CMO Spotlight | Lynn Godfrey - Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
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 Lynn Godfrey, the Senior Vice President + Chief Marketing Officer of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, to talk about her career path, marketing endeavors, and advice.
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW AND READ THE RECAP BELOW.
Q1 | Tell us about your career path.
Godfrey started out as a Pre-Med major. After evaluating her interests, she made the transition to Advertising. She began her career on the agency side, working on product development and rollout. There, she was exposed to brand marketers who piqued her interest in marketing as a whole. Godfrey then went to Graduate school and worked for Kellogg, Amex, and networks such as Nickelodeon, MTV Networks, and then PBS Kids. She also worked with the Girl Scouts of the USA for a little over five years, and then, prior to that, the Red Cross of Greater New York.
The recession in 2008 and 2009 led her to take a step back to pursue something where she could be more connected and make more of an impact. She found an opportunity with the New York Public Housing Authority, which eventually led her to her current role today.
Q2 | What is your superpower?
Godfrey is extremely people-oriented. Her superpower is “figuring out the path to push an organization and or people on a journey.”
She encourages people to take on something, or embrace something that perhaps they've never done before.
Q3 | Is there a piece of advice that you would like to pass onto other marketers?
“Embrace this idea of failure.”
“I really think that when you're putting yourself in situations where you're stretching yourself and you're going out of your comfort zone, you feel uncomfortable and awkward and it may not work out...and then again it may.” Godfrey emphasized that no matter how a new situation makes you feel or whatever outcome it presents, “you're going to learn something about yourself, you're going to draw on insights that you would have never had if you would stay just within your comfort zone.”
Her second piece of advice is: always take the meeting.
You never know where a conversation or saying yes to an opportunity can take you. For your own growth, always say yes, or embrace opportunities with openness. “You know if you get a call from a Headhunter, or someone, I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand. You have to be open to [see] what's possible.”
Q4 | Tell us about a campaign that makes you proud.
Godfrey started at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in the beginning of January 2020, just before the lockdowns in March. The Patient Resource Center revealed the troubling challenges their patients faced - lack of financial resources, struggling to find jobs or pay bills, and inability to receive treatment.
In response to this, Godfrey’s team created a financial aid program for blood cancer patients, matching the dollars that they had along with various partners. “We had to put together an effort to make the patients aware of that. The program and service was out there.” The team had to advertise the program.
“That was a true test of how nimble the team could be...to pull together all the various elements and touch points...not just in our own channels like social and web, etc., but also a lot of outreach to healthcare providers, to grassroots organizations that support cancer patients, but specifically patients who don't have as many financial resources.”
“I learned a lot about the dynamics or the challenges frankly that patients encounter beyond the diagnosis. The diagnosis is the beginning of what is a long journey, and so much of what they're contending with is more than just the medical treatment itself. It's also every aspect of their life.”
Godfrey made the point that the last year caused marketers to take a step back to reevaluate their prior processes, and going in with that new, fresh mindset is exciting.
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 Lynn Godfrey, and keep an eye out for more thought leadership from our CMO Spotlights.
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.