Meet Lindsey Chadderdon, a member of our membership committee!
Tell us about your role — what you do, and what does a typical day look like for you?
Currently, I’m in-between jobs and when I’m not searching tirelessly for my next journey, I’m writing articles
as a contributor to Green Philly and towards a monthly e-newsletter for a Professional Women’s
Association of Env. Professionals (known as, SWEP), producing and planning content for SWEP’s social media pages and planning the launch of a few personal pages on various social media platforms. Also, I’m working on getting freelance work in social media and ad campaigning.
What’s a common misconception people have about your job or about marketing in your industry?
There’s a lot of things I hear from people not in the industry that are, sadly, negative. Such as, a lot of
people think that those who work on social media platforms are “influencers” and that “all that
influencers want is attention”. I also, hear people say that Marketers are just sales people “in-
disguise”, which is totally not true. There’s a lot that goes into marketing that people don’t see
and marketing is essential in getting people to act on things, form opinions, and influence their
decisions.
What’s one marketing tool, habit, or framework you rely on more than anything else right now?
I really find my self drawn to ChatGPT. Whenever, I’m trying stuck with writer’s block, Chatgpt is
great for getting my storytelling flow back to surface. Often times, I extract what Chatgpt produces and expand on it. However, I try to avoid excessive use of it.
What’s the best book you’ve read recently?
Stories That Stick by Kindra Hall discusses the power of storytelling and how it is an underutilized skill. I
love how this book encourages readers to view storytelling as more than just child’s play, highlighting its importance in personal branding, communication, building connections with others, and marketing. It offers a fresh perspective on how stories can be used to inspire, influence, and engage people in both personal and professional settings.
What are you looking forward to the most for the industry over the next year?
People realizing that content creation, digital marketing isn’t going to go away by just putting prompts
into an AI application. Also, how some of the positive and negative things of AI will influence
audience behavior.
What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever received?
Follow your intuition – If you feel like something is “off ” but the traditional path is telling you
otherwise, don’t take the latter. As a former people-pleaser, I can say that by going along with
what appears to be “safe” or the “normal” way of doing things, will only bring misery. Definitely,
just tune those thoughts out of your head.
What advice would you give to the next generation of marketing leaders?
Volunteering is a powerful act and can go along way in shaping your career path. It helped me
find clarity and alignment of my personal values with my career goals. Through volunteering, it
can open opportunities to use your hard skills that you’ve acquired in school, in many fields. For
instance, many non-for-profits don’t have the money to fund a marketing department, so by
offering to coordinate campaigns and work on their social media pages for free, it’s a huge
benefit.
When you unplug from work, where are you most likely to be in Philadelphia?
You can find me trying out new coffee shops, going to local festivals, or exploring new trails
along the Wissahickon.
What’s a mistake you made early on in your career?
Thinking that a career path is linear-you know, you get a job at a company, climb the company’s
corporate ladder to retirement and somewhere in that path you get a home and start a family
because that’s just the “safe” way of doing things. There’s no one size-fits-all type of lifestyle out
there and no industry is “safe” from laying people off.
What’s one benefit of being an AMA Philadelphia member that you enjoy?
The people, of course! The network of people, I’ve met, are very welcoming and inclusive.
Coming into this network, I wasn’t sure how or what people would think about my desire for a
career transition into marketing, coming from a background in a completely different industry
and not having a degree in this field. When I’m at these events, I don’t feel out of place or feel
like I’m there to only talk about what’s going on at work.