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Helping women find their own brand of success
By DIANE STAFFORDThe Kansas City Star
Trend spotter and futurist Marian Salzman will bring that message today to the sixth annual Women’s Lyceum at Overland Park Convention Center.
She warns that if you don’t embrace change and roll with each new technological punch, you’re likely to be left behind.
About 1,100 attendees have registered for the sold-out conference, designed by The Central Exchange to help women keep pace by advancing leadership skills and personal development.
In addition to eight breakout workshops featuring different speakers, the event includes breakfast remarks by Susan L. Taylor, editorial director of Essence magazine, and a luncheon speech by Christine Todd Whitman, who formerly served as governor of New Jersey and as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In an interview, Salzman, chief marketing officer at the Porter Novelli public relations firm, said successful people will make choices that are right for them, fit into appropriate organizations, give their all and promote themselves as a brand.
“We’re all brands,” she said. “If an organization doesn’t meet your needs, take your brand and move on. There’s no reward for long suffering. Part of your brand is constant reinvention. If you stay in one place, the burden falls more and more on your own shoulders to keep reinventing yourself.”
She tailored her brand message slightly for younger workers, who might be more prone to change jobs frequently: “You still need to hear the ‘give’ part. Don’t expect to get more than you’re giving.”
Anyone with a fear of technology needs to lose it quickly, she said. “Take adult education classes. Do what it takes to use the technology. … Lose the fear of change. Don’t resist it. Accept it.”
Salzman said it’s her experience that a woman armed with the right skills and attitude can crash the glass ceiling or any other social barrier.
As one who’s consistently taken her brand to different venues, Salzman previously served as executive vice president and chief marketing officer for global development of JWT Worldwide, as executive vice president and chief strategy officer of Euro RSCG Worldwide, as president of Young & Rubicam’s Intelligence Factory, as worldwide director of TBWA International’s Department of the Future, and as director of consumer insights and emerging media at Chiat/Day.
She founded Cyberdialogue, an online market research company, in the early 1990s, and has written more than a dozen books, including her latest, Next Now. In connection with her book Buzz, she earned attention for coining “metrosexual” to describe some urban men.