CMO Spotlight | Lindsay Listanski - Coldwell Banker

Setup CEO, Joe Koufman, virtually sat down with Lindsay Listanski, the former VP of National PR and Communications and recently promoted National Vice President of Field Marketing for Coldwell Banker. In the interview, Listanski shares how she uses her communication skills to advocate for herself and her team, where she finds inspiration, and more. 

Watch the interview + read the recap below

Q1 | Tell us about your career path at Coldwell Banker.

After introducing social media to the company during her internship, Listanski started as the first Social Media Manager at Coldwell Banker. “I remember doing an internship and saying ‘there's something about being able to use Facebook for business,’ and that was before [Facebook] Business Pages even came out. It was really cool to come up as a digital native and jump into using it for business - especially as one of the first people out of college to do that.” 

Her role evolved into managing the company’s national advertising. Four years later, she was looking for more growth. Luckily, Coldwell Banker has an “accelerated career path” program that allows their employees to grow within the company. Listanski was able to move into a senior level role running the marketing for a Coldwell Banker franchise. Eventually, she returned to Coldwell Banker where she worked as the Vice President of Public Relations and Communications for a period of time and now currently serves as the National Vice President of Field Marketing.

Q2 | What’s your superpower?

“My communication skills have served me really well in making sure that I’ve always advocated for myself in my career and advocated for people on my team.”

Listanski shared that she has the “gift of gab.” Labeled as “aggressively friendly” by her peers in middle school, they surely wouldn't be surprised to see how she has leveraged her communication skills to her advantage in her professional career. She believes that her communication superpower has helped her excel in PR and Communications and led to her career advancement.

Q3 | Where do you find inspiration?

​​Listanski’s source of inspiration is very close to home. She explained that she’s constantly inspired by the CEO of Coldwell Banker, Ryan Gorman, because of his leadership. “Ryan Gorman is one of the most inspirational leaders,” she shared. “He is a servant leader. He has such a strong moral compass, and he leads. He's not led.” She continued, “I am constantly inspired by the way that he has been driving things for our brand for the past few years. He moves fast, he takes chances…he’s incredibly smart and has one of the biggest hearts I've ever seen.”

Q4 | Tell us about an impactful campaign.

“One thing that I’ll say about Coldwell Banker is that we’re very true to our roots of who we are AND what we believe in. Home is our core.”

​​Listanski and her team launched a TV campaign right before the pandemic called "Hometown Heroes" where they honored local heroes across the country who were keeping things running and saving lives. The team’s ability to “pivot in real time” while staying true to their core values impressed Listanski. From a marketing perspective, “it was a grand slam” because the team’s flexibility and creativity made it a campaign that was built to last.

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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 Lindsay Listanski, and keep an eye out for more thought leadership from our CMO Spotlights.

Watch the full interview to the right.