MEDIASCAPE: Insights From Digital Changemakers
Join hosts Joseph Itaya and Anika Jackson as they dive into conversations with leaders and changemakers shaping the future of digital media. Each episode explores the frontier of multimedia, artificial intelligence, marketing, branding, and communication, spotlighting how emerging digital trends and technologies are transforming industries across the globe.
MEDIASCAPE is proudly sponsored by USC Annenberg’s Master of Science in Digital Media Management (MSDMM) program. This online master’s program is designed to prepare practitioners to understand the evolving media landscape, make data-driven and ethical decisions, and build a more equitable future by leading diverse teams with the technical, artistic, analytical, and production skills needed to create engaging content and technologies for the global marketplace. Learn more or apply today at https://dmm.usc.edu.
MEDIASCAPE: Insights From Digital Changemakers
Building Brands Across Borders: From Startups to Sustainable Tourism with Patrika Allis Cheston
Discover the fascinating intersection of tech marketing and sustainable travel with Patrika Elise Cheston, founder of a marketing agency focused on guiding startups through various funding stages. Patrika's unconventional career journey—beginning with aspirations to become a news anchor before finding her place in the startup ecosystem—offers valuable insights for anyone feeling constrained by traditional corporate structures.
Patrika reveals her distinctive approach to marketing startups at different stages, emphasizing founder storytelling for early-stage companies seeking investment, while shifting toward customer benefits as products mature. "People think about how many features they can add to a product," she explains, "but it's always about the story and the connection, whether you're just starting out or about to IPO."
The conversation takes a delightful turn when Patrika shares her most memorable marketing campaign—parking a colorful food truck serving funnel cakes and fried Oreos outside a stuffy financial regulations conference. This creative, low-budget approach generated more meaningful connections than competitors spending hundreds of thousands on conventional tactics, proving that understanding human nature transcends B2B and B2C divisions.
As a woman in tech, Patrika candidly discusses the challenges of gender bias in the industry and her strategies for addressing these situations directly while supporting other women. Her powerful advice for women entering tech centers around a simple but profound question: "Why not me?" This mantra has helped her overcome self-doubt and pursue opportunities despite obstacles.
The episode also explores Patrika's parallel passion for sustainable tourism—born from childhood travels with her father—which has evolved into helping local tourism businesses market themselves authentically. Her upcoming podcast "Destination Journey" will further explore creative and responsible travel experiences that connect travelers with local communities in meaningful ways.
Whether you're marketing a startup, navigating a male-dominated industry, or seeking to make travel more responsible and accessible, Patrika's journey offers practical wisdom for creating authentic connections in our increasingly digital world.
This podcast is proudly sponsored by USC Annenberg’s Master of Science in Digital Media Management (MSDMM) program. An online master’s designed to prepare practitioners to understand the evolving media landscape, make data-driven and ethical decisions, and build a more equitable future by leading diverse teams with the technical, artistic, analytical, and production skills needed to create engaging content and technologies for the global marketplace. Learn more or apply today at https://dmm.usc.edu.
Welcome to Mediascape insights from digital changemakers, a speaker series and podcast brought to you by USC Annenberg's Digital Media Management Program. Join us as we unlock the secrets to success in an increasingly digital world.
Speaker 2:I am thrilled to welcome another woman in tech, Patrika Elise Cheston. How are you today?
Speaker 3:I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me. How are you? I'm good.
Speaker 2:I'm good you have your hands in so many different things. Can you just tell our audience a little bit about you and what your passions are?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. My background is in marketing and I started a marketing agency a couple of years ago that focuses on helping startups basically through all of the different rounds of being a startup, from seed to you know all the way to IPO if we get there, you know. So I love working with startups and that's one of my big passions just enjoying all of the chaos and the growth that happens at the same time. But my other passion is travel and making sustainable, responsible travel more accessible to everyone. I think it's such an important way to grow as a human and I want to make that as accessible as possible.
Speaker 2:Two amazing things. I have the travel bug as well, and I love tech and I love startups and working with companies that are just still finding their footing sometimes.
Speaker 3:Yes, definitely.
Speaker 2:How did you get into working with startups and marketing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I actually didn't intend to go to startups when I went to college. I started out with the goal of being a news anchor. Actually, I was super obsessed with stories and just learning about the way that stories are told and I started, you know, pursuing that when I went to college and I very quickly realized that if I was going to be on a morning show, that meant I had to be up at 3 am every morning and that is not the life I wanted to live. So I started looking for a different way to be in the crazy hustle of life. So I started finding out about marketing and I interned with a startup that was a woman-led startup and it was an incredible experience and I really loved that environment.
Speaker 3:But I still thought I wanted to kind of go corporate and, you know, wear a suit and work my way up the corporate ladder because that's kind of what I had always seen in the movies and thinking that that was really the path that I wanted to follow. And I went to a corporate company and very quickly realized that it was not for me. I toughed it out for about a year and was miserable the entire time and decided, you know, this is not going to be the path that I want to be in. I don't like being kind of at the bottom of the ladder, being a nobody. I really want to get my hands dirty. I want to get involved in what's going on in the organization, and a corporation just wasn't really the best place for me to do that.
Speaker 3:So I decided to go back to startups after that and just realized that that is where I thrive and I've gotten a chance to work through a lot of different types of industries. I like to say I work in the not so sexy industries like email. I've worked in legal tech quite a bit. I've worked with security tech firms and things like that. So it's really still exciting because it's a startup and I'm getting to be involved in so many different parts of the business and wear so many hats, but at the same time it's also, you know, trying to be creative when the industry itself is not as creative. So it's been an interesting journey, to say the least.
Speaker 2:I'm sure, but it's really good that you recognize so early that being a part of a big corporation wasn't your path, because I think a lot of people it takes a lot longer. Right, they're already mid-career or they're an executive and then they go wait. What am I doing here Exactly? So I really want to hear about the experience of marketing startups and tech firms and how you market them differently depending on what stage they are versus their new it's incubating idea. They're going after their seed funding or they're going through their series A, et cetera. What are the differences there and where do you start with them?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question and I think there are both a lot of differences and similarities in the marketing approach to the different rounds. To start with the seed round, it's really about who is building this organization. Who are the founders, what is their story? Because at that point you might not even have really an MVP yet, so you might not really have much to show. You might just have a concept. So it's really important to let people connect with the founders and the people who are building the product or the service. So I always recommend and this is true across the board, across all startups I really recommend starting with that story, Because starting with the story is how you really get that connection.
Speaker 3:Especially in today's world, people want to know who's behind the brands that they're supporting, so you can use that to your advantage.
Speaker 3:I think that that's so important and in the seed round, that's really what people connect with and we've seen that work so well in a lot of ways.
Speaker 3:But we've also, you know, we've seen that people who can tell a really good story are the ones that get the funding in the long run for better or for worse, you know, but it's really a good way to connect with potential investors connect with your future customers. They want to know, you know, who's behind it all. And then from there, you know, once you really have a product, it's really about marketing the benefits to the customer, and the customer needs to understand how this makes their life easier, how it improves their daily experience or how it solves a problem that they have. You know, it's really easy to fall into the. You know, oh, we can build all of these different features and our product can do X, Y, Z, and you know it's really cool. Like I'm a tech person, I want to see all those little features that you've created, but at the same time, it doesn't really matter to the average consumer unless it actually improves their life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not creating that emotional connection and resonance Exactly.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely, and I think that's something that a lot of startups, you know they get so excited about it but then they kind of neglect to focus on that emotional connection and we buy with our emotions a lot of times. You know, there, of course, people are making business decisions every day but ultimately, at the end of the day, it's a person making that decision and if you make an emotional connection, then you can make that sale. So that, to me, increases over time with every round of funding. You know, once you've got that, you're kind of building out that team, you've got the funding to keep growing your product, then it's still about that story and I think that's something that gets lost a lot of times.
Speaker 3:People think about how many features they can add to a product. I mean, I've seen brands kind of fall apart a little bit because they start building so much that they're building away from their core audience and they, you know, lose that connection and sometimes they even have to walk it back a little bit to try to reconnect with the people that they've isolated. So it's always about the story and the connection. Whether you're, you know, just starting out or whether you're about to IPO, it's all about who can you connect with? How can you connect with that audience that you're building and how can you make their lives easier?
Speaker 2:And what I also hear you saying is that you know it's different customer bases. So when you're starting out and trying to get funding, you may have research about your audience, you may have proof of concept, but you really want to sell story to people who are going to fund you and believe in and want to invest in you, versus people who are going to buy your product or service.
Speaker 3:Very true.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Do you have a favorite project that you've worked on?
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a good question. I would say I worked with a brand that was in the email marketing space and they were actually an international brand that were trying to really build their brand in the US and there was a lot of competition, you know, a lot of kind of existing brands that people already knew and trusted. So it was one of those scenarios where I was brought in as the marketing manager for the US market and I was really trying to find the connections in the US. So we were going to these different events and looking for ways to stand out and we decided one time to really lean into the Frenchness of the brand and we literally just brought champagne to one of the events and just popped champagne and said you know, hey, we're in this market now, welcome us to the market. And people were, of course, coming to the booth. If they hear popping champagne corks, I mean I'll come running. So they were coming to the booth and just getting to know us.
Speaker 3:But we leaned into the you know, like I said, the Frenchness of the brand and were able to make that connection with people because they were excited to see, oh, there's something new on the market. This was also around the time that GDPR was becoming a thing. So people were starting to see, you know, there's a big European tech market and there's a lot of stuff happening there, so bringing that over was an interesting way to kind of make that connection and tell a different story than people were used to hearing in the US. So that was a fun project to be a part of.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I love that you brought up the GDPR, because that's something that we focus on. A lot is privacy, ethics, data security and, of course, now how are different countries, even different states, united States approaching artificial intelligence and we know that's all over the place, place too. So we have all these different things, layers, to look at, and when we're whether you're in a volunteer organization, have you know, you're in a corporation and you're trying to convince them to an AI strategy, or you are a small business owner or a student working on a capstone project these are all things you have to consider where your market's going to live right, or where the people are going to be from, I guess I should say, because it doesn't really matter where they physically live and make sure that you're adhering, probably to the most stringent restrictions, particularly with some of the non-sexy groups that you've talked about.
Speaker 3:Right, there are a lot of regulations and it's hard to also communicate that as well. It's important to communicate that across the board, but not everybody wants to hear about compliance. That's not a sexy topic, but it's an important one and, you know, it really ties into the ethics as well fit into your life working on these different projects?
Speaker 2:Was that born also out of working with a company that was coaching travel in a unique way? Or is that just something that you always love to do?
Speaker 3:It's a combination. Actually. I started out traveling from a very young age. My dad traveled a lot for work and he would take me and my sisters along with him. So you know, we were just always getting to go on road trips and I enjoyed that so much that when I started working in different brands, whenever I had the opportunity to take a work trip I was like sign me up, I'm ready to go, and I had learned so much about just kind of traveling, you know, on the ground, and just kind of going to new places as a young person coming up through the world that I really just latched onto it when I had a chance to start work travel and that allowed me to go to some places that I personally couldn't have afforded at the time. It allowed me to kind of get out of my comfort zone and also try solo travel for the first time, because I was so used to traveling with my dad and mom and sisters that it was kind of intimidating to travel by myself. But I instantly fell in love. I realized traveling on my own time was a wonderful experience. I learned to really enjoy my own company, which I think is super important, and it allowed me to kind of see things in a different way when it came to travel.
Speaker 3:I was learning about, you know, the general, the experience of trying a hotel in a local place, instead of just kind of, you know, going to the big names.
Speaker 3:All the time I was learning about what, where the local people live and what the local people do, versus just going to the tourist locations.
Speaker 3:So a lot of times I started telling that story and telling people you know, oh, I was in Iowa this past week and people are like what's in Iowa? And I'm like there's so much, it was so interesting. I went to this museum and it was so cool and I got to tell these stories that people were realizing that were just so interesting when they weren't the most common places. So it really ignited something in me to start telling the stories of locations that were off the beaten path and that led into me understanding a bit more about sustainability and that it's not just an ecological approach, it's not just about the environment, it's also about the people that are in the locations and the businesses within those locations. So I started helping local tourism businesses learn how to market their brands and then I also started learning how to work with small businesses in those locations to attract tourists and basically tell their stories in a unique way and get connected to people that are visiting for the first time.
Speaker 2:Amazing Now are you overseas, right now.
Speaker 3:No, I'm in North Carolina. I'm actually born and raised here, but I moved to New York for a while and decided to come back home.
Speaker 2:I got kind of sick of the winter, oh yeah because I know often people have this love and thirst for travel. You know you connect to so many places and so many people that you want to live in a lot of different places. I spoke to somebody, I think yesterday or the day before, who's lived in, I think, 24 places, which is a little extreme to me, but more power to him and his wife. That's amazing, yeah, yeah, because I think the more we travel also the more understanding and empathy we have for others.
Speaker 3:Absolutely yes, because I think there's. You start to see that we're not that different, even though there's different ways of life. At the end of the day, we're all human and we're all trying to, you know, make our lives a little bit better. We're all trying to connect with people. We're all trying to feel understood, and I think it's so important when you're traveling to just have those local connections and start to really learn about how other people live life On the tech side again, because it sounds like the tourism side is more B2C.
Speaker 2:right, it's about the consumer on the tech side. Is it mostly B2B products or yeah?
Speaker 3:Definitely, Because, you know, being a marketing agency or running a marketing agency, we're really trying to help those businesses get their message out. So it ends up being mostly B2B, but I do have a love for B2C. But you know, B2B is really an exciting place to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and do you think that there's a differentiation in how you market B2B versus B2C?
Speaker 3:Oh, definitely, definitely. With B2B, you know, a lot of times there's a big financial component where you're talking about. You know how I can instantly add value to your organization, how we're going to address your revenue concerns. You know how we're going to cut your churn, all of these different you know technical terms where they really want to get into the nitty gritty of what's going to address their business bottom line. And when you're looking at B2C, you get to get to that emotional connection a little bit sooner in the process.
Speaker 3:I think people kind of initially connect with an ad, for example, and then they're going to click on that and that's when you kind of start telling that story instantly, whereas with B2B there's a bit more of a process. You know you've got to kind of start getting in and telling them how you're going to impress, I mean how you're going to improve their business and really address some of their business concerns. But at the end of the day you know you're selling to a human being each time and I think it's one of the things that I always remind people is that even if they're B2B, they're still a person and they have human concerns and at the end of the day they're probably thinking like I want to make my life easier, just the same as that consumer is.
Speaker 2:So while there's definitely a different like marketing and sales process, there's still a connection that's really important and of course, I have to ask about artificial intelligence, because that has changed our lives as marketers so much and I feel like every day I'm still learning how to use new tools. I just started playing with creating agents for my different workflows and things, so I want to hear about how you're incorporating it into your agency and your business, and you know what are some of your favorite tools.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you know, everybody knows about chat GPT at this point, but I think one of my favorite tools is actually using chat GPT as a brainstorming tool and a tool to organize my thoughts, because I know everyone is generally concerned about, you know, is AI taking our jobs and while there are some things that can be automated, there are still a lot of things that need that human input and they're always going to need that human input. So one of the ways that I love to use it within the organization is when I'm looking to launch maybe, a new offering, for example. Sometimes I just use it to brainstorm. I'll say you know, ask me a couple of questions to help me, like, flesh out this thought and then, using that, it's like having a conversation with a person. I don't have to bother anyone at three in the morning when I am, you know, brainstorming and my mind is going crazy, but it's a really interesting tool to use.
Speaker 3:I've also been using there's a tool called Pressmaster, which is a really interesting tool to help generate different types of content for basically telling stories. So I've been really interested in that. I'm testing that out and super excited to be a part of that. And then, yeah, I've also been testing a couple of tools to build AI agents as well. I'm you know, I'm still learning that I'm a little bit intimidated by it, just because I'm like I don't know how to like, I don't know how to create something to tell what to do, but it's an interesting concept and it seems like there's a lot of potential there, so I'm very excited about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I haven't used Pressmaster, so I'm gonna have to check that out, and then we'll have to trade what products for using what tools for agent fusion.
Speaker 2:Oh yes definitely One of my favorite. Like you, I like to brainstorm. I usually use Claude as my favorite brainstorm tool we were talking a little bit about as we're recording this interview all day. Google's been down, including the cloud services which made a lot of other websites semi or not operational. Claude has been down. It's back up now, thankfully, but it can be a real problem when we rely on these tools so much, and so that's where we have to remember to save the work somewhere else, right, and to also not just rely on one tool. Maybe have many tools at our disposal, but I have used Claude to help me actually figure out exactly how I want to program agents and then, you know, create connections to do all of the different things I want to do, and that's been really helpful. That plus human teaching, absolutely yeah. So have you ever had trouble getting buy-in when you've been working with a client? They might be, you know, in their early stage and they aren't sure about the marketing strategy that you're trying to present, and how do you overcome their objections?
Speaker 3:Definitely yes, that is something that's very common. Marketing is intimidating for a lot of brands in their new stages and it can also be a cost that a lot of people don't exactly know how to justify because they don't understand the value that it adds. So there are a lot of times where people say, like, oh, we can just post on social. This person has an Instagram, so they know how to post on social. And while, yes, you can post like, there's nothing stopping you from posting, but there is a value in having a greater strategy and an understanding of how your social platforms connect to the rest of your platforms and the rest of your messaging. So a lot of times I kind of, whenever I get that type of concern or objections, I will take a step back and I'll say you know, let's talk about your actual concerns here. Like, let's let's understand, if you were to invest in this, what's the worst thing that could happen? Basically, you know, let's take a step back and kind of walk through the big picture so that we can understand what the actual like root of the concern is, because a lot of times there's a fear about putting out a product and maybe people are getting comments on social media that the product's not good or, you know, maybe they're concerned about, you know, getting comments about who the founder is or things like that.
Speaker 3:It's intimidating when you're finally going to put that thing that you've been building out there.
Speaker 3:But that's why bringing marketing on early is really important, because you start to get that product market fit very early on and you start, you know, getting general sentiments from the audiences that you're targeting and you can also start testing who are you targeting? Is that actually your target market? Are they actually going to be interested? So you know, I really try to always take a step back and just never take things personally, like if someone's saying like, oh, I don't really want this or I don't think I need this, it's not about me, it's not about what I've created, it's about their concerns about their business. And a lot of times people just you know they're building businesses and those businesses are their babies, so they really want to make sure that they take care of it and grow it in a way that makes sense. So marketing can be intimidating, but a lot of times it's really about understanding your audience and getting yourself out there early so that you can start really building those connections and understanding what your audience really wants.
Speaker 2:Marketing and public relations are two things. People start so much later in the game than they should because we are the ones who are going to help them make sure that they're actually reaching the right audience with the messaging Right, that we can create plans from the beginning, as you said, and it can be really difficult. And when you do get those rejections, or when they're bringing you in so late that you're like, oh, you should have done this, this and this first Been there, definitely. So when somebody is a startup but they're bootstrapped, they don't have funding, they didn't necessarily maybe go to a school where they have a lot of peers who have connections, or they don't have connections to get some seed funding, what are some recommended tactics and strategies that you would offer them?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question. I've seen a lot of interesting things in the market now with especially for a lot of tech physical products. There are a lot of people that are, you know, taking pre-launch basically pre-launch investments from crowdfunding, as well as these kind of platforms that allow you to take a small investment up front and then deliver on the product and then, you know, basically give that product to the customer later on at full price or a discounted price if they invest early. So I've seen a lot of that happening and I think that's a really interesting approach. But I also think there are so many different grants that are available now, as well as different competitions where they're doing startup pitch competitions, and there are a lot of ones that are tailored to specific audiences or specific types of founders. So what I always recommend is looking for those, because if you've really got your story down, you can make connections and maybe win some of those little competitions, because, you know, while it may only be a $5,000 investment, that could be something that builds over time and allows you to kind of just keep going.
Speaker 3:And, you know, a lot of times with bootstrapping a startup, you really are kind of day to day, just kind of doing what you can to keep going and you're working towards that goal and any little bit helps.
Speaker 3:So I think it's kind of staying. It's staying motivated, which is definitely easier said than done, but it's looking for those little pockets of opportunity where there are people who want to support, for example, women-led founders, founders of different backgrounds All of those different types are available and a lot of times they can be kind of small competition, so you never know if you have that chance to get involved. And then, of course, like I mentioned, those types of grants that are out there are really important to get involved in early on and sometimes they have kind of a lengthy application process. So I think, as soon as you kind of know that you're getting started on something, start looking so that you're not scrambling when you're desperate for funding and looking for ways to keep going. So just looking for those opportunities and not thinking of any opportunity as too small to kind of keep your business growing.
Speaker 2:That's such a good point and I appreciate that. You just mentioned several ways people can get funding and I think I apply the same thing to marketing strategies or branding or PR. It doesn't don't worry about how small you know. If it's a small podcast that we're booking you on or it's a small publication, because you don't know who else is reading that publication, and that small blog might be read by somebody and I've had this happen who works for Forbes and they're like oh, I want to write about you now and then it gets seen by other big publications, so it doesn't really matter in those smaller areas, right, the smaller competitions, the smaller press, the smaller campaigns help you test the market. They help you get comfortable sharing your message and presenting and speaking, and sometimes people don't remember that that's also a really big part of getting your brand out.
Speaker 3:Very much so, and it's another intimidating part too. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Is there a memorable campaign that you worked on that you can share with us for one of your clients? And you can name the client or not name but one where you really saw that they you know whether they were resistant at first or they embraced it, your ideas that it helps them get to the next level.
Speaker 3:Yeah, actually there's one that I think about pretty often. I love to tell this story because it's there was a I was working with a legal tech company called Hanzo and they basically were working in the compliance and legal technology space, so another you know not super sexy brand, but it was. We were looking to really start making connections in the market and we were sponsoring a conference that was a financial regulations conference Again, not an exciting topic, definitely a lot of suits there, a lot of people kind of sitting through these hour-long sessions that were just really, you know, intense and kind of boring and very hyper-focused on specific regulations and things like that. So I decided that when we were going to approach this conference, that we needed to do something that would stand out, that would be memorable and that would be interesting for this conference. And we had a very low budget compared to a lot of our competitors. So our competitors were easily spending in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and the budget for this project was like probably less than $20,000. So very small, very hard to stand out.
Speaker 3:And so what we did was I found a food truck that gave out like carnival type of food, because I thought that is going to be very different from what the conference is serving and it's also going to be something completely off base for you know, these financial regulations, people that are going to be sitting in these sessions. And we parked a food truck right outside of the venue and this food truck is like bright and colorful and it's got all of this like delicious smell coming out of it, because it's like funnel cakes and fried Oreos and stuff like that. So, and what I did was literally go and get a funnel cake from the food truck and then I just walked around the conference floor with it and people were like, where did you get that? Where did that come from? I need that, where is that from? And I'm like, oh, here, look, I have a ticket for you. Just take this ticket up it's courtesy of Hanzo Go upstairs and you can get your free funnel cake. And people were so excited because it was such a different thing for that conference. You know you're getting you know your standard like conference cold pasta and salad and everything. And then there are people walking around with funnel cake and fried Oreos and like delicious strawberry lemonades and it was so nostalgic and just fun that people really loved it and instantly.
Speaker 3:We started having so many conversations because we stationed our sales reps right outside the food truck, so while people were waiting, they'd place their order. Then, while they're waiting, we strike up a conversation and just say you know, oh, what are you doing here? Are you enjoying your time? Just a quick conversation. And now they're like it's very hard to be, you know, stuffy and upset when you're eating a funnel cake.
Speaker 3:So I really loved being able to build that whole campaign and then started connecting with people that way and then we used it as a follow-up, you know, just saying like hey, did you enjoy your funnel cake? And people really loved it. It was a great way to connect with people and just something that stood out and it was something that you know it was kind of a difficult sell at first because people are like it's a conference, what are we doing with? You know, what are we doing with this? That seems a little bit out there, whereas other people are giving out, like you know, backpacks and like little you know, laptop cases. But it ended up standing out. It was so much fun, it was low budget and it was. It was a great way to connect with people.
Speaker 2:Wow, that is absolutely a different technique and it sounds like it worked. And, as you mentioned earlier, even people who are in B2B and tech are still people, and so you really try to connect with them on a human level and then get into the business side of things. I love that. Thank you. Yes, it was so much fun. We see a lot of women in tech now, but it's still a very male-dominated industry. Has that ever been a hindrance in you getting the positions that you've gotten?
Speaker 3:Definitely. Yes, there have been a lot of times where I have been automatically added as the admin role in the room, and you know that's an uncomfortable situation to be in. As a woman, you know to be thought of as the person who is the one who's going to clean up after all the guys have left, or, you know, the automatic note taker or things like that, whereas you know there's nothing wrong with those roles, but there is something wrong with the group of men assuming that the only woman in the room is the one to do that, when all of these things need to be done either way. So there have been multiple times that I've had that kind of experience and a lot of times it is disheartening. It's easy to kind of fall into like, oh well, you know, maybe I should just kind of stay quiet, keep the peace. I don't want to be that woman, you know, making a scene or anything like that, but at the same time that doesn't really help anyone. It doesn't allow people to. You know, know that that's not the right way to treat women in the workplace and it's not helpful for me either. It didn't make me feel good to be quiet about those instances.
Speaker 3:So I definitely started, you know, standing up and saying, you know, oh hey, are you all going to grab your coffee cups when we're leaving, and you know they might look at me funny the first time. But what are they really going to say? Are they going to say, no, excuse me, no, you should be the one to get our coffee cups, because I kind of forced them to face it. So it's a bit intimidating to do that, definitely.
Speaker 3:But you know it's been a challenge coming up through this world of tech and while, like you said, it is improving, there are a lot more women in tech now, it still feels very competitive a lot of times and it feels like a lot of times women are fighting for the only couple of roles available for women, which should not be the case, and oftentimes it's kind of, you know, not the case. If you can really, if you can really work to lift up the other women with you, that's been my approach to really try to. You know, bring other people with me and show that. You know, hey, that was her idea. She's valuable, she needs to be promoted if I'm getting promoted. So those kind of approaches are really important, but it's a tough world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I appreciate the fact that you're saying we have to help each other, we have to stick together, and I do think, because women are the nurturers, we're willing to do the extra work, and a lot of times that makes people have assumptions about us. As you mentioned, we're going to be the ones who bring the treats, we're going to be the ones who get everybody coffee, we're going to be the note takers, and that's not always the best. It's actually not usually the best use of our time in those rooms. Well, patrika, you also have a podcast. I'd love to hear a little bit about that.
Speaker 3:Getting back to your travel side, yeah, so my podcast is called Destination Journey and it's all about creative and responsible travel. It's been on hiatus for a while now, but it's coming back on June 25th so I'm so excited to relaunch it and start telling travel stories again. And basically it's all about those kind of adventures where you're going off the beaten path, you're visiting somewhere new and those kind of small town experiences. So it's been a fun time kind of enjoying those adventures and it's even more fun to get to share them with people.
Speaker 2:I just want to ask one last question. Of course, we'll link to your website and everything else in the show notes, but what advice do you have for women who are looking to break into tech? We have a large population of our students for the digital media management program at USC are women. Some of them are already in tech, but many are looking to make a career change.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question, and I've been in your shoes, if you're listening. I've been there, you know. I know how intimidating it feels to break into tech, and what I try to remind myself of on a daily basis and this is still a mantra that I use is just the words why not me? Why not me? Because there are so many people that are doing what you want to do with less education, with fewer resources, with less experience, and they're doing it. And there is the.
Speaker 3:A lot of times, the only person that's stopping you from doing it is you talking yourself out of it. And while it's really scary sometimes to take that leap, you will be in the same place if you take that leap and you don't make it, or if you take that leap and you do, you know. So it's kind of like sometimes it's just worth taking that risk and trying a little bit something that's a little bit different and a little bit scary, because why not you? Why are you not the person to do it? Somebody else is doing it, somebody else is trying it, so why, why shouldn't you?
Speaker 3:And when I remind myself of that, that is something that has really stuck with me and I've used that to not talk myself out of things, because it's very easy as women to say, oh no, I'm sure there's someone who's more qualified or who has more you know more experience or is smarter than me. Why not you? Just, why not you? Just give it a try and see, see what you can do, and in the worst case scenario, you'd try a different path later on. But for now, why not me? Why not me?
Speaker 2:I love it. Great advice for everybody, really who's listening. Yeah, thank you so much, patrika Elise, for coming on the show today. This has been a fun conversation.
Speaker 3:Yes, I've enjoyed it so much and thank you. I appreciate your work, that you're doing.
Speaker 2:This is so important and such an important message to give doing this is so important and such an important message to give. Oh, thank you. With that, this has been Mediascape Insights from Digital Changemakers. Thank you to everybody who's watching this episode or listening to it on your favorite platform. Thank you for supporting our podcast that is hosted by USC Annenberg's Master's in Digital Media Management program, and I, or Joseph, will be back again with another amazing guest to share their story and their journey next week.
Speaker 1:To learn more about the Master of Science in Digital Media Management Program, visit us on the web at dmmuscedu.
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