Imperfect Marketing
Imperfect Marketing
276: Breaking Down Women's Networking Barriers with Amy Vaughan
Are you tired of networking events that feel shallow and transactional? Do you crave meaningful connections with like-minded professionals in the digital space? In this episode of Imperfect Marketing, I sit down with Amy Vaughn, Chief Empowerment Officer at Together Digital, to explore how women can build powerful professional relationships and advance their careers.
The Power of Professional Soulmates
Discover how Together Digital creates a safe space for ambitious, smart, and generous women to connect, learn, and grow. Amy explains why their approach goes far beyond traditional networking.
Overcoming the Networking Gap
Learn about the unique challenges women face when it comes to professional networking and how to break through societal conditioning that holds us back.
Building Confidence Through Community
Hear how Together Digital's culture of vulnerability, celebration, and peer support helps members gain immediate confidence in their abilities.
The Ask and Give Exchange
Explore this powerful practice that encourages women to ask for what they need without shame and give without judgment.
Marketing Lessons from the Other Side
Amy shares her biggest marketing revelation since transitioning from agency life to running her own company. Find out why putting customer needs first is crucial for success.
Whether you're a seasoned digital marketing professional or just starting your career, this conversation offers valuable insights on building authentic relationships and creating a supportive professional community. Are you ready to revolutionize your approach to networking?
How to Connect:
Amy Vaughn -Together Digital: https://www.togetherindigital.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amypvaughan/
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Hello and welcome back to another episode of Imperfect Marketing. I'm your host, kendra Corman, and today I'm really excited to be joined by Amy Vaughn. She is the Chief Empowerment Officer at Together Digital. So, amy, talk to us a little bit about what is Together Digital and what got you started with the organization. Yeah, no, happy to share.
Speaker 1:In a lot of ways, I feel like it's just this really amazing, beautiful, unique anomaly in the world of digital marketing and advertising that helps women who are ambitious, smart and generous come together and learn from each other, grow from each other and connect in really meaningful ways. I pause to ever use the word networking group because it's so much more than that. To me, networking is like the dating you do before you find your professional soulmates, and these women are professional soulmates, and we provide online masterclasses, online job seeker peer groups, entrepreneur peer groups, peer groups for executives that are in the marketing space. There's just a number of things we do, plus our online community, national conference, in-person events. So we meet our members where they are. Some of them are as far out as Costa Rica and some of them are right here in Cincinnati with me.
Speaker 1:And the fun fact, I was actually a member before I ended up owning the company, so I'm not the founder, I'm one of the founding members but I helped start the Cincinnati chapter back in 2016 when he was just feeling really burned out. I'd had a daughter who was three and a half, my son was on the way. It was 2016 and everything just felt upside down. I just had been trying to create a work a women in leadership organization or group within my agency and it was a great effort. But it was weird because I'm like well, why am I a person who's marginalized within the organization, that likely paid less than my male counterparts and being asked to work extra and for free, to basically sell a visit mine and that I didn't create Not that it's not mine, but that I didn't create, but I did enjoy it. And so when the founder of Together Digital found me on LinkedIn and asked if I would be interested in helping start a chapter, there was just something about this idea of getting outside the four walls of my own cubicle and office to sort of create and continue that safe space beyond my organization, and they were super supportive of it. They sponsored memberships, including mine, and I just fell in love right away. It had been the first time in a long time that I would say I had good, strong female relationships. All through junior high, high school, college. I really was easier to hang out with the guys. Women were not supportive of other women in an industry that's highly competitive and I had just been sort of scarred by that, and this healed a lot of those wounds outside of giving me speaking opportunities, leadership opportunity as the board president for two and a half years.
Speaker 1:And then in 2019, the owner decided she was going to run for Congress because a member tapped her on the shoulder and said you are capable, you can and you should do this. So she decided she was going to do it and when she told me, I'm like great, but what about this? Like I need this. This is my mom, keisha every year at National Conference this community is so important and she's like, yeah, that's where you come in.
Speaker 1:I had had a boss who told me when I told her that I would like to start to kind of grow in the space of operations Having been a creative director you know creative for 15 years looked me square in the eye and said, no, creative's can't be a company, which really honked me off. So I called the founder and was like telling her about it. I had taken a lot of best practices from, like, the entrepreneurial operating systems, eos, to manage my board and she loved it. She saw my operational like skills and chops and that's really what networking connection and community does for you, right, it gives you the opportunities you don't even see for yourself. And so, yeah, like she went off and ran for Congress and I started running the company in November of 2019. Pandemic came. That was interesting, a lot of pivots, but we really expanded our membership offerings rather than just shutting our doors like a lot of other organizations did, and we made it through, thank goodness, and it's been a lot of changes and shifts, but we really do focus on our members and what they want, what they need, and after the first year, I became partner and after the second year, I bought the business. So, yeah, it's been quite a journey. That's just such a cool story.
Speaker 1:So I love hearing from you that you didn't have super strong female relationships going through. It's the way we're trained. It's ingrained in us that I went to a meeting when I was at Chrysler and it was done by a group that's now called Inform. At the time, it was the Women's Economic Club and they had this woman, dr Pat Hine, come in. It still sticks with me and she's like with women, we play dolls.
Speaker 1:There's no winner at dolls. Everybody is on the same level, and the second somebody thinks, or you think, that they're getting above you. You smack them down to bring them back down to the same level. Boys, they play war, they play sports. There's winners and losers. If you win at dolls, you're not getting invited back, right?
Speaker 1:It was actually a really interesting and cool story of all her research that she had done and it really stuck with me because I mean, it's been a long time. I mean this was like 2003, 2004,. Like a long time ago I saw this and it was just it stuck with me the whole time and it's just so true. But not everybody is like that and it's you've got to find those people and those organizations that help you, which I think is fantastic. So you have an upcoming book and an ad. Tell me more about that. Sure, sure, yeah, hoping to get back to that here in the new year. We've been doing a lot to plan for our content for next year and surveying our members and all of that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I think one of the things I have noticed over the last five, almost six years now just running the organization, nevermind being a part of it 2026 will be 10 years old is that there is a networking gap. I mentioned it before. Networking is kind of like the dating before you meet your professional soulmates. Women aren't conditioned to do it because we aren't celebrated for, know, we aren't celebrated for, you know, speaking about ourselves or selling ourselves or you know, and the idea of networking too sometimes feels kind of ick to most people because it feels like sales, it feels disingenuous and I think you know women, and probably a lot of men, would prefer that there was more deeper, more meaningful opportunities to connect, because to a lot of people small talk is like nails on a chalkboard.
Speaker 1:And I would say women in general, what I've really seen is that they really do shy away because of societal conditioning, because I would even go so far to say some of their companies discourage their women to network because what they're afraid of is if they go to network, they will leave and find a new job, which to me it's like that's kind of a sign of a symptom. That's a bigger, bigger problem. Right, it's a little toxic. And if you're that concerned that you know the women are going to go out and find a job, it's like that boyfriend right, that jealous boyfriend's like what are you going out with your friends for? What's wrong with here? But as far as it goes with men, it's like no networking is a given. You know they go out and you know a couple hundred dollars out on the golf course on Saturdays golfing for the entire day, and you know that's.
Speaker 1:Another aspect of it too is that majority of women still do in atypical households. Heterosexual households will do the majority of the childcare and the house care, which also prevents them from actually going out and doing those networking activities. And so, yeah, there's definitely a gap and I don't know that all women understand and realize, like, the power of connection and community and how far it can actually get you in the way of a catalyst. And I think that's why you know I'm here and kind of going from member to owner, I think I hope laughed at you and said no way never getting off this agency hamster wheel. Are you kidding me? I got to keep climbing that ladder.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, the book is that it's really kind of helping us learn how to break up and make up with the idea of networking, find self-confidence, our authentic voice, so that when we go out into the world and we begin to start making connections, they are good, intentional, quality connections, just to be more intentional about when, where and how we network. But yeah, I think it's going to be something that will be relatable to anyone who wants to pick it up and read it. Female, identifying or ally, neurodivergent, introvert, extrovert, ambivert, unavert, whatever you happen to be. I sort of address kind of all of those things to make sure that those who are reading it feel seen and heard and hopefully empowered to get out and start to do it, because people make other people really just by knowing other people. It's not about what you know, it's who you know.
Speaker 1:I still remember when I was in college. I was, I was applying for jobs and stuff like that and I was not going to get a job with my dad's help, you know, I was going to do it on my own. It's like nobody does anything on their own. Oh, it was just, it was interesting. A couple years later I'm like yeah, no, that's not really the way this works, unfortunately, no, unfortunately no. Proximity, time, place and person it's everything and the more that we can realize that as a group. I feel like that's going to get us further along In part of my research for the book I was reading about from Harvard Business Review.
Speaker 1:They were trying to research, you know, just women climbing the ladder and why we aren't able to climb as fast or in the same way, and oftentimes they talked about the fact that you know, when we're the ones speaking up in the room or leading a presentation, we actually get seen as dominating, aggressive, all these things that some of us have probably been told in reviews at jobs. But then the double standard is that when it's a man doing it, different perspective altogether from those who are sitting in evaluation. So what they found is that it's not even about time with leaders. So it's not visible leadership, it's not time visibility with the leadership, because women are 40% less likely than men to form a strong bond with their executive leaders or women.
Speaker 1:Where it's at, they say, is third-party validation. It's when we speak up, people who are champions, be it allies, whomever speak our name in the rooms that we're not in. Those are the times we get the opportunity. That's what shortcuts it for us is who we know and who speaks up for us and says you know, kendra, she's the person you need to talk to. That gets you and I've seen this time and time again too with like sponsors for the organization, big, big companies that I would otherwise have such a hard time getting through to. All it takes is one good introduction and all of a sudden I've got a call within 24 hours, you know, because it's like they're trusted. So, yeah, third party validation is huge.
Speaker 1:I knew I made it when I wasn't in a room, there was a networking event and I got a call from someone that was at that networking event. Four of the five people that had suggestions for a marketing strategist suggested me. Yep, absolutely, that's amazing. That's just. I was like, oh my gosh, I made it. It is, I mean, and that's really when and where and how we, you know we get our strength, but then also we have the chance to offer up strike. So I encourage that too.
Speaker 1:It's like, you know, gatekeeping definitely. That's like a baseline rule within Together Digital. We choose collaboration versus competition and no gatekeeping. And, you know, don't really feel like you mentioned the kind of doll scenario. Totally see that and agree. Totally see that and agree. But also a part of the reason why women don't often champion, recommend or highlight other women is because they don't think there's enough room at the top right. When there's only one seat at the table for that token woman, you're thinking it's either me or her and we just have to really shed that mindset if we're ever going to move forward with it. So, yeah, the book's there to help do that. The app that we're working on is there to help do that.
Speaker 1:Really want to revolutionize the ways in which we start networking. Because, yeah, it feels to so many women when I talk to them, it feels ick and it's like, okay, how do we get rid of the ick and make it more fun, more engaging and also less time consuming? You know, because that's just another thing that we're dealing with we just don't have that disposable time. Yeah, no, time is definitely. I was scrolling through TikTok this past weekend and I'm scrolling and it's like, yeah, no, when I started my business, I thought money was the biggest asset or whatever. No, it's time. And I'm like, yes, it is, it's so true. So let me ask you this so if somebody's thinking about getting started with networking, they want to grow their presence, either inside their company or outside. They're looking at Together Digital. How does Together Digital help them do this, networking, this relationship building, so that they're building these true relationships?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I think a lot of it lives and exists within our culture and how we show up on a lot of our standard practices. So, you know, we really try to encourage transformative versus transactional relationships, and we do that in the form of what we call our ask and give exchange. So anytime we have an in-person event or even a virtual event, we even have an entire Slack channel dedicated to it. We want to encourage women to ask for what they need without any sense of guilt or shame and to give without any judgment. Asking is hard. When you ask a woman oh my gosh, what do you need? How can I help? They're like deer in headlights, you know, because, one, they're not used to being asked that and, two, we very seldom think about what it is that we actually want and need. We're always thinking of others, it seems. And so to put ourselves first and to be vulnerable and raise our hand and say I don't know this, but to know that you can do that in a space that you won't be judged for it is tremendous.
Speaker 1:So creating that safe space, creating that culture of it's okay to ask and it's okay to celebrate your wins we have a wins channel as well. Tell you, I have to nudge these ladies sometimes and be like I don't care how small it was, what was one win you had this week? We all work so freaking hard and we get through our week Hell, we get through our year and then we don't look back and think about all of the things we've accomplished and that's such an important practice to do. And so we kind of build that in through the asks, through the wins. We also have peer groups, dedicated peer groups of smaller groups of five to 10 women. All members that you know raise their hand and apply will get assigned to this peer group of women who are at the similar life and career stage as you. And this is great because I think sometimes when you walk into a big room and you know no one terrifying when you walk into a room of five of 10 women that are of similar values and that mindset of like we're here to learn and grow from each other how much easier is it to begin to kind of stretch your legs. And so I think, in the ways in which we show up for those who are looking to kind of expand their ability to network or expand their network in general.
Speaker 1:Safe space, peer groups asking gives are definitely a part of that, and then again, just really encouraging them to show up. I think that's the best part, right? You know we don't want to commit and, being a membership-based organization, like you pay your monthly or annual member dues. It's like you are investing in this. So you really have to show up because you're not just showing up for yourself, you're showing up for all the other women in the room, because that collective knowledge and experience that you have is worth sharing and worth hearing.
Speaker 1:And I've loved seeing our members' confidence grow. I think one of our last surveys we did it was like over 85% of our members said that they gained immediate confidence after being within the group. Because when you find a group of like-minded folks and you're dealing with certain things not just at work but in life, and you can show up and share that information in a space where it feels safe and it's not going to get, you know, screamed all over or used against you. We have a whole member code of conduct about this, so confidentiality is key. It really helps you to again like kind of practice, that authentic voice, practice your story and build your confidence. I really love that, because you need that safe space. You need to be vulnerable. Right, we need to open ourselves up because it's not everything's, not all hearts and flowers. Right, there's times where it's hard, there's times where we struggle, there's times where other people aren't seeing us to the same level that we believe that they should, and I think that there's a lot there, I agree. So if somebody's like, oh my gosh, this sounds just like what I'm looking for, what kind of person should think about applying to or joining Together Digital? Yeah, absolutely Honestly, anyone who is.
Speaker 1:I always say like we are kind of digital empowerment for all. When we were started in 2016, you know, you had digital agencies and above the line agencies that were like TV and commercial art commercials and like traditional marketing print whatnot. That's no longer the case. Everybody is digital. You have tapped in to a whole host of women that have a lot of experience to offer and share with you. So really anybody that's you know in the digital space marketing, advertising, tech, entrepreneurs who are kind of running and doing their own businesses, and maybe you're managing a lot of your email marketing, social media and you want to know enough to be dangerous. So, yeah, I even say like, the digital curious, the entrepreneurs, those who are like, ready to like, leave their toxic jobs it's a new company um, and anyone who's female identifying.
Speaker 1:We've got several members within, like the lgbtqia community, including trans members, which makes me very happy that they feel safe and seen in the space that we've created as well. But, yeah, there's no title requirements. You don't have to have a certain title or years of experience. It's really about, like, how do you want to do? You want to find the space to learn and grow in this field of digital and then find some really amazing people to just cheer you up along the way or cheer you on along the way. So, yeah, that sounds awesome. So, if you're considering it, definitely check out the link to Together Digital in the show notes or the YouTube description. Wherever you're listening or watching, you can definitely check it out there.
Speaker 1:Now, in your spare time, you're a podcast host. Talk to us about that, absolutely. So, as we were discussing a moment ago, I've got one soon to be two so the first one is the Power Lounge podcast, and that is really just an opportunity to bring women that have information, inspiration and empowerment to share with our members so they can be digital, digital adjacent. We've had coaches, we've had book authors, we are on. We just wrapped season three and it's just been really wonderful.
Speaker 1:Some of my favorite guests have been Cindy Gallop, who's really well known within the marketing industry and advertising industry I met her gosh back in 2012 at the 3% Conference. Kim Scott, who wrote Radical Candor fantastic book for leaders who are looking to be clear but kind when sometimes clear is not your easiest thing to go to when it comes to being direct. And then Nancy Harhat has also been another favorite guest of mine. She wrote a book on using behavioral psychology in marketing and I've heard her speak a couple of different times and we just went after her. She's been on the talking track now, I think, for two years. The book's been out. It's such a great book in the sense that it has really applicable case studies and tactics and strategies that are steeped in psychology, which I just find fascinating and fun. So I love it because I get the chance to highlight some really amazing women in the industry. But then we've also had members on members who have published books, members who have started their own businesses. It's been really fun to highlight them as well.
Speaker 1:So that's the Power Lounge podcast. Usually, every Friday at noon we do a live recording session so members and non-members can join, listen and ask questions Because, like we said, we like to build that muscle of asking and then, yeah, so that one's been really fun. I can't believe it's going on season four soon. It goes so fast, it really does, and it's like the best part of my week, every week. And it's always funny when I meet people and they're like I listen to your podcast all the time and I love it. I'm like, okay, and they know so much about me? Yeah, they do, which I love. I appreciate that. I take that as a compliment, but it also feels strange. I know, right, it's just because it's audio and a lot of times audio and visual, you know, again, it creates that connection because you're talking to them, right, you're talking with them, you're having a conversation, which is why I love podcasting as a platform.
Speaker 1:Did you start that podcast for Together Digital? Okay, so we did a webinar that was initially like a she Rocks highlights thing that was members only, and then, during the pandemic. Just everyone, all of our members were sharing in our podcast, books and articles channel, all of these podcasts they were listening to, and I'm like I want to make this accessible to any and all women. So we started using it as like a top of funnel, a marketing opportunity to get members and non-members in to listen and then just make it easy for them to tune in, whether it's live or live streamed or YouTube or the podcast. And so, since starting the podcast, have you seen, since you're using it as a top of funnel marketing tactic for Together Digital, have you seen good results from it beyond just your members? Yeah, no, absolutely. Like I said, when people usually come up and compliment the podcast and say they're listening, they're usually non-members. They're usually joining not long after. So, yeah, plus, I would say too, it's like we feature and highlight, you know, partners and sponsors. So, as far as like a relationship building tool, I think the podcast has done a tremendous amount for us as well, which is, I would say, outside of attracting new members, probably the next big objective with it. So very cool, but thank you so much for sharing about Together Digital, about creating safe spaces for women to grow and to, I think, jump over that chasm of networking that exists between women and men in professional settings. And then, of course, your podcast, which is awesome that you leverage that to grow your organization, because it is definitely a valuable organization.
Speaker 1:Before I let you go, though, I do need to ask you a question that I ask all of my guests. That is, this show is called Imperfect Marketing, because marketing is anything but a perfect science. What has been your biggest marketing lesson learned? Yeah, this is a fantastic question, and obviously that could take up like a whole nother F an hour naming all of them. So I would summarize and say that the biggest one and you know, this realization came to me once I left being in service of clients and agencies and started working for my own, running my own company. Is that really for the longest time?
Speaker 1:You know and I still think this is true that marketers as a whole and companies as a whole, we tend to make our marketing about ourselves. You know it's about. It's about like the shiny objects, it's about the award. Sometimes it's about making the client happy, it's about making the internal agency team happy. We're never really like honing in hard on the customer, the people that we're actually trying to serve. We have so many things to say, we have so many things to say and we would probably say things a lot differently and or say a lot less if we truly put the customer and the customer needs first. And I do think that that's something that you know.
Speaker 1:Whenever I do kind of pick up like a consultancy or a client or something like that is one thing I'm constantly asking is what do your clients want? What do they need? How are we showing up for them? How is this product or service really something that they're going to gravitate to? How does it solve a problem? What need does it meet? Because really, at the end of the day, you know, given like the number of choices that we have, you know, think about it any shelf I've worked on brands from like Pantene to Pringles and both of those shelves chips and hair care, massive, entire aisles just for those two products we have a number of choices and I think, you know, as companies, as brands, as marketers, we can just be so much more intentional about really listening to our audience for the opportunity of the upsell, for the opportunity of like expanding and innovating on our products and services. And, you know, while we're not like growing like gangbusters.
Speaker 1:Here at Together Digital, our growth plan is intentional. It's about having the quality versus quality members because we want to protect that beautiful safe space we've created but that we have like next our value, and we've expanded our offerings from our masterclasses that are monthly for members only, to an entrepreneur peer circle and a mastermind that happens once a month for those folks as well. It's really changed the way we do business. We used to just very much be like an in-person, chapter by chapter, local in-person event organization and now we're just this beautiful omnipresent space where women can just kind of it's like your bat phone Whenever you need it, you just jump on our Slack and you say what you need. We even have a social yelling channel where you can just scream in all caps when you need it and just being able to kind of be there for that many more people in that way, while still doing our in-person events and still having that initial like beautiful in-person connections that we had. It's also really cool to see these women forming bonds, winning work together, starting businesses together while in completely different states or company or countries, and then coming together at things like our national conference to find that bond, and really that that's where the networking gap book idea came from was really looking at and listening to our members and the future app, because again, I'm looking to solve a problem.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to be in love with my product. I think that's where we fall down. A lot is, we are just so in love with our product we forget about the people that we're there to serve. So I'd say that's probably my biggest. In summary, I love that one.
Speaker 1:That is definitely a very valuable lesson learned along the way, and I think everybody should take it to heart, because it doesn't matter if your customer is a real customer, business to business, business to consumer or internal customers, right, your bosses, your subordinates, whatever it happens to be thinking about them first and communicating it that way helps you too, right? So think about it for all of your different customers, internal and external. But again, I think that there's a lot of value and a lot of lessons learned. We always have so much to say and so much to communicate. You've got to narrow it down to what they really care about, and I think that that's really important. Thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it. Thank you all for tuning in and watching or listening wherever you're getting your podcasts and until next time, have a great rest of your day.
