March is International Women’s Month, a time to celebrate women’s achievements. In this podcast, John Lincoln is joined by Patti Newcomer-Small, who has held numerous leadership positions in various organizations in financial services and tech industries.
What We’ll Cover:
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Patti Newcomer-Small’s Career and Current Role
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Leadership Insights for Professionals
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Advice on Customer Interactions
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How to Build an Inclusive Workspace
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Women in STEM and Tech Spaces
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Patti Newcomer-Small on the Future of Marketing
Patti Newcomer-Small’s Career and Current Role
Patti Newcomer-Small is the current Chief Marketing Officer at FMG Suite, a company that sells marketing automation software to financial advisors and insurance agents.
In college, she studied chemical engineering and worked at Proctor and Gamble doing R&D and focusing on new product development for 10 years.
She then moved to Capital One and started her marketing career, in which she also spent time working at Intuit, WorldPay, and FMG Suite, in San Diego.
Leadership Insights for Professionals
Patti has held numerous leadership positions, which she attributes to her own development process. She encourages anyone in their career who is seeking out a high-ranking position within their company to take a risk. She states that you should constantly be thinking about where you want to be and what kind of work you enjoy. Be aware of the ample opportunities out there and don’t be afraid to make a move or take a risk.
Patti has spent years working in financial services and tech space. She notes that this is one area in which there are leading-edge marketing opportunities such as fintech and martech, the integrations of financial technology and marketing technology, which could be promising to young marketing professionals.
A good tip she has for young and upcoming individuals is to understand how to scale yourself. Patti notes that in order to scale yourself and grow as an individual within your business you must be willing to get things done through other people in your organization.
As a leader, by investing your time and energy into growing the people in your organization rather than yourself, you will grow as a team and see tremendous results. Patti notes that she is not always the best, in fact, she appreciates when she is not the smartest person in the room – it creates an environment that enables self-growth.
Speaking of self-growth it is important to have your own point-of-view. Be conscientious about what is next and don’t be afraid to express your ideas and opinions to your colleagues or superiors.
Patti Newcomer-Small’s Advice on Customer Interactions
Building lasting relationships with customers is important in any business. Patti is strategic about the interactions she has with customers. Her unique approach is based on listening to what the customer has to say. If you go into conversions with an open-mind you can listen to what is going well, and be ready to hear what is broken, equipping you to focus on how to best solve problems.
She encourages everyone to be aware of the customer, not only in their customer journey but in their professional life as well. For example, February, March, and April are not the best times to introduce a new software or company procedure for those in financial services or accountants, as those are the busiest times of the year.
How to Build an Inclusive Workspace
Providing an inclusive workspace for all has been a hot topic of conversation for many years. Patti states that the first thing you can do to create an inclusive work environment is to understand who is on your team and how they function as individuals and altogether.
As a leader, you should focus on diversity and bringing other people’s individual points of view to the table. The aim is to be able to deal with conflict in a constructive way that brings trust and builds strong relationships among coworkers. Workplace relationships are not about the fluff, but about coming together to accomplish a common task.
Patti uses different tools and techniques as she discovers people’s personalities that will make each individual feel comfortable, included, and encouraged to share their ideas.
Part of creating a safe environment and workspace for all is inclusion. Be conscious about who is making decisions and when those decisions are being made. Try to leverage those decisions so that everyone’s voice is heard. You can do this by finding spaces in which your team has room to execute things as they wish, without having to follow a strict plan.
Women in STEM and Tech
Patti Newcomer-Small has been focused on philanthropic causes since she was a young girl. She explains her current passion and interest is within the world of women who have careers in STEM or tech. She is a strong advocate for both of these subcategories of women participating in what have traditionally been male roles.
Patti is one of the founding members of the Women’s Impact Network at her alma mater, which is a philanthropic organization that raises money to fund grants on campus to help support women going into these career fields.
So little venture capital funds go to women-founded companies, despite the fact that they have proved time and time again that they are just as successful as companies headed by men.
Patti notes that part of the reason for the continuation of this trend is that men tend to invest in male-founded companies. By introducing women into the sphere of investing, data shows that they have and will continue to invest in women-founded companies.
Patti Newcomer-Small on the Future of Marketing
In terms of the future for marketing, Patti is jazzed about the impact of AI and machine learning in professional services with automation. She also pays constant attention to some of the key trends in marketing: analytics, personalization with data, content, and video.
