Latest / The Marketing Brief / The Social Fabric Sessions E1: Tam & Alan
Transcript
- Brian: Hello and welcome back into the Marketing Brief podcast. This is a special session of the Marketing Brief Podcast, which we are calling the Social Fabric Sessions. started this subset of the Marketing Brief Podcast to get to know the members ⁓ the Social Fabric and really explore the idea that relationships shape opportunity. So we'll see if we'll see if that comes up as we're talking. But of course, we have to have a guest. And today's guest is a longtime colleague and friend, Tamara. Can we call her Tam? Tam Elise. Welcome in, Tam. Tam: Hey Bryce, so excited to be here and hello. Brian: Excited to have you. You are the first interview ⁓ during the social fabric session. So a bit of a guinea pig, but I know you're up for it. Tam: Wow, no, I'm here. Excited. It's a nice break from the day. And and you know, always good to talk with an old friend. Brian: Good. Yeah, of course. Well, I'd love to dive right in on community. I guess I I'd love to know how you define your communities right now. I mean, I think a lot of people go, Okay, I've got a work work community, I've got a a home community, I've got my friends. ⁓ are the communities that you're ⁓ I guess you're active in right now? Tam: Yeah. ⁓ well you know me well and you know my world's like blur. so I don't think I have like one community that is ⁓ homework, etcetera. I mean my entire executive leadership team are colleagues and friends that I've worked with over the course of my career. ⁓ 'cause we're just getting too old now and it's so much better to work with people you like, right? so you know, I think I ⁓ I I guess a differentiating community is like my my daughter is fifteen and we have a whole community around her school and her sports, which is pretty cool and amazing people that live up by me in Weston. but I would say my work and and my life is is really one community. I mean, of my best friends I've been working with for twenty years, so Brian: Yeah. And that and that is really like one of the big tenets of the social fabric is that you want to work with the people that you get along with, right? Relationships build opportunity. what wait, what is your what is your daughter's sport? What is she into? Tam: She's a swimmer and she runs track and cross country. Or track, sorry. Yeah. Track and field. ⁓ she runs the mile. She's crazy. Yeah. It's hard to compete at the mile. Like you're running a mile and like six fifty, six forty, like it's fast. yeah, so it's a little insane. But she's an awesome swimmer. She loves to swim. Brian: Amazing. Yeah. wow. Wow. That's amazing. And do you find that those are separate communities? Like you you you have like the swimming crew and then the running crew that that you kind of meet through her? Tam: Yeah, you know, there are a lot of parents like cross over, but I would just say like her high school community is like I mean one that we've like double clicked into and we've become friends with a lot of the parents. it's it's pretty awesome because we all do like last minute, hey, just come on over. Let's drink some like drink on the deck. So ⁓ lots of ⁓ of awesome people that we've become friends with there. Brian: Mm-hmm. That's great. It's almost I I find it's almost like a pleasant surprise because you're kind of forced into those relationships in a way. My my son's only six, but ⁓ we've got the neighbors, we've got the school friends. And when you find someone that you're like, thank God we get along. because the the kids are just friends and you're kind of forced into that relationship. You're not choosing those parents, but ⁓ when find out that they are people that you like to hang out with, it's almost like, ⁓ great. Tam: Yeah, we were so lucky because Stella's like bestie circle is like eight women or eight ladies, little ladies. all of the parents are fucking great. So, ⁓ know, it ⁓ become like really acclimated to this whole group. And I don't think the kids mind because the parents will all be off somewhere and then they can be off somewhere else. And so ⁓ it allows them to have their little micro community, which they do not want us to be part of. Brian: Mm-hmm. course, 15-year-olds, of course. in terms of the social fabric, you're a member of the social fabric. ⁓ there something that you're looking to get out of this? I mean, I think you've got a lot of friends that are in it and you were probably asked to be in it, as I was, ⁓ what what do you get out of like executive community relationships? Tam: Yeah. No, great question. You know, when Corey and AJ approached me, I was like, first of all, checkbox yes. you know, I think there's so many of us that have been doing this for a very long time together. ⁓ we all learned early in our careers the importance of having a community ⁓ staying connected to people. and I was, you know, a hundred and ten percent yes, I'm in. because now like You know, some people are like I'm still in New York, but like you're on the West Coast now and like, you know, AJ's also on the West Coast, Corey's down in Texas, like everybody's all spread out all over the place. So we don't always get to see one another. so I think it's pretty fantastic, ⁓ that they were like, you know, let's do something. It's not about selling. It's really about just staying connected and, know, if there's opportunities amazing. If not, like let's just get old together. So I ⁓ they probably they didn't say that part, that was me. But ⁓ you know, it's I think it's the reality. And, you know, a bunch of us will see each other next week in Cannes, but a lot of people can't make that trip. So where are the opper other opportunities we can pop in and say hello? ⁓ ⁓ you know, I think that's a pretty good thing. Brian: Yeah. So that's a good one. So showing up in Cannes, you know, you've got a ton of people that you know that'll be there and you've probably been for a number of years, correct? Tam: I think this is like number ten for me. ⁓ Dude, ⁓ don't look that old, right? Brian: That's a lot. No, you don't. it's it's easier for you. You've been there. You kind of know where to go. but I think one of the advantages to being part of a community like this is that when you do show up at events, there is a group that you know will be there and you're like, okay, at least I know these people. they can help me navigate this event and ⁓ and maybe make it more pleasurable of an experience Tam: Yes. No, I mean Cannes is a it's a workhorse and I I I came out of last year. I I think I had six client partners there with me and was ⁓ when I left. I actually changed my flight and I came home early. I was just done. I think I logged like 30,000 steps ⁓ a day, like, you know, ⁓ meetings. lunches, dinners, etc. And I don't like I don't even go to all the parties anymore. Like I just don't have it in me. So really like for us at Media Plus, it's a big, big deal. ⁓ because it's an you know, first of all, we're we're a European based company and you know, we're a global organization, but like a lot of my friends and colleagues from ⁓ Plus and Service Plan are in Europe. so I don't get to see them all the time. So that's also a nice opportunity for us to connect. But we have so many global partners that can enables a lot of conversation. It also enables a lot of new conversations. This year I'm speaking at two events. My business partner Jasmine is speaking at one. And then ⁓ you know surprise guest. I brought a surprise guest for you. he's he's coordinating whole calendar and our whole life in Cannes this year. ⁓ So Talk about talk about community, Brian. I thought I would bring along somebody who's made a big, big difference in my community and your community over the years. How you doing, buddy? Brian: Yeah, absolutely. Alan Shanzer, welcome in. Tam: We don't want to throw off your script here, but Brian: There's no script. It's great to have you on. How have you been? Yeah. How has it been working with Tam again? Tam: Yeah. I've been good. Been really good. ⁓ joined ⁓ it's been great, you know, joined up ⁓ God, it's been almost eight months I think. Yeah. so we took a twenty five year hiatus, separated, learned a ⁓ grew a ⁓ stayed in as good friends, and ⁓ decided it was time to come back together. Brian: Amazing. I I thought it was so great when I saw that that was happening. And and in a reverse a reversal of roles, right? You were you were you were ahead of the media edge when we were all there. ⁓ and now you're working alongside That's right. Tam: Digital edge. Don't Yeah, digital edge. And you yeah, CEO. Founder. Well founder. But ⁓ so yeah, so she worked for me for a while, now I work for her. So full circle. Brian: Yeah. Full circle. That's amazing. Are you off to can two or are you stand back? Tam: Off the can, yep. Yeah, you talk about like organizing a life. Alan has organized our entire agenda for the week. ⁓ so I will be blaming him for exhaustion this this time at the end of the week. Mm-hmm. Brian: Amazing. All the back to back to back to back. Tam: Yeah, and exciting for me because all these all all of our European colleagues, I haven't really met any of them yet, so be really great for that. ⁓ in in real real person conversations. And it's great because Brian, you talk a lot, you know, obviously community is such an important thing. And I've been part of this organization now for five years. And it's a it's a bit of a reversal because it's the first time I've worked at, you know, holding group where the US wasn't the center. And so for me, you know, we have twenty we're we're in twenty-four countries we have fifty offices. ⁓ And you know, we have ⁓ a little over a hundred of us here, but globally we have seventy five hundred. So it's like this huge community and I like I feel so blessed because I love my colleagues. I mean when I'm in Paris, I'm I'm seeing the head of growth for Service Plan Group, I'm seeing the I'm having dinner with the CEO of Media Plus and his wife with Scott and I've spent time with, which is great. And there's just, you know, there's now my community, which I think ⁓ Most purposes was very like US based, has become a very global community and it it really changes things, you know. Like you talk about the blurring of lines, friends and family, like you know, we're we talk about we're like, ⁓ let's do a house swap so like I can go stay, like, you know, in in France if I want, somebody comes and stays in Connecticut. Like we've literally had conversations about doing that. So I I think it's pretty cool. How if you lean in and you think about like the advantages community brings to you to make you feel more whole. know, I I ⁓ feel like at Media Pleasant Service Plan Group I've found that 'cause my community has just expanded in a crazy way. ⁓ Brian: Yeah. That's such an interesting distinction. so you guys are there's way more people in Europe than in the US. what are like what of challenges does that bring with managing employees in the US when a lot of the operation is in Europe? Tam: Yeah, no, I mean, I don't know if you know, we talk about community. We just won added to best places to work this year, which was awesome. and that's all like I'm pointing at the team, that's all them. they have to like there's a third party like researcher that comes in and does that survey. and you I think we are one of fifty companies nationally, like really special. ⁓ So culture ⁓ I ⁓ you know well, it's always been super important to him. ⁓ Brian: Congratulations. Tam: And it's super important to us. And so, you know, we really cultivate an awesome community here. We're in three days a week together. A lot of them actually come in four. and even sometimes they pop in on Fridays. They don't like, you know, you don't want to work in a small New York City apartment. You'd rather be together in the office. good snacks. Good snacks, a good bar. We have we have a full bar, so when you're when you're here, Bri, you can come in and have a have a drink. With us at the office. We found the trick to getting people to come in every day. Food and booze, right? So yeah, all good. But they ⁓ actually provide the opportunity for ⁓ ⁓ our team, to ⁓ and spend time in our global ⁓ offices. So ⁓ have a professional foot our ⁓ paintballer on our on our team. And he travels to Europe all the time. So he's Brian: Okay. ⁓ my god. Tam: spent a week in Paris, he spent a week in Manchester, he just mostly spent a week in Prague and he just works out of our offices there. So again, I like to go right back to your focus, like community. It's like it's it's amazing what the network, you know, I hate using that word, the group provides a talent perspective, 'cause they can really connect on a whole different level. Brian: Nice. Well, I'd love to ask you this. I think we've gone through quite a change with the pandemic, with everything being shut down and being brought like online and in our houses and stuff. And now we're kind of still in a place of we're all coming back out and learning how to be with people and kind of figuring out our groups and our communities. Have you guys that shift? You ⁓ certainly would love hear from both of you. Would you have you guys seen that shift in the last, I guess? five years, three to three to five years since we've kind of put it a little bit in the rearview mirror. Tam: ⁓ mean ⁓ so really focus on like in real life is such a big deal. ⁓ And I I bring it back to what Corey and AJ have wanted to create here. it's so to have that in real life time together. And ⁓ you I five years ago we started with two days a week and then we very quickly pivoted to three. ⁓ organically the team is coming back four to five on their own. And I think that they really realize the importance of what we grew up with, which is being together in person for work is such a different experience. And you you not only value so much more, you learn so much more. And so I think for a from a leadership perspective, you know, Alan Jasmine and I are really focused on making sure that we're giving every opportunity for them to be together and to create a really rich culture that is in and out of the office. Shanzerpalooza for our summer party like this year. ⁓ I was gonna say, you know, ⁓ signs of this are like the teams, our colleagues, decided to off and create, you know, this opportunity to play sports together again. You know, the old days when we would always play ⁓ softball and then go to a bar afterwards, like these guys just came to us and said, Would you sponsor if we wanted to go play ⁓ pickleball and have a pickleball? team and they're doing that stuff on their own, right? And so that's that's them saying to us they want to spend more time together. They all like each other. all, you know, pretty young and I think they're just really enjoying, you the opportunity to just ⁓ all be together. Tam just told me before we got on the call that I had to cancel my evening plans because everyone wants to go out and get a drink today. So ⁓ they don't want to go down, they're like gonna do it at the bar. No, we're doing it at the bar so we're not going anywhere. So but think there's a real you know there's a real motion towards it. I have a daughter who's starting her first job next week and she was really determined to find a job that was like in the office in the city because she's 22 years old and she wants to be around other 22 year old kids and she to get to know her boss and she wants to have mentors and I think that's all back in full force and really super important. ⁓ I and I think in terms of like ⁓ forward, I think the good thing is these kids don't want to just be at home anymore. And I I don't wanna call ⁓ kids, but you know, these this this young talent does not wanna just be at home anymore. They really, really value that togetherness. And I think they've they've realized like the impact it has from like, you know, some of some of our colleagues have been with us since like Brian: Mm-hmm. Tam: twenty twenty one. I mean we have I think twenty percent of our staff has been with us for four four mare four years or more. So ⁓ they gone through the change with us and I think as young ⁓ young they really feel the difference. ⁓ So it's Brian: Yeah. I mean, certainly when you're starting out in your career, that in person relationships that you're building are so important to you. It's an you know, it's an opportunity to fail. It's an opportunity to to really kind of build rapport with your with your coworkers that just it didn't happen over Zooms, right? It has to happen in person when you're ⁓ the same room and you're sharing ideas. Tam: Yeah. And and these kid these kids, these young adults are still adults that probably spent their first ⁓ or two in college, perhaps, with ⁓ classes. I mean, you they're you know, ready to bust out into the world, which is which is great. ⁓ Brian: Awesome. Well, I have a couple fun questions for you guys. what do I have down here? ⁓ do you know when the last time you danced was? Tam: Go Nyx. On Saturday, I went out, ⁓ my husband and I went out with some friends of ours locally, and we got home right as the Knicks, like and and I didn't remember, but we were dancing. I got video sent. I got video sent. We had a good night celebrating the Knicks. Go Nicks. Brian: Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. living room dance. ⁓ My gosh, what an energy that's brought to the city, huh? Tam: It's crazy. What about you? When's the last time you danced? I dance almost every day. a big dancer. it's part of my morning and evening ritual. recently went a bot mitzvah and really tore it up there. went to the Rocky Hard Picture Show ⁓ last week on Broadway. So ⁓ I've done time if that counts recently. So yeah, so yeah, dance, every day, dance like no one's watching, right? Brian: Wow. Amazing. I love it. I was gonna ask you too, who else should we talk to? We either someone who's in the social fabric ⁓ world already or someone that we should get involved. You have someone like we shouldn't you should nominate or we can nominate to ⁓ to join us for this podcast? Tam: ⁓ I love that. would nominate my dear friend Marty Funk. She's absolutely part of the social fabric. she's the founder of Ascendant Group and their whole business is about community. and it's collection of high level marketers that you know actively participate and choose to be part of it. so I think Marty would be able to give some awesome perspective. ⁓ also is like she's very much into community and she she also has ⁓ a son Stella's age and so we were ⁓ part of kind of a parenting community. I don't know you have anybody else. ⁓ Marty's a a great, great option. I was gonna say Adam Schlachter, but ⁓ whatever. ⁓ Brian you must have him involved. Brian: Yeah. Tam: I think Marty would be terrific. Yeah. The the other person I would think that you'd have an interesting conversation and I've become close with her recently, her n her name's Stephanie Vanberg and she is the founder and CEO of Babbel, which happens to stand for Badass Bitches League. but it's a it's a C suite executive community that really is about empowering and supporting ⁓ other women. in executive leadership. I I've with it since the beginning and I think it's something that's really special. but Stephanie I think you'd you'd have a fun time ⁓ playing with her here. She brings a great perspective, a great experience. Yeah, she would be great. ⁓ Brian: That's awesome. I appreciate all of those nominations. I'm gonna have to reach reach out to them. Well, thank you both for being part of this ⁓ first social fabric sessions as a subset of the Marketing Brief podcast. ⁓ I really appreciate it both of you jumping on. Tam: Well thanks for letting me ⁓ crash the party. Bri. Enjoyed being here. Brian: Anytime, Alan, and thank you, Tam, for being a guest. right, everyone. Thank you so much. ⁓