[Podcast] From Art History to Digital Insights: Emily Podell’s Empowering Career Path in Social Intelligence

Jackie Cuyvers:
Welcome to the women in social listening and insights podcast, where we showcase the incredible work of women working in the field of social intelligence. My name is Jackie Cuyvers, and I’ll be your host for this journey. In this podcast, we’ll be speaking with women from enterprise, agencies, and academia who are leading the charge in the world of social listening and insights. Together, we’ll be exploring their careers and the challenges they’ve faced and overcome and the innovative solutions they’ve developed. Our goal is to provide valuable insights and advice to our listeners who are passionate about this field and committed to advancing their careers. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just starting out, you’ll find inspiration and guidance in these conversations. So sit back, relax, and get ready to learn from the women who are shaping the future of social intelligence. Let’s get started.

Jackie Cuyvers:
Welcome to the podcast. Today, I’m joined by Emily Podell. Emily, thanks so much for joining us. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role and the company you work for?

Emily Podell:
I’m Emily Podell, as you said, and I’m a senior manager of Social Business Insights at Mattel.

Jackie Cuyvers:
Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into to the field of social intelligence, what did your path look like? Both kind of coming to Mattel and while at Mattel.

Emily Podell:
I definitely did not have a typical path. I could go very far back in my history. I went to college. I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I thought I would double major in art history and archaeology. Clearly, I don’t do that now. I ended up going to business school. And after that, I spent 5 years at Disney consumer products working in a finance and business development role. And in the consumer products division, what finance and business development meant was negotiating with licensees of Disney and forecasting and looking for white space opportunity. And there were about 15 people who did what I did. And I was good at what I did, but I wasn’t really amazing. I wasn’t super passionate about what I was doing. And I left Disney and went to work at Mattel, which is also a consumer products business. And when I got to Mattel, I started in a quant role looking at major launches, movie launches that we were making products for. So think of, like, a Toy Story 4. Mattel would make the toys for that. And I was looking at the launches from all sorts of different perspectives in terms of TV commercials and how much product we had in store. And there might also be a line item of how much people were talking online. It would be 1 bullet point, like volume of conversation. It it wasn’t the story. It was a bullet point. And after working at Mattel for about 2 years, so in 2019, my manager, inundated with work, asked me to work on an assignment for the Barbie team, and it was what do people think of the career of the year? What are people talking about online? And this was not a quantitative assignment. It was really qualitative, and I loved it. And I told my manager, I would really like to do more of this. This was amazing. And I somehow turned that into my full time role.

Jackie Cuyvers:
Obviously, your educational background of art history and archaeology, which is kind of the artistic creative side that, and the scientific side of archaeology. Do you think that’s carried through into Being passionate about that type of qualitative research where you’re looking at the story and the narrative that’s happening, which are is composed of Human conversations and language, but you’re trying to take, like, a strategic approach to developing business insights from that. So, like, a scientific or archaeological approach to kind of more scientific analysis or a structured business approach to these human conversations, do you think that carries through from your your kind of earlier passion and research, or do you think it’s it’s kind of something different.

Emily Podell:
So it’s an interesting question because I used to tell people I was an art history major because I was good at memorizing the art and the artists, and so I just kept doing that in college. But now that I’m no longer in a quantitative field and I am doing more qualitative, one of the things I do do is look at visuals which does go back to my art history background. And by visuals, I mean, for example, Instagram posts where you can see all sorts of visual trends. And so I now do think I’m using part of my art history background.

Jackie Cuyvers:
Interesting. So you said that was in 2019? At first Barbie project. And now, kind of this year is seemingly the year of Barbie. So from from then to now, how has your role kind of evolved going from that original qualitative project to a global kind of view, potentially?

Emily Podell:
Yes. It has evolved enormously. That’s accurate. At a big company like Mattel, you really need to reach out to other people to find out how you can help them. And so I went to a bunch of teams and tried to determine if there was work I could help them with and if social listening and intelligence would be a good fit for that. And so I did more for the Barbie team, and then I branched out to other brands. And slowly but surely, instead of me reaching out to brands, the brands started reaching out to me. And the proof was in the pudding, so to speak, and that teams found what I was giving them not just interesting, not just Nice to have, but, oh, oh, Emily, we can actually use this. We can take this around to, you know, our designers, our packaging designers, our retail team, an action on what you’re saying.

Jackie Cuyvers:
And how do you think that that type of social intelligence, was different than other areas of market research or analysis that they may have had previously.

Emily Podell:
This is another great question. So I can think of a couple different ways. So the first way that social intelligence is different than current marketing research not static. It’s rather an evolving conversation. And so we can see patterns and trends online evolving as opposed to a static one time or two time questionnaire or focus group. So it gives us more flexibility with adults. The other thing that social intelligence does at a company, a major company is that traditional market research is budgeted, and often it’s budgeted by how large a brand is and how much revenue that brand brings in.

Emily Podell:
And a lot of times, there’s a very meaningful project that there’s simply no budget for. And that’s another way that social intelligence can fill in the gap, is that we can help brands that might be a bit scrappier and not have budget for a formal study.

Emily Podell:
So there’s opportunities for social intelligence to be scrappy, be agile, give some of those quick answers or some of those quick turnarounds, but that can also be challenging within an in organizations. So within kind of the the setting of the organization, how do you ensure that it gets taken seriously?

Emily Podell:
We ensure things get taken seriously by asking questions upfront, like, what is the business impact that you would like this to have? Are you gonna make any decisions based on our findings? Is this a nice to have or a need to have? So we wanna make sure that work can be actioned on and isn’t just a, oh, thanks for sharing. I’m so glad you told me, but then they close her out you know, close the email and do nothing with it. We want it to be actioned on.

The importance of communication, managing expectations and consistent follow-up

Jackie Cuyvers:
Yeah. Nobody wants a report that sits on a shelf. Kind of speaking of that, how do you manage that communication process with stakeholders and partners. And what what things, you know, playbooks, checklists, or communication styles do you think are essential for, you know, success in those relationships.

Emily Podell:
So the first thing is that upfront conversation is important to have with partners and stakeholders. I also like to work on expectations. Sometimes when you get asked questions or have an assignment or project. You kinda get a sense like, I don’t know if there’s gonna be a whole lot here or, wow. I can tell there is so much happening, so much conversation online. I’m gonna have a lot to give them. So for me, a big part is trying to let people know ahead of time whether I think something is a good candidate for a full blown report or more of a candidate for some bullet points. And then the other essential for success is following up, whether it’s a week after, a month after, 2 months after, to find out if the information was useful. And if so, how did they use it?

Jackie Cuyvers:
And how do you what do you do with that information that they give you about the success or the implementation or how they used it? Are you able to kind of share some of those wins or learn from some of those findings. How do you how do you kind of take that forward?

Emily Podell:
So we absolutely want to share those wins. One of the things about the toy industry is to create a toy from start to finish could take a year and a half, and so sometimes your win may not show up on shelf for another year and a half or 2 years. And we don’t want people to forget that something on shelf may have been because of social intelligence. Or putting it another way that social intelligence may have played a part in that. And so by following up with people and and keeping track of decisions and influence that social intelligence had, we can start to connect the dots for teams and people. Right? And then we can start to say, this works for this team. Maybe it would work for your team. Right? Or I noticed that last time you use the data in this way, would you like to use it again for that next project? Right? So keeping track is essential.

Jackie Cuyvers:
So you’re you’re kind of compiling these use cases or case studies. Have you found any ways that are more effective than others in kind of sharing those internally, or do you do you find any particular method of communication, of those particularly useful?

Emily Podell:
So I used to start out by making a pretty PowerPoint for all my reports. And then I realized PowerPoints to make them look beautiful can take a really long time. And sometimes that’s good, but a lot of times people want answers very quickly. Like, within the next hour, the next 2 hours. Right? So I transitioned from beautiful PowerPoints to beautiful emails. Beautiful emails that you can see on your phone. I’ve done tons of playing with format. I’m always evolving, but I make sure it’s readable from your phone, that there are pictures, because pictures, you know, tell a 1000 words.

Emily Podell:
I play with font. I underline. I highlight. You you name it, I do it, but it’s so much faster in an email than a PowerPoint. The times I save the PowerPoint or for 1 teams already have a format, and so I’m not playing with colours and all that, and I can just drop things in. But I try to focus more on what is being said and how I can quickly say that.

Jackie Cuyvers:
I think that’s the 1st time I’ve heard about the the the mobile approach. I love it. I I love the speed team.

Emily Podell:
Social social had a manager for several years who told me that busy people do not wanna spend 20 minutes reading through your PowerPoint. Make it quick. And I thought, okay. Then they won’t even have to click on anything. It’s just right there. I feel like you should you should trademark, you know, Emily’s mobile temp insights template reports, you know, as as a thing. I can share that within the industry. I love that. So, I mean, how do you stay inspired and motivated in your work? Mattel makes it pretty easy. You know, Barbie movie? Yep. I mean, that was just so much fun. I get Ask such fun questions about toys, about adult collectors, and it brings joy to people. And, I mean, it just my company makes it easy for me to stay motivated and inspired. When you see product on shelf that you had a part in even though you’re not a designer, you know, or, I’m not a an executive at the company, yet I still played a part in that. It feels amazing.

Jackie Cuyvers:
I think that’s a really interesting point because a lot of people sometimes assume that social listening and insights and intelligence is a function of kind of understanding your campaign or your share of voice in the market. But, what you’re speaking to is innovation, new product development, R&D, and kind of customer satisfaction and and understanding user generated content and opinions. And it’s something, you know, very far well, not far removed, but but something separate than than using this for, you know, measuring a campaign.

Emily Podell:
Yes. I use it more for emotion, motivations, you know, passion, drive, all those things in measuring a campaign.

The value of considering multi-team info use for product success

Jackie Cuyvers:
So so speaking about kind of how you use it and how you communicate it, can you speak to some of the importance of how you use the data points that you’re talking about, you know, emotions or motivations or drivers to, kind of communicate the insights and that drive decision making?

Emily Podell:
Absolutely. So when I work on a campaign, a product, whatever it may be, I think the multiple teams at the company and how they might use information and what might be of interest to them. So just as a generic example, if I generically tell you we’re, you know, we’re making a cat toy. Well, there are a lot of different teams that would be involved in that, and I want different teams to be able to turn around and use that information. So perhaps that cat toy, I’m getting a lot of volume coming from France. Then if I turn around that information and say, wow. Conversation is really high in France compared to every other country, well, then the team that forecasts would use that information, right, just at a very basic level. But at a more complex level, we can use emotion to help paint a picture when we don’t have numbers. So if there is no study, I can still show how important a product is to a collector, and that might convince retail. Oh, we need to buy more of this product for our consumers.

Jackie Cuyvers:
Okay. So you’ve shared a bit about kind of your role and how you work with different teams and how your insights are shared and are kind of being used by these different departments. But how do you yourself kind of foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement in your work? I mean, how do you continue to learn, grow, and innovate.

Emily Podell:
When I get asked to work on something, I don’t have a set template. I like to think about what is the story, what am I trying to convey to people? And by doing that, I’m opening myself up to the possibility of improving and changing on what I’ve already done. So if I’m working on various product launches to see what people thought of them or if there are other products they would like. Just because I did it one way last time doesn’t mean I’m gonna do it the same way this time. And so I’m continuously thinking about what are consumers talking about, how are they talking about it, why are they talking about it, and then letting what I report to people be based on that rather than exactly the format and the bullet points I used last time.

Jackie Cuyvers:
Do you find that you’re having to since you’ve been doing this role for a while, are you still having to educate kind of your internal stakeholders, how this works and what can be done and the value of it? Or do you find that kind of the they you’ve already been able to educate them or people understand what social listening or insights and intelligence is and can deliver? Or are you finding you have to continue to kind of lead that education process internally as well.

Emily Podell:
So I have a huge smile on my face right now as you ask that because later today, I have a meeting to educate a couple people about social insights at the company. So there’s a lot of education. A lot of people are unsure or confused or they hear the words social listening, but But they don’t really know what it means or how to use it in the company. So I am frequently reaching about how amazing using social intelligences and how we can use it and what we can do with it at the organization. It’s a continuous cycle. Maybe cycle is not the right word, but I’m continuously getting out there. And when people ask questions, my response is, oh, let me set up some time on your calendar, and I can share more about that with you.

Jackie Cuyvers:
I love that 1 on 1 approach. And and by putting the time on the calendar, you must be able to kind of be able to answer their more specific questions or share relevant use cases versus maybe trying to educate a a big room of people who who have different objectives.

Emily Podell:
I much prefer 1 on 1 or, you know, small team. It allows for more back and forth conversation, and you can see the wheels turning and as people are soaking up the information.

Jackie Cuyvers:
You think is one of the the largest misconceptions that that you hear?

Emily Podell:
I think people think I’m customer service, and I deal with complaints. But that’s that’s not me. It’s an important function, but that’s not what I do.

Jackie Cuyvers:
Okay. Thinking about kind of your role, you’re working for a global global organization, that that has reach across markets and and countries. What does that mean for your insights and recommendations?

Emily Podell:
I admit this is definitely a challenge when you work on a small team but what we try to do is look for any anomalies, differences, patterns outside of the United States, which is generally the market that has the largest conversation. And it’s definitely a work in progress and something we want to continue evolving. In an ideal world, we would have unlimited budget, and we could hire people in lots of countries to help with our work. But in the meantime, since, you know, we don’t have an unlimited budget, it means reaching out to people in other countries, finding out if the information was useful, kind of like I do with people, you know, in the same building as me. And, also, you know, if anybody in those regions has any specific questions, then getting their input.

Jackie Cuyvers:
Well, we’re all living in a Barbie world now, so, I’m I’m sure you got plenty of feedback from from some of your recent research. So speaking of kind of current research, how do you how do you stay current with new developments in social listening and insights? What resources do you rely on that maybe you could recommend to others?

Emily Podell:
To stay current, I try to meet with other professionals, have chats with them, grab coffee, and that’s a great way to find out what others are doing. I’m also very open to conversations. If somebody reaches out to me on LinkedIn or I see somebody doing something interesting on LinkedIn, I reach out to them because I feel like we can learn from each other and maybe some somebody is doing something that I don’t know about, and I’d love to learn more about that. So just being open and learning from your peers is a great way to stay current.

Jackie Cuyvers:
Yeah. I think a lot of us have connected, you know, peer to peer at different conferences and a lot of value comes out of both that shared collective experience. So you’re speaking the same language, have similar challenges, but but are working across industries. So as you say, can you can get new learnings from from people in working in other kind of categories or industries, and, I wholeheartedly agree with you. How do you see that field of social intelligence and insights it’s evolving over the next, 5 to 10 years?

Emily Podell:
Definitely, more AI. You know, we’ve been hearing a lot about that this year, and It’s not going away, obviously, but I think that what we’re going to be seeing is this evolution of art and science and having them come together to make for more powerful stories.

How a flexible approach to work drives continuous improvement

Jackie Cuyvers:
I think I, you know, I absolutely love the that combination of of art and science and, you know, speaking of, you know, going from art history and archaeology to your business perspective, Can you share advice for other individuals who are interested in, pursuing a career path in social intelligence? I mean, I know your your path wasn’t a direct path, but if, you know, we’re we’re we’re marching towards a future of art and science, kind of what qualities and skills do you think are essential for success in this field.

Emily Podell:
Yeah. So my advice is when you find something that you’re passionate about, go for it. I didn’t even know what social intelligence was, but once I started doing it, I loved it. So I can’t say that you need a particular academic skill set. But in terms of qualities or skills that are essential for success, it’s some of the things that we talked about earlier with continuous improvement and thinking about how you can learn, evolve, and be flexible, and just having that mindset of what I’m working on is really interesting. I wonder what if, how come, how about, you know, just continue asking those questions and seeing where the work takes you.

Jackie Cuyvers:
So it sounds like emotional intelligence could be something that would be important for this type of role. So knowing what you do now, how would you advise future women in insights in pursuing perhaps educational opportunities or, developing career prospects or, different, skill sets that that might lead to a career in social insights.

Emily Podell:
Yeah. This is great to talk about. I went to an all girls high school. So definitely, I’m passionate about women in education. And what I’ve done is found those women that I could be myself around at my company regardless of their job title. And what I found is that when I can be myself around somebody and open up about something that other person is gonna open, open up about something themselves, and then you can kind of figure out, problem solve, talk about your your insecurities, and talk about your wins, and that is really gonna help you to gain confidence.

Jackie Cuyvers:
Sounds like having a a peer community can be an essential kind of item for success In in this kind of career path.

Emily Podell:
For sure.

Emily Podell:
Well, thank you, Emily, for sharing about your kind of history in in kind of coming into the field of social listening and insights and intelligence and more about your role at Mattel and, sharing your secrets for success in, social intelligence. So I appreciate you being so open and and sharing with us today.

Emily Podell:
Thank you for, having me on your podcast. My first ever, what a wonderful experience.

Jackie Cuyvers:
Thank you so much.

And that’s a wrap for this episode of the Women in Social Listening and Insights podcast. I hope you’ve enjoyed this conversation and taken away some valuable insights and advice from today’s guest. If you like this episode, please be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or Spotify so you never miss an episode. And don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn for updates and additional resources. I’d like to take a minute to once again thank our interviewee for taking the time to join us on the show today and sharing her story and insights with us. Your contribution to the world of social intelligence is truly invaluable, and we’re so grateful for you sharing your time and expertise. And finally, If you listeners know of anyone else who would make a great guest on our show, please don’t hesitate to introduce us. We’re always on the lookout for new and inspiring stories.

Until next time, I’m Jackie Cuyvers, and this is the Women in Social Listening and Insights podcast. Thanks so much for listening.