Office Hours: I’m the Head of Brand Marketing and Partnerships at Shopify. I’m Jessica Williams. AMA!Featured

Posted in:Office Hours Management and Leadership Product Marketing

Hi Elphas!

I’m Jessica Williams, Head of Brand Marketing and Partnerships at Shopify, where my team endeavors to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs to build with and love Shopify. We achieve this through brand campaigns celebrating the glory of entrepreneurship and strategic collaborations with renowned and up-and-coming creators and celebrities such as MrBeast, Emma Chamberlain, Charlie and Dixie D'Amelio, Colin & Sameer, Cassey Ho, Nicki Minaj, and Drake.

Before Shopify, I spearheaded consumer brand & consumer partnerships at Coinbase, delving into the realms of crypto and sports, music, and fashion. I started at Coinbase in the highs of the bull market and stayed through the depths of crypto winter. I could write a book about my time there. Prior to Coinbase, I held about 20 diverse product marketing, brand marketing, and partnerships roles at Visa over my 8 years.

During my downtime, I enjoy spending time with my husband and 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son. We live in Carlsbad California so that usually involves something beach-related. I’m obsessed with most sports, particularly women’s basketball and have been traveling to as many games as I could get to this year. I also coach my daughter's basketball team and son’s baseball team.

Ask me anything about brand marketing, consumer or b2b product marketing, managing sports, music or entertainment partnerships, working with celebrities or athletes, the power of experiential marketing, anything creator economy/creator marketing related and/or how to juggle kids and leadership role.

ElphaStaff·Dec 09

Thanks so much for joining us @jesswilliams!Elphas – please ask @jesswilliams your questions before Friday, December 13th. @jesswilliams may not have time to answer every questions, so emoji upvote your favorites 🔥👍🏾➕

raqueltorres·Dec 12

Hi Jessica, thanks for answering questions! Would love to hear more about how you've juggled such a successful career and leadership role with two kids?!

jesswilliams·Dec 13

Hey @raqueltorres - thanks for the question. I actually believe this is often my biggest challenge in taking on leadership roles as I dont really believe in work life balance. I love my work and I always have strived for integrating work deeply into my life in a way that works best for me.When I start a new role I establish guardrails around times that I am available and times that are non-negotiable for meetings. I will not take meetings while I am taking my kids to school and picking them up or during dinner but will make myself available before and after those times if needed. That way I establish norms for my kids that they have times that are ONLY theirs but then can still make myself available for meetings for those in and out of Shopify early morning and late nights especially given the global nature of our company. I also share a lot about my family with my directs and leaders at Shopify so it comes as no surprise to them when I have to leave early for a kid related activity.I also have a an amazing partner that carries half the load (many times more) which we established early in our relationship as a negotiable and a strong community of other working moms around me that can help if I need a last minute school pick-up or drop-off - we have each other's backs!This took many years of figuring it out and it was messy at times but I learned what worked best and then had to be unafraid to ask for that in early negotiations with new companies and roles

stephaniedoan·Dec 10

Super excited that you're doing this AMA Jessica and that you're a fellow women's basketball fanatic! Do you have tips for individuals who are interested in breaking into product/brand marketing and which skill sets are most valuable? Are there classes you would recommend taking or is it best to find roles internally? Appreciate your time!

jesswilliams·Dec 13

Hi @stephaniedoan! Womens basketball fanatic reporting for duty! I strongly recommend anyone looking to break into a new role do it the company they are currently at and phrase it as a learning and growing opportunity. It is incredibly difficult to get hired into a net new role in a new company without loads of experience, especially in the job market today. My best advice would be to seek out those opportunities internally and offer help to product marketers or product managers (or brand marketers) and ask what they need support on. What unique skills do you have that they might not already have on their team (excel whiz, SQL knowledge, data science, research guru etc) and offer to do x, y and z for them as a way to lean in and learn more. Ive seen many move into product marketing roles this way. Happy to chat further if you need more insights on how to do this!

aamynehmecklai·Dec 12

Thanks for taking the time to do this, Jessica. Any advice you would give your 22-year-old self? I’m a fresh grad and starting a new role soon. Would love to know what you wished someone had told you when you first started out! Thanks again, and happy holidays!

jesswilliams·Dec 13

DO ALL THE THINGS AND MEET ALL THE PEOPLE. Take every interview, go to every coffee chat, take that role you arent ready for, take advantage of that learning perk, work on that project that may not seem totally related to your current role. JUST DO ALL THE THINGS.Most careers are not a straight line and most new roles will come from connections versus just cold job apps so put yourself in every possible situation to meet every person you can and build a network that you can take with you during your career.I actually did this early on and it is the number one most important thing that has served me in my career.

Orsi·Dec 13

@jesswilliams Hey Jessica, I woudl love to understand in general how to approach partners within a partnership program post sales. - What is key in partner onboarding, account management and partner growth? - How do you design a program, that can be standardised and focuses on performance and ROI? I will transition into a role where I'll be resposible for this this, and I would love to prepare :) Thanks a lot

jesswilliams·Dec 13

Hey @Orsi I wish I could be more helpful here but I manage brand partnerships as it relates to marketing, not as it relates to onboarding for new merchants. There are many many amazing experts at Shopify who do this but sadly I am not one of them!

Kera·Dec 10

Hey Jessica, thanks for doing this AMA! I'd love to hear more about your experience jumping from industry to industry so successfully. Were you looking to move from finance to crypto to e-comm, or did those jumps happen naturally? What have been the biggest challenges in that area, and what has come easily? Any tips for someone keen to move industries without strong ties in another field? For context, I'm in marketing / content.

jesswilliams·Dec 13

@Kera thanks for the question! Honestly finding the connection points between each industry and knowing that I could bring something unique from my past industry to the next one is always something I do before I go into any interview process. For moving from finance to crypto it was understanding that trust is the MOST important factor when people consider any brand related to their storage of dollars. While the rest of the industry was focused on vibes and number go up in crypto we were focused on instilling trust in our consumer base that Coinbase was the most trusted crypto exchange for x, y and z reasons. When moving from Coinbase to Shopify I knew that bringing a perspective of consumer marketing into what is essentially a b2b business was going to be key. Entrepreneurs are still consumers and while pricing and product differentiation is important so is seeing Shopify do amazing partnerships with their favorite creators, celebrities, charities and brands. They want to see themselves in the brand and the folks we choose to partner with.Net net know what connects the industries with perspective that only you can bring!

Kera·Dec 18

This is an awesome response. Thank you for taking the time to reply with these insights! incredibly helpful to see the examples, in particular. Thanks again!!

MandyWong·Dec 12

Thanks @jesswilliams - so great to hear from you! I love your career journey. What would you say is Shopify’s unique selling proposition vs competitors like Wix or Etsy? Separately, I’m also in marketing partnerships and curious to know what’s a brand partnership that really pushed boundaries and stood out to you recently, e.g., Liquid Death and Depend, Fendi & Pokémon, Wicked & Literally every marketer. 😁🤝💡

jesswilliams·Dec 13

Thanks for the question @MandyWong! Also your going to laugh when I go into selling mode on why Shopify is the best ecommerce ecosystem out there :)Shopify’s key advantage is its an end-to-end commerce ecosystem that supports founders and their businesses at every stage of growth. Unlike Wix, which primarily focuses on website building, or Etsy, which centers on a specific marketplace for handmade goods, Shopify offers unparalleled flexibility, scalability, and tools to power commerce. PLUS the developer ecosystem of tools that plug into Shopify is unmatchedA couple of brand partnerships I am obsessed with - Kith x BMW (two brands that BELONG together), Cash App X WNBA (with a PAY WOMEN message that is so on brand for both), and selfishly Shopify x Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday Nails (to tell her story of entrepreneurship and allow fans to come get their nails done with Nicki!)

joannatsuo·Dec 12

Hi Jessica - so excited to have you here! I'm curious what led you to brand & consumer brand partnerships, if you had a traditional path through marketing or fell into it another way. Also would love to get your take on when to leverage experiential marketing and if you have any fun examples from a previous role where it worked really well! Thank you :)

jesswilliams·Dec 13

Hi @joannatsuo excited to be here! I did come up through a traditional marketing career - although I started in analytics and marketing measurement which has served me well through my career to be able to deeply speak the language of measurement. I cycled through product marketing, CRM and partnerships roles before I found that I really loved the world of brand marketing and partnerships. There is something so powerful about the emotional connection to a brand and a something so fun about find the magic in partnerships and collaboration. Many times 2 brands are better than one!I LOVE experiential marketing and am a huge advocate for it. It really differs for every brand on when to lean into it but I have found that recently people want to get out of the forever scroll of content and see/feel/hear/touch a brand IRL. Its so hard to breakthrough online - much easier to do with an experience!I actually think Shopify does this really well. We have a physical store in Soho that we offer to partners to use for pop-ups and experiential activations and we often have lines around the block for fans to wanting to experience their favorite Shopify brand IRL. Even today we have a pop-up with Danny Ricciardo and his fashion brand Enchanté and we have hundreds of folks waiting outside in the freezing cold just for a chance to shop and experience his brand!

suemoore·Dec 10

Thanks for taking questions @jesswilliams. I'd love to know if Shopify has thoughts about Gen X/midlifers starting new careers in ecommerce?Lots of my clients are midlife women who've set up their own businesses often after years in the corporate world. Do you see that trend reflected at Shopify too with creators/entrepreneurs?

jesswilliams·Dec 13

I LOVE this question @suemoore!! The answer is unequivocally YES. This age range is one of our fastest growing segments on Shopify! We see many many Gen X men and women leaving the corporate world to start their businesses on Shopify or go all-in on their side hustle businesses on Shopify. I see this trend only growing over time as entrepreneurship gets easier with the growth of AI and people get sick of the lack of flexibility offered by corporate companies. One of the goals of the brand team is to build partnerships and campaigns that help anyone at any age feel confident that they can do this and take the first step into entrepreneurship!

suemoore·Dec 15

And I love your reply @jesswilliams 😊 Thank you! So glad to hear the trend tracks in ecommerce too. I share your opinion that this will only keep growing, as there's such momentum behind it now - for my clients, they just see this is doable and often a far better alternative to corporate life. Where can I follow your brand team's work?

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