Melissa Rosenthal, Chief Creative Officer at ClickUp joins ChedHER to discuss how to calculate risk in your career, ways to break out of your comfort zone, and why empathy can be critical to career success.

chedHER

Ways to Break Out of Your Comfort Zone in Your Career

joining us now to discuss her career journey and learning along the way is Melissa Rosenthal, chief Creative Officer at click up Melissa, glad to have you on this morning this year, you launched your first ever Super Bowl commercial. Tell us a little bit more about your role as Chief Creative Officer. Yeah, sure. Um, so when I joined click up about two years ago, I felt there was this really huge opportunity to differentiate our incredible product with great branding and, and really build like a 10 year brand in sacks that stood out. So in my role, I oversee everything that makes up the click on brand, everything you feel touch, interact with, We don't use an external agency. So, meaning all of our design or advertising, our social comes out of my team, which is about 20 people. Your career journey has consisted, you know, of executive roles at places like Buzzfeed and even right here at cheddar. What are some of the ways that you have had to rise to a challenge and take on what seems like an impossible task at that time? Yeah, So, I mean, I've started at every company is either a founding member or or one of the first employees. So I never had anything set up for me when I, when I came in and you know, building cheddar definitely felt like an impossible task at the time to um, it was also challenging coming into, to build a B two B SAs brand from the ground up, that was, that was really different and stood out, you know, it felt almost impossible because you're you're definitely swimming against the tide, you're competing in a a very crowded space and and be a space that certainly isn't known for its creativity. So it isn't naturally really found within the D. N. A. Of B two B. So being able to take risks and build and have that support um you know, it made the impossible journey feel feel a little less impossible, I will say. I know I came onto the scene much later and and after you were around, but we we do appreciate the groundwork that you laid here uh in terms of comfort zones, right? What are some of the ways that you have been able to break out of your comfort zone throughout your career journey? Although I will say, and you speaking of your career journey, it seems like you were never really in a comfort zone. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I was definitely never put in a comfort zone as it relates to kind of the foundational work and the work that was that needed to be done at at those companies. But, you know, one of the most important things I did was really just stop caring about what other people thought about me. Um I focused on myself and growing working hard and earning respect amongst my peers amongst my colleagues, um to really be trusted to to kind of do what I do best and having that those really supportive people behind me in these respective roles that have really allowed me to embrace what makes me different and use that as my superpower and advantage. Having those people in your corner makes makes a world of difference when when taking on something really big and bold in your career. How do you, how do you approach calculating risk when it comes to, you know, a big career or workplace related decision, because I feel like all of us have been in that place where we're calculating the risk of a move and the advantage of it. What's your process? Yeah, I mean, I think you have to have a good enough understanding of what you're taking on um sometimes you don't and I think maybe that's a good thing but uh you know, have to have an understanding of what it is that you're being tasked with the resources and the tools that you'll need to make that actually happen. Um it's also incredibly important to ask a lot of questions up front and make sure you have alignment from the jump, having those people in your corner, people that back you and support uh the alignment of kind of, you know, how you're going to be positioning yourself in that role or what you're going to be doing and the risks you'll be taking. Um it's it's really important to understand kind of what backing you'll have there and um you know, the people that will be supporting you along the way when I introduced you, I I kinda overemphasized your title on purpose, you know, you know, Chief Creative Officer, because it's not a title that that is like a, you know, one that we're used to hearing it over the last couple of years, I've heard that more and more at different companies, but it's relatively new and to that point, I mean it didn't even exist when you started your own career. What advice do you have for women who are entering the workforce now and looking to continue to evolve in it, especially in the way that um you're gonna evolve when you don't realize a new role is going to exist. What are your what's your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, I think it's like a lot of it is also considering the soft skills that that you bring to the table, you know, they're they're just they're just as important in in that capacity and being able to, you know, bring to get bring empathy and being able to adapt um you know, effective communication, positive attitude, You know, it's a lot of these things that allow you to kind of achieve anything that you want and I think that they're they're you know, underrated in in the capacity that um they're just as important sometimes as the hard skills if not more important because if you can rally people behind you and and bring people together to achieve, you know, almost impossible tasks are really, you know, challenging complicated tasks. Um you know that that's a really huge advantage. So I I really think that, you know value the soft skills as much as you do, the actual technical skills at what you do because they make you an effective leader, especially if you want to be in a leadership position, you know, you have to have those, I think they're they're crucial and key to success. You mentioned empathy quite a bit and I think it's really important because you know, I think about early even in my own career and when you look at a leader, I felt like empathy, you know, a decade or so ago was looked at as being a weakness and now we really see that strong leaders are ones who are really empathetic and can guide people instead of telling people what to do, so to speak and have you know context for everything that's being done. How have you been able to practice empathy and and and break down further from your perspective why it is so important. Yeah. Um I mean empathy is critical in marketing and advertising to start. So if you if you can't under size, you know, empathize and understand your customers, you're you're not gonna be able to reach them, you're not gonna be able to tailor the messages to them, you're not gonna be able to connect with them. Um and you know empathy early on in my career was was key because it was a lot of how we connected with people when when we were building buzz feed, you know, figuring out what what we could do to reach them and what were those messages and those articles. So a lot of that was kind of very just I would say built into the D. N. A. Of how I was within my, you know, uh an independent contributor role and a leadership role. Um but second, you know, empathy is also very critical in my field, It would be really hard to build a creative team without it, you know, so much of this is such a team sport, heavily relying on each other and supporting each other through very challenging projects. If you don't have empathy for your team and for the people around you, it would be very hard to, you know, really accomplish anything that we that we've accomplished and I think that's you know, it's key in in many roles, but specifically in a in a creative or marketing or advertising role um empathy, you know, having empathy really, I would say is incredibly advantageous. The good thing is, you know, over the last couple of years, even beyond just kind of the creative and marketing, you know, side of things, I've seen that and leaders recognize that in other areas and other parts of the C suite melissa, really appreciate your time and your insight melissa, Rosenthal Chief Creative Officer at click up