How female marketing leaders overcame imposter syndrome

In her first job as a clerk for the New York Times, Andrea Zaretsky, chief marketing officer of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and E-Trade, was frequently the only woman in the room. But at Ad Age and Outfront Media’s “Women, Wine & Wisdom” event on Wednesday, she and her fellow panelist Lachi—a singer-songwriter and CEO of RAMPD, a platform that provides disability-inclusive programs and resources to the music industry—were two women in a room full of female marketers. “When I started in this industry—in the out-of-home industry—in 1981, this kind of gathering would have been impossible. There simply were not any women in the room,” said Jodi Senese, Outfront executive VP and chief marketing officer, in her introduction of the panel. “Oh, there were, but they were in the secretarial pool or they were bookkeepers. But there was nobody holding senior jobs, or proper [account executive] jobs, or marketing jobs or any of the kinds of jobs that all of us hold now.” During the panel discussion, Zaretsky and Lachi, two of Ad Age’s 2023 Leading Women, discussed their ongoing efforts to challenge self-doubt and imposter syndrome and how surrounding themselves with close networks of female marketers helped them succeed in the industry. Ad Age Leading Women and Rising Stars Last call for the annual awards Enter here Zaretsky’s role as a New York Times clerk, for instance, helped her realize her opinions were valuable and worth sharing, even when she was the only woman sitting at the table. When she was first invited to attend meetings with seasoned journalists and editors, she automatically assumed she was only there to take notes, but after a few weeks she was pulled aside and encouraged to speak up because the team wanted to include her perspective as a young woman in the conversation, she said. “That was really the beginning of it, having permission to speak, understanding [that] my point of view was desired—that gave me the little boost I needed,” Zaretsky said. Now, years later, “I've started to kind of have a mantra where I say, ‘What’s the worst thing that can happen?’ And I’ve tried to take more risks. And you know, sometimes, it doesn’t go my way. But that’s okay. I try to fail fast. I learn from it, I move on.” At a networking event in her early twenties, Lachi—who has low vision and is legally blind—opted to not bring her cane because she “didn’t want to look non-competitive” due to her disability, she said. Though she ended up leaving the event without doing any networking, it served as “a very pivotal moment in [her] career.” “What was holding me down was my fear of my own disability. And I had to accept the part of myself that society was telling me not to,” Lachi said. “That’s not easy. That was a long, hard navigation. But I did it. And I started going to networking events with my cane.” Both Zaretsky and Lachi also credit much of their growth—both professional and personal—to the networks of other women that they’ve built around them. Zaretsky also emphasized the importance of paying that back and using her influence as a marketing executive to “make sure that there’s always diversity and women on every slate for every job.” Lachi ended the discussion by saying there’s “there’s room for every woman at the table.” “A lot of times folks think, ‘Well, I finally made it as the woman in the room, let me hold on to my position,’” she said. “But … at the end of the day, there’s room for every woman at the table. There’s no such thing as a finite opportunity. You can build all of the opportunities that you want to see.” Watch the full panel discussion below.

How female marketing leaders overcame imposter syndrome

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