Grow & Thrive: A Call to Action Bri Amarillas, Laura Mae Smith

The social media market is more fragmented - and more sophisticated - than ever before. How do brands decide on a social strategy that fits with their broader organizational goals, while cutting out the noise?

Lauren Thomas develops social media strategies for billion dollar brands, and is currently the Head of Social Media for Intuit TurboTax. She shares her insights on knowing when there’s a growing audience on a new channel, how to keep an authentic presence for the brand, and how to handle the higher content volume and trend turnover in this fast-paced corner of the marketing and communications world.

Influencing behavior is at the core of what marketers and communicators must do, but many don’t keep up with the latest research around behavioral science. Working at the intersection of psychology, sociology, economics and more, Intuit’s Jaime Kornick explains how insights from the behavioral science field can improve marketers’ jobs and the impact they have - in both big and small ways.

In this episode, we welcome new co-host Laura Mae Smith to the show, and turn the tables to put former host Mos' Okediji, director of marketing and communications for learning, growth and development at Intuit, in the hot seat. We speak with her about applying design thinking to your career, the gift of feedback, people skills as a source of power, and more.

Few organizations have mastered the art of responding with intent to reputational threats - being proactive instead of reactive. Derrick Plummer, Director of Corporate Communications at Intuit, says the key is to have integrity, empathy and to build trust with customers throughout your relationship with them.

Plummer has consulted with companies from Delta to Nissan to Arby’s to Mailchimp, and worked on the Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign as well as in the Obama administration.

The award winning Intuit Mailchimp brand marketing and corporate citizenship team talks to us about what it means to purposely practice your craft as a marketer and communicator.

In this episode, we speak with Michael Mitchell, who leads brand marketing and the content studio at Mailchimp; Lain Shakespeare, who is responsible for Mailchimp’s corporate citizenship platform Big Change Starts Small; and Megan Spellman, who led a partnership with the Black in Fashion Council in a collaboration at New York Fashion Week.

Intuit’s best-in-class approach to the marketing and communications craft comes from a culture created at the top. In this episode, we speak with Lara Balazs, our Executive Vice President, General Manager, and Chief Marketing Officer, as she reflects on her career, the company’s achievements this year, and shares actionable insights that marketers and communicators can leverage in 2023.