Connecting to Mikayla Hopkins, Head of Marketing at Tracksuit. Mikayla builds brands people can't stop talking about. Her latest project is Tracksuit, recognised in The Generalist's Future 50 list as one of the world's highest potential startups. We dive into her career journey from beer to beauty to B2B SaaS; the bumpy (but amazing) road of marketing leadership to $15 million ARR at Tracksuit; the challenges of rapid growth; her experience serving in her first startup board seat; and the role brand will play in the world automated by AI. Plus, some real talk on finding your identity beyond work, fighting for your seat at the table and the power of kindness.
Mikayla builds brands people can't stop talking about. Her latest project is Tracksuit, recognised in The Generalist's Future 50 list as one of the world's highest potential startups. We dive into her career journey from beer to beauty to B2B SaaS; the bumpy (but amazing) road of marketing leadership to $15 million ARR at Tracksuit; the challenges of rapid growth; her experience serving in her first startup board seat; and the role brand will play in the world automated by AI. Plus, some real talk on finding your identity beyond work, fighting for your seat at the table and the power of kindness.
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Connecting to Mikayla Hopkins, Head of Marketing at Tracksuit:
Laura: Mikayla, welcome to the podcast. You are officially my first guest as the new calling operator host. Thank you for trusting me with your story.
Mikayla: Of course, It's such an honour to be here. I'm stoked that I'm your first.
Laura: So, let's get personal. Tell me where you grew up and what your early experiences were like.
Mikayla: I grew up in Auckland North Shore in New Zealand, out in the deep pocket of the shore I grew up with just my mum, and I and we were an absolute little unit I have distinct memories of she was a postie actually and sitting in the mail room and always being excited to be around her and we just had the best time I think from very early on the gift that she gave me was making sure I built a life where I had a lot of choice that was something that she really drummed home for me She didn't feel like she created a space where she had a lot of choices and she really really wanted that for me So I was very fortunate to have an incredibly supportive mother we were just as I said a little team in the early days And then my family expanded when I was about nine to 10 had more siblings and a wonderful stepfather It was very humble upbringing I was very loved always had a roof over my head good food and yeah.
Laura: So would you say it's your mom who influenced you as the human you are today?
Mikayla: Oh, massively. Nobody more than her, honestly. We grew up With a family. She's got two other sisters. It was three of them who were called the Hopkins girls they were all very strong-willed, very competitive and very kind I remember growing up and feeling for a lot of my life in the earlier days like it was a little bit unfair and all these other people had so many more things And now with a bit of perspective I can look back and think there was so much privilege in my own upbringing Like I said I was well loved kept healthy and very much supported I still recall my mom making me stand in front of a mirror and do daily affirmations and make sure that the mindset was really really strong from day one.
Laura: You mentioned that you gained some more siblings Tell me more about them.
Mikayla: My mother met my stepfather when I was about eight or nine I hated it at the start I still remember trying to chop their hands whenever they would hold hands. And I think that was somebody else coming into my space and disrupting the unit that we had built bless him he stuck around with an absolute Asshole of an eight-nine-year-old and now he's also my other favourite person in the world He's the most incredible dad, and I'm very very lucky I have two younger siblings big space between about 12 year age gap it's really fun now my little sister's 18 we get to talk about all the fun things boys makeup sport all the good stuff And then my little brother's 16 small family but it's a great one.
Laura: I can so resonate with stepdads for the win They're just amazing.
Mikayla: 100 per cent big shout out to them.
Laura: Let's steer into career what did you originally think that you were going to do in your career ?
Mikayla: I knew it would always be with people my skillset is communication and being able to empathize listen and be there for people I never had a clear cut way of being like it's going to be in marketing I'm also financially driven and I'm really happy to share and be open about that I want to create a life that is full of choice having financial security really helps with that so I always knew that I was ambitious wanted a job where I could create change have that stability and also do things that are really fun that stimulated pushed challenged me I've always wanted more not just in terms of the financial aspect but I always want to be challenged I never want to feel safe and that's really really important in high school I did a couple of years ahead of me in terms of English and business I saw pretty early on that that was where my strengths were I remember in year 13 we had this business class and I was rewarded the top scholar for the business module And it kind of felt like a game like a Sims game being able to look at all these different pieces and the amalgamation of all of these different things that have to go right to create something really special from there went into BCom did the marketing piece And here we are.
Laura: Can I just say for anyone who didn't grow up on The Sims what a game I always have memories of "there's a fire".
Mikayla: It was the best do you recall the newspapers that would get dropped off, and you'd be looking for new jobs I always made my Sims find the best job and build a great life off the back of the different newspaper options that were coming through Loved it.
Laura: I wonder if it's still around today, hopefully.
Mikayla: I think it is. Yeah, I'm sure I remember playing it a couple of years ago.
Laura: Today it will be VR Sims experience.
Mikayla: Oh get me into that I would do anything.
Laura: We have some big career goals here. So, was there a single moment in your journey that led you into the startup and tech world.
Mikayla: Yeah there is I started my career in the alcohol industry I essentially went from beer to beauty to B2B SaaS and initially kicking off with Heineken I saw firsthand how you can build a world class brand and build something that extends beyond a product And so what they were selling was social status When you pick up a Heineken or you go for that as an option you are telling the world a little bit about how you want to be perceived That brand formula turned that company into one of the most valuable international beer brands in the world And so I saw the framework there I moved into beauty I spent several years in an industry which was sort of the cutting edge of science and art And it was working with doctors and nurses with a very heavily regulated industry my creativity was always a little bit tapped But we built it into 10 million business where people are flying from all around the world But being a bricks and mortar business you can only grow so far I was exploring other options and I deeply care about financial literacy especially for minority groups and women in particular And I found this role Which was the go to market person for launching this app across ANZ And it was my dream role It was honestly on paper everything that I'd wanted and what I felt like I'd built my career up around to achieve I need to be careful with what I share but essentially it was six days out from starting and I got an email and the app wasn't ready and I didn't have a role I just left my CMO position I had hired into that role that was a really scary position to be in because I was like who am I without my career it became this crossroads of you are more than the work that you do but also I had a mortgage I had bills to pay and it was a really really scary moment And A situation where I was like well I'm about to step into the tech world and then it got taken away on reflection I'm such a believer that good things fall apart so that even better things can come together And that was the true nature of what happened with TrackSuit I jumped on a call with Connor I don't even know how I got involved or how I got that connection And there was just something about him on that call I didn't go into that wanting a role with Connor his best mate works deep in the fintech industry and ultimately I wanted to have that conversation to get through to his best mate and there was just a really special spark there and I liked how he spoke about his philosophy on business operations and there was something special at the same time I was offered another role at a cryptocurrency retailer I was about to sign on the dotted line and things fast tracked with conversations with Connor he had just started building TrackSuit they were probably three or four months in and there was just something about it And instead of signing For this other very lucrative exciting piece I took the risk and took the jump and decided to progress with Connor and the team.
Laura: Which is a wonderful segway into where you are in your career today for those living under a rock who have not heard of Tracksuit and Connor can you give us a little bio about Tracksuit and who Connor is.
Mikayla: I'll start with tracksuit first then we can dive into Connor and also Matt our other co-CEO we do beautiful affordable always on brand tracking That's a shit ton of marketing jargon but ultimately we're sending out tens of thousands of surveys to real consumers all day every day we help brands understand how the wider market thinks and feels about their company That's really really important because what gets measured gets managed over the last decade we have been addicts for short term conversion marketing which has sort of created this not idyllic situation where we've over invested in the short term and it's greatly impacting the long term performance of our businesses so by creating a tool that allows us to actually track communicate And speak deeper about the value of brand We're seeing that pendulum shift again and we're driving real change in the economy which feels fantastic And then Connor and Matt they are honestly incredible I'm usually the feminist in the corner I will never work with somebody who doesn't share similar values in that space And that was one of the initial things that I picked up with Connor when I had that very first call he cares about the things that I care about he's got two daughters He you know is as much of a feminist as I am And that feels really really good to align with somebody who cares about that and also cares about building a high care high performance culture at Tracksuit the two of them complement each other so perfectly they are so different and yet share the same vision for building a billion dollar company from New Zealand with a culture that is Unlike anything else I joined as employee number two after the two co founders We now have about 84 people we're doing about 15 million arr which is incredible for three years The growth trajectory is insane we're servicing about 500 customers now across New Zealand Australia the U S and the U.K and tracking upward of 5 000 brands So really building the largest Data moat of brand data in the world.
Laura: Yeah, that's incredible I feel like as I'm embarking on my angel investing learning journey, tracksuit will forever be one of those companies I wish I'd known about angel investing sooner.
Mikayla: So get that I mean, even when it was family and friends rounds, right I wish I put more in Every single employee has ESOP So everybody does have a share in the success but yeah if I knew what I know now, I wish I'd put more in as well.
Laura: And I think what's important to highlight there is that you've been on the ground floor building at TrackSuit from day one I'd love you to describe your role and your growth journey as Head of Marketing I know you've had a couple of titles there.
Mikayla: Yeah absolutely started in 2021 in the early days it was initially just four of us and we were really fortunate that we were able to identify a problem off the back of the best brand specialist and experts in the world previously unavailable in James Hurman and then the market research experts TRA the research agency And so the two of them identified Brand tracking is really really hard and really really expensive it's often put on a desk 100 page report that nobody really looks at then Connor and Matt have this ability the sort of SaaS geeks of the market and they were able to productize something that truthfully the industry needed to be shaken up because it wasn't working so when I came in we knew from day dot that brand was going to be important I joined as customer and marketing lead And my role was ultimately one to help drive that product market fit and service our customers the best thing about that was I heard every single one of our customers pains their fears their dreams and that allowed us to build a solution that genuinely meets their needs which was really really exciting So it was just me at the start and anybody who's been the first marketer and a team knows you wear a gazillion different hats and you've got to move so quick because you are not afforded the luxury of time I had to understand what was the messaging what was the content what was the journey what did all of that need to look like for us to be able to scale that rapidly and then I was able to hire my first human Ellie content and comms lead ex journalist I knew that that content piece was going to be the backbone of our marketing strategy because we are a B2B company but we need to walk and talk like a consumer brand if we want to become synonymous with the word brand.
Laura: Who by the way shout out to Ellie She does an incredible job from going viral with Barbie to whatever it is She's incredible
Mikayla: Yes, I feel very fortunate to have her on the team she's a joy to work with as well .
Laura: I've lived the problem being an ex marketer I've also lived this function problem being a first marketing hire at first table what our listeners would find really useful is to learn more about how you've Intentionally designed and built this function there's a few segments here from customer number one to building an efficient marketing engine but also hiring a team I'd love to spend some time breaking down those things.
Mikayla: I can kick off with that my role is vastly different today than what it was in year one right you go from being the executor to doing absolutely everything I think that is how you build a successful team because now I understand each of my team members core pains and what we're trying to solve we've now got a marketing function of about 13 and of those 13 direct reports Within that function what my early days look like like I said super operational Now my role is less about the actual doing and making sure all of those incredible people on my team feel supported unblocked and ready to fire that's a real transition right you've really got to sharpen your leadership skills as opposed to your operational I still jump in when people need support but it's a vastly different role three years on.
Laura: I guess you're experiencing as an operator the challenges that come with being a venture capital backed business having gone through seed round and series a I'd love to know what that jump's been as well
Mikayla: I distinctly recall a moment it was this year in Jan we had just done our Series A and I think it came down to momentum we had been sprinting for two years and smashing all of our goals out of the park and we didn't have to raise but we wanted to to be able to make this thing explode I think what I noticed in terms of the biggest pain there's a lot and I'll be super transparent about that it's not all shiny rainbows and perfect I'd be lying if I said it was but I think the biggest challenge for us is things broke what I mean by that is our ways of working we had to honestly just dismantle it all redo it and my expectation is that it'll continue to happen every three to six months with the rate of speed that we're growing I think it's knowing that that's okay things are gonna break there will be channels and go to market channels that won't be as efficient and successful as they were in your home markets.
Laura: Can you lean in there slightly and give an example how did you as a leader recognize the hole that needed filling and fix it
Mikayla: The big hole or where I was really breaking down was everybody Was not able to prioritize that is not the consequence of my own team And that is on me if I'm not giving a big enough vision and clear guard rails when you're getting thrown so many opportunities the whole change in the shift is we had to get really good at saying no And be okay with saying no we say no to more things than we say yes to a core tangible example of a change that happened is for a framework for driving momentum we use OKRs which I think is a very popular framework our chief of staff Dan he went out and he spoke to all of these high growth companies across the world And most of them had ditched OKRs at the stage of growth that we were at And so we changed our framework to pulse and priorities we only have three company wide priorities at any given time And that changed everything because prior We had 25 different priorities and everybody was running at all of them in an okay way Whereas now we get to focus our effort and all sprint towards smashing out those three core company wide priorities as opposed to running around Chaotically.
Laura: What does that do in terms of the cadence you're using to set those goals How does that change as you're going through the different stages And given you're moving so fast are you setting 12 month goals or are you doing two months or quarterly et cetera
Mikayla: We have an annual planning session the leadership team we call ourselves the pit crew we understand what our three core business objectives are and what those metrics look like those for us are ARR NRR and also ARR per employee So we want to drive a lean efficient business We don't want to solve problems with people We want to solve problems with process everything is always going to ladder up to those three key metrics but within that a quarterly level things are definitely changing There's holes or channels that are working really really well and so we get a shift quarterly what we're doing to make sure that we're hitting those
Laura: I think that's a great segway for us on a human level what's been like the more challenging moments of rapid growth as a leader for yourself in a marketing role
Mikayla: There's been a few candidly there's probably two that I would speak to I think first and foremost it's making sure I don't solve people's problems for them that I empower my own team to step up and grow and solve them for themselves because otherwise if I'm always there to put out the fire nobody actually learns and I'm doing them a disservice I was so deliberate in the way that I built the marketing function to sit across three core pillars which is growth product marketing and branding comms For me it's making sure that I hire people smarter than me that is critical there'll be people listening who are like well we don't have the budgets to hire people smarter than us But the thing is if you've got a really strong vision and you can drive by in that way you can Sell people the dream in a really honest way and the right people who are smarter than you are willing to jump and take that leap of faith I think that's really important and then the second piece is radical candor If I don't know what to do in a situation or something's happened or there's an iceberg that we need to talk about We are so transparent the entire company knows how much each other earns We've got fully transparent salary bands we don't shy away from the hard conversations because we don't want to fall into the trap of toxic positivity So if something's not right I'm going to give that direct feedback and I expect the same from my team
Laura: You actually had a piece of news out this week In terms of the gender pay gap do you want to share
Mikayla: Absolutely So we're really excited and proud to be able to share that for like for like roles We've got a 0 percent gender pay gap again in full Honestly we do not have a straight clear zero pay gap and that's something we're working on solving but for like for like roles it's zero percent which is the beautiful nature of salary transparency
Laura: Yeah congrats That's huge And I feel like it will become a case study in the industry between New Zealand and Australia
Mikayla: I hope so too and I think it gets so much harder to change that as you grow as we've done that from day one we genuinely believe that if people feel more comfortable about having conversations around the hard things like money and salary then they're going to feel a lot better in their own personal lives to have harder conversations around other pieces it has a tangible impact and yeah I agree I think it'll be a case study for years to come.
Laura: Shout out to is it Christine Yeah quick shout out another operator as one to watch I know it will be a full team effort but she seems to be guiding a lot of these initiatives.
Mikayla: She's incredible Absolutely.
Laura: Is there anything else that you want to add to your Tracksuit journey.
Mikayla: I think like one other learning that I'd like to share is when things are not working don't band aid it and fire faster than you think you need to be transparent one of our core go to market motions is PR Like it is a core channel that we know wins and I held onto an agency for too long now that I look back on it I genuinely believe I potentially set one market's growth back by not firing and finding somebody better sooner I think I believe in people sometimes to my own detriment and I wanted them to win if I could do it all again I would have made that discussion and change things at three months not six months down the line It's now been solved We've now got an incredible agency doing incredible work but that's my advice You have to fire and be comfortable having those conversations as early as possible.
Laura: I think many people are going to be listening to this episode and asking a simple question of how have you mastered building the plane while flying it.
Mikayla: I think startups attract a certain type of people right Like they are entrepreneurial they're hungry they're ambitious They want things to work for me that whole line there is something that one day hopefully we can all sit back on and really reflect how we did it But I'm trying to think of What my thoughts are on that line.
Laura: We can also say we're faking it till we make it because I'm sure we all are.
Mikayla: that has honestly been my mantra since day one I was in rooms where I look 30 years younger than a lot of people in those conversations and I think you do have to fake it sometimes but if you're coming from a genuine place you know what you're talking about and you deeply care about the problem people see through that there's times I look back I'm like fuck yes we're killing this This is epic I'm a great leader I love how everything is shaping up and there's also times where I don't actually know what I'm doing in this space And that doesn't change I have a great friend who is the CFO of an incredible company and I was speaking to him about this exact problem he's a 50 year old white male He's got all the privilege in the world And he turned around and he said Mik,I still have so many moments where I'm like what the fuck am I doing so I don't think it changes but I think if you believe in your ability to care about the company and to push things forward and find solutions you're going to be fine.
Laura: I would love to zoom in on your operator strengths what do you think your most valuable skills or sometimes we call them genius zones that set you apart.
Mikayla: I think it's my appetite for risk around experiments I'm big on creating a culture of experimentation if we're doing the same thing in three months and six months then we're not winning I would much rather somebody go on my team and go experiment and come back and say we failed than not doing an experiment at all that is still a win for me If they're coming back and saying we tried this it didn't work the other piece is communication I know I'm a strong communicator and I can articulate anything that I need to speak to I think that helps people get bought into what we're trying to do and get people excited and motivated to keep pushing then general marketing skillsets I can kind of do everything across growth product marketing and brand and comms so I'm able to help steer the ship.
Laura: experimentation is one of mine having the freedom to fail is really key.
Mikayla: people say that they create that culture when in reality it's not and you get in trouble for experimenting which is the single fastest way to kill creativity and momentum.
Laura: I guess a follow on question from that So you've set goals your team will have their set KPIs that they need to reach How do you buffer room in there for experimentation and to gain those learnings.
Mikayla: This is something that we're refining ourselves but if you give 10 you know that 10 percent of somebody's resource or budget has to go to experimentation and if that's not being spent or allocated then I'm going to have some questions Right so it's giving them guardrails and let them go and do it All you have to say is 10 percent of your time 10 percent of your resource or investment or budget has to go to experimentation And I want to hear on a monthly basis or a weekly basis what you're doing what failed what succeeded I just sound very hypocritical there using the word failure but we just need to set up experiments in a way that allows people to run at them very very fast and for them to share that with the wider team.
Laura: Can you give an example there in terms of like how Ellie as an example would report back on a experiment that she's running Is it org wide or is it quite function-based?
Mikayla: At the start it would have been all wide Like when we're 14 15 16 you had those communication channels where you could yell across the desk and say we just did this this is the result Now we're much more functional and there's a real tension there Between making sure marketing doesn't become siloed to the other functions that is an ongoing skill set that we need to continue to build if I actually think of specific examples that Tracksuit so we've tried they can be so small right Like the classic changing a CTA on a newsletter or you try a different messaging proposition or for example we use ABM pretty heavily so account based marketing on LinkedIn at a tactical level we wanted to see if we were to create a custom landing page for a specific vertical ie CPG or fast consumer moving goods does that change the conversion rate it's all of those sorts of things And really interestingly That last one that I just shared it didn't change the conversion rate And so then the question is do we need to change our creative at the ads Do we need more touch points before moving them down the funnel across that ABM one experiment just opens up a gazillion other experiments that you can run.
Laura: Experiments on experiments on experiments So we'll look to the future in a moment but first I want to touch on how is your startup governance journey going so far.
Mikayla: I'm really enjoying it Laura It is so great for some context I sit on the board of another SaaS company called Aglow we just crossed over 1 million ARR in under 12 months which is awesome I came into it there was no representation of the actual community that it serves which is the beauty industry So it's beauty membership payments I came into the very first board meeting With again five white men thinking that I wasn't going to have a voice and I was blown away the CEO Kyle is just the most incredible operator I've ever met everybody gave me space and mic time to be able to share You know my own learnings my own experience and they've just been fantastic it's a really exciting journey I'm so pumped for that company and what they're going to do to change the entire model over the next five to 10 years So I'm loving it I want much more woman to dive into governance and fight for your seat I think traditionally we've had people in finance or people in legal sitting in those boardrooms But if you've got a marketing and a brand and a product background you absolutely deserve a seat at that table.
Laura: I love that full circle moment of beauty coming back into your life too.
Mikayla: Me too I missed it It's sort of the nice trifecta of like beauty brand B2B SaaS and Aglow touches on all three of those.
Laura: a practical question many people don't know how to take their first step into governance do you have any advice or learnings as to how you made that first step.
Mikayla: I know I personally didn't go through the onboard program but there are programs out there in different markets that allow you to sit on as an observer before you transition into a full time director or board member look for the local opportunity in terms of what are the programs that are out there to support For me I knew that I wanted to dive into governance and I wasn't quiet about it it's about speaking to people that you know can open those conversations Connor opened that door for me had conversations with the the director of the board and things naturally fell into place if you don't ask you don't get so let people know what you want.
Laura: for context for the Australian folks listening Onboard is a New Zealand governance program helping leaders get an observer seat.
Mikayla: we've also had our own observers on the tracksuit board and I've got so much value from them They've got so much value from that experience I don't know what's in place for Australia but what an awesome program I want them to get serious funding I want them to be supported because it really is a path for change.
Laura: that actually brings us back to Connor in terms of he's also setting up a three person advisory board for you guys as leaders.
Mikayla: Yes And again testament both him and Matt to their belief in the OG team as well I think it's so special because often when you're scaling from that 10 million to a hundred million Stage over the next couple of years I think it's really easy to go outside and find other people to come in and do it But you lose That critical element of the culture like people who live and breathe and get the culture which has been fundamental to our success what they did is they actually went out and they spoke to incredible leaders who had scaled businesses from 10 to 100 And what came back so commonly was if you can and if you've got the capabilities on the team Promote within and make sure that they've got the support around them so that they feel confident in scaling a company at that stage And so we're really fortunate to be able to handpick an incredible advisory team for each of our leadership for me at the moment I'm going out I'm having conversations and just trying to find the very best And I've been very very fortunate so far with the convos that I've had.
Laura: I'm seeing this constant theme of user discovery market discovery whether it's for the company itself or for the people I'm so here for that.
Mikayla: I think so too I feel like it should be the model and what Connor and Matt are doing the way they're building this business I think is a different blueprint but it's a blueprint that should be followed because it's working.
Laura: so let's look to the future what emerging trends do you see shaping the roles of operators in tech and where do you ANZ startup ecosystem heading in the coming years.
Mikayla: Big questions Laura let me answer the second one first I think the innovation down in ANZ is second to none and there's this incorrect sentiment that Australasia is behind and it's not true there's so many investors in the U.S who are so frothy and excited about the ANZ startup ecosystem because it's this beautiful hub where we can really test markets so quickly and they're really really excited by the founders and the operators that are coming out of ANZ I think There's a huge opportunity for this ecosystem people are watching which feels really really good and really exciting for everybody who's in this space then in terms of emerging trends I really like to try and get through a podcast interview without using the word AI but here we are I'm going to use it there's two One is AI which I'll speak to in a second the second piece is for those who are operators regardless of you're leading a marketing function whether you're chief of staff whether you're in product I think having the ability to communicate marketing to non marketing stakeholders is only going to get more important because it's changing the way companies grow in the longterm if you can't speak with an acumen that is going to demand respect in that space you're going to struggle and if you want to long term businesses that become unicorns you have to prioritize that long term piece that is building brand through your community through your content through your culture and your people I'm seeing more and more excellent operators even those not in marketing get that those are the ones that I'm really really excited to be watching and seeing their journey then the AI piece every person feels that they should be using AI more than they are so I'm just going to preface it with that because I think we all deal with a bit of guilt around we should be doing more of this but for me The smart operators are the ones that understand the right prompts to ask and the ones that are using it to save time it's as simple as that I know for us we're using it to generate better insights within our product to save our customers time I use it every day to make me sound smarter I don't use it for content in terms of publishing it online because I don't think they're very funny and witty and not very on brand but get me a JD I'm throwing it in there Get me a policy that I'm rewording I'm throwing it in there it just saves time Know the right prompts Another piece I'm using it for us to analyze complex data sets for example we have an open field on our book a demo page which is how did you hear about us And the volumes too large to go through and categorize that But we use AI to say formulize this make it clearer and then I know right that's the channel that's working more effectively this month Let's double down there or I pull back on channels that are not working.
Laura: Two questions falling out of that is one how do you bring your team along for that journey how are you enabling them to utilize AI in their role.
Mikayla: Great question And honestly I'm not doing it well enough I had this idea where I wanted on a monthly basis the order is basically go and use AI for something and come back to me at one of our sprints and talk me through how you used it Did it help you save time that is ultimately what I need to be doing And it's just an operational practice I haven't embedded I've got some people on my team who naturally use it and are excited by it and communicate that freely it's about setting up the expectation and process Which I have not done.
Laura: closing out the AI piece What role will brand play in the world automated by AI?
Mikayla: Everything absolutely everything in a world of sameness your brand is going to allow you to stand out and be a little different right ultimately products can be replicated but how you make people think and feel cannot be replicated or it's 10 times harder to do so As AI becomes more and more prolific in the industry how can you differentiate And that comes back to brand every single time.
Laura: so we've looked ahead for trends what is Mikayla's vision for the future.
Mikayla: I want to create the world-class marketing function responsible for building unicorns That's really important to me It's such a privilege being in a leadership position having people put their trust in your hands to develop their careers I know what I'm good at I know where I need to work on and for me the marketing leadership piece feels so good and something that I just want to continue to refine and I want to be the world's best brand builder.
Laura: honestly you're amazing I feel like you're already a unicorn in your own right that's a work goal Do you have anything on a personal level that you want to share.
Mikayla: Separate who I am with what I do there's moments I think you can have it all but not all at once for me it's making sure that I invest in things outside of my career and I know who I am without my work it's easy when you're good at something to just associate that with your identity I am much more than Being good at marketing it's making sure that I've got really rich beautiful fulfilling meaningful relationships with my family my people I also want to experience different markets I've lived in New Zealand my whole life and I'm moving to New York with tracksuit it's just about being uncomfortable in a bigger space Again I'm really excited by that.
Laura: dropping yourself into New York City is going to be such a life changing journey and pace.
Mikayla: I'm so ready for it I feel very comfortable here every time I feel comfortable I want to shift and change and feel uncomfortable I think that'll be the city that'll give me that outside of that I'm a big believer in strengthening your physical your mental your spiritual wellness we over invest in some pieces of that and under invest in others And for me it's just figuring out how to do that as best I can.
Laura: if anyone's ever been through a layoff that's when you really realize your identity is married with your work identity and it's super painful So I love to see you taking those steps.
Mikayla: you've got to protect yourself and that's exactly how I felt when I didn't get that go to market role for the finance app I spiraled truthfully and I was like I do not know who I am without this career that for me was the injection I needed to figure out you need to invest in time outside of your work.
Laura: it's an always on activity As startup operators founders will be doing the same thing but how can we show up mentally well and do our work well however still really care for ourselves.
Mikayla: Yeah I completely agree I think that's such a beautiful way to articulate it I'm very physically active and I also am mentally active I'm deep in therapy and I go to the gym same same right it's Equally important obviously we recognize it's a privilege think it is so important if you can get into it make that a priority.
Laura: we are on wrap up time a question we always ask our guests are what tactics frameworks and people in the industry have been your North stars.
Mikayla: that's a really easy one for me to answer These two people who have been my North stars and I basically replicate every bit of framework and piece of content they pull out that is Karen Flanagan from HubSpot He also I think it was CMO at Zapier he runs an incredible podcast that I like drown myself in all the time the other person is Emily Kramer she is world class B2B SaaS marketer I'm very fortunate that I have her in that advisory group and as a mentor she is just top notch if there's one thing you need to go do is go pay for her sub stack and get every single template that she has ever released to the world because it is the best if you were in our Notion drive it's just Emily Kramer frameworks templates everywhere because it works and it's effective.
Laura: and so practical right I have this problem here's a framework to help me solve it Even if that doesn't become your forever framework.
Mikayla: Exactly And you get to change it right we tweak and evolve it but that is the backbone for so much of our work.
Laura: And I think what's important here is that we look overseas at incredible operators but here's another operator working in the Australia or New Zealand startup ecosystem doing incredible things or at the top of their game.
Mikayla: There's so many and it's hard to even confine it to a list of three but I think first and foremost our head of product at TrackSuit Harry a serious operator Anytime I've got like an Excel problem I just ask that man to do it and he gets it done in two seconds he can think big vision He can think short and just works at pace then Matt Rossi was head of brand marketing across the eucalyptus group Incredible guy creative brilliant smart fantastic communicator then Joe Blundell who is now leading revenue at Aglow She was ex timely head of marketing and product and carbon crop And again just get shit done that is the common theme across all three of those people They know how to move and move fast Don't always ask for permission but just drive momentum that's so important as an operator.
Laura: execution machines.
Mikayla: Yes Yes Beat that AI.
Laura: So we're going to round out the podcast Building companies can be overwhelming and messy We're in it day in day out as we all navigate this journey together do you have a tactic or a piece of advice for our listeners that has helped you stay grounded.
Mikayla: honestly, it feels a bit cliche, but I would refer to the quote from Maya Angelou around like I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel And I think that is such a beautiful way to show up if you're having a stressful shitty moment still show up they're not going to remember the execution or what happened They are going to remember how you dealt with it and how you make people feel it's so important and I always live by that.
Laura: So human, I love it. So Mikayla, thank you so much. Where can our listeners find you?
Mikayla: I spend far too much time on LinkedIn. So, over there, Mikayla Hopkins.
Laura: Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It has been amazing today, and thank you so much for being my first guest.
Mikayla: Thank you, Laura. I'm so excited to see what you do with this whole podcast. It's gonna be amazing. Thank you.