Novel Sips 2 with Sarah E. Brown and SAMsARA
This past Friday, more than a dozen marketing leaders came together to enjoy a bottle of SAMsARA Wine with winery owner Joan Sztutak. The occasion was Novel Sips, a monthly virtual book club started by purple cork’s Kelly Robb and Apptopia’s Laura Hall. Author and fellow marketer Sarah E. Brown joined the event to talk about her book, Lead Upwards: How Startup Joiners Can Impact New Ventures, Build Amazing Careers, and Inspire Great Teams.
Let’s start with the wine. One marketer described it as a ‘gateway Chardonnay’ because even people that don’t traditionally like Chardonnay’s loved it. Joan shared that unlike buttery, oaky Chardonnays, SAMsARA Chardonnay is different because the grapes are grown in Santa Barbara, a cooler climate region, and the wine barrels used for storage are older, so they no longer infuse the wine with an oak flavor.
After the tasting, Sarah shared why she wrote Lead Upwards and what the process was like for her, as an up-and-coming author. For Sarah, the idea for the book came from her own need for resources to help her be more successful in her first marketing leadership role. There were lots of resources for founders, but nothing for leaders that ‘looked like her.’ Many of the CMOs on the call vowed to have their teams read the book as well and use it as a mentoring tool and framework for owning their career journeys.
The group shared ideas for managing up, noting Sarah’s sample CEO 1:1 agenda (page 105 in the book) and discussed how to align your needs with the needs of your boss and the business.
On the topic of needs, the group also discussed how many recent college graduates are choosing to leave their fully remote roles because they want an office experience and the opportunity to build meaningful relationships with co-workers. While it’s possible to do this in remote environments, it’s often easier in person. (Who doesn’t miss the occasional impromptu Friday happy hour that bleeds into dinner and post-dinner drinks?)
The #1 takeaway was that leading and managing teams today needs to be much more intentional. Thankfully, there’s a book out there with a blueprint for success. Another CMO shared a doc that explicitly outlines her management style, preferences and marketing beliefs for direct reports and other execs to read–genius! For example, “Be on time. Period.” and “I like more communication vs less to do a better job for you.”
Interested in leveraging the power of wine tastings to bring your group together? Reach out to purple cork to learn more about how virtual tasting events can get the conversation flowing.
