00;00;06;23 - 00;00;44;02
Speaker 1
Hi. Welcome to Dig in the podcast brought to you by Digg Insights. Every week we interview founders, marketers and researchers from innovative brands to learn how they're approaching their role and their category in a clever way. Welcome back to this week's episode of Dig In. Super excited. Today we're going to be talking about bringing a different background to your insights, practice working in different areas of the business and how having that acumen and realism makes for better insights work and often makes you a better insights leader.

00;00;44;23 - 00;01;09;10
Speaker 1
We're bringing Lisa Virginie in today from Mondelez. She's the senior insights manager. Lisa. Nice to see you again. Hi, Megan. Nice to see you, too. Yeah, it's so funny. So, Lisa, actually, you worked at Digg for a couple of years and I think we overlapped, but we overlapped in the time of COVID, which meant that we never actually got a chance to meet.

00;01;10;10 - 00;01;22;02
Speaker 2
I never know. I never know what to say to people when I've met them online, but not in person. Have you really met them? I don't know. But yes, we were. We overlapped at Digg for a while, which was an awesome, awesome time in my career.

00;01;22;26 - 00;01;26;13
Speaker 1
And you've now been at Mondelez for a couple of years?

00;01;27;09 - 00;01;32;24
Speaker 2
Yeah, almost a couple of years. You sure? Right. Let's round up and say a couple of years.

00;01;33;09 - 00;01;46;07
Speaker 1
So why don't you tell the listeners a little bit about your background in business, whether that's research, marketing, supply or side whatever, and also what you've been up to at Mondelez?

00;01;47;01 - 00;02;14;22
Speaker 2
Yeah, for sure. I mean, look, I'm like a lot of insights professionals. I've done a lot of different types of jobs. I started my career many, many years ago, kind of learning the chops or the fundamentals at a research supplier IPSOS And that was where, you know, I kind of started off and I did that for many years, but I always had a desire to kind of influence decision making more, and I wanted to kind of move to the client side, get closer to decisions.

00;02;15;15 - 00;02;54;06
Speaker 2
And at that time, I moved to Coca-Cola and the insight side. And so more influencing the business, talking with internal brand managers and helping them in their day to day. But then even then, I wanted to get even closer. I wanted to be those brand managers making the decisions. So I had the awesome opportunity to move into a senior brand manager role working on the VitaminWater and SmartWater brands, which are super fun brands global for sure, but also a little bit more flexibility to do kind of local content creation, a lot of local stuff.

00;02;54;06 - 00;03;20;12
Speaker 2
We were just kind of like, Oh, we were just like structured to like adapt global content and stuff like that. So I learned a lot. And then, then again, I also learned the business of what marketing really was. Sometimes not as sexy as every Monday kind of expects. You know, a lot of decision making for sure. Briefing agencies, other internal stakeholders.

00;03;20;12 - 00;03;45;17
Speaker 2
Whereas I kind of on the inside side, your stakeholders were for the most part, the marketing team. Now as part of the marketing team, you got to know the sales function, the commercialization function, supply chain, all those different functions, regulatory, legal or as I sometimes fondly call them, the dream killers of the organization. So you should with fondness.

00;03;45;17 - 00;04;12;19
Speaker 2
With fondness, but you really definitely understood how you can truly get from idea to shelf and all the kind of like blocks you need to overcome in order to do that. So then after that, I also, I so I did, I was at coke for ten years, like half the time on inside. Half the time in marketing. And then I moved to ASICs, the running shoe company, as a director of marketing there.

00;04;13;00 - 00;04;16;03
Speaker 2
Totally different side move from CPG to kind of retail.

00;04;16;13 - 00;04;18;08
Speaker 1
Yeah, I was going to say that's quite different.

00;04;18;27 - 00;04;43;27
Speaker 2
Yeah, it was really different and it's a huge brand, but it was a really small organization in Canada. So you as a director of marketing there, I kind of built the foundations of that team, brought in a new roster of agencies. A funny story I Coca was such a large organization. There are so many kind of people in between experts, which was amazing because you could always lean on them.

00;04;44;04 - 00;05;08;08
Speaker 2
But at A-6 it was so streamlined and tight. We were on one of my first days. I had a call with Google, like directly with Google to understand how your how our campaign is performed, which I didn't know about at the time, because it was I was just so new, whereas that Coke you would had like an agency, an expert internal person, you had like three different people that separated you from talking to Google.

00;05;08;08 - 00;05;38;05
Speaker 2
And then on day one, I was talking to Google and I remember saying, I remember Googling what Google was talking about because I had no idea. So, like, you know, trial by fire, definitely learning through that, like area of discomfort. But it was a great experience and I was there for a couple of years before coming to dig and kind of thinking through what I wanted to do with my career and realizing that I wanted to get back to that like consumer and do like that was really what was kind of in my heart.

00;05;38;28 - 00;05;58;09
Speaker 2
And so I went all the way back to the supplier side at Digg for a few years. And then kind of like if you think about the pendulum of like the marketing team and supplier side research, the kind of like nice comfortable where I felt really I could add the most value was the in-between, which was the client side insights.

00;05;58;25 - 00;06;25;01
Speaker 2
And that's what I found my way to Mondelez, which was very much like consumer packaged goods, very comfortable, what I knew and love from Coca-Cola and found my way here to to kind of build out the consumer insights function. And I've been doing that for a couple of years. So it's a long journey and story of like going and doing different things and often in times I would learn or be very uncomfortable.

00;06;25;01 - 00;06;46;27
Speaker 2
And the fact that I was like stretching myself into an area that I didn't really know but and that by definition was uncomfortable. But I think, you know, looking back, especially now, those are the times where you learn so much and that all that different learning and experience enabled me through all these different functions, enabled me to be a better consultant and insights leader now.

00;06;46;27 - 00;07;16;05
Speaker 1
So that's really cool. And I think you're totally right. I mean, the different company sizes, different team sizes, like you kind of by proxy then have to deal with different problems and it is uncomfortable. So it's cool to hear from someone's perspective who's worked in like big organizations like Coke where, you know, everything, everything kind of runs like clockwork to a certain extent.

00;07;16;26 - 00;07;32;03
Speaker 1
Whereas with at ethics, it was like building something from the ground up and you got a chance to talk directly to Google. I love that. That was like such a novelty. I love it. And now you're actually living it on your own, right? You're going to start your own consultancy.

00;07;33;09 - 00;07;57;18
Speaker 2
Yeah, I'm super excited in a couple of weeks, actually. Am I? I have to admit that a bit of the this the kind of inspiration I've been thinking about this for a really long time. But like, you know, you get caught up in the pandemic. I have two young kids at home and we moved to kind of like shifted into more survival mode of like getting through the day and online schooling and that kind of thing.

00;07;57;18 - 00;08;14;13
Speaker 2
So I kind of like benched that idea for a few years, but now with things settling down and, you know, thinking about my future and what I wanted to do and what I really after all these experiences, I kind of, you know, thought about what I felt really passionate about, where I felt like could add a ton of value.

00;08;15;20 - 00;08;37;02
Speaker 2
And so I'm going to go out and do my own freelancing gig for a little bit with all the organizations, whether it's small or large or startups, you hear a lot of like, you know, buzzword things like being consumer centric or being insight led. And there's this desire to like put the consumer at the at the center of everything that we do.

00;08;37;02 - 00;09;07;12
Speaker 2
But often we're not really sure where to start or how to do that, right. So I think through all the experience I've had, I have a really good handle on what questions you need to ask, what tools you need, what work needs to be done, what's kind of the thinking and even some frameworks of how that comes to life, how you can help, how you can start to like physically do that work in order to be a truly consumer insight lead organization, brand or develop a plan.

00;09;08;17 - 00;09;27;10
Speaker 2
And through all the experiences that I've had, knowing what marketers are going to go do, how they build plans, what they're going to have to do to, you know, brief their agencies, how they commercialize innovation. I feel like I bring that, you know, that breadth of experience to really, truly understand how to be a consultant and help them through that.

00;09;28;08 - 00;09;51;29
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's that's I mean, that's so important. I can imagine, like the last time we spoke there was just such a realism to kind of what you were talking about. Like realistically, what does it mean to be an insights person to you as a marketer, or what does it mean to kind of manage that stakeholder relationship in a way that's useful for both parties?

00;09;52;25 - 00;10;17;05
Speaker 1
So yeah, and you mentioned like there's so much more to play that how. Yeah. Than just, you know, okay here's the core insight like let's run with that. There's so many more hoops you have to jump through. So it's so much more like planning that takes place. So it totally makes all make sense. Sorry that you would need to, you'd need that holistic approach.

00;10;17;25 - 00;10;40;04
Speaker 2
Yeah. Like somewhat controversially, like I don't call myself a research expert because I don't feel that I'm proud to be a generalist because I don't know one thing really, really deep, but I know a lot of things a lot. So you lean on your suppliers for their expertize and really your role and the importance of of your role.

00;10;40;04 - 00;10;59;06
Speaker 2
Of our role is to be that consultant to the brand team. And often that means like not doing that new research, it doesn't always mean like I'm going to go do, you know, buy this product product from a research supplier. I mean, sometimes, you know, I'm going to go to, you know, the historical research or I'm going to connect the dots.

00;10;59;06 - 00;11;29;24
Speaker 2
Like for me, connecting the dots from from different sources, including, you know, whether you have Nielsen information, you know, what what's going on with the business and how the business is delivering. It's so fundamental to kind of not just do a project, but to truly consult. And sometimes that just means, you know, going to the archives, tracking something down and understanding what level of detail information that they need to hopefully make a decision.

00;11;31;02 - 00;12;02;13
Speaker 1
Yeah, I love I feel like in the last especially ten years, there's a huge move away from this idea of being a generalist. You have to be really like a specialist in something. Maybe that's more marketing focused than business focused. But I do feel like, you know, people marketing teams within tech at least are hiring like very focused individuals who are experts at like conversion rate optimization, who are experts within one subset of operations.

00;12;02;13 - 00;12;15;07
Speaker 1
For instance, what do you feel like? What do you feel like? Makes a great generalist, I guess as a question like, well.

00;12;15;07 - 00;13;01;07
Speaker 2
That's a good question because I think fundamentally you do need like a roster of expert agencies and partners to lean on to be those experts in those kind of more siloed areas. But with there's so much data now, you know, how can you be like a qualitative expert in understanding and talking to a consumer and then also be an expert in analyzing a huge data set like those skills are so fundamentally different that I'd rather rely to kind of understand both those things a little bit, understand what to do with that information and rely on kind of technical agencies to know that in depth, but then connect the dots and be able to translate the

00;13;01;07 - 00;13;22;13
Speaker 2
so what to my internal stakeholder, who is even more a generalist, they just want to make a decision. They don't know either those things very deep, but they want to understand what do I do with this information? What's the so what? And so that's the role of the generalist to understand all of those pieces, how to put them together and translate into, you know, what does this mean for the business?

00;13;22;13 - 00;13;23;24
Speaker 2
What should I do next?

00;13;24;23 - 00;13;48;22
Speaker 1
So essentially kind of what you're saying is within the context that you've had experience. So like maybe it's like within insights within CPG or FMCG, whatever acronym we choose to use. So within insights within that, that specific category, it is almost better to be a generalist because the key role of that person is often to translate the so what?

00;13;48;22 - 00;13;55;27
Speaker 1
As opposed to being like the expert in specific methodology or even expert at conducting research. Is that fair to say?

00;13;56;19 - 00;14;25;26
Speaker 2
I mean, that's what I believe. Like that goes back to like fun because I worked in marketing and I see the decisions and I see the kind of internal barriers sometimes that that marketing people have to overcome understanding and having a good like a good knowledge of business acumen, how things get done, especially in big CPG companies. I mean you said before that things happen really easily and there's a ton of processes.

00;14;25;26 - 00;14;57;07
Speaker 2
It takes a long time to get things done, but those processes also are exist for a reason and knowing how to navigate them, understanding, you know, how innovation, innovation is commercialized through the stages and gates function and what information and stakeholders have to be consulted throughout all of that helps you be a better consultant to your internal stakeholder because you know what they're going to go through what information they need to kind of bring to life and make their, you know, kind of as an example, their innovation a reality or launch it.

00;14;57;24 - 00;15;19;01
Speaker 2
So I think having that business acumen, which again is another facet of experience, that if my an expert at business or finance no, I'm not, but I have a good working knowledge. I know enough to be dangerous and I know enough to be dangerous in all these other areas that you put it together and it just helps you be a better consultant.

00;15;19;26 - 00;15;51;27
Speaker 1
I love the way you said that I know enough to be dangerous. It's awesome. I mean, this kind of takes me to my next question, which is really around because when people think insights, they they think research. And when they think research, they think oftentimes quite like scientific or like numbers driven. But in a previous conversation, we talked about how there is an art to good insights work what and maybe this is you know, what we've just talked about like that business acumen.

00;15;52;12 - 00;16;00;13
Speaker 1
But is there anything I'll start that sort of jumps to mind when we think about what the art of good insights work would be?

00;16;01;04 - 00;16;30;27
Speaker 2
Yeah, there's a few things. I think the first one is understanding, like when you're getting questions from your internal stakeholders, knowing the difference between, you know, are they looking for a proof point of, you know, something that's already been sold in and they just need a proof point to like put in a selling deck? Or are they looking for like do they have a bigger strategic question that you want to go and partner with them to do work, to spend time and resources on?

00;16;31;09 - 00;16;53;26
Speaker 2
That's kind of the first thing. So it's not always about doing net new work, right? It's not about when someone comes to me and ask me a question, it's sometimes about helping facilitate them to be answer, asking the right questions. You know, like if you have someone on your team that's asking like I need insights, which is like the typical question is like, is it never there's never a good answer for that, right?

00;16;53;26 - 00;17;18;05
Speaker 2
So it's about like, okay, talk to me. What's going on in your business? What's your business question? And then we'll talk about what work we need or don't need to do to help you make that decision or find the right information you need. And so often it's not about like I'm not thinking in advance, like, what supplier am I going to go reach out to to do this work, or what research or product am I going to go by?

00;17;18;14 - 00;17;38;04
Speaker 2
It's about like, what's your business question? Let's hash that out together in order to and maybe I don't need to do net new work. Maybe I can like, you know, maybe it's just a conversation and I, you know, I lean on something I've already done before and we, we, we talk it out. But I think that's fundamentally the role.

00;17;38;13 - 00;18;06;12
Speaker 2
Like I would say, less than half my half my time is doing like working with suppliers and doing like research projects. Like probably less than half my time is doing that. The rest of the time is like as cliché as it sounds, but like earning a seat at the table where decisions are being made, where, you know, briefings are happening, whether it be business planning, whether it be creative agency briefings like attending those meetings so that you're bringing to life the voice of the consumer.

00;18;06;21 - 00;18;40;17
Speaker 2
And that's through research sometimes. But it's just through you knowing the business, you know, and the consumer knowing your brands, which goes back to that business acumen, but always having that seat at the table so that you're influencing the business as opposed to like the days of an insights professional on the client side, sitting, sitting during a presentation that a supplier is giving and just kind of facilitating that presentation and then, you know, saying goodbye and going off to do the next project like those days are gone.

00;18;40;17 - 00;19;03;14
Speaker 2
Like that's, you know, sometimes I'll take a risk of a project or a report from a supplier and translated to something that looks completely different. Or sometimes I won't even present most of it to the client. Like it's just helping them. Like, what do they need to facilitate making their business decision and connecting the dots of information? Sometimes we already have to help them do that.

00;19;04;26 - 00;19;32;19
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's definitely been echoed by a lot of the we've been speaking to a lot of different CPG insights and marketing folks the last few months and that's definitely been echoed. This idea of like sitting in on a meeting and yeah, just trying to speak to the data like that's not at all what the role of an insights person should be or is anymore.

00;19;32;19 - 00;19;58;09
Speaker 1
So I hear that and I love the point you made about it's not about doing that new research all the time. It's about connecting the dots. Yeah, if we think about when you do have those people come to you and say, I need insights and you're thinking, okay, we, I actually I'm probably going to need to run some some tactical research to answer some of those questions.

00;19;58;20 - 00;20;23;23
Speaker 1
Obviously, the conversation moves to some more potentially DIY solutions platforms. We've got our own upside. There's so many out there right now. What what is the challenge of sort of working with those types of tools? Are anything sort of experimental like that? What what is the challenge? I guess, within a company like Mondelez? Mm.

00;20;23;23 - 00;20;43;17
Speaker 2
I mean it's funny because the last time I worked in Insights before coming to Mondelez was like five, six years ago, where there weren't a lot of those DIY tools out there. So having come back to the site, I was and I was pretty shocked at how much was going on. And I mean, it's amazing because it's so fast.

00;20;43;17 - 00;21;09;26
Speaker 2
The information is at your fingertips. It's much cheaper from a budget perspective. So on one side, that's really great because you can get like answer some of those tactical questions really fast. Now, on the flip side, though, it means insights departments which are shrinking. Like if I remember 20 years ago, they would have been double the size, give or take, than they are right now.

00;21;10;02 - 00;21;33;01
Speaker 2
And DIY tools by definition require doing it yourself as opposed to me calling up or paying more for for you. But me calling up a supplier and saying I need you to do this and it would all kind of be done. So while it's cheaper, which helps us stretch our budgets more, it also requires a bit more heavy lifting, which, you know, has been a learning experience.

00;21;34;04 - 00;22;05;20
Speaker 2
The other thing I've noticed too about DIY is that a lot of traditional bigger research companies are having to streamline their services and products to compete with those DIY products. So they're not offering as men as like large console tayto like for sure. Also, they're more reasonable to do those same big projects, but they're much more streamlined, less consulting in order to compete with the DIY tools.

00;22;05;20 - 00;22;28;11
Speaker 2
So that is creating a bigger gap between, you know, the stuff we want to do DIY and the more foundational, bigger strategic projects that still need to happen have much bigger price tags and just require a little bit more searching to find the right partners out there.

00;22;28;11 - 00;23;01;28
Speaker 1
Yeah, I've definitely heard other people speak too, like the what you just talked about in terms of streamlining and how it can be a blessing. And also it can be a bit of a bit of a curse. So thanks for that. I did want to touch on the fact that your starting your own business, obviously, you've had so much experience across lots of different companies, but big companies and as you said, they have their processes in place for a reason.

00;23;02;09 - 00;23;24;06
Speaker 1
Is there anything that you're going to do? But obviously you're going to do loads differently because you're starting your own business and you know you're not working on the client side. But what do you specifically want to do differently in terms of your approach to client work, your approach to research, your approach to kind of being customers or consumer centric?

00;23;24;27 - 00;23;27;05
Speaker 1
Yeah. What kind of springs to mind for you?

00;23;28;02 - 00;24;01;14
Speaker 2
For me, it's like connecting again, connecting the dots. But this is also for me, I feel there's a whitespace within the industry of taking the traditional consumer work, whether it be research, whether it be data. And there's a lot more of that stuff out there and ways to access it and use it. You want to translate to help make decisions, but the ways in which you translate a lot of disparate different kinds of data into decision making tools or enablers is difficult.

00;24;01;14 - 00;24;34;05
Speaker 2
It's easier said than done. So I, I love the idea and through my career I was like, how do we bring to life? How do we use frameworks or tools or visualizations to help facilitate what I've just said? But sometimes it's easier said than done. So that's what I feel. You know, given my experience and given what I've seen out there, given the plethora of data and insights and all the different places where you can get it, I love the idea is using those frameworks in order to facilitate decision making translating into the.

00;24;34;05 - 00;25;00;09
Speaker 2
So what? Via conversation, via workshop. But then those frameworks and tools that you can do to to to make that really simple for internal stakeholder. So that's for me, I think that there's a real like whether it's a large organization or even whether there's a, it's a startup small company that might not have an insight function even. And they're wondering like, how do I be consumer oriented?

00;25;00;09 - 00;25;21;14
Speaker 2
How do I be consumer and insight based and fact based and then they're overwhelmed with all the data and information out there. So I think I can really play a role given my experience in marketing. But then also on the supplier side, knowing the tools and suppliers and the the ways in which you can kind of access different things, you know, really cool in a different way.

00;25;21;14 - 00;25;46;25
Speaker 2
So I see there's a big opportunity there. And also, like I said before, insights, functions are crunched, are being crunched as like, you know, often they are it's called nonworking dollars. So their budgets are being crunched and often their departments are being crunched and they're overwhelmed, they're busy. They don't have sometimes the time to do that strategic alone time thinking to help think about the future, think about like what we can do differently.

00;25;46;25 - 00;25;54;17
Speaker 2
And I feel like, you know, I'd like to take some time to help them have that time as well to do that thinking and partner with them to do it.

00;25;56;15 - 00;26;06;04
Speaker 1
Is there any framework in particular you want to shout out right now? Like anything we can link people to that they could explore or that you find particularly useful?

00;26;07;20 - 00;26;36;04
Speaker 2
I none spring to mind and honestly I feel like everything has to be adapted for what you're trying to do. Like there's no like turnkey the turnkey solution, like I don't know if that exists really because you need to for sure. There's a lot of like things and frameworks and you know, whether it's consumer profiling or whatever, like there's lots of different things you can use, but it has to be adapted because it's not one size fits all.

00;26;36;04 - 00;26;39;23
Speaker 2
So. And plus, I couldn't tell you all my trade secrets.

00;26;40;18 - 00;27;07;26
Speaker 1
Yeah, I was going to say, is this like giving away all of your secrets? Tell us your frameworks, please. That place. Okay. This has been super fun. I love how, like, honest and. And to some extent blunt. You are. It's always really nice to talk to someone who just kind of says it like it is. So I've got a few rapid fire questions for you to finish on with.

00;27;07;26 - 00;27;17;04
Speaker 1
Okay. Number one, if you gained two times your budget tomorrow or doubled your budget tomorrow, I guess let's assume you're still at Mondelez. What would you spend it on?

00;27;19;08 - 00;27;59;08
Speaker 2
For sure it would be some kind of connection with consumers. Ethnography is shop alongs. It's been like two years that we haven't really been able to actually see consumers in action. You know, we've had like been able to do online focus groups and that kind of thing, but it's not the same. And I've always, throughout my career, always wanted to do that kind of connection with the consumer just for the sake of it, not not to answer a business question, not to like, you know, find out something really specific, but just for the sake of connecting with our consumers and an ongoing basis, and not just for me, for the entire marketing team, just to

00;27;59;08 - 00;28;13;09
Speaker 2
remind ourselves, like this is what their lives are all about. Often you think so much about them and you forget that they don't think about you that much. So it's just like a good reality check to keep you really super grounded on what's going on with consumers.

00;28;13;09 - 00;28;23;07
Speaker 1
So that's what I would do. And if you lost half of your budget tomorrow, what would you have to get rid of? Oof.

00;28;24;01 - 00;28;52;18
Speaker 2
Probably. I mean, right now there are a lot of contractual agreements I have with, you know, a supplier that is I mean, I'm just going to say it, it's Nielsen and and I mean, it's funny because I have because I've worked heavily with that supplier and with that data, it's so fundamental to any kind of brand building and understanding your business.

00;28;53;15 - 00;29;17;16
Speaker 2
But I think that we have some if you really understand the tool, there are some places where we could cut in order to do more of that foundational. Like I always I always think about, you know, looking at your budget backwards looking versus forward looking. And it's really important to be backwards looking and to analyze your business and to know what were the drivers and drains of what you drove her business or didn't.

00;29;18;00 - 00;29;40;00
Speaker 2
But it needs to be balanced with forward looking, strategic, thinking about the future, what's next. And I think often the budgets are not balanced and it's a little bit more too much backwards looking and we need to put continue to push the envelope to be more forward looking. So that's probably what I would do.

00;29;40;00 - 00;29;47;07
Speaker 1
And what is the tool at your organization that's adding value right now?

00;29;47;07 - 00;30;15;05
Speaker 2
That for sure is like, I've actually had a fun time being back on Insights because it's been I've kind of uncovered all these new tools and suppliers are doing these amazing things. And the one that I've enjoyed the most actually is doing video ethnography is, you know, it's very, it's, it's a DIY platform. They do it itself kind of, you know, the self you, you use the, the user uploads their own ethnography.

00;30;15;05 - 00;30;18;20
Speaker 2
So it's not expensive. It's kind of cheap to do like vox pop.

00;30;18;20 - 00;30;21;05
Speaker 1
Me Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

00;30;22;00 - 00;30;48;05
Speaker 2
Yeah. And I, what I really like about that tool is that often, you know, if budgets are crunched, you know, you need to do the bigger fact based, you know, numbers, research, but you forego sometimes that qualitative work that brings to life in real time and you that you can see the consumer. So we actually just recently did a big kind of consolidation of what's going on with inflation.

00;30;48;05 - 00;31;15;03
Speaker 2
And I know I've spoken to Marci at Digg and you guys did some great work on inflation, but what I what I did as well is brought that to life doing vox pop me talking to real consumers about what's going on with their life, how they're dealing with inflation. And I think it was so eye opening for us, as you know, the entire marketing team to truly see like you can see the facts and you know, the numbers behind how consumers are reacting.

00;31;15;11 - 00;31;38;09
Speaker 2
But when they really talk about what's going on with their life, what they're having to forgo, how they're struggling, it was super eye opening and important to kind of really, truly feel what was going on. So I love the idea of, again, going back to connecting the dots and kind of putting the pieces together and bringing to life the world of of the consumer.

00;31;38;09 - 00;31;39;26
Speaker 2
It was really cool.

00;31;41;15 - 00;31;50;01
Speaker 1
Amazing. And one final question. What is the most important skill for an inside professional to have in their toolkit right now?

00;31;50;01 - 00;32;13;02
Speaker 2
For me, that's that's easy. And we talked about it a little bit earlier. It's business acumen and being able to know what's going on in the business, understanding different tools, you know, controversially being a generalist, you know, not me, not having an expertize in everything, but knowing everything enough to be dangerous and to kind of put the pieces together and help figure out the so what?

00;32;13;18 - 00;32;44;05
Speaker 2
And to do that, I think you need a great roster of expert partners. So I rely on suppliers to be the experts in their areas because if you're not, then and data is changing so often, like there's so much information out there that you really need that expert roster of suppliers to lean on, to build relationships with, to onboard them, to your business problems and to your business so that they can be great consultants to you and help you do a better job.

00;32;45;11 - 00;32;53;01
Speaker 2
So those those are the kind of two things business acumen and a great roster of expert suppliers and agencies.

00;32;54;23 - 00;33;02;11
Speaker 1
Awesome. Thank you so much, Lisa. This is this has been great. I wish you luck with the new day.

00;33;02;12 - 00;33;13;23
Speaker 2
Thank you. Thank you so much. This has been awesome. I really I mean, I probably could talk about this for forever. I feel so passionate about it. But this was it's been fun and it's been great to reconnect.

00;33;14;22 - 00;33;29;02
Speaker 1
Thanks. I'll talk to you soon. Okay. Bye, Megan. Bye. Thanks for tuning in this week. Find us on LinkedIn at Digg Insights. And don't forget to hit subscribe for a weekly dose of fresh content.