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Would you have the courage to fire yourself? 20 Great Answers with Stephanie Challinor, General Manager of Customer Experience and Alliances for AC3.
Manage episode 482892641 series 3552551
Join your host and Executive Creative Director Barrie Seppings as he asks Stephanie our famous ‘20 Questions’ on the podcast. We get to discover what makes her brain explode, why she took up power lifting and all about that time she decided it was time for her to ‘just go’.
Welcome back to this month’s “Plugged In, Switched On” podcast from Splendid Group.
The interview format at Plugged In, Switched On is very simple: we ask every guest the same 20 Questions and invariably we get 20 different (but always great) answers.. Here are some of our favourite questions from our interview with Stephanie:
- How can marketing gain a strategic seat at the leadership table?
- What’s the biggest misconception about marketing in the IT industry?
- How do you balance the thrill of trying something new with the fear of failure?
- What’s your perspective on the hype surrounding AI in marketing?
- What’s your superpower in your role, and how do you leverage it?
Also on this episode, Stephanie dives into two classic books by Peter Drucker: Managing Oneself and The Practice of Management. She breaks down how Managing Oneself helps you discover your strengths, understand what drives you, and focus on what you do best. It’s all about finding clarity and purpose.
Then, she unpacks The Practice of Management, where Drucker famously said, “The purpose of a business is to create and keep the customer.” Stephanie shows how these insights aren’t just for business leaders—they’re for anyone who wants to grow and make a real impact.
Whether you're thinking about your next career move or your business strategy, this episode is packed with wisdom to help you level up. Tune in and get inspired!
Stephanie Challinor is the General Manager of Customer Experience and Alliances for AC3 has been working in the technology sector for the entirety of her career. Her guiding principle in business is to "come up with ideas and grow businesses". She is currently the executive sponsor and founder of Rise Up, a group for women at AC3 to connect, share, learn and better themselves. Connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn
Barrie Seppings is the Executive Creative Director of The Splendid Group and the host of Plugged In Switched On. Connect with Barrie on LinkedIn.
Thanks for listening!
If you want to learn more about Splendid Group , see some of our work or meet any of our people, visit splendidgroup.com
Chapters
1. Would you have the courage to fire yourself? 20 Great Answers with Stephanie Challinor, General Manager of Customer Experience and Alliances for AC3. (00:00:00)
2. Question 1: Your company AC3, what does it do and why would people pay good money for what you do? (00:02:08)
3. Question 2: You are the general manager of customer experience and alliances for AC3. Was that on your bingo card when you were in high school talking to your careers counselor? Is that what you thought you were going to do? (00:05:00)
4. Question 3: What part of your job do you just naturally enjoy and find yourself just drawn to it or spending more time on it that you possibly should? Where's the joy for you? (00:08:17)
5. Question 4: What's the one career move or a moment that you wish you could go back and undo? (00:09:59)
6. Question 5: Who have you learned the most from in your career? And perhaps even if it wasn't what to do, you don't have to name names, but who were the people that led you? (00:13:14)
7. Question 6: You spoke before about humans being kind of risk-averse, and humans also don't really like change if we're honest, and yet we've got to cope. How do you cope with constant change? How do you keep up? (00:15:54)
8. Question 7: What do you do to stay physically and mentally healthy in a job like yours? (00:17:15)
9. Question 8: Now, almost every audience segment or geography or culture, or however you want to cut it, thinks that they're different and they need to be marketed to differently. In your experience, are there any that are unique? (00:22:16)
10. Question 9: You're a self-described ideas person. What's the idea or campaign or launch or ad or anything that you've seen that stuck with you as, "Oh, I wish I did that"? (00:23:45)
11. Question 10: What's the one thing in this industry, and it's either B2B tech or it's marketing or confluence of the two, your choice, that's gone on for too long and needs fixing? (00:25:15)
12. Question 11: What's the one question you'd ask an agency if you knew that they had to tell you the truth? (00:28:20)
13. Question 12: As a perfectionist in particular, how do you draw that line between, "Okay, let's collaborate," and it's like, "Get out of the way. I need to finish this myself"? (00:29:01)
14. Question 13: What is a long held belief about marketing or something that you thought was conventional wisdom that you now think, "That's not right," and what caused you to change your mind? (00:31:10)
15. Question 14: What are the tactics or approaches that have been working well for you or better than expected, say, over the past sort of six to 12 months? And where have you pulled back from because it doesn't have juice anymore? (00:32:12)
16. Question 15: What buzzword or concept is getting far too much airplay, is getting played out, is losing its meaning? (00:33:01)
17. Question 16: What do you get out of bed for? What motivates you beyond getting up to lift with your lift buddies? What brings you to the office and back to your job every day? (00:34:53)
18. Question 17: What's the most unexpected or unusual situation you found yourself in due to work? (00:37:15)
19. Question 18: What was the pandemic and lockdown experience like for you, and what did that end up changing for you in terms of work-life balance or the way you run your work style? (00:39:10)
20. Question 19: Do you feel like Stephanie at work is the same as Stephanie at home? Is there a little bit of a difference when you're off the leash? (00:44:17)
21. Question 20: Do you have a secret weapon in your career or have you had one? And if you do, will you tell me what it is? (00:47:42)
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