Q&A: Meet... Dial Up Speaker Kimmah Shah

We want to hear about you, you marketing legend. Give us a quick overview of what your company does and your roles and responsibilities there!

I am the Head of Digital & Demand Generation. So basically, if it touches the internet and that touches the customer I own it or have a hand it it. Everything from Paid Search to Email Marketing to SEO. My job is to help create an end-to-end experience for the customer as they learn more about our brand and how we can help them grow their business with a data-driven strategy.

I acquire customers!

Honestly, none. I think I learned what I needed to learn at the phase in my career where it was most useful. I never took no for an answer and I have always been ready to pivot when necessary. Failure was never an option so I have always been laser focused on success and evolving as a marketer and leader.

Not so much advice, so much the lack of. I am always gobsmacked when someone recommends something without having data to back up their recommendation. Like, let's just spend 1 Million dollars and see how it works. OR let's do it because that's how we've always done it (even though it doesn't work the way we wish it had.)

This is easy. DIRTY DATA. I could go on and on about this one. How can I personalize emails based on lead source, or campaign attribution, or GEO without standardization of data and basic protocols in place to ensure clean data stays clean. Going into a CRM for the first time is always the bane of my existence and requires a whiskey (or two.)

I am not a morning person, but I am working on it. I work from home, like most folks, so I wake up (at the last possible moment) and work out. It's the one thing I get to do for me before my day starts. After that a quick shower and hot cup of tea and I make my way to my home office and don't emerge until its dark out. LOL!

When you find out, tell me! LOL! No seriously, I have two boys at home that are watching. We come from VERY humble beginnings and I took it upon myself to be the LAST generation in my family that needs to say that. So I grind because they are watching and whatever I show them must be excellent!

Revenue Optimization & Operations. We know how to find customers and we know how to personalize their experience, but the missing gap is how do I do more of what is working but faster. I think marketing is going to be even more closely aligned with sales and there are going to need to be more collaborative tools that bridge the silo between both teams to assist with faster insights, faster go to markets and faster realization of ROI.

It's not marketing related but if it were one book it would be Gary Zukav. It was life changing for me. Work and the world can be so intense and overwhelming at times and if you allow yourself you can easily get wrapped up in things that do not matter. This book helped me dial in to my inner voice and ensures I am always in balance. Or at the very least aware when I am out of balance so I can work to get my $hit together!

The one that got the best results, to be honest. I don't have a favourite. I learned from a previous mentor, do NOT be married to anything. As a creative it's hard to not be married to your idea. But once I did that it gave me the freedom to create, be objective and be open to improvements. So, my favourite is the one that delivered the most value for my employer.

I am relaunching my blog, www.bepurposelyfearless.com soon. I want to find ways to channel all of my learnings and experiences to encourage and empower others.

Coming into a new role and inheriting someone else's programs can be a nightmare. Actually, starting from scratch can be pretty daunting as well. I will walk you through a full proof strategy to go from Crawling to Walking to Running Circles around your MOP's!