Meet Amy Zwagerman

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amy Zwagerman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
First, I don’t think ‘purpose’ is a singular thing that a person can objectively find – for me, it’s more of an aspirational journey that unfolds over the course of one’s life. With that in mind, I can say that my life has been full of ‘aha’ moments that, in hindsight, feel like stepping stones along the larger path to finding my purpose. I like to think of them as the building blocks of my life – a series of little decisions that unbeknownst to me had a profound effect on who I am today and what I believe my purpose is. To give you an example of what I’m talking about, I think my first big ‘aha’ moment was when I declared my undergraduate major. Without going into a lot of detail, I can tell you that I had no interest in becoming a business major, but I fell in love with marketing the minute I took my first class and realized the choice was already made.

I can also pinpoint a handful of similar moments in my life – moments where I was called to make a choice I didn’t realize I wanted until it was right in front of me. Meeting the NY marketing team for a popular magazine at my first ‘real’ job out of college was a big one. So big in fact that I pledged right then and there to move to the big apple and follow in their footsteps – which I was able to partially accomplish many years later. (For those of you who are curious, I got to move to NY, but I had to get a different job because, well, magazines weren’t the big thing anymore!) Moving back to Los Angeles after an unforeseen sacking was the next major moment. Going back to school to get my MBA after contemplating it for more than 20 years was one more. And, finally, starting my own marketing business after I graduated brings me to where I am today.

What I want to say about all of these individual moments is that they didn’t just take me back and forth across the country, they served to help me fulfill both my purpose at that time and lead me to the life full of purpose and meaning I have right now. So, long story long, I can safely say that I found my current purpose by making a series of seemingly disparate decisions that ultimately laid the foundation for this step in my journey. May there be many more evolutions to come!

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am the Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of The Launch Box, a boutique marketing services firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurs and small business leaders succeed by embracing marketing. What this means in a more practical sense is that I help non-marketing savvy founders understand and apply tried and true marketing principles to create amazing brands that attract customers, generate revenue, and rise above the competition. I’m currently getting ready to launch a series of service packages designed to streamline critical early stage marketing activities so founders can get their business up and running faster. Learn More (https://bit.ly/tlbcollaborate).

I have 20+ years experience in the entertainment and consumer goods industry across many incredible companies, so I love talking about movies, marketing, and mentorship (my 3 M’s). I am also an amateur baker / chef / pizzaiolo and proud dog mom. On most weekends, you can find me either lounging by a pool with my Australian Shepherd, Zoey, or engaging friends and family in my never-ending quest to make the perfect pizza.

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?
The three qualities or skills that I believe have had the biggest impact on my journey are empathy, intuition, and a desire to continuously learn and grow. My advice to anyone who reads this with respect to each of these qualities is, first and foremost, not to think that you need to cultivate the same traits as me. We all have our own unique set of talents, so I suggest you lean into the ones that make you special. That said, here is what I can tell you about the three traits I have selected and why they matter to me:

Empathy – Being able to put yourself in another person’s shoes does more than create empathy, it helps you see the world through their eyes, understand what motivates them, and ultimately sell to them. The only way I know how to cultivate this skill is to think of everyone you meet as a potential learning lesson and talk to them about their life and experiences. Hopefully you can see why I put this one first as a marketer.

Intuition – As a discipline, marketing is part science and part art. The science equates to what you learn in school, the tried and true marketing principles and techniques, whereas the art is all about how you connect the dots between the brand, the customer, and the science. The best marketers have a way of doing this that incorporates a lot of art (aka intuition) because they understand what motivates people and how to connect with them in an ever-changing world.

Learning & Growth – One of the greatest skills any employee, entrepreneur, or individual can acquire is the ability to see every challenge, opportunity, and activity as a way to learn and grow. For example, if you can retrain yourself to hear criticism as advice, you will stop feeling judged and be grateful for the feedback, and, if you can look at challenges as opportunities to learn new skills, you can stop being afraid of failing and start doing more things outside of your comfort zone. The day we stop learning is the day we stop growing.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played an important role in your development?
I was introduced to the ‘Strengthfinders’ concept a few decades ago. It’s recently been rebanded to CliftonStrengths and includes an assessment quiz and report, but it used to be a book – I promise! What originally drew me to the CliftonStrengths model is that it is focused on identifying a person’s strengths so that they can successfully lean into them while seeking ways to mitigate their weaknesses. For example, a successful team would include people with complementary strengths, so that each member would be strong where the others are weak. This model is the exact opposite of what most businesses’ performance analysis reports do, which is to identify an employee’s weaknesses so they can be told they need to work on them. What a breath of fresh air. I believe in this concept so thoroughly that I talk about it any chance I get and have incorporated it into how I acquire and manage talent in my own business.

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Image Credits
Image courtesy of The Launch Box. Photo Credit: Holland Clement

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