TomTalks??with Kathleen Booth – SVP Marketing & Growth at Pavilion

Welcome to another edition of TomTalks??! ??

Innovations and their impacts are accelerating at unprecedented rates, driven largely by the exponential rise of artificial intelligence. Against that backdrop, TomTalks ?? aims to provide valuable business, leadership, and innovation perspectives from a diverse range of executives, entrepreneurs, and other business leaders.

Today's guest: Kathleen Booth , Senior Vice President, Marketing & Growth, Pavilion

Pavilion is the world's largest private community dedicated to helping go-to-market leaders achieve their full professional potential.

It can be hard to focus on innovation when you're knee-deep in the day-to-day work of running a business. At Pavilion, we incorporate dedicated brainstorming sessions at our bi-annual company offsites for "Moonshot" ideas. These are then added to an idea "parking lot" which we revisit throughout the year.

Culture is a hot but very ill-defined topic. In my experience, the best cultures happen when teams feel empowered to do their best work, are given reasonable (but challenging) objectives to hit, and then hit them. This, coupled with an environment of transparency and respect, fosters a workplace where people feel like they are winning and their work matters.

The biggest challenge that most companies in B2B tech have faced in the last year is the shift from a "growth at all costs" mindset to a "profitable growth" mindset. At Pavilion, we are no exception. Over the course of the past year, we've invested heavily in getting better data on how our business is performing so that we can make more informed decisions, as well as on training and educating our team about how to use this data so that they, too, stay focused on the things that will drive the highest ROI for the business. At the same time, because we are a community with 10,000+ members, we're also investing in educating our members about this shift and what it will take to thrive in the new normal.

I've always been a voracious learner, and one of the reasons I love working at Pavilion is that it affords me unlimited access to our community and our learning platform, Pavilion University. While I read a lot of books and listen to podcasts, I believe strongly that the best way to learn is from peers who have "been there, done that."

So, I spend considerable time within Pavilion's CMO and CRO communities understanding how other successful go-to-market operators are leading their teams and driving results, and I have enrolled in a number of Pavilion University courses, all of which are taught by practicing execs.

I believe strongly in the concept of situational leadership, which involves adjusting the degree to which I am hands-on with my team based on their level of performance. Some of my team members are experienced enough that the best way to set them up for success is to focus on empowering them and clearing impediments, whereas others rely more heavily on me for guidance. The ability to adjust depending on the situation is key to meeting each person where they are and supporting them to do their best work.

Time blocking is without a doubt the most valuable strategy I've used to accelerate my productivity. I often joke that "if it isn't in my Google calendar, it doesn't exist."

I apply this to both my personal and professional life and as a result, my calendar has blocks for everything from deep work on strategic initiatives for Pavilion, to lunch hours, to giving my dogs their monthly heartworm meds.

Pavilion's growth has been almost entirely fueled by word of mouth - happy members who beget more happy members. So, my greatest professional fear is related to our ability to continue delivering great experiences to our members as our community grows. There's an old saying that "the larger you get, the smaller you have to act." I've embraced that and am thinking a lot about how we can continue to preserve a feeling of intimacy within our community as we grow the number of people within it.

Thanks, Kathleen! ??

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Tom Popomaronis is an innovative GenAI consultant and seasoned communicator, leveraging his vast experience in executive ghostwriting and thought leadership to pioneer innovative AI-driven solutions that transform cross-industry productivity and efficiency.

Tom has published over 1,000 op-eds across mainstream platforms including Entrepreneur Magazine, CNBC, Inc., and Forbes, while enabling the publication of an additional 3,000+ op-eds for executive clients. He lives on the East Coast with his wife, two children, and TikTok famous dogs , Henry and Holly.