In the latest episode of Love What You Do, Jennifer Nye, Chief Marketing and Creative Officer at Momentum | B+N, shares how an unexpected path from fashion-design ambitions to accounting and marketing shaped her view of creativity. She joins Doug Shapiro to talk about building memorable brand experiences, choosing collaborators with shared values, seeking feedback, and helping people do work that draws on their strengths.
Doug Shapiro 00:00:04
Welcome to the Love What You Do podcast. I'm your host, Doug Shapiro. These are the conversations that open doors to what's possible when you love what you do.
Doug Shapiro 00:00:18
All right, let's low-key start.
Jennifer Nye 00:00:20
Let's low-key start.
Doug Shapiro 00:00:23
Jennifer Nye, leading marketing at Momentum. Thank you for joining me here on the Love What You Do podcast.
Jennifer Nye 00:00:29
I'm so honored to be here. Thank you, Doug.
Doug Shapiro 00:00:31
Awesome. You know how we start. I always do the warm-up questions.
Jennifer Nye 00:00:35
I know. I'm nervous.
Doug Shapiro 00:00:37
I've got some good ones for you here. All right. If there was a childhood game that could become an official Olympic sport, what would be the one you have the best chance of medaling in?
Jennifer Nye 00:00:52
I could say Chutes and Ladders.
Doug Shapiro 00:00:55
Chutes and Ladders.
Jennifer Nye 00:00:56
Chutes and Ladders. Yes, because I know how to climb up and slide down and, you know, take turns. I think I would do pretty well with Chutes and Ladders.
Doug Shapiro 00:01:05
Awesome. The ladder is, like when you hit that big ladder, it's an adrenaline rush.
Jennifer Nye 00:01:10
It is, it is.
Doug Shapiro 00:01:12
Good one. All right. Here's a fun one. If you were borrowing the swagger from one famous person, whose swagger would you take? And you could only borrow it for a day.
Jennifer Nye 00:01:31
That's a really good one. Swagger as far as walk goes.
Doug Shapiro 00:01:38
Just, yeah, I mean, you know, the whole thing.
Jennifer Nye 00:01:42
I think, I mean, we all know Sarah Jessica Parker, and when she walked that runway in the Sex and the City episode, and she had the most amazing swagger, and then she fell. But then just got up and just kept walking with the same swagger. And I... I think that that would be who I do.
Doug Shapiro 00:02:05
That's a good one.
Jennifer Nye 00:02:05
I'm kind of klutzy a little bit. So, yes.
Doug Shapiro 00:02:08
I'm glad we're sitting here today. The Sex and the City, Sarah Jessica Parker swagger. I like it. That's a good answer. All right, here's a fun one for you. Your first job.
Jennifer Nye 00:02:24
My first job, I was actually 15 because you could work at 15 years old where I was from in a small town in Wisconsin. It was for Shopko, if you're familiar. It's like a regional hardware, housewares, maybe like a Kmart type of company. And I was in the hardware department. And in the hardware department, you mixed paint. So a lot of my role there was to mix paint from paint chips. And so I'd have all these customers coming in, and they would give me their paint chips. And many times, probably 9 out of 10, I would look at the paint chip and think to myself that color isn't on trend at 15 years old. And I would mix a different one. Just without even thinking, right? I would mix a different one. They would take it home. And so all of a sudden, returns started coming in to Shopko,
Jennifer Nye 00:03:31
and it was all identified with paint that I mixed. So they thought that I didn't know how to mix paint, so they removed me and put me in lawn and garden with the plants and everything like that. But I guess from an early age, I've really liked color and tried to influence where color went in people's homes without their opinion.
Doug Shapiro 00:03:50
That is hilarious.
Jennifer Nye 00:03:52
Isn't that fun?
Doug Shapiro 00:03:52
Yeah. I mean, did you think you were helping in that moment?
Jennifer Nye 00:03:59
I don't know why, but I did. I did. I thought I was helping, and I would make their life better. If it was, you know, a brighter yellow than the yellow they chose. I don't know.
Doug Shapiro 00:04:10
So when did you ever go and connect yourself back to that kind of like caring about color? Like when did that surface later for you? Because it wasn't like you were your first career put you in that path, right?
Jennifer Nye 00:04:25
No, no. I would say Probably once I joined Kohler Company and colors really mattered, you know, CMF was, you know, what we operated off of. And I would always have the Pantone chips. I would always follow the Pantone Color of the Year-ish. And so I cared about color very early on. But I also think it goes back to how I've dressed too growing up. It was never just black and white, even today. Even though our industry is, you know, we wear a lot of black and white, but I always have some sort of color on. So it's been with me, I guess, since the early Shopko days.
Doug Shapiro 00:05:02
Since the early Shopko days? That's really funny. I don't even know if Shopko's still around, but there could be somebody listening that would be like [unclear].
Jennifer Nye 00:05:12
They will understand. And if anyone from Marinette's, you know, listening, they will know that I probably, you know, influence some of the color in their house if they decided to keep it.
Doug Shapiro 00:05:21
That is hilarious.
Jennifer Nye 00:05:22
Yeah.
Doug Shapiro 00:05:23
So let's get into, I guess, your career in terms of marketing. We talked earlier, so I kind of know, like, this wasn't what you were going to do. You were going into accounting and Who knows where that would take you?
Jennifer Nye 00:05:41
Right, exactly.
Doug Shapiro 00:05:42
Or how long it would take you to find your way out of that. Because I think a lot of people find their way into the design industry as the second career.
Jennifer Nye 00:05:49
Yes.
Doug Shapiro 00:05:50
But you flip the switch pretty quick.
Jennifer Nye 00:05:53
I did. I didn't originally want to be in accounting. My goal was to be a fashion designer. My heart was set on FIT. So I would come home from school, I would rip out magazines, I would draw my own clothes, you know, for Esprit and Benetton and all those, you know, way back, if you know. And then my mother was so, such a dear and would sew some of my designs. I was never good with a sewing machine. And so I wanted to be a fashion designer. And then my... I had to take a pivot because at a very young age, I had a child. And so instead of going to FIT with a toddler, I thought I needed stability and what's more stable than finance. And you can get a good career working for, you know, one of the top accounting firms right out of school.
Jennifer Nye 00:06:48
So I made a switch from fashion design to accounting, which Once I was there, and once I was very close to the degree, I decided that that wasn't me. I need to be true to who I was, which was some sort of creative role. And so I got a degree in marketing, double major in accounting and marketing, and here I am today.
Doug Shapiro 00:07:11
So a young mother, you don't give up on your dreams. I mean, that's a unique experience, right?
Jennifer Nye 00:07:20
It was.
Doug Shapiro 00:07:21
So, Take me into that in terms of, like, what about that do you carry with you today that has, like, informed who you are, how you treat things, how you treat others?
Jennifer Nye 00:07:36
Yeah, it was a crazy time, obviously not planned, but both of my parents are educators or were educators before they retired. And going off to school, no matter what my situation, just the next step. So I didn't take a gap year or anything like that. So I think having to switch my mindset into, all right, how do I build a creative path for myself? I built creative... a creative world for my daughter. So she went to college with me. She was my right hand. I would be in group meetings after school and she'd be at the next table with, you know, some sort of art project. But I think that I just had to get really creative, not just from a profession standpoint, but also how to bring her world, you know,
Jennifer Nye 00:08:31
build a world with her in a very unique situation while making sure that she visually saw that life is okay being with a single mom. And so I think what how I, what I take with me today is that I'm resilient, so I don't like to take no for an answer because we can figure it out. You can figure it out as a team. But also that creativity means many things, right? It doesn't have to be a profession. It could be just being creative with what you want to do on a day-to-day basis. It doesn't have to be art-driven. It just can be a mindset. And also how to be scrappy. That's another thing. I know how to be scrappy. With my team, we don't need a million dollars to build experiences for our customers. And those are the main things I think that I took. Nothing's impossible.
Doug Shapiro 00:09:33
That's beautiful. That's awesome.
Jennifer Nye 00:09:35
Thank you.
Doug Shapiro 00:09:36
You know, you mentioned experiences and experiences you're building with your team. I want to take you to 2024 NeoCon in the MART. The Momentum space, that was the most memorable part of that whole NeoCon for me. And I remember I called Cheryl and I was talking about your space. And I was like, out of everything there, like, like, Momentum understood that people just want joy, like right now. You know, like, that's, and you delivered that experience. I mean, it was really impressive.
Jennifer Nye 00:10:16
Thank you. We tried. We didn't know what the reaction was going to be because it could have gone the opposite way. But I think we were all as an industry during that time, shortly after COVID, we all needed joy. And it just, it was fun to do. And the reaction from designers is something that will stick with me forever. 2024 was definitely my favorite year.
Doug Shapiro 00:10:43
So it's funny, I asked you just when we were chatting before we, before we hit record, I said, if you had a billboard in your hometown, you could put anything on it.
Jennifer Nye 00:10:54
Yeah.
Doug Shapiro 00:10:55
And you said,
Jennifer Nye 00:10:57
Take a risk?
Doug Shapiro 00:10:58
Yeah.
Jennifer Nye 00:10:58
Just take risk.
Doug Shapiro 00:10:59
Take the risk.
Jennifer Nye 00:11:00
Take the risk.
Doug Shapiro 00:11:01
And I was like, that's really good. And it's kind of like, that NeoCon, you took the risk. You went for it.
Jennifer Nye 00:11:07
We did. We're very neutral industry, right? The brights aren't typically what sells. But we also wanted to make sure that the people walking into our space were able to feel what we were trying to get across. And that was whatever they needed to feel, whether it's positive or sunny and life-changing, somebody said to me, and I just, you know, giving somebody a new canvas to just try something new, even if it's in the corner of a building, that's okay.
Doug Shapiro 00:11:40
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I want to dig deeper into the subject because this is what you are a master at. So if there's something that you could reach through the microphone and hand a listener, I think it's around this subject of brand experience. Like, if you could educate us on brand experience and what you can build through thinking differently about experience, like, that's what I'd love to get into. Like, do you have a one, two, three, or something like that, that you use, that's your Bible for that?
Jennifer Nye 00:12:11
It changes per brand that I work on, but I think the pillars are still the same. So, for instance, you should always know what your customers think of your brand. So whenever I start at a new company, a new project, I do the research of where are we within our competition, but also what do you think about us? What are we your go-to for this? And if not, this, why? So really understanding who you are, but then who do you want to be while staying authentic and true to yourself. So with Momentum, specifically, I came in and I also am over design. So we have so many talented designers who bring amazing products, and we had amazing products. But the customers only knew us as just really good neutrals and beiges. We are great for budget. We're the safe choice. And that's okay. We're also trustworthy.
Jennifer Nye 00:13:23
You can't build trust, right? So those are qualities and characteristics that I was so lucky to be brought into a company that has that. But I was also brought in, So they wanted to showcase more. And we had the talent and we had the designs. We just didn't bring it out to the world. So slowly I started putting color into our showroom during NeoCon, changing up our photography, very simple things, because we had the talent and we had the product. And so those many teeny experiences, visual experiences, I think helped change. And again, it was who we want to be or who we could be versus what people thought of us today. And then I don't know what happened with Yinka. It was born from one of our very, very talented designers. We do an exercise about collaborations, which, you know, I'll talk through later, but she brought Yinka.
Jennifer Nye 00:14:23
And it was a little corner editorial, an interior magazine, interior design magazine. And it just was built around color, bright color, and joy, which doesn't always sell in commercial interiors environment. But we just went after it [unclear]. So we don't take risks often, but when we do, we have to know it's the right risk. And we felt like this was the right opportunity and the right time to do something. And I'm so honored that you think it was one of the best.
Doug Shapiro 00:15:00
Oh, yeah. You could recognize it. You really delivered a feeling and you stood out. And it was just the right amount of everything. You mentioned collaborations. We'll get into that. I kind of want to, like, you said this phrase I kind of want to dig into, you know, like who, you know, understand what people think of us and who do we want to be. And so often, I think we talk about companies like we talk about people or ourselves. And it's like, you know, What do others think of us? Are we who we want to be? There's like a song. There's like a Switchfoot song. Like, this is your life. Are you who you want to be? I don't know how it is. You probably heard it. It's like stuck in my head now. I said that. But I just wonder, like,
Doug Shapiro 00:15:48
the more we think about brands as people, it's like that's kind of how I think others think of them. Like they say, they treat them like they're people. Like a brand can betray someone or they, it's really just like there's, it's almost like really they just are people.
Jennifer Nye 00:16:05
Right. They are people. They are people that want to build something that means something out in the world. And that's what Momentum is really trying to do too.
Doug Shapiro 00:16:15
Yeah. Yeah. Are you like, are you, this is deep. Are you who you want to be? You know, like are you aiming for something different or are you where you want to be?
Jennifer Nye 00:16:27
I'm... I will always be aiming for higher, but instead of me aiming higher for myself, it's I want to aim higher for the company and the brand, and I want to aim higher for my team. So that has changed over the past few years. Momentum is very much a team. We are where we are because of the team. The fire in the belly of everyone on my team is just amazing. Everyone is so passionate that we're building a brand together.
Doug Shapiro 00:17:01
It's almost like I, there's a comment that I've heard go as far as you can see. And when you get there, you can see farther. And I feel like even in the year and a half that I've been at JSI, like I almost feel like we keep adjusting our trajectory because like we kind of do that. We go as far as we can see. And then it's like, oh man, we can actually, we can be different, more different than we thought we could be. We could be bigger than we thought we could be, or whatever it is. So I do think there's something to like always going back to that brand exercise of like, you know, revisiting that question or who we want to be because it's probably never, ever done.
Jennifer Nye 00:17:42
And customers' needs and wants change. So you need to adapt slightly while still being unique to who you are.
Doug Shapiro 00:17:51
Okay. Let's go into collaborations because I think for a design audience, you know, in many ways, they are collaborators. You're collaborating with designers. Are there methods for you as sort of a client of collaboration that others can learn from?
Jennifer Nye 00:18:16
You have to know what the goal is of the collaboration at the onset. Is it sales? Is it... Is it PR, media? I think what's different about Momentum is that we really truly want to work with people that we can relate to, and we believe in their morals and their values, and we see that they're making a difference in the world outside of just what they do for a living. And so, you know, that's not always every brand or company's motto is to do that, but we need to become one with who you are and really dig deep into your life. So having this kind of conversation with a collaborator that I'm having with you today is something that we do in order to really understand. Is this going to work or is this not going to work? Because we're going to be spending a lot of time together.
Jennifer Nye 00:19:15
And I can't do my best work or my design team can't do their best work unless they can really dig deep into who they are. So that's what we do, and that's the Yinka success. I mean, people are calling it the Yinka effect, which I love, is that we really needed to partner with somebody that really cared about what was going on in the world and helping youth and sustainability was a big... You know, one of his things that was near and dear to his heart. So all the pillars that Momentum has, we need our collaborators to have the same thing. We also want to make sure that our collaborator isn't at the top of their game yet. Yinka's a different story, but I like to say that we can get someone's... the most attention from someone and get their best work
Jennifer Nye 00:20:07
If they're on the bell curve, you know, it's right here. They are just like almost to the top, right, where they understand how to work, how collaboration works. They are not taking advantage, but that they're not at the top of their game where I can't get...
Doug Shapiro 00:20:23
Can't afford them.
Jennifer Nye 00:20:24
Can't afford them and can't get enough of their time. So I think Yinka was such an amazing collaborator and it was right at the right time. A year later, I don't necessarily know if we would have been able to work with him. So we built a really great relationship.
Doug Shapiro 00:20:41
I think there's a lesson too just in you as the client of this design collaboration in a way, sort of caring about morals and caring about, you know, the standards that this person has and you call them the pillars, right? Kind of like as a designer, I would say, if you could be forward with those things, you don't have to wait for them to emerge. You know, you can share your values, share those things. And then in a way, like if it connects, if it lands and there's authentic alignment, that's probably got huge value.
Jennifer Nye 00:21:19
Yeah, yeah.
Doug Shapiro 00:21:20
I don't know that we take the time always to actually address, well, here's what we're about before I start showing you stuff.
Jennifer Nye 00:21:28
Yes, yes. I think past collaborations, I was... I was that exactly. And it was more about sales and their clout at the time, if you remember that word. But now it's more about, you know, what can we build together. And that's another pillar, I think, that collaborators love to hear, artists and designers that we work with, love to hear, is that we're not here at Momentum to influence the outcome of it. It has to be what you like. We will talk about construction and make sure that the testing is appropriate, but we bring your vision to life. It is your idea, and we want to make sure that your vision is true to who you are versus us kind of influencing it to be what could be like a gap in our line or something like that. So that's how we were able to reel them in.
Doug Shapiro 00:22:25
Awesome.
Jennifer Nye 00:22:26
Yeah.
Doug Shapiro 00:22:27
I know you've done some speaking.
Jennifer Nye 00:22:29
Yeah.
Doug Shapiro 00:22:30
And you bring with you in those engagements advice, right, for emerging designers. Would you mind sharing some of that? I don't know how much you can share in the time we have, but I would love to hear what you're coaching right now.
Jennifer Nye 00:22:45
Thank you. I mentor a lot, and a lot meaning, you know, three to five dedicated people, but also whenever I can give advice I do. And I think that although I'm not a designer, I am a brand experience gal, and a marketer, I think the advice that I give would be transferable across any industry. Like, I think taking risks is really important. Because our industry as a whole needs to take risks. And when you're a young designer or a young marketer and you feel like you have to work in a box, especially the corporate box that many of us are used to, you know, find ways to take those risks. That's really number one. I think going back to staying true to who you are, it will hurt you in the long run if you don't stay true to who you are.
Jennifer Nye 00:23:46
Making sure that you're asking for feedback at an early age. I mean, I was not good at taking feedback. I don't know if you were. You know,
Doug Shapiro 00:23:57
I haven't thought about it. I haven't thought about it.
Jennifer Nye 00:24:01
Ask for feedback. You know, that's one of my big mottos, and I ask for feedback on everything, our space. I do mystery shops of our NeoCon space because I want to understand what... What's the feedback on our space? What do people like? What do they don't? How could we have done a better job getting our point across? But it's also good for personal development. If you are not asking for feedback and getting real-time, you know, constructive criticism on how you can become better. So I am constantly seeking out feedback, executive coaching. And I think starting at an early age and being open to having people tell you that you might not be doing this well, but why and how can you get better is important.
Doug Shapiro 00:24:52
And you know, I would say I very much relate to where you're going with this. And like the more you grow in your career in terms of like the more your position elevates and things change for you, probably the less feedback you get.
Jennifer Nye 00:25:08
Right.
Doug Shapiro 00:25:09
And the more important it is to have it.
Jennifer Nye 00:25:11
It is.
Doug Shapiro 00:25:12
And so it is like, it is a, it is a, you know, whether it's, you know, well-intended, you know, productive feedback, which is great, or if it's just flat out complaining, like, I will take it. There's a woman, Christine Hoffman, was her name, or is her name, and she's in St. Louis, and she told me once, a complaint is a gift. And I was like, ooh, that's so good. And so I hang on to that and it reframes things in my mind when I get those complaints, which I'm sure I still get them. So yeah, I'm totally aligned with you there.
Jennifer Nye 00:25:51
But you're probably somebody that feels that you need to fix things and take those complaints and make them into a positive.
Doug Shapiro 00:26:00
Yeah, absolutely. Whether it's a complaint about me or anything I'm involved in, yes.
Jennifer Nye 00:26:08
Who would complain about you?
Doug Shapiro 00:26:09
I can get you a list.
Jennifer Nye 00:26:13
That's funny.
Doug Shapiro 00:26:14
So, you know, in terms of, you know, advice, obviously the feedback piece is big. Is there anything else that you kind of say, hey, if I have five minutes with this person, I don't want them to leave without knowing this. Is there anything else in that category?
Jennifer Nye 00:26:29
Being true to who you are, like I mentioned, I think being involved, especially in this industry, is very important, whether it's through IIDA, ASID, NEWH, whatever it is, being involved because you never know what you can learn from somebody else. It might be, you know, over a cocktail, it could just be at a panel. So taking that extra time after hours to just go to those networking events and meet people, especially when you're younger in your career and we're working remote. And so there's not that hands-on mentorship on a daily basis. Getting involved is really important.
Doug Shapiro 00:27:11
I agree with that. Your network is kind of this little ball of gravity, I feel like.
Jennifer Nye 00:27:19
Yeah.
Doug Shapiro 00:27:20
And almost like, you know, the bigger something is, the more gravity it has, the more it pulls into it. And like you have to grow that little tiny particle that you start off with, which is like nothing. You have to start bringing things into that. And that is how, you know, you have to get involved.
Jennifer Nye 00:27:38
And that's why we all love this industry so much. Because at the end of day, so many of us are friends, you can count on each other throughout all of the cyclical craziness that we're going through. We're all here for each other. And that wouldn't have started for me specifically if it wasn't for networking events and just being involved.
Doug Shapiro 00:27:59
I love it. That's great advice. We talked a little bit about mentorship. Last thing that I want to get into on your list here is balance. So you have, you have grandkids.
Jennifer Nye 00:28:17
I have grandkids.
Doug Shapiro 00:28:18
Which is just wild. [Overlapping speech] I'm sitting across from you. I'm like, That's so crazy. I feel like I feel like I'm probably older than you. Yeah, you have grandkids. So yes, a young mother, you know, you've got kids and grandkids. You're very busy, the position that you're in. And, you know, I'm sure you travel a lot.
Jennifer Nye 00:28:38
I travel a lot.
Doug Shapiro 00:28:39
Yes. How do you find your balance?
Jennifer Nye 00:28:43
I'm not great at it, to be honest. I've really had to work hard to make sure that it's not trickling down to my team. So, you know, my balance can be off, but I really try to preach work-life balance with my team. When I do need the balance, which comes, you know, once every couple months where it's urgent, so my husband and I like to travel. And we have a unique way of traveling. You know, my daughter is out on her own with her own family now, so I'm at home with my husband, two dogs, so it's easy for me to say this right now. But we will, we love music. We will find a band or musician that we really want to see that's on our bucket list.
Jennifer Nye 00:29:33
No matter where it is in the world, we're going to figure out a way to go, and then we revolve trips around it. So whether it's Coldplay at Wembley or Björk at... You know, in Paris, you know, once a year, this is what we do. just to get out. And then also I get inspiration. I do my little side trips and make sure that I'm being fulfilled.
Doug Shapiro 00:29:59
Is there always just [unclear: clean hand stack] on like where you're going and who you're seeing, like total agreement? Or is there like ever like total, like, you know, is there compromise?
Jennifer Nye 00:30:14
My husband knows of very eclectic alt-rock bands that I'm not familiar with, but the experience around it, I will go. If it's country, sorry, but I'm not, I'm not going. He doesn't like country either. But we do. We're aligned for the most part.
Doug Shapiro 00:30:31
Okay, lucky you.
Jennifer Nye 00:30:32
Yeah.
Doug Shapiro 00:30:32
That's great.
Jennifer Nye 00:30:33
Our bucket lists are pretty similar.
Doug Shapiro 00:30:37
That's fun.
Jennifer Nye 00:30:38
Yeah.
Doug Shapiro 00:30:40
I would say there's 50% crossover and 50% in my world, like totally different. I do have a daughter, though, that loves the Beatles.
Jennifer Nye 00:30:48
Oh, that's so special.
Doug Shapiro 00:30:50
And so she and my wife, who's also a Beatles fan, go, and like, I couldn't name, I didn't know the people or the songs. And I feel like I'm, like, not, I feel like I'm out of touch by saying that. But now I know, like, everything. I know all the songs.
Jennifer Nye 00:31:04
She's an old soul. That's so special.
Doug Shapiro 00:31:06
So it's kind of fun.
Jennifer Nye 00:31:07
One more thing about that is, yes, I do have grandkids, and that is another way that I disconnect because at the end of the day, you're not thinking about work when you're with your grandchildren. I mean, we're making slime, we are making Rice Krispies, we are making Lego ornaments, You're hands-on.
Doug Shapiro 00:31:27
That's great.
Jennifer Nye 00:31:28
That's another way to really, really disconnect. So it's been nice to have that time with them.
Doug Shapiro 00:31:33
That's awesome. I almost feel like there's a... There's probably a time, you know, if you don't have them, it's like, I guess you can have pets. That would be the thing. Because, like, in our world, like, my wife and I talk, like, when our kids leave, she's like, oh, I'm going three dogs.
Jennifer Nye 00:31:51
Oh, yeah.
Doug Shapiro 00:31:52
Because we're, like, a huge dog family. And so, like, that would be, like, my disconnection would be the dogs when the kids leave.
Jennifer Nye 00:31:59
Until there's grandkids.
Doug Shapiro 00:32:00
Until there's grandkids, right?
Jennifer Nye 00:32:02
Yes.
Doug Shapiro 00:32:03
And then those poor dogs. All right. I wrote down a word I mentioned earlier, which was mosaic. And, you know, there's a lot of ways to interpret that word. I feel like we could do a whole episode on this word. But I want to ask about it in relationship to your team, your people that you work with. Like, you're not the average marketer in terms of, like, how you've found your way into this world and into this industry. Do you surround yourself with a mosaic of people? Are there differences that you search for? Do you just get what you get? Let's just talk about maybe team building.
Jennifer Nye 00:32:51
First of all, I love this question, because I think mosaic is a perfect word for all of this. When I think of mosaic, I think of different viewpoints. and we're not all the same. And having multiple viewpoints from different people makes experiences, makes products better. You know, the end result is so much better when you have multiple people part of the process. I do like to build teams. I have had a lot of learnings over what works, what doesn't work, and so I've had to rebuild a lot. But I also feel one of the things I'm great at is pulling out what people's passions are. You know, when I came to Momentum and met a whole new, brand new marketing team, my first exercise with them was, all right, we're going to do a presentation. We're going to have a meeting. Everybody bring their favorite ad campaign of all times.
Jennifer Nye 00:33:59
It doesn't have to be related to the industry at all. And tell me, what resonated with you about that and why. And from that exercise, I re-scoped my entire department because people talked about what they were passionate about. People said what moved them. I could tell if you were creative or not or if you were an ops person. I could tell all these things. And that wasn't the only way that I decided to rebuild, but we rebuilt something to be magical, I think. We all have different strengths. We all have different roles. And people are open to moving around if they're not in the right role. Or if the role is moving, the scope is changing, and you don't want to change with it. That's okay. You're still valuable, but then let's have you focus on something different. But at the end of the day,
Jennifer Nye 00:34:51
our marketing team specifically of, let's just say 10 people, We all have different viewpoints, and we all have different swim lanes, but we come together at the end and cheer each other on and make great things, I think.
Doug Shapiro 00:35:04
That's cool.
Jennifer Nye 00:35:04
Yeah.
Doug Shapiro 00:35:05
I like how you called out viewpoints, perspectives, but then you also call out passions, which I think are very different, right? You can approach the world from a same place, but have a completely different passion around something.
Jennifer Nye 00:35:17
Yeah.
Doug Shapiro 00:35:18
And I think that's also an interesting thing to build a mosaic around.
Jennifer Nye 00:35:23
I think so too.
Doug Shapiro 00:35:24
You know, like you need people that are passionate about color and you need people that are passionate about science and the human experience or whatever. You know, like you need all of that in design too. It's the same way, you know. And if you look around like a beautiful showroom, I'm just like looking around the one we're in, you know, it is a little bit like there's parts and pieces of care that came into this, like people who were obsessed around sewing details, people who were obsessed around capturing a historic story, you know, or whatever it is. So I think this idea of a mosaic is kind of a fun exploration for us.
Speaker unclear 00:36:06
[Overlapping speech] Is there... How can I help?
Doug Shapiro 00:36:08
Does it spark anything else in you? Like the, you know, maybe it's even your life's experience, you know, I don't know.
Jennifer Nye 00:36:15
When I worked for Kohler, Kohler Company, they identified me as someone that should go out to Ann Sacks, which is one of their brands, tile and stone, out in Portland, Oregon. So little Midwestern gal here moved out to Portland, Oregon.
Doug Shapiro 00:36:34
Wow.
Jennifer Nye 00:36:34
Keep Portland weird, right? It was a magical experience. So I was in tile and stone for four years, and mosaics were a big deal. So I learned about not just you know, the beauty of mosaics, but also the craft behind mosaics, and putting all the different pieces together. But at the end of the day, imperfection was better than perfection, right? So when it doesn't look like it all went together, and there's a random dark blue in the middle of, you know, a sea blue, That's okay. And it actually is a better story because I know the person that put that together. So I think imperfections along the way and all those different viewpoints, yeah, this is going to be a really good story.
Doug Shapiro 00:37:24
I agree. And even just like a walk through the city and there's a sign or a building or something that feels like it's a little out of place. You're so thankful it's there. Typically, you know.
Jennifer Nye 00:37:40
Yeah.
Doug Shapiro 00:37:40
That's so interesting. That's the piece that I hate to go into AI, but you just kind of wonder, like right now, that's one of the biggest ways to distinguish, you know, whether something is AI or not is just through like, is it too patterned? Is it too perfect? And I almost feel like it's causing a little bit of a revolt around, you know, like people want more authentic. So that's why we'll probably just not edit this episode a single bit.
Jennifer Nye 00:38:15
Okay, okay. Even the swagger part.
Doug Shapiro 00:38:17
Yeah, the swagger part, yes.
Jennifer Nye 00:38:20
Yeah. No, I think that's a great viewpoint for next year.
Doug Shapiro 00:38:26
Yeah, absolutely. So is there anything, is there a question you hope I'd ask you that I didn't ask you yet?
Jennifer Nye 00:38:35
I don't share a lot, Especially about my past.
Doug Shapiro 00:38:39
I'm trying.
Jennifer Nye 00:38:41
No, so, no. So for me, today was really special because I kind of unpeeled the onion a little bit, shared a little bit more than I'm used to sharing. I'm not afraid of my journey that was all over the place. It definitely wasn't a straight path. So thank you for letting me share my story. I'm proud to be where I am, and it shaped me to be able to take risks and, again, be scrappy and meet amazing people like you. So I'm really happy with today's discussion. I hope [unclear].
Doug Shapiro 00:39:15
Thanks, Jennifer. I am. I just hope we got it all. And I'm okay if, you know, if we didn't and there's more to explore, you know, it's one of those things where we're here, when the cameras are rolling and we're sitting...
Jennifer Nye 00:39:30
What else do you want to know?
Doug Shapiro 00:39:31
If there's another story that you love to tell.
Jennifer Nye 00:39:38
I... I love to talk about my daughter and how we grew up together. I do. And she, you know, again, I was down this crazy accounting path, you know, thinking that I needed to have a stable career. Not that design isn't stable, but I just mean, like, black and white, right?
Doug Shapiro 00:39:57
Black and white. You know, when you're young and you're trying to make that decision, you're up against a whole ton of ideas.
Jennifer Nye 00:40:06
So what she helped me define, Again, while I was down that path, is what are the different types of creativity? So she was in poetry, she was in theater. She, you know, sewed her own clothes. Again, still can't sew.
Doug Shapiro 00:40:22
Wow, that's amazing.
Jennifer Nye 00:40:23
So I was helping foster her creativity throughout the world, which made me a stronger marketer and more creative, I think, by seeing it through the eyes of a... of a child.
Doug Shapiro 00:40:36
Is there a poem that she wrote that you hang on to?
Jennifer Nye 00:40:39
Oh, my gosh. She would just make the most beautiful poems. There is one. We sent her to poetry school for a little bit, and she came home with, you know, like a published book, but one of them was, you know, up in the clouds. And because honestly, I would travel a lot. So she wrote a poem about being up in the clouds and... the different types of clouds, whether they're, you know, I forget the names of the cumulus...
Doug Shapiro 00:41:08
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Jennifer Nye 00:41:10
And how at the end of the day she was so happy to have me come home, you know. So I think that has stuck with me for many reasons because it helps me to keep my life in check and making sure that I see her as much as I can and the grandkids as much as I can, but also that we were able to make such a volatile, early career happen with our relationship because I wasn't on the road a lot, but I did travel, and it was a lot of navigating for the two of us. But at the end of the day, we have a very, very strong relationship. She's my best friend.
Doug Shapiro 00:41:49
Wow. Lucky you.
Jennifer Nye 00:41:50
Yeah.
Doug Shapiro 00:41:51
This was a beautiful episode. You're great. Thank you, Jennifer.
Jennifer Nye 00:41:54
Thank you so much, Doug.
Doug Shapiro 00:41:56
Yeah. Thanks for joining me here on Love What You Do.