- It's incredibly important to work in different industries,
because you see how different companies
try to solve the same problem,
how to drive consumer adoption,
how to change behavior,
and ultimately how to win consumers' hearts and minds.
And for me as a marketer
it's been fundamentally interesting to be able to say,
"Hmm, I remember how we solved this problem
at that X company, maybe we could take parts
of that solution and see how we can apply to us."
Which I think allows for pattern recognition at scale,
and as a marketer I think that's one of your biggest weapons
is to be able to do that.
- Hey, I'm Sarah Franklin and welcome to "connections"
where we hear from some of the most
innovative leaders in marketing.
My guest today is Steven Tristan Young.
The CMO of Poshmark.
Poshmark is a popular social commerce site,
where 80 million users buy and sell
clothes, home goods and electronics,
but it all starts with community.
So I'm here in the Mission Bay neighborhood,
in San Francisco, to hear how that
has been Steven's focus from day one.
Steven, thank you so much
for being here with us on "connections".
You were born in the Philippines and moved to Los Angeles
when you were 10.
How did that experience shape you?
- One of the most important things
I think it really developed is a sense of
empathy for people who are always on the outside.
And I think for me, growing up with a single parent
and I had a sister and we grew up
in a one bedroom apartment in Los Angeles,
it was really the kind of experience I would say
that helps you build character.
And that's one thing I'm really proud of
is going through that experience of being an immigrant
and really understanding what it means
to be alone and isolated.
For me, especially, growing up now as a leader,
understanding that people come from different backgrounds
and not everyone has the same path and different journeys.
It really helps me have build empathy for people.
- I love that.
And I also love that you had a dream.
You knew in college that you wanted to be a CMO.
What made you decide to do that?
- I realized, one, I didn't wanna be a banker
and I didn't wanna be a lawyer.
Definitely didn't wanna be a doctor.
And I remember I went to business school,
which was, for me, something I wanted to follow
as an entrepreneur.
And I love the arts.
I love creativity.
And then when I took my first marketing class
I just lit up.
I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing.
It's like-
- It's fun.
It's people are bringing creativity.
People are bringing human psychology.
People are bringing thoughts
about how to change behaviors together as one.
That is fantastic to me.
And I said, there has to be some sort of career here.
Now it required having a sense of self
to be able to say, I'm not gonna follow the path
that everyone else is following.
I'm gonna follow my own path.
This is what I love.
And I want to keep doing it.
- You've worked for companies like Puma, AMAX,
Direct TV and GrubHub.
How has that shaped your mindset as a marketer?
- It's incredibly important to work in different industries,
because you see how different companies
try to solve the same problem about
how to drive consumer adoption,
how to change behavior, and ultimately,
how to win consumers' hearts and minds.
Well, what makes a customer want to be loyal
to a financial service and business?
What makes a customer want to order for delivery?
What makes a customer want to order resale?
And for me as a marketer
it's been fundamentally interesting to be able to say,
"Hmm, I remember how we saw this problem at that X company.
Maybe we could take parts of that solution
and see how we can apply to us."
Which I think allows for pattern recognition at scale.
And as a marketer,
I think that's one of your biggest weapons,
is to be able to do that.
- You worked on the famous Centurion Card,
which most people know as the Black Card.
How do you promote brand loyalty
for a product that people see as mysterious or secretive?
- So I have to tell you, that was honestly
one of the most amazing jobs I've ever had.
I think as a marketer
the biggest question I had was like,
how do I market a product
that is not even supposed to exist?
And the whole idea around creating mythology
around the product, creating strong word of mouth
is really what was the most important part
about that loyalty.
It forced you to really think
how to say no more than you say yes,
because when you say no more, you create mystique.
As an example,
most people get their credit cards in an envelope.
We created a card carrier that was modeled
after a safe deposit box.
It literally is the kind of experience
you're supposed to go, "Wow, I can't believe they did this."
And really create mythology around that
and drive word of mouth and make people desire.
You create loyalty by creating that desire.
- How do you do that at scale?
- I think it requires a lot of thought.
Especially when you think about messaging,
when you think about your value proposition,
you can't please everybody,
but you can serve a majority of the people
and make sure that you, they understand like,
what your business stands for, customers hiring you.
Are you doing the job that the customer hired you for?
And I think if you always think about that at the core
no matter what the product you're selling
and thinking about at scale,
you will always serve your customer right.
- And how do you, as a marketer, educate at scale as well?
- Yep.
What I love about when I join these new industries
and new categories is to really think about
what are preconceived notions I have
about how something works and challenging that
and saying, well, let's go back to customer research.
And when you start to really unpack
all of these customer insights, you start to realize,
wait, there's a way of explaining the product.
There's a way of explaining the category, the benefits
that almost feels, I would say, incredibly simplistic,
but when you get down to the core of the simplicity
is how you can then really get to changing that behavior.
And then use that as part of the nugget
of how to create your customer campaigns,
your value propositions, your messaging principles.
I think that's when you really hit
on that marketing gold mine.
- And when you hit that gold mine,
that's when you get growth.
- Well, I think it starts to lead your growth.
- Yes.
- I think there's still a lot that has to happen.
There has to be, you know, the media allocation,
who are your demographic and how do you approach them?
So, so much more goes into that marketing,
I would say cocktail mix.
- [Sarah] Yeah.
- That as a leader, it's always my job to understand
like, how is this cocktail mix changing every year?
What is it gonna be like in two, three years from now?
- When you joined Poshmark,
there were already 40 million users.
- [Young Female] Calling all Poshmark lovers.
- Look, so pretty and it still has the freaking tags.
- How have you approached driving
that next chapter of growth?
- I think there's so much runway.
I mean, if I think there's 350 million people in the U.S.,
we have barely touched even the surface.
As I joined the team, three and a half years ago,
I knew that as we wanted to grow,
it's gonna take, not just thinking about channels,
thinking about marketing strategies,
thinking about investment,
it would also require me to think about the team.
And I love this as a challenge to say,
"Here's a team I have today.
How do I develop the team of tomorrow?
How do I change the mindset of the customers
that we have through my employees?"
And I think that's something
that I really wanted to make sure that I thought through.
I remember even this one lesson about
for every hour you spend with an executive,
spend two hours with a team member.
- [Sarah] Yeah.
- Right?
Something that simple helps you better understand your team
and know who they are so you create that bond
and you retain, and you actually can grow them over time.
- [Sarah] Poshmark is really good at keeping up
with all of the social media trends.
- [Steven] Yeah.
- [Sarah] How do you stay in tune
with everything that's going on?
- It's incredibly tough, I'll say.
We were one of the first advertisers on TikTok.
At the way my team thinks about innovation
is really creating that safe space
that I want people to tell me, like
what's the next hot thing, what's the next big idea.
And that it's not gonna come from me.
It's really gonna come from my team.
'Cause they're the ones who are constantly on the edge.
They're the ones who are looking at the marketing channel.
They're the ones talking to other peers and saying,
"Well, what's working for other companies.
What have they tried?
What have they not?"
I think that's the best way to release to foster
that sort of thinking around innovation and that safe space
and that there is no wrong answer.
And I think if you can get and foster that kind of thinking
in the team, that's how you remain on the edge.
- [Sarah] And speaking of your team-
- [Steven] Yeah.
- You have a philosophy on hiring.
You wanna high will, but medium skill-
- Yes.
- When you're hiring.
- Yep.
- What does that mean?
- Well, whenever I'm interviewing,
I'm really trying to understand someone's potential
in the things that they've been cared about,
that they're passionate about,
have they demonstrated such high will
that they just want to own it, do it, learn it.
They may not know how to do the job today,
but if they've shown passion, whether it's in sports
in school or something else, that to me is a great example
of someone who has a high will and medium skill.
And especially in high growth companies, it's a new problem.
It's a new company every six, seven months.
And I think high will, medium skill people
can adapt really well.
They're, in fact, the kinds of employees you want
when things are constantly changing.
- You talked about community with your family
and now you're kind of talking about
community with your team.
How important is community in all of your marketing
and with your customers
and with everything you see with the business?
- For me, community has been
a very important thing in my life.
I mean, back to what we mentioned earlier,
I don't think I would've survived growing up
in an inner city if I didn't have a strong community
around me to support me.
Joining Poshmark I realized, oh my gosh,
this business is not just an e-commerce business.
There's a whole entire community of people
that sell, that survive on Poshmark.
Thinking about that customer from the very beginning
was something I wanted to make sure that I honored
and that I didn't just say,
"Hey, there's probably another 50 million customers
somewhere else."
But really, how do we continue to cultivate
the ones that we have?
Let them be our best advocates.
Let them help drive word of mouth.
- But people also have feedback, too.
- Yes, they do.
They have a lot of feedback.
- Yeah.
How do you get that input from the community,
especially when it's so large and huge,
how do you do that?
- One thing I'm really incredibly proud of
is a lot of our customers have a direct line to my CEO,
to a lot of our senior leaders, our founders.
And I think that to me is amazing.
Every year we have this event called Posh Fest.
People come from all around the country,
they share their stories.
It is such an amalgamation of sellers, buyers,
people who are just fans of the platform.
And I think that's where even we have a hackathon
where we share a lot of the results
with our customers and they give us feedback,
like, "That's great."
"I don't know about this."
"So this one, I do more of that."
And that's a great 360 opportunity
for people to really be heard.
And I think most of the time
your best customers, just wanna be heard.
- How important is that for marketers
to have your values as part of your brand?
- One of my favorite values for Poshmark
and, by the way, funny story is this,
when I was interviewing-
- Yes
- I remember walking through the office
and I saw one of our company values on the wall,
I immediately took a photo and I've sent it to my partner.
I was like, "Oh my gosh,
this is the company I'm meant to work for."
And the value was called, "Embrace Your Weirdness".
- Oh, I love this.
- And for me, that has always been my course,
like, I'm weird.
I have a lot of weird eccentricities
and it's what makes me who I am.
It's what makes me love marketing.
The fact that this company has that as a value,
said to me that this is the place I need to be at.
And I think just noting, also, that embracing that weirdness
allows you to be vulnerable,
allows you to just admit who you are.
We want people to be who they are.
- So I know this section of San Francisco
is really special to you
and Poshmark is all about community and having fun.
So I thought maybe we could play some mini golf.
- Yeah, let's do it.
- You think we can get a tee time?
- I think so.