SPOTLIGHT: SUSAN SCHULZ
Susan is Vice President of Strategic Planning on the New York Women in Communications Board of Directors and Marketing Director for the New York Academy of Sciences. Susan also serves as a content marketing consultant for a variety of consumer brands. Prior to this, she spent many successful years in the magazine business, as Brand Director for Cosmopolitan, Special Projects Editor for Hearst Magazines and Editor-in-Chief of CosmoGirl magazine. She started out her career with roles at Redbook, Good Housekeeping and YM.
Why she does what she does… “I love to connect with people — whether small audiences or large — through stories and messages that might inspire them to see life in a different way, or to take an action that might improve their lives or the lives of others. Through my jobs in magazines and now non-profit marketing, I’ve seen how you can really move people with the right words. That’s always exciting.”
Drawn to NYWICI… “I was initially drawn to NYWICI by the scholarship program. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many talented young women through the scholarship evaluation process. And I have subsequently seen so many of the winners — and even the applicants who didn’t win, but who still got very involved in the organization, go on to great success in their careers. That has been extremely rewarding.”
My favorite social media platform… “LinkedIn. You don’t get that ‘just ate fast food’ feeling when you spend an hour on it, the way you do after scrolling endlessly through other social media platforms. I look forward to seeing how they’ll improve LinkedIn so we can leverage our networks in faster, more useful ways. Its power is still largely untapped.”
Marketing’s biggest challenge… “Everyone’s attention is so fragmented. The challenge is giving your audience something useful, at exactly the time that they need it, so that you’ll have a fighting chance of keeping their focus long enough to get your point across.”
At the top of my trend watching list is… “The opening skit of SNL each week. I also try to pay attention to upcoming YouTube stars — they represent shifts in the zeitgeist.”
Off the clock, really… “Lately, one of my favorite things to do when I get a few minutes free is look through all the catalogs that have been piling up and rip out pages of the things I want. It’s a window-shopping escape I take, without having to go anywhere.”
Susan’s nirvana… “There’s a rocky coastal spot in Rhode Island that I love, especially in the winter. I just sit in the warmth of my car and let myself watch the waves crash over the rocks for a while. So timeless and majestic.”
Did you know… “I backpacked by myself through Europe for six weeks when I was 21. This was before cell phones — I used my Dad’s calling card (some of you remember what that was!) to call home once from each city to talk for 3 minutes so my parents knew I was alive. Best thing I ever did for myself — first time in my life that I made every single decision on my own.”
Day to relive… “The day my son learned to ride a bike without training wheels. I could see his world open up the instant he finally gained that balance and took off… It was such an amazing thing to watch.”
Words to live by… “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere!”
