Episode 9 - Stevie

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hello, and welcome to the Quiet Women Podcast. I'm your host, Stephanie Sumner. On this episode, I welcome Stevie Archer, Executive Creative Director of the Ad Agency S K, who works with clients like Iceland Tourism and the Mount Sinai Health System. Her work for brands such as Starbucks, Nationwide Insurance, Travelocity, and TJ Maxx has received some of the industry's highest recognition. As a quiet woman in an industry dominated by men, her path to success wasn't easy. She shares the challenges she faced, the lessons she learned, and the benefit of being a tiny lady in the boardroom. Thank you. Thanks for joining me today. I am very fortunate that my career has allowed me to work with some amazingly talented women like yourself. And I'm thrilled to have you on the Quiet Women Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Well, thank you for having me, and thanks for reaching out and um making this happen because I'm I'm excited to have a conversation and have you grill me and put me on the spot.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

You can handle it. I've seen you in. We um we actually have followed a bit of the same path in that we are both from North Carolina and I also worked at Rocket, that small agency in Robinson. I don't think I knew that. Yeah, but not at the same time. I I was there before you. And um then yeah, we both ended up at McKinney for a little while. Um, and we are both named Stephanie. Yes. So you have to share that funny story.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Well, um, yes, so my my legal name is is Stephanie, and um that that happened because my dad, he he always wanted to name his children like unusual sort of names. Um and he lost that fight with my older brother, who ended up with a name that was very normal. His name is David. Um, and so when I came along, he was really interested in um naming me with like a unisex name. So at the time, you know, he had been a Stevie Nicks fan, and so he really wanted to call me Stevie, thought that was really cool. And my mom had insisted that I have like a quote unquote professional name to fall back on in case like that didn't work out, I guess. Um, and so my whole life, um, though, when I was born, my parents just default called me Stevie all the time. And that that was the only name that I knew. And um, it wasn't until I got to uh first grade that I guess they had signed me up for school differently or I had a different teacher. Um, and they were calling out the attendants and called out Stephanie. And I didn't know who that was because I've never been called that in my entire life. Um and they had the teacher had to explain to me that that was in fact me and that was my name. And I had never my parents had just, I guess, didn't think to have a conversation that said, This is in fact your name. Um, and so for a brief period, probably most of elementary school, I actually went by Stephanie because I had as a little uh you know, kindergartner having an unusual name at the time. Girls didn't have unisex names very often. I I didn't like it. I thought, you know, kids would say I had a boy name or or something like that. So I did go by Stephanie for a decent amount of time before I was I kind of um went back to embracing Stevie and sort of having the uniqueness of it. And so I I adopted that as I got older more, and now I'm Stevie ever since. But uh yeah, there was definitely a shock when I found out that I had been going by a name I had never heard before or wasn't my legal name at all.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

And it's funny that your professional name is not the professional name that your parents thought you would be using. Exactly. I think I picked the wrong profession for the professional name. We are having this conversation during Women's History Month, which is quite fitting since we're discussing your experience in a career that has historically and for the most part still is dominated by men. I ran across a piece you wrote on LinkedIn from four years ago, I think it was about four years ago, about your first big presentation experience. So would you mind sharing that story?

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Yeah, um, you know, and in in my job, of course, I'm presenting to clients a lot. Um, but this particular situation was the first time that I had um been asked to present uh creative work to essentially the the board of you know a very large company um where it was it was one of those very traditional situations where there's literally 25 you know high-powered board members in suits and sitting around an oval table kind of a kind of a thing. Kind of the most like stereotypical version of that situation that you you could kind of imagine. Um because I've never been put in a situation like that before, um, I didn't technically even have a wardrobe to wear to um to that kind of a meeting. I have typically in my career, the you know, advertising copywriters and art directors, we wear jeans and t-shirts and things like that all the time. And it's only until we're put in those kinds of situations that we have to like dust off a somewhat professional-looking outfit and try to act like we've been there doing that the whole time. Um, but I actually didn't even own something that was formal enough for that particular meeting. I didn't have like a suit, I didn't have like a business outfit, I didn't have any of those things. So what I did is I went and bought a dress. I bought like a business dress, um, you know, like something you'd get from like Banana Republic or something. And um went and did the presentation, um, you know, presented probably for, you know, a good 30 minutes of the presentation, presented all of the campaign work. And I was sort of doing that thing in the room afterwards where I was, you know, trying to find a conversation to join, or, you know, trying to kind of pretend like I wasn't just like being silent in the corner, kind of a situation because no one was coming to talk to me. And instead, they were going and and talking to the male colleagues that that were with me, which I which was understandable at the time too, because they were equally, you know, executives and and things like that. But I I had just expected like they'll someone will come and talk to me because I presented all this work. And the only person who said anything to me in that entire room after the presentation was one of the two women who who were on the board. One of them came up and said, I really like your dress. And that was it. And of course, I'm sure she meant it as a compliment. And I, you know, I took it as one at the time. I don't think she was she was trying to, you know, say anything negative by any means, but I it it stood out to me in that moment of of as sort of like indicative of the the role that I played in that meeting, where it was like I was the person that stood there in the dress, in the in the in the pretty dress and had done all the work, but you know, wasn't kind of the person to ask the questions to. It was a really stark reality of of how I was perceived all of a sudden in a room like that. Um, and so as a matter of fact, I now both because I'm not very comfortable in it anyway, but I don't ever wear dresses, I don't ever wear anything like that to client meetings or to work because I'm very aware of anything that kind of makes me appear more feminine, more uh less important, less stereotypically executive in some ways.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Do you feel like you were like your team put you there for the right reasons? Or do you feel like you were in the room because you were woman?

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Um, in this situation, no, I don't I don't think my team used me because I was a woman to make sure that I was repres you know, representative. I have certainly been in situations though where me being a female specifically has helped uh create a perspective of what you know the work sounds like and looks like. Um, and and that I have been asked to be in rooms before because I am a woman and they want to make sure that there's representation happening. Um, and alternatively, I've definitely been in situations where I have even realized that I should not present the work that I'm I have done myself because it will be better received if it comes from someone who's a man or who looks different than me, or you know, isn't isn't a petite little, you know, little girl kind of that's kind of how I kind of come off when I, you know, I'm a I'm like a five-one, um, you know, look like I'm about 12 years old. So I am aware of that.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Um which you will appreciate in 20 years. So this is called the Quiet Women Podcast. And I would love to hear what um the term quiet woman, quiet woman means to you.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Well, you know, I think there's probably a lot of, I'm and I'm sure you're doing this podcast, you've heard a lot of different answers to to what it means to be a quiet woman. Um, I I think, and I and I've thought a lot about this before we had this conversation. I think for me, I would sort of describe myself as situationally quiet. Um, where what I mean by that is I think like for most people like my friends um or people that you know feel like they they know me publicly would would say I wasn't a quiet person. Um the job that I'm in requires me to be very vocal. I have to present a lot. I have to talk about things in a room with lots of people all of the time. But I would say that's not really like my default setting as a person. I think that's a learned thing. Um, I think for me, my my I have had to kind of uh adjust myself to those kinds of situations and learn how to uh speak up for myself in those kinds of situations because it is definitely not my default in settings, particularly where there's a lot of people, where it's you know, formal settings, where it's work settings, um, presentation settings to uh, you know, take up space and to, you know, force myself into a conversation or to be the first person who speaks in those kinds of situations. And it's one of those uh things where you know, after a day of doing that often, it's like for me now, you know, it's very tiresome, it's very exhausting, like having having had to learn that behavior. It's it's not kind of my my default uh very much. So it's something I've had very much had to practice with and get comfortable with. And in some cases, especially early in my career at least, had to be given permission, I think, um, to be told it's okay for you to speak up, it's okay for you to offer your perspective in this situation. Um so for me, I I would say that, you know, again, like in my private life, quiet is probably not a th a word people would would use to describe me, but I I do tend to publicly have to kind of like put on that face to be to be more outspoken, to be more confident and to, you know, voice my opinion in rooms with people.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Has it gotten easier or is it still, do you still kind of have to summon up that courage?

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Um, it's certainly gotten easier. You know, I think everything gets easier with with practice, um, for for sure. Especially for me, like presenting has gotten much easier. I think because in that situation, it's it's it's less about a conversation. It's more about you know delivering information to someone where it's less of a back and forth. I think in back and forth discussions uh in particular, it it's still sometimes difficult for me to always like feel like I'm speaking at the right time or you know, saying the right thing, or you know, doing the right um model of how to have a conversation. And I think there's certainly things that I still struggle with. For example, it's always easier for me to default to not saying something, particularly if something is is bothering me or if there's something that's like not going the way that I want it to. It's usually easier for me. And my default is to say, well, I won't make a big stink about that. I won't, you know, deal with the confrontation, I won't kind of like deal with the, you know, having to have back and forth conversation about something like that. I'll just sort of go along with it and swallow it. And, you know, maybe it'll get better or I'll work on my own to make it better. But it it's it's hard for me often in those kinds of situations in particular to kind of make sure that what I you know would like to have happen is is expressed outwardly. Um, but it certainly has gotten easier on a day-to-day basis. I've you know learned how to make decisions quickly. I've learned that I'm allowed to speak in a room. I've, you know, that's that's my job every day now. So it's it's absolutely um something that has come with a lot of practice and skill. And it, you know, it it gets less um less awkward and less uh you know challenging, you know, over time. And I've certainly now at this point been doing it for I think 15, 16 years. So um it's become a lot more automatic in those situations, but um it's it's never gonna be like my default.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

I think as you get higher up in your career too, it's kind of like you have it, you're expected to speak up. Like that's part of your role. And you've given your it's like you're given permission almost.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Yeah, yes, that's exactly right. Like people look to you for for what you're gonna say. So you don't have to create as much space for yourself anymore. They turn to you and and and look to you. And then sometimes I I've found interestingly enough, um, often that when the higher that you go to, the less that you speak, the more important it sounds when you finally do. So it's it's kind of one of those things too, where it's like, oh, I say one thing in this meeting now, and that's the thing, um, versus having to, you know, have a whole conversation about it. Um it's it's it's it's kind of fascinating how that has happened too.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

So what challenges did you face as you got started in your career?

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Well, I think, you know, um I knew kind of going into advertising that uh it was a career, especially on the creative side of it, being a copywriter, art director, creative director, that side of the business in particular has tend to tended to be male dominated. Um and particularly when I started, it was still very much like that, uh, where pretty much every room you were in, uh often you were the only woman. Um, but there was absolutely probably my second job in advertising. And um they had a uh part of their agency offering that was dedicated to marketing to women. And that sounds amazing at first. Oddly, in advertising, what that actually means is like we've had to carve off the female part of advertising because it's considered separate. It's different kinds of clients, it's different kinds of brands. Like, we don't understand this crazy science of being a woman. And often, actually, for uh creative in that job role, what that means is you get put on those accounts and you're sort of relegated to, well, you're a female, so you do female advertising. You work on female clients and you work on female brands, and never the twain, never the two shall meet. Um, but at the time, that was kind of the way that I was able to get into that agency. Um, so um, and in fact, my my partner even had to fight for me to get me uh that job to start with. So, so that was kind of the first time I think in advertising that I I felt acutely that my existence as a woman was kind of definitive of what kind of job I might get to have. As soon as I started there, I was also very eager to try to break out of that definition as quickly as possible, um, so that I wasn't relegated to only working on feminine hygiene products, which is some of what I was doing, um, or, you know, cosmetics, um, beauty, fashion, like those are the kinds of things that, you know, you typically got assigned to. Um, so my partner and I had to kind of make like a concerted effort to sort of prove that we weren't just lady advertisers, that we were like advertisers. Um, and I think we did a good job of it. And we were, you know, we were eventually given the opportunity to work on things outside of those kinds of categories. Something that is apparent when you're the only female representative often in the room, or you're part of the group of people who's less represented in a room. Um, you you do feel acutely too that your bosses are all men, your account directors are all men, your clients are often all men. And you sort of have to learn the language of those audiences because all of those people are responsible for the success of your work. So you're getting, you're having to get your ideas through that group of people in order to get them out into the world and and made into, you know, something real and something the client will buy. And so it's very much a learned um behavior to say, okay, well, the things that appeal to all of those men who are approving all of my work are these things. If I use those types of things, then I will have more success. And so I think for a lot of a lot of female advertising people, you kind of have to learn what those things are and your your ideas are put through their filter for a long time versus being put through your own filter of, well, I think this is good or I think this is relevant or I think this is interesting because I'm coming from a different perspective. Um, and I think that's something that's changed over the course of my career is there's been more women in the room that are responsible for proving things, but it's it's very much a reality when all of the gatekeepers are of a certain gender or a certain background. Um, then you have to, you know, meet their needs first before you can sort of make sure that yours are uh more apparent. Um or you have to prove yourself before they're willing to take you seriously.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Yeah. Yeah, what you just said just kind of deflated me a little bit. It matters what they think first, and then it's what you think. Like like their opinion matters more. But I mean I get it because they're your bosses, and if you want to get your ideas through, they have to believe in them.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Yeah, and and in some ways I've sort of looked at it as really great training in a way, because um as a result of kind of having to write outside of my own comfort zone, write outside of my own perspective as a woman, it's forced me to figure out how to write to different audiences. So I I can write to a male audience, I can write to a female audience, I can write to a child audience, I can write to, you know, like every kind of different, it's it's it's actually in some ways forced flexibility. Um it was interesting when I was when I was at that agency, it it was uh my partner and I were often able to write across any account in in the agency. Um, and conversely, uh some of the male creatives were not ever able to write for the female brands. And they weren't expected to, which, which was sort of infuriating at the time. But I was like, they're incredibly limited now because they can't do it. They can't go both ways, they can't, you know, expand their worldview to work on more things. And so, in some ways, the diversity of what I've had to work on, the understanding of how to like get through those gauntlets, has expanded what I've been able to do and made me more versatile. But yes, on the other hand, it's it's annoying. Um it's annoying to have that be a reality. It was not a difficult, it was not an easy industry to break into. Um advertising, especially on the creative side, but everywhere as well, is you get jobs based on who you know. You get jobs based on connections. Um and I didn't have any connections of my own. I didn't have, you know, my dad couldn't call somebody up and say, hey, Bill, my daughter is really, you know, interested in this. Like, why don't you give her a shot? You know, like I just literally didn't have any of that. Um, and particularly on the creative side, um, when when I was graduating from college, the path that was becoming the path you had to follow in order to get into being a copywriter or art director was you had to go to additional school. So after I spent four years at at college, the the route was that I was supposed to then spend another two to three years in a portfolio school crafting my my portfolio, proving that I could do this kind of a job just so that I could get an interview. And that's expensive. It was, I think it's like at the time, I think it was, it's it's like what grad school costs, even though you didn't you didn't necessarily get a degree. And you know my family was very middle class. My parents had had told me like, well, if this is something you want to do, like we can't afford to pay for this. Like you're gonna have to pay for this. And that that hurdle of having to go to more school was really daunting for for me. And I I really didn't know how I would do it. I didn't know if I could do it. And so I I didn't do it. I had got really really fortunate in that I had spent um most of my uh a lot of my time in college I I really pursued internships and and was fortunate enough that one of those internships turned into a into a job for me after I graduated. And then that ultimately turned into another job and another job. But it it certainly has been less easy for me because I didn't go to portfolio school because I couldn't you know take that step um I didn't have all the connections from those schools. I didn't have all of the resources to put my book together. I didn't have a lot of that and um the second job that I got um at at Mullen uh I I put my book together with a friend um and I actually redid it twice just to get interviewed because they didn't want to interview anyone who hadn't come from a portfolio center or portfolio school. And it wasn't easy to get that job my my my friend had to fight for me. She'd already she already worked there. She literally went to bat for me for like three months just to get me interviewed. And so really without without the help of of friends without the help of that kind of resource um I I wouldn't have a job I probably wouldn't have a career in advertising I probably would have you know taken a step back and done something else at that point.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

You had mentioned the term imposter syndrome when we had talked before can you expand on on that?

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Yeah I mean um you know I think imposter syndrome it's you know it's it's when you feel like at any moment they're gonna discover you're a fraud, that you're not in that room because you're supposed to be but that you've like wandered in off the street from somewhere and tricked everybody into like letting you in there. Yeah and I think that's something that you know definitely is has been sort of a part of my career probably since the very beginning especially because I didn't go through some of those more formal channels to get kind of that portfolio school designation of having gone through that I I think I was always afraid like oh my God they're gonna figure out I can't really do this. And I remember uh starting that that job at Mullen I got thrown in right away to having to um work on accounts and I I already felt like they didn't really want me there. I already felt like you know I had just snuck in by the skin of my teeth. So at that moment I I remember every meeting being like the phrase I had in my head all the time was like fake it till you make it like just pretend you're supposed to be here and hopefully it'll work out. And I think every time in my career that I've either changed jobs or been put in a new role or you know move it moved up the ladder or or even been put on a new account um those moments in particular are moments where it's like you know you're in a new situation where you're confronting new things and you know trying to you know learn more and grow more and you you always feel like perhaps at any moment if you don't have the right answer or you don't know exactly what to do, someone's gonna discover that you know you shouldn't have been here in the first place and maybe we'll get someone else to do this. So that's definitely something that I felt kind of at every you know transition point.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

I don't I don't know if I don't know if there's a cure for that I would love to know yeah I think it's I don't know I feel it every day myself. I think it's just that embrace your vulnerability and suck it up.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Yeah and I I think I think as you know in the last few years in particular especially as I've been put in you know executive roles it it is it is easier to go oh okay like I'm not gonna get kicked out of this career at this point like I've tricked everyone enough like it's I seem to be doing okay I almost almost sometimes see it as as a as like an advantage to be um you know in in a role where I am not necessarily the person you expected me to be uh in this kind of a role. I think it catches people off guard. I think it surprises people sometimes um particularly because I have a unisex name they don't always know that I'm a female going in. Yes there are there are definitely times where I have had people be like uh oh um when they realize that that I am not Stevie Archer 45 year old white man um but that I am Stevie Archer 37 year old five foot one tiny lady um so uh there's definitely been situations where you know you can put people on their heels a little bit where did you find the support that you needed to achieve the success that you are pursuing um I think by and large um well my husband would say um he has been a huge part of that um and that is true he he wouldn't just ask me to say that um no he's been my husband in in particular we've been together for a long time he's we met in college um he's always been you know incredibly encouraging of everything you know uh advertising in particular is a hard career it takes a lot of time and energy it's long hours having having a partner who understands that and knows the demands of my job has been the only way I've been able to have that job. But then I would say the second biggest source of support has been other women whether those were female leaders who were my bosses um whether they were peers other creatives who were going through the same things as I have um that kind of has been probably the greatest source of support because we can talk about our situations together. We have you know common experiences we're dealing with common things and kind of can encourage each other or you know be examples for each other. You know having a lot of female leaders particularly at McKinney the agency we worked at together was amazing because you suddenly had I suddenly had people that I could go oh wow like they're they're the model like that's how you do this like that's how you have a life and are a woman and lead accounts and do all of these things and being able to see that um was really important uh because it just made it obvious that that was that was possible. And to this day I have a group of um you know women who are my my peers we're all in kind of similar levels uh we're all in similar roles at different agencies and and we're kind of the the text group where we you know when we run into a situation that we don't know how to solve like that's the first place I turn um and that's incredibly helpful to have that.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

I love that even though your competitors you're you're collaborators.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Oh yeah and it's it's amazing because you suddenly get you know we're certainly not sharing you know trade secrets or anything but um the you know you're you you get like another perspective on how to solve a problem um that you know it's it's like I imagine that's why boys' clubs existed for so long like that that that you know or or even men's groups where they would go play golf together I'm like that's what they were doing and we didn't have that so now you know I feel like that's my version of that is we talk about celebrity gossip and then share some work stuff every once in a while how does being a woman make you a better executive creative director oh gosh um well I think um in general I think that my style um and and I wouldn't you know I would hesitate to apply this to all female creative directors because I'm sure there's there's lots of different versions of this but I think my style because I have had to be in a lot of rooms where maybe I didn't feel like I had the space to talk is I I I do try to be really respectful of everybody's uh perspective and um I think because I've had to kind of myself understand where people are coming from differently uh I I approach the job from a more empathetic space um than I think maybe a traditional male boss bosses that I've had may have had. I think in my perspective too I think one huge difference of how I like to run my creative departments and run meetings and and run how I do things is um less authoritative and more collaborative. I don't have an I I don't have as much of a an issue being confident in not being the person in the room who's the the only person that can be right. I I don't care about that. My my only goal ever is to get to the very best work and I don't have any issues with that. So I I like to create spaces where everybody can can contribute and everybody can be equally right and I'm not afraid to say when I'm wrong probably because I probably am in thinking in my head I might be wrong anyway. So it's it's not really something I'm not used to confronting. I'm very aware of people's personal situations. I myself don't have children um but I have friends that are creatives who have children. I have uh people who've worked for me who have families or are in situations where they need uh to be given the ability to do this job without it affecting their life in ways that make it impossible for them. I was speaking to another uh uh woman in advertising just this last week where she was mentioning how when you know uh female creatives in particular start to get into their you know mid-30s, they are dropping out of the industry because the spaces uh and the the agencies are not creating uh structures where they can have families and do this job. And so it's really important to me to always be really aware of that and to create boundaries for um for other women to be able to have lives and to be able to do the job that that I love doing and that they love doing without feeling like they have to give up their families or their their other you know um important things that they they want to achieve. So I I make a really big effort to do that as well as much as I can. That was awesome I want to work for you.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

What has been one of your proudest moments in your career oh gosh there's so many yes that's the answer there's so many I can hardly narrow it down.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Um man proudest moments in my career probably the first one is um one of the very first advertising campaigns I ever worked on where I was making television ads, which of course is like the pinnacle uh was um I wrote a script on the plane on the way to the client meeting and I showed it to my my boss who was traveling with me at the time and it was literally like a sketch in my book. Like I in my notebook I just like jotted it down on paper and he he liked it and he said we should share this in the meeting and um in the meeting with the client after we'd presented the other the other work he said hey Stevie can you present the other script and I literally read it out of my notebook my little like chicken scratch handwriting and the client loved it and they bought it. It became the first real like television commercial I ever produced um and it it ended up going on to be shortlisted at Cannes and which of course for people who don't know is like the pinnacle of advertising award shows um and uh it was crazy because I was like oh wow something that just like fell out of my brain on the way to the meeting was worthwhile and valuable and it was a it was a huge thing for me to to see something like that happen because I felt all of a sudden like okay maybe I maybe I'm can do this and that this is really like a a skill that I really do have a talent that I have. And seriously and you still have imposter syndrome yes I mean the first thing out of the gate goes to can wow well and then but then it becomes oh great you did it once now you have to go do it again can you ever do it again and I think another project that I worked on at McKinney is one that I've always been incredibly proud of um uh I worked on a a little app called Chipit for Sherwin Williams who was a client of ours at the time um that was a side project I wasn't even working on the account uh I wasn't assigned to it I wasn't supposed to be working on it um but I had been uh you know playing with Pinterest which at the time was new and seeing how many people had been talking about how they loved colors in certain photographs that they wanted to then paint their homes with or paint rooms with and thought well what if there was like a cool way where you could take any photo and then have um have it analyzed and have Sherwin Williams colors given back to you based on those and um worked on it you know with a partner and a and a recruited a couple other people to work on it with me and we we built a little prototype just on our own on the side and then the creative director Ellen Steinberg took it to the client and she fought hard for it and sold it and we made it and it became like this huge huge thing. You know a mil like over a million people have used this little app to find out what colors they want to paint their rooms and they post them on Pinterest and um it just was like a little you know whim of an idea that I I you know believed in enough to kind of work on it with other people and and get them to help me bring it to life and it turned out to be really successful. And I've always been really proud of it because it was something that wasn't a part of like my you know regular job. It was something that I had to kind of go out on my own and and kind of make and and bring to life and um it it just felt like one of those lovely little victories.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

Well and you're doing some cool stuff now you're doing work that like like is making the world a better place.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Yes yes which is incredible I mean um now I've you know the agency SSMK that I'm at now is a a a good portion of our agency we were founded the from a political space so the three founders um used to work in politics and as a result um they they took that political stratagem and said well we can apply this to more than just just politics but um we tend to work on um clients who are creating big change in the world so sometimes that's um for example uh takes the form of you know fighting voter suppression we're working with um leBron James's organization more than a vote to help them um we've we've created three projects with them um to recruit poll workers to get out the vote and and now to um continue the fight since voter suppression is is so rampant um and I'm working with the uh the country of Iceland who um of course in the midst of the pandemic their economy is heavily based on on tourism and we set up these giant yellow speakers all over Iceland in seven different destinations and let people scream into them any frustration that they had from anywhere into the world they could send out and have be released into the like beautiful epic expanses of Icelandic landscapes. So I think it was uh an idea that got picked up really quickly by the the global media um it was on Good Morning America Al Roker was screaming uh it became the number one preferred destination to travel to once lockdown was over as a result of that work and you know that's the kind of thing that feels really good because it's a silly idea it's fun to make um but it was also helping a country that um you know was in a situation that we're we've all been dealing with and I'm working for on the other side of the spectrum um uh Mount Sinai Health System who again another client who uh faced incredible challenges in the midst of the pandemic especially being a hospital system that's in New York where so much of the peak of COVID um affected everything that they did and and they have um you know done incredible things to overcome um both that challenge as well as you know other pervasive medical challenges of our time some of the biggest things in healthcare um they're they're helping deal with so that's the kind of things that I'm I'm working on now and uh you know it's it's really rewarding and valuable to you know people always say um you know it's not every day you get to work on clients and advertising it's not like curing cancer and I actually have a client who is you know possibly curing cancer so I you know I get to I get to live the dream a little bit.

unknown 40:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:45

What words of wisdom do you have for other women charting their own course through a man's world um you know my words of wisdom I think would be you know probably twofold is is one not to feel like you have to in order to chart your course through a man's world to just be a part of the man's world um that your perspectives and your beliefs and your point of view is valuable and it's worthy of being heard and it's important and it's not something that you've made up it's something that's real and it's just as valuable a part of the conversation as as any other person's perspective. And then I think the second part would be to seek out other women find find the support network um find allies find people who will understand your perspective and and make sure that they're a part of your your circle because you're gonna have times where you're not gonna know what to do or you're not gonna feel like you have someone that understands where you're coming from and it's incredibly helpful to have a group of of people who can who can be in your corner and can support you. And that doesn't always have to come just from women either I think um one of the things that's hard hard for for people who are feel like outliers in an industry to reach out to others who may be different than them and mentors and allies can take all kinds of shapes and sizes but you do have to ask for them. You have to reach out to them you have to cultivate those relationships they don't just fall into your lap all the time so being willing to kind of put yourself out there and just ask for help or ask for support or ask for mentorship are are things that you know I wish I'd known to do earlier in my career but I'm getting better at doing even now do you have any final thoughts for quiet women in particular that are listening? You know it's it's probably perceived often that being quiet is is a negative thing um and that it's something to get over um and I think you know and and I've even said kind of a lot that I've had to kind of get over my my quietness in and my unwillingness to put myself out there. But I think in so many ways it's a strength um and it's something that allows you to be better at the things that you're doing. It means you're thoughtful it means you're listening it means you're thinking about everything that you're doing and to to use that as not something that is a detriment but is something that can be a strength and can push you forward in in different ways than than simply being the most outspoken in the room or the loudest in the room. You know, I I think there's a lot of power in picking your moments and saying things with great intensity and and value um a little bit at a time can be just as powerful as saying a lot of things that mean a lot less.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

Stevie, thank you so much for this conversation. Yes, absolutely. I remember you captivating people with your passion and your entertaining delivery of ideas and usually curse words which I didn't hear you use this time. But I mean that's exactly what I felt from you today. What I heard and felt. But there's more confidence emanating from you. More strength and undoubtedly more success if that's coming your way.

SPEAKER_01 44:54

So awesome thank you and and were you asking for me to add curse words? Is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_00 45:02

Should we re-record? I loved catching up with Stevie for this podcast. She reminded me of her sailor's mouth when we were prepping for this conversation, which is why I was so surprised that not one swear word emerged during our chat. Like Stevie, I've spent my career in the same male dominated ad agency environment. And I can't help but identify with her story in many ways. I remember when I was younger feeling invisible in rooms full of men. I tolerated the crude jokes that seemed to be a part of every meeting because I wanted to be accepted. But I quietly stood my ground by refusing to laugh. Stevie let the creative spark in her shine and refused to let her gender define her. She turned barriers into learning opportunities and found power in being on the margins. She was quick to acknowledge all the help she received along the way largely from other women and she gave me a new respect for boys clubs. The fact that she still makes it a point not to wear a dress is a sign that a lot of change is still needed in corporate America. But Stevie is one more woman in a leadership role making things possible for more quiet women like her and maybe you to follow thank you for listening to this episode of Quiet Women. I invite you to join our Facebook community. Search for Quiet Women Podcast. And if you are a quiet woman with a story to share or would like to nominate someone to be a guest on this podcast please reach out to me at Quietwomenpodcast at gmail.com Until next time remember your silence doesn't define you your unique and complex life is what has made you into the amazing person you are today. I see you we all see you and we are here for you and we cheer for you