CMO Spotlight | Jennifer Davis - LEARFIELD
The CMO Spotlight is a chance to get an inside look into the minds and journeys of high-performing marketing leaders.
Setup CEO, Joe Koufman, virtually sat down with Jennifer Davis, the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for LEARFIELD. In the interview, Davis shares how optimism and integrity drive her idea generation and how different people and perspectives can contribute to solutions.
“If you have an idea, take action on it. There’s magic in doing. I have regularly referred to that concept that if you have some urgency about something, you can make a lot of progress.”
Watch + Read the Recap Below
Q1 | Tell us about your career path.
Davis has a background in digital and technology marketing and strategy roles. Her path at a software startup led to her working for large public companies. She then moved to Atlanta to work for Honeywell as the Chief Marketing Officer, and then made the move to Amazon Web Services. The recruiter at LEARFIELD was looking for someone with her background “who could supplement the deep domain knowledge that colleagues in collegiate athletics and related fields” had…and Davis could bring in a different perspective.
Q2 | What advice would you give to other marketers?
“Decision making is the key to speed, and speed is the key to a lot of business success.”
Davis referenced one-way door and two-way door decisions. She explained that you need to:
Pick somebody to decide
Let them decide and measure it
And then change their mind if it doesn't work right
This forces decisions to have more rigor, and for decision makers to consider a variety of factors like:
What is this implementation going to look like?
How can we set up this decision for success?
A decision needs to be made in order for the success to happen and be measured.
Q3 | What is your superpower?
Ideation is Davis’ superpower.
“I'm very good at [idea] generating. I can create a lot of ideas, I can process information pretty quickly, and I can put a lot of words around things pretty quickly.”
She also considers her integrity and optimism a superpower. “I'm a naturally optimistic person. And so people who have worked closely with me have found that if you lead with positivity, we get to a better spot.”
“If you lead with positivity, we get to a better spot.”
Q4 | What values are important to you?
“I tend to surround myself with people who hopefully have skills in areas I don't, and have strengths in areas I don't,” shared Davis.
Davis is extremely people oriented and focused. She is big on harnessing the strengths of her team and creating a space where everyone feels comfortable to be their true selves.
She also considers hospitality a value. “It's about inviting people into a problem so that they can be a part of the solution.”
For more marketing leadership advice, and a view into the mindset of marketing executives in various industries, be sure to watch the full interview with Jennifer Davis, and keep an eye out for more thought leadership from our CMO Spotlights.
Watch the full interview to the right.
Setup CEO + Founder, Joe Koufman, spoke with Ben Boyd, the Chief Communications Officer at Chobani, about designing your own career path, the importance of empathy and understanding as a leader, and more.