Julie Foster — Branding, Balance, and Pursuing Your Passion
The I Have Cool Friends podcast, hosted by Samantha Peszek, is a show that sparks inspirational conversations with experts about business, wellness, and personal development.
INTRODUCING JULIE FOSTER:
Julie Foster is a motivated, globally minded modern marketer and brand expert. She currently serves as the Vice President of Brand Marketing at EA Sports and has, like most great brands, an awe-inspiring story to go along with her success. Today, Sam and Julie talk about navigating and kicking butt in male-dominated fields like sports, tech, and entertainment. Julie speaks to her affinity for brand building, the dos and don’ts of branding, and the importance of pursuing passion with grit and tenacity. Sam and Julie touch on the subject of finding balance in the chaotic life that accompanies such high-profile jobs. However, it’s not all about the job for Julie, as she shares her thoughts on the importance of leaving a lasting impact on the people around you.
THIS EPISODE FEATURES INSIGHTS ON ESTABLISHING A BRAND, BALANCING LIFE WITH A HIGH-PROFILE JOB & PURSUING YOUR PASSION:
- How Julie overcame roadblocks to become a powerhouse in sports and branding
- Gender tensions in a male-dominated field and advice for other women in similar situations
- Branding Dos and Don’ts
- Advice for collegiate athletes looking to build their brand through their name, image, and likeness (NILs)
- The Brand Bible explained and other brands Julie admires
- How Julie and her husband make it work with high-profile, high-stress jobs
- Pursuing your passion and the power of grit
- The elusive art of balance
- Sam thanks Julie for joining the show and let’s listeners know where they can follow her
WHAT DID JULIE SAY?
“If you’re coming from a background of being high-performing in a sport, there’s one thing I can guarantee which is you have grit. You have determination. You have discipline. And even as a hiring manager I often look for those intangibles and those behavioral qualities.”
“Sometimes people think about branding as the logos and the colors. Branding is literally the experience that people have when they touch whatever it is that you’re putting in front of them.”
“You would be surprised how successful you can be just by starting with a target audience that’s small and that then that grows like wildfire.”
“The best companies are the ones that give latitude to fail forward and to test and learn. How do you ever innovate if you’re not willing to do that?”
“It’s very hard to launch a brand now if you’re not willing to literally converse directly with your consumer base.”
“Our jobs are just jobs. There’s something so much bigger to life than just your job. There’s that saying, ‘People remember how you made them feel.’ At least for me, I would want to leave the planet with people talking about how I impacted their life regardless of what role or relationship we were in.”
“Don’t compromise. You know what good looks like and you should not have to compromise who you are.”
