In this extended episode, we welcome award winning, digitally-savvy Chief Marketing Officer, Jay Spenchian. Jay has a long and outstanding career transforming deep consumer insights and big data into record-breaking products, sales, innovative marketing initiatives, and growth for Fortune 500 brands such as Pepsico, Heinz, Pillsbury, General Motors, Darden Restaurants, Tempur-Sealy, and US Cellular.

During this conversation, Jay shares with us what he looks for when hiring and/or promoting people, and the biggest challenges he sees when doing so. Jay also touches on leadership, humility, adaptability, flexibility, relationship building, being a team player, taking risks, challenging the status quo, and not being afraid to fail. Jay also discusses the #1 thing people should be focused on overall, the kinds of risks people should be taking and why. He also discusses the 5 key questions he asks himself when he’s being interviewed or promoted and how you should also ask yourself these same questions. Jay touches on why it’s better to be effective and not necessarily “right” and why that matters. Finally, Jay talks about the “consumer journey” and its importance in today’s marketing world.