10 Questions with JESSICA SCANLON

ROUND ROCK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE CHAIR -ELECT

1. THE BEST LEADERS SUPPORT THEIR TEAMS

BY connecting to them as humans and understanding what’s going on in their lives and what their goals are. If you take good care of your team, your team will take great care of your customers. I know that they may not work for us forever. I will have done my job well if they leave us and they’re still a champion for us, and they’re a great team member at their new company.

2. I define a great organizational culture as one that is driven by a clear mission and vision for the company. A company that is trying daily to live up to its purpose will innovate in a way that is optimally beneficial to our clients, community, and employees. In addition, you must know what your secret sauce is, which we outline with our core values. We hire for these traits; we think about these core values when we’re trying to make tough decisions with our clients or for the business. 

3. One thing I try to do every day is wake up early in the morning to spend 15-30 minutes with the love of my life, my husband. I also try to exercise and eat healthy. I’m a busy person during the day, and I work late. That manner of lifestyle can easily lead to my body and mind falling apart and to poor personal relationships. It took me many years to figure out that prioritizing taking care of one's self leads to a much more successful professional life.

4. I feel most alive when  I’m doing work in the community. Right now, I am very passionate about creating networking and relationship opportunities for women leaders in Round Rock. I am learning to golf and I regularly organize golf outings with other women so we can practice and play in golf tournaments with confidence. I helped with a retreat this year for women leaders in Round Rock. I’m proud to be the chair-elect for the Round Rock Chamber, and I aim to take that opportunity to create more pathways for female leadership.

5. I handle negativity bytrying my best, proactively, to avoid it. I don’t surround myself with negative people, and I do what I can as a leader to create a workplace that is supportive instead of punitive; educational instead of correctional. In fact, one of our core values at Hot Dog Marketing is Positivity. Everything in life has two sides to it. Problems come with opportunities, and it takes a team with that mindset to continue to focus on opportunities.

6. To avoid distractions, I go to the office! We’re a hybrid and remote company. We have a fabulous office space off Main St. in Round Rock, and I use it. It not only helps me make sure that I stay focused on my work, but it helps keep SOME separation between my work life and personal life.

7. One thing that is difficult for me but I enjoy is solving our client’s problems with HubSpot. I’m a big picture person. I love strategy and doing people-centric work, and I don’t love working on a technical project. However, if one of our clients is struggling with creating a seamless customer experience and rolling out an omni-channel strategy, or I find out they’re burning hours with data entry between systems, I love figuring out how to integrate seamless systems and update their processes to save them time. These are typical growth problems our clients face, and I love solving for this with HubSpot.

8. My best advice for handling change isto know change is inevitable, and it comes with opportunities. I’m not sure if there has been a change in our business, staff, personal life, or otherwise that I don’t look back on and say, “It’s been worse ever since,” and that’s because if you approach life with a growth mindset, everything leads to more lessons or opportunities.

9. In 10 years I hope to still be doing what I’m doing. I lead a great business with remarkable people and it feels like I learn something new every day. I can’t get enough of it. One change I am certain of is that my daughter will be done with high school, and I hope I will have more time for more significant community service in some way.

10. I define success as  making a positive impact in the lives of others, whether I get to see it or not. We never know how our actions will ripple out into the world, but intentionally working for the good of others has the best chance of making someone else’s life better. To me, that is more important than any accolade or monetary gain.

JESSICA LEADS HOT DOG MARKETING, ONE THE NATION’S LEADING BRANDING AND DIGITAL MARKETING TEAMS. SHE ALSO SERVES AS A FRACTIONAL CMO AS NEEDED TO FAST-GROWING SERVICE-BASED AND SAAS BUSINESSES. SHE IS HIGHLY EMPATHETIC AND EXPERIENCED IN THE MANY BUSINESS CHALLENGES OWNERS AND OPERATORS FACE AS THEY MOVE TOWARD SCALED GROWTH. SHE OFTEN BECOMES QUICK FRIENDS WITH AND A TRUSTED ADVISOR TO HOT DOG MARKETING CLIENTS.