Activate Your Audience!

Shelly Dominguez Lieder - Leading Authentically in Work Culture

• Imperial Branding Agency • Season 1 • Episode 24

Share episode

Get ready for a profound conversation as we bring you Shelly Dominguez-Lieder, COO at Etched Communication, who is set to shed light on her riveting career journey and the lessons she’s gathered along the way. What's her secret to cultivating meaningful relationships? Discover Shelly’s concept of F.A.C.T: Fairness, Accountability, Credibility, and Truth, that underpins her ethos for nurturing connections, company culture, and client success.

As we delve further, we dive into the heart of agency culture. Shelly opens up on the critical role authenticity plays in leadership and why prioritizing her team's well-being and productivity is key. We also uncover current trends in sales, marketing, and customer behavior, emphasizing the need for leaders to be real, vulnerable, and true to themselves and the mission of greater good. 

Wrapping things up, the spotlight shifts to best practices for success in marketing and advertising projects. From keeping your finger on the pulse of the community to demonstrating the value of simplicity in marketing, and the pivotal role of active listening, Shelly's insights are invaluable. Get ready to take notes, because this episode is a treasure trove of wisdom for leaders, brands, and agencies.

Want to produce brand activations you are proud of? Learn more about our I3BA package, a THREE IN ONE DYNAMIC Brand Activation SUPPORT service for experiential teams, agencies, and brands. 


Subscribe to stay up-to-date on new episodes and join the conversation on Instagram, @beimperial let’s activate your audience!


Subscribe to the podcast for more great episodes!

Activate Your Audience!

Share and comment below to let us know what you think.

Need help and support activating your audience? Check us out here

Learn more about IBA

If you are part of an events team, brand, or agency seeking support to leverage your experiential projects, email us at hello@imperialbrandingagency.com

Connect on LinkedIn

See our work

Luis Felipe:

Today we are speaking with Shelly Dominguez-Liida. She is the COO at Edge Communication. Shelly is a visionary leader and creative thinker when powers teams, clients and campaigns through her commitment, wisdom and expertise. Testament to that, I've worked with Shelly. Shelly has developed high-performing teams for some of today's most innovative agencies and their incredible client rosters. By fostering work environments that inspire creativity, innovation and productivity, her firm's clients have enjoyed the highest level of success. I'm honored to have you on today, shelly. You've been a mentor and a friend in the short time that we've known each other, so welcome to the Activate your Audience podcast.

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

Thank you, luis, I'm happy to be here.

Luis Felipe:

It is my pleasure. So why don't you, if you don't mind, give us the cliff notes of kind of how you landed to your current COO role and what your career trajectory has been?

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

Absolutely. I'm extremely honored and blessed that at a young age I knew what I wanted to do Now. I didn't know how it would end up, but I knew. You know what, if there's something to be sold, if there's a way to present it and if there's kind of a hustle in it, count me in. My grandmother sold Avon back in the day, so very much going door to door and making people feel good and expressing that, and I loved every minute of it. So that was kind of my inspiration. Went to school, studied marketing and have never stopped. Currently my COO position again. It's all about who you know and really building and nurturing those relationships. I'm completely, like just thrilled that I work with Toni Harrison and that I'm a partner with her in Edge Communications, because that relationship has been built over time, over trust, over collaboration, and it's just someone that back in the day who would have known that this is where we'd be now.

Luis Felipe:

Nice. I love that. Yet interesting to see how, with the sense of not only just the hustle right and kind of like the commitment and the work because it always takes work, obviously, to do great things but also this sort of human element that's been a through line through past episodes of just caring as much about people as well as the craft, the industry, the end consumer, and so it definitely seemed like maybe that journey with cultivating the relationships, obviously building your skill set, has helped get you to this position. So what are maybe some key principles that you follow to foster positive and productive relationships with clients, executive leadership and key stakeholders?

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

Absolutely what I do is I have an acronym because that's just how I stay organized, and it's FACTS. So the first one for F is I'm fair, be fair. That applies to all aspects, right? Whether you're looking to the team, to the budget, to the ask. But just coming in with this sense of fairness, there's always a misconception that agency life means that we wave magic wands and crazy things happen. But that's not always fair and it's not always accurate. So, first and foremost, we must be fair. The second one is be accountable. Do what you say you're gonna do. Always respond.

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

I have a golden rule you never sign off without making sure you've answered every text, every phone call, every email, even if it's just a hey received, I'll get back to you. And that just shows your team, your partners, that yeah, you've got their back. And then the third one's be credible. Don't speak about things you don't know about. And I've learned that throughout my career, having started off back in the day of like presenting true boards in meetings, like going to a printer, printing them and presenting them to the digital age we are now. Don't talk about things you don't know, it'll catch up with you. And then there goes that trust right and the last one is just be true. That's kind of that credibility. One right Be true, don't fake it. Make sure you know who's in your meetings, make sure you understand who's sitting at the table with you, and just be honest.

Luis Felipe:

Definitely something that's popped up for me lately is like the balance between both credibility and maybe the accountability aspect.

Luis Felipe:

So as we delve into new worlds right, the landscape is always changing and as we evolve ourselves, there's this tension point between getting better, maybe within a area we don't know, and industry clients maybe that have certain sort of models or needs that are new. How do you manage that tension between you know being kind of aware of where maybe you need a little bit more of the learning time but also of still having that sort of trust and maybe that evoking the confidence as a team, while you know being fair with those kind of points, you know? So how do you merge those two of being humble and say I don't know this yet and, as you said, kind of being like the if it takes work, if it's going to be something that I it's hustle, I can figure it out. But sometimes I think we either shy away from things or the fake it till you make it thing with. Both extremes are wrong. So how do you balance that if that makes sense?

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

Yeah, and that is such a good point and delicate balance, because you want to show your confidence, you want to show that you've got it and in your head and in reality you just might not. So for me, it's the preparedness. So, before if it's a new client or a new industry, it's doing setting that time aside and doing the research, looking at what's being said about them online, going through their social channels, really diving into their digital assets and from there usually it leads you down a rabbit hole of really education. You'll learn by just continuing to click and see and kind of soak it all in. I'll give an example.

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

There was a client partner we had who was launching new shows, new content to new audiences. So there wasn't a lot out there yet because it had never been done before. But instead of shying away from it or not preparing, the team and I went and figured out okay, what else is similar, what else could lead up to in the realms of who are they looking to watch this? Let's see what is that audience currently watching, and just paying attention to the chat rooms, to the comments, to things like that started to provide really rich learnings and inputs. So when we went to the meeting, even though we'd never seen the show before, because it hadn't launched yet, we already had a sense of authenticity because we had dove pretty deep down the rabbit hole of who their audience was. So it's carving that time out and doing your best to be prepared.

Luis Felipe:

Makes sense. Yeah, it definitely shows that one. You are also a scrappy sort of group, right, and somebody that can as oftentimes clients hire us to help them, be able to be an extension of them, and showing this sort of innovativeness, as well as just the required commitment and interest, seems to be reflective of that work 100% and not everyone's doing.

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

It is the crazy thing because it sounds easy enough and it sounds like it should be table stakes. But you'd be amazed at the amount of times, especially in these larger integrated agency models, where we'll show up. Nobody else has done it. They kind of take for granted that you, the client partner, will feed them their inputs. So it continues to help my team stand out when we show up a little bit more prepared, a little bit more savvy on what's happening, because we're that much more ready to have those deeper conversations in real time.

Luis Felipe:

Now onto the next question In your experience, what have been, maybe, some of useful strategies that inspire the sort of innovation, creativity or even productivity within the team, or these projects?

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

So that has had to change. Right With COVID definitely had the record scratch of like what was working Will not work. Now You're no longer in the same conference room, you're no longer in the same space with putting the inspirational boards or just even talking with each other. So I had to figure it out, and the first one was listening to my team. They had a lot of those answers, hearing them what do you need? We've got this new project what do you need from me as a lead? Or what do you need from our client partner to get there? Oftentimes they know.

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

So listening and trying to help champion and bringing that to fruition whether it was getting a sample or a link to a certain asset that hasn't been disclosed yet or just figuring it out. So oftentimes just being that sounding board and kind of the bucket for the team to pour their needs into was the first one. The second one was just figuring out how to foster the chemistry, because the chemistry shows up in the work every single time. So not always making it about that specific ask but how can I help y'all better get to know each other? How can I bring the agency culture to life? So definitely lots of back in the day back during COVID Zoom parties, of course, wine tasting, things like that virtually to show and spend time with them. And then my mentor gave me a really good point, probably midway through COVID, and she said it's okay to let them see you not be perfect, because it allows your team to feel you're human. Right, you're not always put together and you're able to be real. So I would try to go to different rooms within my house so they could see, yeah, she's in the kitchen, kitchen's a mess. They're there just real moments during brainstorming. So it didn't always feel like they were presenting to me or to one of the other partners of the agency. So breaking down the walls, so to speak. And then productivity I highly believe that you have to model the behavior. It's not a do as I say and not as I do, it's do as I do.

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

One different Instant I have I put together what the team called Shelly Bootcamp and what that did was teach what is a good account person look like.

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

What are those expectations? How can I help you in a day, prioritize your day and manage up in terms of what you think is due? How do we prioritize deliverables? How do we kind of air traffic, control your day, and that even means getting into some of the personal stuff. Does that mean, I know, you didn't get a workout in, you feel like you're eating like crap, you're not sleeping well, and for my team to disclose that because we were figuring out all right, well then, let's carve 30 minutes a day where you can get out of the house, go walk, go pick up a smoothie, come back and now you've checked three boxes for yourself, for wellness, and you're a little bit better off that afternoon. So and I'd have to model that so me being able to log off and say, hey, I'm gonna go grab lunch or I'm gonna go sit outside for 10 minutes, I'll be back and really infusing that within our team structure and our daily practice.

Luis Felipe:

Yeah, that's so interesting because it even it kind of parlays into what you were saying earlier, with you know kind of having this sort of I want to call it like humility right In terms of the balance of both, say, being a strong agency as well as being a strong leader, and showing both the human side as well as like the leadership side right, like we think, you know, in the old dynamic, that a leader just had to be, you know, strong and you know lowercase, stoic, of just bland, no emotions, but, as we know, like vulnerability, connection and, again, making sure that that's not the sort of reckless, like emotional mess of things. Right, like not, like you said, not being prepared and being overly reliant on either the client. There's, again, a balance of having this sort of willingness to be human and to show that, but also the other side of acting in spite of, you know you may have a bad day, the agency may not know this thing, but we're going to be honest and we're going to show up to figure it out together as an individual and even back to you know, kind of fostering this sort of the culture and the chemistry. It's becoming more clear maybe because of, I don't know, the new generation. As you said, covid, some of the sped up change within our industry, within the world, that if we invest in ourselves and in people, it's going to make the business better, it's going to make the end result better, the product, the consumer experience better, but it's still a thing that, especially if you have a large moving ship like it's hard to steer and it's easier said than done.

Luis Felipe:

So you know, I love that point of it coming back to do as I do, because that is the way sometimes we ever complicate like, well, how do we change this? And it does take systems and time and time and processes and these sort of complex ways, but the simplest way is to embody that, which, again, is easier than trying to control out of things that are externally. But, at the end of the day, if you're doing right by you and you know what works for you, that is easier to actually work and is is true, to actually deliver results, then you knowing these things right Because we see them, you know, on LinkedIn, post or Instagram or whatever and just spewing it without living it right. So that approach of like, being true to this, this work is obviously like a huge lever for making that change 100% and it goes back to that kind of notion of authenticity.

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

So I can be my authentic self to you team and hopefully you can back and all the good and all the bad, right, all the crazy. But that also translate to being authentic to our client partners and that shows up in the work every single time and oftentimes that's the differentiating aspect that has work go from good to great. Because it's authentic, it feels real. Your client partner knows what they're getting, who they're getting it from, and it comes and it shows within the team structure.

Luis Felipe:

Yeah, that makes total sense Now, kind of shifting gears a little bit, going into sales, marketing and maybe customer trends of the moment. Are there any within the landscape that are top of mind for you? Any insights that have helped you as of recent have contributed to the success of projects or teams?

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

Yes, absolutely. I have a few. The first one is don't give up like that notion of keeping a pulse on the community, so really taking a moment and it's work. So you have to carve it out to really make sure that you're enriched and surrounded by what's happening within the communities that you're marketing to. So if you can't physically get out there, you have to find how to become a part of it. And so, again, it goes back to that authenticity. So you're not evaluating things based on your gut, it's being evaluated based on knowledge, because you've spent time in and around those communities. So I feel like that is a really big one in terms of really capturing the culture and understanding of what's happening with those audiences. The second one is a little personal, but it pays off professionally is not to underestimate the power of generation alpha, like they are. I mean, if just to sit and watch them.

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

I have a 13 year old daughter and watching her consumption habits from a digital point. I mean she grew up when iPads had already been launched. She thinks Alexa reads her stories. She wants the instant gratification of an ad, like a click. She wants to be able to purchase or have mom and dad purchase things within two clicks, like they are at such a supersonic level of bringing in information and being able to act on it, that really paying attention to that, trying to start harnessing and getting ahead of it, for when they're able to purchase things more freely, more independently, I think it's going to be key.

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

And they're also very globally minded because of how the information comes to them. She cares about what's happening in the world. She cares about brands that care about what's happening in the world and make her feel more knowledgeable, and so there's a lot of power but a lot of learning with that generation. And then the last one is really don't be flashy. I think right now, the way that the marketplace has changed, it's not about who's doing it bigger, brighter, bolder. It's about who's doing it in a better way, a more succinct way. It doesn't always have to be this big, flashy mess of things. Sometimes it's as simple as just putting out a message showing real people and just using plain, normal jargon and that's it, and so don't underestimate the power of simplicity.

Luis Felipe:

Yeah, Simple scales, fancy fails, is one of the things that I've tried to learn by recent and, to your point, like this generation alpha, as you'll hear whether it's because of the industry that we work in, really seeing the contrast sometimes for better, sometimes for worse of the way that, as you said, the new generation is so much more global, but they're also a lot more conscious about things that they seem to, just like every generation probably seizes the norm, because what they grew up in and a lot of these things are in a good trend and obviously like, say, climate awareness and the empathetic approach to the needs of the world today that I think they're very powerfully attuned to grow into and to deliver, that sort of demand for which will obviously influence how brands and our industry in marketing and advertisement will communicate to them. But it also sounds like even pulling back on that. What you started off with is caring enough about who it is that you are serving to understand them and, of course, it's a thing that seems like it should be the norm, but it's this one little thing that not a lot of people really value, that, if you just lean on that a little bit, actually investing in the communities that you speak to, investing in the actual what's in it for them. How do they see it? Having them as stakeholders, being authentically curious, not judgmental, because that's, I think, the approach in the past to maybe shift instead of aligning with the needs of them. So, yeah, that's definitely a good reminder to use something as simple as that curiosity and service to really be able to provide a better value.

Luis Felipe:

Now, as a leader again, with working with different stakeholders, is there any sort of I don't know, maybe recent examples or any best practices for how you merge stakeholder, client and team alignment or values? Oftentimes some of those can be in flux, especially as you mentioned working with across agency projects. What has been your experience, your best practices for aligning these values and goals, both from a personal, a project and the stakeholder level?

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

I think first and foremost is going back and just having that active listening. I mean, if you hear your team, you hear your stakeholders, the answers are usually there. But also it allows you to really understand any tension or pain points and try to get ahead of them. So, for example, if I'm listening to a team member and within their presentation they sound a bit tired and they sound fatigued, I can get ahead of it by scheduling a one-on-one to say what's going on and me coming first, versus them having to own it, feel a little, you know, itch in. It helps and you've then continued to nurture that relationship. On a business side, if a client just in conversation throws out, you know, a concern, like you know, we really missed the mark with this one audience and maybe it'll be a goal for next year I can mark it down, I can go talk to the team, I can jump ahead and be like hey, client, we actually thought about that. This isn't fully fleshed out or anything, but here's a POV on that. They're like dang, you just solved something I was pushing off, cool, and it didn't have to be a big old PowerPoint deluxe presentation. But that kind of active listening helps you find those nuggets of where you can then come forth and provide value, and that is something I do teach my team to be very good listeners.

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

The second one is definitely having this industry discussion. So what I've learned is, within, we all have meetings. It's like meetings on meetings. So how do we make those meetings become even more effective and efficient? So we set agendas for our internal meetings, which are very important, but within there, what we've started I've done in the past but really brought it back. It set up time for us to just talk about the industries we're working in and ask the team members to come prepared with that week or the past couple of weeks.

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

Provide an article, provide a post, something that you see that you want to talk about for good, for bad. It's providing. It's kind of like that water cooler talk from back in the day, if you would be around there, but giving it as an assignment, because now the team has to go, look and again you're going down that rabbit hole. So you're going to be getting learnings besides the assignment. You're soaking it in and what that's done is it's helped us, even at times of awkward silence with client partners or with internal teams. You're now armed with all this information that you already shared in a safe team setting. So most often you'll hear more of the junior team feel empowered to start speaking up in meetings because they're armed with info, things that they know what to talk about and bonus. We all just raised our level of awareness within that industry and it becomes much more timely. So I've brought that back and I really feel that that every time that that's a part of our weekly meeting cadence just enriches us that much more.

Luis Felipe:

Yeah, that's definitely one of the things that within our busy world and again juggling sort of different clients, different projects we kind of slowly but surely have forgotten to have these touchpoint moments that it sounds like integrating this as a whether it's a checklist item or like an actual project in and of itself. It does bring us back to be aware of how do we, as a long-term play, say, change things like climate change or help affect that, or toxicity in health and awareness of just things that are going on, that, because we're so hyper-connected in other ways, this helps us really connect to the true essence of being in this world, being in this industry, being a human. So I love that. I'm going to run it back and just kind of highlight what stood out for me. Let me know if I missed anything or if you'd want to add anything in. So the first one is your acronym, fact fair, accountability, credibility and true and speaking to being fair and how you manage things, kind of having a sense of I would call it a justice, of being authentic but also just fair, of realistic in a way of expectations, also accountable in what you're going to say and do, making sure that that aligns credibility with again having this sort of trust that is based on true competence and just authenticity, honesty and being true, again kind of aligned to all of those two.

Luis Felipe:

The next point is preparedness comes through education, which again I tied to almost this. Humility, in terms of how we balance both being competent as well as honest when there's an opportunity to learn, and humility is key for that. And then listening, and that being a way to foster chemistry, both you know, from different cultures, from understanding the landscape that you are serving, but really having this sort of curiosity and whether it's to your people, to the people you're serving, the sort of superpower of listening, sounds like it's been a huge leverage point, you know, for your work. Next, productivity, as I do, as I do not, as I say, simple, easier said than done. But, as we said, if we keep it simple and just live by these things even though it's not necessarily easy, it's simple we can definitely have a bigger impact. And last, I really kind of see as being a scientist to what is going on, whether it's watching family members, a community you serve, you yourself and your interests, yourself and your pains, a community's pains or a community's, you know.

Luis Felipe:

Joy being this sort of curious scientist that sees things maybe without judgment or as best as you can, and simultaneously translate that to back to listening what either the client or your team is saying in a meeting and just really being curious about as a scientist would. What are some of the facts, what are some of the information? Because that is the way that we are empowered with knowledge, but, more importantly, we're empowered to act on it. So is there anything you'd want to add anything?

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

I miss. No, I think I mean that was perfect, but definitely, all of that being said, you have to make sure you take control of your day and stay organized In this industry, if you aren't prepared for your day, the day is going to take you out Like it will take you if you don't take it. So all that can happen because you have to be very good with your time and you have to stay organized and you have to be able to prioritize effectively, and then your team will pick those habits up as well.

Luis Felipe:

So true, it reminds me of that stand up that Adam Sandler did a while back, where he's like, well, I woke up at four in the morning, not because I wanted to be a productive person, but he goes through this thing like I couldn't go back to sleep. So he's like, oh, now I'm making breakfast, like look, is that the early bird? And he's like it's seven, 10 am, and I'm making breakfast again because I have nothing to do, and he's like 11. He's like when's this day going to end? Right, and it's like a comical take to like, yeah, if you don't own your day, no matter what you're doing, that is like of trend then it's going to own you, right. So it's making those days count, because they do go by fast. Right, we're at the end of the year, our lives go by fast, projects go by fast. You know it's so cliche, but it's definitely one of those things that, if we get a grasp on it, can help us personally as well as professionally. So I love that Absolutely.

Luis Felipe:

Well, thank you so much, Shelley. Where can people learn more about you? The journey, anything you'd want to plug in, or edge communication, anything you guys have going on that you'd want people to know about?

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

Yeah, I think you can follow us on edge. Communications is on Instagram, and through there you'll also find a link to we are. We craft a blog, a medium blog, and so you'll see various team members talk about timely trends in public relations, crisis management, as well as just the overall community that we fostered at Etch.

Luis Felipe:

I love it Well. Thank you so much, shelley. I look forward to our next connection and I appreciate you for being an amazing leader, and we'll chat again soon, thank you.

Shelly Dominguez Lieder:

Sounds good. Thanks, Louise.