Katie Comerford on Creativity, Culture, and Championing Teams

In Episode 22 of Breaking Through the Mayhem, Adam Katz sits down with Katie Comerford, EVP and Chief of Strategy & Operations at Horizon Next, to discuss leadership, authenticity, and personal growth in the marketing world. Katie shares thoughts on celebrating wins and how shifting her mindset toward self-reflection and appreciation has reshaped her approach to work and life.

The conversation explores Katie’s transition into leadership, embracing discomfort, and learning to champion her team while balancing her own growth. She highlights strategies like her “to-done” list, the importance of psychological safety for team creativity, and how she views leadership as a continuous journey.

Join Adam and Katie as they discuss personal and professional development, offering lessons on fulfillment, imperfection, and staying true to yourself while driving impact in marketing.

TRANSCRIPT

Adam Katz
Welcome, everyone, to Breaking Through the Mayhem podcast hosted by Sightly. This is the 22nd episode, which is time is flying. I remember when we did our first. Now we're at 22. Thank you for being listeners. And today we have a really, really, really, really special person with us. Her name's Katie Comerford.

She's the EVP of Horizon Next, where she's the chief of strategy and also operations, which I've been practicing saying correctly for the last couple of minutes because it's a lot. So we're definitely gonna have to understand what Katie really does with that title. But in terms of Katie, we're really lucky to have her today. I happen to know her very, very well, and there is nothing not authentic about her.

She leads with empathy. She's a culture first leader. And on top of that, I can't say I've ever met somebody who dislikes Katie. Like, I. I've known her for a long time. I just say her name. People like, oh, I love Katie. Like, there's no there's never a negative.

Katie Comerford
Adam, you are too kind.

Adam Katz
I apologize, bringing someone to our podcast that's so liked.

Katie Comerford
Yeah. so I grew up in Dallas. I joke that I'm an advertising brat because my dad was in ad sales, and we moved around a whole bunch of the kids, so I can say I'm from Florida and Indiana in Texas, but I, I'm a Texan at heart and started, you know, my career after going to Texas Tech out in Lubbock, which is awesome. Shout out to the Red Raiders.

But I started in Austin at a full service ad agency. Kind of stumbled into it. The I interviewed really not knowing what media was. And, I had an internship with the, U.S. House of Representatives, and the opening on the the account was a government account and a digital role.

So I got the digital job, which thank goodness, because it's been kind of the backbone of my career. I love being in digital. I worked there for a few years on a couple of accounts, then ultimately moved to New York, following a mentor who had done the same. And, I took a job working in entertainment, at an agency, which was super fun, a little strange for my background of performance, and got to do kind of that left brain, right brain of performance meets.

How big and fun can you get with your media? Worked there for a bit and then ultimately landed at horizon about ten years ago. And I've been at horizon working in, the performance side of the house. So lots of clients trying to help drive their business. it's been super fun and it's evolved. I feel like every year is a whole different year. and so it's been great.

Adam Katz
That's awesome. You know, I didn't think I would ask this, but based on what you just said, you know, what was it? What would you tell people your dad did as a kid? Like, I'm gonna have to teach my kids this.

Katie Comerford
Oh, yeah. You are.

Adam Katz
It's how. How would this go? Like, someone be like, what does your dad, what would be your response?

Katie Comerford
Yeah. I mean, my dad. It depends on if I was being a bratty kid the day you asked me. But when I was mad at him, I would say he sold nothing. You sell air on TV? What is that? You know, and so I think that kind of the karma of making a joke about it landed me in selling pixels or buying pixels on the internet, so,

No, he worked in ad sales for sports, which was kind of the passion and, you know, wanted to be connected to sports teams. But it's a hard job. And as you get older, you know, you're taking clients to games every night and working for baseball. So what is that, like a billion games a year each team? And then he'd go back to TV, which was kind of the bread and butter.

And so I, I learned from that my aunt and uncle were in the agency side and, and it was the a business I thought the whole time, I'm never doing that. I'm never going to do that. I thought I'd be an architect or something else. And then ultimately throughout school, you just kind of find that it it made sense.

And I really loved marketing and then saw an agency open and I went after it. And now I've been an agency person for my whole career.

Adam Katz
Wow. That's pretty crazy. In terms of like yourself, I know you, you're always thinking about your people. It's one of the things that I've always admired from afar, and especially the relationships you keep, even with the ones that are not currently working with you.

Like how do you make time for so many people, and what do you think are the qualities that you try to lead with that create such a fostering relationship? And then on top of that, you know, as you think through that, how do you teach other people to be the same way?

Katie Comerford
Yeah. Throughout my career I've worked with a couple different mentors.

Recently I was asked to define as I've taken this new role, like define the values you come to the table with, because I've struggled with that imposter syndrome a bit. And one of the values that rose to the top is authenticity. And so I know when I go into a room, I'm not going to show up in a way that is not authentic to me.

And so how do I do that? But level that up. And so that's kind of been a key driver in the way I try to approach everything. And that's the way I show up with clients, show up in meetings internally, but more so kind of the way I am with my team members. And so I, you know, think about that when I join one on one calls or in person and just like, okay, authentically, what is the way I need to help solve a challenge or at least, you know, be a sounding board and, and try to show up in a way that is, authentic to me, but also what that person needs.

And so understanding how their motivated, what their challenges are pushing them to succeed. but doing it where I can, I can think through things and be, give the advice I give as as me and not okay, what would so-and-so say or what would what would I want to hear right now? And I think there are are times I do it better than I, I, you know, others and others I notice like I'm super stressed.

I'm not listening. I know I wasn't listening, I'm thinking about the things that I have on my to do list, and so I try to keep myself in check with, you have to show up as a human. we're all humans outside of the office and inside too. But we're all human and people need different things. And so authentically, I can only I can only do that as Katie.

I can't do it, as you know, my boss is going to be different, and the person below me is going to be different. And so I think it has to be, led with authenticity and kind of that's, that's probably my number one value. I think the second is drive. I want to do good work. I want to be surrounded by people who want to do good work.

And so it's what I will give to my team. But what I also expect of my team, and then having that as your baseline really kind of allows you to not only show up and be supportive, but also have those direct conversations when somebody isn't performing all right. I've set that as my benchmark. You're not delivering.
So what is it? What's going on? What's going on in your world? What do you need for me in order to succeed? And right now, here's what I need to say for me. And so I think kind of creating that to, you know, the drive in the authenticity, I would say, are the two values that kind of bubbled up for me in this discovery.

but they've been there all along. I just put the definition behind them recently. So I think, yeah, those are kind of the areas I'd focus on and really making sure that people below me, as they think about becoming leaders, think about what their values are. but I would say authenticity probably is going to show up for everyone.

Adam Katz
What would you say in terms of that? Like, obviously, authenticity is a big word that people like to talk about and being consistent, right? Those are kind of two obvious traits that you're talking about a lot, which is funny because that's the two traits that helped us at our current company actually build what we do. So not talking about us.

So throw that out. But that's kind of why I think it's all based on your mentality. Right? So ultimately that kind of leads everything today. I think people see how you show up and where you navigate, and they pay a lot of attention to that. I've learned a lot from watching it from you in terms of like, where do you think you struggle the most because you want to lead from authenticity, right?

And you want to lead from a consistent place. Where do you think you find yourself struggling then that you would always be working on? And do you talk to your team about your own learnings? Is that where you think you have really navigated to the place you are? Because it seems like to me, based on listening to you, the best quality you probably have is being able to speak to your own thoughts and people gravitate to that.

So just how do you kind of navigate those things and where do you go from there?

Katie Comerford
That's actually a great question because I think, sometimes I think I'm a little too open on where I show up imperfectly. and I think that that, though, is that is authentically me. I'm, I'm, you know, I sometimes the words will come out of my mouth before they're, they hit the back of my brain kind of thing.

and so I do think that I can be direct with my team members, both in the ways that I can help coach and guide them, but also in the way that I've shown up, I also think that when you create the relationships with people where you have a personal connection and that can be professional, I don't need to know things about their life, but I know that we can treat each other as humans, and they can see me as a sounding board.

That door is open for feedback in both directions, which is wildly valuable. Some of the best feedback I've ever gotten is from people who report to me, on ways that I could have shown up better or shown up, in a way that worked better for them. You know, like, I kind of can navigate things in my style.

And then when they tell me, yeah, I got it. But like, what if about this? Like, oh my gosh, wow. Like what a huge insight. And that can come from an assistant who just started their career or somebody who's, you know, I've maybe got 1 or 2 years on. And so I think when you can show up and create that bridge to people where they see you as a leader, but also can can like associate with you as a peer, there's that element of you open the d89tyor to gain those learnings versus it doesn't get to you, and then you're operating in your silo and you don't hear the stuff you need to hear to be a better people leader

Adam Katz
I think what you're saying, which is so critical, and then we'll take it from more of the people thing leading into some of the skills that you have. I mean, ultimately, no one's going to talk to you at the top unless you have that skill today right there. Rather just ignore it all right?

And then things bubble up and you can't even fix any of the issues that are being related to the team. So I think the fact that you are so open and willing to listen is why you hear the most. And when you hear the most, it becomes like, what do I actually navigate and use and what do I not?

Right. So I think ultimately it then puts, you know, someone like yourself, you're like, what do I tackle first? How do I stay people lead? How do I stay business lead. And knowing how much passion I for both how do you kind of marry those two things is always difficult and so cool to hear that you've come to those terms of how you do that.

Right? And you're going to stay in those lanes and navigate them. I think that's part of why you've gotten to where you are in your career. Right. And I think one of the things that I admire, and why we wanted to have you was you basically worked at a startup within a huge, within a huge agency, right?

For anyone that doesn't understand Horizon Media, it's one of the biggest, if not the biggest independent agencies in the world. And, you know, you basically have led and been a part of growing an agency within an agency. Right. And have you navigated that, like how have you kind of been an entrepreneurial spirit within a bigger organization and made your mark?

Katie Comerford
I think it's a really good question. I got lucky where I landed, I came into horizon and I interviewed, and I didn't even know what accounts I was getting when I joined. And so it kind of felt like day one, I was like, oh, okay, let me write that down. I just I just interviewed for horizon. And so, ultimately there was a lot of pivots and changes.

And then all of a sudden I was in this thing called Horizon Next, and I'd been doing the job and, and I think the, the best thing, I was really lucky to land on that spot. But I think the best thing is that it was entrepreneurial within the walls, and there was a vision to kind of navigate how we solve client challenges differently and think about the type of clients that we had coming into our, our, you know, domain.

and then for myself, I was overseeing the digital team and that, that job description is pretty clear. but as things evolved and shifted to be more digital, I kind of felt like it became this gray area that I was operating in. And there's awesome things about that, because you become this problem solver and you are trying to figure out, like, okay, put the digital activation lead hat off, pick this other one up like, what makes sense?

What should we be doing? Why should we go that direction? It felt very much like we had a blank canvas to work with. And then ultimately, that's why I'm in the job I'm in right now. Is that this wasn't a job I filled. This was a job that we created. And it's because, like, just spending time asking, like, why is it that way?

What if we did it this way? Or why like, that feels clunky. and so I think we had the backbone of Horizon as a massive agency. And so all the tools that I haven't had at other smaller companies I've worked at and still the ability to really drive change faster, because we were kind of this tiny little thing within the organization.

And I think now we're the same size as the other half. And so that's very exciting.

Adam Katz
Did you ever feel like you weren’t a part of it at times. And now you feel like you really are?

Katie Comerford
Weren’t a part of the horizon side? A little, but I honestly think we benefited from like, okay, let's, let's try this.

Like they're doing that. That's a really good case study. And that was kind of cool to get to see of like and there's resources to talk to. I've learned a ton from the people on that side of the house of, you know, like what are they doing that's different. And I think you have we have a really good sounding board.

So we're involved in some stuff, over there. They're involved in some stuff over here. And so it is the best of both worlds. And I, I lucked into it by just not caring about what client I took the job for. I knew I wanted to be at an independent shop. I liked Bill's vision, I loved the people I met and so I jumped in and and now it's kind of been like, I've gotten to design something in a spot that is established that you don't get in most jobs.

Adam Katz
Is that why you want to tell your story more now? Your starting to feel like, listen, you know what I did? Do you know who Katie Comerford is? Is that why you get out there more and tell your story? and and make an impact for others to do the same thing?

Katie Comerford
Possibly, I think. Yeah, I mean, I, I've gotten there's moments where I'm like, am I just a lucky idiot or like, like I there's -

Adam Katz
The number one quote we're going to put out there. Yeah, I am, I am the lucky idiot.

Katie Comerford
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I think truthfully, it's like, I know I'm a hard worker. I know I like those foundational elements to me as a human that I want to do really good work.

I want to love leading and managing people. And so I put a lot of effort into that. And I think I've just stopped trying to fit into the box, like I've stopped trying to say, my job is this and it's not that. And there's a long running joke with my boss of like, I've never had a job description.

And so when we created this job, he wrote it out and gave it to me. And he's like, it only took nine years. and even now, I don't ever look at it because what does it matter? I want this place to be good. I want to do good work for our clients. And so if there's a task that comes down that we got to figure out, let's figure it out.

Like, does it matter if it's my job or there's no let's just figure it out. So I think there is I would say there's an element of being the lucky idiot and the element of being, I work really hard, and I think those people who can do that, take advantage of the, you know, the things that come their way and navigate.

It can be successful wherever they go.

Adam Katz
I mean, I think that's so cool because sometimes, like, if you don't self-reflect or you don't give yourself a moment to have a trophy, and because not everyone else is going to give you the trophy you could give yourself, you know? But I think ultimately, as you start to unlock that feeling, it's important.

You know, I talk a lot about celebration, right? As a leader. And I think the problem is a lot of people think if you prematurely celebrate, then you will never get to the end line. But then it's like, well, what is the end line at some point? So I feel like it's important, you know, listening to you, you kind of want to see an impact on others for the future.
You want to see an impact on your clients, but also feels like you're finally saying, I got to see the impact on myself right? Which I think is super cool. So how do you get to a place now that you understand that you want to celebrate more as you kind of grow into the next phase of your career?

Katie Comerford
Yeah, I think there is an element of client services businesses that are tough that, you know, there isn't a lot to celebrate every single day. I think there are days I feel like I just run around and it's fix this problem, fix this problem, you know, and that's come out of the week and you're like, oh my gosh, my apartment's a disaster.

I haven't cooked a meal in seven days because I've just been so into it that I think, like ultimately like, you know, like I saw this thing the other day that I was like, wow, that really resonates in such a strange way. But we are not getting out of this alive. We have one life, and I want to enjoy the five days a week that I'm working.

Sometimes six, sometimes seven based off the challenges. But like if we're not liking what we do, that is going to be a very miserable existence. And sometimes you can't control everything. So the only thing I can control is my mentality of it. And so I try to live each day with a little bit of like that self-reflection, because I need it where man, super negative today.

I got to get out of that. Tomorrow, let's try again. but also like the what were the wins? And, I worked with a coach who was focused on kind of burnout. the best part of that, which was a very like it was a lot of intense, like figuring yourself out and what your head trash was.

A lot of the conversation of what's the stuff that you, put on yourself? there was a lot of like. But how does it serve me? How am I why am I hanging on to this stuff? Because it gives me a benefit. So if I'm taking on all. I'm so stressed. I'm so stressed, and I'm keeping it because being stressed makes is a value to me.

Look how busy I am. Look how important I, you know. And so I think you have to start to kind of let go of the things that you, that you can't control and celebrate the things that you can. So one of the things I implemented, which is a little crazy, I'm the person who, if it's one task, I'll break it down into five things so I can check the box on all five.

So now I have a to done list. So what did I get done? Because there are days I just run to meetings and back to back calls and it doesn't feel like I accomplished a whole lot, but I did, and I have to kind of celebrate those small things so I can see that the day wasn't a waste.

No need to be negative about it. The output was the output. Now go into the next day with the lessons you learned and do it all over. So I think it's like the to done list thing has been helpful to me. And it's silly, but I love it. and I also think like celebrate like small things and that's a done list.

Adam Katz
A lucky idiot and a to done list.

Katie Comerford
All this great advice I'm giving you.

Adam Katz
I know I'm going to I'm going to be describing myself in a very different way post this episode. But going back to the celebration thing, sorry for cutting you off at all there, but like, how do you celebrate? Is it just telling yourself like, I was great today? Is it someone else telling you like which which kind of matters more to you?

Katie Comerford
Yeah. I think and this actually came out of a conversation you and I had of of motivations of people. you said you're a person who appreciates recognition. And I was like, oh, you're right. Like, it hit me. And then I was like, no, you're right. I do need that. But it doesn't always have to be the, the trophy, the, you know, the award thing.

There are just times I need someone saying, hey, that conversation helped. Like, great, thank God. Because that's that's awesome. That's all I needed. That 30 minute meeting. That's my win for today. Nothing else. and so for me, the way I celebrate is like, I love to champion my team. We have on our teams channel across the department a, good news.

And that good news can be someone had a baby. That good news can be this campaign launched and they got it done on time, against all odds or the smallest things. And so I think celebrating those little things is so important, you know, like didn't leave the weekend last week without hey guys, to all the people running the New York City Marathon that that's your celebration.

Go have fun with it. You know, like just celebrating those small things. me personally, it's the I'm done. I sign off closed laptop, and I'm, that's a celebration in and of itself, like I had.

Adam Katz
And I’m not opening it till this time. but I think it's hard to like, as you said. I mean, listening to you, you have so much heart for others that I think I want the audience to learn.

As I've gotten to know you over the years, how you learned to love yourself in the role, because ultimately, you can't give back to anyone if you're struggling. That's why I did give you the recognition advice sorry.

Katie Comerford
That's a good one.

Adam Katz
Yeah, I like, you just wanted someone to say thank you to, like, the other way to, like, sometimes when you're in a leadership role, it always feels like you're giving and you're getting nothing back.

So, like, it's hard to know. But I think as you, you kind of grow and you figure that out. It's awesome. I think one of the things that I would love to understand a little more as we come down the stretch here together, you know, like when you when you talk about this topic of authenticity and consistency. Right?

And you think about yourself, don't you feel like you become a better marketer also as you learn more about yourself?

Katie Comerford
Oh yeah. Yeah, I think not only am I able to kind of ingest more information when I feel good and I feel like, all right, showing up the way I want to show up. I like to be really creative.

I work on the performance side. And so I think there have been times where we're like, you got to get out of the what happened yesterday, what's going on today? And like, let's brainstorm and let's take a, let's be wild about what the ideas that we can come up with. And, I think that's, you see, this energy and this light come into the team of like that idea was mine, and now it's going into the new business, you know, the pitch or that idea was mine, and they're taking it to the clients.

Like, I think there's that element of like, if you can create that psychological, psychological security for your team members, you're going to get more people speaking up. And I think that's something that I've struggled with, especially growing into the leadership role of like the seat at the table, you know, like for me, I'm the same person I was, you know, forever.

I try to be better as much as I can be. But there's an eight qualities to me. Like, you know, you know this. I'm an introvert. I am the I want to take all the information and I want to calculate some stuff, and then I want to have I want to speak out. But now I'm in a role where my seat is at the table, and I do have to speak up and kind of drive things in more immediacy than I ever have had to before.

Those security blankets of been reporting in to some other folks, those are gone, you know, and now I'm that person. And so I think there's that element of understanding that there's no arrival. I've kind of navigated to that as like my mantra of I'm never going to be perfect and I'm never going to have that know everything, and I'm there.

And I also have to stop seeing the people who were leaders. And now some are peers as those perfect, like, oh man, if I could just get to that. Like if I could just meet them, everything will be fine. And now sitting it, sitting at the table, I'm like, I'm not perfect, they're not perfect. We're all figuring it out as we go.

It's just I now have a I'm in the driver's seat a bit more than I'm used to, and I'm uncomfortable in a lot more ways on a daily basis. But like, that means I'm learning and, you know, like you're you are part of the reason I'm doing more of this stuff and speaking and trying to kind of get into a spot where I'm teaching myself not to not to take the backseat, not to be the let me think through every bit of information before I make that decision, like, let's do it, let's try.

And I can. I've got enough experience to know if I'm about to run off a cliff. So let's let's be sure, like, let's, you know, let's figure it out as we go a little bit more of being know in the driver's seat and not so much the fixer introvert mentality. I've had to it's uncomfortable. It's been uncomfortable for months now.

But every day what was uncomfortable yesterday is ideally not uncomfortable the next day. So I'm working through that personally. yeah. So there's no arrival. I think it's kind of been something I've been focusing on as I've stepped into a new role.

Adam Katz
Thank you. I'm honored that I could be even, a minuscule part of of helping you out of uncomfortable, you know?

Katie Comerford
Yeah. You keep me honest, Adam. I like it.

Adam Katz
Well, that's the point of the podcast, right? To hear. To hear real things from people, hear how they navigate either the mayhem in the marketing landscape, but also people, you know, like, as we're as we're navigating everything. You know, from my perspective, first of all, we're honored that we can be like one of your first tell the world who Katie is moments, you know.

So hopefully, they they come away and they're like, let me just go to ChatGPT and put in what happened on breaking through the mayhem with Adam and Katie. And it's going to be the lucky idiot. The intruder, the person who doesn't want to drive off a cliff. They're going to be like, what?

Katie Comerford
What happened?

Adam Katz
Yeah, this is really good advice.

where can we find. But. But what? It what it ultimately all is, you know, is is your truth. You know, and I think as you start to get more comfortable out there, no one's got anything perfect. As you said, you sit at the table with leaders. I mean, I don't think I feel like I'm a better. This was that was that you got to take all your experiences and add them up and try to give back what you wish didn't happen to you.

That's like the biggest advice I try to learn, and trust me, I still screw them all up. So I appreciate you saying that. I give you advice, but you give me a lot too, right? That's a mutual friendship in the industry, which is hard to find. They actually consider you a friend, which is difficult in our in our landscape.

Right. In terms of, you know, a couple of things I wanted to close out with here, really like, kind of feel fulfilled in this episode, learning a lot more about Katie and, and how she navigates. What would you say you think are the biggest challenges coming up in this, in this marketing industry? If you had to synthesize a few and then let's close out, with a question around like, are you shocked you're where you are today?

Or would you sign up for it again? That would be my last two questions for Katie Comerford.

Katie Comerford
Yeah. keep me honest answering those both. So I think the the top three challenges I've seen, the first is really kind of talent. I think we have super smart talent coming into the industry, and they're learning different things.

And I learned when I was in college, and I think we do a good job at training, and trying to get people to kind of see the broader picture. But I think we don't do a great job at evolving that of what's happening in the landscape now. And how do we think more digitally, or how do we push that innovation so that those new guys coming to the table also feel like they've got the ability to speak up and challenge us versus here's your job, here's your job description, operate in that job description.

Like allowing for entrepreneurial thinking at the start, I think it is something that we could do a better job at. There's just a lot coming in. You. It's like information overload to those guys. And maybe we should be, you know, ensuring we can figure out what creates a good experience, what creates, you know, talent to, to, you know, retain in this industry because I feel like we lose.

We've got so many options on the table. You know an agency is a really tough job to keep retention high. And when you meet people like myself and a couple of my colleagues that are like agency lifers, people are like, what's wrong with you? And so I think, yeah, like, I love it. It's been a really good spot for me.

And so what I don't know if I take enough time to kind of step back and understand why the why of why am I an agency person? And it's not because I'm didn't I mean, because of that I'm stuck here. That's not the point. But it is. It's like what it created that space for me to want to be in this and know it's different from a sales job or a, you know, the tech side or the client side, like, how do we find those people and retain them and actually give them kind of like something to to navigate and find fruitful for themselves versus, well, I loved it because of this.

And so you'll love it because of that. Like it could be a lot different. So I think talent training and retention is a big challenge. And it's different all the time with the types of people coming into the agency world. I think service and automation is a huge piece of the puzzle right now if there are ways that we can be more tech forward.

There are ways we can reduce things that are time suck and just don't add value. And how can we make sure when we have the people aside and we're looking at the human aspect to our roles, hurry up. Uplevel in what the deliverable is and using our brains versus churning out work. And I think there's a lot to be done in the industry there, not just in my world, but I think holistically, and the expectations setting that we have with clients of, you know, how are we going to move things fast and, and then what's, what's on us to do and what's on them to do, and kind of coming together to make sure whereas automated as we possibly can be, so that we're more insightful than we ever could be, by taking those tasks off of the plate. and then I think it's a crowded space, like we really are an industry where what is proprietary is not all that unique.

You know, like there's places where there are a lot of, a lot of like minded things coming out, and you're talking to a lot of vendors, and we're thinking about consolidation, but also being innovative and trying to figure out how to navigate those challenges.

and doing it in a way where we're, you know, talking to vendors and being direct about what we need to see and what our challenges are. And I think we've lost that transparency a bit in the industry where, you know, we meet with someone and yeah, I don't know if that's really all that unique or if I want to test it, but I don't want to spin people's wheels, you know, like I want to say, that's great, but what if it was this you're here?

What if it was that? Or you know what? That's problem number five for us. We got to solve problem one and two before we can even be, you know, my mindful of that. And I don't think we're as clear about that. I also don't think we give that training to our team members like how to develop those relationships and how to navigate.

You're going to have 50 vendors coming at you. They're all people and they all have a job and a responsibility to. And so understand it. But be honest and tell them what's going on versus you put them on an RFP and then it's not going anywhere. Like that's not we have to figure out a better way for the sales side and the agency side to collaborate so that we can be innovative versus kind of just get stuck in the cycle of, you know, meetings or people weren't paying attention or they couldn't because they're so burdened with work.

So how do we think that's a huge thing in my, my perspective of the things that have to evolve so that everybody gets better.

Adam Katz
I love that. Wow. I think you basically stole the show with that answer. I mean, from, somebody on the sales and tech side. I completely agree with that. Like, you see team members go in and take meetings and no one ever tells them anything.

So it's like, how do you improve in those scenarios? And then also all the other things that you're thinking, I mean, couldn't agree more. So what do you want to leave the audience with? as we, we walk away here, like if they were to where's Katie going to be in a few years? What's, what's kind of next steps and where do you, where do you think you want to leave your last note here.

Katie Comerford
I think I mean, I would be shocked if I wasn't at an agency in a few years from now, but I think the world is changing. So rapidly that it's so hard to predict what the problems on the table will be. And I feel that about every six months in this job right now. But I think that I love managing people, and I love coaching and trying to make sure people feel valued in their role because corporate, you know, there's you go on TikTok for five seconds, they're going to, you know, be all over me about corporate being kind of a nightmare.

And I don't think it has to be that way. You know, like, I want to work with good people. I want people who are driven. I want to also show up exactly that way to the people who work with me and for me. And so I think just being a human is probably hopefully that's what I'm doing in a few years.

See, you know. Yeah. And staying optimistic about all these things that are on my plate. yeah I want yeah. I think being part performance focused and part, you know, the balance of left brain, right brain is, is critical as we think about the future state of advertising. so yeah, I don't know. Lucky idiot I guess.

Adam Katz
Lucky idiot. We’ll close there. Thank you so much, Katie, for joining us for the 22nd episode of Breaking Through the Mayhem. We're honored that you, you wanted to put yourself out there and be with us first, which we. Yeah, we appreciate it. And I'm sure we'll be seeing you everywhere after this. And I think this will come out.

And all of a sudden, you'll be on every panel, every talking opportunity, and we'll be the little guys one day. But we're super excited to have helped you get out there. And I think the audience, I mean, the amount you could learn from your navigation and empathy and the way that you try to understand others is something to be admired.

So thank you for being on the show. We'll see you soon.

Katie Comerford
Yeah. Thank you. Adam.