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Uncensored CMO
e.l.f’s $1Bn Rhode deal, 25 quarters of growth & the ‘So Many Dicks’ campaign - Kory Marchisotto
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- [00:00]
Corey Marchisoto
Foreign.
- [00:07]
John Evans
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the uncensored cmo. Now, in this special series, we are partnering with our very good friends NBCUniversal to do a special series focusing on CMOs that have used the game changing power of sport to transform their brand. Now, first up in this special series, we have natural none other than the inspirational Corey Marchisoto, the CMO of elf. She always delivers and never holds back. I know you're gonna love this one. Here it is. Corey, welcome back to the show.
- [00:38]
Corey Marchisoto
Thank you for having me. One year later.
- [00:41]
John Evans
Exactly one year. So what's happening that year? I hear rumors, I hear rumours that, you know, there might be some awards in the making.
- [00:49]
Corey Marchisoto
Yeah, Elf time is a very serious. Well, time is a construct at elf, one year is about a decade. So the amount of things that have happened in the last year is definitely 10 years anywhere else. So just maybe a couple of key highlights. We've completed our 25th consecutive quarter of net sales growth and market share gain. We have entered into a definitive agreement to buy Rode, the brand created by Hailey Bieber and we are here in Cannes shortlisted for the Titanium and the Glass Lions, which is the first time both in my career and for Elf. So lots has happened.
- [01:31]
John Evans
Well, congratulations. So you have been quite busy since we last met them, haven't you? Now, I hear that the Titanium and glass entry has made waves.
- [01:41]
Corey Marchisoto
It's quite a thing. And I'm a virgin at this game of titanium and glass, so. And learning a lot of things, including we have to present live to a jury, which I will be doing tomorrow morning. 9:15am is glass. 10:45 is titanium. It is a very tight spot with very specific instructions on what can be done within the time that you have. So we have prepared a case presentation for the jury that has to bring some sort of new information to the table versus the presentation that actually won us a spot on the stage. So what we're focused on is two things in particular with our so Many Dicks campaign. The first one is degree of difficulty. To really help the judges understand that we took something that was impossible and made it possible. And the second one is continuity. A lot of the campaign work that comes in for Lions, they're a moment in time. We dropped a campaign for the Super Bowl. It made waves. We moved on. Our so Many Dicks campaign is a minimum three year commitment from our company about truly changing the board game. So we're gonna focus on both degree of difficulty as well as continuity.
- [03:02]
John Evans
Now, for anyone who hasn't yet seen so many Dicks he says, tell us a little bit about where the idea came from and how you brought it to life in such a way, you know, unmissable fashion.
- [03:15]
Corey Marchisoto
Well, if you go on the journey of elf, we're known to move at elf speed. We defy gravity, we defy this time space continuum. Everybody looks at us and wonders, how do you do these things so fast? This is actually the opposite. This is the one campaign that took us the most amount of time, that in fact, even when it was finished, we held it until we felt like lightning could strike. So to take you on the genesis of the campaign, I was, after a couple of board meetings, sitting, looking at our board of directors, and I'm like, this can't be normal. It was majority female, incredibly diverse. And I was like, this can't be normal. Can somebody run the numbers and tell us, of the 4,100 publicly traded companies, how many have boards of directors that look like this? And the answer came back as one.
- [04:10]
John Evans
Wow.
- [04:10]
Corey Marchisoto
We were the only board of directors of 4,100 publicly traded companies in the United States of America to have a board that was majority female and over 40% diverse. So when you have that information, you don't really know what to do with it. So you do what people like you and I do, and you take it on the spin and see what happens. Do people respond? Do they react? So we would take it on our speaking engagements, to press interviews, to media interviews, and every single time we would say it, it was met with unprompted round of applause. So we knew something in that was generating or eliciting an emotional response from folks. So we said, okay, well, what if we actually put a marketing wrapper around this and tried to actually make change? Because in the US 70% of the economy is driven by consumption. Well, who are the consumers? They're very diverse, increasingly so. And fun fact, women are over 50% of the population, but they influence 85% of all purchase decisions. So if women and diversity are driving the economy through consumerism, then they're also represented in the boardrooms, right?
- [05:25]
John Evans
Yeah.
- [05:25]
Corey Marchisoto
No. Boardrooms are 88% white and 73% male. So we said, okay, well, we have the receipts to prove that it works, because we've got 25 consecutive quarters of growth, top line, bottom line, really healthy. So if anybody could be a beacon of change to put more women and diversity in the highest seats of power, it would be elf. So we decided to create a campaign that. That would jolt people into awareness. Because first and foremost, what is a board of Directors, and why should I care? So we had to shine a light on why this matters. If corporations are running the economy, then who's sitting in the highest decision seats really matters for how the entire US Landscape is going to operate. So we came up with a campaign called so Many Dicks, so few of everyone else. And the genesis of that was we entered 35,350 names into a database, first time it had ever been created, of all sitting board members on both the NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange. Once we entered those numbers into the database and did all the crunching, we found out that there are more men named Richard, Rich, or Dick than entire groups of underrepresented people.
- [06:45]
John Evans
That's incredible.
- [06:46]
Corey Marchisoto
And that's how so Many Dicks was born.
- [06:49]
John Evans
Amazing. And what's the response to the campaign? Be like, it's very hard to miss, isn't it? And it's.
- [06:56]
Corey Marchisoto
He says, well, first, it's really hard to put to market, which we didn't anticipate. We were like Sisyphus, always pushing the boulder uphill. Like, first, can I sell this to my C suite? How many CMOs would take a campaign called so Many Dicks and go sell it up the chain of command and the C Suite, the board of directors. So being able to push that path tells you a lot about ELF and our ability to disrupt norms and shape culture and do the hard things. What I call the path of most resistance. But the path was way more resistant than I anticipated. First, a lot of newscasters, broadcasters, won't even say the name Dick. Second, we had cities like Las Vegas that wouldn't even run the campaign. AI Tools will tell you, no, sorry, that's outside of our parameters. We realized that we were getting blocked in so many places. Once we were able to push everything through and at least the places that would accept for it to go, we blanketed Wall street and took on the New York Stock Exchange. We covered the buildings, we covered the Oculus. 200,000 people pass by there every single day. And the campaign really caused a stir. The most important part of which is young folks were talking to their parents about it for the first time. People on our board of directors said, you know, this is the first time my daughter ever asked me what it meant to be on ELF's board of directors and told me she was proud of me. So it started to carry. Conversations are happening everywhere. And a problem that was in the United States all of a sudden was being covered by media outlets in 70 different countries. So it took on A life all of its own around the world that we didn't even anticipate. The goalpost for us knowing that you have this provocative campaign called so Many Dicks was just hit a majority positive sentiment, because we were bracing for impact. You don't know how this is going to go. We knew we had an ironclad case, but you still, you know, it's a fine line between being coveted and canceled, if you will. So we were aiming for 51% just like let's get to just a majority of positive sentiment. 99% positive sentiment. 99%.
- [09:15]
John Evans
Amazing. It just shows how you uncover a real truth like that and how the majority of people are, you know, on your side.
- [09:22]
Corey Marchisoto
And we had so many people that were like, I'm a dick and I approve of this message.
- [09:26]
John Evans
Well, I was wondering, any CEOs called Dick get in touch with you after the campaign?
- [09:31]
Corey Marchisoto
Yes, quite a few. And they were all very positive and very engaged. So many people thanked us for what we were doing, the outreach to us. How do I get involved? How do I rally behind the cause with you? How do we make real change? So in fact, the place we're standing today, which is about a year and a half since campaign went to market, we built a coalition of over 45 companies who want to help us make real change in the boardroom.
- [10:01]
John Evans
That's incredible. Now you mentioned turning up in Wall street and of course you're a publicly listed company. You referred earlier to your 25 consecutive quarters of growth. Congratulations, by the way. That is an amazing achievement by any, any stretch of the imagination. What's the secret to continually growing? Because you know you're getting to some scale now in terms of billion dollar organ, still only 700 people. So we forget how few people there are really per dollar of turnover. What's the secret to continually getting that growth? Because it must get harder and harder the more success you have.
- [10:35]
Corey Marchisoto
I used to think that. So I started ELF six and a half years ago and we had some incredible wave makers the first year. And I remember after that first year being petrified. How am I gonna overcome that next year? And we would sit around the table with the teams and be like, we have to. We did record breaking work. If you go back to that year, it was the year we did the TikTok campaign with an original music track and it was the most successful campaign in TikTok history. And the virality was outrageous. And we had a couple of other record breaking work that we had done. And you sit there and you're like, how are we going to come up with a plan that's gonna be even better? And after year two, I never asked myself that question again. Year two was even better than year one. And each year, it gets better and better and better. And the reason for that is because it's kind of like an algorithm. The more you feed it, the smarter it gets. The more courage you have, the more bravery you have to move at the speed of consumer and to move at the speed of community. And as long as you have the people you serve at the center of everything, if they are the heart that pumps the blood and the oxygen to all the vital organs, there is no elfing limit. And that is the most important part, is to make sure that everyone in the organization never lose sight of who are we serving? What is our raison d'? Etre? Why are we here? That's who we're here for. The connection that we have made with our community, the way that we have this direct dialogue with what I call zero distance. And when I say zero distance, I mean zero distance between me personally and our community, between our CEO and our community, between our entire C suite and our community. We go on TikTok lives. We go on our Twitch live streams. Our CFO, for example, Mandy Fields, went on our Twitch livestream to promote our new game, Fortune island, that. That we created in Roblox, which is all about earn, learn, flex financial advice. 100,000 people showed up to listen to financial advice from our cfo.
- [12:47]
John Evans
That's amazing. Has anyone had that kind of audience before?
- [12:50]
Corey Marchisoto
I don't believe so. And so it makes you realize that ELF is not really just someone's beauty brand. They're not just coming to us for a transaction. Sure. They're coming in to get the best of beauty at an accessible price. They also are coming to a place they want to be a part of, a sense of belonging, a place that they could learn and grow with. People who are giving them pathways, people who see them and listen to them. So to go back to your question, how do you keep this going? By doing that, by making sure that you create a world that people want to be a part of, that they can belong to, and most importantly, that respects their most precious asset of all, which is their time.
- [13:36]
John Evans
It sounds easy, but I'm sure it's not. In terms of where you say it's an algorithm, we're just repeating, none of this is easy, but I know it doesn't come easy.
- [13:44]
Corey Marchisoto
None of this is easy.
- [13:45]
John Evans
So what is it about the culture and the Way you work in the organization that allows you to create the conditions for that way of working to.
- [13:53]
Corey Marchisoto
So we create the cultural conditions necessary for innovation to thrive. Innovation in all types. And in order for innovation to thrive, in order for people to thrive, people have to be lifting each other up, not tearing each other down, which is what gets in the way of a lot of other companies. So we operate at ELF in what we call hpt, which is high performance teamwork. And high performance teamwork has three core pillars, and those three are all equally important, and they have to work in tandem. The first one is passionate relationships. And what that really means is, I need to know you more than your title and my title. I want to know about you. I want to know about your kids. I want to know what's important to you. I want to know what gets you out of bed in the morning. I want to know what's on your warning label. So this stuff really matters, because if you and I actually know each other on a deeper level, then we can actually get to a better place together through our work. It's going to come from a deeper, richer, more meaningful place. The second part is healthy conflict. And this is really important because a lot of people engage in other companies in unhealthy conflict. And unhealthy conflict is when people go at each other, I tear you down, you tear me down, we throw sticks and stones, we insult each other. What healthy conflict is, there's me, there's you, and there's a problem, and me and you are going to attack the issue that sits between us. And the only way you can do that is if you have this passionate relationship that you've built. Because now we can be really honest. And let's say you and I were in a meeting together and it went a little sideways right after the meeting, not next week, three months, six months, or a year from now, after it's been under the rug and I'm carrying and harboring aggression. Right after the meeting, I'd be like, hey, John, something didn't go well in that meeting, and it made me feel really uncomfortable. Could we talk about that for a minute? If we care about each other, we're going to get this out of the way right now. And then the third core pillar of high performance teamwork is mutual accountability. And that really, really matters. Both of us are invested in the success of the project, of the company, and this bigger thing that we're trying to do. And at elf, the underpinning of all of that is we're all shareholders so every single employee at ELF is granted meaningful equity every year, everywhere in the world. So what that means is when you're in a room together, we're not just colleagues, we're invested in this thing. And if it pays off, it pays off for every elf. So it actually has this different dynamic among everybody where we're passionate owners of the thing that we're doing and that really changes how you approach projects. So that HPT framework allows us to be one team, one dream, all in the same boat, rowing in the same direction, driving toward the same goal. And as soon as something gets in our way, we step up and we get it out of our way.
- [17:03]
John Evans
Yeah, the ownership thing is powerful, isn't it? And you referenced in your introduction as well, you've just done a really big deal to acquire road. So congratulations on that.
- [17:12]
Corey Marchisoto
Thank you.
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John Evans
What was the thinking behind that? Because that's a big decision to make, isn't it, to become a portfolio company rather than a single brand company.
- [17:20]
Corey Marchisoto
Yeah. So in the first 15 years of Elf's life it was single brand, single category and predominantly single geography being the US and that 15 years is about when I came in. And part of the reason that I was brought in is because I had a multi portfolio background. So our C suite set on a path to say we've built this incredible chassis. What else could we build upon it? And have a portfolio of distinct yet complementary brands as we scale further. So the first brand that we brought into the portfolio was the an acquisition. And that brand is called well People. And the well People founders are two incredible women that are still with us today. And they are Dr. Renee Snyder, who is our in house dermatologist. So all of our skincare products are created and blessed by a dermatologist. And then Shirley Pinkson who is on our education team making sure that we are always properly communicating the features and benefits of our products. So two incredible women and the brand is still growing today. We also created a brand from scratch with Alicia Keys. That was our third brand after the ELF mothership, which has been an extraordinary journey because she has a very unique perspective on what beauty is, which is much more about the soul. And if you care for the inner, then it's going to reflect on your outer appearance. And that was really important for us to establish different conversations than you can have in beauty. So ELF is this unbelievable value proposition. Well People was plant powered pioneer before anybody was even talking about using plants and beauty. And Kie's was all about soul care. Then we bought Natorium. Natorium Is a biocompatible skincare brand created by Susan Yara, another female founder. You see, we're on a. Yeah, we might be having a trend here. And Susan is an exceptional human being who is a brand founder, an influencer, and also just an exceptional human being who's not afraid to put life out on display. The good, the bad, and the ugly. So now that we have this portfolio of brands, we start to become a magnet. Because what founders are seeing is that they actually have another option than the big strategics. Because typically, the only place they could go is to these big strategics. And while that may sound really sexy and you could get a big payout and all those great things, what happens when they get inside those machines is their brand starts to lose its soul. It goes into the cookie cutter, and three years later, they're wondering, what the heck did I do with my brand and where did it go? And they lose the. Their passion. And there are so many examples of brands that are still in the brand, in the strategic, but the founder has long left the building. So Haley spoke to a lot of beauty founders and heard all the horror stories about what happens when you go into these big strategics. And what she knew is she didn't want to end up with the suits. She didn't want to end up just another number on a page or another brand on a spreadsheet and around a bunch of people who weren't going to allow her to express road to its truest sense. So she got introduced to us, and one of our first encounters was a dinner. And we went to dinner together in la. And before we even put numbers on paper, the kindred spiritism was the magnetic attraction. We had such a great time together as humans building those passionate relationships, and we talked about all the things that were important to her. And what she found is people who believed in the same things that she did. There was a value alignment. There was a love and a desire to make Rhode be the thing that Rhode needed to be, not us, turn it into something we thought it could be. So once you really get that frequency alignment, I believe we're all antennas. Her antenna was going off, and our frequencies were totally aligned. And she said, these are my people. And then we engaged in the negotiations.
- [21:47]
John Evans
The point you make is so critical generally, I think in business that who you work with is a lot more important really, than what you do, because the people you surround yourself in terms of energy and talent and are you pushing in the same direction? I think when people are often applying for jobs or Looking to sell their business. They don't think enough about who am I going to be spending all this time with. And you know, do we share the same values and vision?
- [22:08]
Corey Marchisoto
And that is so fundamental for me. Before I took the ELF job, I had my list of non negotiables. And the first one is you have to have a firm belief in the thing that you're going to be doing. Do you actually, in your gut believe that there is potential that can be unlocked, that there is growth that can be had? So do I believe in the thing, which is value alignment and all that stuff? Then do I believe in the people who are here to do the thing with? And that's, to your point, a critical step that's often overlooked. And the reality is you're going to spend more time with the people at work than you do with anybody else in your life, and it will drain your system and take your energy away. If these are not people that, that you are kindred spirits with, that doesn't mean carbon copy. It means that our frequencies are aligned. And that was absolutely key. So I think it's just really important that people. Because people talk to me a lot about burnout. Do people talk to you about burnout? And burnout for me is a funny thing because burnout is true and it's real. But I actually don't think the cause is where most people find it. Burnout happens with misalignment. When you and your values are misaligned with the company that you're working for or the people that you're working with. That's how burnout happens. At elf, I've been in a constant state of peak performance for six and a half years because it is in perfect harmony where I am, what we're up to, who I work with. Never for me has it been a day of work.
- [23:51]
John Evans
I can so relate to that. I mean, one question I get a lot is, is it hard having to do a podcast every single week? And I've never, ever once in my life thought, that's a hardship. I look forward to it every week. You know, I'm energized by the people I meet and the fact we're going to go live and waiting for the reaction. I mean, it's a small example, but it's true. If you're doing the right thing as values align, energy aligns, then it doesn't feel as hard as it may look.
- [24:14]
Corey Marchisoto
Yeah, now that doesn't mean neither you nor I do hard work.
- [24:16]
John Evans
Yeah, exactly. It's not. Yeah, true.
- [24:18]
Corey Marchisoto
But it's work that we truly enjoy doing and that we want to do over.
- [24:23]
John Evans
It pays back. And it helps you work even harder, doesn't it? Because it pays back. You mentioned when you're talking about the other brands you've invested in and partners with a lot of creators and celebrities in that mix, how important are they? I guess creators and celebrities, in terms of building beauty brands, enormously important.
- [24:40]
Corey Marchisoto
And again, it comes back to when you codify your ethos, which is really step one, you have to tune in, I call it tune the Elf in, to who your brand is, what you stand for, and codify it in a common language that everybody can speak. And then you send out the bat signal. And that's really key, because what comes back is again, going to be a kindred spirit. Not a carbon copy, a kindred spirit. So at Elf, we're trying to create a different kind of company. That already says a lot. We don't want to do things the way others have done them before. Well, how does that come to life? Three key ways. By disrupting norms, which inherently is the path of most resistance. We do the hard shit. Right. The second thing is shaping culture. And those words are really important because notice I didn't say lead culture. We are not arrogant enough to believe that we know better than you, and we're gonna be out here and you're gonna follow us. I also didn't say follow. We're not behind you either. We're actually shaping it together with you. We're in it together now, in real time. And the third is connecting communities. And when you think about the power of connecting communities, let's take Liquid Death for a second. I know how much you love Mike Cesario, and I idolize him as well. When our communities connected over our collaboration, it was incredible. My favorite water brand and my favorite makeup brand are coming together. We connected communities who didn't realize that they actually had a shared passion for these two brands. So when you send out that bat signal, what comes back are people who are bold, who want to do things differently, who are shaking up their industries, who want to push the status quo and really conquest new frontiers.
- [26:38]
John Evans
Now, talking of challenging status quo, as your Cannes agenda's been released over the last week, there was one that's really stood out for me, which is Billie Jean King. I mean, wow, that is quite something, your collaboration with her. What's that been like and what has she taught you?
- [26:56]
Corey Marchisoto
She's an extraordinary human being. So nobody calls her the Goat for no reason. She really is the goat. And I'll just start with the fact that one conversation with that woman is life changing. She speaks in golden nuggets of wisdom that you could pick up and use it to make yourself a better person, your job increasingly impactful. And the starting point was actually around skincare. So when Billie Jean King was on the court playing tennis outside in the burning heat and sun, they didn't have spf. So we started this work together to just do a quick little campaign. She loved our funny names like Holy Hydration and suntouchables and she just had such a great time with it. And as we were chatting through that moment, we were working on the so Many Dicks campaign and the broader Change the Board Game initiative. And so we get into a conversation about it and Billie starts giving me all these stats I didn't know. And she said 94% of all women who make it to the C suite are former athletes.
- [28:07]
John Evans
Oh, wow.
- [28:08]
Corey Marchisoto
94%. 94. 94%.
- [28:10]
John Evans
Wow.
- [28:11]
Corey Marchisoto
Isn't that incredible?
- [28:11]
John Evans
That's very interesting.
- [28:13]
Corey Marchisoto
So they had this well of research and I didn't realize the connection between sports and business. So her and I just started getting into these deep conversations. So that turned into her Serving Facts for us on our Change the Board Game initiative. So before we got to so Many Dicks, we did a campaign with Billie Jean King called Serving Facts where we served up facts about the inequities in the boardroom. She's the equality champion. She did it on the playing field and now she was going to help us do it in the boardroom. So as we started working through that dimension, then you start having conversations deeper and deeper into our sports strategy and where were we showing up for people to create pathways for growth. It's less than 1% of athletes that are going to end up playing professional, professional sports. But think about all the things you learn in sports. Teamwork, collaboration, persistence, perseverance, unbelievable skills that will serve you really well on your business path. So we started to get into, well, how do we help these girls stay in the game to get those skills so that they will become increasingly powerful as they get into a few a future career. So Billy and BJK Enterprises start to help us on our sports strategy and identifying where are the underserved, which is really important for elf. We're the champion of the underdog. We're a symbol of the overlooked. So they would point us to places like girls wrestling, fastest growing sport in American high school. I had no idea. And we went and we showed up for their annual wrestling match and If I tell you the tears, these girls had never been seen before. No brand had ever taken notice before. Nobody ever came to show up for them. We did. We showed up for them in a major way and we made it a really big sporting event for them. So she helped us with our professional women's hockey league that we work together with, as well as our biggest contract ever, which is with the National Women's Soccer League. So what started as work around sunscreen and the importance of that, especially given her background, then translated into serving facts about the inequities in the boardroom, which then translated into them supporting us along our sporting journey.
- [30:49]
John Evans
Yeah. And you've got a female racing driver as well, I think on the books.
- [30:52]
Corey Marchisoto
Catherine Lang.
- [30:53]
John Evans
Pretty impressive, right?
- [30:54]
Corey Marchisoto
Another example of the underserved. So get this, because I was blown away by this. I love numbers, by the way. Everything we do is always built on an insight. And this particular case, we were looking at the numbers at the Indy 500. Why were we even looking? It's the number one single day spectator sport in the entire world. At max, it's 350,000 people, boots on the ground, live in one day. It's bananas. So then you say, okay, well who are these people?
- [31:25]
John Evans
Guess what, you're gonna tell me that a lot of women in the audience are.
- [31:29]
Corey Marchisoto
50% of them are women.
- [31:31]
John Evans
No way.
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Corey Marchisoto
So we're like, that's incredible.
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John Evans
Okay, it's like the super bowl, isn't it? People assume Super Bowl's all guys watching with beer, but actually it's a family event, isn't it? Tracks a huge. And for young to old as well.
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Corey Marchisoto
That's right. Families. It's like a religious event they plan for a whole year on, the whole family coming together multiple generations. And 50% of the audience is women. So he said, okay, well, even that doesn't mean we should be there. Let's look at what the events that are happening. And Katherine Legge was going to be racing that year. This was two years ago, the only female driver in the race. And not only is she the only female driver in the race, but in the 108 year history of the Indy 500, she was only the ninth driver in 108 years. So we said, okay, it's time for us to show up in a meaningful way for Catherine and for this audience. So we took a bet. We didn't know how this was going to turn out, so we set up this event called the Lip Oil Change. And probably the most magical moment that happened for me was when we were in Catherine's garage where the car was and she's showing me around and you get into the intricacies which is absolutely extraordinary, all the details that have to go into the car and the race and all of the things. And I said, what are you most excited about? This is the day she was going to race. And she said it's the first time I'm bringing my whole self to the track. And I said, what do you mean by that? She said, I've never been invited to be a woman here before. I've always been special sponsored by Oil Gas waste Management. And I thought I had to show up like one of the boys. And this year I'm coming unapologetically as who I am. And it's elf that unlocked that for me. I mean I was bawling like my mascara was running down my face. And symbolically what it said to us is where else are they? Meaning people who are not showing up as their whole selves because when you bring your whole self, you unlock your fullest potential. So that was just such an extraordinary moment. And then forget our activation. Miles long. The line was miles long. I had fathers, grandfathers, husbands falling in my arms in tears that this was the first time in all the years that they were coming to this event that their daughter, wife, sister, whomever female in the house was like excited to come and they were thanking me for bringing this incredible energy to their family for this event.
- [34:16]
John Evans
That's amazing. I love the lipo change as well as very clever, creative. I want to round up by asking you about the challenge of being a CMO in kind of your kind of position because you've got a number of things to deal with. You're in a very fast growing organization which brings its own challenge, but you're also publicly listed, which that's another kind of perspective that I think a lot of CMOs don't have to deal with. And then in addition to that you've got a growing portfolio now expanding. So it's not as if you're going to be how do you manage it and how do you kind of maintain the kind of long term vision but also get into the exit and make.
- [34:53]
Corey Marchisoto
Sure that you're delivering both are of critical importance. And just like anything, you have to take it one moment at a time, one beat at a time, one brand at a time, one geography at a time. And if you just take a step back for a second and you think about what is a cmo, what does that actually mean? The truth is it means Something different in every company. So I think even those three letters are dramatically different and oftentimes very misunderstood. Specifically in my case, it's an end to end role. So I run everything from innovation, product concepting, creation, all the way through dtc. So the beauty of that is that I can wrap all of those functions around the consumer at the center. So in essence, as long as we stay really close to the people that we serve and we take any borders or boundaries out of the way between us and them, no ivory towers. That's the biggest thing you have to fight against. No ivory towers. Just stay close to your community. Listen intently with your ear to the ground. Tune the ELF in at all times about what do they want from us? What do they not want from from us? What do they love? What do they not love? What are they talking about? How are they hanging out? What are they up to? What are they doing? And then dream big about what you can make possible and then do big at speed. That's the critical component that regardless of what moment in time you're in, it'll always work. And I think most people let the inner workings of the organizations get in the way of serving the actual people. So, sure, we've got quarterly earnings, but here's something that is probably not true in most companies. It has become every elf's favorite moment. Quarterly earnings. Why? Because we made it an earnings show. Because we do everything as an expression of who we are. So I don't know if you've watched our earnings show, but you should. It's a 30 minute feature film that brings all the things we have to tell the street to life through our work. Visuals, codes, cues, commercials. And what happens is the entire company watches and they're cheering when they see their work, when they see their graphic, when they see their commercial, when they see the numbers that impacted their area that they drove. And they realize that they're part of, of something so much bigger than themselves and that becomes really special. So you can turn something like a quarterly earnings into what for many people is a mundane task, into an exceptional moment for your entire company. I love earnings. I absolutely love it. Then we've got quarterly board meetings, we've got an exceptional board of directors where they have a lot of guidance and wisdom that they can bring. So it's a place of not only delivering, but also receiving. We have two hands, one for giving and one for receiving. We give to them what we're doing and they give back to us incredible guidance and advice. So if you just look at everything as an opportunity, then you can just keep going and delivering and doing it with a solution and a smile.
- [38:19]
John Evans
That's amazing. It probably helps. Of course, everyone's an owner. Of course, in the organisations. You're vested in that outcome as well. And I love the fact that you focus on the customer so much because as long as you're doing that, the shareholder is going to be happy, right?
- [38:31]
Corey Marchisoto
That's right.
- [38:31]
John Evans
Take care of itself. I'd love to keep talking. Unfortunately we run out of time. But Corey, thank you so much as always.
- [38:37]
Corey Marchisoto
Thank you for having me. And enjoy the week in Cannes.
- [38:40]
John Evans
Yeah, let's do it. Thank you very much for listening or watching Uncensored cmo. I hope you enjoyed that. If you did, please, please do hit the subscribe button wherever you get your podcast. If you're watching, hit subscribe there as well. I'd also love to get a review. Reviews make a big difference on other people discovering the show. So please do leave a review wherever you get your podcast. If you want to contact me, you can do I'm over on XcensorCMO or on LinkedIn where I'm under my own name, John Evans. Thanks for listening and watching. I'll see you next.