How do you find balance and success as a department of one? Vicki Menard, Maggie Thornton, and Jodi Sommers share the challenges and advantages of being a solo marketer with guest host, Kate Robinette. Variety is the spice of life. Vicki Menard is the marketing director for Todd Construction. She has been using her storytelling skills in the construction industry for the past eight years, since transitioning from a long career as a daily newspaper editor and reporter. She is the proud mother of adult identical twin daughters and a descendant of Oregon Trail pioneers. Maggie Thornton, CPSM, oversees marketing and business development for Westlake Consultants. Her core responsibilities include day-to-day marketing and proposal development, firm communications, business development planning and recruitment efforts, as well as helping to develop company initiatives, practices, and policies. She joined Westlake Consultants in 2010 and was named an Associate Principal in 2020. Jodi Sommers, CPSM, LEED Green Associate, is a textbook example of a serial solo marketer. She was the first marketer hired at four separate AEC companies, where she ran her department of one. She has represented architects, contractors, sustainable design firms and a wide variety of engineers, energy analysts and commissioning providers. She recently started her own consulting firm – Jodi Sommers Marketing – where she provides marketing strategy and consulting for AEC firms with a special emphasis on cause marketing, which is the art of supporting nonprofits and achieving marketing and employee engagement goals simultaneously.

This episode goes deep. Frank and Deirdre dive into a question that super-hero author/podcaster/researcher Brene Brown poses: In general, are people really doing the best they can with the tools they have in the moment? So many angles to this, so many take-aways, and so much empathy. Come learn how to be a better human.

This episode talks about the grind and figuring out how to get the job done even when it it’s the last thing you want to do. Deadlines are real, job performance matters, and sometimes people suck. You’re stuck. We’ve been there, let’s unstick it.

Recorded earlier this year during the week ahead of Mother’s Day, Frank and Faith talk to two of the Super Moms in our network. In Part 2 of our Super Moms series, they talk to Bethany Rustic Smith of Energy Systems Group (ESG). Bethany offers great advice on managing a career at full-throttle and making time for three kids. The conversation is rich with relationship advice, parenting ups and downs, and real-life wisdom.

Bethany Smith, FSMPS, CPSM, is a 25-year construction industry veteran, having built her Marketing and Corporate Communication career with construction giants Messer Construction Co. and Turner Construction Co. Now embarking on a new challenge, Bethany has taken the role of Strategic Marketing Leader at ESG where she leads the company’s marketing and communication efforts throughout the country.

Bethany is a graduate of the Cincinnati Chamber’s “We Lead” program and was named one of Cincinnati’s Forty Under 40 by the Cincinnati Business Courier. In April of 2005 during her term as President of the SMPS Greater Cincinnati Chapter, she received the Certified Professional Services Marketer designation from the Society of Marketing Professional Services, and in 2014 was named a Fellow – one of her most prized accomplishments.

Recorded earlier this year, the week ahead of Mother’s Day, Frank and Faith talk to two of the Super Moms in our network. The first conversation is with Jennifer Hebblethwaite who demonstrated all the stages of mom-ness for her two daughters. She talks candidly and honestly about some of the struggles with going back to work and the seasons of life we all experience. Part 1 of our Super Moms series.

As a principal and Director of Storytelling at Page, Jennifer’s goal is to expand the firm’s impact by capturing, developing, and sharing narratives that inspire and excite employees and clients, reinforcing brand messaging across every platform. She is a rogue academic at heart. She has spent 10 years in academia teaching everything from playwriting and storytelling to MBA Leadership/Communication on an undergraduate and graduate level. As a self-proclaimed “arbiter of good,” she hopes to create harmony between internal messaging, marketing, communications, business development, and the work Page’s teams create.

How to use the bluntness from Episode 247 to have difficult conversations – whether with your boss, your coworkers, your staff, or your client.

On this episode, Frank and Deirdre talk about communicating directly. They dive into how to manage reactions to it, how to deal with the consequences, how to use bluntness for good versus evil, and the gift of honesty.
Recommended reading:
Radical Candor, by Kim Scott – available on Amazon

Frank and Deirdre talk with Marci Thompson, SMPS’ Chief Strategy Officer, about what happens behind the scenes to deliver great events like SMPS Amplify AEC and the Pinnacle Experience. As usual, the conversation goes deep and Marci gets real about how things happen, about change, and about keeping your head above water when you’re in rough seas. It’s an entertaining and thoughtful (as well as thought-provoking) conversation.

Ryan Konst has spent the last 20+ years in the AEC industry, all with Schaefer. He started out as an engineering co-op and went full-time as an engineer upon graduating from the University of Cincinnati. He moved through the engineering ranks and into a leadership position focusing primarily on strategy, planning, and revenue generation. In his current role as executive vice president for Schaefer, he is responsible for guiding the firm’s strategic growth and vision for the future. He started as a structural engineer and quickly realized that to grow the company and his career, he needed to learn and do more on the business of bringing in business. Thus began his journey into business development, nurturing client relationships, and creating a valuable network. Frank, Kate, and Ryan talk about Ryan’s journey and his success through relationship building.

Part 2 on our discussion about recruiting best practices, we shift the focus from job postings to using the company brand in the recruiting effort and what that means. Rachel Kennedy combines her background in recruiting and a love of marketing together to help growing businesses attract the right talent. Deirdre, Kathryn, and Rachel talk about the four Ps of recruiting success, the commonalities between marketing and recruiting, generational differences of candidates, and building a beautiful candidate experience.

Katrina (Kat) Kibben is an award-winning writer and keynote speaker known for helping hiring teams write inclusive, unbiased job postings that help them hire the right person faster. Before founding Three Ears Media, Katrina was a CMO, Technical Copywriter, and Managing Editor for leading companies like Monster.com, Care.com, and Randstad Worldwide. Today, Katrina is frequently featured as an HR and recruiting expert in publications like The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Forbes. She spoke at the SMPS Pinnacle Experience in November 2022, and what she shared about writing effective job postings was so profound, we had to get her on the podcast.

In this final episode of the Career Path series, Frank interviews Kristi Bigelow, Marketing Manager at TankGirl, about her career development experience in A/E/C. Self-proclaimed engineering nerds, Frank and Kristi discuss the more interesting aspects of civil works projects and how to develop relationships and work more effectively with technical experts.

Dean Hyers’ background is almost stranger than fiction. He’s worked as a film director, coached courtroom presence, developed closing arguments for trials, and taught acting to covert government agents. Troy Parkinson has his own arts-to-AEC journey as a film producer for Discovery Health and the History Channel and the Director of Production for the Minnesota film commission. Now they teach, coach, and inspire AEC professionals to win more business by maximizing their confident presence. Dean and Troy chat with Kate Robinette about team unity, authenticity, culture, theater, film, and more leading up to their keynote address at SMPS Southeast Regional Conference 2023.

Cylk Cozart is a renaissance man — an actor, director, producer, writer, and basketball player with a genuine passion for living. His life’s journey hasn’t always been an easy one, but his resilience, determination, and kindness have become his approach to everything. Cylk will be a keynote presenter at the March 2023 SMPS Southeast Regional Conference, speaking on The Art of Compassion and Empathy Shared Through Film. Join Deirdre Gilmore and Kathryn Ness as they share stories, hear some life lessons, and get inspired by Cylk.

The longest journey by motorcycle in a single country by an individual is 132,928 km (82,598 mi) and was achieved by Dana D’Arcy in the USA, from 3 April 2022 to 5 August 2022. Dana discovered this Guinness World Record in 2016 and set a personal goal to beat it. But it wasn’t until around 2018 that she felt she could even attempt it. Unfortunately because of the pandemic, she had to wait until 2022. In August of 2022, she rode over 80,000 miles in 125 days on a 2020 Harley Davidson Road Glide Limited. Listen in as Deirdre gets the full story and inspiration from Dana. Lesson learned: you can do hard things.