Melissa Grady

On the myth of a balanced life and finding a partner who gets you.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
So I love talking about food, I love eating food.
I like photographing food. Sort of, I kind of find
that annoying because then you're producing your own meals and
that becomes disruptive. Also, a lot of you like me
talking about food in general. Food trends. Uh. Some food
trends are souvied where they cook in bags. Plant based
would be a food trend, but food fame is totally different.

(00:36):
The most famous food trend right now the Lady Gaga
in the food space's truffle, truffle, salt, truffle, hot sauce,
truffle popcorn, truffle butter, which is also a song, and
that's like a dirty thing. But but truffle in general
is like what Macdonna was back in the day. It

(00:57):
is just having its moments. Some people are personally offended.
It's too much truffle everywhere, truffle, caesar, truffle, mac and cheese,
truffle lobster, mac and cheese, truffle, mushrooms. I live for
this trend, but I could tell it's going to be
like red velvet. By the way, red velvet was a trend.
Red velvet is no longer. Red velvet is like Danny
Bonaducci from the Partridge Family. It's funny because Danny want

(01:20):
to do she had red hair and I didn't mean that.
But anyway, red velvet was the biggest deal in the
whole world, and you never ever hear about it. And
that was something that came out of nowhere. It became
a craze and I ate it so much when I
was pregnant and I can't look at it again. And
Truffle feels like it's heading towards that truffles overexposed. Truffle
is over exposed. I like it now, but I feel
like in two seconds, I just feel like it's going

(01:42):
to do something wrong, like this hot sauce of my
friend told me is not good and it's going to
takeet canceled. Other food famous trends avocado toast. Avocado used
to be illegal. It was fattening. It was very high
and fat. You weren't allowed to like it. It just
was not okay back in the fat three days, and
avocado toast is famous. If Truffle is Lady Gaga, and

(02:07):
really Truffle should be Nicki Minaj because she has a
song Truffle Butter, which is not about the food. If
Truffle is Nicki Minaj, avocado Toast is Cardi b It
is everywhere. You cannot go into a restaurant not see
it on a menu. It is done in many iterations.
It's done over sour dough. She's always confusing because it's
supposed to be healthy, and now it's over sour dough,

(02:28):
so is it healthy. If it's over multi grain, you
can market it to be healthy, but it's always got
cracked egg and oil and all this other stuff, and
it's probably super fattening if you care about calories. I
do not. But avocado toast is having its moment right now.
Macha is also having its moment. Macha's major. I don't
know that it's as famous as avocado toast. I think

(02:49):
Macha is probably like, not as famous as Gaga, Nicki
Minaj or Taylor Swift. March is like Megan Stalin. She's
in a big, big, big, big big moment right now.
But I don't know. Green Juice is also very very
very famous. It can And these are all celebrities that
came from nowhere, meaning Truffle came out of nowhere. Truffle

(03:13):
had no fame and now it's Lady Gaga. Avocado toast
was nowhere and nothing and has sustained its fame, and
the avocado toast could even be like um Adele is
very relevant but has sustained, and avocado toast has sustained.
Matcha Matcha might be Megan the Stallion. Green juice is

(03:34):
someone who's famous and lasted for a long time. It's
not Beyonce, don't get it twisted. Green juice is more
like Kelly Clarkson. It's been around for a while. It's
very good, it's good for you. It's quality. There can
be not quality green juice. There can't be really not
quality Kelly Clarkson. But you know, I'm only one woman.
And vegetables that have just lost their fame completely. Vegetables

(03:58):
that still exists obviously but have lost their fame completely
are asparagus, green beans, Broccoli is not that famous right now.
Green means are like Neil Diamond. They're still very talented
and great, but they're not you know, they're not famous. Well,
Neil Diamond's famous, but you know what I mean, it's
not very current. And then celebrity foods that you see

(04:24):
but they really need a new PR campaign that's green beans,
that's asparagus. Octopus had a moment of major fame. It
lasted a while. It's sort of waning. Now. Kobe beef
had a big moment. It's also waning now. Baratta Barata
had a big moment. Before that, it was buffalo mozzarella.
Buffalo mozzarella was the star. Baratta took its place, and

(04:46):
now maybe because of dairy free culture, it's sort of
losing its moment too. But I just want to ask
a question. It's very important. Who is more famous Kal, truffle,
holliflower or avocado toast? Who is the most famous? I
think that mainstream fame. Kale and cauliflower are like j

(05:09):
Lo and Beyonce, their mainstream famous truffles. A diva Mariah
carry is the truffle of pop stars. Do we all
agree Kal is a Kardashian I've said before, the Kaldashian's alright,
So Kale's a Kardashian. It's everywhere and it's in so

(05:29):
many iterations. Um is Beyonce cauliflower because she's just quality
and it's like a flower that blossoms. Okay, so Beyonce's cauliflower.
And then what is Gaga cavocado toast with the cracked egg,
the spicy to be continued. It's very important and we

(05:49):
want to hear all of your thoughts on this. Please rate, review,
and subscribe. My guest today is Melissa Grady Cadillacs Chief
Marketing Officer. That is a monster brand with a strong
woman leading the charge. She has been the CMO since

(06:10):
September two. She has led global marketing for the luxury
automotive brand, including pivoting the brand to address the COVID
nineteen pandemic. Today we talk about the importance of organizing
your time wisely, the myth of balance in your life,
and the power dynamic needed between men and women to
make relationships work. You're going to love this episode. Welcome,

(06:39):
and the reason I wanted to have you on is
because the show is really people who have broken through,
who have succeeded on their own in their own way,
not always sort of taking the easy road. No pun intenda.
Because of your business. In my estimation, the automobile industry
is largely male, or has been. It was more of
a man's game. And I think about that because in

(07:02):
getting into the liquor business years ago, it was marketed
to men. It was run by men. So that's just
an interesting juxtaposition. How prevalent are women in the car
industry now, not not about who they're being cars are
being marketed to, but as the suitors, the leaders. It's
definitely growing and getting to be more prevalent. I think
our CEO, Mary Barra is one of the most incredible

(07:25):
and inspirational women I know, and she's really set the
standard I think for women in leadership. So I started
an automotive a very long time ago and there weren't
really a lot of women in the C suite that
you could look up to Today. It's very different. You know,
you are, effectively by being the CMO of Cadillac, you
are a new car saleswoman. You know they always say

(07:48):
used car sales, but you're a new car saleswoman. It's
such a competitive landscape and I know you have to
think about social consciousness and you have to think about
economics and the pandemic and it changes every day. So
how do you sell cars now? If you look at
my career, I have gone across a lot of different
industries in sort of a very strange way almost, and

(08:09):
it's always the same thing, we start with a human insight.
For me, I always start with data. I learned to
love data modeling years and years ago. So you start
with the data and then you move into an insight,
and once you understand that insight, then you can start
to develop creative that makes sense. There's two parts of it.
There's the creative and then there's the understanding who you're

(08:30):
selling to and how you target them. So you know,
whereas we used to do a lot of linear TV advertising,
we're now in a lot more non traditional types of media,
Like we do a lot of addressable or connected TV.
So if you're on Hulu or you know, watching something
on a Samsung TV and that's connected, then you'll see
our ads that are targeted to specific people. And we

(08:52):
always talk about like advertising can be so annoying, but
at the same time, when advertising is good, people love it.
And I think the best example of this is the
Super Bowl. Everyone wants to watch the ads in the
Super Bowl. So when advertising is good, people like it,
and that's what I strive for to make people want
to see our ads and interact with our brand. Is
the Super Bowl the biggest advertising time of the whole year.

(09:14):
What are the most cars bought of the year, and
when is the most money spent on advertising during the year.
The last couple of years have been very interesting from
a when is money spent? Just given where the world
has been, especially with the pandemic, things shifted a lot.
But really the end of the year, so December, if
you think about all the holiday ads for cars, they

(09:34):
really work. People really buy a lot of cars at
the end of the year. The advertising dollars tend to
follow that, although the Super Bowl is one of the
most expensive spots that you can buy. And when do
people get the best deals on the cars? It depends
what you're looking for. So end of model year, which
tends to happen end of year is you know, we
switch over in the mid to late year, so the

(09:55):
end of the model year, you're going to get the
best deals. But then if you want the newest car
our technology, that happens a little bit earlier. So you
in a relationship, I just got married two months ago,

(10:15):
Oh congratulations. Can I ask you what your husband does?
What business seas in? Yeah, he is a banker. He's
a banker, so does he have crazy hours and work
the way that you do? Yes, he's in the mortgage
of business. So the past year with where rates are
and everyone moving, has been really insane. How long have
you been together? Almost three years? What's the dynamic within
your relationship? You being so powerful and busy, and you know,

(10:40):
in a very competitive industry, and I'm sure it's high
pressured and intense. I'm kind of trying to get to
how gender relates to business in a relationship, meaning there
has to be some sort of a balance and some
sort of a dance within a man and a woman
as it pertains to gender and power and success and
how you navigate that. This relationship is one of the

(11:03):
better ones that I've ever had with that. I think
that we're both very busy and sometimes get very stressed out.
So we respect each other very well with that, and
we both really try to take care of each other.
And I think we almost joke about housewife and house
husband and when we get into those roles, but there
are times when we can see that the other ones

(11:24):
are really stressed, and we really try to take care
of each other. And then this is really funny, our friend,
who is a psychologist said at one point, because we
both get in business mode, so sometimes when we're talking
to each other, we're just like kind of checking off
a to do list and in very much like, okay,
you this this, no, I said this, this is and
we're very like and she said, you guys get into

(11:45):
a mode where I don't know if you could talk
to anyone else that way, but you just know you're
getting business done. And then you know we're like kissed
on the cheek. Okay, great, see you later. So you
can turn it off. Yeah, and you can turn it
off at home. You can have a good balance in
family and work life. You've managed to do that. So
this is one of the things that is I think
really important. I strive so hard for that. I speak

(12:08):
out a lot on meditation. I started meditating probably fifteen
years ago, not because I was so hippie woo woo.
I'm a lot more like that now, but because I
was spinning out of control and one of my friends
was like, maybe you need to breathe. And I think
that this idea of balance is almost dangerous because there
isn't ever really balance, and it's all about trying to

(12:31):
figure out how you make all the things work for you.
And I think when we talk about how we have
it all or how we have balanced, Like I'm never
totally imbalanced, and I'm always trying to understand where am
I when am I spinning? How do I stop the spin?
And I think I used to spin a lot more
when I was younger. I was really trying to prove

(12:52):
something when I was younger, and I was not taking
care of myself and then not taking care of the
people around me because you were striving. It's not that
easy to get to the top. And if you had
to have children, that's hard too, And so it's interesting
that you've sort of frontloaded this before. I don't know
if you want to have kids, but when you're describing
is sort of that white knuckling, I call it getting activated,

(13:14):
and I agree with you. That's the number one question
about balance, And it's not really balanced. It's being present
in what you're doing. I think it's about time and
the use of time and how people are using their time.
Where you scramble, you know, getting in panic mode versus
using your time wisely, prioritizing, deciding that you just can't
be social, tan thin successful, a good parent, and to

(13:39):
have sex at the same time, like you got to
pick your spots and how you're gonna use your time.
So I'm always in pajamas and like, I'm literally doing
the podcast with you in pajamas because I'm not really social.
I'm completely a homebody. But I care about my daughter
and my work and philanthropy and peace and sleep and
that's you know, you choose the buck gets that you

(14:00):
can handle. At the same time, exercise is not one
of them. I just can't fit it in, so later
a it'll fit in. And that's exactly right. I think
it's so interesting of the you know, trying to figure
out what are my priorities right now, and then when
those things start slipping, how are you gonna make it work?
And I think especially today, you like go through social
media and you're looking at someone's story and you see

(14:21):
them working out in the morning. Here's my juice. Now
I'm here and look at this glamor shot and you're
sitting there in your pajamas, Like, I didn't have time
to work out this morning, and I don't know the
last time I had time to go get a juice,
and I'm just trying to get all this done right now.
But then I think, you know, when people look at
me or you. They see totally put together, being able

(14:44):
to do it all, and you're never doing it all
because to your point, you're allocating your time and that changes,
and then you have to make sure that you're doing
what you need to do and that you're not being
too hard on yourself. So my top priority, besides my daughter,
I'm not talking about a person. I mean like a
construct in life, a bucket, whether it's exercise or food.

(15:05):
My number one is sleep. What is yours? When I
exercise and meditate, everything else is much better because it
helps me get the just like that angst out of me.
So you could exercise and meditate and not get a
great night's sleep, or you can get a great nice
sleep and not exercise and meditate, and it would still
those bats on the forefront if I don't exercise and

(15:25):
meditate enough. Sleep is very very difficult for me to
They're connected, They're very connected. I love good sleep. It's
something that I drive for and I don't know how
so many people just are able to well, yeah the
lambs are screaming, but you have it. But but I
would say people for people at home who want to
be very successful and either be a Maverick on their

(15:46):
own or be in the corporate world as you are, Lissa.
I think that you know, sleep is one of the
casualties you have to have serious structure. Try to go
to bed at a similar time every night, not to
get activated at night. Not even that could even be
online shopping. I could get activated over an ottoman or
like island kitchen stools. Like it doesn't have to be

(16:07):
the State of the World or a TV show or
a book, or it could be over an ottoman. Because
if you're an obsessive person, you'll just obsessed or think
about anything. So for those of you who have lambs
at scream, set yourself up for success. Whether it's meditation
or exercise, or not having caffeine or not eating steak
or getting the phone out of your room. It's a discipline.
And you it sounds like you're taking self care very seriously,

(16:28):
particularly now. I presume during the pandemic for mental health.
Right now, they're living with their own minds too much,
and now's a great time for for self care. I
totally agree, and I think the pandemic has been so hard.
There's so many things that concern me. I think people
spending too much time with their own thoughts. The other
thing that I've been really trying to voice a lot

(16:52):
within GM, and we have a lot of conversations, is
especially women who have worked so hard and now don't
have a schooled to send their kids to, can't have
a nanny or a daycare. They're trying to multitask all day.
And I have so much admiration for the people who
are doing this, and I'm not sure. I mean, I

(17:12):
have several people on my team who are struggling with that,
and we're outperforming. You know, last year was one of
our best years that we've ever had at Cadillac. So
when you look at that and these people are doing
all these things, it's just amazing to me. And I
just worry as this drags on. What that's people afraid

(17:32):
and stress and haggard at this point. And the truth
is when people have a lot to do, they do more.
That's what's crazy. It shouldn't be under these circumstances, But
I'm finding that a certain type of person is pulling
themselves up in their bootstraps. And just because we're all
in mode, the program is set, and there's so many
people suffering and so many people, you know, the the

(17:55):
unemployment rate and and it's horrible. But then some people
are really just not stunned and not stuck and just saying, Okay,
I've got to do all this, so I'm going to
just do more. And that's very common with women. The
more you have to do, the more you get done.

(18:21):
So it's a crazy time. So you talked about data before.
What percentage of your decisions as the CMO of such
a major brand, our data and what percentages gut instinct
when you look at I think data really sets the
table and sets you up for the gut decisions that
you're going to make. For instance, you start to learn
about something, you get all the facts that you need,

(18:43):
and then you use insights to help you understand when
something is right and resonates. And I'll give you two
of my favorite examples. The first one is about vacuuming
and one of the major vacuum companies was really having trouble.
Their ads weren't tracking well and people were starting to share.
So they did some research and what they learned was

(19:04):
as people are vacuuming, they like the sound, the ticking
sound of things coming up from the carpet and they
also like satisfying, so satisfying, and the lines that you
make in the room, like on the grass, the lawnmower
tiff satisfying, Yes, exactly, So that's the insight. You don't

(19:25):
need to hear that it's going to be cleaner. You
know that when you hear that sound. So they change
their whole advertising campaign and started gaining share again. My
other favorite one is just because it's it's so personally
relatable to me, and I don't know the backstory of it,
but Starbucks recently started putting on their cup that first
sip feeling. And if you drink coffee, you know that

(19:47):
moment in the morning, the before and after that first sip.
So those are the two things once you understand that,
you're gonna know when you're doing the right thing. Both
of those things are relatively emotional. That's very very interesting,
and also because well I am the opposite. Had I
known anything, I would have never gotten into the liquor business.

(20:08):
I didn't know one thing. I didn't understand the industry.
I didn't understand what was there, what was not there.
I'd never been into a big box liquor store, and
I just had an idea and my gut instinct said
it was good as a woman, as a person who
wanted this, and that's how truthfully, that's how I operate,
completely going with my gut. But I have people around
me now, not meaning on my team. For example, this summer,

(20:31):
I saw a certain type of sunglass and I said
to hs AND I want to do this and I
think this would be great. And then they were later saying,
wull this be good under skinny Girl or Bethany? And
I said, well, Bethany's a woman and Skinny Girl was
a girl, and so I want to do it under Bethany.
But like I guess, I'm relying on them to do
their dad. I just see that they have never done
that before. The same thing was swim, which I'm going
into on HSN for example, But it's my gut instinct.

(20:54):
And then I guess if there is data that doesn't
support what I want to do, they'll probably shut it down.
But my entire brand end really goes on gut instinct.
Do you have any examples of that? Like total dad
and mistinked you thought this was gonna happen and you
were dead wrong. So it's funny because as you're talking.
I think what I related to more is my own career,

(21:14):
which has I've just followed my passion all the way
and starting from all my life, I knew I wanted
to be an advertising from the time I was very little.
I used to watch Who's the Boss, and I was like,
I want to be like Angela. That was what I
wanted to do. By the way, my whole life lived
for it. Funny are you saying, yes? That was exactly

(21:38):
the inspiration of my childhood and what my vision of
it was. Then going into grad school, someone asked me
do you like math? And I do really like math,
but I didn't want to be an engineer. I didn't
even really want to be that much in technology, although
I am a lot in technology now. But with that question,
I was like, well, that's actually interesting I do. And

(21:59):
he said, there's this whole new kind of marketing coming
up that's data driven marketing, and if you learn these skills,
then you'll have them and you can always go back
to advertising. But if you don't learn them, then you
may be left behind. And I was like, that sounds good.
So I literally, in that moment from this guy who's
supposed to be showing me where the computer lab is.
I changed the course of my life because of his question.

(22:20):
As I went through grad school, I just followed this passion.
You know. There were a lot of times when I
think I did make decisions on my gut. Like my
first job coming out of grad school, I wanted to
go to American Express because they were the best at
data driven marketing in the late nineties. And I happened
into an interview with Jaguar who said, hey, we want

(22:41):
you to come in and build out a database and
acquisition and retention programs. And I was just sitting there
listening to this and thinking, I've only taken classes on this,
I've never done this, But what came out of my
mouth was sounds great, let's do that. And then I
learned very early on I really liked to build things
and I like to figure out how things work, you know.

(23:02):
I was in automotive for quite some time, and then
ran my own business for a little bit, went back
into automotive, and then switched over was working at Motorola,
so it was in tech for years. From there, decided
to work at MetLife and Insurance, and then I had
the job where if we're looking at data and how
things line up. I had a job that was really

(23:24):
good on paper. It was I thought exactly what I wanted,
and it was the wrong thing. It's it's not that
easy to work for a multibillion dollar company that's a
leader and and just go and wing it. So you
have maybe relying on data, but you're in the corporate landscape,
which is a very different trajectory. You're not standing in
pajamas brawl list right now, presumably like I am at

(23:46):
your office. So that's a specific path and people who
I speak to often try to decide who they are.
Are they a person that needs to have the the
structure that support that hierarchy. You know, that's really it's
team and there's a lot more power behind that then
being sort of the individual that wants to go out
and maybe has partners that are external like I do,

(24:08):
or people to call upon or conciliaries. But it's not
quite the same. So how ay do you handle getting
a raise? How do you handle being seen, being known
and being heard within the corporate landscape? Moving up the ladder.
You know, that's a big thing because if you work
with me and you're great, you're gonna be noticed because
there are three people here. If you work at Cadillac,

(24:29):
it's not gonna be that easy to get noticed because
there are thousands of people. So wherever people work, even
if it's a hundred person office a twenty person office,
how do they get noticed? What makes a difference? And
then I guess take it to the next level, what
makes a difference as a woman and as being a
woman helped you in ways in business? Because everyone talked
about how being a woman is challenging, but has it
helped you? So that's a multiple part question. The best

(24:50):
advice for getting noticed, and I wish that someone had
told me this earlier in my career is set up
conversations and go talk to people. And I think that
I was probably more intimidated or felt like I would
be bothering people if I were to do that. So
if there was someone that I admired, I feel like

(25:10):
they're very busy, I'm not gonna take thirty minutes out
of their day when they're running around and just talk
about what you're thinking for yourself and in that conversation.
This is also I think very important. Make sure that
you have your talking points and your structure set up
going into that conversation because you don't want to get

(25:31):
on the phone with someone who is taking thirty minutes
out of their day and say, well, I just king together,
get to know each other what's interesting to me. I
think it's done two things that's really helped me. You know,
mentor people tell people what will help them. But also
then that person is on your mind. And as you're
in conversations, because in big corporations there are a lot

(25:52):
of conversations that happen about people's careers. When roles open
up all of those things, and if someone knows that
you're interested in something, if someone knows that you want
to move, then it really helps. And you have to
let people know what you're thinking. So I think that's
the best way. You know, going through all this as
a woman, how has that helped or hurt me? I think,

(26:13):
especially over the span of my career, women have started
helping each other more and helped understand how to act.
I think it was definitely harder earlier on, and I
think earlier I was trying so hard to prove myself
and to almost I guess, not be female. And now

(26:36):
I lean into that more and I think that that
helps because one of the things that was so interesting
is during the pandemic, if you looked at female leaders
and how well they managed the pandemic, you really start
to understand what being a female really does. And one
of my favorite examples is just Sinda Ardern in New Zealand,
who first of all just locked everything down. She stuck

(26:59):
to what she said. And then my favorite thing that
she did was that she said, don't worry the tooth
fairy in the easter bunny don't have to quarantine, so
kids are okay. And I was like, what a human thing,
and what a way to make someone more comfortable. And
it's something I think that now I aspire to be

(27:19):
more like that than this. You know, I'm I'm just
charging through person your whole entire businesses messaging. So how
do you know when to get in the game? Went
to sit back? You know, it's very easy for somebody
to say be fearless until you're fearless, and then you
know then it's not great. So you have a big
weight on your shoulders, And how do you honestly navigate that,

(27:42):
like not corporate, just as a person, like really in
your own mind, in your own head, emotionally, are you like,
holy shit, I hope I don't screw this thing up.
Or this is nerve wracking and this is a weird time,
or I'm learning as I go like that kind of thing. Overall,
I'm probably less nervous than I used to be. I'm like,
take a breath now. I tend to, especially when I'm uncomfortable,

(28:05):
I tend to pass out. What's the worst thing that
could happen. That's great, by the way, everybody at home,
that's a great thing to do. Before I did this podcast,
I literally said, how am I financially? I'm going to
say something it's going to piss someone off. Am I
prepared for that? I usually come from place of yes.
But it's good to go to the lowest common denominator
to know if the ship hits the fan, what am

(28:26):
I dealing with? And you are a damage control business,
so that's good. I've really started to like they think
about leaning into the uncomfortable, And what I mean by
that is like, I think we spend our lives thinking
everything should be perfect and easy, and it's more perfect
and easier for other people, and we're sitting here struggling

(28:46):
through every day and why is it so much harder
for me? Right? And I think that really it's as
we're going through things that are harder that we learned
the most and learned that you know what, the ship
is going to hit the fan and I can take
it because that's happened before and here's how I got
through it. So I think, like, when I'm uncomfortable, it
probably means I'm doing something I need to be doing,

(29:07):
and so you know, I don't want to. That's really good, everyone,
That's really really good because I always say, when you jump,
you fly, and I equate a lot of things that
have been difficult in my life, whether it's been a
bad divorce or bad press or that you feel uncomfortable,
but you're always learning something from it, Like you're not
being panicked or manic. You're saying, Okay, sit back, take

(29:28):
a deep breath, think about it. It's happening for a reason.
This is a golf game. This is the second hole.
I just got to give myself to the third, then
to the fifth. And I like that because what doesn't
kill us make does really make a stronger. Honestly, we
get tested. But to be afraid and to be so tentative.
You're never going to grow and do anything. And I
think that people who are making changes are taking chances,

(29:51):
and I think that's really great, great advice. So you
also you had an interesting trajectory, which is a fashion
and beauty and jewelry. Right. It's funny because I've started
to jewelry companies and one was after my first stint
an automotive, and the other one was actually a few
years ago, right before I came to GM, and it's

(30:13):
not anything that I would say is a particular passion
point of mine. The first time it was in two
thousand four, I think, and so it was my first
foray into e commerce, and I was teaching myself how
to build a website and trying to figure out how
to run an e commerce business myself. So jewelry was

(30:33):
an easier way to do that. It was just a
product that I could hold inventory on, put on this
website and figure out. The last time that I got
into and it was with a very good friend of mine,
and it was more about I like to wear jewelry
that has a meaning to me. You know, I have
a lot of mantras that I'll say in my head,

(30:53):
and it becomes almost comforting, and so we were going
to start a jewelry business that was surrounded around that.
Then I got this job. Oh interesting. Okay, Well, there's
two things I want to say. First of all, what
is your mantra if you had to give a mantra,
My mantra is you are exactly where you're supposed to
be even when it's really really hard. Oh my god,

(31:14):
that's perfect. That's perfect for so many people right now.
But also, you've literally talked about doing well at and
being passionate about jewelry, web creation, insurance, and the marketing
of cars. So for people at home, don't be so
constricted in what you need to be doing you are.
I wrote in my book A Place of Yes, All
roads lead to Rome. I have had so many different

(31:37):
types of jobs. I have worked at a bakery. I've
worked as a hostess in a restaurant. I've worked for
PR companies, I worked doing events. I've worked doing so
many different things. It doesn't matter. It's part of your
path that gets you to where you need to be,
which is sort of what you're saying. So if someone
offers you an interesting opportunity or a job, it doesn't
mean you're reading insurance policies all day. You might be

(31:58):
marketing insurance company. It doesn't mean and you're making jewelry.
It's a product. You might be marketing the product, or
you might be making jewelry. Years ago, I remember interviewing
for a bunch of different jobs, and one of them
was to work at ACT Division, long before it was
this multibillion dollar company. And you know, maybe I would
have gotten a job as an assistant and gotten stock options,
and you know, been living in Roy Croc's secretary at

(32:20):
the time. Her house is the biggest house in Palm
Beach because she was the assistant to the head of McDonald's.
Point being, you're on the road. You don't know where
it's gonna take you, whether it's jewelry, cars, insurance, webs
liquor reality TV. You'll get there or you won't get there.
In the journey will be so fun. What car do
you drive? And what does your husband have? I have
the new Escalade. He has an x T six. Okay,

(32:42):
so the car behind you was called the Lyric i
Q and it's the first Cadillac EV electric vehicle. It's
called the Lyric and it's spelled l Y r i
Q Oh, so how is the transition into being e
V brand? So Cattle will be the leading branded GM

(33:03):
that will be all electric. And as Steve Carlyle says,
it's going to be the end of the ICE age.
So ICE is an internal combustion engine and Cadillac will
be leading the charge from internal combustion to e V.
So we're going to have an all electric lineup by
the end of the decade. Wow, that's amazing. All right, Well,
I'm gonna jump on that bandwagon too, amazing. It's your

(33:26):
job to know what people are feeling, thinking, doing, saying, buying,
and what was happening six months ago is not the
same as now. So are people in the dull drums
because it's enough already and it's depressing our people wanting
entertainment and superficiality. Are people hopeful because some of their
family members are getting a vaccine? Do people have deal fatigue?

(33:48):
Where are people? What are they doing, saying, feeling and
buying right now? I think people definitely have fatigue with
this situation, but they're definitely feeling more hopeful and starting
to venture out and do things more. It's been very interesting.
Normally we launch an ad campaign, and that ad campaign,

(34:08):
will you know, go for several months, and during the pandemic,
things were changing so quickly that first of all, we
produced a TV spot in less than seven days because
we had one on the air that was just not
right for when everything went into lockdown. You had to
have the somber music, here's what we're gonna do for you,
like quiet commercial, and we were one of the first

(34:30):
to do that. I was extremely proud of my team
for how quickly they pulled that together and got that
on air. We then were changing our messaging about every
two weeks because the way people felt and what was
going on in all the different regions was changing so
quickly that we had to change the messaging because if
you had your pre pandemic commercial on on week two

(34:52):
of the pandemic, you sounded totally off. If you had
your We're so sorry this is happening, here's what we're
gonna do with the sad music, if you had that
on four weeks later, you were way off. So it
was really interesting to follow consumer sentiment and to make
sure that our messaging was on point. But right now

(35:12):
we're definitely way more into hopefulness. I admire what you're doing,
and I think you're I mean, first of all, I
have an escalated I have for a long time. My
new show, The Big Shot with Bethany is going to
be on HBO Max and it's littered with an escalated
and I literally said to them, this is like a
free commercial on a major hot streamer, and the Cadillac

(35:35):
is like a star in the show. So you're welcome. Anyway,
It's so nice to meet you, and I'm so glad
you took the time to be here. I know you're
very busy, and it's great what you're doing, and it's
good how you're being so socially conscious about what's going on.
And I just love the conversation. Thank you so much.
So that was also great. E the CMO of Cadillac,

(35:58):
and to be the chief more running officer of a
brand like Cadillac is a big, big, powerful job in
what many people really deemed to be a male driven,
no pun intended world, the automobile industry. So I like
to have women on who are in power positions and

(36:20):
what has traditionally been a man's world, and for you
to just hear what their path has been and how
their path, and their trajectory has been non traditional and
circuitous and interesting. And a woman going from jewelry and
creating a website to being in the insurance industry to
working at Cadillac, and you know, being in a creative

(36:42):
role there. So sometimes you know, I'll have Dave Portnoy
or Dana White the head of the UFC. Then I'll
have Hillary Clinton or Chelsea Handler. It doesn't matter what
they have done or where they work. It's about their path.
And I think that you can find something interesting everywhere
and here. To go from all of these different industries

(37:03):
to working at Cadillac, to go that corporate path is
very different than my path. So I can speak to
you about my path. We do not know the corporate path.
We don't understand what it means to navigate working in
a man's world, working in what they call the c suite.
I still don't even know what that means. Someone will
tell me working in a conference room, playing the game,

(37:23):
having to run it up the flagpole park that no
con intended. Because she works at Cadillac and all of
that corporate lingo and language and temperature and not being
toned to death and all that matters now, so I
think it's important for us to hear conversations from people
who have really navigated very different industries, and I think
Melissa helped with a lot of takeaway about self care

(37:45):
and taking chances, and there aren't many chances to be
taken within the corporate landscape, so I think that's always
interesting to hear Just Be hosted by me Bethany Frankole.
Our managing producer is Fiona Smith, and our producer is
Stephanie Stender. Sarah Katnak is our assistant producer, and our

(38:08):
development Executive is Nayantara Royal. Just Be as a production
of the Real Productions and Endeavor Content. This episode was
mixed by Sam Bear. To catch more moments from the show,
follow us on Instagram at Just Be with Bethany