Balancing Act: Deb McGranaghan on Marketing, Motherhood, and Empowerment

In this special throwback episode from our Women in Marketing series, Maddie sits down with Deb McGranaghan, a marketing analyst at Seapoint Digital, to explore her unique journey into the world of marketing. Deb shares how she transitioned from traditional marketing methods to the digital landscape while juggling the demands of motherhood and entrepreneurship.

Tune in as Deb discusses the key traits that have helped her adapt and thrive in a constantly evolving industry, the challenges she faced marketing herself, and the importance of creating an inclusive environment for women in the workplace. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just starting out, Deb’s insights on balancing professional growth with personal responsibilities are sure to inspire.

Don't miss out on this candid conversation about resilience, flexibility, and the power of supporting women in the marketing field.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Women in Marketing Intro
• 1:58 Deb's Journey into Marketing
• 4:01 Challenges in Marketing
• 5:46 Traits for Marketers
• 7:21 Creating Inclusive Environment for Women
• 10:36 Moms in the Office
• 12:11 Future of Marketing
• 13:11 Advice for Young Women in Marketing

Transcript

welcome back to another episode of

the FreeDive Podcast I'm your host

 Kristy Billingslea welcome back thank you

so much for being here um today we have

a special episode for you um and it's

not going to be with me I am fighting a

summer cold so you don't want to listen

to me um however I'm going to introduce

you into our episode um we have been

doing if you've been here a while you

would know um a Women in Marketing

series through time since March so we're

keeping that ball rolling uh we did some

with some fantastic women we did one

with Tina Gammon um Christina Garnett go

back and listen to those episodes if you

have not beautiful ladies beautiful

episodes and we're continuing on today

with Deb McGranaghan um we recorded this

episode back in March um and it's worth

resharing so we're going to reshare it

with you today we have more beautiful

women in marketing episodes to come I

have guests lined up ready for you I'm

really excited about these ones that are

com coming um but for now please enjoy

this interview um with Maddie and Deb

Deb

Hi

how are you 

good so glad to have

you here with us today thanks for taking

the time to sit down and talk with us

thank you for having me excited to talk

about women in marketing and you're a

woman in marketing what is your job

title I am a marketing analyst here for

C Point awesome that's very cool can you

share a little bit with me about your

journey and how you got started in the

field of marketing well I I guess you'd

say I married into it kind of because I

married a self-employed contractor um

and with that came needing to Market to

help him get work so I worked for him um

throughout I mean we've been married 27

years tomorrow oh congratulations happy

anniversary thank you um yeah so I was

um we did lots back then we're talking

in the 2000 early 2000s the internet was

there but we weren't marketing on it yet

um so it was all like direct mail and s

and things like that wow um so that's

kind of was the first step and that has

always been like a recurring thing

that's been needed

throughout the years um because he's

always worked for himself we've also

done some real estate stuff so there's

Marketing in there um a lot of direct

mail stuff initially um but it was a

part-time thing I always had a regular

day job um and just kind of did that on

the side until I started here and

started doing it for an actual company

wow that's really cool so you've been

able to sort of grow along with the

marketing world over the years yeah for

sure because like I said it was

definitely more more um boots on the

ground initially more physical media

more physical for sure um and actually

about 11 years ago um shortly after I

had my daughter I started working for

myself and then and that was more things

were online then right um so I was

started working as a virtual assistant

oh cool yeah and I was actually helping

people with their social media and um

email marketing and things like that um

so I started doing it a little more for

myself

um and then ended yeah ended up here

awesome were there any particular

challenges that you experienced um

either at the start of your career in

marketing or since then um I would say

my biggest challenge was when I started

working for myself marketing

myself that was always my biggest

challenge I can sell other people all

day long um and help clients know what

to do but the actual markting marketing

of myself to find the clients um was

always my biggest downfall and my

biggest struggle I understand that

completely I think for most of us it can

be hard to sell ourselves because we're

we're hard on ourselves of course how

have you been able to um battle with

those

feelings um it's actually helped since

I've been here and working um with other

people and a lot of the collaborations

that's have happened here and like hey

people are actually like valuing my

opinion and I do bring good ideas you

know like seeing just that and and then

everybody has bad ideas too and like

every idea is welcome and nothing is

shot down and and just learning to trust

myself a little bit more in those

environments cuz I haven't really had a

position before where I had that

opportunity to like interact with others

it's either been me and my husband or me

myself and I alone in my office as a new

mom and and all the emotions and things

that come with that so um so I feel like

that's been really helpful to have other

people that are supportive and that um

value your opinion yeah absolutely

professional validation is is huge for

confidence building that's for sure for

sure are there any key traits or skills

that you feel are important in the

marketing

field um I feel like definitely having a

a willingness to adapt um you can't just

stay in one lane forever because

everything is changing yeah um but at

the same time you need to be able to

kind of see things through so there's

that balance of um not hopping around

too quickly but then if you see

something moving in a direction being

willing to maybe try something new even

if it's in addition to what you're

currently doing just um not getting too

stuck in a rut um and then like I said

before like being willing to work with

others and kind of check your ego at the

door um what you think is the best way

and like okay what's what can the group

come up with

um and maybe that's your idea or maybe

it's not and not taking things too

personally it sounds like too yeah which

is hard yeah I am a person who takes

things personally so well we're actually

the center of our own worlds that's just

the way it is yeah yeah and overly

self-critical so when Outsiders than

validate that criticism that you have

that can be hard so um so being with a

supportive group is definitely helpful

where it's not like even the bad ideas

aren't like criticized as such yeah or a

job or an idea not being the chosen one

doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad idea

it's just not the right idea for the

scenario exactly that makes sense or not

what the client wants to do at the time

right right so Deb how do you think that

companies can create a more supportive

and inclusive environment for

women I think

allowing women to be women and to show

up as women and think as women and also

um allowing space for the

responsibilities that women have outside

of the workplace as well that is going

to influence their thinking um remote

options is a big thing a lot of

marketing is online now um being able to

not have to clock in clock out at

certain times especially for moms um

that can be really important to to allow

them the um flexibility to not feel they

have to choose between their home life

and their work life um now are there

some fathers who are the primary

caretakers of their children absolutely

but we can probably agree as a majority

um the majority is women that are

primarily responsible for bringing the

kids to school and picking them up and

after school stuff and helping with

homework and and just all of those

things that are real demands on their

time and the time that they can spend at

work but that doesn't mean they can't

get the job done that doesn't mean that

they're not smart and that their ideas

aren't needed right in the industry in

any industry really like the world needs

that because again that's who's doing

all the purchasing that's these women

are starting these companies but being

allowed the

flexibility um with your time and the

space to um to not feel like you have to

pick yeah what's going to get your

attention like I'm a mom first my

daughter is my top priority right the

fact that I'm allowed to work from home

I do come into the office She is welcome

to come with me cuz I homeschool if I

couldn't do that I would not be able to

do this job if I had to choose I'm going

to choose to be home and someday when

she's out of the house then I would have

to work on that whole revisit

reestablishing yourself in the workplace

which is really hard and it's a shame

because you're missing out on some of

those best

years in from a career standpoint and

just there women have so much to

contribute absolutely you know we have a

different experience than men and if you

want to talk to women who are

purchasing your stuff you need to know

what they're thinking about

and that can be hard if it's only men in

the room that are making those decisions

absolutely so allowing allowing space

for that and not being made to feel like

you're an inconvenience if you need that

yeah absolutely um that's really

important because there's a lot of

really really smart women out there who

maybe don't get the opportunity to or

haven't found the right place where they

can showcase that in a way that fits the

rest of their life that makes perfect

sense yeah and um to your point women in

general but specifically mothers if they

don't have the opportunity to work um

like you said their their perspectives

won't be heard and that's an important

perspective absolutely you've been able

to as a mother and a woman do your job

and and be successful yeah and it's

because I don't have to worry or I don't

feel like I have to choose yeah um like

when we come into the office she has her

schoolwork with her and she does her

thing and I have to worry about where

she is or that she's not getting School

done that day or or all of that I don't

have to choose to like send her to

school when for us we don't feel like

that's the right choice right now for

many reasons um and even at home the

same thing it's like I can get up and do

my work at six o'clock in the morning

before she gets going for the day so

that I can then Focus some time on her

and that's okay as long as the work is

getting done and I'm there for any

client fa ing meetings that I am

expected to be on and as long as those

criteria are met when you do the work

doesn't really matter to anybody yeah

which is great because not everybody

thinks best between 8 and 5 o'clock

absolutely like I

don't so sometimes it's a Saturday

afternoon or whenever I'm allowed to

have some space so it's it's nice that

that is um welcome and encouraged here

just do do good work we don't care when

and and that's great that it can be that

way absolutely so how would you envision

how do you envision the future of

marketing and where do you see yourself

in that

future um that is a good

question of which I'm not

certain um all I know is that the future

of marketing is going to be different

than it is today that's pretty much all

we can

predict the future it's going to be

changing um I'm not going to try to to

guess where it's going to go um I know

that what I am doing within that field

right now I am still enjoying so it's

just a about matter of being willing to

Pivot with with where it is right um

with where it heads but things can

change overnight that does speak to your

point about flexibility um whatever the

future brings if you are flexible and

willing to put the work willing to learn

new technologies and skills you'll be

able to maintain a Competitive Edge in

the industry yeah for sure what advice

would you give to young women who are

interested in a career in

marketing H there's so many different

Avenues you can go down in the world of

marketing like just thinking from just

our agency we've got the creative team

like so the writers who like to create

content we have the graphics team we've

got the um account managers people who

are more technical technically Savvy um

I'm the analyst so I got the like

looking at the numbers so there's all

these different

Avenues um that you can try and knowing

your value I feel like is a big thing um

even if you are new in it uh you've been

shopping for years probably so you know

and you're you're on social media you're

out in the world you know what speaks to

you and even if you're younger like

those voices are needed too because you

can't reach from a marketing perspective

you can't reach uh an

18-year-old girl who's just out of high

school if you're a 60-year-old man

that's a lot harder to do so the

industry needs different ages and

different voices and different

perspectives um so why not you yeah

that's a great point and and just

trusting that even if you're the new

person in the room that you have a

different perspective you're coming in

from a different Viewpoint than

everybody else in the room and that

might be the shift that's needed to get

better results um so yeah knowing your

value and and playing to your strengths

like if you know that something you know

I'm not a numbers person but hey I'm

really creative I love to write well

then try that don't try to force

yourself into an area that isn't a good

fit um but be curious be curious to try

different things to see see where I

never would have picked where I am I

wouldn't have guessed that at all and I

actually really enjoy it nice so there's

a place for everybody there's a place

for everybody for sure well thank you so

much for taking the time to talk to us

it's great hearing your insights and um

we appreciate you so much and and your

hard work I appreciate you too thank you

so much this is great