Economics of a Growth CMO

Breaking Down the $$: Behind that CMO Hire You’re Looking to Make

So. You’re a growth-stage company on the hunt for a marketing leader. 

Regardless of the reasons why (recent cash infusion / investment, unexpected vacancy, etc.), just as there is reason to fill the role urgently, there is also reason to pause.

Do you really need to hire that marketing leader?

It is very likely your answer is “no,”and here’s why:

That sh** is expensive! 

To break it down simply: 

Any marketing leader you hire will receive a base salary. Multiply that by 1.5–2 to include non-cash compensation like benefits and overhead. And of course, add in any signing or performance-based bonus and/or equity you’ve offered them. 

But wait! A single marketing leader can’t accomplish all you’ll need to get done to run meaningful demand generation campaigns. They’ll need a junior- or mid-level team member to help execute on campaigns, set up and troubleshoot marketing systems, report on results, perhaps do some writing, and maybe even manage light creative development. 

… So add in that second person’s lower salary, again multiply by 1.5–2 to include benefits coverage and overhead.

At this point, even without taking into account any additional services specialists you hire or otherwise engage on an hourly or other part-time basis, you’ve probably sunk anywhere from $500k-$1m into this effort. 

But that’s just the cash flowing out the door; there are all the add-on’s a new hire brings with them, including the time it takes to get them to a productive, generative place: from onboarding to generating their first campaign concepts, setting up systems, and getting into the market, just one senior marketer (and maybe a subordinate to help execute) can only do so much. 

And what if you need both a brand overhaul and smart demand generation strategizing and brilliant content development? That’s three different brains. And you only hired one (maybe 1.5–2 if you count that second hire). 

We all know the market waits for no one. Demand is fickle, competitors are hungry, and your board wants results yesterday.  

That’s why so many leaders in your position have opted to take a look at outsourced CMO services—firms that specialize in delivering CMO-level strategic thinking along with a full team of specialists to execute: create, write, set up, optimize, report, and mind the positioning shop. 

For the visual learners out there, we’ve broken it all down in this downloadable infographic.

And how do we know all this? 100 YARDS is the leading outsourced, on-demand CMO service partnering growth-stage companies, primarily in the B2B space. Our clients span SaaS, financial tech, professional services, and more offerings across the banking, private equity, manufacturing, retail, sales and marketing operations, travel, human resources, and many more industries. 

Interested in learning how an outsourced CMO service like 100 YARDS can work for you? Get in touch to walk through what you need, and how we can help.

TEAM MEMBER SPOTLIGHT - Megan Kapple

Meet 100 YARDS team member spotlight, Megan Kapple!

Megan Kapple has worked closely with 100 YARDS for the past five years, wearing various hats and tackling any obstacle. Starting off her 100 YARDS career assisting our CMOs, Megan quickly demonstrated strong leadership skills and hunger for initiative. Soon after, she naturally transitioned into leading client accounts; driving email and organic (+paid!) social strategy, event planning, managing third party campaigns, and a few more marketing buzzwords we won’t bore you with.

How has your role evolved since you joined 100 YARDS, and what milestones have you reached along the way?

Before starting 100 YARDS, I was knees-deep in the world of direct to consumer marketing. I admit that I came with very little background in the B2B space. But what I DID come with was an appetite to learn and, truthfully, a hint of intimidation.

My professional and personal growth has greatly evolved since joining 100 YARDS. What started off as lending a hand to our leadership team developed into a Project Management role, which naturally progressed into Account Management for a variety of B2B markets. A few milestones include.. 

• Managing full-blown marketing strategies for multiple client segments at once (say that 5 times in a row)

• Broadening the way I think about things  

• Successfully launching a total rebrand from start to finish. Don’t ask me how many assets we had to redesign. 🙂

But that’s not all! I took a leap entering this space, which has since become familiar and comfortable. This past year, I received an opportunity to relocate from Ohio to the state of Washington for a rare job opportunity. It felt scary, so I knew I had to do it. 


Wait! Are you still with 100 YARDS? What was it like moving 2,000 miles across the country?

The move was….. terrifying, exciting, sad, thrilling, joyful. It’s hard leaving a job and city you feel comfortable in and entering a new chapter of complete unknown. Because it felt scary, I knew growth would be on the other side. While I’m back in the B2C space full time, I couldn’t totally leave 100 YARDS. (I mean, I could, but I didn’t want to.). I now manage organic social media for a handful of 100Y clients.


What is your process for creating and implementing an organic social media strategy for a B2B brand?

It all starts with research. 

• What is the product being offered? 

• Who is the audience? 

• Competitors?

• Industry trends?

What’s the goal? While some clients have a goal in mind, it’s not unsual for our team to provide a full strategy and chat through recommendations. Goals could range from…

• Lead generation

• Web traffic 

• Brand awareness 

A strong brand will likely implement all three goals into their organic social strategy. In cases where a brand has not had the resources to dedicate towards organic social, that’s where we drive the focus towards one specific goal. For example, I’m working with a client who is looking to build trust and credibility within their social feed. To do that, we are focusing on creating extremely personalized content, showing leadership face, and taking advantage of “talking head” style videos. 

Measurement and Analytics

Thankfully, many social platforms have strengthened their analytics over the past few years, making it easier to pull key metrics. Tracking performance and conversion rate helps develop a strategy. 


Can you describe a challenge you faced—and overcame—while working here?

Hanna Lamb said it best in her spotlight, there really are challenges every day. Landing page forms break, last-minute designs are needed, emails aren’t formatted how they should be for mobile, client questions arise. For me, it was learning how to navigate those challenges, trusting myself, but also knowing when to ask for guidance. 


What advice would you give yourself 5 years ago?

Ha! It’s simple. Every day I tell myself, “It’s PR, not ER.”.

As much as I value providing quality (and timely!) work to my clients, I also value peaceful energy. It took me a few too many years to understand that just because someone may be freaking out, doesn’t mean I need to freak out. It boils down to:

What is the issue? What can we do to fix it? 

Shifting my mindset to lead with thought VS emotion has done wonders for my cortisol levels.

10 Surprising Benefits of Outsourcing Your Marketing Department

In the high-stakes world of B2B software and fintech, maintaining a robust marketing strategy is crucial. For companies with revenues between $5M and $50M, having an effective marketing team can be a game-changer. If your marketing department is small or underperforming, outsourcing may be the strategic solution you need. 

Here are ten surprising benefits of outsourcing your marketing department:

1. Access to Specialized Expertise 

Outsourcing provides access to a team of specialists with diverse skills and experiences. Unlike in-house teams that may lack certain capabilities, such as some particular specializations within marketing, an outsourced team brings a wealth of knowledge and innovative strategies. 

2. Cost Savings 

Hiring, training, and retaining an in-house marketing team can be expensive. Outsourcing eliminates many of these costs, allowing you to allocate resources more efficiently. In fact, research by McKinsey indicates that companies that outsource can reduce operational costs by up to 60%. You will also typically benefit from a more flexible cost structure that aligns with your budget and business goals. 

Real Example: IBM outsourced its digital marketing to Wunderman Thompson, resulting in a 30% reduction in marketing expenses and a 300% increase in click-through rates for their Watson Ads campaign. This move allowed IBM to focus on its core competencies and stay ahead of competitors.

3. Scalability 

An outsourced marketing team provides the flexibility to scale your efforts up or down based on your company’s needs. This adaptability is crucial for growing companies that need to adjust their marketing strategies quickly. Surveys show that 40% of businesses value the flexibility that outsourcing provides, allowing them to scale their marketing efforts up or down as needed.

4. Focus on Core Business 

Outsourcing marketing tasks allows your internal team to concentrate on core business functions. By delegating marketing to external experts, your team can focus on product development, customer service, and other critical areas that drive revenue and long-term success of the business.

5. Advanced Tools and Technology 

Marketing agencies often have access to the latest tools and technologies, which can be costly for individual companies to purchase and maintain. These tools can provide new capabilities like advanced analytics, marketing automation, and campaign insights, enhancing the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

6. Fresh Perspectives

An external team brings new ideas and perspectives that can invigorate your marketing strategy. Their unbiased viewpoint can offer creative solutions that your in-house team might overlook due to familiarity or tunnel vision. This fresh perspective can be a catalyst for driving forward-thinking strategies that inject new life into your marketing initiatives, challenging the status quo, sparking innovation within your organization, and helping you stay ahead of the competition.

7. Consistent Performance 

Professional marketing agencies are driven by results and accountability. They employ data-driven strategies to ensure that your marketing efforts yield consistent and measurable outcomes. This focus on results helps achieve your business goals more effectively in a way that can be difficult to maintain with an internal team.

Real Example: One medium-sized health and wellness company outsourced its content marketing to a specialized agency, resulting in improved brand awareness and customer loyalty. The company saw a significant increase in online presence, engagement rates, and website traffic.

8. Faster Execution 

With a dedicated team working on your marketing initiatives, you can expect quicker turnaround times for marketing campaigns and projects. This speed is crucial in the fast-paced startups, B2B software, and fintech sectors, where timely execution can be a huge competitive advantage.

9. Risk Mitigation 

Outsourcing helps mitigate risks associated with marketing efforts. Agencies are experienced in handling various challenges and can provide contingency plans to ensure your marketing campaigns stay on track. The ability to efficiently troubleshoot problems and bottlenecks can make a major difference in terms of efficiency and the final results. 

10. Enhanced ROI 

Ultimately, the goal of any marketing strategy is to generate a positive return on investment (ROI). Outsourcing can enhance your ROI by leveraging the expertise, advanced tools, and efficient processes of a specialized marketing team to create superior results, while also decreasing costs.

Case Study Highlight: Information Builders Inc. (ibi)

In one of our standout projects, 100 YARDS served as the interim Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for Information Builders Inc. (ibi), now a TIBCO company. We led a comprehensive marketing operations restructure, aligning the team’s efforts with sales needs and modernizing their brand and communication strategies. This transformation contributed to ibi’s successful acquisition by TIBCO Software, Inc.

By integrating a robust "voice of the customer" approach, simplifying content, and cutting advertising spend by 67%, we drove measurable improvements in their marketing effectiveness and overall business performance. You can access the entire case study here.

The Takeaway

Outsourcing your marketing department offers a multitude of benefits that can help your B2B software or fintech company thrive. By leveraging external expertise, cutting costs, and focusing on core business functions, you can drive growth and stay competitive in a rapidly evolving market. Whether you’re a CEO, CFO, Head of Revenue, or a PE/VC investor, considering outsourcing as a strategic move could be the key to unlocking your company’s full potential.

How 100 YARDS Can Help

Realistically, it’s virtually impossible to build a 5-10 person marketing team overnight, and often the leadership team has expertise in product or sales…not marketing. That is where we come in. 

100 YARDS is a team of experienced marketers, with particular expertise working with B2B companies, who develop and run the marketing function including demand generation, brand and product marketing, content development, and all the necessary activities that B2B companies need to think about. We are less agency, and more embedded partners to the executive teams at those companies, reporting on results as if we were full-time employees even though we are fractional.

Our model has worked well in SaaS, Fintech, healthtech, general software, and many other industries.

Want to chat about how we can help? Book a call here.

100 YARDS vs. ChatGPT

We ask our team, “What is one emerging, new, interesting idea related to demand gen/customer acquisition?” Here’s what we got:

1. It's all about community. Companies walked away from community for a while, but with hyper-targeted marketing, etc., things aren't just about personalization—they're back to helping foster a sense of belonging. So, for B2B brands, we're talking more and more (and more) about things like joining in on Reddit, running AMAs, interactive webinars, etc.

   We've also seen some insanely creative stuff around targeting specific ads to specific companies through voodoo magic as far as I can tell. It makes the marketers among us sit up and take notice—super cool stuff.

2. I saw a debate the other day about whether or not B2B SaaS marketing is anything special; spoiler alert—it isn't. A human is on the other end of your ad, and it's a human making the decision to purchase your product.

3. Sure, it's natural for an executive to take the lead on decision making. But when do you ever see an astronaut riding a bull? Sometimes it's best to let the CEO run the company, and the CMO to run market strategy.

4. Another unengaged SDR call: increase pipeline velocity through interactive demos.

5. Quantitative MQLs is so 2010: qualitative intent data is the new MQL trigger.

6. People-ize your demand gen process: buyers learn and buy like humans.

7. Can everyone tell when a company uses ChatGPT to write their social posts - or is it just me? No one uses THAT many emojis.

8. One of the best pieces of advice I've gotten over the last year was to "stop working so much IN accounts, and start working more ON accounts." It's easy to get lost in the details and little nuances when crafting marketing campaigns, while losing sight of the big picture. Taking a step back to see the forest for the trees allows you to craft marketing campaigns with genuine authenticity.

9. I just turned 30, and while everyone is focused on a new VR/AR landscape with the release of the Apple Vision Pro, I find myself drawn more to nostalgia - like spinning vintage vinyl and playing retro video games (aging millennial complex?) There's a human element to messaging and connecting with audiences that will/can never be lost.

10. Old age advertising is making a comeback with no-click searches and AI-generative search. In this landscape, the battle for consumer attention is waged before they even reach your website, underscoring the importance of crafting compelling, informative content that not only attracts but also ranks high on search, engages and converts potential customers throughout their search journey. Website design and experiences are going to be a huge determining factor for decision making -- virtual billboards and all that.

11. I've almost become resistant to any marketing tactic if it doesn't seem genuine. If it feels like someone giving it their all to convince me I must purchase their product, immediately I'm over it. Don't want it. Swiping left as fast as I can lol.BUT The more simplistic and human it feels the more I'm interested. I'm more likely to buy a book from someone who told me they came up with the idea for it while sipping coffee alongside their grandparents than if they gave me three reasons why it would change my life. I can change my life myself. Tell me why you are the way that you are.

View the trends in our downloadable infographic.

QUESTIONS ABOUT AI

100 YARDS Cofounder, Josh Mait, dives into all things AI…

Let’s talk about AI. And not in the way like ‘use ChatGPT to do XYZ annoying thing faster or better or never.’ And also not in the way like I have any fucking idea about what is coming next (and those that say they do are kind of…).

First of all, AI is going to steamroll the traditional definition of company: what a company is, what a company does, what is the employer-employee relationship, what is work (at a company) and what role companies play in society. 

And the steamrolling will potentially happen pretty radically, pretty quickly—and will mean real change for many. So that could mean…

1. Traditional companies (maybe all companies) are reevaluating staffing in the context of the role of AI.

2. This may result in a significant decline in employee size amongst many companies. 

3. Investments from VC and PE firms may also decrease because you need fewer people to build large, successful companies. 

4. The gig economy only grows from here and blurs FT vs. Fractional. 

I selfishly think and care about how companies tell their stories and express a POV to the market. I think this is going to get harder to do with the widespread adoption of AI that is happening now. 

In the AIWorld there are many questions: 

• Did a man or machine do this—or both? Does it matter? 

• What happens when there is more magic in the world that most will never understand? 

• Ultimately, how much do people need to understand how the sausage is made? 

• What is perceived as ‘valuable’ (AI, people, results, etc.) and how do you talk about it? 

• How do you manage fear and trepidation as often the primary, initial emotions (along with holy shit that’s cool!)?

• How much can we learn from other moments—iPhone/mobile, internet, other—or not? 

• Will this make us more or less loyal to brands and products? 

• Where does pricing power come from in the future? 

These are big brain questions without a lot of data to look at to help us understand better. 

One thing seems right: thinking and talking about your positioning to the market is probably even more essential than before. AI is a timescale accelerant. You don’t get years anymore. You can’t run 6-12 month ‘brand projects’ anymore. You have to figure out a way to be quick and move forward now. AI brands are always on in an AIWorld. That means they are always changing more rapidly than before. 

 Here are some starter ideas to consider that seem interesting if unproven: 

• Does AI know how to think out of the box? Not sure. It seems to make contrarian viewpoints more and more valuable. Write down 3 things your company sees differently than others and test them. 

• Being too perfect is a disastrous strategy imho. The young kids are going to hate it. Skepticism is only on the rise. Mix in a little humanity every once in a while.  

• Voice and the tone in which you communicate are now more important as communication gets flatter and less distinguishable overall. 

• Using ‘AI’ in your product or brand positioning is going to get old pretty quick. Marc Benioff just called it out. 

• What an amazing time to live in to TAKE A CHANCE, be boldly expressive, create words and ideas and things that no one has ever seen before. But be brave enough to take those chances and push the boundaries. 

More questions than answers if we are being honest. Fun to talk about via email (joshmait@100yardstogo.com) or via a scheduled call here.

TEAM MEMBER SPOTLIGHT - Samantha Shively

Meet 100 YARDS team member, Samantha Shively!

Samantha Shively has been a cornerstone of 100 YARDS for nearly seven years, demonstrating exceptional versatility and leadership in various marketing projects for our clients. From spearheading lead generation initiatives and email campaigns to analyzing key marketing metrics and managing complex projects, Samantha has proven herself to be an invaluable asset to our team and clients.

What is your favorite project or initiative that you have contributed to during your time at 100 YARDS so far?

One of my favorite projects at 100 YARDS was managing the build of a direct-to-consumer website for a kids' clothing company. The client had previously only sold their products via a direct selling model through a team of consultants across the country. A few years into our engagement, we consulted them to shift their business model and expand their sales channels to create an online presence. The project was a large undertaking and an exciting new challenge that not only broadened my skills but also played a pivotal role in the company's growth.

How has your role evolved since you joined 100 YARDS, and what milestones have you reached along the way?

Since joining 100 YARDS almost 7 years(!) ago, my role has morphed several times. I was brought on with most of my previous experience in B2B demand generation and while that has remained a constant focus, I’ve worked as an account manager for some direct-to-consumer clients and most recently as project manager. The evolution is dynamic and project/client dependent, which keeps my work exciting and engaging. Along the way, I've achieved key milestones, including successfully managing a variety of projects and expanding my expertise across different market segments.

What skills or lessons have you learned that have helped you succeed in your role?

I've learned that effective communication, both internally and externally, is crucial for success. Collaboration is equally important, as working together towards a common goal ensures that everyone is aligned and contributes their best. These skills have been fundamental in navigating projects and fostering strong client relationships. 

Can you describe a challenge you faced—and overcame—while working here?

I can’t pinpoint a specific moment, but at 100 YARDS we work with many different people and therefore have to navigate different personality types and figure out how to collaborate effectively with everyone. No two clients/companies are the same and what works for one may not work for another, so we have to be flexible. I think having a strong support system in the 100 YARDS team is the key to success.

What’s a quote or motto you live by?

Don't sweat the small stuff. At a previous job one of my managers told our team that while we always wanted to put out our best work, we’re in marketing and not doing brain surgery and someone’s life is not on the line. I often think about that because mistakes are inevitable and a spelling error in an email is not going to make or break a situation. That’s always been a good reminder when there are particularly high expectations in a certain situation.

If you could describe your experience at 100 YARDS using only emojis, which ones would you choose?

💻🧩🤝💯

You can connect with Samantha on LinkedIn to learn more about her journey and professional insights: Samantha Shively on LinkedIn

RUNNING MARKETING WITHOUT A MARKETING TEAM

You’re at the helm of a company primed for hockey-stick growth. Your product is in the hands of customers. Revenue is starting to flow. But as the horizon expands, so does the challenge of generating new leads — it’s no longer just about tapping into your network. Your investors and mentors are all telling you the same thing: “It’s time to invest in hiring out a full marketing team.” 

It seems like the obvious next step, right? Bring on people who can manage all your marketing efforts, set your marketing strategy, and be in charge of building your team. They’ll manage all aspects and take it out of your hands. 

But hiring a marketing team too early can set your company off course for months or years. The process is time consuming. You might hire the wrong person. You might hire people who have the wrong skills for your business. Your business’s needs might quickly change and require a different type of marketer. Each one of those mistakes can cost you time and money in the long run. There are few things you can do instead that will set up your company for present and future wins.

1. Focus on one thing at a time

You hear the phrase all the time from jet-setting consultants. You can’t “boil the ocean” - and they’re right. For early-stage companies’ marketing, if you try to do everything at once you’ll do nothing well. You need to learn what works. But more importantly, you need to learn what doesn’t and adapt. To start with, are you focused on increasing the top of your funnel or the bottom of your funnel? Does your business need to optimize the quantity of leads or the profitability of conversions? Setting broad goals when you’ve just put a foot into the world of growth marketing muddies your strategy and wastes effort. When you tackle one growth challenge at a time, you can learn from it, refine your approach, then move onto the next one.

2. Get just enough marketing technology

Now, we all love shiny new toys, but when it comes to marketing technology, it's easy to fall into a money pit. You need to aim to have just enough tech to meet your goals without overcomplicating. Sometimes businesses at your stage may have a system of dozens of disconnected software platforms held together with digital duct tape (like Google Sheet automations that everyone says “don’t touch anything!”). Sometimes they’ll have a single system for email marketing, analytics, CRM, plus accounting and HR but the complexity of the business has outgrown that setup. Whatever it is, it’s important to focus on if the technology works for your business, not if there’s some mythical “better way.” 

3. Follow the metrics that matter

In marketing, data is your compass. But not all metrics are created equal. Focus on the ones that genuinely guide you towards revenue and profit. It’s not enough to say “let’s improve the funnel” - you need to decide what is most important right now. It might be the priority is awareness so you’ll focus on metrics like number of website visitors or ad impressions. For most B2B companies, you’ll be focusing on getting leads that convert. If your business is getting leads but deals aren’t closing, you may need to focus on mid-funnel metrics like marketing qualified leads and optimize for that.

Echoing our first point - focus on one thing at a time, learn, then optimize. By zeroing in on the key measures that support the one effort of focus, you can navigate through the fog and find your way to optimize your marketing spend.

4. Ensure marketing and sales are working together

The biggest downside of hiring a marketing team too early is you’ll split your sales and marketing teams. You might think that’s an obvious divide – sales teams make sales and marketers market the product – but it’s all part of one long funnel from awareness to close. If your funnel is split up into two parts there’s no way to establish a strong feedback loop to find the best leads. 

When incentives are aligned, marketers will learn from salespeople what makes a high quality lead and fine-tune their offering, and marketers can help salespeople by relaying what messages resonate with leads. By working together, side by side, marketing and sales shift from a cost center to the core of your business’s revenue generation. Getting the right team in place is the best way to get these teams aligned.

5. Get the right kind of help

You’ll never find the perfect hire, the perfect person who is fully left brain and right brained. But businesses at the growth stage desperately need someone with maximum creativity as well as someone numbers driven. Challenges change. New learnings turn to different strategies. That pendulum quickly swings back and forth. A large personality leading a large specialized marketing team can clash with the rest of the organization when adaptations are needed. 

At 100 YARDS, we're more than just a stopgap on the road to hiring a marketing team; we're your partners in crafting a marketing strategy that scales with your vision. Whether you're seeking fractional CMO services or a full-service growth marketing team, our expertise is your asset. We grow with you and adapt as you evolve. 

Ready to redefine your marketing? Contact us today to explore how we can take your marketing to the next level.

TEAM MEMBER SPOTLIGHT - Hanna Lamb

Meet 100 YARDS team member, Hanna Lamb!

Hanna started out at 100 YARDS as a “CMO”—running accounts and working across teams to bring our clients to market. Since the beginning, she has worked with the team on operational improvement and later shifted to focus almost exclusively on content strategy across 100 YARDS’ clients.

What is your favorite project or initiative that you have contributed to during your time at 100 YARDS so far?

Hard to choose just one! 

I’ve enjoyed growing our content strategy as new technologies, voices, behaviors (and more) shift quickly. It’s pushing us to think shorter, smarter, bolder, and brighter—right alongside our clients. 

And by far my favorite client story is this: 

We have worked with a niche-y financial services-focused platform for many years. During that time, we worked with leadership to… 

• Execute on a full turnaround

• Achieve marked growth (getting them to a winner’s position)

• Scaled marketing (to bring in more leads—and close more deals)

• (Ultimate win!) Sell to a larger, complementary company (to deliver value to original investors and global resources to a platform that had more than proved product-market fit was there)

Through all of it, our mandate likewise moved swiftly across marketing infrastructure analysis and set-up, go-to-market planning and execution, a re-brand, investor relations / management presentation prep, and transaction communication. 

A full-service marketing mandate if ever I heard of one! Fabulous. 

How has your role evolved since you joined 100 YARDS, and what milestones have you reached along the way?

I started out with deep corporate and executive communications expertise, lots of executive, turnaround, and change strategy work. 

…But very little true marketing experience. I had also spent much of my career working with big, known corporate entities and their leadership teams; not so much on the growth side of things. 

I was itching to learn something new, expand my own experiences, and stretch my creativity and problem-solving skills in the growth space.

I started out here at 100 YARDS as a “CMO”—running accounts and working across teams to bring our clients to market. 

Since then, I’ve worked with the team on operational improvements, flexed my creative and operational muscles where our clients have needed it, and shifted to focus almost exclusively on content strategy across 100 YARDS’ clients. 

What skills or lessons have you learned that have helped you succeed in your role?

I’ve had to refine my ability to broker communication. No one does well operating on assumptions. 

And: There is a difference between moving quickly (for results) and moving too fast (breaking too many things). It’s critical that we keep our eye on the former, and mitigate the latter. 

Can you describe a challenge you faced—and overcame—while working here?

There are challenges every day, be they technological, interpersonal, or something else. We work through them as they come. It really is as simple as that. 

—Oh, and I don’t do witch hunts. Ever. Put another way: it can feel tempting to search endlessly for “whose fault is it?” when something goes south. Know when that answer is truly important, and when (90% of the time) it’s more important to move forward and fix what cracked. Save all that time, energy, and interpersonal capital for wins, instead of losses.  

What’s a quote or motto you live by?

Live life like it’s a giant improv game: always start with ‘yes and.’ You’d be shocked by how much can be accomplished when you resist the urge to list all the reasons why something would never work, and at least entertain the possibilities of what’s in front of you, has been proposed, or is floating out there. 

And: respect the fact that almost nothing is as simple as it seems. Embrace nuance, but don’t get bogged down by noise posing as detail.  

If you could describe your experience at 100 YARDS using only emojis, which ones would you choose?

🔥 💡📈 🎨 🚀

All right. 100 YARDS is all about balance. Right brain / left brain… work / life… 

So that got us thinking… 

Are you a right brain or left brain?

Uh… is it possible to be a center brain? Seriously, I’m probably more left-brained, though… my right brain absolutely fires at will. 

Introvert or extrovert?

I absolutely read Quiet. Highly recommend to all the people everywhere. Pretty sure it’s stood the test of time. So with that in mind I’m… an outgoing introvert. 

You can spend the afternoon at a museum, a ballet, a play, a symphony performance, or the opera. What do you choose?

Tough call!!!! A play–I love a good story unfolding before me. 

You can have breakfast with Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Elmo, or Grover. Who do you tap to join you for that coffee and croissants? 

Damn. I basically DO have breakfast every morning with three-ish Cookie Monsters, so I’ll go with Grover: his ideas are great if mis-guided.
Fun fact: I named my only dog Grover. He was unbelievably mischievous and cute. Coincidence? I think not.  

Drive or fly?

Fly. 

What’s for dinner: Mexican, Italian, or French? 

Mexican. 

You can only say one word for the next year. Is it “STOP!” “THINK!” or “GO!”?

Ha. The philosopher in me says “THINK!” The practical side of me says “GO!” I’m feeling optimistic today so I’ll “GO!” with “THINK!”

Rock, Paper, or Scissors? 

I’ll never tell. 

A creature bites you and gives you superpowers. Is it a spider, a bird, an octopus, or a poison tree frog?

Octopus: camouflage + multi-tasking turned up to 11 (err… 8). Bonus points to anyone who gets the reference.

Trail bike ride or Peloton?

I suck on bikes. So I will always go Peloton. Don’t ask about my favorite instructor—it’s a moving target. 

Thanks! 

Thank YOU!