Beautiful Things Are Never Built Alone
I Want Her Shoes Podcast
In this episode of I Want Her Shoes, host Anna Aniston sits down with Joanna Lord, a seasoned marketing executive and founder of Neon Palm. With nearly two decades of
Key takeaways
- Great brands become part of culture when customers adopt them as identity markers, not just products.
- Marketing should be holistic—integrating growth, brand, product, and community—not siloed into one function.
Main topics
- The evolution of marketing in tech startups
- Building brands that become cultural phenomena
Notable quotes
"Beautiful things are never built alone."
"You can be a great brand with strong marketing, but that doesn't mean you become part of culture. Culture happens when customers take your story and make it their own."
Conclusion
Joanna Lord's journey from scaling global brands to launching her own venture
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) Hi there, this is your friend Anna. And the question that I've been getting the most from all of my friends is what are we wearing? This age-old question isn't just about choosing an outfit. It's about choosing how we present ourselves to the world. I created the I Want Her Shoes podcast to dive deep into what it means to dress with intention, whether you're heading to a council meeting or just having a casual day out with your family. Join the conversation as we explore the power of personal style and the decisions that shape our public personas. Put on your favorite pair of shoes and step into my closet. Welcome back to the I Want Her Shoes podcast, where we explore ambition, leadership, reinvention, personal style, and the women building extraordinary lives. on their own terms. I'm your host, Anna Aniston, and today's conversation is about what it really takes to build something people care about, a company, a brand, a team, a career, and eventually a cool life. Speaker 1 (1:10) Because Speaker 2 (1:10) great brands aren't built by marketing alone. They're built through understanding people, what they want, what they believe, what they aspire to, and what makes them feel like they're part of something much bigger. Few people understand that better than today's guest. Joanna Lord has spent nearly two decades building a and scaling some of the most recognizable brands in tech, health, wellness, travel, and consumer products. She served as CMO of Spring Health, Skyscanner, ClassPass, which I'm a user, I think a lot of us use ClassPass, and Reforge. And she's worked across nine startups and counting on nearly every stage imaginable, from employee number six to leading teams more than... 300 people and helping scale global businesses, reaching more than 100 million people a month, which is very impressive. And she's an operator, marketer, advisor, investor, mentor, and a mom. And she's entering a new chapter as a founder of Neon Palm, which is amazing. Congratulations. And today we're talking about building iconic brands, knowing when it's time to reinvent yourself, AI, and the future of marketing, leadership, entrepreneurship, personal style, and why. As Joanne says, beautiful things are never built alone. Speaker 1 (2:23) Yeah. Speaker 2 (2:24) So let's dive right in. It's so nice to Speaker 1 (2:26) have Speaker 2 (2:27) you. We're going to Speaker 1 (2:27) cover a lot. Yes, I'm really Speaker 2 (2:29) excited and into all of these different parts of your journey. But before we get started, how did you end up here, down here in South Florida? Speaker 1 (2:38) Man, it has been a journey. I've lived in lots of places. So lots of different cities, New York, London, Seattle. When I had my daughter, my husband and I were looking for a place that we could call home. Had a laundry list of things we needed. And we also wanted it to be a place that felt like a place we could really ground and really tether to. And I think like Florida is that. And now we're just north of Miami. We spent some time in Miami. We're just north of Miami. Spent a lot of time going up and down. And I mean, why leave? It's like the perfect place. So we love it. Speaker 2 (3:05) Agreed. And it's really nice to reconnect with you here. I feel like we've kind of been connected for many, many years through tech. So I was really excited when I heard that you're coming down here. So it's really nice. I would never miss this opportunity. One Speaker 1 (3:17) of the most beautiful places. Speaker 2 (3:20) And you've worked with nine startups from very early stage companies to global businesses operating across more than 40 different continents and countries. When you look back, what is the common thread that connects kind of all? of these chapters for you. Speaker 1 (3:35) Outside of absolute chaos. Speaker 1 (3:38) The first pull sign. I mean, genuinely, it's been about 20 years of startups. I think first and foremost, it is just a very fast paced energy that I enjoy. Right. I think like you get it. Building something is just fun. But yeah, I think every single one of those companies are relevant of size or category or business model. It was kind of at a point where it needed to tell a better story, where it was at an inflection point, either zero to one. You had to kind of grow into something new, build a new category like ClassPass or come into a later stage company like Skyscanner and kind of expand what it offers. So I'm very drawn to companies when they are in like a point of transition. They need someone to kind of help codify where they're going, articulate it better and, you know, build the team and kind of point the ships. If you're going to look across all the times I've joined companies and startups, that tends to be a common thread that I enjoy. Speaker 2 (4:24) I love that comment. You've said you're an operator at heart who helps to deeply understand the art and science of markets and customers. That's a really great way to distinguish yourself. Do you think that we've made marketing kind of too narrow? Speaker 1 (4:38) Overall, I do. I think I've seen the pendulum swing a bit on this. Like when I first started in marketing, it was so focused on acquisition and just. grow at all costs, irrelevant if it was done the right way. I remember at one of my early startups, I genuinely, I don't even think I knew what happened after the person signed up. Like I didn't talk to the product. I was like, well, we got to hit those free trial numbers. And I think that was like a very focused time. Since then, every year, it seems like things have expanded, like marketing has meant more, it's worked closer with other teams. But I think recently, there's been an interesting shift back where everyone owns brand and everyone owns retention. And so it almost feels sometimes like marketing is getting kind of put back in a box and you are either great at growth or you are great at brand, or you're the product marketer. And I think that is a tough place for me to be because I don't philosophically think of marketing as like one of those things. But I also think you do poor work when you kind of operate a marketing org pointed at just one of those three areas. So I do, I think it's an interesting time and we'll get into it, I'm sure, but AI is gonna help us break some of that down. It's a forcing function. But I also think marketing has become so many things that it's kind of hard to define. And I think that's just the way of it. Every domain in tech has gone through that season and marketing is certainly in that season. Is it marketing? Is it growth? Does it go to market? Is it commercial? Yeah, Speaker 2 (5:58) I mean, there's just, yeah, there's just so many things, right, that's related to marketing. Essentially, it's getting your brand out there, right? Yeah. At whatever cost. Yeah. And you've helped build brands like ClassPass, Skyscanner, Reforge, and Spring Health. What separates a company that has great marketing from a brand that actually becomes part of the culture and the conversation? I Speaker 1 (6:17) love this question. I think they are very different things. I think you can be a great brand that has really strong marketing. And I think you can build a great business. I think you make a lot of money. I think you can impact a lot of lives. But that does not mean that you necessarily hit that like next beautiful place of becoming part of culture. I think when you become part of culture. Well, you did that Speaker 2 (6:37) with ClassPass, I feel like for sure. Speaker 1 (6:38) Absolutely. ClassPass became like a cultural conversation. It wasn't anymore about how you work out. It was kind of a lifestyle. And I think that's exactly. And then people started copying that. concept and they did yeah pass you know whatever pass it Speaker 2 (6:49) was yeah Speaker 1 (6:50) there was every pass there was like Speaker 2 (6:52) a Speaker 1 (6:52) meal pass there's all sorts of passes now there's resort pass which actually is some alumni yeah it's a very good one to check out but i think you to get into the cultural side the customer has to take what you represent And it has to become, they share it for you. Like it becomes a part of who they are and how they identify. So that goes back to Speaker 2 (7:08) community. Because I always think of marketing, for me, it's always been very community driven. Yeah. You need to have that first before you drop something. You need skin in the game. How are you going to prove that they actually want it, right? Speaker 1 (7:19) And you can see this, right? Like some of the brands that we love, everyone talks about Nike, but like think about Levi's, like representing rebellion. It's like people wear the product, but it has very little to do with that. They want people to see them as someone who represents what that brand does. Class Fast was very much. that we saw that whole rise, SoulCycle, Lululemon, the pants. Yeah, Speaker 2 (7:36) SoulCycle was a big one. And also Peloton. Yeah.