CMO Spotlight | Liz Brown - Little League International
Setup CEO, Joe Koufman, virtually sat down with Elizabeth Brown, the SVP of Marketing and Communication at Little League International. In the interview, Brown shares how she uses her curiosity and creativity to her advantage, how her challenges have helped her and her team grow, how working alongside children and a purpose-driven company provides inspiration, and more.
Read the recap + watch the full interview below
Q1 | Tell us about your career path and organization.
Brown began her career on the agency side working with events and sponsorship activation. During her time working for the agency, she consulted brands to align them with specific sports or lifestyle activities. She eventually moved into her current role at Little League International where she initially focused on sponsorships and partnerships. Over time, as Little League aligned on their marketing goals and priorities, Brown’s role naturally evolved into overseeing all marketing and communication. She reflected, “It was natural to step into that role and oversee communications as we were building out digital, social, and our fan experience with technology, and really wrapping all of the communications and marketing under one umbrella.”
The work that she’s accomplished over the last four years led to more close partnerships with the MLB and ESPN, and she describes her time as, “an amazing experience to grow as a marketing professional.”
Q2 | Is there any advice that you’d like to share?
“Almost every day at work you should be learning something new.”
Brown believes that each work day, good or bad, should expose you to something new because learning opportunities always lead to growth. She continued, “Surround yourself with people who are going to teach you in some way.” This is important because your professional development is exponential when influential people are in your corner.
Q3 | What is your superpower?
Brown explained that she is naturally curious and creative and likes to lean into her strengths for work. She added, “I ask a lot of questions in the spirit of trying to find the best solution.”
Authenticity and compassion are also superpowers she utilizes day to day. Staying intentional about getting to know her team members while also staying true to herself have been crucial to her values as a leader.
Q4 | What has been your biggest challenge?
The pandemic’s influence on in-person events forced them to cancel the Little League World Series events for a year. Brown explained that it challenged her and her team to find new ways to engage their members. “We leaned into being as creative as we could with the digital assets we had.” She continued, “For example, we did a virtual fan experience that we traditionally would do on site where you could walk through and interact with brands and have an experience.” Due to the new fan interaction formats’ success, the new tactics are now permanently added to Little League International’s arsenal of marketing tools.
Brown’s team is also currently challenged with keeping Little League International’s volunteers engaged. “We need to re-engage that volunteer base because some of them haven't been a part of the program and engage new folks to really make them comfortable that this program is a place to really find some value and give back to the community.”
Q5 | Where do you find inspiration?
For Brown, the world is her oyster and she finds inspiration from a plethora of areas. Firstly, she finds inspiration from the people who support her on her team. They’re diligent about getting to know each other, learning from one another, and having fun in the midst of their work.
She shared that taking time away from work to find inspiration has also been beneficial for her team. “I have this one colleague, and I love when he goes to a sporting event because he takes pictures of everything he sees. He'll share, ‘I can't believe they did this’ or ‘maybe we should try this,’ so creating that environment where people are also curious and engaged and thinking about the opportunities when they're not in the office. I think that time away is really, really important.”
Additionally, since Little League International is centered around children, she finds so much of her inspiration from them. “We are about kids playing sports - so how can that not be inspirational? In a lot of our storytelling, we hear from local communities, how people bond together, what life lessons kids are learning through this sport. All of that is amazingly inspirational for us to create and ideate around.”
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 Liz Brown, 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.