Season 2; Episode 3: Our Stories Beyond the 9 to 5 with Kerel Cooper

Kerel Cooper is the Chief Marketing Officer at LiveIntent, one of Business Insider’s hottest AdTech companies two years in a row. Kerel is responsible for the overall business marketing strategy which includes advertising, branding, product marketing, and public relations. Kerel has emerged as one of LiveIntent’s leading voices in the industry. Kerel is also the co-founder and co-host of Minority Report podcast which highlights people of color, women & LGBTQ+ community within business, media, and technology. Kerel was also included in Crain's New York Business Notable Black Leaders and Executives 2021 list.

Key Takeaways from this Episode:

People’s Stories

· Everyone has their own story, and everyone's story is personal to them. People are much deeper than what we see from someone nine to five.

· People's perspectives on life and on their job is shaped by their background, their upbringing, the experiences that they've had along the way.

· I always learn something new when I’m interviewing someone I’ve known for a while on my podcast. Because I only knew that person from a 9 to 5 perspective. Peeling back the onion allows you to get to know people on a deeper level.

· With COVID and the change to working from home has blended the professional and the personal in ways none of us ever experienced before. We know more about each other and our entire situation because of the pandemic.

Delegation & Trust

· Your number one job as a leader is to focus on your team. Position your team to be as successful: clear barriers, listen, have a point of view so you can point them in the right direction. When I hire talented people, my job is to make sure they utilize their talents to the best of their ability to do an awesome job.

· Earlier in my career transitioning to letting go was very difficult. I thought if I'm going to do it the way I want it to be done, I might as well do it myself. But if I did that, I wasn’t going to grow my career and scale if I held on and tried to do everything.

· As I grow my career, that creates more room for people to grow their careers. If I'm not evolving and moving, then I'm creating a ceiling for the people that are below me. And then at some point they're going to leave.

· One quality a great leader has is trust. You must trust the people you've hired and let them make decisions.

Developing People

· I keep a “Family Tree” of the people I've hired or mentored or managed at some point in their career and keep track of their promotions, their next job, how their career is moving forward.

· We need to give people a deeper level of flexibility and empathy and listening. Listening to your team is critical; truly listening to what they're saying, listening to the challenges that they have, listening to the opinions that they have, and then figuring out the best way to help.

Career Guidance

· Don't have blinders on regarding your next job or where your career may go. It may not always be the way you planned it out and that's okay because the world is changing. Practice your craft and be open to different doors that might open.

· You have challenges and you have failures that you need to learn from; never get too high on a success and never get too low on a failure. One failure doesn't define your career or who you are or what you’ve done in your career.

Taking Care of Yourself

· Mental and physical health is super important as a leader. Figure out what works for you to make sure that you're taking care of yourself mentally and physically. Our health is the most important thing that we must protect.

· You can't really lead and take care of the people on your team if you're not okay.

Representation & Relationships

· Being a leader as a person of color is something I think about and carry with me every single day. Using my position of privilege to open doors for others is a responsibility I take very seriously. It motivates me to perform at a high level on a day-to-day basis.

· To create more representation and to help others I’m the chairperson of our diversity equity and inclusion executive committee at LiveIntent, I'm a board member at Marketing EDGE and I'm an advisor to a company called the VR Perspectives.

· Kids need to be exposed to people that don't look like them, don't talk like them or come from different cultures. The more kids can be exposed to others I think the better off we will be as a society. Also, travel is one of the greatest gifts a parent can give to a kid.

Links & Resources:

· Minority Report: Kerel is the co-founder and co-host of Minority Report podcast which highlights people of color, women & LGBTQ+ community within business, media, and technology.

· Marketing EDGE: During our 55-year history, Marketing EDGE has served more than 110,000 students. Through our programs, we impact students, academics, and the industry-at-large – executives and corporations by forging personal relationships to expand access to insights and opportunities that drive career advancement; and by evolving to meet changing market needs.

· VR Perspectives: Leverages virtual reality to train organizations on conscious inclusion.

To learn more about my work in executive coaching, leadership development and team effectiveness check out my website, connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at winnie@winnifred.org.

Reach out and tell me what was helpful about today’s episode or any suggestions you have for my show.

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I look forward to sharing another transformative conversation with you next week!

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