Episode 260: Being Kind, Consistent, and Showing Up with Carrie Sweeney, Pinterest Retail Industry Lead

Carrie Sweeney knows how to build relationships. Her belief that showing up and treating clients the way she would her friends has led to success in her career.

After graduating from Notre Dame, she started her career working for a large digital agency, building well-known brands like Crayola, Kellogg’s, and Hallmark.

After furthering her education at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, she moved on to Bain & Company and then Google’s advertising organization. Her exit from Google led her to Pinterest where she is today helping to build the sales and monetization teams.

Carrie is a team-focused and client-based leader who believes in showing up when it would be easier to quit. She feels that knowing when and how and where to pivot when making decisions is critical. Carrie is told she brings “big sister energy” to work, which she loves. It comes honestly as she did learn about how to lead and work with people through the relationship with her own sisters.

As a leader, she helps her employees look for anything that went wrong in a situation and take responsibility for what they can control. She naturally loves people and believes that being there consistently for others over time helps them trust you. Carrie is clearly busy with all of her responsibilities, and when it comes to how she gets through her day, she shares with us how she does the little things first. She wants to make sure she has the quick tasks off her list by 9AM. Join us as we learn this and a lot more from this wise and successful leader in the retail industry.

Visit https://www.gobeyondbarriers.com where you will find show notes and links to all the resources in this episode, including the best way to get in touch with Carrie.

Highlights: [02:19] Carrie describes her background [03:06] Creating resilience [07:45] Forming your personal board of directors [12:09] Connecting dollars and people [14:12] A day in Carrie’s life [19:59] Staying organized [21:50] Identifying key relationships [25:04] How Carrie’s personal life affects her work [27:03] Lightning round questions

Quotes: “The way you treat your friends is how you should treat your clients.” – Carrie Sweeney

“Find joy, and think creatively about where to find it.” – Carrie Sweeney

“In tech, you have to know what’s going on in the details to see the right themes and strategies.” – Carrie Sweeney

Lightning Round Questions: What book has greatly influenced you? - “To the Lighthouse” by Virginia Woolf

What is your favorite inspiring quote or saying? - “Look for happiness under your own roof.” – Gretchen Rubin

What is one word or moniker you would use to describe yourself? - Compassionate (and high energy)

What is one change you've implanted that made your life better? - The post-it note hack shared earlier

What power song would you want playing as you walk out onto a stage? - “About Damn Time” by Lizzo

About Carrie Sweeney: Carrie currently leads the Pinterest teams responsible for client partnerships with the largest retailers in the US. Together, they unlock the value of shared technology and media, including partnerships in the rapidly evolving retail media landscape. She also partners closely with Fortune 100 retailers, as well as Pinterest’s product and technical teams, to inform Pinterest’s roadmap in the evolving commerce space.

Carrie graduated from Notre Dame in 2003 with a liberal arts degree and worked at a large digital agency, Starcom Worldwide, for 6 years, building brands like Crayola, Hallmark, Morgan Stanley, Kellogg’s and Blackberry/Research in Motion. She attended business school full time at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business from 2009-2011.

Following Booth, she joined Bain & Company as a strategy consultant in the Chicago office, and then joined Google’s advertising organization. She left Google to help build the Pinterest sales and monetization teams in 2016.

In her spare time, she is a member of A Better Chicago’s Impact Council, an avid reader, and a mediocre tennis player who is just getting back into the swing of it.

Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrie-sweeney-4309b413/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/carriesweeney/