of trust and loyalty. As millions are furloughed and retreat into isolation, a primary barometer of their customer experience will be how the businesses they frequent depend upon delivering experiences and service that meets their new needs with empathy, care, and concern.
Now is also the time for customer experience (CX) leaders to position themselves at the forefront of the longer-term shifts in consumer behaviour that result from this crisis. Keeping a real-time pulse on changing customer preferences and rapidly innovating to redesign journeys that matter to a very different context will be key.
SYSTEMS AROUND REMOTE WORK AND VIDEO CONFERENCING ARE INCREASINGLY BECOMING STAPLE IN MOST ORGANISATIONS. ACCORDING TO THE INFOGRAPHIC CREATED BY VISUAL CAPITALIST, ZOOM IS NOW WORTH MORE THAN THE 7 BIGGEST AIRLINES IN THE WORLD AT A WHOPPING MARKET CAPITALIZATION OF JUST OVER $40BN. SUFFICE TO SAY, REMOTE WORKING IS AN ASPECT OF MODERN-DAY WORK THAT HAS BEEN LONG OVERDUE. IN YOUR OPINION, WHY HAVE MOST ORGANISATIONS STRUGGLED TO CONVERT TO THIS WAY OF WORK?
What is happening en masse related to Coronavirus is largely a temporary work-from-home phenomenon, where organizations are not putting remote work ideals into place, as they expect to eventually require their team members to resume commuting into an office.
Merely transferring planned office meetings to virtual meetings misses an opportunity to answer a fundamental question: is there a better way to work than to have a meeting in the first place?”
The change management process of “going remote” may seem as simple, but if not managed properly can result in legal concerns. Even worse, the ripple effects of going back to the office could be even worse, since remote work policy retractions are proven to negatively affect workforce retention and productivity. If the millions of businesses that are all adopting work from home models simultaneously return to the office, the job market, international trade, and corporate sustainability could all crash.
REMOTE WORK HAS COME WITH ITS OWN SET OF CHALLENGES, PARAMOUNT TO THIS IS THE FACT THAT EMPLOYEES ARE NOW ‘ALWAYS ON’ WITH WORK CARRYING OVER EVEN BEYOND WORKING HOURS. IN YOUR OPINION, HOW CAN ORGANISATIONS MANAGE THIS BETTER TO PROTECT THE WELLBEING OF THEIR EMPLOYEES?
Encouraging workers to telecommute is inevitable, but there is a difference between being at home during work hours, and working remotely in a way that maintains (or enhances) business operations.
As a company, you can write a policy (formal agreement to ensure all parties know how to safely and sustainably make the change from physical to virtual). Encourage your team to connect with more experienced peers as soon as possible to help guide you through the new world of virtual productivity and Do not assume that your workforce knows how to effectively work from home.
SHERYL SANDBERG MADE AN INTERESTING REMARK IN HER KICK-ASS BIOGRAPHY ‘LEAN IN: WOMEN, WORK, AND THE WILL TO LEAD’ THAT “SEARCHING FOR A MENTOR HAS BECOME THE PROFESSIONAL EQUIVALENT OF WAITING FOR PRINCE CHARMING”. SHE IS ILLUSTRATING THE NOTION OF WOMEN HAVING TO SEEK APPROVAL OR VALIDATION, ESPECIALLY FROM MEN WHO ARE AT MOST TIMES THE MENTORS. WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON MENTORSHIP?
Mentors are an important part of personal and professional development. They are guides through times when people need someone that is able to point them in the right direction. Good mentors are enthusiastic people, enjoying the role they play in helping others achieve their goals.
Choosing a mentor does not need to be as stressful or complicated as it seems. Find one that fits you, and work to make it a rewarding experience. You’ll not only find the best version of yourself, but you will have gained a life-long friend and supporter in the process.
COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS
BCG PUBLISHED ITS INNOVATION REPORT FOR 2020 AND AT THE CORE OF ITS SELECTION CRITERIA ARE COMPANIES THAT HAVE SUCCESSFULLY MARRIED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THEIR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES. ACCORDING TO YOU, WHAT MAKES SOMETHING INNOVATIVE? HOW DO YOU DEFINE INNOVATION AT BIRDEYE?
At the most basic level, innovation includes the development of new products, processes, or business models that better fit the needs of a group of consumers. Innovation cuts across all sectors of life and all aspects of a company. For this reason, organizations—and even individuals who innovate effectively—have the potential to make an impact on the landscape of their industry, just by being willing to take risks and learn from their mistakes. Innovation doesn’t necessarily have to be new; it just has to be done at the right time, and at the right cost and accessibility.
AT THE TIME OF PUBLISHING, THE DIGITAL MARKETING INSTITUTE ESTIMATED THAT THE INFLUENCER MARKETING INDUSTRY WILL HIT THE $10BN MARK BY 2020. WHETHER B2B OR B2C, IT’S EVIDENT THAT BRANDS AND ORGANISATIONS HAVE HAD THEIR SUCCESS WITH THIS MODEL OF MARKETING. HOW WILL THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AFFECT THIS INDUSTRY GOING FORWARD AND DO YOU BELIEVE THERE IS STILL A PLACE FOR INFLUENCER MARKETING?
Influencer engagement has increased during COVID, but ad prices are only rising modestly. On a cost per thousand exposures basis, influencer marketing is offering better value and more targeted messages.
During this unprecedented event, trusted social media influencers continue to be a reliable source of information and an effective, authentic way to communicate with your audience. We also know influencers earn trust, advocacy, and ultimately sales for brands. The use of video platforms is also steadily increasing, and we’re seeing celebrities and brands leveraging Instagram Live to entertain and connect with their audiences.
However, influencer marketing is only the right path forward if you’re doing it for the right reasons and in partnership with trusted influencers.
Working with trusted voices has always been important, but it has never been more critical than it is today. The decisions you make now will have long-term effects on your brand.
HOW DO YOU LEVERAGE DATA TO INFORM YOUR DECISION-MAKING?
We need to go beyond using data simply to optimize operations and leverage it to imagine new possibilities. We can start by asking how was the data sourced? How was it analyzed? What doesn’t the data tell us? And how can we use data to redesign products and business models?
WHAT DO YOU SEE AS SOME OF THE MAJOR TRENDS IN DIGITAL IN THE NEXT 12 TO 18 MONTHS?
Everything related with voice command, video content and the Sports Cards Market
2020 AND BEYOND
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING? (WHAT DO YOU READ, AND HOW DO YOU CONSUME INFORMATION? PAPERBACK VS EREADER?)
Right now ‘Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise’ by Robert Pool & Anders Ericsson. Before that ‘The Algebra of Happiness: Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love, and Meaning’ by Scott Galloway and ‘Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action’ by Simon Sinek.
And I do both, paperback (nothing replaces the feeling of turning the page and the smell of paper) and ereader.
WHAT IS ON YOUR NETFLIX WATCHLIST?
Believe it or not, I don’t use/see Netflix so there’s not much. Series: Lucifer (5th season) and Taco chronicles (2nd season). Movies: Uncut Gems
AS WE LEARN TO LIVE WITH COVID19 IF YOU COULD REPLACE THE HANDSHAKE AS A FORM OF GREETING, WHAT INTERESTING NEW GREETING WOULD YOU INTRODUCE?
I’m a hugger so I will definitely suggest this but can be a little too personal, so nothing better (and not complicate) than a big and sincere smile along with an “eye smile”
WHO HAVEN’T YOU SEEN OR TALKED TO IN A LONG TIME AND HOPE THEY ARE DOING OKAY?
All my family/relaties back in Mexico. I know they are ok, but I “want to see it”
A UNIQUE MESSAGE FOR ALL YOUNG PROFESSIONALS IN THE MARKETING INDUSTRY
Pay attention and act. It’s all about your eyes and ears. It’s about where the customers’ attention is. Don’t care about a specific platform. If you, as a marketer, content creator, whatever, are not there–where the attention is–, if you’re not day trading that attention if you’re not playing properly within that realm, you’re going to lose.
IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOUR YOUNGER SELF?
Focus on your goals. Work hard to achieve them, but don’t equate hard work with self-punishment, because the two are not one and the same.
Treat yourself with respect. Give yourself the best opportunity to succeed. Hold yourself to your own highest standards.
And pay no attention to anyone or anything who tries to keep you from doing what’s best for you. Stop trying to do it quickly. Start doing it sustainably.
WHAT CHALLENGE IS ON YOUR PLATE? WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PAINPOINTS YOU ARE TRYING TO OVERCOME IN YOUR LIFE WHETHER PROFESSIONALLY, PERSONALLY OR BOTH?
Keep working on owning who we are, own my imperfections because they will become my asset. Own my vulnerability, become it will my strength.
WE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR AWESOME WOMEN IN MARKETING TO PROFILE. WHO WOULD YOU LIKE US TO INTERVIEW IN FUTURE?
Melinda Goldsrein and Victoria Sakal
ANY BUCKET LIST ITEMS (PROFESSIONAL AS WELL AS PERSONAL)?
Personally, I definitely want to continue traveling. You learn a lot when you go outside, expose yourself, and go outside of your comfort zone (but you know, COVID). Professionally grow my “T” knowledge (T-shaped skills: Digital Marketing, graphic design, data analysis).
WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR FEMALE HEROES?
I’m not sure if I can call them “my heroes”, but definitely I admire them for the way they conduct themselves in society, their integrity, the positive things they have brought to humanity, and why they preach by their actions: Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai, Michelle Obama, and Melinda Gates.
And lastly but not least my mom: María del Rosario Alcalde Maldonado. She is a superwoman. It never stops surprising her skills to solve any situation, in the best possible way. Her skills “to save the day”, and all the positive energy that she has to give to the world without expecting anything in return. She taught me to always be the best version of myself. For her (and my father) I am the woman that I am.