On Being a Woman In Marketing.

I’ve sat across the table from CEOs of major institutions. I’ve been in rooms with big executives and decision-makers at large dealerships. I’ve held my own. And I’ve done it without the inflated promises, the vague-but-confident jargon, or the performance that seems to dominate so much of this industry. If you want the specifics, you got them. If you ask a question, I may go a bit overboard (sorry, not sorry). To me, knowledge is power. Not schmoozy sales.

I’m the Director of SEO at RiZen Metrics. I’m also an artist. A poet. A strategist. A wife, a mother, a friend. A dog mom and a cat mom. A leader and a boss. I don’t compartmentalize these things. They all show up in how I work, and they all make me better at my job.

There’s a certain mold in marketing. You’ve seen it. The loud claims. The buzzwords are strung together like they mean something. The confidence that borders on theater. I’m not here to say everyone in the industry operates this way. Plenty of brilliant, thoughtful people do this work. But I’ve run into it enough to know it’s a pattern. And as a woman, I’ve often felt the quiet pressure to match that energy or risk being seen as less serious.

I choose a different path.

I grew up watching my father run his own HVAC and electrical business. I learned what it looks like to build something real: how businesses actually operate, where the money comes from, and what keeps the lights on. I ran my own small business selling my artwork. I minored in philosophy, which taught me to ask better questions and sit with complexity instead of rushing to easy answers. I’ve done PR. I’ve worked as an advocate for nonprofits. I’ve partnered with small wellness centers and local coffee shops, and I’ve sat in boardrooms with enterprise clients. The range matters. It means I understand that a good strategy for one business might be completely wrong for another.

When I say I’m a people person, I don’t mean I work a room. I mean, I genuinely want to understand who you are and what you’re building. I listen. I ask questions. I remember the details. That’s not networking. It’s just how I’m wired.

When I show up on a call, I can feel it sometimes: the expectation that we’ll play the part. That we’ll promise the moon. That we’ll be slick. And when I’m just… direct? Honest about what’s realistic? Focused on actually understanding a business before pitching solutions? It can catch people off guard. They’re not used to help that doesn’t come with an angle.

But I genuinely want to help people. That’s not a line. It’s the thing that gets me out of bed. I want to understand your business, your goals, and your constraints. I want to be the partner who tells you the truth, even when the truth is “that’s not going to work the way you think it will.”

That honesty is a strength. So is empathy. So is creativity. So is the ability to see a business not as a collection of metrics but as something someone built with their hands and their time and their risk.

At RiZen Metrics, most of our team is women. That’s not a statement. It’s just who we are. And I think it shapes how we work. We lead with curiosity. We build relationships before we build strategies. We don’t perform expertise; we demonstrate it.

Being a woman in marketing has given me a perspective I wouldn’t trade. I’ve learned to listen more than I talk. To prove my value instead of announcing it. To let the work speak.

If you’re looking for the loud promise and the flashy pitch, we’re probably not your agency. But if you want a partner who will be honest with you, who will learn your business like it’s our own, and who believes marketing should be built on trust instead of theater? Let’s talk.