Brand Growth Through Cultural Curiosity with Lauragaye Jackson

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Welcome to Canada's first ever multicultural marketing podcast.
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I'm Sharifa Khan, founder and president of Balmoral Multicultural Marketing.
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In each episode, join me as I interview high-profile marketing executives where they will be sharing their experiences in reaching Canada's diverse community, gain valuable insights and lessons, and grow your multicultural affluence.
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Let's get started.
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It is my pleasure to introduce you to our special guest today, Lauragaye Jackson.
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Lauragaye is a rare force in the corporate world.
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She is a global B2B and B2C brand marketer and executive career coach.
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Her extensive career spans a diverse range of high-stakes industries from the fast-moving world of CBG and retail to the technical complexities of financial services and natural resources.
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Lauragaye has led marketing initiatives targeting consumers in Canada, the US, and the Caribbean, bringing a deep international perspective on brand growth and customer requisition.
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In her most recent role, she led international and multicultural marketing at RBC, where she was instrumental in strengthening the bank's brand presence among Canadian diverse communities.
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Today, Lauragaye is the founder of Grow and Flourish Consultants Inc., holding prestigious ICF Associate Certified Coach and AC accredited coach destinations.
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She partners with organizations and senior leaders to drive brand growth, strengthen their market presence, and unlock leadership potential.
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Lauragaye, welcome to the Multicultural Marketing Podcast.
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Thank you so much for participating in this multicultural marketing podcast.
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We're lovely to have you here.
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Lauragaye, I've worked with Lauragaye for a number of years, and we have great partnership.
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And today she's gonna share her experience not just in multicultural marketing but across the building of career across in industries, countries, and have been in leadership role.
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Can you share with us the journey that was like for you personally throughout your tenure?
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And also what have been the driving force for you to keep going?
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Yeah.
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That's a great question.
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So first off, thank you so much for having me today.
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Quite an honour.
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As you said, we've worked together over the years and we've always learned from each other.
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And we've always had an opportunity to share and discover, and hopefully, your audience today will get inspired by some of the things that we're talking about, especially in the world of multicultural marketing.
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So excited to be here.
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So specific to my career, and I'll do a shortened version of that, I guess you can break it into three areas.
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I was very fortunate to start my career in research.
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So I did quite a bit of consumer research for the first seven years of my career.
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And I did qualitative, quantitative, secondary, primary, and what that really did was provide me with a foundation on the importance of insights.
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And insights is really critical in multicultural marketing.
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So I'm thrilled that I had that opportunity to learn and see the differences between different groups, and that was very foundational for me.
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And then I have had this opportunity to work in other countries and also live in other countries.
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And what that does for you is it gives you curiosity.
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Whenever you go somewhere, whether you go there as a tourist or you go there because you're working, you want to learn about the environment and the opportunity in front of you.
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So, you know, I'm an ideas person, and ideas people in general tend to be very curious.
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So that's a skill set that I think really helps, especially because I'm not an immigrant.
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My family has been in Canada for many years.
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And also you can see the way I look.
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I don't come from a visible minority, and so the fact that I can be curious and I can ask questions and not make assumptions, I think is a little bit of my secret sauce when it comes to this.
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And then you mentioned that I've worked in different industries.
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And the great thing about having worked in different industries is you learn about different approaches to getting the job done, and you're able to take the best of that and bring that forward.
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And now with my new opportunity, I've recently done a pivot, and you've been very supportive of my pivot to do two things.
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One is to become a fractional CMO, and the other is to become an executive coach.
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And so with that pivot, it was really important for me to have a growth mindset.
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And if you're not willing, I went back to school to learn to become an executive coach and get credentialed.
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As a CMO, fractional CMO, I go into different organizations.
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You have to be comfortable to ask the questions, be open to learning about different environments, different situations, and I think that that has really helped me as well.
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Yeah, definitely.
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Your cross-industry experience and around the world definitely help you to pave towards actually what you're doing right now, which is another level up.
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And you have worked in so many different cultures, as you say, in the US and it's also in the Caribbean, and of course in Canada with a style of Korea.
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But what have you been doing?
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How do you keep a brand message intact and yet at the same time speaking to these different communities?
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Because you know that a lot of qualms about some brands said, Well, I really don't want women's multicultural changing my integral part of what is the brand message.
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And uh at times they said, Well, in order to do that, we'll just do adaptation, which is the last thing you should do.
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Yeah, last thing for sure.
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And I'm sure you've been in that opportunity lots of times where they've said, Hey, Sharifa, just get Balmoral to adapt.
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And then you're probably cringing inside, going, No, no, no, this is not the best.
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And then, of course, we have to give very powerful points as to what is it that they should do?
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Because I think when they do that, it's just checking off a box that, oh, I did multicultural marketing, which is the last thing they should.
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But what do you do, especially when you have dealt with so many cultures?
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How do you keep the brand message intact enough so that you would be able to scale the business, you know, and and not to deviate?
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Because at the end of the day, all these brands want additional business, right?
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Right.
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So the first thing is to be true to the core.
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So the core is the top, it's the umbrella, and everything plugs and plays into that.
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So whether you're doing product marketing, the product marketing needs to align with whatever the core brand messaging is.
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If you're doing multicultural marketing, it has to align as well.
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So it isn't really that different.
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And yes, you don't want to drift from that, but what you want to do is look at what your business is about and do some research and find what those insights are.
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So, what are those insights that are going to resonate with your client?
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So, in the case of multicultural marketing, and I worked for a bank, so you know, when we were pitching credit cards as an example, we would look obviously at the master brand and how the master brand was pitching that, but the needs and the desires of a multicultural market, whether those were people coming here from Hong Kong, China, Southeast Asia, wherever, their needs with a credit card were slightly different.
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And understanding what that journey was.
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So, in that case, for many new immigrants, the importance of the credit card was to get credit.
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And you don't, it's changing now, but at the time I worked on it, you didn't have access to credit, and the credit that you had from your previous country didn't work in this country.
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So, how do you take that insight and that understanding and that need and then turn it into messaging that's going to resonate and understand that community and also reflect the journey that they came on?
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So if you're talking about immigrants in this case, understanding that it took a lot of courage for them to come here and they were probably professionals in their previous country and very well respected, and they're coming to a new country where they don't have that support and that background.
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So understanding that insight and then the need to have credit, how do you message that?
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And you also have to appreciate when you're talking about multicultural marketing, that's a big swath of things.
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The important part is to align with the core brand identity.
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So think about that as being your umbrella and then you're plugging and playing, whether it's plugging and playing product or multicultural marketing into that.
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So it always has to align, but you have to use the insights specific to that product that's gonna resonate with that cultural group and make sense to that cultural group.
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And you want to make sure that whatever you come up with is not gonna detract from your master brand.
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That's really critical.
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And also I want to ask you, um we're talking about people that are just getting into this new market segment, and there are lots of questions, they don't even know whether if they dip their toe into it, would they make a mistake?
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And I'm sure many brands have done that.
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So there wasn't really a true commitment on their side.
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And of course, guess what happened?
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Then they failed, right?
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So the a lot of questions are asked is that you know, data is king.
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You know, should I really the first and foremost is data?
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Do I really ensure that I get insights?
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Or is it at times instinct and intuition?
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What do you think for somebody that's just coming in and trying to make a decision what to do?
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What's the approach?
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I think it's a combination of both.
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I think you have to start with data.
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So I mentioned that I have a background in um in doing research, and there's so many companies in Canada that you can reach out to get a deep profile on different groups.
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You don't have to spend a lot of money on doing that.
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You can do custom research, so it's more specific, but you really need to start with the data, and the data then drives the insights.
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So I think that that's an important start.
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And then the other thing is to surround yourself with people who understand those markets.
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That can be Balmoral as an example, that can be a media buying agency.
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Um, when I in my last uh role, I surrounded myself with people from different cultural markets who spoke different languages.
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And they could help me even within our organizations.
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Sometimes we would do focus groups with other employees and just say, have we got this right?
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Does this make sense?
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Are we telling the story properly?
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Actually, that's what the question I'm gonna ask you is that you've been to uh you've led uh marketing teams in so many six countries.
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That's from your background.
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And specifically, how do you embed multicultural thinking into the internal process uh so that you know the team would understand?
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But I'll just give you an example.
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Uh, a couple of years ago we did uh DEI project for Metrolinx.
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So um, of course, the main objective is that they want to understand how do they communicate with the diverse communities in Canada, the do's and don'ts, what are sensitivity and culture and nuances.
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But also at the same time, the purpose of this uh project was also sensitize the staff uh to their colleagues, because in that organization there's so many different languages, so many different from different countries.
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So it was a dual process where not only are you communicating and understanding and don't make mistakes when you're going out, but I think you have to first and foremost be able to talk to your own people and not be able to make mistakes.
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What do you think?
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Oh, it's very easy to trip and fall.
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That's a very easy thing to do.
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Um, so I was fortunate that I was managing people in six different countries, including Canada.
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And so we would share a lot and we would have each of the groups learn from each other.
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Um, we would sometimes do what I called field trips.
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So I had some of the folks from the Caribbean come up to Canada and come and visit Canadian retail branches and see what they were all about and get inspired and excited about things they could take back.
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And we had a few opportunities to bring my team down to the Caribbean and also do the same thing.
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Um, have people try different food, have people, you know, visit different locations to sort of see how that world is a little different.
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And I think it's really critical that you educate senior management.
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If senior management don't understand, they can't approve things and they can't move things forward because they're looking at it with a very different lens.
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And that was the biggest thing I always taught my people.
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Take your Canadian glasses off and put on the glasses of that cultural group or that country and look at things through that lens.
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Don't try to do things as a Canadian, um, but respect the culture, and that has really really made a difference for me and my work.
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You know, not that I'm harpening, but that I also want to see um it's so competitive at the multicultural marketing level right now because everybody, you know, my business have been around 35 years and more, but I think 15 years ago the corner turned.
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And I think, of course, due to the nep demographic numbers, due to brand recognizing the socioeconomic contribution and consumption, you know.
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So how do you um recommend and position this work, you know, uh to as a key business driver?
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How do you continue to push that?
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And of course you understand it because you've been doing it, rather than I think still some brands will say nice to have.
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Correct.
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Yeah.
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So you have to have believers.
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If you don't have people who believe in doing it and have a passion for doing it, it will never happen.
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Um the second thing is you have to build the business case.
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Um, many years ago, I had a boss who said to me, Lauragaye, I can give a dollar to marketing, I can give a dollar to sales, I can give a dollar to IT.
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Tell me why I should give that dollar to you.
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And so you really have to show the ROI, very critical.
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Um, and especially now, I talk to people now who are telling me, even within marketing, they're competing for AI dollars, and that may not be what they're planning on doing.
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So you have to prove the ROI.
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You have to educate people and help them understand that it's not a short game, it's a long game.
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You have to do both.
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So you have a community that maybe doesn't recognize your brand or understand your brand, and so you have to invest in the long term and also in the short term to acquire opportunities, but also to increase brand awareness.
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So it's sort of not a one and done.
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And I think that's what people think.
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Oh, this year's 2026 budget, I'm putting X amount aside for multicultural marketing.
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No, what are you doing over the next five years?
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That's how you're gonna build and that's how you're gonna be successful.
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And unfortunately, there are brands that are doing short gun approach.
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Yes.
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You know, they'll say, Hey, I invest half a million, and I really expect my dollar you know increase in sales, and because that was maybe the first year.
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So it didn't reach the market and said, Well, we're gonna give up.
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And that that is actually, you know, giving up on already the equity that they have already built.
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And you're right.
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If you don't in any kind of market segment, if you don't have a long-term game, then I don't think your brand is suitable to even dip your toes in it.
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But if you're committed, you would have to go into the research, you know, to get the right partners, to understand the share of market potentially this group will drive your business.
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So it's not just say I'm spending some money, if I don't get the same value or business back, then you stop.
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But then uh, you know, I think that's the worst decision they would ever make.
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Yeah, and I think the other thing too is once you make that commitment, then you need to manage that campaign and optimize that campaign.
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Very few campaigns are out for less than six weeks.
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So you have an opportunity at the two, three-week mark to really look at what your results are, to tweak them, to optimize it, see what's working, what isn't working, and then at the end of the campaign, create a report to say what did we accomplish?
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Celebrate the wins, talk about the learnings, and share that with management to say, hey, we invested X amount of money and this is what it did for us, and we see the value in investing X amount more because they're this is where we're gonna get to, and really show them what the long-term gain is, but in the short term celebrate and give exposure to those opportunities and keep it top of mind.
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Because remember, I said before, I can invest a dollar in sales, IT, or marketing.
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So I have to remind them that the dollar that they spent in multicultural marketing had some level of payoff and what that future ROI can be with it as well.
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And um another question for you multicultural war often require both creativity and culture sensitivity.
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How would you guide your team, you know, right now, and you are in different kind of marketing campaign as a fractional CMO?
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How do you guide your uh your team in striking that balance, you know, without falling into stereotyping?
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Because that's very easy to do it.
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Totally.
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You know, because oh the brand do that, another brand did that.
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I think I will follow through, you know, but at the end of the day, do you think these communities are offended when they when you're stereotyping them?
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Oh, totally, totally.
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And with social media, um, you'll get bombarded.
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You'll know very quickly that you made a mistake.
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So the first thing to understand is that multicultural marketing is not one thing, not one group of people.
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So, as I mentioned before, are you speaking to first generation, second generation, and third generation?
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And the messaging is going to be quite different depending on where people are in their journey.
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So that's the first thing.
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The second thing is test before you go live.
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There you have an opportunity.
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Once it's out there, you can't pull it back.
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So if you can test before it goes live, and that can be through doing some focus groups and showing the ads to people when you're almost finished, even at storyboard stage.
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That can be actually doing formal research and you're gonna hear what the watch outs are.
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Oh, you shouldn't have said it this way, you should have said it that way.
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And you can tweak it in a much more cost-effective way.
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Once it's out there, it's really hard to fix that.
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So that's how you you avoid some of the landmines along the way.
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Oh, totally.
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Totally, you know, especially now with social media.
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You can't wipe it.
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No, it's out there forever.
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Yeah.
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So, in your experience, what is the connection between internal diversity and external?
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Uh, I think I sort of touch a little bit in a sense of the importance of it.
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And also, how do you think an organization resonates with uh diverse uh uh audiences?
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How should they go about it?
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Yeah, so the first thing is to walk the talk.
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Yeah.
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So how are you staffing your team?
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I was very fortunate that I had people who represented the Chinese community from China, also represented the South Asian, Southeast Asian community, spoke the languages, understood.
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So I surrounded myself with people who understood that.
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How are you procuring services?
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Are you using a multicultural ad agency or are you using a mass market agency?
00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:12.000
Um, you know, those types of things.
00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:14.319
And then how are you celebrating internally?
00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:16.400
So, how are you educating and teaching?
00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:20.880
So, whatever the holiday is for whatever cultural group, let's celebrate it.
00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:27.680
Let's learn about the food, let's learn about um, you know, fashion and other things that are coming from those countries.
00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:32.559
So let's learn from each other and really embed it within your organization.
00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:36.480
And then the other part of it is how do you show up in those communities?
00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:39.920
You can't just message to people and think they're gonna buy your product.
00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:42.319
Do you really support those communities?
00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:44.720
Um, are you doing community outreach?
00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:46.240
Are you doing philanthropy?
00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:51.839
Are you doing sponsorship and look for those areas of opportunity that will resonate with those groups?
00:20:51.839 --> 00:21:09.839
So if you can show your walk in the talk internally and then showing up in those communities, it doesn't happen in day one, but over time people are gonna start talking and they're gonna say, Hey, company XYZ, isn't that amazing that they showed up for Lunar New Year this year and this is what they did and they understood what we're all about.
00:21:09.839 --> 00:21:11.200
I want to buy their product.
00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:15.440
Yes, and it's so important that you walk the walk and talk.
00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:22.400
And and I've always said to my clients is that you cannot market from an ivory top.
00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:38.880
So just because you spend money in media buy, you know, or putting out the advertising, or or even you are sponsoring events, but you don't turn up at these events, then how are they gonna equate you with your brand that you are showing up?
00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:43.519
You know, it's not just throwing the money out there uh in more ways than one.
00:21:43.519 --> 00:21:45.039
You can do that, you know.
00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:55.599
But if they don't buy in the fact that you're sincere in actually connecting with them, and that's the point you make is so so important and two point.
00:21:55.599 --> 00:21:59.440
Um, and now that I wanna talk about your role as a coach.
00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:08.640
And I wish uh as an executive uh uh coach uh coach and working with actually newcomers here in Canada.
00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:23.920
And we all know newcomers, you know, whether they are professionals and a lot of you know diversity in the kind of professionals that we admit to Canada, but they don't always be able to get the job they want for many reasons.
00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:29.440
One is because some organization, oh, you don't have Canadian experience.
00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:37.839
I mean, God, this really is not because these people could be so much more experienced than the ones that are here.
00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:50.400
And also I know that uh this is very meaningful to you, and part of what you've been doing is that you have been helping a lot of newcomers that gear them up for the for job opportunity.
00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:59.119
And and have you seen in terms of these newcomers, what are they bringing to the table to the game in Canada?
00:22:59.359 --> 00:23:00.640
Well, you kind of already said it.
00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:02.240
Yeah, they're bringing quality.
00:23:02.240 --> 00:23:15.279
Yeah, they worked for multinational companies in many cases retailers, media agencies, ad agencies, and they've seen a lot of different, you know, they've produced a lot of different quality work.
00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:20.720
And I think sometimes we dismiss you don't have Canadian experience, so therefore you have nothing to add.
00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:23.279
But they come as very, very strong candidates.
00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:28.240
You also have to appreciate that anyone who's emigrated to this country had to have a lot of courage to do that.
00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:28.960
Oh, yes.
00:23:28.960 --> 00:23:32.400
And I mean you've been on that, you were on that journey many, many years ago.
00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:36.559
You knew what it took to make that happen, and you wanted to succeed.
00:23:36.559 --> 00:23:38.160
You didn't want to fail.
00:23:38.160 --> 00:23:50.319
So if you hire a candidate from another country, a newcomer, you're already getting somebody who's knowledgeable, capable, want is determined, and wants to succeed.
00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:53.759
That's like amazing as an employer to be able to do that.
00:23:53.759 --> 00:24:02.160
And if you hired somebody into your company who came from a different industry, you would have to train them and teach them about your industry.
00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:03.839
So we all have gaps.
00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:06.079
Nobody's perfect, no candidate is perfect.
00:24:06.079 --> 00:24:11.440
But if you're bringing someone in who's already qualified and capable, then can you mentor them?
00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:12.400
Can you work with them?
00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:16.559
Can you give them a peer mentor to help them with some of what some of those gaps are?
00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:20.160
And you'll find that they could be your strongest candidate.
00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:23.680
And so you shouldn't just dismiss them because they don't have Canadian experience.
00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:28.799
Do you still, I mean, it's 2026, do you still see biases?
00:24:29.599 --> 00:24:29.920
Yes.
00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:30.880
Yes.
00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:44.400
I work with people who have, you know, worked in your organization, worked in um media agencies, and they f are frustrated that their experience or lack of Canadian experience isn't respected.
00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:46.799
And um it's really unfortunate.
00:24:46.799 --> 00:24:51.200
I think larger organizations, there's much more openness to it.
00:24:51.200 --> 00:24:54.319
Um for some reason people think they're taking a chance.
00:24:54.319 --> 00:25:02.240
So, yes, unfortunately that bias is still out there, but it's changing because um people coming from other countries are now the majority in Canada.
00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:03.200
Yes, definitely.
00:25:03.200 --> 00:25:12.480
So the whole landscape is changing, and you've got to appreciate that if you're gonna be a marketer, you also have to reflect what the Canadian landscape looks like.
00:25:12.880 --> 00:25:13.759
That's great.
00:25:13.759 --> 00:25:30.079
And as a parting word, can Lauragaye, can you share some of your thoughts, particularly with your work experience, uh, to brands, to people that are thinking of entering into marketing, especially multicultural marketing?
00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:37.759
Yeah, so I think the first thing is that we know that marketing budgets are tight and companies are pulling back for a variety of reasons.
00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:40.319
But multicultural marketing is where the growth is.
00:25:40.319 --> 00:25:42.640
So why would you not want to invest in that?
00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:44.799
So, how can you make the case for that?
00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:52.720
If you're in a situation where you can't do that, and I know we talked about adaptation not being the solution, but we know sometimes that's where it lands.
00:25:52.720 --> 00:25:54.640
But can you control that?
00:25:54.640 --> 00:26:06.720
So I worked on an ad campaign where we were speaking to students and also international students, and so we were at the table and we said, let's make sure that the models and the actors represent Canada.
00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:09.680
And so here is who we think should be at that.
00:26:09.680 --> 00:26:13.759
And let's make sure the set also represents Canada.
00:26:13.759 --> 00:26:20.720
So there's ways that you can work with mass marketing ads and be able to do that as well and infiltrate that.
00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:26.400
And then the last thing, we didn't talk about AI at all, which is normally the one thing everybody wants to talk about.
00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:32.880
But I think AI is gonna allow for personalization at scale in a very efficient and effective way.
00:26:32.880 --> 00:26:49.200
And so when you think about versioning and you think about imagery and you think about text, we can bundle that up in so many different ways with AI that we couldn't do before, that we can really speak to all of these audiences in a way that's gonna be, you know, resonate with them and be authentic.
00:26:49.200 --> 00:26:56.559
So I'm really excited in that way in terms of how AI is gonna help from a marketing point of view in ways that we couldn't afford to do in the past.
00:26:56.880 --> 00:27:20.720
Well, I know um certain brands definitely, uh, particularly with ad agency, that when they do a presentation, you know, gone are the days that you really have to at least uh buy some, you know, master shots or photos, or even do out there, but then you can actually do presentations in a very, very creative way and real way with AI.
00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:24.400
But also at the same time, we've chatted about that.
00:27:24.400 --> 00:27:42.400
There's still a thinking that nothing beats original creative, where you have really the cast there going through uh shooting and also be able to bring the theme of the uh of the TVC or OLV to life.
00:27:42.559 --> 00:27:43.599
What do you think about that?
00:27:43.599 --> 00:27:44.960
Yes, I'll give you two examples.
00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:52.480
So when I worked in the Caribbean, we would buy a lot of stock photography, and my team would look at it, and they would say, those are not people from our country.
00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:54.799
Those are American, African American people.
00:27:54.799 --> 00:28:07.359
And although a few generations ago we came from Africa, those people don't look like us because, an example, Trinidad was a mixture of that and also Southeast Asian people that have really inhabited that country.
00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:13.200
So we realized that stock photography was not the way to go because that wasn't going to be authentic to that community.
00:28:13.200 --> 00:28:15.680
And that wasn't even in a multicultural, that was in a mass way.
00:28:15.680 --> 00:28:18.880
So we started finding efficient ways to do it.
00:28:18.880 --> 00:28:25.039
With AI, there are some ways that you can create some of those images in an authentic way.
00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:35.200
I know when I worked at the bank, you know, there were five others that were all marketing to the same people, and your biggest fear every year was that you all bought the same stock image.
00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:36.960
And it wasn't going to be your image.
00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:37.599
That happens.
00:28:37.599 --> 00:28:39.119
So it does happen.
00:28:39.119 --> 00:28:44.240
Or maybe they used that image last year and you didn't know, and they just trafficked it and got it out there now.
00:28:44.240 --> 00:28:58.960
So, you know, if there's ways that you can do custom photography to make it relevant, um, and think of every possible way that you could use that so you can be really efficient with that photography spend and so that you can continue to use that imagery.
00:28:59.759 --> 00:29:03.920
And definitely AI is really a process that we we have to accept.
00:29:03.920 --> 00:29:12.319
Oh, it's here, it's not going to be this day, and it's actually making a lot of improvement and innovations in many disciplines.
00:29:12.319 --> 00:29:24.720
But also at the same time, we also have to view AI as a a tour that a tool that helps you, yes, to bring it into more perfection.
00:29:24.720 --> 00:29:30.319
But right now in our industry, I don't think it's 100% replaceable.
00:29:30.720 --> 00:29:32.000
It'll never be replaceable.
00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:32.240
Yeah.
00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:34.000
You still need human oversight.
00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:34.319
Yeah.
00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:35.680
You can't get away from that.
00:29:35.680 --> 00:29:38.319
You're gonna make mistakes if you don't have human oversight.
00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:42.079
My fear is that the junior level roles are gonna be eliminated.
00:29:42.079 --> 00:29:43.839
And then what happens?
00:29:43.839 --> 00:29:49.119
How do people get to that mid-level senior level if they haven't had that knowledge and expertise?
00:29:49.119 --> 00:29:50.640
So that's my fear in it.
00:29:50.640 --> 00:29:54.799
What I'm seeing is most of the work in AI is around operation efficiency.
00:29:54.799 --> 00:29:55.519
Yes, definitely.
00:29:55.519 --> 00:29:59.599
And it's less about sort of eliminating some of those roles.
00:29:59.599 --> 00:30:05.279
And you know, budgets are tight, so I think anytime you can get efficiency is very helpful.
00:30:05.279 --> 00:30:07.680
Um, and it's changing constantly.
00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:12.400
Um, I'm in a one-year AI course and we meet every week.
00:30:12.400 --> 00:30:19.519
And the reason the teacher said, the professor said he's gonna teach us for years, he said, what I teach you today is not gonna be relevant three months from now.
00:30:19.519 --> 00:30:22.400
It's just so fast and so quick.
00:30:22.400 --> 00:30:27.039
And the other thing about AI is it's only as good as the data that it has access to.
00:30:27.039 --> 00:30:42.000
And after some point in time, it's not gonna continue to learn because the data won't be there, which is another reason why you want to inject data in and your own custom data so that you're not just popping up relying and the same thing that every other competitor is relying on.
00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:42.480
Yeah.
00:30:42.720 --> 00:30:43.359
That's great.
00:30:43.359 --> 00:30:46.079
So wow, what a powerful conversation.
00:30:46.079 --> 00:30:47.440
This has been great, yeah.
00:30:47.440 --> 00:30:48.079
It's been fun.
00:30:48.079 --> 00:30:58.960
Not just about marketing, but definitely your leadership role and opportunity that you have, and also shaping inclusiveness.
00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:07.359
Um, and especially impart information for uh uh forward thinking for organizations.
00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:14.559
Uh, thank you for sharing your journey and perspective with us, Lauragaye, and uh thank you for taking the time.
00:31:14.559 --> 00:31:22.240
It's really impactful, particularly for our audiences and listeners that will be uh watching this segment.
00:31:22.240 --> 00:31:23.039
Thank you again.
00:31:23.039 --> 00:31:23.599
Thank you.
00:31:23.599 --> 00:31:24.400
It's been an honor.
00:31:24.400 --> 00:31:25.200
I've really enjoyed it.
00:31:25.359 --> 00:31:25.920
Yeah, thank you.
00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:26.799
Great chatting.
00:31:28.160 --> 00:31:30.240
Thank you for joining us today.
00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:38.400
If you have enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our podcast and rate and review the show.
00:31:38.400 --> 00:31:45.039
Join us next time for another journey into the exciting world of multicultural marketing.