This week, on the Affiliate Marketing Podcast, Lee-Ann is joined by Naomi Barton. Naomi is Portfolio Director for Clarion Gaming, which is the company that runs iGB Affiliate Events around the world. Naomi and Lee-Ann discuss the important topic of women in leadership roles and how imposter syndrome can affect those working in the affiliate marketing industry – both women and men…
Listen in here for all of the insights:
The importance of networking events in our industry
Lee-Ann mentions that many listeners tuning in will likely attend the events that Naomi mentions. She asks why Naomi believes events like these are so important for the affiliate marketing industry – what has Naomi noticed since coming into this industry five years ago?
Naomi replies, “I’ve been doing a really interesting piece of work on this. I’ll share some of that work at some stage in the coming weeks and months, with our community. But the biggest thing I have learned is that this industry is all about trust. It’s all about trust-based partnerships and that is literally the one thing that underpins, I think, this industry.
So, because of that element, of needing to create and foster trust, a face-to-face opportunity to do that is so key for this sector. I was interviewing a customer last week in Sweden, and we were talking about the need for digital metrics and data and analysis and analytics. And then coupled with that, you need connection and human connection. They need to have that face-to-face connection as well as all of the data and all the measuring. That’s how they prefer to do business.”
Advice for affiliate managers entering the industry
Lee-Ann asks for some of the tips that Naomi can give to young affiliate managers coming into this industry who may be feeling a little overwhelmed. What are some of the pieces of advice that she can give to women who are looking to get into leadership roles?
Naomi advises, “I think first of all, I think that you deserve to be there, that you deserve your seat at the table, you deserve your voice. When I look back at what I was like, I love the hunger and the energy that young people have coming into the market. You can feel it, you can see it. I think not being afraid to ask questions. I still say it now in most of the meetings that I run –there are no stupid questions.
The other thing is that you never stop learning or growing. Because, if you’re pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, you should always be asking questions that might make you feel a little uncomfortable. So, it’s not like you get to a stage where you suddenly know everything, because you don’t. Life changes and sectors and work change.
Don’t be afraid to fail. I used to really take failure quite personally. I’ve had to really learn it just doesn’t matter. You only learn from failure. You really do learn if you mess something up. But also the world doesn’t cave in if you said something silly.”
Imposter Syndrome and how to mitigate it
Now for that topic of imposter syndrome. How does it make Naomi feel and what can be done to mitigate it?
Naomi says, “I think it’s a work in progress, you know. I think there are days when you feel on top of the world, right? If you’re in a good headspace, you’ve slept well, you’ve done a run, things are going well, a feeling like you’re on top of things.
Then there are other times when you might’ve had a bad sleep and one of my kids has lost his football boots and has lost the plot before school. I’ve missed a parent’s evening and I’m trying to finish a budget, a deck, or whatever. Suddenly you just think I don’t know whether I can do this or I don’t know whether I can do all these things.
I think the biggest thing sometimes is I just have to stop and I have to breathe and literally have to tell myself not to be so hard on myself. So number one, I do good work. I am enough. That phrase, ‘I am enough’, I used to find so hard to say. Because it’s obviously triggered something that was really, you know, quite deep in terms of feeling like I wasn’t. And so it’s almost that voice that you just have to be like, enough, I am enough, and I’m not going to listen to that voice because everyone has that default sort of negative voice sometimes in their head.”
Listen for more discussion topics:
- You already have a seat at the table – there is nothing to prove to anybody
- Lessons learned from failure
- The importance of mentorship
Key segments of this podcast and where you can tune in to go direct:
[09:00] People before profit: A good mantra for any affiliate manager
[16:28] Imposter syndrome – advice for men and women
[23:30] The importance of peer networking in this industry
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