Christina Minshull, Brand and Digital Marketing Leader, Founder of the Brand Audit who was also a guest speaker at the fall edition of the CMA NXT Marketing Careers Night, shares essential values, overcoming challenges, tips for success, and the proudest accomplishments of her career.
The marketing profession drew me in because of its dynamic, creative and evolutionary nature. As the Founder of The Brand Audit, I use a mix of storytelling and spreadsheets to Unleash the Brand Potential of personal and corporate brands. Over the 16+ years of my career, I’ve helped transform many enterprise brands such as LinkedIn, EY, WestJet and Shaw and partners like Nike, Amazon, adidas and Disney. I’m passionate about helping lead teams to dream, learn and strive to become more. I’m a strong consumer advocate, who listens to and understanding the consumer will bring more revenue than amplifying a brand’s voice.
My upbringing instilled three fundamental values which are not only essential for marketers, but also to society as a whole:
1) High Integrity - Is the foundation of trust in any relationship. Upholding ethical standards, practicing honesty, and fostering transparency are the cornerstones of strong relationships with clients, partners, and colleagues.
2) Work Ethic – Is a central ingredient to success. It's through trying and failing that true growth and mastery are achieved.
3) Resiliency – Is the ability to rebound from setbacks and failures. In marketing, not every campaign or strategy will yield immediate success, and resilience is what enables marketers to learn from their experiences, adapt, and keep moving forward. Marketers need to navigate the ever-changing landscape with determination, a hunger for failure and a commitment to a growth mindset.
A Bold Step
My journey into marketing was a formidable challenge – one against 800 other candidates. To set myself apart, I took a bold step, created a YouTube video and presented a marketing campaign concept.
Fortunate
I started my marketing career with an incredible organization - The Edmonton Oilers. I had an incredibly supportive boss, team, and future-orientated President. I credit that organization with my success as I was given the privilege of immersing myself in various facets of marketing, spanning from brand to digital, public relations, social and events.
Desires and Ambitions
My director once said, “You can’t get a yes if you don’t ask for it.” These words taught me that if we don’t articulate our desires and ambitions, we won’t achieve them. It was an important lesson to learn because women can get cemented in societal norms to accommodate, serve, and fade into the background.
Personal Brand
The career landscape is marked by heightened competition, and an increasingly demanding corporate culture. We’re in the era of the personal brand, so candidates can’t rely on resumes to secure jobs. Marketers must curate their personal brand through content creation that showcases their perspectives and insights while networking on and offline.
1) Be infinitely curious.
2) Have a growth mindset and adapt instead of resisting.
3) Collect tries, not trophies.
4) Ignore the haters.
5) Build on your strengths, instead of working on your weaknesses.
6) Invest in your personal brand – here’s 10 reasons why.
7) Don’t wait for your boss to teach you. Self-initiate.
8) Collect Software certifications because people are more likely to hire those with recognized expertise in the tools they rely on.
9) Build strong relationships with your vendors and learn from them.
10) Attend conferences, events, webinars and compile learnings, takeaways and links in a central repository like Notion.
• Fastvertising – Speed and relevance are the keys to capturing and retaining audience attention.
• Creator Influence – People trust people more than they trust brands (Edelman Digital Trust Barometer). Brands need to recognize this and invest in external as well as internal creators (i.e., CEO, Executive team, employees) to amplify their messages.
• Attention Economy – Attention is a finite resource and every interaction is an opportunity to earn and retain attention. I think we are on the cusp of witnessing massive brand failures of companies not adequately preparing for the audiences of tomorrow (i.e., Millennials, Gen Z and Gen A).
• B2H – Instead of viewing marketing as B2B or B2C we need to view it as B2H. At its core, all business transactions involve humans. Humans buy with emotion and justify purchases with logic/rational thought so we as marketers need to tap into that emotion first.
• AI – “AI won’t replace marketers. Marketers using AI will replace marketers not using AI” Kieran Flanagan, CMO of Zapier.
that launched my consulting business, The Brand Audit
Having first-hand experience standing up to workplace bullying has defined my leadership style. I’m a deeply empathetic team leader and aim to create a psychologically safe space for my team. As Organizational Psychologist Adam Grant said, “culture is defined by the worst behavior tolerated”. I support an organization called Speak Out Revolution in the UK who are trying to cancel the culture of silence on bullying.
I am currently searching for a FT Marketing Director role in a company I can build a career with over the next 10 years. I’m 100% mobile and open to relocation anywhere in Canada, the U.S. or Europe. Ideally, I’m looking to go back to an Enterprise Tech company characterized by innovation, market disruption, forward-thinking strategy and a penchant for intelligent risks.
