Talk Digi To Me
Excited to talk digital marketing, business and entrepreneurship? Let's go!
I'm your host Carlie Robinson and with my guests we'll uncover digital marketing tools and trends, and gather insights into how to make your business more successful. We'll also hear stories from successful business owners on what helped or hindered them along their path.
This year marks 21 years in advertising for me and I'm celebrating by sharing my passion for digital marketing and my studio in Barbados with all of you!
Talk Digi To Me
Talk Digi To Me March FWD: Dr. Tara Wilkinson-McClean
From her early days as a shy intern being pushed to project her voice, to becoming a recognized leader in global sports with the Caribbean Premier League, Dr. Tara Wilkinson-McClean's journey reveals how mentorship and self-belief can transform careers.
The conversation takes us through her academic evolution from communications student to PhD holder, where her research uncovered fascinating insights about male consumer behavior and power dynamics. "Men equate power with what they consume," she reveals, explaining how this knowledge shapes her approach to marketing and audience engagement. This perspective proved invaluable when she transformed a struggling prostate cancer screening event into a wildly successful men's lifestyle experience that exceeded attendance goals by hundreds.
What makes Dr. Tara's story particularly compelling is her rejection of traditional success metrics. She dismisses the concept of work-life balance as unattainable, instead pursuing harmony through community support and intentional presence. "It's not about being that strong, independent woman," she reflects. "That rhetoric doesn't serve you." Her dual passions for communications and interior design converge in her approach to experiential brand storytelling, creating spaces that tell meaningful stories while connecting deeply with audiences.
For women looking to advance their careers, Dr. Tara offers revolutionary advice: recognize the power in your feminine, and focus on work that gets you noticed as a leader. Stop asking for a seat at the table and start setting the table yourself by confidently demonstrating your value. Her story reminds us that with supportive communities and the courage to embrace our unique perspectives, we can all find ways to march forward.
Welcome to Talk Digi to Me. March Forward, a women-only series in celebration of International Women's Day. We're talking to women in the field of marketing, media and technology, Women who make an impact, Women who dare to march forward. Presented by Carly Robinson from Robinson Creative.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Talk Digi to Me, march Forward. I'm your host, carly Robinson, and my guest today, dr Tara Wilkinson-McLean. She's got nearly 20 years of experience. Dr Tara leads OneMark Inc. A communication firm specializing in brand experience design, leveraging a strategic mix of marketing, sponsorship integration and audience engagement. Her work spans the Caribbean, the USA, the Middle East, sponsorship integration and audience engagement. Her work spans the Caribbean, the USA, the Middle East and Asia, where she's successfully elevated brand presence and made commercial impact. She's been recognized as an emerging leader in global sports. We'll talk about that. Beyond her corporate roles, dr Tara is also a communication lecturer and she shares her expertise in branding and audience engagement with the next generation of upcoming industry professionals. Tara, so so grateful that you made some time to come and chat with me today. How are you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm great. It sounds like you're introducing somebody else out there that.
Speaker 2:I'm watching. No, this is very much you you need to recognize. All of this is all you. Yeah, you just sit with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let that sit with you. You need to recognize all of this is all you. Yeah, you just sit with that. Yeah, let that sit with you.
Speaker 2:So when you were a little girl, what did you want to become? That's like my opener question for everybody so far. I get them to go right back to the beginning.
Speaker 3:We're going all the way back.
Speaker 2:I think it was. It's not that far sweetheart.
Speaker 1:No, that's a long time ago.
Speaker 3:Curly, Two things my mother used to say. I would always say I wanted to be a teacher. But my conscious recollection of a thing that I wanted to be, it was a lawyer. And I remember thinking I would grow up, I would become, I would study and I would become this thing and I would right all of the wrongs in the world just by practicing. And then at some point I realized that that was not going going to happen. But I would say my recollection of it, I wanted to be a lawyer.
Speaker 2:I wanted to be a lawyer so how did you end up in the field of communications?
Speaker 3:oh, wow.
Speaker 3:I realized that the reason I wanted to be a lawyer was to make the world a better place. And then I got introduced to communications. I don't quite remember how, but I remember there was a mass communication program running at BCC, yeah, and I really liked what it looked like in terms of being able to do storytelling, you know, connect with people, and I found like that also resonated as a way to kind of change the world and make a difference. And I went to my dad and I was like I seen this program, I really like it, but I'm not sure. And he was like let's go explore. You know you don't have to choose. Yeah, you know you can start this. You could come back to law. He was like very open-minded and we sat, we did the application together, I got accepted and then I was like okay, I'll come back to law after this.
Speaker 2:And then I never looked back yeah, so that was an associate degree that's my associate degree. Did you know at that point I'm going all the way to PhD?
Speaker 3:I did not know that I would do a PhD. At that point I was like I'm gonna start with the associate degree, and then I was done. And then my mother said if you live in this house, you have to work or you have to study.
Speaker 2:So you said I'm gonna keep studying forever.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna go and do a first degree and then, while I was doing the first degree, I met Professor Yudine Barreto at the University West Indies, and she was just phenomenal, like an amazing mentor. I just fell in love with her, what she represented. And while taking a minor in gender studies, she was like you should actually consider the master's. And I was like, oh, okay, and then I applied for the master's. I applied for a scholarship and I got it. So I started the master's and then I decided I the masters. I applied for a scholarship and I got it, so I started the masters. And then I decided I was really invested in the research and I wanted to take it further. And that's when I signed up to convert the masters into a PhD. Wow, so it all. None of it was planned. It was just a series of people who I met along the way who were like you know, you're good enough, you should do this, you have something to say, you have something to bring to the table. Yeah, why not?
Speaker 2:and my parents were like, okay, I want to hear more about your PhD, but first um female mentorship. You talked about your professor. Tell me more about her or any other female mentors that you had who helped guide you from while you were studying, but also in your professional career.
Speaker 3:I would say even before I encountered Professor Bartow it was Sophia. She's now Sophia Alsop. Then Cambridge. At the time, the internship I did with the mass communication program, I landed at Banks Holdings Limited in PR. So it was between journalism and PR and my lecturer at the time he felt that I would be a good fit for PR, even though I expressed an interest in journalism. He, like you, should consider this. I think you'll be a good fit. And so I was placed there. Um, and every day I was so shy. Every day I would go to her. I would have to do a report on mornings like. This is the kind of content I want to produce. This is the things I want to focus on and I would have to present it yeah, but I would talk, so it's such a low volume and every day, every.
Speaker 3:We're not having this conversation unless you project. We're not having this conversation unless you stand and you confidently tell me this is what you want to do, this is what you're working on. And every morning I went in with the anxiety because I knew that's what she would come with. And she worked with me for weeks on end. I don't think that's what you know they were paying her to do. But beyond just teaching me how to draft press releases, how to draft content releases, how to draft content, how to do things, she she taught me how to be more confident and how to believe that what I had to say was valuable. Um, and that experience with her really changed my trajectory and it also got me into why I wanted to teach, because I was like, if she could do that for me, I could then take what I learned and teach to other kids and other people so that they too can see that you showing up in the world is not something that you have to born into. It's something that you can become, and you become it every day.
Speaker 2:And I think things like that make a really critical difference between someone who is absolutely brilliant but lacks confidence and can't get that step forward and someone who is absolutely brilliant like yourself and now has that confidence, who is absolutely brilliant like yourself and now has that confidence and this is something that's actually come up in some of the other conversations I've had about women needing to stand up, speak out, tell the world what you can do, you know like, have that confidence and that's something that keeps back entrepreneurs as well, not really believing in themselves enough to be able to like just take the leap and just go for it.
Speaker 3:I think if there's one thing I learned along the way is that everybody has a story and when you learn that that story is important and other people can benefit from it no, it's not just you. You know sharing for sharing sake, but you're sharing to help other people and that feels good and you can find your confidence in that yeah yeah, um.
Speaker 2:So I want to hear more about your PhD now, because from what I know know you have to do a lot of research.
Speaker 1:You have to write a paper, you've got to really.
Speaker 2:So, what are some of the key learnings when you were undertaking your PhD in gender and development? Oh boy so.
Speaker 3:I used to hate this question when I was doing the PhD.
Speaker 1:You love it for me.
Speaker 3:You had to make sense to other people.
Speaker 3:Defend, so yeah, so it was in gender and development studies and my area of focus was advertising and communications and it really was thinking about when people engage with messages, what do they take away from it, what do they learn. And I was interested in consumer behavior. But I didn't want to explore women's consumer behavior because it was already done and we had a lot of research about it. But I found there was very limited research about men, because people assume that men are more producers than consumers and I was like what's the story to be told here? And I personally had an interest in advertising. So I was like let's follow the research.
Speaker 3:Men, consumerism what do men do? How do they buy? What does it mean for them? And it led me to realize that I mean men consume as much as women, if not more, but just in a different way. And one of the main findings of coming out of the research is that men equate power with what they consume.
Speaker 3:Even though we might not read it, you know on the first glance when you look at you know his shoes, his watch, what kind of clubs he joins, what kind of clubs he joins, what kind of sports he plays. He's making a very intentional, even though subconscious choice about who he's saying. This is a type of man I am, um, and then when I started, I realized that power and class were linked and I got really fascinated with male power and how they project it. Yeah, um, and the discovery that it is. It's not necessarily a biological thing. We assume that men are more powerful, but it's not necessarily true. It's a learned behavior that we can link to some levels of biology. But you could teach it to anybody. So I became fascinated with power and how people use it.
Speaker 2:Interesting, that's so interesting. Yeah. Now, in your intro I mentioned sports. That's definitely one of the male dominated industries. Like let's not you know you are the head of partner servicing at the Caribbean Premier League. Recently you were selected for the ICC Future Leaders Program. Did you see a lot of involvement from young women in the program? What was the program about?
Speaker 3:Right, this version of the program was actually designed to address the fact that sport, in particular cricket, is really male-dominated. So with this design, they selected 15 women from across the world to participate in a program and out of you know hundreds of applications, you know these women are selected and then it starts with a mentorship program. So you're assigned a mentor in global sport and business and then you work alongside them. Every month. You have these activities that you have to complete and then at the end there's a task that you have to deliver. But the whole program is focused around how do we take women who are in these roles and create leaders you know, teach them how to lead, what it means to lead and what it means to lead in a more conscious way, so that we can start to address the imbalances in the field.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that one brings me now to talk a little bit about your decision to start teaching. What are you seeing in the classrooms today?
Speaker 1:in the lecture halls. I should say today Are you excited about?
Speaker 2:the future or are you disappointed in the classrooms today, in the lecture halls, I should say today, are you excited about the future? I am really excited about the future.
Speaker 3:but my classroom is really different, so I don't think I could compare it to a traditional classroom. I really believe in when we sit together in a classroom. I don't lecture. We come to have a conversation. I learn from you as much as you learn from me, and I really try to mirror a real world environment. But in the classroom so, whether that's podcasts, videos, it's practical things so that the students are, first, excited to learn. And, two, I don't teach them what the answer is. I teach them how to think so that, when I'm there or not, you understand the process of you know critical thinking, so that you could arrive at not necessarily the answer that I want you to have or the book tells you to have, but this is the answer. I've thought through, I've connected these experiences and I've arrived here, and I can tell you how I've arrived here. But it isn't easy because when you particularly get students out of secondary school, they want the answer.
Speaker 2:The learning is so, so different. You're basically taught how to respond to questions.
Speaker 3:Yes, so then I have to spend a lot of time letting them know that it's safe enough not to have the answer, not to have. You know, this is 1500 words and this is how it's to be written and these are the points that I want you to cover. But these are the possibilities, you know, and as long as you do the research and as long as you make the connections and you could justify it, let's have that conversation, of course, within the university standards, because at the end of the day, you will still be assessed. Yeah Right, so I have to prepare you for that assessment, but I also want to show you that learning is about the possibilities.
Speaker 2:So what's the biggest takeaway? You want them to walk out of your courses with that open, that open mind approach.
Speaker 3:So I always tell them there's no right or wrong answer. There are multiple answers, there are multiple perspectives, and when you show up to a conversation because that's what academia is right it's a conversation with all these people who've had these discoveries when you show up to that conversation, you show up with your perspective. You show up with all these years of conditioning that have shown you how to see the world and how to think through the world, all these years of conditioning that have shown you how to see the world and how to think through the world and you bring that, but you also be open-minded about. These are tools that I could also use to help me broaden that perspective. So I would say it's about being open-minded. That's the thing that I want them when they leave me. That's the kind of student that I want to produce.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's talk about your work now. I hope you're ready to talk about work. Let's talk about your work now. I hope you're ready to talk about work. Any fun projects you've worked on recently. Anything exciting that?
Speaker 3:you're particularly proud of, one that I'm particularly excited about the outcome. We did a project with the Ministry of Health and the brief was they wanted to have a day of prostate cancer testing for men. They were very like, um, you know, we don't expect many people to turn out, because men don't necessarily want to come forward to be tested, they don't want to participate and every event we've had in the past has not necessarily shown us the results. So we sat, we thought about it and I went back to them and I was like how, why don't we position this as a men's lifestyle event?
Speaker 3:because it's more comfortable for men to want to come and talk about, you know, grooming and cars and the watch health and shoes, you know, and then, within that, have the conversation about testing so that when they come, they come to a space that's safer, it's a space that they feel more comfortable, and then you can move them into the conversation. And when we arrived, it was a slow trickle and by half day we had surpassed. If the target was 50 men, we were already well over 100 and at the end of the day we had hundreds of people pass through. And why? That was memorable for me. I remember the minister saying that no man would leave without being tested, even if we had to bring in more kids. So one. We surpassed the expectations. But just even beyond the expectations, it was a project where you took it. It started as one thing and the client trusted you to build it into something else, and then you were able to deliver the results.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome and you thought critically about what it is that you really wanted to achieve.
Speaker 3:Yes, and then the insight about consumer behavior. Right, Because you, whenever you launch a new project, the first thing you think about well, who is my audience? What do they want? What do they desire as opposed to what do I want to sell? Yeah, Right. And once you could answer what do they want and you can connect it to the thing that you have, then you have a winning formula. And I've never had a project that failed as long as I started with what does my audience want? That is the winning formula.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about Haven.
Speaker 3:Haven Interiors.
Speaker 2:That's my passion, because anybody who knows, you knows that you are impeccably styled constantly. You have great taste. So talk to me about that, that passion.
Speaker 3:Why thank you? So my mother used to say that my first words were um, my first word she took me to bridge town and we were walking through at christmas and I came to lights and she was like you. You just stood there and you watched and you said it's pretty. And she was like. Those were the first clear words you ever oh, like you know, spoke. And then from there she was like every time I would give you allowance, you would use it to buy something for your bedroom. And she's like every weekend you were tweaking something she would like you would do two things you would buy a book and then you would use money to buy stuff. She said I didn't even know what, what it meant for you, but you just would buy this stuff.
Speaker 3:Um, so I knew that design was always something that I absolutely love. I mean, I would say you could put me anywhere with the least amount of resources and I would turn it into something beautiful. It just it's just something that comes so natural to me and I. There was a program, a competition, the smart homes interior design competition. I remember that came up and I was like, oh, this would be interesting and I looked past it because at the time, design was still something I would do, but I would do it for me, yeah. And I got all these posts from friends saying you should enter this, you should enter this.
Speaker 4:you should enter this Because they know you.
Speaker 3:And I was like, absolutely not, I remember her, rachelle Gray. She called and she was like I was talking to her and she was like I think you're missing your calling. And those words just resonated with me and I was like what if I am missing my calling? So I entered the program, I won and then after that I was like I'm going to show up to the world and let them see that this is who I am, this is what I love, and whatever the response, is this gonna be it. Yeah, um, and I started practicing um.
Speaker 3:The latest project I did was um two VIP rooms one for Sir Garfield Sobers at the gymnasium and the other one for the president. Um, and that brought full circle for me the connection between design, storytelling and how to connect people. Because here it is, you have these two legends you know larger than life. How do you take their story and build it in a way that, one, it becomes legacy. Two, it acts as a museum. But three, people can come and understand who they are and connect with the space and use it so that brought everything for me together my branding, my interior design, my understanding of consumer behavior, just just full circle.
Speaker 3:And I realized then that these parts of me are not separate. You know, it's all about the experience and how you build them together to create something that people can connect with Experiential brand storytelling.
Speaker 2:You need to coin a term to like name this thing that you've created.
Speaker 3:Right and trademark it and trademark it 100. The book is coming soon, guys um.
Speaker 2:Do you have work-life balance, dr tara I?
Speaker 3:think I release.
Speaker 3:I release that concept, so I used to pursue it. I watch so many podcasts, watch so many videos, talk to so many women who I thought had it, and I've come to a single conclusion I, I don't think that it exists. I think what I have now is a sense of harmony. So I start my day and I started with breakfast with my family and that grounds me, and I'm present, and then I go to work and I'm present there and I come back and then I'm present with the family again.
Speaker 3:Um, so it's about how do the things feed into each other, right? And I think they inspire me both, because my personal life with my husband and my son, you know, every time I sit with them or we spend time together, it fuels me to work. You know, any things that I discover at work I bring home and I talk to them about it. Even my seven year old son, he knows about all the projects. He's like, mommy, I think you should do this, I think you should do that, and I'm like, oh, you should get paid to do this, right?
Speaker 3:So it's about the harmony and I think it's about finding a community that's supportive and that understands, so that when I have to travel for six weeks for work, which is a very real reality in this summer. Right, I have a husband who steps in and he does all the school runs, all the breakfast, lunch, dinners, everything, so I know that home is safe and I could step out, do this and I could come back, but I do it for them. Yeah, and at first I used to have a lot of guilt about leaving.
Speaker 3:yeah, and you would meet people in the airport and they'd be like, oh, where you off to? And I'd be like this place, this place, this place you know for about six to eight weeks airport. And they'd be like, oh, where are you off to? And I'd be like this place, this place, this place you know for about six to eight weeks. And then they'd be like, well, what's going to happen with your son? And it's particularly women who reinforce the guilt, right, because they're like you're leaving. What's going to happen with your family?
Speaker 3:So you have to learn how to. Yes, you want to be there, but I also want to be traveling, right? So do I give up one or the other or do I become both? And do I find a way to manage both? And the way that you manage that balance, that harmony, whatever you want to call it, is in having that community. So you have a supportive partner, you have supportive friends who you can call and say, hey, can you pick up Luca from school? Can you do this Right? And they get it and they step up for you and they hold you right in a space where you then get to shine. But it's not you doing it by yourself, it's not about you know, being that strong, independent woman, I let go of that rhetoric so fast, like it doesn't serve you.
Speaker 3:it brought me to this point, but it no longer serves me, so what else do I need to access to move from here to there?
Speaker 2:I think you've already started to answer the next question, which is how can we help women to march forward, which is building that network and that community?
Speaker 3:I would say two things. One, there is power in your feminine, and that took me a long time to learn. I'm still learning it and it's really messy for me, but it's not, you know, every day. It's not about getting up and hustling and working towards the next thing and moving and moving and building this idea of success that was painted to you by you know some person who had like a five minute manager podcast that says this is what success looks like. I find that limiting, looks like. I find that limiting.
Speaker 3:And when you step into your feminine and you realize that it's about being intentional, it's about manifesting the life that you want by taking these steps and allowing your community to support you and understanding that when you show up, this is what you bring and this is what you bring to the table. That's different and embracing it as opposed to seeing it as a negative or a limitation. Right. So I would say recognizing that there's feminine, there's power in the feminine. And the other thing is to step into your leadership.
Speaker 3:I think, as women, we spend a lot of time doing the work and doing the tasks, but those tasks are not the things that necessarily get you seen as being a leader. Yeah, so you have to find a balance because you can't stop delivering, right. So how can you deliver? But deliver on the things that get noticed? Yeah, um, and thinking about what you do, who you are and being able to say this is a value that I bring to the table. Right, this is what it's worth. And I'm saying, you know, let's recognize that, let's have a conversation about that value, what it means to you and how you can invest in it, as opposed to showing up at a table like please, can I sit here? Yeah, exactly, right, set the table like please can I sit here?
Speaker 2:yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 3:Set the table right and that's what I got from the ICC program. Most is how to understand that you are a leader. But you have to understand the tools and the skills and the techniques to help you show up in that way.
Speaker 2:But first you have to believe it yeah, and I think that critical point that I'm believing in myself to going back to your previous you know your internship yes, yeah, things like that yeah, full circle. Well, thank you so much, dr tara, for joining me today. I've gotten so much out of this conversation. Honestly, thank you so much and thank you I look forward to listening.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, this has been talk digi to me.
Speaker 4:March forward do you have questions about your digital marketing toolkit? Contact Carly directly via WhatsApp at 266-4847, on Instagram at Carly Talks Digital, or send your email to Carly at MyRobinsonCreativecom. That's C-A-R-L-I-E at MyRobinsonCreativecom.