Leading for Legacy with Kelsey from Mom n' Pop Shop

What will your legacy be when you look back on your life?

For Kelsey Mulyk, Co-founder of Mom n' Pop Shop agency, it’s about more than the CMO title she’s held and the iconic brands she’s worked for.?

In the latest edition of A Little Brainstorm, Kelsey and I discuss how she developed her leadership skills in her marketing career, going from junior employee in the early days of lululemon to one of the most sought-after senior experts on the West Coast.?

She shares her thoughts on leading a team and advises on how to make the jump from Manager to Director.??

Kaley Ross: So we'll start at the beginning. What was the moment you decided to pursue a creative career? How did you set off on this adventure?

Kelsey Mulyk: I graduated from University with a degree in Kinesiology, but I have always been a person with multiple interests.?

I took art classes, and in my Visual Communications class I would lead the group in critique sessions. My professor asked if I had ever considered a career in communications, but at the time I wasn’t thinking that far ahead.

Eventually, I landed an internship for a magazine. It was humbling to be an intern in my late 20’s, but I implemented their digital strategy, which was new at the time for publications.?

Owning and developing my creative visual comms and leadership skills really kicked off when I started at lululemon.

At the time,? the company offered an incredible amount of personal and professional development. I deeply value my time there, as I got to learn a lot — it jump-started my career. I haven't seen anything like it in any other company I've ever worked at.

KR: Yeah, lululemon launched my marketing career as well. They were so great at giving a lot of responsibility to people without a ton of experience and letting them run.?

KM: During my time at lululemon, I learned how to take a vision and an idea, put a strategy to it, and execute the plan. Then I learned how to work with all the people you need to make it happen.?

Good leaders know it’s not just them bringing something to life. You understand that you could never do it alone.

KR: Oh, I love that. All right, and that is a great segue to my next question.? Was there a mentor who aided your calling in the early stages of your career?

KM: I have two. My first manager at lululemon was Lesia, and she took her time to teach me things, she invested so much of her time. She was looking out for me and to this day she still does. We hit it off from the get-go and I feel so lucky to know her.

One thing I learned from her is that she would have an idea and would care so deeply about it that she could create this energy around it to ignite people into action, once everyone was moving she was incredibly supportive along the way.?

The other is Nancy.?

She is the quintessential leader. She is always calm, cool and collected. You can't ruffle her feathers. Nancy can very quickly see what's going wrong, how to fix it, and always approaches her problem-solving with each individual's specific needs in mind.

Yeah, she's an all-round badass who can do anything in marketing. She has every super skill.?

One of those is being excellent at presenting work so people understand it and getting buy-in. That is probably one of the biggest things I’ve learned from her, how to bring everyone together and get alignment so you can move mountains!

KR: Nancy is such a legend. One time she stood up for me in a meeting with a client and was totally in my corner. I had never had a boss do that for me, and she instantly had my eternal loyalty from that moment.?

Okay, what are your unique strengths as a creative marketer that make you a great leader in this industry?

KM: My superpower is being able to see how to connect the dots and execute a vision. I can see the big picture clearly and say Okay, here's how we're going to bring this to life.

KR: Love that - I've seen it in action.

KM: Yeah, it's a funny one, because it could be connecting the dots of a story across channels or it could be connecting the right people to bring your team to life.?

It’s a skill I took for granted, but working with my co-founders of the agency helped me realize that not everyone has that natural ability to pull back and take a look across everything and see what works, and here's how we're gonna get from here to there.?

KR: Yes, that’s such an important quality to have as a leader - to delegate and put the right people in the right place or know where to focus your energy.

What was a hard lesson in which you had to let something go to move forward?

KM: In my personal leadership journey, I had to learn how to let go of executing and trust my team to do their jobs well.?

I learned it’s less about you telling people how to do it, and more about supporting their way of getting it done, even if it’s a different way than I would have done it.?

I had to pick the battles of how much to weigh in and direct versus letting the team figure it out their own way. A lot of the time, you have to let the team take it and run, which can be tricky at first. As long as the end result is the same, we’re good.?

The hardest shift in your career is going from Manager to Director.

KR: Hah, I have a question at the end asking for your advice on this exact career jump.?

KM: It's a weird one - as a Director you're in this funny spot where your job is keeping upper leadership in the know and making sure your team is moving the needle in the right direction.?

I think it’s a tricky moment in your career. You have some decision-making ability, but you're not the be-all-end-all because there are people more senior than you, so your role is directing the team to make sure that they have what they need to get the job done, while you manage higher levels of leadership.

KR: That's so interesting. Okay, we'll circle back on that and dive a little bit more.

Was there a moment when you felt like everything came crashing down and the world was going to end? What did you learn from it?

KM: I learned that when I was in a workplace where things felt not right for me, I shouldn’t ignore it.

Marketing is quite frankly an intense field to be in - things are always changing, the expectations are high and a real learning for me was ensuring that my values and boundaries weren’t getting steamrolled.?

There have been moments when my gut instinct kicked in and I knew that something needed to change or wasn't right, and if I ever overruled it I ended up regretting it.?

Trusting your instincts is key.

KR: What brings you the most joy to share with the world?

KM: You are really hitting me with the tough questions at a very reflective time in my life.?

I actually truly love working with people and one of the things that brings me the most joy is seeing people succeed when they thought they couldn't. I like to support people.?

Seeing people create the life they want is so fulfilling, and if I get to support one little teeny bit of that journey, I'm super happy.

KR: Oh, I love that.?

How would you just describe your leadership style in three words?

KM: Empathetic, curious, empowering.

KR: I would second all of those.

So, circling back. What advice would you give to someone who's in the Manager,? Mid-Senior level and looking to level up to Director??

KM: First off, I would find people in that role that you respect and start asking them questions - go straight to the source to learn from them.

Once you have your role and understand your team's responsibilities, look at the work and decide a plan of how you are going to pass off. The transition of work is really tricky when you get that promotion.?

I would make a timeline with my line manager that outlines I need to be out of this piece of work and this piece of work to focus on this and then build that plan so that your team knows what's coming to them, and you know where you're gonna need to focus and then get alignment with your VP or Senior Director.

It takes time to go from not executing to leading. That's why I suggest going to the people that you respect because they'll be able to coach and support you during the transition phase.

I think one of the weirdest experiences is when you helped your team pull together a presentation for say, a campaign strategy, you're not going to present it.? You have to be confident that because you've been given this director role you no longer need to be the face of it.?

That's probably the hardest thing, but your team’s performance is the measure of your success in your role. Do people want to work with them? Are they highly respected? That is a reflection of your work.?

On the flip side, if people don't want to work with your team, upper management is going to be coming back to you to be like, What's going on here??

So find the support of people that you respect, who have a style you like, and who exemplify success, however you want to define it. Then I would literally map stuff out so that you know when you're going to step out of the day-to-day. Then just get comfortable that you're no longer the face of your work.

KR: That’s a great outline - super helpful for those looking to level up to Director.?

Current day status - you're standing on the mountain of your career you’ve climbed thus far. What does your view look like? And what's your vision for the future?

KM: I'm actually working on this right now, but I think the vision is moving into a place where my professional life is fulfilling, and driven by aligned values with my personal life. I'm being very thoughtful right now about doing work that I believe has purpose and impact, beyond profit for profit’s sake.?

I'm at a midlife stage where I'm thinking a lot more about legacy and when I look back on my life, I want to be proud of the work I’ve done. And who I am in the work and beyond.

To me, that’s more than a salary and stocks and shares.

I’m excited to focus on the Health and Wellness industry, particularly Femtech, Women's Health and anything that empowers people to live a fulfilling and healthy life. I think all those areas are overlooked in the corporate world, and I think I can take the skills I've gained from working for iconic and well-recognized brands, and use them for something that I truly believe in.?

Right now I’m lucky to have the luxury to say that I'm looking for alignment with my personal values. I've reached a point where I’ve held titles that look great on paper, and they were awesome - but to be honest, now I’m like, Is that really what matters to me?

What matters to me more is doing great work that empowers people.

You're asking all these questions that I’ve literally been asking myself for the last like six months. So well played you.

KR: I’m a mind reader, it’s a not-so-secret gift.?

Thank you for being a guest on ??The Zap!