35 years in marketing | Kathy Gill

Howdy, welcome to todays interview.

We’ve got a marketing veteran this time - a marketer with over 35 years of experience.

Without further ado, we introduce Kathy Gill.

She is currently the marketing director at AngelEye Health (an upcoming healthtech startup) with past experience ranging from running her own consulting agency to working in corporate settings.

Stick till the end to learn about the million dollar marketing stunt Kathryn pulled off for one of her companies.

Q: Could you tell us a little about your story and how you got to working at your current role as the Marketing Director of AngelEye?

Sure. Well, my story is long and varied. I have been doing this probably for 35 years.

I've done marketing both in corporate environments, agency environments, and then I ran my own consultancy for a while and I landed here just through those connections.

A company that I had been working for, a startup company, did not survive and in my early 60s found myself out of work and people don't really want to hire people who are that old.

Another company that I had worked for in my consultancy that we did a turnaround and actually sold the company. Happened to know this CEO and this CEO found me on LinkedIn and called that guy so big networking adventure to get here.

So I call this my last best great job and I'll ride this one into retirement. But it's a lot of fun, but it was sheerly from all the networking and all the work I had done here in Nashville over the years that got me where I am today.

Q: How did you decide to get into marketing as a career?

I actually probably would tell you that I tripped into marketing. I actually have a science background, I was a biomedical engineering student in college and that was not a lot of fun for me.

And I thought, okay, I can't do this for my whole life and so switched over to business school. But I really got into retail because back in the early 70s, that's what all women who were not going to be secretaries did or teachers or nurses. You went into retail.

And I literally just tripped into it [marketing], got a job in the boot business when boots first became fashionable loved my boss and went to grad school. And that just was the trajectory. It was sheer accident.

Q: What does your day to day look like as a marketing director?

I do a lot of writing. I do all of our website work, our social media, our collateral. Today has been interesting. We finished off a new brochure. We packed up for a trade show. We did some email blast for the trade show. Sent out the lead list to the salespeople.

I do it all. Soup to nuts. So you just have to pace yourself, work hard, and be able to do enough on your own.

But it's fun and the things I've learned to do. It kind of amazes me, because every time I turn around, I'm having to learn a new technology, which, if you could imagine when I grew up, there were no cell phones. There were no computers. There were nothing.

Thats why I'm technology challenged so when they throw a new thing at me, it's like, oh, Katie, bar the door. I really don't want to have to learn something else new.

Q: How do you deal with criticism or hate that might come up with working in marketing?

You just have to let it roll off your back and go with the flow.

Because I've learned through the years that everybody's an expert and everybody has an opinion.

So. It's managing all of that. And just going with it. Learn to rely on yourself. The more you learn, the more you have to say. Okay, guys, I've been doing this for 100 years. I hear what you're saying. Let's not do that. Or that's a great idea. Let's go with it.

Q: What qualities do you notice successful marketers have in common based on your experience?

So I think just the biggest thing from my experience is to be always learning. I mean read newsletters, do webinars, go to classes, etc. I think constantly learning because marketing. Is constantly changing.

Also ingraining yourself in the management of the company, even as a consultant, I made those people let me sit with C suite people to understand the mission, goals, etc.

I also think you have to have an affinity for what you're working on. I will not say that I've always had that there have been times when I needed the paycheck. So you took a job that you might not want to do. But, the passion matters, and I think it comes through in your work.

I also think it's surrounding yourself with good people and trying things, not being afraid to fail, which I know sounds super trite, but marketing is full of failures. And the trick is just to learn from them.

Being able to fire clients is another one. I've fired clients before because if they want me to do stupid things or bad work, that reflects on me even when I've worked in corporate environments, I've said, guys this is my reputation with my peers. Let's not do bad work period.

I think just having perseverance and putting one foot in front of the other every day. Sometimes you need to drink at the end of the day.

Q: You mentioned learning all the time, What are some educational resources that you go to?

I do a lot of HubSpot webinars. I do a lot of ON24 webinars. Just over time, I've kind of learned which ones add value to me, which ones don't.

Boy if this goes out to webinar people. My inbox will be flooded. I always open and read those emails. Because if there's one nugget to be gleaned from spending an hour. That's worth it.

I download a lot of white papers from different groups. Just can't remember any names but I read a lot. I'm a voracious reader, and I would tell every marketer be a reader. You can't be a writer if you don't read.

But if young people are looking for a place to go to learn, like digital stuff. Hubspot training is free and it's amazing.

Q: Have you had any creative marketing stunts over the years? If so, what were they and how did they end?

My best one was ever with a company called FTI Consulting. They are a healthcare consulting practice.

We did an entire campaign called You. We hired a research firm and we found the top ten hot buttons for Hospital CEOs for the coming year.

Then we created an entire hardback book called “You” and each section went through one by one of each of the top ten hot button items, what the trend was, and how the firm could help support them.

The books were sent to each of the CEOs that they were targeting and the front page of the book was that CEO’s picture with his hospital name and just a little custom stuff on it.

We sold five consulting agreements and their consulting agreements are like in the million dollar range.

Q: What are some failures you've had in your career and what did you learn from them?

So there are a million in every day and they're little ones. I don't think I ever had any really big giant one, but I think the failures came from when I didn't trust myself enough.

To stand up and say this is not a good idea. We shouldn't do this. Here's what we should do instead. I think that's where my failures came of.

Just not trusting myself enough, especially as I got more experience. It's one thing when you're young and people think, what the hell do you know? Because you've been at this for two years or five years, whatever. But as I gained more experience, even to this day, I think the failures come when I don't trust my gut.

Q: What are some of the biggest regrets you have looking back at your career?

Well, the one big regret I have is that I had a chance to go to New York and work at an agency in New York and because the pay they were offering was just about the same as I was making here in Nashville, I made the decision not to go.

I think had I gone, I might have had a whole different career and lifestyle.

But I think that is the regret that I have is that I did not just suck up, find a roommate, live poor for a few years and have that experience. And I should have done it.

Advice For Young People: Take your chances and do audacious things when you’re young enough to do them. Don’t be afraid of risk.

Q: What are some things you do to understand the market better?

So I have relied either on key opinion leaders who are part of our group, our company or advisory boards.

We also do a lot of surveys with our customers and focus groups with our customers and the patients that they serve. So we are constantly in a state of listening and engaging with industry organizations in our world.

There are about three or four key industry organizations, and I have relationships with each of their marketing people and we meet on a periodic basis is a great way to describe that.

And I think those are available in any industry you're going to go to there will be key of opinion leaders for you to fair it out. Engage with them on LinkedIn. Engage with them.

See what organizations they belong to, and try to join some of those, whether they're digital forums.

They're so expensive but I try to go to industry meetings. Where I can as a marketer, I can look at what other booths are doing, but I also have a chance to talk to other vendors and the attendees. All of those things will suit you very well as you try to learn.

Q: If you were a young person coming out of college today, what are some ways you would go about meeting really competent and excellent people?

I would go to Chamber of Commerce meetings and I would go to your local American Marketing Association meeting.

I would also go on LinkedIn and find people who have jobs that I would want and reach out to them.

Look for local organizations that you can go to meetings, meet people, network with them.

If you don't know what field you want to be in, test out a few. Most people are willing to spend a little bit of time with you.

Especially now that you can do it with Zoom and stuff. I mean, in the old days, we had to take an hour and a half and go have a cup of coffee and do all that. But I can't tell you how many people did that with me and for me. So I really tried to give that back to people. But that's what I would do.