Margaret-Ann Seger’s Post

I don't know this person. Her story is heart wrenching, but unfortunately not uncommon. It has me fired up! So I am sharing. ***Steps on soap box with megaphone and a whole lot to say *** Employers - it's time to do better. This is outdated work systems and ways of doing business. The people in the workforce today have more options (despite it being an "employer" market) then ever in history. The Millennials and Gen Zers will NOT stay in positions that have piss poor management. Heck, even most of the "suck it up buttercup" Gen Xers won't either. Those days are GONE. Your most expensive asset is your employees. Want to create more revenue, deeper profits, and greater growth? TREAT YOUR PEOPLE BETTER!! Do better! Start RIGHT NOW! There is no industry or sector or segment or whatever exempt from this. It's time to truly make the changes. Train the managers Create leaders Build people up and create real support. It's time! Let's DO BETTER NOW. ***Stepping off my Friday soap box*** Have a wonderful weekend. I hope everyone finds rest and restoration. #dobetter #bethechange #leaders #leadbetter #havestrategy

Happy Sunday! I wanted to re-introduce myself, rather than just be another name or metric in your connections. This post is intended to serve as an introduction as if we just met at a social gathering. Also, this is NOT a self-promotion but just a kind gesture to engage with all of you, so if we ever see each other's posts, please feel free to say hello, and I'll do the same. I was born in Boston, MA, and yes, I don't pronounce my R's. I still reside in Beantown. My career started off in finance, with a strong passion for all things tech such as PeopleSoft, Kronos (now UKG), and Oracle. Fast forward: During my career, I still had a side hustle on the Internet. I'm self-taught and launched my first internet portal circa 1997. However, it didn't pay the bills. So, I pivoted to affiliate marketing and became what they call a 'Super Affiliate'. It sounds like a humble brag, but it simply means that you excel at selling other people's products for a commission. Then, in the early 2000s, I became a proud dad of two beautiful children (boy & girl) whom I absolutely love, and I'm proud of the incredible people they have become. Moving along here and up to 2009... I was still enjoying my career in finance in Boston at Partners Healthcare which was later renamed Mass General Brigham. I worked with some of the brightest minds to merge hospital systems and code finance/time reporting systems that paid over 80k employees. Keep in mind, my side hustle was still in play but took a unique turn. Facebook showed up on my radar as poor Tom from MySpace was fading.😉 I decided to create a page 'I Love My Dog' (ILMD). Since there was no place for dog & animal lovers to connect, this was where we got the upper hand or paw. 🐾 ILMD was still a 'side hustle' at night, and I burned the candle on both ends. But, then it happened. . . Fast forward to 2013, and I could no longer ignore the exponential growth of my business. So, I decided to go all in and leave my job. And that was not easy to do since I had amazing co-workers. ILMD grew to be one of Facebook's largest pages. Eventually, I was acquired, and the rest is history. However, I'm still 100% in the social media space and contract with small to large-sized businesses to help their online presence. My other passion is for the markets. I believe the reason is that even though it's not social media, it has its own patterns that are driven by catalysts such as the bond market and many more. I've ignored LinkedIn for too long, but now I'm in. My #superpower is #Facebook (incoming humble brag), where I can get almost any piece of content seen organically or go viral. I hold these secrets close to the vest. However, as I learn LinkedIn, I plan to share my findings, and no, I will not be trying to sell you a course. Believe it or not, LI is still the Wild West, and I believe that it's still in the early stages. Here's to a successful, safe, and wonderful year ahead - let's crush it! #2024

Remember March 15th, 2020? The day the US shut down. Just writing this brings up that uneasy feeling, the old pandemic panic bubbling up again. That day, I knew it in my gut—our little family’s life was about to change forever. I was at home with my sweet newborn son, barely 3 weeks old, and my 21-month-old daughter. My plan? Go back to work after maternity leave. I had just been promoted to Marketing Director at a tech startup a few months before. It felt like everything was on track. But suddenly, everything was off-track. Deep down, I knew going back to work wasn’t right for me—not then. None of the alternatives felt right, either. So, I did what a lot of working parents, especially working moms, did at the beginning of the pandemic. With trembling hands and a racing heart, I called my boss and told him I wouldn’t be coming back. Not for the foreseeable future. Then, I had a little cry. But after that, I picked myself up, rolled up my sleeves, and got to work in my new role: CEO of our family. 🧺 I invented lunch picnics ➡️ Instead of brainstorming creative email campaigns 🛝 I scouted every playground and park in the greater Philly area ➡️ Instead of traveling to trade shows 🥦 I bribed my kids into eating their veggies ➡️ Instead of negotiating budgets with our CEO I’d love to say it was all sunshine and rainbows, but it wasn’t. I witnessed every tantrum, every blowout, every nap strike. Some days, I probably cried more than my kids. But it felt right. For now. Every now and then, I’d catch myself daydreaming about my old work life. I missed the hustle of launching marketing campaigns, the brainstorming for product launches, the rush of finding the perfect wording for an email. Going back to my full-time job still wasn’t an option. It was 2021, and things were far from normal. Then, out of the blue, I got a call from an old business acquaintance. They needed help with a product launch. Could I help? I was so excited I probably would have paid them to let me! (Obviously, I didn’t tell them that 😉) And just like that, one client led to another. That’s when I realized... I could do this for the rest of my life. Now, I get to strategize over marketing plans and campaigns with the best clients in the world while still being there for my kids whenever I want. Dare I say, I got the best of both worlds. Sure, I may no longer carry the fancy title of Marketing Director. But maybe it’s time for a promotion. Fractional CMO has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? What were some of your favorite unexpected moments during the pandemic?

Saw this last week. Love these kinds of #benefits that care wholly. No one, even in the darkest corners of their mind, is considering this in their #totalrewards package. This is not something the company had to do. And, as far as I know, not a whole lot of deadly jobs at Google. But the company chose to help care for those left with a void, long after they are no longer reaping product or profit from the relationship. Consider what benefits you could add to the mix that care for your team better than a pizza party. #totalcompensation #compensation #peopleandculture

Eventually we'll post more Amazon-centered content, but there is no shortage of agencies and experts posting great Amazon content already. That's why we've been focusing more on sharing about our agency, our culture, and our results. We want people to get to know us! Why post about our culture? Happy, healthy employees work harder and provide better results. Better results lead to happier clients. Happier clients lead to a happier agency. And the cycle continues! So what's this week's culture post? Our employees get their birthdays off! Who likes to work on their birthday? No one! (except maybe Justin C.) To date, our employees have mostly used this to get outdoors and go biking or hiking. When they get back to the office, they more than make up for the time off with increased productivity! Win-win!

Today is the last day of my intermission. In non-Shopify terms, it's the last day of my month-long sabbatical. It's amazing how quickly a month can go by Do I wish I had a bit more time to get a few other things done or travel a bit more... Absolutely Did I take the time to truly disconnect from work and recharge to hit the ground running tomorrow... 98% yes. During my month off I only opened Slack once to wish the team a happy end of the quarter and opened up Linkedin a few times. Besides that, I disconnected fully and have a lot to catch up on. Tomorrow I'm getting stuck back into things. With that in mind - what have I missed in the eCommerce space? A month may not seem long but in this industry, I'm sure a few things have happened :) P.S Thanks to Shopify for giving this incredible perk to long-term employees

Taking down my 6-month-old daughter’s bassinet, swing, and sit-me-up today was a bittersweet milestone. It's amazing to witness her growth and embrace each new stage, both exciting and a little nostalgic. This transition got me thinking about our professional journeys. In both parenting and careers, we constantly evolve, adapt, and step into new phases. Just as my daughter outgrows her baby gear and discovers new skills, we too must recognize when it's time to move on from familiar routines and embrace new challenges. Whether it’s launching a new enterprise software, refining our B2B marketing strategies, or engaging with decision-makers in innovative ways, growth often means letting go of the old to make room for the new. Here's to embracing change, celebrating progress, and stepping confidently into the next chapter of our journeys! 🌟 #Growth #Milestones #CareerJourney #EmbraceChange #ProfessionalDevelopment

Yesterday was Michael Caminiti and my 9th anniversary! Coincidentally, I was editing next week’s episode of #EpochalGrowth with Srajan Bhagat who became my coworker at Recruiterbox about a week after my wedding. Srajan and my conversation has a lot of focus on growth and evolution, which got me thinking about time. Michael is a classically trained chef from Le Cordon Bleu and an incredibly talented musician. When we met, 14 years ago, he was living in a house with a bunch of musicians in Portland, Maine. I knew him in passing but didn’t truly meet him until I was recording vocals for one of his roommates albums. He was working in kitchens and I was waitressing and working at a call center for European Car Rentals. We were both barely making $10 an hour. Eventually, I moved to an office job with pretty standard hours. Michael didn’t get out of work until 4am most days and we realized there needed to be a change if we were going to make it. So he left the kitchen. It was scary and brave and he got a temp job in a mail room for a bank corporate office. Yup. Actually started in the mail room. He was in his later 20s, when too many of us think it’s too late to really pivot. While I was bouncing around trying to figure out why every job I started to work at felt like a shoe that’s a half size too small, Michael stayed at the bank. He grabbed every open role he could try and moved up. Fast. Little thing to add, Michael is one of the smartest people you’ll ever meet, so this wasn’t a huge surprise. When we got married, we knew we wanted to have more flexibility, so we both moved into SaaS, with zero tech experience, barely making $40k a year, and we committed to a pivot so we could work remote. 9 years later, two people without college degrees have careers leading teams and in the 6 figure club. Michael has worked so hard and is now a Product Manager at The Predictive Index When he joined PI he was in a first tier support position. This long post, pre coffee, is all to say, not only am I incredibly proud of my husband, but time is funny. It seems like we are always left with too little, or the commitment requires too much of it for a reasonable return, but in the end that’s all just an assumption. A lot can happen in short periods of time. So much growth can happen without you even realizing it. Salaries can change drastically. You just have to give yourself space to try. Sometimes the shoe is a half size too small. And that’s okay! Move to a different state, test out a new industry. But please don’t tell yourself you don’t have the experience to make it happen. You’ll get the experience, you just need to give yourself some time. #growth #careerdevelopment #mailroom #love #time

🚀 After a transformative 1.5 years of maternity leave, I am thrilled to announce my return to the workforce! This time has allowed me to fully embrace family life while also sharpening my skills and expanding my knowledge in meaningful ways. During my leave, I proactively engaged with industry trends through webinars and online courses focused on AI Product Management, Product Discovery, Product Analytics, and more. I’m coming back equipped with fresh insights and advanced skills that I am eager to leverage in my next role. My journey as a parent has profoundly enriched my approach to product management, allowing me to develop a unique perspective that I’ve explored in my article titled “Leveraging Parenthood Skills for More Effective Product Management.” I am eager to connect with like-minded professionals and explore new remote or hybrid opportunities where I can apply my expertise and drive impactful results. If you have any insights or know of potential openings, I would love to hear from you! #ProductManagement #CareerReentry #ContinuousLearning #MaternityLeave

As Mother's Day approaches, I'm reminded of how products and their marketing inadvertently overlook experiences. This week alone, I received over 50 emails flooding my inbox with suggestions for celebrating. While these may be exciting for many, it can be painful reminders for those like me who have lost their mothers when we see suggestions like 'Take Mom on a Memorable Trip', 'Upgrade Her Tech' or 'Take Her to the Movies'. This also applies to people who are not on good terms with their mothers and might be irrelevant for people with two dads or those raised by single dads. The problem is that these marketing emails assume a universal experience and fail to recognize the complexities and diversity of human lives. Only one email from DoorDash made me feel genuinely seen and included. It's high time product managers and marketing teams reevaluate how to embed inclusivity and empathy. Below are a few suggestions to consider: 1. Diverse Representation: Incorporate diverse family structures in your marketing materials. Show families of all types celebrating moments together. 2. Sensitive Messaging: Craft messaging that acknowledges diverse experiences. Instead of assuming everyone has a mom, use inclusive language like "Celebrate the caregiver in your life or those who mean the most to you." 3. Personalized Recommendations: Utilize user data to tailor recommendations. If someone has lost a parent or has a different family structure, offer alternative suggestions or allow them to opt out of specific promotions. 4. Empathy-driven Marketing: Focus on empathy rather than assumption. Consider how your messaging might impact individuals with different life experiences, and strive to create content that resonates with everyone. 5. Feedback Mechanisms: Implement feedback mechanisms to allow users to express concerns about inclusivity. Listen to their feedback and actively work to address any shortcomings in your approach. Let's all strive to create a digital world that reflects and respects human experiences. #MothersDay #InclusiveMarketing #EmpathyDrivenProducts #ProductInclusion