Season 3 Episode 1: Kim Mackenzie
On this episode of Strategy Sheroes I speak to Kim Mackenzie. Kim is an independent brand strategy consultant, copywriter and team builder with over 15 years experience. She has successfully transformed agency teams and collaborated with brands including Netflix, Lululemon, The Washington Post, Google, Apple and Michael Kors. Kim very much believes in paying it forward, founding the Ladies who Strategize online community which has over 1600 members globally.
Our chat includes:
How strategy shapes creative and how copywriting shapes strategy
Curiosity and relationship building in successful business development
The founding of Ladies who Strategize
Check out below some of my favourite quotes from our discussion and listen to our full conversation on apple podcasts or spotify.
The importance of good copywriting in strategy
I’ll often make the joke that what we do with decks is really corporate poetry, in that you have to be very succinct. You have to think through the use of every single word and you need to make sure there’s a strong narrative. Because if there isn’t a strong narrative then people aren’t emotionally engaged, if people aren’t emotionally engaged it’s not doing what it needs to.
Business Development lessons inherited from Kim’s dad
My dad was a fundraiser for a children’s charity for over 30 years. He would talk with me a lot about the fact that he didn’t see it as transactional, he just really saw it as developing a relationship with people. If your values align and if you are able to surface something that is a pain point for them or something that they want to achieve and if you’re placed in the right position to help them achieve that, then it’s kismet. He really talked about the fact that he had to raise millions of dollars a year for his charity and he really saw the importance of building long-term relationships with people, it was never short-term. I don’t see it as selling. I really truly see it as discovering where are they at just now? What are the main business threats? What are they most excited about? What are their biggest challenges? What are the biggest opportunities?
How Kim uses her curiosity and facilitation skills in pitching
I love business development mainly because I’m genuinely curious about people. You want to show up in a way that is helpful, and that you’re going to be a good fit for them. I have something like a 90% success rate on pitches and I truly believe it’s because I ask a lot of questions. I ask everyone in the room whether it’s the marketing assistant or the CEO really good questions… I need to make sure that everyone is being heard, everyone feels comfortable communicating with me and that I am relaying back to them that I’ve heard what they’ve said and I have enough of those hyper specific questions, of having enough knowledge about their industry to be dangerous and demonstrate to them that I’m trying to have a better understanding of what their industry is about, and tapping them as the ones who know more about their business at that stage for advice. There’s a lot of different things you have to hit on but I think a lot of it is about good facilitation.
If you identify as female and work as a strategist you can apply to join the Ladies who Strategize slack group
Find out more about Kim’s freelance services and experience