Meet Cara Verwholt

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cara Verwholt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cara below.

Cara, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

I have not always been confident. I’m an introvert and an only child and have also struggled with anxiety. For me, building confidence and self-esteem has resulted from gaining understanding and a sense of ownership. Over time, I realized that a lot of my anxiety stems from a thirst for understanding and a need for context that only practical knowledge and firsthand experiences can satisfy. While this realization hasn’t silenced my anxious thoughts entirely, it has provided me with a useful framework for navigating them.

I gained confidence by understanding my strengths. I excel at listening, analyzing, and working efficiently. I value close relationships and enjoy collaborating with others to achieve common goals. When I tap into these strengths to successfully navigate a challenge, it builds my self-esteem.

Whenever I start a new marketing strategy project, I use my strengths framework to absorb as much data and context as possible. I make it a priority to familiarize myself with the key players in my client’s organization, understand cross-functional dynamics, and dive deep into the customer journey. I’ve come to appreciate anxiety for the heightened alertness and vigilance it provides, which allows me to look around corners and make confident, informed decisions.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

In 2023, I left the corporate world and founded my marketing consulting practice, Cara Verwholt Consulting. Our mission is to help founders and marketing leaders navigate business transformations while building sustainable, revenue-driving marketing infrastructure. I’m passionate about helping leaders navigate change because I saw a lot of it during my 15-year marketing career, from early-stage companies to the likes of Amazon, Disney, and the NFL. I worked through acquisitions, organizational changes, distribution strategy pivots, and net new product launches, and have a deep understanding of (and empathy for) business and marketing leaders who must continue to drive high revenue output amid disruptive change.

My marketing consulting practice’s advisory services are designed to strengthen marketing’s role and establish a clear link between marketing strategy and revenue impact. We assess complex growth opportunities and break them down into foundational elements that align a client’s brand positioning, channel strategy, and internal resourcing with customer needs.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1. Earn trust. I spent about ten years in my client-side marketing career working for large, siloed organizations (Amazon, Disney, and the NFL). The most valuable lesson I learned from navigating large corporate environments is the importance of earning the trust of cross-functional stakeholders. When starting a new role or joining a new team, it’s essential to listen first and absorb information before making any assumptions about how things should be done based on your past experiences. Earning trust takes time, and I advise others to be patient and keep working on challenging relationships. As you demonstrate your value to a stakeholder, collaboration will get easier.

2. Take ownership. This not only helped me to succeed professionally, but it helped me to earn the trust of my stakeholders. Get in the trenches. Of course, you need to be careful not to overextend yourself, but if you demonstrate that you’re a team player who is willing to go outside of your scope to get the job done, you are likely to earn stakeholder trust. Empower those that you lead to be owners. Define clear ownership “swim lanes” for your team members. Clearly articulate what each team member is responsible and accountable for while outlining opportunities for experimentation and stretch learning.

3. Gain a broader business context. Understanding how your functional area affects the business can be challenging, especially early in your career. This is particularly true if you don’t have a seat at the table during financial performance review discussions. Ask questions to gain context. When you have a 1:1 with your manager, ask them to walk you through the last month or quarter’s business review document. Build relationships with your finance counterparts and ask them how the business measures success. If you work for a publicly traded company, make sure to listen to their quarterly earnings calls. Whenever I speak with marketing students or early-stage marketers, my top career development advice is to gain financial literacy.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I am a solopreneur and am currently faced with the challenge of how to effectively scale my business. I provide strategic marketing advisory services to my clients and, after a year in business, have figured out where I provide the most value. However, niching down also means that I am not able to provide all of the marketing services that my clients need, so it’s important for me to build relationships with other freelancers and agencies who specialize in brand and content strategy, paid media management, creative services, PR, social media management, and search engine optimization. I do have many strong collaborators in these areas, but I’m always looking to build new relationships.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.caraverwholtconsulting.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cara-verwholt-consulting/

Image Credits

Charisma Howard