December 13, 2023 • 32 mins
Do you remember the first time someone took you under their wing in the AEC world? Or maybe you're dreaming of being that guiding light for someone else? Well, you're in for a treat! Today, we're diving deep into the heart of mentorship in the AEC industry with the fabulous GinaRenee Autrey. She’s joining us again to spill the tea on all things mentorship – the ups, the downs, and everything in between.
In this episode, GinaRenee opens up about the incredible power of mentorship. We chat about how creating a safe and supportive space can transform the dynamics of a team, fostering trust and unity like never before. And let me tell you, the stories she shares about the impact on her team will totally inspire you!
But that's not all – we also get into why lifting each other up isn’t just good for us individually, but it’s essential for our industry's success. Plus, we tackle the big questions around formal mentoring programs and the unique twists that come with mentoring in our niche field. Whether you’ve been mentored, are a mentor, or are considering stepping into this rewarding role, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss. So, are you ready to explore the transformative world of mentorship in AEC? Let’s get started!
Want more AEC marketing goodness?
- New to proposals? Download my FREE “RFPs for Beginners – The Ultimate Proposal Management Checklist.”
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- Purchase bite-sized, on-demand templates and training at the Marketers Place.
- Enroll in online training: The Proposal Pro or Content Marketing Clarity.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey there, I'm Lindsay Dibbin and I'm
passionate about everythingmarketing, productivity and
career growth.
With over 17 years ofexperience in the architecture,
engineering and constructionindustry, I know firsthand the
ins and outs of this excitingfield, from my early days as a
marketing coordinator tobecoming an award-winning
(00:23):
marketing professional.
In firm principle, I've learnedthe ropes through countless
late nights and challengingdeadlines.
Now I'm thrilled to bring youthe AEC Marketing Strategies
Podcast.
Here I'll be sharing simple yetpowerful, step-by-step
marketing strategies that youcan implement to achieve the
(00:44):
same level of success.
Consider me your go-tomarketing mentor, someone who
truly gets the unique challengesyou face in the AEC industry.
Whether you're an AEC MarketingPro or industry newbie, this
podcast is your personal coffeedate with your marketing bestie.
Together, we'll navigate theever-changing landscape of
(01:06):
online marketing and digitaltrends, ensuring you stay ahead
of the curve.
If you're ready to unlock themarketing secrets they never
taught you in college and tailorthem specifically to the AEC
industry, then you're in theright place.
Now let's get started.
Well, hey there, welcome to AECMarketing Strategies the go-to
(01:29):
podcast all things in thearchitecture, engineering and
construction world.
I'm Lindsay Divan and I'm sothrilled you're joining me today
.
I've got an episode that I amparticularly excited about.
It's all about mentorship andmentorship specifically in AEC
marketing and, trust me, you aregoing to love it.
(01:50):
So here's the scoop.
I have the incredible Gina ReneAutry with me today, and Gina
Rene is not just any marketingpro.
She's the director of marketingand communications at Klein
Schmidt and, most importantly,she's a mentor, and a mentor at
heart.
Her journey of mentoring withinAEC marketing is nothing short
(02:12):
of inspirational and she's hereto spill all her secrets and her
strategies.
We're going to dive into whatreally inspired her to start
mentoring.
We're going to peel back thelayers of her unique approach to
mentorship and discover how shetackles the specific challenges
that pop up in AEC marketing.
And yes, we are definitelygoing to be talking about her
(02:36):
secret sauce how she mentorseffectively and measures the
impact of her mentoring efforts.
Oh, and you know we love a goodrapid fire round.
In this episode it's rapid fireround.
Gina Rene will be sharing hertop advice for anyone eager to
mentor or anyone seekingmentorship in our field.
(02:59):
It's going to be sharing apersonal story where mentoring
literally saved the day in avery tough marketing situation,
and what her vision is for thefuture of mentorship and
mentorship efforts in ourindustry.
This episode is perfect for allof you AEC professionals looking
to step up your game, grow yourcareer or simply find a little
(03:20):
inspiration in your day.
So let's not wait any longer.
Let's get into the episode andwelcome Gina Rene Autry to the
show With me today.
I have Gina Rene Autry.
She is the director ofmarketing and communications
with Klein Schmidt, and if hername sounds familiar that's
because she's been on the showpreviously, way back in episode
(03:41):
32, where she talked to us abouthow using thought leadership to
drive revenue and build yourpersonal brand.
But welcome back to the show.
Thanks for agreeing to come onthe show again today.
Thank you for having meAppreciate it.
So since we last talkedalthough you and I talked
yesterday, but since you werelast on the show, it was a
(04:02):
couple years ago.
So why don't you share with uswhat you have been doing and how
your role has involved sincethe last time you were on the
show?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Okay, great.
So when I was on previously, Iwas the marketing manager for
Klein Schmidt.
I've now been here five yearswhich is hard to believe and now
I am the director of marketingand communications, so
definitely have matured into adifferent level of
responsibility, learning aboutcost of winning work and newer
(04:31):
ones and budgets and all thethings that are tied in with
understanding the financials ofthe firm.
So that was a big change,because usually I was just
focused on tactics and to dothis and what needed to get done
and being creative, which Istill love to do those things
but there's just another levelof responsibility with it.
So, but it's been exciting andgood.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
You guys are doing great things, so I am always an
admirer of your team there.
But we're not really going totalk about that today.
What we're going to talk abouttoday is mentoring, and when I
was talking to Gina Renee aboutcoming back on the show, she
threw this topic out to me and Iloved it right away, because I
haven't really talked a lotspecifically about mentoring.
(05:16):
It kind of gets weaved into acouple of the episodes, but I
thought it would be a reallygreat idea to dedicate an entire
episode about mentoring becauseit's so important for our
careers.
So I love that you pitched thistopic to me and you're doing it
.
So you are mentoring others, soyou can speak from that
experience.
(05:36):
So let's start at the beginning.
What inspired you to startmentoring other marketing
professionals in our industry?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Well, I think what really started it was my own
journey with having an excellentmentor and the benefits that I
gained from it.
And oftentimes you see youngermarketers coming in, maybe at
the coordinator level orassistant level or the different
categories of coming into themarketing field, and you see
them struggling because a lot oftimes they're getting a lot of
(06:07):
stuff thrown at them and whatyou learn in school is not
always what is asked of you atwork very different.
So just seeing some of thosestruggles and knowing how my own
mentors had helped me over mycareer, I thought that I would
start mentoring myself so that Icould help those younger staff
to build confidence inthemselves, view themselves as
(06:29):
technical experts and not justto make it pretty girls really
elevate their skill set and theway that they communicate with
their internal stakeholders.
So that was the maininspiration.
My own personal mentors helpedme so much throughout my career.
I had different people whomentored me and I tried to have
like a good mix of somebody thatwas in business development so
(06:52):
that I could learn that side ofthe business as well.
And then I also had someone whowas actually a CEO who mentored
me for a little while, whoreally like changed the course
of my career earlier in mycareer, so had some really good
mentors myself and just wantedto turn around and try to give
that back and help someone elsealong the way.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I love that.
That's a lot of the reason whyI started Marketer's Take Flight
here.
I was mentoring and trainingall these earlier career and I
was like there needs to besomething that's easier If
you're sitting in an office byyourself and you're the only
marketer and you don't have anetwork and we need to be able
to find something online.
So that's kind of what inspiredme.
I've had several great mentorsalong the way.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I love what you're doing and I think too, as we
have a lot of hybrid workforceor work from home, it's even
more important because they'renot getting the face-to-face
time in an office.
I know at our company theentire team is remote.
The program that I started herewith my own team was due to the
fact that they weren't gettingface time with me or others in
(07:57):
the office trying to find a wayto help them.
That's a great point.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, well, before we get into some of the specifics,
let's like level set, like whatdo we mean, or what do you mean
, or how do you define mentoring?
Let's like let's start at thebasic level.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Okay, so I guess the way I would define mentorship is
sharing of knowledge, nurturingrelationships, helping younger
staff grow in their careers andunderstand different things
about their career and differentfunctions of the career and how
you can have areas of specialtyand all the things to really
(08:37):
just lift up the next generationof amazing marketers that's
coming into our field right now.
So that is how I would defineit is just helping lift the
others up and get them startedon their way.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, I love that, and entice them to stay.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yes, entice them to stay, because we need them.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
You mentioned that you've started a mentoring
program at your firm.
Well, specifically for yourdepartment, sounds like.
So how does this mentoringprogram, or mentoring in general
, really help address some ofthe unique challenges that we
face specifically in marketingor the AEC marketing
professionals face, becausewe're unique?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Oh yeah definitely it's da-da, de-da-da, de-da-da.
That is great.
Both of the young ladies whoare marketing coordinators at
Clash.
Yet one of them had about ayear of experience out of school
when she came to us and theother was fresh out of college,
and so there was definitely somelearning that needed to take
place.
And when you go to school, Ithink in the marketing field in
(09:38):
college, it's very focused onB2C and selling products or
marketing products, and theydon't really focus on the
marketing services.
So there's definitely aknowledge gap there that needs
to be filled, and so that waslike a real big driver, for what
we started at Clash met wasjust getting that knowledge gap
field and educating them on theconsulting business and
(10:01):
engineering and how we'reactually selling our people and
their expertise and them beingindustry experts.
So when we started it also Iwanted to make sure that I
wasn't just training them forClash met.
I wanted to make sure that whenwe had the mentoring calls
there's plenty of them we don'tever talk about friendship.
It's just talking about basicfunctions of marketing or how to
(10:25):
deal with difficult people.
Or if you're afraid of speakingup to a C-suite person, how do
you find your voice, and allthese different things that can
be challenging or intimidatingfor younger staff, especially
coming right out of school andjust joining the work frame.
So I think, as far asaddressing like particular
challenges in our industry, alot of it has to do with
(10:48):
confidence in your abilities andfeeling confident in yourself,
that you're doing what you'resupposed to do, that you
understand what you're supposedto do.
And then also communication, Ithink, was another really big
thing for our industry, and howto communicate with technical
staff.
Engineers can be a littlequirky sometimes and how to deal
(11:11):
with that.
And if you're working withsomeone who's really introverted
but you need their industryexpertise, how do you draw them
out of their shelf and justteaching them some of the things
that I had learned over mycareer to help do that?
But I think it's aboutcommunication, confidence and
ability and really viewingyourself as a technical expert
just as much as the engineers inyour firm are technical expert.
(11:32):
And that's the biggest thing tome that I would love to address
in our industry is making surethat marketing has a seat at the
table, is viewed as technicalexperts, and the more we can
train these younger generationof marketers to view themselves
that way, it's just going tohelp things improve as we go
along in this industry inparticular.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Yeah, I love that and I know you guys do a really
good job of that.
Like, I just know that you guysdo a good job of that and
there's some other firms that doa really good job that I've met
for this podcast.
I get to talk to a lot of greatmarketers and CEOs and
principals through the podcastand I think that's really key is
that and I think I'm going tocall marketers out.
(12:16):
I would say, like mid to latecareer marketers, we may be a
little jaded and we bring thatjadedness.
You know, like, oh yeah, we'rethe ones telling ourselves that
we're overhead staff, that we'renot billable, and a lot of
times when you keep saying thatto yourself, you start to
(12:37):
believe it.
And we are technical experts.
We did go to school.
It might not have been formarketing, but it might have
been for communications, forpublic relations, for journalism
, for graphic design.
You have a college degree,you're working in the profession
, you're getting paid, so thatmeans you're a professional and
you have experience.
And so I think I'm going to sayI'm guilty of it myself.
(12:59):
So I'm not calling out thelisteners, but I know that when
you go to an industry event I'mnot going to call an
organization out, but you go toan event and there's a bunch of
marketers there.
That's what all the complaintsare, and it's like well, we have
the power to take back thatnarrative Absolutely.
And so I love that you areinstilling that in your
(13:25):
marketing professionals at yourfirm.
And so now, don't get me wrong,there are plenty of engineers
and architects and contractorswho think that way, but we're
never going to change theirminds if we don't talk about
ourselves that way first.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Oh, exactly, I completely agree with that, and
it's all about perception andhow you're viewed and even
things as simple as businessacumen and how you conduct
yourself in certain situationsand things like that that we've
just learned over the years andthey may not know, or even
things that are specific to yourfirm, like how to handle
someone who may be difficult, orthings like that.
(14:05):
So there's a lot of differentnuances and I know you said
jaded and some of it's easy tofeel jaded sometimes, but also I
think it's good to like sharesome of our horror stories of
like this is how to overcomesomething bad that might happen.
We all make mistakes.
We all fail.
We've all done things.
That will look back and we'relike, oh crap, why did I do that
(14:26):
?
And so sharing that can justhelp them not have to go through
that, but know how to navigateit when they do make a mistake
and how to take ownership of themistake, fix it and move on.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Well, and I think you too, as their boss I'm assuming
that they're your reports yeah,by you sharing that, it's
sending the message that oh,oops, if I make a mistake it's
okay to go to Gina Renee andtell her and I might need her
help to solve it, and they'renot that afraid because you
haven't set that tone, thatwe're precise and precision and
(15:01):
perfection and you're neverallowed to make a mistake.
And I tell my marketing staffwe're not doing brain surgery,
nobody's going to die if we getthe wrong image in the email.
Yeah, like we're okay, right,but we just need to follow the
QC process, so have a second set, but we're fortunate in that
way.
Now, some of the engineers andthe contractors and stuff that
(15:23):
we work with I mean it issometimes life and death they
need to make it safe.
But in marketing, by you astheir leader, their mentor,
their boss, sharing those timeswhen you did make a mistake or
maybe you said the wrong thingin front of a client or you put
the wrong client name on aproposal, I think that will
breaks down those, I guess,barriers.
(15:45):
It just makes it a safe place,I think, for them to come to you
and not be afraid that they'regoing to get fired if they made
a mistake, or reprimanded ordemoted or Because we're all
human and we've all mademistakes, and it's all about how
you own it and move forwardfrom it.
And learn from it.
I always tell people I'm like,okay, what can we learn from
(16:06):
this?
Yeah, I tell them, how can weprevent this from happening
again?
I tell them it's not a mistakeif you learn something from it.
Exactly.
Yeah, thank you.
So we talked about how youdefine mentoring and how you've
been able to use mentoring toaddress some of the challenges
that marketing professionalsface in our industry.
(16:27):
So what are some strategies orsome ways, when you are
mentoring, that you deploy tomentor, you think effectively
while you're mentoring thesemarketing professionals?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
So I have the two marketing coordinators at our
firm who have been mentoringsince they joined.
I also have two other peoplewho were outside of my niche
they're still in the AEC worldbut outside of our niche who
I've continued to mentor, andI've had one of them who I've
been mentoring for about sevenyears.
So we have a really good and itreally turns into a friendship
(17:05):
and as she has grown this oneperson in particular, as she has
grown in her career and herhaving a different set of eyes
and some fresh perspectivesometimes she's actually helped
me.
So when you're mentoringsomeone, it's not all about just
sharing what you know.
It's being willing to sit therewith an open mind and listen to
what they're doing and say, hey, you know, that's really a
(17:25):
great idea and you can getinspired from something they're
doing and see things from adifferent way or a different
perspective, which I think isone of the biggest things about
mentoring that we don't reallytalk about, and I just love the
fact that you can get somereally great ideas and it's
sharing.
So it's not just one waycommunication, but it's really
(17:45):
sharing and some of thestrategies with my team.
I do the mentoring calls once amonth with the team, with my
folks that I'm mentoring outsideof my company.
We do quarterly calls.
They're usually about an hour.
Sometimes they run over, andthe strategy also of everything
doesn't have to be related toyour firm.
(18:06):
It doesn't have to be relatedto your industry.
We'll talk about like they'llwant to know like how can we get
new ideas for advertisementsand graphic imagery and things
like that, and we'll talk aboutB2C marketing and how you look
outside the industry to getideas for things and give
resources and things like thatthat they can use.
(18:27):
So those are the kind ofstrategies I use is just making
sure that we have regularscheduled calls and then that
we're not just addressing thingsthat are relative to our own
firm but looking outside of that.
And then sometimes it's more ofa personal thing of maybe they
just need some advice onsomething else that's completely
unrelated to work.
So, like I said, usually thesereally evolve into friendships
(18:50):
and really helps you to have agood relationship, especially
with staff who work with you orunder you, and it really helps
grow that trust and, like yousaid, like if they do mess up,
they're not afraid to come tellme they messed up, or something
like that.
So we have a really, reallygreat team at ClashMet and I
think the mentoring calls havehelped bring our team closer,
(19:13):
just because they know they havethat safe space where they,
whatever they say, it has noimpact on what we do, right?
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yeah, and then they have that scheduled time.
I think you guys scheduled inadvance, it's on the calendar
and they know that Sure, theycan come to you anytime if
there's an issue, but they havethis dedicated time where they
can pick your brain aboutsomething or ask for advice
about something.
Oh yeah, as opposed to justkind of having the conversations
(19:44):
off the cuff or when did theyjust happen?
So it's like proactive.
It's scheduled, yeah, it's at aregular cadence.
So whether that cadence ismonthly or quarterly, you know
you're having those check-insRight and it's a place for them
to talk to you about, notproduction items, not like the
(20:07):
work.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Right.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yes, Because I'm sure you guys have production
meetings and you have campaignmeetings and all that other good
stuff.
But this is a time for them totalk about other things outside
of the day-to-day that they'reworking on.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Well, I think, too, you have to look at it, as
you're not just mentoring themto be at your firm.
I want to see them besuccessful, regardless of where
they're at.
So you know, I want them to besuccessful in their career.
Everybody doesn't say wherethey're working their entire
lives.
Generally Some people may, butusually you move around at some
point, right, and I feel like ifI can prepare them for whatever
(20:46):
their career path might be, ifI've helped them in any way,
then I've done my job.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, One of my mentors like instilled in me
early in my career I don't eventhink I had my first direct
report yet but he always told mehe's like anybody that you have
you always need to be mentoringand training and developing
staff to take your position, Yep, and you have to be okay with
(21:13):
them leaving and growing.
So I would train and mentor anddevelop my staff and some would
leave and some would say and Inever got angry or some people
get like jaded or they takeoffense.
Managers or directors takeoffense to that.
How dare they leave our firmand why are they going to our
competitor?
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
(21:34):
And it's just like well, firstof all, it's a small industry,
so chances are we're going to beworking again together sometime
soon.
Yeah, Never burn a breed, yeahIn.
Second, it's like well, I'vedone my job as their mentor and
their leader If they are goingand getting a like step up or
growing in their career.
(21:55):
We just didn't have thatopportunity here for whatever
reason Right At the time.
So I've always had thatmentality of training people to
either take your job yeah,Because you can't be promoted
until somebody replaces you orgrow somewhere else.
If that's the case.
I think your approach tomentoring especially does
(22:19):
sometimes get tricky to mentorthe people that directly report
to you, Because sometimes itturns into just like production
meetings and talking about thework instead of.
You got to be very conscious ofmaking sure the meetings are
about them and what they need.
As the mentee, I am inlistening and learning from them
(22:43):
as well, like you said earlier.
But it gets tricky sometimesbecause I have mentored people
and they wanted goals and theywanted to go a different career
path and we didn't have it atthe firm and it wasn't like on
our road map to have it at thefirm.
So it just gets a little tricky.
So I don't envy you, but it isvaluable to do that.
(23:07):
So you're mentoring a couple ofpeople inside your firm, a
couple of people outside yourfirm.
How do you, or do you at all,even measure the success of the
mentoring?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I don't really do like a formal measurement.
To me, if they're thriving andthey're happy and they don't
feel like they lack knowledge onthings like, to me it's just
seeing them be successful iskind of like the measurement, or
being able to navigatechallenges, or it can be
something as small as just beingable to overcome a difficult
(23:41):
situation.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yes, they listen to what I said.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, things like that.
So I don't really use like aformal analytics or anything
like that, but with the externalladies that I've been mentoring
a lot of times, it's justseeing their success and their
advancement in their careers andjust feeling like I had some
small tiny space in that, likeit just gives you this
(24:06):
overwhelming sense offulfillment and makes you feel
all warm and fuzzy.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
So you can celebrate right along with them, and I
always love celebrating withother people.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Absolutely.
We all have to lift each otherup because, like you said, this
is a very small industrycompared to a lot of marketing
and I love to see people besuccessful and learn and grow
and you know we have to be thereto lift each other up.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Mm.
Hmm, yeah, ok, are you readybefore we go?
I'm not letting you go yet.
Are you ready to answer myrapid fire questions?
I'm ready?
Ok, so I adjusted them becauseyou're a second time guest and
so every time a guest is on asecond time, I adjust the
questions.
Ok, so you're getting new rapidfire questions, but they're
(24:58):
related to this topic ofmentoring.
Ok, so question number one iswhat is your number one piece of
advice for a marketingprofessional looking to become a
mentor or looking for a mentor?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
So I'm going to start with the looking for a mentor
first, and I'll take my ownexperience to kind of answer
that question.
Look for someone who emulateskind of where you want your
career path to go, maybe, andthen look outside of that and
what it took that person to getto their point, because it's not
always a straight line.
Some people go throughproposals, then move into
(25:34):
marketing, then they might gointo there's a lot of different
paths and different ways to getto an end destination.
So look outside of yourstraight line path, because it's
never really a straight line,and look for people that just
know how to do things that youwant to know how to do.
Or if you see someone you'relike wow, they just handle all
these situations so well, like Iwant to know how they do that.
(25:55):
As far as being looking for amentor, as far as being a mentor
, there's different situationsfor that and I've kind of fell
into all of the ones that I'vebeen in.
Now the one with the staff atquestion is intentional.
I intentionally had thatprogram in place when they
started.
But the others I just kind offell into it where they would
just come to me for advice andthen it was kind of like well,
(26:16):
would you want to be my mentor?
And I was like, absolutely,let's do it, that's awesome.
So kind of fell into the otherones.
But I think you see somebodystruggling.
If they're struggling, helpthem up.
And in that process of helpingthem up you might be able to
establish that kind ofrelationship as well.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, that's a good point.
And then of course, I know alot of like S&P chapters do
formal mentoring programs Notevery chapter, but I know some
chapters here or there do that,and so if you're in a location
that has a chapter that doesthat apply to either be a mentor
or a mentee.
(26:53):
If there's not one at yourchapter, maybe propose starting
one.
You could look at otherorganizations that maybe are not
necessarily marketing or AECmarketing.
I know I'm involved in like avolunteer organization that has
a mentee mentorship and it's allabout training future female
leaders, and so leadership is alot of the skill sets we talked
(27:15):
about today, of what you'rehelping your mentees with.
It's really the makings of agood leader.
So you can look at some of yourlocal and then you might meet
people outside the industry thatgive you those different
perspectives as well.
So if you're or if you want togive back and you're not really
finding somebody, you look at atanother program and sign up to
(27:36):
be a mentor.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Absolutely Well.
Another thing, too, is like I'min a very niche industry in the
AEC, which is hydropower, andactually one of our principal
consultants started a programwith the National Hydropower
Association for women inhydropower where they have a
formal mentor mentee.
So you may can even look at ifyou're in a niche industry.
Look at some of those programsbecause you can really get some
(27:59):
great information if you'rewanting to learn more about your
industry.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Yeah, oh, that's a great idea too.
Okay, rapid fire.
Question number two Can youtell us about a time when
mentoring helps solve aparticularly challenging or
particularly tough marketingchallenge?
Okay, yes.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
So the mentor that I have, who has been in BD for
many years, he's phenomenal andI had just started work with
this firm I've been there maybesix months and I was getting
ready to launch my first everaccount-based marketing
initiative and I wasinexperienced with it and just
learning my way and I wanted toreally understand the challenges
(28:45):
of the client.
And so, sitting down with him asa beating person and he's the
one that goes to meetings withthem out the lunch and he's
getting more of the real talk ofwhat's going on at this firm,
at this other firm and theadvice that he gave me and the
information and intelligencethat he gave me really helped
this craft a very successfulaccount-based marketing campaign
(29:08):
.
And it was from a relationshipwith a client that they had done
business with for 20 years andthey have one bad project that
kind of sourced theirrelationship.
This was like five years laterall the leadership had changed.
It was new people in all thelevels and they wanted to
rebuild the relationship and hewas tasked with rebuilding it
from the BD side and he'd beenworking it for about two years.
(29:31):
So he was able to really helpme understand and what was going
to resonate with this new groupof people the how and why they
should rebuild the relationshipwith this firm.
So that was one time where mymentor played a crucial role and
really helped me to achievesuccess, because they ended up
getting back on their bid listand work came in like a year
(29:51):
later, so it was phenomenal,that's nice, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Okay, and then rapid fire.
Question number three what areyour future plans for mentoring
within our industry?
Speaker 2 (30:07):
So I really plan to keep doing what I'm doing now,
but then I kind of feel likeI've expanded it because I
started doing speakingengagements with SMPS.
So that's not mentoring, butit's kind of that knowledge
sharing and wanting to liftothers up and wanting other
professionals to view themselvesas technical professionals and
have their voice and get thatseat at the leadership table and
(30:29):
all the things.
So, speaking, I was veryterrified at first and now it's
become like oh, when's the nextone?
I can't wait.
So that speaker is high, thatperson is high it is so awesome.
So doing more speaking, I think,and just continuing on what I'm
doing is my plan, is for thefuture.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
I love it and I've been so double your
presentations and you do afabulous job.
I always learn so much from youguys from you and what you guys
are doing on the marketing side.
You're doing some very creativestuff.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Thank you so much, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
All right.
Well, thank you so much forbeing on the show and being open
to talk about mentoring.
Again, it wasn't a topic I'vereally covered explicitly as an
episode, a standalone episode,so I'm happy that I was able to
do it with you.
Awesome, thank you so much forhaving me.
I appreciate it, and that myfriend wraps up an incredible
conversation with the amazingGina Rene Autry.
(31:24):
Gina Rene, I cannot thank youenough for sharing your wisdom,
your experiences and thoseinsights into mentoring in our
AEC marketing world.
You've given us so much tothink about and so many
actionable strategies that wecan take back to our own careers
.
So thank you.
(31:46):
Now, as a listener, I hopeyou're walking away from this
episode feeling inspired andready to either seek out a
mentor or become a mentor.
Remember, this journey ofmentorship is not just about
growing and helping others, butit's also about growing
ourselves, keeping our skillsfresh and understanding
(32:07):
different dynamics of ourindustry.
If you loved this episode asmuch as I did, please share it
with your colleagues, yourfriends or anyone you know in
the AEC field who can benefitfrom what Gina Rene shared today
.
It's been an absolute pleasurehaving you tune in.
So here's to building skills,building connections and
(32:27):
building a career that you'repassionate about.
Until next time, bye for now.
Hey there, I'm Lindsay Dibbin and I'm
passionate about everythingmarketing, productivity and
career growth.
With over 17 years ofexperience in the architecture,
engineering and constructionindustry, I know firsthand the
ins and outs of this excitingfield, from my early days as a
marketing coordinator tobecoming an award-winning
(00:23):
marketing professional.
In firm principle, I've learnedthe ropes through countless
late nights and challengingdeadlines.
Now I'm thrilled to bring youthe AEC Marketing Strategies
Podcast.
Here I'll be sharing simple yetpowerful, step-by-step
marketing strategies that youcan implement to achieve the
(00:44):
same level of success.
Consider me your go-tomarketing mentor, someone who
truly gets the unique challengesyou face in the AEC industry.
Whether you're an AEC MarketingPro or industry newbie, this
podcast is your personal coffeedate with your marketing bestie.
Together, we'll navigate theever-changing landscape of
(01:06):
online marketing and digitaltrends, ensuring you stay ahead
of the curve.
If you're ready to unlock themarketing secrets they never
taught you in college and tailorthem specifically to the AEC
industry, then you're in theright place.
Now let's get started.
Well, hey there, welcome to AECMarketing Strategies the go-to
(01:29):
podcast all things in thearchitecture, engineering and
construction world.
I'm Lindsay Divan and I'm sothrilled you're joining me today
.
I've got an episode that I amparticularly excited about.
It's all about mentorship andmentorship specifically in AEC
marketing and, trust me, you aregoing to love it.
(01:50):
So here's the scoop.
I have the incredible Gina ReneAutry with me today, and Gina
Rene is not just any marketingpro.
She's the director of marketingand communications at Klein
Schmidt and, most importantly,she's a mentor, and a mentor at
heart.
Her journey of mentoring withinAEC marketing is nothing short
(02:12):
of inspirational and she's hereto spill all her secrets and her
strategies.
We're going to dive into whatreally inspired her to start
mentoring.
We're going to peel back thelayers of her unique approach to
mentorship and discover how shetackles the specific challenges
that pop up in AEC marketing.
And yes, we are definitelygoing to be talking about her
(02:36):
secret sauce how she mentorseffectively and measures the
impact of her mentoring efforts.
Oh, and you know we love a goodrapid fire round.
In this episode it's rapid fireround.
Gina Rene will be sharing hertop advice for anyone eager to
mentor or anyone seekingmentorship in our field.
(02:59):
It's going to be sharing apersonal story where mentoring
literally saved the day in avery tough marketing situation,
and what her vision is for thefuture of mentorship and
mentorship efforts in ourindustry.
This episode is perfect for allof you AEC professionals looking
to step up your game, grow yourcareer or simply find a little
(03:20):
inspiration in your day.
So let's not wait any longer.
Let's get into the episode andwelcome Gina Rene Autry to the
show With me today.
I have Gina Rene Autry.
She is the director ofmarketing and communications
with Klein Schmidt, and if hername sounds familiar that's
because she's been on the showpreviously, way back in episode
(03:41):
32, where she talked to us abouthow using thought leadership to
drive revenue and build yourpersonal brand.
But welcome back to the show.
Thanks for agreeing to come onthe show again today.
Thank you for having meAppreciate it.
So since we last talkedalthough you and I talked
yesterday, but since you werelast on the show, it was a
(04:02):
couple years ago.
So why don't you share with uswhat you have been doing and how
your role has involved sincethe last time you were on the
show?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Okay, great.
So when I was on previously, Iwas the marketing manager for
Klein Schmidt.
I've now been here five yearswhich is hard to believe and now
I am the director of marketingand communications, so
definitely have matured into adifferent level of
responsibility, learning aboutcost of winning work and newer
(04:31):
ones and budgets and all thethings that are tied in with
understanding the financials ofthe firm.
So that was a big change,because usually I was just
focused on tactics and to dothis and what needed to get done
and being creative, which Istill love to do those things
but there's just another levelof responsibility with it.
So, but it's been exciting andgood.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
You guys are doing great things, so I am always an
admirer of your team there.
But we're not really going totalk about that today.
What we're going to talk abouttoday is mentoring, and when I
was talking to Gina Renee aboutcoming back on the show, she
threw this topic out to me and Iloved it right away, because I
haven't really talked a lotspecifically about mentoring.
(05:16):
It kind of gets weaved into acouple of the episodes, but I
thought it would be a reallygreat idea to dedicate an entire
episode about mentoring becauseit's so important for our
careers.
So I love that you pitched thistopic to me and you're doing it
.
So you are mentoring others, soyou can speak from that
experience.
(05:36):
So let's start at the beginning.
What inspired you to startmentoring other marketing
professionals in our industry?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Well, I think what really started it was my own
journey with having an excellentmentor and the benefits that I
gained from it.
And oftentimes you see youngermarketers coming in, maybe at
the coordinator level orassistant level or the different
categories of coming into themarketing field, and you see
them struggling because a lot oftimes they're getting a lot of
(06:07):
stuff thrown at them and whatyou learn in school is not
always what is asked of you atwork very different.
So just seeing some of thosestruggles and knowing how my own
mentors had helped me over mycareer, I thought that I would
start mentoring myself so that Icould help those younger staff
to build confidence inthemselves, view themselves as
(06:29):
technical experts and not justto make it pretty girls really
elevate their skill set and theway that they communicate with
their internal stakeholders.
So that was the maininspiration.
My own personal mentors helpedme so much throughout my career.
I had different people whomentored me and I tried to have
like a good mix of somebody thatwas in business development so
(06:52):
that I could learn that side ofthe business as well.
And then I also had someone whowas actually a CEO who mentored
me for a little while, whoreally like changed the course
of my career earlier in mycareer, so had some really good
mentors myself and just wantedto turn around and try to give
that back and help someone elsealong the way.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I love that.
That's a lot of the reason whyI started Marketer's Take Flight
here.
I was mentoring and trainingall these earlier career and I
was like there needs to besomething that's easier If
you're sitting in an office byyourself and you're the only
marketer and you don't have anetwork and we need to be able
to find something online.
So that's kind of what inspiredme.
I've had several great mentorsalong the way.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I love what you're doing and I think too, as we
have a lot of hybrid workforceor work from home, it's even
more important because they'renot getting the face-to-face
time in an office.
I know at our company theentire team is remote.
The program that I started herewith my own team was due to the
fact that they weren't gettingface time with me or others in
(07:57):
the office trying to find a wayto help them.
That's a great point.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, well, before we get into some of the specifics,
let's like level set, like whatdo we mean, or what do you mean
, or how do you define mentoring?
Let's like let's start at thebasic level.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Okay, so I guess the way I would define mentorship is
sharing of knowledge, nurturingrelationships, helping younger
staff grow in their careers andunderstand different things
about their career and differentfunctions of the career and how
you can have areas of specialtyand all the things to really
(08:37):
just lift up the next generationof amazing marketers that's
coming into our field right now.
So that is how I would defineit is just helping lift the
others up and get them startedon their way.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, I love that, and entice them to stay.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yes, entice them to stay, because we need them.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
You mentioned that you've started a mentoring
program at your firm.
Well, specifically for yourdepartment, sounds like.
So how does this mentoringprogram, or mentoring in general
, really help address some ofthe unique challenges that we
face specifically in marketingor the AEC marketing
professionals face, becausewe're unique?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Oh yeah definitely it's da-da, de-da-da, de-da-da.
That is great.
Both of the young ladies whoare marketing coordinators at
Clash.
Yet one of them had about ayear of experience out of school
when she came to us and theother was fresh out of college,
and so there was definitely somelearning that needed to take
place.
And when you go to school, Ithink in the marketing field in
(09:38):
college, it's very focused onB2C and selling products or
marketing products, and theydon't really focus on the
marketing services.
So there's definitely aknowledge gap there that needs
to be filled, and so that waslike a real big driver, for what
we started at Clash met wasjust getting that knowledge gap
field and educating them on theconsulting business and
(10:01):
engineering and how we'reactually selling our people and
their expertise and them beingindustry experts.
So when we started it also Iwanted to make sure that I
wasn't just training them forClash met.
I wanted to make sure that whenwe had the mentoring calls
there's plenty of them we don'tever talk about friendship.
It's just talking about basicfunctions of marketing or how to
(10:25):
deal with difficult people.
Or if you're afraid of speakingup to a C-suite person, how do
you find your voice, and allthese different things that can
be challenging or intimidatingfor younger staff, especially
coming right out of school andjust joining the work frame.
So I think, as far asaddressing like particular
challenges in our industry, alot of it has to do with
(10:48):
confidence in your abilities andfeeling confident in yourself,
that you're doing what you'resupposed to do, that you
understand what you're supposedto do.
And then also communication, Ithink, was another really big
thing for our industry, and howto communicate with technical
staff.
Engineers can be a littlequirky sometimes and how to deal
(11:11):
with that.
And if you're working withsomeone who's really introverted
but you need their industryexpertise, how do you draw them
out of their shelf and justteaching them some of the things
that I had learned over mycareer to help do that?
But I think it's aboutcommunication, confidence and
ability and really viewingyourself as a technical expert
just as much as the engineers inyour firm are technical expert.
(11:32):
And that's the biggest thing tome that I would love to address
in our industry is making surethat marketing has a seat at the
table, is viewed as technicalexperts, and the more we can
train these younger generationof marketers to view themselves
that way, it's just going tohelp things improve as we go
along in this industry inparticular.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Yeah, I love that and I know you guys do a really
good job of that.
Like, I just know that you guysdo a good job of that and
there's some other firms that doa really good job that I've met
for this podcast.
I get to talk to a lot of greatmarketers and CEOs and
principals through the podcastand I think that's really key is
that and I think I'm going tocall marketers out.
(12:16):
I would say, like mid to latecareer marketers, we may be a
little jaded and we bring thatjadedness.
You know, like, oh yeah, we'rethe ones telling ourselves that
we're overhead staff, that we'renot billable, and a lot of
times when you keep saying thatto yourself, you start to
(12:37):
believe it.
And we are technical experts.
We did go to school.
It might not have been formarketing, but it might have
been for communications, forpublic relations, for journalism
, for graphic design.
You have a college degree,you're working in the profession
, you're getting paid, so thatmeans you're a professional and
you have experience.
And so I think I'm going to sayI'm guilty of it myself.
(12:59):
So I'm not calling out thelisteners, but I know that when
you go to an industry event I'mnot going to call an
organization out, but you go toan event and there's a bunch of
marketers there.
That's what all the complaintsare, and it's like well, we have
the power to take back thatnarrative Absolutely.
And so I love that you areinstilling that in your
(13:25):
marketing professionals at yourfirm.
And so now, don't get me wrong,there are plenty of engineers
and architects and contractorswho think that way, but we're
never going to change theirminds if we don't talk about
ourselves that way first.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Oh, exactly, I completely agree with that, and
it's all about perception andhow you're viewed and even
things as simple as businessacumen and how you conduct
yourself in certain situationsand things like that that we've
just learned over the years andthey may not know, or even
things that are specific to yourfirm, like how to handle
someone who may be difficult, orthings like that.
(14:05):
So there's a lot of differentnuances and I know you said
jaded and some of it's easy tofeel jaded sometimes, but also I
think it's good to like sharesome of our horror stories of
like this is how to overcomesomething bad that might happen.
We all make mistakes.
We all fail.
We've all done things.
That will look back and we'relike, oh crap, why did I do that
(14:26):
?
And so sharing that can justhelp them not have to go through
that, but know how to navigateit when they do make a mistake
and how to take ownership of themistake, fix it and move on.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Well, and I think you too, as their boss I'm assuming
that they're your reports yeah,by you sharing that, it's
sending the message that oh,oops, if I make a mistake it's
okay to go to Gina Renee andtell her and I might need her
help to solve it, and they'renot that afraid because you
haven't set that tone, thatwe're precise and precision and
(15:01):
perfection and you're neverallowed to make a mistake.
And I tell my marketing staffwe're not doing brain surgery,
nobody's going to die if we getthe wrong image in the email.
Yeah, like we're okay, right,but we just need to follow the
QC process, so have a second set, but we're fortunate in that
way.
Now, some of the engineers andthe contractors and stuff that
(15:23):
we work with I mean it issometimes life and death they
need to make it safe.
But in marketing, by you astheir leader, their mentor,
their boss, sharing those timeswhen you did make a mistake or
maybe you said the wrong thingin front of a client or you put
the wrong client name on aproposal, I think that will
breaks down those, I guess,barriers.
(15:45):
It just makes it a safe place,I think, for them to come to you
and not be afraid that they'regoing to get fired if they made
a mistake, or reprimanded ordemoted or Because we're all
human and we've all mademistakes, and it's all about how
you own it and move forwardfrom it.
And learn from it.
I always tell people I'm like,okay, what can we learn from
(16:06):
this?
Yeah, I tell them, how can weprevent this from happening
again?
I tell them it's not a mistakeif you learn something from it.
Exactly.
Yeah, thank you.
So we talked about how youdefine mentoring and how you've
been able to use mentoring toaddress some of the challenges
that marketing professionalsface in our industry.
(16:27):
So what are some strategies orsome ways, when you are
mentoring, that you deploy tomentor, you think effectively
while you're mentoring thesemarketing professionals?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
So I have the two marketing coordinators at our
firm who have been mentoringsince they joined.
I also have two other peoplewho were outside of my niche
they're still in the AEC worldbut outside of our niche who
I've continued to mentor, andI've had one of them who I've
been mentoring for about sevenyears.
So we have a really good and itreally turns into a friendship
(17:05):
and as she has grown this oneperson in particular, as she has
grown in her career and herhaving a different set of eyes
and some fresh perspectivesometimes she's actually helped
me.
So when you're mentoringsomeone, it's not all about just
sharing what you know.
It's being willing to sit therewith an open mind and listen to
what they're doing and say, hey, you know, that's really a
(17:25):
great idea and you can getinspired from something they're
doing and see things from adifferent way or a different
perspective, which I think isone of the biggest things about
mentoring that we don't reallytalk about, and I just love the
fact that you can get somereally great ideas and it's
sharing.
So it's not just one waycommunication, but it's really
(17:45):
sharing and some of thestrategies with my team.
I do the mentoring calls once amonth with the team, with my
folks that I'm mentoring outsideof my company.
We do quarterly calls.
They're usually about an hour.
Sometimes they run over, andthe strategy also of everything
doesn't have to be related toyour firm.
(18:06):
It doesn't have to be relatedto your industry.
We'll talk about like they'llwant to know like how can we get
new ideas for advertisementsand graphic imagery and things
like that, and we'll talk aboutB2C marketing and how you look
outside the industry to getideas for things and give
resources and things like thatthat they can use.
(18:27):
So those are the kind ofstrategies I use is just making
sure that we have regularscheduled calls and then that
we're not just addressing thingsthat are relative to our own
firm but looking outside of that.
And then sometimes it's more ofa personal thing of maybe they
just need some advice onsomething else that's completely
unrelated to work.
So, like I said, usually thesereally evolve into friendships
(18:50):
and really helps you to have agood relationship, especially
with staff who work with you orunder you, and it really helps
grow that trust and, like yousaid, like if they do mess up,
they're not afraid to come tellme they messed up, or something
like that.
So we have a really, reallygreat team at ClashMet and I
think the mentoring calls havehelped bring our team closer,
(19:13):
just because they know they havethat safe space where they,
whatever they say, it has noimpact on what we do, right?
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yeah, and then they have that scheduled time.
I think you guys scheduled inadvance, it's on the calendar
and they know that Sure, theycan come to you anytime if
there's an issue, but they havethis dedicated time where they
can pick your brain aboutsomething or ask for advice
about something.
Oh yeah, as opposed to justkind of having the conversations
(19:44):
off the cuff or when did theyjust happen?
So it's like proactive.
It's scheduled, yeah, it's at aregular cadence.
So whether that cadence ismonthly or quarterly, you know
you're having those check-insRight and it's a place for them
to talk to you about, notproduction items, not like the
(20:07):
work.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Right.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yes, Because I'm sure you guys have production
meetings and you have campaignmeetings and all that other good
stuff.
But this is a time for them totalk about other things outside
of the day-to-day that they'reworking on.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Well, I think, too, you have to look at it, as
you're not just mentoring themto be at your firm.
I want to see them besuccessful, regardless of where
they're at.
So you know, I want them to besuccessful in their career.
Everybody doesn't say wherethey're working their entire
lives.
Generally Some people may, butusually you move around at some
point, right, and I feel like ifI can prepare them for whatever
(20:46):
their career path might be, ifI've helped them in any way,
then I've done my job.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, One of my mentors like instilled in me
early in my career I don't eventhink I had my first direct
report yet but he always told mehe's like anybody that you have
you always need to be mentoringand training and developing
staff to take your position, Yep, and you have to be okay with
(21:13):
them leaving and growing.
So I would train and mentor anddevelop my staff and some would
leave and some would say and Inever got angry or some people
get like jaded or they takeoffense.
Managers or directors takeoffense to that.
How dare they leave our firmand why are they going to our
competitor?
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
(21:34):
And it's just like well, firstof all, it's a small industry,
so chances are we're going to beworking again together sometime
soon.
Yeah, Never burn a breed, yeahIn.
Second, it's like well, I'vedone my job as their mentor and
their leader If they are goingand getting a like step up or
growing in their career.
(21:55):
We just didn't have thatopportunity here for whatever
reason Right At the time.
So I've always had thatmentality of training people to
either take your job yeah,Because you can't be promoted
until somebody replaces you orgrow somewhere else.
If that's the case.
I think your approach tomentoring especially does
(22:19):
sometimes get tricky to mentorthe people that directly report
to you, Because sometimes itturns into just like production
meetings and talking about thework instead of.
You got to be very conscious ofmaking sure the meetings are
about them and what they need.
As the mentee, I am inlistening and learning from them
(22:43):
as well, like you said earlier.
But it gets tricky sometimesbecause I have mentored people
and they wanted goals and theywanted to go a different career
path and we didn't have it atthe firm and it wasn't like on
our road map to have it at thefirm.
So it just gets a little tricky.
So I don't envy you, but it isvaluable to do that.
(23:07):
So you're mentoring a couple ofpeople inside your firm, a
couple of people outside yourfirm.
How do you, or do you at all,even measure the success of the
mentoring?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I don't really do like a formal measurement.
To me, if they're thriving andthey're happy and they don't
feel like they lack knowledge onthings like, to me it's just
seeing them be successful iskind of like the measurement, or
being able to navigatechallenges, or it can be
something as small as just beingable to overcome a difficult
(23:41):
situation.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yes, they listen to what I said.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, things like that.
So I don't really use like aformal analytics or anything
like that, but with the externalladies that I've been mentoring
a lot of times, it's justseeing their success and their
advancement in their careers andjust feeling like I had some
small tiny space in that, likeit just gives you this
(24:06):
overwhelming sense offulfillment and makes you feel
all warm and fuzzy.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
So you can celebrate right along with them, and I
always love celebrating withother people.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Absolutely.
We all have to lift each otherup because, like you said, this
is a very small industrycompared to a lot of marketing
and I love to see people besuccessful and learn and grow
and you know we have to be thereto lift each other up.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Mm.
Hmm, yeah, ok, are you readybefore we go?
I'm not letting you go yet.
Are you ready to answer myrapid fire questions?
I'm ready?
Ok, so I adjusted them becauseyou're a second time guest and
so every time a guest is on asecond time, I adjust the
questions.
Ok, so you're getting new rapidfire questions, but they're
(24:58):
related to this topic ofmentoring.
Ok, so question number one iswhat is your number one piece of
advice for a marketingprofessional looking to become a
mentor or looking for a mentor?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
So I'm going to start with the looking for a mentor
first, and I'll take my ownexperience to kind of answer
that question.
Look for someone who emulateskind of where you want your
career path to go, maybe, andthen look outside of that and
what it took that person to getto their point, because it's not
always a straight line.
Some people go throughproposals, then move into
(25:34):
marketing, then they might gointo there's a lot of different
paths and different ways to getto an end destination.
So look outside of yourstraight line path, because it's
never really a straight line,and look for people that just
know how to do things that youwant to know how to do.
Or if you see someone you'relike wow, they just handle all
these situations so well, like Iwant to know how they do that.
(25:55):
As far as being looking for amentor, as far as being a mentor
, there's different situationsfor that and I've kind of fell
into all of the ones that I'vebeen in.
Now the one with the staff atquestion is intentional.
I intentionally had thatprogram in place when they
started.
But the others I just kind offell into it where they would
just come to me for advice andthen it was kind of like well,
(26:16):
would you want to be my mentor?
And I was like, absolutely,let's do it, that's awesome.
So kind of fell into the otherones.
But I think you see somebodystruggling.
If they're struggling, helpthem up.
And in that process of helpingthem up you might be able to
establish that kind ofrelationship as well.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, that's a good point.
And then of course, I know alot of like S&P chapters do
formal mentoring programs Notevery chapter, but I know some
chapters here or there do that,and so if you're in a location
that has a chapter that doesthat apply to either be a mentor
or a mentee.
(26:53):
If there's not one at yourchapter, maybe propose starting
one.
You could look at otherorganizations that maybe are not
necessarily marketing or AECmarketing.
I know I'm involved in like avolunteer organization that has
a mentee mentorship and it's allabout training future female
leaders, and so leadership is alot of the skill sets we talked
(27:15):
about today, of what you'rehelping your mentees with.
It's really the makings of agood leader.
So you can look at some of yourlocal and then you might meet
people outside the industry thatgive you those different
perspectives as well.
So if you're or if you want togive back and you're not really
finding somebody, you look at atanother program and sign up to
(27:36):
be a mentor.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Absolutely Well.
Another thing, too, is like I'min a very niche industry in the
AEC, which is hydropower, andactually one of our principal
consultants started a programwith the National Hydropower
Association for women inhydropower where they have a
formal mentor mentee.
So you may can even look at ifyou're in a niche industry.
Look at some of those programsbecause you can really get some
(27:59):
great information if you'rewanting to learn more about your
industry.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Yeah, oh, that's a great idea too.
Okay, rapid fire.
Question number two Can youtell us about a time when
mentoring helps solve aparticularly challenging or
particularly tough marketingchallenge?
Okay, yes.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
So the mentor that I have, who has been in BD for
many years, he's phenomenal andI had just started work with
this firm I've been there maybesix months and I was getting
ready to launch my first everaccount-based marketing
initiative and I wasinexperienced with it and just
learning my way and I wanted toreally understand the challenges
(28:45):
of the client.
And so, sitting down with him asa beating person and he's the
one that goes to meetings withthem out the lunch and he's
getting more of the real talk ofwhat's going on at this firm,
at this other firm and theadvice that he gave me and the
information and intelligencethat he gave me really helped
this craft a very successfulaccount-based marketing campaign
(29:08):
.
And it was from a relationshipwith a client that they had done
business with for 20 years andthey have one bad project that
kind of sourced theirrelationship.
This was like five years laterall the leadership had changed.
It was new people in all thelevels and they wanted to
rebuild the relationship and hewas tasked with rebuilding it
from the BD side and he'd beenworking it for about two years.
(29:31):
So he was able to really helpme understand and what was going
to resonate with this new groupof people the how and why they
should rebuild the relationshipwith this firm.
So that was one time where mymentor played a crucial role and
really helped me to achievesuccess, because they ended up
getting back on their bid listand work came in like a year
(29:51):
later, so it was phenomenal,that's nice, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Okay, and then rapid fire.
Question number three what areyour future plans for mentoring
within our industry?
Speaker 2 (30:07):
So I really plan to keep doing what I'm doing now,
but then I kind of feel likeI've expanded it because I
started doing speakingengagements with SMPS.
So that's not mentoring, butit's kind of that knowledge
sharing and wanting to liftothers up and wanting other
professionals to view themselvesas technical professionals and
have their voice and get thatseat at the leadership table and
(30:29):
all the things.
So, speaking, I was veryterrified at first and now it's
become like oh, when's the nextone?
I can't wait.
So that speaker is high, thatperson is high it is so awesome.
So doing more speaking, I think,and just continuing on what I'm
doing is my plan, is for thefuture.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
I love it and I've been so double your
presentations and you do afabulous job.
I always learn so much from youguys from you and what you guys
are doing on the marketing side.
You're doing some very creativestuff.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Thank you so much, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
All right.
Well, thank you so much forbeing on the show and being open
to talk about mentoring.
Again, it wasn't a topic I'vereally covered explicitly as an
episode, a standalone episode,so I'm happy that I was able to
do it with you.
Awesome, thank you so much forhaving me.
I appreciate it, and that myfriend wraps up an incredible
conversation with the amazingGina Rene Autry.
(31:24):
Gina Rene, I cannot thank youenough for sharing your wisdom,
your experiences and thoseinsights into mentoring in our
AEC marketing world.
You've given us so much tothink about and so many
actionable strategies that wecan take back to our own careers
.
So thank you.
(31:46):
Now, as a listener, I hopeyou're walking away from this
episode feeling inspired andready to either seek out a
mentor or become a mentor.
Remember, this journey ofmentorship is not just about
growing and helping others, butit's also about growing
ourselves, keeping our skillsfresh and understanding
(32:07):
different dynamics of ourindustry.
If you loved this episode asmuch as I did, please share it
with your colleagues, yourfriends or anyone you know in
the AEC field who can benefitfrom what Gina Rene shared today
.
It's been an absolute pleasurehaving you tune in.
So here's to building skills,building connections and
(32:27):
building a career that you'repassionate about.
Until next time, bye for now.
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