There was no email reminder today, but I found the post!

Sandi Metz has been a huge inspiration to me. Her teachings on object-oriented design, particularly in Ruby, have shaped the way I think about writing clean, maintainable code. One of her lessons that has stuck with me is: ‘Duplication is far cheaper than the wrong abstraction.’ It’s a reminder that premature optimization and over-engineering can lead to unnecessary complexity. Her approach to simplicity and flexibility in code has influenced the way I tackle problems as a developer.

​@andy.mcinally great minds! I too came looking for it

BTW, I’m a huge fan of Michelle Phan! I was one of the original MyGlamBag (now Ipsy) subscribers and always admired her influence in the beauty space. Her marketing acumen is incredible—she built a brand that reshaped the industry. 

But there are so many women in marketing and email who inspire me! Jen Capstraw, Anne Tomlin, Annette Forcier, and Justine Jordan stand out for their impact on the industry through innovation, problem-solving, and community-building. They constantly push boundaries and share knowledge to move the field forward.

One lesson that’s stuck with me? Curiosity and persistence drive great marketing. Whether it’s coding better emails, refining strategy, or advocating for industry standards, success comes from experimenting, iterating, and never settling for “good enough.”

I’m also grateful for Women of Email (WoE), which continues to uplift and connect women in the industry. Over the last decade, WoE’s leadership has shaped how I approach email development, lifecycle marketing, automation, and personalization. Lucky to be part of such a strong community of brilliant women!

My good friend Toni Kearney is a big inspiration to me.

She’s the founder of Moratorium Tours in North-Eastern Newfoundland in Canada. As a child she witnessed her hometown undergo so much economic destruction following a moratorium on the province’s cod fishery industries. 

Since we graduated university together in 2016, she’s moved back to her very rural hometown (of ~150 inhabitants) with the goal of revitalizing her community through sustainable local tourism.

I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing her passion grow over the years, and also witnessing her vision come to life. Something I admire of her - that I could use a bit of myself - is her grit and determination. I’ve witnessed her not being taken seriously, and I’ve witnessed her pivot business models many times. If we all had half the drive that Toni does - the world would be full of opportunity!

Here is her website: https://moratoriumretreats.com/

and her instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moratoriumretreats/

Adventure.com’s mention of her business: https://adventure.com/conche-newfoundland-fishing-community-tourism-revival/

Everyone should visit Conche once in their lifetime. 

In college, I took an internship working for a small summer classical music festival in CO as a program assistant. The festival itself was only 3 weeks long, but we had fundraisers and educational programming running all year round that required a small and mighty team. Susan Lander was the Executive Director who took me under her wing. She always encouraged me to ask questions, got me involved in nearly every aspect of the organization and was always there helping me to grow and learn. From event management and direct mail, to grant writing and fundraising, she took such pride in helping me learn everything I possibly could. When the internship was done my junior year, she hired me on part time so I could continue to develop the role and my skill sets during my senior year, working around my school schedule and second job waiting tables at night. She taught me the power of networking, helping me make valuable connections in other states that ended up helping me find work after graduation. She was not only an amazing person, but showed me from an early age how to lift not only myself, but the women around me, up. 

I’ll always be forever grateful to Susan. I’ve had many bosses since then, some great and others not so much, but she set the standard. Nearly 15 years later I still consider her a close friend, and know she’ll forever remain one of the most influential women in my life. 

My old boss was an inspiration for me. She was a CMO and really helped me out and respected me when it came to my ideas and such. Some people don't like interacting with high-up leadership, but she let me come to her and give her feedback, and I also asked for feedback. I would strive to be a leader like her if I ever get that high in my career. 

I am so appreciative of all of the strong, amazing females that are in my life, challenging me and inspiring me, and also for all the strong, amazing females that aren’t directly in my life, but have still inspired me through their works, words, and presence. 

For this post I want to highlight Katie Shepherd Christiansen - wildlife conservationist, artist, and all-around phenomenal human. From biology, to forestry, to editing/publishing “The Artist’s Field Guide to Yellowstone”, her approach to bridging the gap between art and conservation, while weaving in community voices, is so beautifully done and has educated many on wildlife and also given a voice to many local artists. A lesson I have learned from her is, “Don’t be afraid to see where the road takes you,” She’s always been a nature lover, an artist, and a community builder, but to watch that come to fruition in published works, and in public park projects, is a beautiful representation of someone that embodies the motto of “Don’t be afraid to see where the road takes you.” 

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/katieccoyote/
The Artist’s Filed Guide to Yellowstone
 

I would say Grethel Kunkel, who has the President of the division I worked on when we first put together the martech stack that includes Iterable (this was few years ago). The reason I am mentioning her here is because, back then we did not have a martech stack dedicated to collecting and activating our end-user data and different parts of the company used different platforms (including an Enterprise one). At that time, deciding on a different stack that would be used by an entire region inside the company was almost transgressive . Cue to now, when we are consolidating our stacks and using Iterable as the only ESP/MAP platform for te entire company. 

Apologies for the late response, as I did not recieve an email from this thread (hope it’s not too late). ​@andy.mcinally and ​@Melissa McCollum  had the same it looks like!

Who is a woman, past or present, who has inspired you? What’s a lesson or piece of advice from them that has stuck with you?

One of my previous managers, Elisa Carlson, has inspired me since the first week in the corporate marketing world. Equipped with intelligence, determination and a grit to provide the best possible experience for all parties inolved, Elisa’s personality and teachings have stuck with me. Primarily, the lesson that stuck out to me the most was about giving yourself a moment to think why? Elisa always asks questions to dig deeper and gather informaiton to guide her work into a more meaningful and higher level. Applies to many areas such as marketing journies, strategy, launching campiangs to areas such as meetings and leading discussions, understanding operations and improving tasks / stratgies for the company.

Hey everyone! Thank you for letting me know about the email reminder. I looked into this, and the email should have gone out by now. If you haven’t seen it please let me know! 

Good news, there’s still time to jump in! All entries must be submitted by March 6, 2025, at 11:59 PM PT.

As a woman, I’m loving that there’s been a general culture shift over the last 10 years or so to women supporting women. I’m fortunate to have had a lot of strong females in my life, personally and professionally. Today, I’m going to talk about the influence of someone not directly in my personal life, Hoda Kotb.

I was fortunate to get to meet Hoda when I was in college because she returned to Virginia Tech in 2008 as a commencement speaker and I worked in the president’s office at the time. As someone majoring in Communication, it was a thrill to meet someone from my alma mater who had made it all the way to Dateline and The Today Show. She was just as lovely as she seems on TV, but she told me that the whole world was still ahead of me, and to never be afraid to evolve. That stuck with me, and I needed to hear it. After our school tragedy in 2007 and having cameras in my face while grieving and having a reporter pretend to be a student, only to read our conversation published on the AP Wire the next day, I realized that I could never be a journalist in the way that I imagined. I needed to evolve.

I clung to Hoda’s words and read her book about all she’d overcome. I listen to her podcast now, where she talks about walking into NBC News offices and sticking up for herself to ask for a spot on The Today Show because she’d earned it. She talks a lot about honoring what’s good for you in this season and not being afraid to step in that direction. It’s helped me a lot in my career as I moved from a more traditional PR/Communications role into digital marketing, and then finding email, which eventually became lifecycle. Her words inspired me to trust my gut that I could carve a path for myself and make my experiences work for me to allow me to explore my skills and interests to turn it into a career.