SPEAKER_00

Welcome back to SheCommerce, where power women and real talk collide in the world of commerce.

SPEAKER_01

We're coming at you live from Can. This is your Can Confidential episode. Um, where every comp uh conversation seems to be about AI, media creators, and customer engagement. But underneath all of those conversations is one critical question. Who actually owns the customer relationship?

SPEAKER_00

And today's guest has the front row seat to help answer that question with us. We're excited to welcome Priya Goingka. Did I say that right? Going. Going. Wonderful. Chief Customer Officer at Beehive. Beehive has become one of the fastest growing platforms in media and creator technology, helping brands, publishers, creators, and media companies build direct relationships with their audiences through newsletters, community, retention, and monetization.

SPEAKER_01

Today we're talking about owned audiences, customer loyalty, creator businesses, AI, and why brands may be more vulnerable to platform dependency than they realize. Welcome to SheCommerce, Priya.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you. Excited to be here. That's a lot of topics to cover today.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, you have time, right? There's nothing else going on here. Uh well, Priya, you've spent your career helping brands and media companies deepen customer relationships. You are first at Sail Through and then campaign monitor, and now you're helping scale Beehive during one of the most probably exciting growth periods that the company has seen, and especially in media tech just broadly. You've helped with everyone from creators and journalists to major brands as well as publishers, helping them rethink audience growth, engagement, retention, and monetization. As AI continues to reshape how consumers discover content and engage with products, what is your perspective on what it means to truly own an audience?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's like one of the most uh pressing topics that we think about right now. I think companies that are relying upon social media or algorithms or channels that they don't truly own to connect with their audience are putting themselves at a lot of risk. I think like the only way that you're able to truly connect with your audience is if you're controlling the entire funnel and you have direct access to your audience. Obviously, I'm biased, but I think email and newsletters is one of the best ways to connect with your audience directly for a few different reasons. One is you own all the information about your audience, you have their email address. The thing is, like arguably the most important piece of contact information for your audience. You're not, you're not relying upon like a social media handle, you have their email address to connect to, you control the delivery of your content. So you press send on an email, it hits their inboxes, you know exactly what time it's going to hit their inboxes. You control that full funnel. If you're using social media, you're basing your content being seen based upon an algorithm. You don't have full control over that mechanism. So, you know, being able to have that direct connection is really important. And you have to pick a channel that allows you to do so. I think it's also incredible and scary how many new companies are popping up on a daily basis. I feel like whenever I'm on LinkedIn or looking online, there's like all these new companies that are popping up. And so it's getting even harder to cut through all that noise and make your brand really stand out. And the best way to do that is to build like a really true, strong connection with your audience. And you want to do that without any barriers in between what you are offering and who your audience is. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So what's changed in the last few years that has made owned audiences so important?

SPEAKER_02

One is social media is very fickle. I mean, it already are always has been. I don't think it's it's necessarily a new thing, but social media is fickle. We've seen it time and time again with Facebook and other companies that are changing their algorithms. And again, like if you're relying upon those algorithms to reach your audience, you're leaving yourself open to a lot of risk. Twitter has changed hands a number of times. TikTok has been shut down, then not shut down. Facebook is still kind of out there, but not really out there. So, you know, social media ebbs and flows and changes. Email is probably not as sexy as social media, but it's this like kind of ever constant platform that has always been there and probably will always be there. And so if you're using a tried and true and trusted platform like that, you're able to cut cut through that noise and reach your audience. Uh, and then of course, AI, you can't talk about anything without talking about AI these days, but AI generated summaries and AI tools have like largely decimated web traffic for you know every media site out there. And so if you're relying upon people finding you by landing on your website, if you're using that sort of weights as a way to make money, uh you're probably also suffering and feeling a lot of pain right now. And I feel like that's sort of like again, like owned funnel, owned audience relationship is one that is kind of uh it's uh it's not exposed to like the same sort of like scares from AI.

SPEAKER_00

Let's talk about newsletters because they're definitely seeing a resurgence right now and are becoming increasingly a core brand strategy and vehicle. Can you tell us why that's the case?

SPEAKER_02

For all of our Yeah, definitely. I feel like like I just said before, like email is not sexy, but I think email might be sexy right now. I feel like everyone has a newsletter or wants to have a newsletter. Uh, I've been seeing this like really big movement, and I'm sure you are too, about this idea of like brand storytelling becoming like really in vogue. And kind of ties in with my earlier points of like if you are a big brand and you want to stand out from all this noise, you want to build a connection with your audience. And it's not just about who has the best product or the best pricing anymore. It's all about who is able to build that sort of like special relationship with their audience, who has that brand equity, who kind of stands out from the other brands. And you're not doing that again based upon like who has the most buttons or features, you're doing that by telling a story. And if you are telling a story, you want to own every aspect of the content creation, but also the delivery and distribution of that. And so if you're hiring people to create this incredible content for you and you're investing in it, the next step is like, okay, now we have this content. How do we actually share it with the right people at the right time? And you want to do it in a way where you again have full control over that distribution. I think podcasts is a great way to do it. I think email newsletters is also a great way to do it because again, you're controlling every sort of like step along the way. You create the newsletter, you know exactly what it looks like, you know every single person who's on your list, their email addresses, you have data points about them, you know who's a male, who's a female, where they live, where they work, their job title. You have so much information on them, then you're emailing them. You know exactly what time your email goes out, when it hits your inboxes, you know on top of that, who's engaging with your content, who's opening up your emails, who's clicking on your email. That sort of data, um, that sort of uh accessibility and availability of data is I don't think available anywhere.

SPEAKER_00

Because when I hear email versus newsletter, are they the same? Is there a difference? Like is email more the more tactical delivery of it, and newsletter is more about how you curate the content together to deliver?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, a little bit. There's definitely overlap. I think email is more of like the general channel. Like email is just like sending out content, email. Newsletters is a subset of that. There's lots of different types of emails, transactional emails, marketing emails, newsletters is more of like that storytelling sort of content. It's perhaps the end sort of objective is to sell something or to get people into your brand, but you're not doing it like in a direct salesy way. You're more of like building the connection with your audience.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So what is if you join a brand tomorrow, right? And could only focus on one customer metric, what would that be?

SPEAKER_02

That's interesting. One customer metric. I'm trying to think, probably like a some stuff, something around like a repeat, repeat buy or like repeat conversion rate. Uh, I feel like uh getting that initial purchase from a customer or from a prospect is like, you know, one sort of like hurdle to cross. But once you've gotten there, now you have this like potential very loyal buyer and you've already gotten through the hardest part. Now the important part is like maintaining that sort of relationship and growing it and getting them to come back and develop like a long-term relationship with. It's the same thing goes, you know, if you're working in SAS, you want like a really high retention rate, or if you're working at a consumer brand, you want someone to come to your store or to your website over and over that like repeat purchase rate is so important. I think that's like probably the most important metric.

SPEAKER_00

I think you know, a lot of brands are focusing more at their funnel on acquisition and kind of forgetting about, as you rightly said, loyalty, retention and loyalty, yeah. And you know, what do you think brands are maybe getting wrong when it comes to building that customer engagement through loyalty? It's a good question.

SPEAKER_02

I think I think a lot of it ties into how there's like so much noise and so much data, and like there's just so much happening when it comes to like the the the buyer journey for any single individual. And so there's so much like focus on like, hey, we have to get these people in the door. We have to get them to buy. What can we do to get them to notice our brand and to buy? And then everything is almost like forgotten about after that because there's so much focus on that part. I don't think retention or all that is like forgotten about entirely, but I think it's more of like maybe on the back than it used to be. Right. Like retention's always been kind of like the North Star metric, especially in SaaS. But I feel like in more recent times, maybe fallen a little bit to the side. And so I think like again, like that's probably the more important thing to focus on because you can have a hundred customers coming to the door, but if 98 of them are not coming back, right ultimately it's kind of meaningless. You probably want like two people that come back over and over and over again. Of course. That's way more impactful. And I think it's really easy to like forget about that part of the puzzle.

SPEAKER_00

One-on-one. You know, like you do all the courting up front, you get the girl or the guy, and then forget about it. Put a ring on it, put a ring on it.

SPEAKER_01

Don't I mean I feel that I feel that and and I've seen I've felt that as a consumer. I've felt that that lack of loyalty, sort of the lack of loyalty increasing, you know, as in hey now. I was like, it's time. I mean, don't you love me anymore? I mean, do I have to leave you? Do, yes.

SPEAKER_00

Because they spend more on acquisition to get you back.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's so interesting. And so much more expensive. So much more expensive.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, exactly. I get so many emails from brands in my inbox, I'm sure you do too, of like, we haven't seen you in a while, or we haven't heard from you in a while, these like re-engagement things. But I rarely ever see them like hey, yeah, like you bought from us once, like, you know, this much time has passed, like you want to come back, or you just bought for us.

SPEAKER_00

How are you feeling? Yeah, how's it working out?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but I will say this that there are one or two brands who are brilliant at engaging through emails, through emails. And they are so and and they say things like, We've not heard from you in a while, we know it's this person's birthday that you bought flowers for before. And it's oh my god. Elf Cosmetics is doing a good job there.

SPEAKER_00

And that's it.

SPEAKER_02

Elk is great. Support is also great too. It's like, hey, you bought this eyeliner like 45 days ago. It knows that like your turnaround time might be this and that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I've also got one. It was a very small company, so kudos to them. Same. And it was a a kids' clothing company. I have three girls, and I'm a night owl, so I do a lot of shopping at night. Uh-huh. And then it's like surprised because I don't even remember when it shows up. But they sent me this and then they followed up with an email that said, and it was an email they sent at night, like after 10 p.m. And they said, We noticed last time you were shopping at night for all you late night mamas. Oh, wow. Here's a coupon code for you to use between the hours of 10 and 6 a.m. Wow. And it was like that was even the coupon code, I forget what it was, but it was it spoke directly. I was like, Oh, they get me. They know me.

SPEAKER_01

That is incredible.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, I had I o uh this was uh Bloom and Wild, it's a it's uh a flower company. And they're like, We know it's Father's Day, and you you're happy with Father's Day because they also said if you don't like Father's Day, you know. Didn't opt out. And uh and they're like, and we we were thinking, does he like he doesn't like cheese, but how about the wine? How about how about beer? Because they remembered the other time. I mean, I didn't buy it for him, but because I was busy. But um put in the work jacket. I know, I know. But you know, I love that they knew me. Right, that's a consumer. Let's let's go into let's go into what's going on in Canada moment. Uh or the the the the I should say the overriding, the overarching theme, which is every conversation is an AI conversation, right? So how do you think that AI will change customer relationships over the next It's a good question.

SPEAKER_02

Honestly, I have no idea. I don't know if anyone does really, but I think uh it makes like the human connection even more important because I think it's so much easier to be able to connect with uh your audience in like a semi-generic way using AI. Yeah, like you know, the emails that you guys mentioned, those are great, right? But it doesn't take a human person behind all that to send out those sorts of emails. So that I think gets you like halfway there. But then you don't need a human being to kind of like do the rest of the work there. That human connection is like even more important because AI, every company is gonna be using AI or already is. But a lot of companies might replace their workforce with AI or might pull back from the human element because they're using AI even more. So I think it's like, what can we optimize with AI to make us more efficient, more powerful, do a lot more with like whatever we can with our current workforce, but then still maintain the human element to keep us to be like at the forefront of whatever we're doing. It's kind of how we think about it at Vhive as well. We're not looking for AI to replace people or to place teams. We're using AI to make our existing teams even more powerful to be able to do more. So I think this the the AI boom is maybe having companies go down like two different paths of like one is like how can we eliminate half of our workforce replaced with AI, which is not a bad approach. It might work for some industries and some companies. The other half, which is kind of what we're doing, is how can we use AI to like augment our existing workforce, but not take away that human element.

SPEAKER_01

I I I explain that I completely agree with that. I think I think this whole sort of blanket approach of okay, that's it. AI will be the messiah is is is not right. It's not right because you need to have someone to do the thinking and the planning and the programming and to and to provide that human element that it only does what it does. It's exceptional when you uh work with it exceptionally.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well. The other buzzword everyone uses is personalization. And you know, to your point, like those emails, a lot of that can be automated through AI. Um, but what does meaningful for personalization mean? And how does AI become part of that or help facilitate that?

SPEAKER_02

I think uh personalization to be able to do it effectively in like in 2026 is to pick up on like nuances of people's personalities, like the email that you got, right? I feel like that's such a it it might not be that hard for the company to send that email, but when you saw it in your inbox, you're like, oh wow, this is like a really cool thing. And then you remembered it and then you brought it up again here. Yeah. I think those sorts of things I think go a long way. They could have easily made that email a lot different in like the tone or the idea. Yeah, just like male-female, like exactly. And it's not just like here's a coupon code. It's like a hey, we remembered that you shopped at this time and you're a mom, and like the the code, the promo code kind of like ties into the rest of the story. And I I think it's probably easier than ever to be able to get those pieces of people's personality and shopping behavior. I think that data was probably even accessible like many years ago. It's even easier to get these days. And so if you're able to tie in that data set that's easy to get with now like the automation part and like bring all the pieces together, I don't think it's like rocket science by any means, but a lot of people just aren't really doing it or thinking about it that way. Yeah. But it's like those small moments that go a long way in building brand equity.

SPEAKER_00

Memorable moments, yeah. And it's a fine line though between like big brother creepy and you know getting it right and get having that context. So where do you draw the line?

SPEAKER_02

I don't know. Maybe I'm the wrong person to ask about this because I I don't know if there's a line. I feel like all of our information is kind of out there already. And it's available out there. So it's all about like how are people going to use it in like the right way. Like I get so many cold emails that have nothing to do with me or my business. It's actually surprising. I'm like, I have a LinkedIn profile, I have so much information out there. I've done podcasts, my company is out there everywhere on socials. Why can't you just get some information about me and send like a more catered sort of message? There's obviously extremes and people go way too far, but within reason, I do feel like the more you can use about someone's, you know, someone's journey or their background to cater a message, I think it goes a long way. And very few people are doing it.

SPEAKER_01

So it's ethical and governance, really. Right. Right? Because that that that's it. And and as you say, it's uh, you know, it is so true. All our information's online. All of it. And I love how you've reframe that to, I mean, all my information's online. What really hacks me off is not that my information's online, it's like, my information's online. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

What makes me so mad is I use Uber Eats all the time to order food. Yeah. And Uber has so much information on me, right? I use Uber wherever I go, wherever I travel. I use Uber Eats wherever I go, wherever I travel. They have all of my history online. They know so much about me. And whenever I open up any restaurant, Uber Eats, the picked for you, I'm vegetarian. Every item is always a meat item. I was like, in my whatever Uber, I know my ear of using Uber Eats. Never once have I ordered an item with me on it. You should know that about me. It's like it's such a basic.

SPEAKER_00

Especially like food preferences. Like the basis of their business.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, Uber is a massive company. They have teams and teams dedicated to data. I can't imagine they're getting such a basic thing wrong, but it's crazy how so many companies are still getting it wrong.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's a good point. All right, we're gonna talk switch gears, talk about the convergence of media commerce creators. It seems like everybody is now trying to do something else as well. Everyone has that second hustle, side hustle, if you will. Um, media companies are selling products, we have brands becoming publishers, we have creators that are becoming businesses all on their own. So, in your opinion, what's driving this massive convergence?

SPEAKER_02

I keep hearing this sentiment that every company is a media company, because I think it's kind of true. It all comes back to like you have to sell the story and you have to create content around it and you have to get people to understand why you're selling something. It's more than just the product, it's like the story and like the why behind it. I think that's like a big thing of like you need to be able to connect with your audience and tell a story. So like that's where the media part sort of fits in. Uh, I think the also like the the AI element and like the shifting landscape has just made a lot of companies that were focusing solely on media become maybe not obsolete, but they're seeing like massive declines in revenue and website traffic. And they're looking to quickly sort of like optimize and think on their feet and adapt to like the changing times. And so they're experimenting a lot with like new channels or new products or just trying to like be a bit more agile. And so that's why I think a lot of these companies are shifting more into maybe e-com or launching podcasts or new more experiential or experimental sort of products. I think it's a lot of fun and really exciting. I think a lot of these things like won't work out and will fail. But I think it's like a really fun sort of like environment to be a part of. I don't think we've ever seen a time where companies have experimented the way they are right now. So like especially legacy companies have always been like, this is what we do. We've always done it, we always will do it. And in the last like probably 12 months or so, that's changed so much where usually even these like dinosaurs type companies want to do new things and and kind of you know change things up a little bit, which is pretty fun to see. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

The irony is, you know, the the saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Um and and that's what a lot of legacy companies were working on, that that ethos. But the thing is, if you don't fix it, it gets broke completely.

SPEAKER_02

I thought you were gonna say and everything's broken, which is kind of how I feel. I feel like everything I wasn't broken before is now kind of broken.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. Disruption breaks things, and that's the whole point of it, right? Yeah. So what do you think? I mean, switching gears slightly, what five years from now, what do you think the most successful creator business will look like?

SPEAKER_02

I think it comes back down to like the the connection, but being able to build that sort of like true relationship. I think it comes down to data as well, like who has the most data at their fingertips and is able to like leverage it in like a strong, impactful sort of way. Like we've just been talking about, even the biggest companies in the world sometimes they have so much data, but they're not using it in the best way possible. And I feel like AI has kind of leveled the playing field where now, you know, every model, some models are better than others and some products are a bit better. But generally speaking, all these big AI platforms and companies all have access to the same sort of data and they're equally powerful. So it's like the next frontier is like, well, now who has access to more special sorts of data sets or who can leverage it in like a smarter way or doing something unique that other people aren't doing because otherwise it's like we're all kind of doing the same thing. You gotta break from the noise a little bit. So I think it's gonna be a combination of like who has better data or more data, and then is like doing more of like a unique thing with it.

SPEAKER_00

Speaking of doing that unique thing with it, I know that's a place where Beehive comes in, right, and helps creators build sustainable businesses. And can you speak a little bit more to that and maybe, you know, what is a misconception people have about monetization, creator monetization?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so so Beehive is an email newsletter platform. We launched with uh the email component as our uh main uh main channel about four and a half years ago. Since then, we've added in the website capability, and now we also have podcasts as well. So we see ourselves as an all-in-one solution for for content creators, uh bringing together email, web, and and then across all of that, we're building this AI layer as well as a monetization layer. So we have a whole network of uh brand sponsors, and these brands advertise at scale across the newsletters that are on Beehive. So whether you have a tiny newsletter and you're just kind of starting out, or you're a massive media company on Beehive, you sit have access to the same sort of brand sponsors on the platform. You're able to run those ads in your newsletter and be able to make money. I think a lot of people assume there's like a magic number or threshold of I have to be this big to be able to make money, or a bigger newsletter is better than a smaller newsletter. I think both of those are wrong. You can monetize with a very small newsletter. You don't have to have a big one, especially if you're using a platform like Beehive, where again, the size of your newsletter doesn't matter. You can monetize from day one with 100 subscribers. I've also seen newsletters that have 10,000 subscribers. Subscribers that make way more money than newsletters that are 10 times that size. Just comes down to like the quality of your audience, the quality of your content, and how engaged your audience is. If you're writing really, really good content and your audience is, for example, all founders and C level execs, people with like high purchasing power, that audience is so much more powerful than a loosely engaged audience that's you know much, much bigger. Sure. So people get caught up in these vanity metrics of, oh, I want my newsletter to be this big and then I'll start making money, but gotta get away from that and focus more on the quality part.

SPEAKER_00

We need to join.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yes, definitely.

SPEAKER_01

Priya, you've helped build the customer organization at Beehab during a period of tremendous growth. What have you learned about scaling up partnerships, teams, and culture in such a high growth environment?

SPEAKER_02

You have to treat every customer like they're your only customer. Whether you have like 10 customers, or I think now we have like 45,000 customers or so. And I think that's like the only way that you're gonna build those really strong connections. Of course, you have to be smart at how you do that because as a small startup, you can't actually do that with your entire customer base. But um, we have a customer success team that works with our high touch larger customers, and then we have a support team that works with all of our other paying customers, and both are equally plugged in, technical, high touch. Customers ask in with like a complex question about the product or a workflow or anything else. The types of responses they get are like very, very well thought out, detailed screenshots, oftentimes like loom recordings of exactly what to do in the product. I've never worked at a company that does that sort of like high touch sort of support, regardless of how much money that customer is spending. And so you have to get again smart about how you're doing that. So we do leverage AI in a lot of places to make our work go further and to make us more impactful. Sure. But you want every customer to like think of Beehive as like, oh wow, I love using this platform. Not like, oh, I can never get a hold of them or you know, X, Y, and Z, which you hear about other platforms out there. It should be a very positive experience to use our tool.

SPEAKER_00

That's important. As a leader, how has your management style evolved over the years? To have to ask the people that report into me.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So I we talked a bit about this at the beginning, but I worked at Sale Through and a few other email uh email companies before. I managed a large CSM team there. I had about 40 people reporting into me. And then when I moved over to Beehive, I was one of the first employees. You're very flat work, so there was no real reporting lines or anything. And then over time, there were people that reported into me loosely, but again, we didn't really have much of an org chart. And then the last probably 12 months or so, we've sort of solidified that. So now the customer org reports into me. And it's probably 20-ish people, 25 or so, I'd say. I think uh I probably developed like the more like the chops of how to be a manager and some of my my prior roles of like, you know, having your one-on-ones and sort of like the mechanics of how to manage a team. Um, but I was probably a little bit more of like uh, this is what you're supposed to do as a manager, coming to be head. Yeah, a bit more of that. Coming to be head because it kind of happened organically. There's a lot of like mentorship along the way, and people that didn't really report into me but kind of reported into me that like took care of and helped them grow over time that maybe now do report into me or maybe they don't. And I feel like that's like a really different way to manage because you don't want to cross the line because you really aren't their manager, but you want to help them and support them and nurture them and like help kind of define or grow their career. And I think that's been a lot of fun to do. There's Zelpy things I picked up along the way in prior roles and things that I've learned here. But I think thinking about your thinking about it being a manager in terms of like, well, if I was having this conversation with someone that's above me, like what would I want them to do for me? Like people get too caught up in like, oh, well, they're my rapport, and like this is what it means to be a manager. It's like we're all just people here, we're all just looking to learn and to grow and evolve. Like, what is something that you wish you had told yourself a few years ago? Tell them that, you know, they want to hear that from you. Having that more of like the empathetic sort of connection.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. All right. I love that. Um organic growth. Yeah. You know, of yeah, you start off textbook because you're like, oh my god, I need to do this absolutely perfectly. And then you're like, no, actually, this is who I am, and this is what I really love to do. Yeah, make it more of your own.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, completely. So you've built your career, and obviously, media and tech, both those industries have seen massive changes and disruptions over the last decade specifically. What advice would you give women who want to lead in high growth tech companies that are don't be afraid to ask for what you want.

SPEAKER_02

Don't be afraid to put your name in the hat for things that maybe you don't even want. Like you should always put yourself out there. And that's not just for like media tech, that's for anything. I see people oftentimes, I mean, we hear this time and time again, when there's like an open role for a promotion or for like a much higher sort of role, more men put their name into the hat for the running because they feel like they're qualified and women kind of second guess themselves. I don't know if I'm ready, I don't know if I should do it. They'll like overtake.

SPEAKER_00

Like nine out of the ten boxes. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

It's like just put your name in the hat, just try. You know, even if it doesn't work out, like you will learn something about yourself along the way, or people will notice that you put your name in the hat, and you know, that will go. So just like fight every fight. There's no reason to not fight it. I think that's like really important. Don't get caught in the like comparing yourself to your counterparts, male or female. I think it's like very easy to do. Such a good point. I feel like I I still do that all the time, but I try not to. I'm like, oh well, he does this and I don't do this. It's like he's not thinking about me at all, right? So why am I why am I wasting my brain space on other people? Just focus on yourself, put yourself out there, put your best foot forward, and you'll win a lot, you'll lose a lot, but I guarantee you'll win a lot. Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I really I love that. D do you see the a shift though, generationally with women? I.e. the newer generation of women coming through.

SPEAKER_00

Do you feel that they're they follow that same vibe, that same sort of waiting for permission, yeah, not feeling fully ready, like needing to feel that, or do you feel like they're more empowered?

SPEAKER_02

I think in general, the younger generation is like a lot more just like brazen and like bold and they're less afraid to do things across the board. But I still feel like women are more disproportionate reticence. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely when it comes to like raises, promotions, or just like the confidence to do things. I feel like they second guess themselves a lot more than their male counterparts do. Oh, just because that happened.

SPEAKER_01

At what point? Yeah, you know, oh Tell me Brianna, at what point did you realize for yourself that it was okay and you were absolutely right to be a voice in the room? I will let you know when I get there.

SPEAKER_02

I think I'm still figuring it out. I think I'm still getting there. I don't I think going back to my earlier point, I I don't think necessarily that women don't have the confidence. I think that men have a lot more confidence, and I think you have to almost like fake it as a woman to be like a little bit louder than you want to be and a little bold. You don't, it's not that you necessarily like feel like you have to be that way, but to compete in the room you do. Right. And so even now I feel myself sometimes like competing for attention in meetings of like, hey, I also have something to say. I'm not the loudest person in the room, but I guess maybe I have to become the loudest person in the room, just at least for a few minutes I could put myself out there. I'm nothing more comfortable doing that than maybe I was a few years ago before I I looked for permission of like, oh, why don't it look like you have something to say, why don't you say it? Now, even if I have to like interrupt a little bit, I will do it to get my point across because you're probably not going to get the permission or the invitation if you sit there waiting for one. And so you have to be like maybe a little annoying in meetings or maybe like a little bit like talk over people. But if that's the only way that you're gonna get your point across, you have to do it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And do you think that comfort with doing that has come with experience, like through the through the agents, through the agents in terms of you know, you started off waiting for my permission and waiting and waiting and then the meeting's over.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. It happens all the time. It definitely happened a lot where I would get me frustrated where I was like, hey, I prepped for this meeting. Yeah. I had all these great points I wanted to make, and then I walk away from the meeting not having said a single word, or even worse, someone else of the things that were on my mind that I had spent the time researching, it's like the worst feeling in the world. And it just kind of like compounds, right? It happens once, it's probably gonna happen again, and then you're probably known as being the quieter person in the room, so you get less opportunities to speak. And it's not that it's impossible to break away from that, but you don't want to sort of like have that reputation or people think of you that way. Yeah. So you just have to kind of like go in sort of hard, maybe more than you need to. Yeah. The only way that's gonna it's gonna work out.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Okay. Now this is a quick file round, so it's like snappy answers first thing, first thing that comes through to your mind. Newsletter you never missed. That I never missed.

SPEAKER_02

Uh the female quotient is I'm sure you did. Yeah, yeah. They're on the they have a great activation here in Cannes. I mean, they're at like every big uh conference and an event. But yeah, I love their newsletter. It's of course like workplace executive focused with like a female perspective. Yeah. So like that it has a female element, but it's not all just about like being a woman in the workplace. Yeah, it's a great newsletter. What's the most overused marketing buzzword? So many. There's so many. Incrementality. Bull funnel, I think, is the one I hear all the time, especially being here in Cannes.

SPEAKER_01

Creator Economy or AI, which gets overhyped more.

SPEAKER_02

Overhyped more. I think AI. I think creator economy, I mean, you can't walk two feet anywhere without hearing about the creator economy, but I still think it's like such early days for creator economy. I also live very much in that bubble. So for me, I thought it was like overhyped like two years ago, and we were just at the tip of the iceberg, and every month it's like growing bigger and bigger. But you see these like massive companies that are investing so much into creators, see the MasterCard and Fox, they're launching their studio. So many big companies that I would have never thought that would be focusing so much on the creator space that are doing so. They're just now starting to invest. So I feel like we have Delphi like a long runway to go for more growth versus AI, still also a long runway, but I do feel like it's just so much hype around it that it's taking away from like the reality of like what it actually is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

One leadership habit, you swear by.

SPEAKER_02

So I do a one-on-one with all the people that report into me. Uh, I do it bi-weekly. And so when I was a younger manager, you know, back in the day, ages ago, uh, I used to have like a, you know, an agenda for like all the talking points. It was like 10 or 12 items that I wanted to kind of go through, like emails that I needed like closure on or meetings or whatever, um, like most of like the 30 minutes. I now try to do all those like small quick questions over Slack as they kind of come up into my mind. And I save the one-on-one for more like open conversation. So I'll walk in with like maybe two or three items of like, hey, I have a few things that I want to talk about, but this is your time. It's not my time to ask you a bunch of questions. So if you want to go down your inbox and talk about that, that's fine. If you want to talk about what's on your mind, or you want to talk about like your growth trajectory or a title or promo or anything else, whatever you want to talk about, this is your time, not mine. If you want to cut it short to five minutes, that's fine. If you want to go 10 minutes over, that's also fine. But I give like people reported to me full power and control over the one-on-one. And not every meeting is going to be like a big, you know, heart-to-heart sort of thing. But even if you have one of those every month or so, that's such a big sort of impactful conversation to have. Really culture.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

It's been really great.

SPEAKER_01

Cocktail or beverage of choice here in Cannes.

SPEAKER_02

Oh gosh. I on Monday I'll say rose today. Friday, rose is like the last thing I'm behind. Um, if I could get a good iced cappuccino, I'd be so happy, but the French don't really believe in that.

SPEAKER_01

No, ice ma tropical matcha. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

We're gonna be more, but I know that's happening here. It's not happening. All right, I'm gonna switch to the last question because not here. What is your go-to hype song? Are you high button?

SPEAKER_02

Trying to think it has to be Beyonce, something Beyoncé. My girl. Um, I like a lot of her like older music actually.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. Excellent. No, sorry. She sings every time. Every time. I'm so glad. The whole album. I'm so glad you said album because if you said a song, she'd be like, oh, then we're going to edit that.

SPEAKER_00

Why? No. You just you tuned it up or me. All right. Priya, thank you for being here with us today. I know there's a million other activations and commitments here in Cannes this week. So we appreciate you spending the time with us. Um, we ask every guest a similar version of this question, but at SheCommerce, we're building a community of women leaders and advocates in the industry. And we believe that sharing that success means bringing others with you on that journey. So what just to end with two things. What's a piece of advice you'd leave for women who are building their careers in media, tech, commerce industry today? And will you take that pledge with us to pay it forward?

SPEAKER_02

Definitely. Uh around the advice, I'd say like, think about where you want to be in like two, three, four, five years, you know, whatever it feels like a good like future landmark for yourself. Figure out where you want to be there and then figure out exactly how you're gonna get to from where you are to where you want to be. Time goes by so quickly. I see a lot of people I talk to that are like, yeah, I want to be promoted and I want to do this, or really wanna be a manager. And it's like, okay, well, why do you want to be a manager? Why do you want to get they don't really know the answer to that question? It's like don't just think about the next step. Think about like the next like five steps or 10 steps in your career. If you want to be a founder in five years, why do you care about being promoted right now? Right. Or if you want to do X, Y, and Z, this doesn't actually matter so much for you. I think people like forget about the long-term game because they're so focused on the next step in their career. I mean, it's impossible. You want to grow and you want to do better, but I think it's important to always think about in the context of like where do you actually want to be in a few years?

SPEAKER_00

Just thinking titles and levels, but and tight, you know, but thinking about experiences you want to gain that are gonna help you as a fill in the blank.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And think about any reason why someone would not hire you for a role that you want to be hired for and then fix that. Fix that, right? So if you're like, hey, I can imagine myself being in an interview and someone's gonna ask me this question, I don't have a terrible answer for it. I don't have that skill set. Or I don't have one. Yeah, then go out there and spend the next three months or six months like learning all that and becoming a pro, and then find the next thing that you're the weakest at. And you keep doing that over and over again, and I guarantee you'll get to where you want to be.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Amazing advice, being love that.

SPEAKER_01

Gracious. Well, Priya, thank you so much for being a part of the She Commerce Sisterhood. And now all that's left to say from uh this episode's Can Confidential is full of brands, fierce women, one sisterhood.