Tagline
You deserve a job that allows you to thrive.
Bio for Stephanie Brown
Stephanie is the Founder of Creative Career Level Up, a program that helps those in marketing, creative, and tech industries accelerate their careers and secure their next perfect role—along with a promotion and a salary increase. Hundreds of professionals have gone through the program, securing roles in world-leading companies like Apple, Nike, Google, Amazon, Expedia, META, Shopify, TikTok, PlayStation, Salesforce, Starbucks, Universal Music, Hello Fresh, Microsoft, Snap Inc, as well as lots of agencies and startups.
Stephanie has spent the last 15 years working in the marketing, creative, and tech industries. What makes her program proven and unique and noteworthy is that she used her 13 years of experience working as a senior marketing executive at Nike and Apple (8 years in total) and Apple (5 years) to develop her own coaching approach.
After building a positively cash-flow property portfolio within 4 years, Stephanie was able to retire early from her corporate job and launch her career coaching business in 2019.
Stephanie’s career path, however, has not always been rosy. She has written a highly-rated book, Fired: Why Losing Your Job is the Best Thing that Can Happen to You, in which she shares her experience of being fired twice and how the loss of a job was instrumental in advancing her career and setting up her property business.
Episode highlight
Stephanie explores the unifying and passionate nature of sports culture, emphasizing how sports brings people together and showcases human potential. She uses examples such as, when Spain won the World Cup, Nike’s piece of content gave the people of Spain a lot of hope and joy during a time of Great Depression. While acknowledging the darker side of sports organizations, Stephanie shares her personal experiences and the impact sports have had on communities, providing a balanced perspective on this influential aspect of society.
Additionally, Stephanie opens up about her own professional journey, discussing her experiences at Nike, the challenges she faced, and the development of her coaching platform to support professionals in marketing, creative, and tech industries.
Links
- LinkedIn: Stephanie Brown LinkedIn
- Email: hello@kiwilondonconsulting.com
- Website: Creative Career Lab
Quotes
- “The only way to get over fear is to face it head-on and realize that either it’s never as bad as what you think OR the worst does happen, but you survive.”
- “If people saw leadership as more of a privilege and a blessing, it would make the workplace so much more enjoyable.”
- “If you’re wonderful at your job and you’re in the wrong place, you’re going to struggle. It’s about doing the work to find out where the right place is for you first, so you can thrive and do great work.”
Takeaways
Childhood Incidents:
When Stephanie was 15 years old, she changed schools from a Catholic school to an all-girls school. At that age transitioning to a new school wasn’t easy for Stephanie; she had a hard time making friends and the group of girls she tried to befriend bullied her. Two years later, she joined high school and changed things around by making amazing friends. Changing schools taught Stephanie that she didn’t always have to be where her friends were, and even if the worst happened, she would get through it.
As a young adult, Stephanie went on an exchange program in Milan which she found to be a positive experience, and easy for her to make friends. This further honed her budding confidence.
Cultural Influence:
Stephanie’s dad grew up in a family with plenty of love, but the resources were limited. He made sure that his children had more resources and opportunities than he ever had, including attending university.
At age 8, Stephanie and her sister worked at their dad’s café to learn the value of hard work. Later in life, Stephanie worked for a winery which gave her an opportunity to meet people from all over the world and ask them for advice about life, building an urge to travel.
Leadership Influence:
When Stephanie finished university, she worked for a sports company and later moved to London where she joined Nike. Despite having an educational background in economics and finance, she found herself in marketing and the creative industry. At Nike, Stephanie found her tribe and people who mentored her to become a leader.
Temperament and Personality:
According to Stephanie, her temperament is to naturally help people. As a child, she wanted to become a schoolteacher and today she has taken it full circle as a career coach. Over the years, Stephanie has developed the bravery to step out of her comfort zone and learn from the opportunities this provides.
Cultural Epiphanies:
When in university, after the Italian exchange program, Stephanie noticed some of the slang had changed which caused her to feel she no longer belonged.
When Stephanie moved to the UK, she embraced British life and acquired British citizenship. Coming back to New Zealand, she found it quite difficult and felt like a stranger in her homeland. Going to new countries was not difficult for her, but returning and the experience of reverse culture shock was difficult for her.
What Brings Out the Best in Stephanie?
Stephanie thrives in environments that challenge her and create room for her to learn. When she joined Nike, she was stuck in one role for three to four years because she didn’t know what she wanted to do next. Two senior leaders mentored her and helped her move to another role.
Soapbox Moment:
Stephanie encourages us to look at leadership as a privilege and a blessing to serve others. For those in the job search market now, Stephanie recommends first taking the time to analyse what kind of environments they can thrive in, and then apply for jobs in companies that meet that criteria.
Extro:
Stephanie Brown has had a life marked by great successes and unexpected challenges. From being one of the popular kids in her village school to one of the most rejected and bullied girls in an all-girls high school, she learned to detach her life goals from the expectation that friends should accompany her. From being in a supportive and creative environment at Nike to being fired from a small start-up job and experiencing unemployment for eight months, Stephanie learned to look for the right work environment where she could thrive instead of looking for a job or a company. Here are three culture and leadership tips I picked up from Stephanie’s interview:
- Unexpected crises can lead to unexpected victory.
- Working at a great company doesn’t ensure that future career experiences will be great – forge your own path to success.
- When you feel like you don’t belong in any culture, develop friendships with other cultural learners and enjoy those dual citizenship moments!
