Episode 18

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Published on:

5th Apr 2022

18. Channeling a Little of Anna Delvey

Gina Lee, Chief Marketing Officer at Gen.G, joins me this week! Gina's career in marketing and partnerships stretches from art to fashion to gaming, and with such a creative slate of projects, Gina has a unique perspective on how to work with brands. We talk about the importance of consumer-lead advertising, how to balance partnerships, and the extensive charity initiaves at Gen.G, from the Broadcast Her Initiative to Aid for Ukraine and the Do Good Fund. We also discuss how DEI principles are incorporated at Gen.G, which is a multinational company.

Episode Resources:

https://geng.gg/

Transcript
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Welcome to the meta woman podcast we address the

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issues, opportunities and challenges facing women in the

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development of the metaverse the biggest revolution since the

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internet itself. Every week we bring you conversations with top

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female talent and business executives operating in the

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gaming and crypto industries. Here's your host Lindsey, the

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boss poss the meta woman podcast starts now.

Lindsay Poss:

Hello, and welcome to the meta woman podcast part

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of the holodeck media Podcast Network. I'm your host, Lindsay

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the boss path. I'm struggling with success recovering at all.

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Or returning listeners. Thank you so much for supporting the

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show for leaving the five star ratings and reviews, telling

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your friends we're doing all of that. And for new listeners.

Lindsay Poss:

Welcome. I hope you enjoy. Joining me this week is Gina

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changli, Chief Marketing Chief Marketing Officer at Genji. For

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those of you who are not familiar with Genji, they're an

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esports organization that connects the US and Asia. Genji

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operates in China, South Korea and the US and their team

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profile includes seven global championships, and teams in

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Overwatch League League of Legends World Championship, a

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men's valorant team and an all women's valorant team, and NBA

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touquet League team in Shanghai, among others. As you can tell

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they have a lot going on so much so that it was even hard for me

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to get through. It's also worth noting that Genji puts a lot of

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effort into inclusivity efforts, not only by supporting things

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like an all women's valorant team, but having initiatives

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like Hashtag team Bumble, the leading team platform for the

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empowerment of women in gaming, and the Genji Foundation, a 10

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year $1 million commitment to collegiate scholarships targeted

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at women, people, people of color and low income college

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students. So a lot to cover. But Dina Welcome to the show. To

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start, I would love for you to give the audience a bit about

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yourself and your background, given that we've kind of walked

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through a little bit of Genji.

Unknown:

Yeah, sure. Hello, thank you for having me,

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Lindsay, it's nice to finally I'm so sorry, that I have to let

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this recording over and over. But it's been so crazy, because,

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you know, lots of things happening for us. As you

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mentioned, we are a global esports organization. So, you

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know, we have different leagues and teams running all the time.

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And you know, it's just been busy, busy, busy. But um, so my

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background, I actually have, I did not come from a gaming

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background, I've been with Gen Z for about three years. And it's

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been a really, you know, a whirlwind experience a lot of

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learnings. But but my original background is I came from the

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fast fashion space. So I worked at my last job right before I

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came over to Genji was I was the head of Global Brand Marketing

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at 21. seemingly very different, but actually a lot of things are

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pretty similar. You know, I mean, obviously, at Forever 21,

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or at any fashion company or product company, you know, your

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main purpose is to sell the product, right, so you're

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creating marketing campaigns around product and clothing,

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shoes, makeup, whatever it may be, right. And work in global

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brand marketing, you know, there, there were a lot of there

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were a lot of different different channels in which we,

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you know, communicated the brand out to the consumer, there's

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obviously you know, Instagram page profession, Twitter,

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YouTube, a lot of creator work. And then in there was also a lot

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of brand partnerships, I worked on a lot of collaborations

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between forever 21 and other brands, you know, working on

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limited apparel, capsules, and, you know, seeing those apparel

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capsules come through all the way to fruition with gifting

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creators, you know, doing experiential events, you know,

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things like that. So, the, it seems really different. But in

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actuality there are a lot of things that overlap and are kind

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of similar, right, like gaming as an audience you have to

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understand, understand, or you know, seek to speak to the

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larger audience, and how are you going to reach that audience?

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You know, there's a segment of the audience that's super into

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the competitive space wants to follow the esports teams and how

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they do within each game and League, you know, and then you

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have like, the more casual gamer audience who follow an

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organization or a creator because of the things that they

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do within that space. And then how do we as an organization,

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help to empower the fan base to be able to interact and engage

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with not just our band, but with our sponsorship ran? So, you

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know, maybe different platforms. I wasn't as familiar with the

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Twitch space. I've learned a lot, a lot then. And, you know,

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Twitter wasn't a huge priority. for fashion. So, you know, it's

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always very image and Instagram driven. So, you know, different

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kinds of different kinds of media. But you know, at the end

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of the day, it's really about reaching an audience in the

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platform that they feel the most comfortable and understand the

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brand through those lens. So,

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yeah, gotcha, what made you want to transition from

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fashion to gaming? I mean, it could, it could just be that you

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just really liked Genji. It was good opportunity. But was there

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any, any reason you either wanted to get out of fashion or

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into gaming? Or was this just kind of a right place, right

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time type opportunity.

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Um, so I, you know, my whole life, I wanted to work in

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fashion that was like, when I graduated from school, college,

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high school, you know, all that I was, like, my career is going

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to be in fashion in any which way possible. And I worked in a

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variety of jobs within the fashion space, I, I eventually

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made my way into the social media and marketing part of it,

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but I did do a lot of work in, you know, in store displays, I

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did buying I did apparel design, I worked on this small line for

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a little bit as well. So when I was approached with this

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opportunity, you know, I, I had had already a very long career

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within the fashion space, doing a lot of different aspects of

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it. So and I guess you could say, right place at the right

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time, but I think there were also things that were really,

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you know, interesting about it, it was a very emerging space at

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the time, you know, obviously, gamers and people who are like

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very big fans of gaming are already like, very, you know,

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much a part of the communities, but somebody like me, that was

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command kind of as an outsider, it was very eye opening to see

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that there was such a large community of people, you know,

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very engaged. He a huge community that was almost

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hidden, I mean, not hidden, but like to the general, um, you

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know, you know, in school, you're never like, oh, I want to

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grow up on and be a gamer. You know, what I mean? So it's, it

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didn't seem like a career path that was available, readily

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available. So I was very intrigued by that, you know,

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gotcha.

Lindsay Poss:

I think maybe now, hopefully, things have changed

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with the rise of Twitch. But certainly when, when I was

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growing up, young people did not grow up wanting to be

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professional gamers. And given your passion for fashion and

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your background in it. How do you see the overlap in fashion

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in gaming? Seen a lot with fortnight and robotics, for

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example, or Nike? I think they had a, they've been kind of big

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on making Metaverse experiences in place, but how do you see the

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overlap between fashion and gaming and creating those

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experiences for

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customers? Um, I think there's like, there are a lot of

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ways to look at fashion and gaming overlap. You know, I feel

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like that we're still in this, like discovery phase two of what

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that looks like. You know, they're on one hand, they're at

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like a base level, you know, there's creators, there's people

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who have a lot of audience share, and there's, you know,

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the ability to gift them and give their followers to really

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see what the product is like. When you get to be a little bit

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more, you know, into the metaverse area. I think

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different brands are looking at it in different ways. And I

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think the ones that the brands and partners who are looking at

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as a transactional in a transactional lens. For me, I, I

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think that that's not quite the way to approach it. I guess,

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like the example I would give to a brand is, you know, why is the

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Time Square billboard, the some of the most coveted ad space,

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you know, when I was at Harvard, when we had a big digital

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billboard attached to the store, and it was like, the number one

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thing that artists and models wanted to be on, you know, it

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was like the, the thing that meant the most to them when we

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would work on a lot of these campaigns. And, you know, it's

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it's kind of the same thing where it's like, you don't have

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somebody look at that billboard and go immediately, oh, I'm

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going to buy this right now. You know, it kind of has to be a

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longer term play. It's about being relatable and being there

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and spaces that people are looking consuming and watching

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and you know, caring about. And so I think that's really the

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future of the metaverse. I'm sure that for these like branded

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activations. It's more about the perience I think, I don't know

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if that really answered your question.

Lindsay Poss:

That makes sense. I mean, I get what you're saying

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you can't. Yeah, you can't just necessarily have an empty

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marketing campaign and expect to sell everything. There has to be

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like a consideration for how the consumers are actually

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interacting in that experience.

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Yeah. I think also consistency, right. Like there's

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a huge play right now for people to be first to metaverse. You

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know, brands want to be first Metaverse, but like, what is

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metaverse? It means different things to different brands. And

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then also what are you doing in that metaphor that provides

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value to the consumer? And that? I don't know, people care more

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about what they get now, you know, like the consumer,

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consumer led activations are our land better, right? So I think,

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yeah.

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Is that something that is that a trend that you've

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noticed recently? Or is that? You know, I'm trying to, I'm

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trying to figure out the exact question I'm asking, but you

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jumped from fast fashion to gaming, and fast fashion

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presumably has a really different kind of marketing

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strategy, technique that they use to go after customers,

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things like that. And in that jump, is that when you kind of

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notice the success of consumer led activations? Or do you think

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that this is more of a global shift that's happening in all

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industries? Or what has what has changed in the past five years?

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Or maybe it hasn't, maybe consumer led activations have

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always been more successful? But it certainly that, to me, is not

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something I've heard before. So can you just elaborate on that a

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little bit? Yeah, I think it's, I think it's

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probably a global shift that happened because of social

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media, and access that people have to content and ads, you

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know, and what is viewed as an ad, when I was first working in

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like, the social media space, it was when Instagram was barely

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getting to have fashion Instagramers, who were being

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paid by brands to push their product, like, you know, it

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wasn't regulated, there was no like, you know, you didn't have

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to do the hashtag add the, you know, all those rules, like

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they, it wasn't very, it was really very discovery oriented.

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And, and it was very, there were, it felt like, there were

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no boundaries, almost. That's actually how I made my shift

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from making clothes to like marketing clothes, was because I

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kind of had like, a quarter life thing. And I was like, I'm gonna

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be a social media person. And I started doing like, photography

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stuff, and styling stuff on Instagram, and that like,

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snowballed into a whole new reinvented career based off of

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that. And so I think that, you know, people are so much more

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used to consumer led content now. And obviously, there's

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still an element where a brand wants to seem really cool, or

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like, what, looking for the right word, on the tip of my

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tongue. You know, like a brand that people look up to right, or

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like, think or think is cool, right. But at the same time, you

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also have to be relatable. And so I think that's where, you

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know, there's like the two different kinds where you build

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the brand, and have like, really, really cool, high end

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looking campaigns on the other side of it, you also have to

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balance that with things that are more relatable.

Lindsay Poss:

Yeah, and speaking of those influencer type

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relationships, or I mean, influencers, creators, artists,

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all different categories, they really recognize but you manage

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a lot of collaborations between brands and those types of folks

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who might come from the external world to do the consumer led

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media as their main form of content. How do you navigate

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those relationships to make sure that both sides are getting

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something valuable from that collaboration?

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I think that in order for both sides to have something

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super valuable, I think people have to be really clear about

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what two things. The first is their core brand message, you

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know, what are they trying to do with this campaign? And does it

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is it a shared value system with the Creator? And then the second

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thing is allowing the creators to have some freedom within

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their medium because they're experts within their, their

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mediums and their audience, you know, their audience the best.

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So I think we're having Making sure that expectations are

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clearly outlined and the success, like what defines

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success for the brand and what defines success, the creators

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like those have to kind of align in order for both sides to get

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something positive from it. Gotcha. So

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specific measures of success kind of help you

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determine how two sides work

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together. Yes. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay.

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And also along that same vein, I think that one

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of the most important things in these collaborations is that

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elusive authenticity. word that comes up a lot in gaming. And

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gamers, I think are especially notorious for calling out when

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brands or collaborations or agencies or whomever, when

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there's maybe a, I don't know, a less savory play, I guess I'll

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call it. So what I mean is, gamers are quick to point out if

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a a streamer maybe partners with a brand that is not well liked

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in

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the gaming community. And that's, that's,

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I think that they're known as being a very

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fickle and somewhat somewhat harsh audience that they often

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adjudicate things themselves in Reddit and discord communities.

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But when you're coming up with those measures for success, and

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when you're pairing together, the content creator, or the

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influencer with the initiative that you're trying to market,

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how are you thinking about making sure that those pieces

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match, so that you can kind of maintain that, again, elusive

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authenticity, piece in the gaming community?

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So I think, understanding what the brand is

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trying to do, and then understanding the type of

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audience that the Creator, this is, I feel like I'm just saying

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what I already said, Sorry, but we're almost we exist, because

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when we are working with, with, between brands, and creators, I

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don't want to say we're like an agency, because we're not weird.

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We're in an organization. And the creators are a part of our

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organization, and they want to work with us, we want to work

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with them, because, you know, we share certain brand values, or

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we'd like their content, or there's a lot of reasons why,

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you know, we would choose to work with certain creator. And

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so when we're trying to match up the two sides, we have to really

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get that what the brand is trying to do is the same as what

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this particular shoe market can do. You know, like you said, the

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audience is really vocal, if you try to force something to a

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particular creators audience, like, they're the first to be

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like, This is so fake, or, you know, and I don't think that you

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can really force that. I think you've, like you've mentioned,

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people have done collabs because I'm sure there are high

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paychecks or whatever, but it at the end of the day can get very

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rejected by the gaming communities. And I think that's

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really interesting. It's almost like empowering, you know, like,

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can dictate the tone that the audience has a lot of power. And

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in this situation when it

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what is kind of what are some of your favorite

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activations? What are some of the things you've actually

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worked on at Genji?

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That just really excite you. So, we spent a lot of time

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you know, in the last three years, when I, when I first

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started, like, people knew us as a career first organization that

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we had the sole Dynasty, which the Overwatch team, nevermind

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that the audience, mostly North America, or like there's a huge

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North American fan base for that team. But you know, it's this

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whole team, great team. We also had League of Legends and a pub

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G team out of Korea. And when I joined, I was really, I was part

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of the wave of the first you know, setting up the the North

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American headquarters in Los Angeles. And so I think a lot of

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things have happened along the way that at the time were like

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just a pipe dream, right? Like, I would have never thought that

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we would work with a global sports brand like Puma and that

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they would, you know, support us worldwide, you know, not just

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for our Korean teams, but for our initiatives in North

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America. I think that's one of the The partnerships that I I

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love the most, because I think like at in the beginning, I was

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like, you know, talking with our now CEO who was the Chief

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Operating Officer at the time Arnold. And we had, like, you

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know, what is? What would be our goal, you know, and it was like

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to get a major for sponsor for us, not just in Korea, but

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globally, and it happened. So it's really cool. And so that's

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kind of a continuation of that, you know, next week, we're going

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to be unveiling that we are launching a partnership with the

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game developer. A game.

Lindsay Poss:

Sorry. No, that was an excited Oh.

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Like a game to the game developer that is huge in Korea,

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and the game that we are working on marketing with them globally,

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is called eternal return. And it's a battlefield style game,

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where the characters are very, they're very cute, like, a lot

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of cosplayers would like them. So it's similar to League of

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Legends where you're, you know, there's like a map, but it's a

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battle ground game, where it's not like five B five, like

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League of Legends, it's kind of like pub G, or fortnight where

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you can like, go into the map and play amongst other people.

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And then the other additive layers that the characters are

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like, really, you and like, again, certain type of way. So

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we're working with them to promote their game worldwide.

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And so I think like, I would have never even thought of that

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as an option, right. And three years ago, when we were when we

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were working on this like to draw on our roof in Korea, and

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like to show how we expanded and adapted per region, and each

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each region has their own marketing initiatives. But we're

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also a global brand, now working with a publisher to push their

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game and mean that kind of crazy, like, I

Lindsay Poss:

know, that's much different. I mean, I don't I'm

Lindsay Poss:

not extremely familiar with how all different organizations kind

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of operate in the team space. So I don't want to say something

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and then have it be wrong, but I'm not super aware of any other

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partnerships with developers quite like this, that centered

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around a game launch. And where you're really pushing forward a

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game like that. That's the kind of a new way of doing things

Lindsay Poss:

that I think I could be wrong, you can correct me if I'm wrong.

Unknown:

I mean, I want to say it's revolutionary, and nobody

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does it. Yeah, I mean, I think I think that it, doesn't it, there

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isn't an example of it. But also I could be wrong, you know,

Lindsay Poss:

yeah. Again, at least none are coming, coming to

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top of mind. So that's, that's quite fun, and very, very

Lindsay Poss:

interesting. So shifting gears a bit, and actually, this is kind

Lindsay Poss:

of related to the session we're having, but you were recently

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promoted to VP of brand activation, and to from VP of

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brand activation and apparel to Chief Marketing Officer. And,

Lindsay Poss:

you know, then we've talked about this brand new activation,

Lindsay Poss:

and all of the different work that you're doing. Can you talk

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a little bit about how you're able to elevate your career, I

Lindsay Poss:

would love to hear kind of from two different angles. One being

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what you did for yourself, education or experience wise.

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And the second being the type of environment that you are in a

Lindsay Poss:

Genji, where there is such a heavy focus on promoting ti

Lindsay Poss:

principles and guys seem to really work hard, bringing that

Lindsay Poss:

into the organization.

Unknown:

So yeah, you're just tell me about that. Sure. So my

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educational background is I you know, I studied art, actually,

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my major in college was to do art and American Studies, which

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is like a weird nature where you do like, English, History and

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Sociology all combined. So I it's completely unrelated to

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where I am right now. But I think like at at Genji The

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environment here is very ideas focus. Right. So I don't think

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that the because a lot of us had previous lives, you know, with

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careers and other industries. I think maybe we don't come to the

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table with this is how gaming should be. Right? Because we're

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all still learning and we all understand that we're like,

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students in this space as well. So I think there isn't an

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environment where, I mean, maybe I could be wrong, this is how I

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feel where we're rewarded for being inventive, I guess. And,

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like, I know, my strengths as an employee, you know, I know my

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background, I know that, you know, I've done solid work

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within the branding space. And I have like a weird, you know,

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cross section of background where I can like, work on design

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things, but also have done stuff in social media and have

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campaigns and influencer management and experience all

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events. So when when I came here, I fully expected that I

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was going to be drawing on a lot of those different pots and

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then, and I think you kind of have to just like, go with it,

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right? I mean, that's the cool thing about feeling like you're

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in a startup space, you don't really have to feel like, Oh, I

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can't do this, because I'm not supposed to do it. And I think

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that that, you know, obviously, as the organization is growing,

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and has grown over the last few years, like, you know, it's more

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structured than it was when I first started, but I think we're

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still led by this idea that, you know, you can be creative, and

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there are different ways that that creativity is expressed.

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But I think intellectual creativity is probably the way

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that I would say that we're, that we, like, what we value.

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And then I think a lot of the D and I stuff like that stuff is

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meaningful to me personally, right? I've worked in like,

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really large organizations that and, like, they were what but

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you know, at a certain point, you think like fashion, you

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think it's like all a woman, but at a certain point, it's not,

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right, you get to a certain level, and you're the only woman

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in the room. And so I think a lot of those experiences are,

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you know, probably echoed within gaming. And so it's really

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important for us. And we, we actually truly believe it to

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build a inclusive, that right, a staff and an inclusive community

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like that, that's something that's important to us. So and

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it's been, it's been great to see it play out because like,

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the, the leadership here is very open, you know, to new ideas.

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And I would say like, my advice for people who are trying to

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level up their careers is, is to definitely not like undersell

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yourself, but also don't oversell yourself, you know,

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the, I think, like if I came into the gaming space, and I was

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like, I know everything, you know, it would be like a really

Unknown:

different outcome than me being like, Okay, I know what I, I

Unknown:

know what I know, and I know what I need to learn. Right. And

Unknown:

I think that, that kind of that way of thinking is applicable in

Unknown:

a lot of situations, you know, how much of the

Lindsay Poss:

kind of, you know, creativity and innovation and,

Unknown:

and the push for having an environment that's

Lindsay Poss:

very aware of dei principles do you think comes

Lindsay Poss:

from Genji being a company that operates in multiple countries,

Lindsay Poss:

multiple different, you know, language barriers, and different

Lindsay Poss:

cultural there's, how much of that do you think can kind of be

Lindsay Poss:

attributed to how the organization is run across

Lindsay Poss:

different

Unknown:

countries? I mean, I think maybe like half right,

Unknown:

because our our we really love percentages here. So it's just

Unknown:

track success. So to give you a metric I would say like 50

Unknown:

years, I think like our leadership is really like a lot

Unknown:

of our leadership is something American, you know, so like,

Unknown:

Asian American, you know what I mean? So, like, I think like,

Unknown:

and I do think like when you enter into our company, it's

Unknown:

like we definitely have like all hands meetings that are our

Unknown:

weekly or bi weekly now. They're global like you have like the

Unknown:

China office on there. You have the Korea office out there we

Unknown:

have like full staff of translators, like it's a whole

Unknown:

thing to like, even get updates because, you know, and in the

Unknown:

different regions, it's like, yes, of course, like most people

Unknown:

outside of the US learn English and yes, they like have language

Unknown:

skills that I wouldn't only dream of having. But at the same

Unknown:

time you still like having Business English is different

Unknown:

than having conversational English. And so we have like

Unknown:

translators, you have to like kind of I think there is a big

Unknown:

factor in that, you know, and business culture is different by

Unknown:

region as well. So, for me, that was a big learning like on how

Unknown:

to communicate to dash in Korea, in a way that is helpful, you

Unknown:

know, I think Americans can tend to communicate in a way that is

Unknown:

overly direct sometimes and doesn't always match the culture

Unknown:

of you know, and that neither way is wrong or right. It's the

Unknown:

way that, you know, the culture is, I've definitely had to learn

Unknown:

a lot about that, during my time here as like an Asian face, but

Unknown:

I was born and raised in the US. So you and for me, that barrier

Unknown:

was like, you know, learning, a lot of learning. I think the

Unknown:

other side of it, too, was like, you know, we are we have a lot

Unknown:

of educational initiatives. And, you know, we definitely see that

Unknown:

the DNI is important, you know, not just I mentioned personally

Unknown:

to us, but like, it's important in crossover with educational

Unknown:

initiatives that we have, like, you know, really empowering the

Unknown:

next generation of gamers, like, you know, something that's

Unknown:

important to us. Truly sounds cheesy, but it is, you know, so.

Unknown:

And there's a lot of things that connect within there, right?

Unknown:

Like, you know, woman in the, in the gaming space is a big, you

Unknown:

know, conversation, especially since, especially around this

Unknown:

time, it's big conversation piece. But when we started, it

Unknown:

wasn't that big of a conversation piece. You know, it

Unknown:

was like, something that we wanted to do. Something that we

Unknown:

wanted to do, and now like, you know, the industry has changed

Unknown:

so much in the last few years, like every Oregon is supporting

Unknown:

the, you know, this causes well, and it's, it's amazing, right?

Lindsay Poss:

It's wild, I actually got into this space, I

Lindsay Poss:

suppose a bit later. So I've been around, mostly for the last

Lindsay Poss:

two to three years. And even just, I mean, hearing the

Lindsay Poss:

stories about what it was like before then it was pretty

Lindsay Poss:

horrible. But I don't know that I would have even have gotten

Lindsay Poss:

into the industry if it was five years ago. Right? I don't I

Lindsay Poss:

don't think this podcast would exist if it was five years ago,

Lindsay Poss:

because I don't think that there was people out there willing to

Lindsay Poss:

listen to what was going on at the time. So I can definitely

Lindsay Poss:

appreciate that. The different initiatives you all are putting

Lindsay Poss:

forward. And I'm hoping that that leads to kind of a more

Lindsay Poss:

seismic change eventually, although we're seeming to get

Lindsay Poss:

more of a slow trickle of change, but

Unknown:

I suppose I think it's like, amazing when you see

Unknown:

because I don't know, like when when I when I started, and it

Unknown:

wasn't even that long ago, right? And you're saying like

Unknown:

five years ago, that's like, not that long ago, right? But oh,

Unknown:

no, change. It's like very different. When I started, it

Unknown:

was right, when we were like, talking about launching the team

Unknown:

Bumble campaign that you mentioned, and it was like, What

Unknown:

is this launching something for all women, you know, like, the

Unknown:

only fortnight at that time? Were 94 was like really popping

Unknown:

off. And, you know, we signed like, a slew of woman creators

Unknown:

who like, also at the time did not really we're not really

Unknown:

signed to org yet, or there weren't as many, right? So when

Unknown:

we signed like, 10 of them. It was like, a thing, you know,

Unknown:

like, it was like, Oh, hey, that's what's happening, right?

Unknown:

And now it's, it's amazing to see, like, you know, it's just,

Unknown:

it's incredible to see, it does feel like a slow trickle. But

Unknown:

then when you look at it in a chunk, you're like, okay, it is

Unknown:

actually really different. And then to see like riot,

Unknown:

supporting it through there VCT game changers initiatives and

Unknown:

like also, your publisher support on that, like, that's a

Unknown:

huge deal. I don't know that I would have anticipated that

Unknown:

three years ago.

Lindsay Poss:

Can you tell me a little, some more about some of

Lindsay Poss:

the stuff that we talked about at the top? Like, like Team

Lindsay Poss:

Bumble, and I know that you all have you did a lot of stuff for

Lindsay Poss:

International Women's Day slash month. I'm honestly not sure if

Lindsay Poss:

that's all of my March that's considered a month to celebrate

Lindsay Poss:

women, but that's a whole that's a different issue. I know that

Lindsay Poss:

you were doing some things for that with female creators

Lindsay Poss:

bendings some donations to aid for Ukraine, which I thought was

Lindsay Poss:

amazing. Be Yeah, can you tell me a little bit more about some

Lindsay Poss:

of the philanthropic initiatives you have going on? motivations

Lindsay Poss:

behind them? What you're, you know, upper management, what you

Lindsay Poss:

tried to communicate with them?

Unknown:

All that good stuff. Sorry. So I'll start with

Unknown:

international women's month, which I mean, we just do it all

Unknown:

month because why not? Why not?

Lindsay Poss:

You know, but it's just no issue was a big month. I

Lindsay Poss:

just know that March 8. Everyone's was posting yet about

Lindsay Poss:

International Women's Day. And then yeah, I don't know what

Lindsay Poss:

happens is the rest of March. Yeah,

Unknown:

it's funny. I just thought on Twitter, where all

Unknown:

News Live. The there are like different woman creators like

Unknown:

and their tweets on woman Woman's Day and like one of them

Unknown:

was if today's the only day that you're tweeting about sporting

Unknown:

woman then like, go think about your life and your choices. So

Unknown:

at Gen G, we do the month, because why not. But also, it's

Unknown:

easier to plan out a whole month. And we can have more, you

Unknown:

know, charity initiatives and kind of things that support the

Unknown:

collegiate space for the duration of the month. So we

Unknown:

this year, we're raising actually, for broadcasters,

Unknown:

which is a part of the 1000 1000 Dreams fund, to further this

Unknown:

space for women who are interested in the content

Unknown:

creation and gaming space, like providing opportunity for women

Unknown:

who are pursuing like a career or have interest in it. We chose

Unknown:

the organization this this month, because it it shares a

Unknown:

lot of common values with what we're trying to do with the

Unknown:

Genji Foundation, which he also mentioned earlier before, but we

Unknown:

basically we made a 10 year million dollar commitment during

Unknown:

2021. So many things were happening in, in the US,

Unknown:

including the pandemic and a bunch of, you know, racial

Unknown:

justice movements and things like that. We meant we we first

Unknown:

saw that, you know, obviously, like everyone was posting in

Unknown:

support of these different movements. We wanted to like, do

Unknown:

something actual, you know, yes, it's good. Yeah, it's good, of

Unknown:

course, to make your voice heard and to make it known, but then

Unknown:

like, after you broadcast it out into the void, what happens

Unknown:

next, you know, and I think like, that's what we really

Unknown:

leadership here. That's what we're really thinking about,

Unknown:

like, how do we, how do we take that and actually help

Unknown:

individuals, and it may be like, very idealistic, but I just

Unknown:

think like, you know, so much within the space has changed,

Unknown:

it's moving so fast and three years, five years, like, you

Unknown:

blink an eye, and there's like, like you said, like this podcast

Unknown:

couldn't have existed five years ago, right. And that's not that

Unknown:

much time. So if we're making a 10 year commitment, then like,

Unknown:

we can only anticipate, you know, what kind of changes could

Unknown:

come within the space that's moving so quickly right now,

Unknown:

right? So that's why we, so we have that Genji Foundation, and

Unknown:

there were just a lot of parallels values shared with the

Unknown:

broadcaster initiative. So that's why we're, we're

Unknown:

supporting them. And then, you know, obviously, there's this

Unknown:

whole the crisis going on with Ukraine. And we felt it would be

Unknown:

not in line with our values. If we were just to like, post about

Unknown:

the, you know, we wanted to provide some kind of actions. So

Unknown:

when everything was happening, and people were like, you know,

Unknown:

changing their overall pitch? And of course, yes, like, make

Unknown:

your support be known. But what can we do beyond that? So, you

Unknown:

know, we're matching what is being raised for broadcasters,

Unknown:

and Genji is going to match that to the good fund for Ukraine. So

Unknown:

that's kind of what we're working on this month. So it's

Unknown:

kind of like a, you know, we have a bunch of colab, like,

Unknown:

charity streams between some of our creators, we have one going

Unknown:

up to deficit starting in like 40 minutes between two of our

Unknown:

bigger two of our valorant creators. And so we have a

Unknown:

couple more of those scheduled through the end of the month.

Unknown:

And then we're also we also did office hours, what's happening

Unknown:

weekly in that discord, it's just like a space for all

Unknown:

students to come in and stop by and kind of like chat with the

Unknown:

woman staff that we have very many. I did mine last week, and

Unknown:

it turns kind of into like a resume review for a couple of

Unknown:

students. So I did that. But that's happening weekly. And

Unknown:

then we also did a workshop, which is our series to kind of,

Unknown:

you know,

Unknown:

educate I guess, like, sound marketing like but basically, we

Unknown:

did a panel that had like, different woman in the gaming

Unknown:

and music space. kind of talk about their careers and their

Unknown:

career path. We actually have a creator, her name is Nikki

Unknown:

Taylor, and she is professional singer as well. She's saying

Unknown:

actually one of the world's theme song. Yeah. So she's,

Unknown:

like, pretty known in the lead community. Yes, she's a she's

Unknown:

like, she's amazing. And she hosted it. And then we had

Unknown:

Shannon Williams is one of our valorant creators. She's

Unknown:

actually also the voice actress for debt within the game itself.

Unknown:

So she was and she used to be in the Kpop mean. So she's, yeah,

Unknown:

so she was a guest on it. We also had Stephanie poetry who's

Unknown:

like an artist and with eight rising. And then we had another

Unknown:

artist named Ilana Garcia, and she was actually, she did the

Unknown:

song for neon, the neon and Ballarat her that like launched

Unknown:

neon are. So we did that. It's really just more about learning

Unknown:

about more woman in the space, like how they got there and what

Unknown:

they're doing. Yeah. So okay, we'll

Lindsay Poss:

wait before we wrap up. And I'm sad that we are

Lindsay Poss:

wrapping up because I actually wanted to ask you a couple more

Lindsay Poss:

questions about the metaverse and future tech and where Genji

Lindsay Poss:

is going. But we are just not going to get to that today. So

Lindsay Poss:

you'll have to come back on some time. But before we wrap up, I

Lindsay Poss:

want to do a quick summary and then I'll ask you the last

Lindsay Poss:

question I have here. We kind of started off with a lot on your

Lindsay Poss:

background in marketing and what it means. One thing that we did

Lindsay Poss:

talk about what the metaverse is important to be consistent. And

Lindsay Poss:

that's true in Metaverse and in real life, but you have to

Lindsay Poss:

provide value to the consumer, consumer led activations tend to

Lindsay Poss:

be more successful. That's been kind of a recent shift as social

Lindsay Poss:

media and access to ADS has increased audience

Lindsay Poss:

participation, kind of more so than it used to be clear

Lindsay Poss:

expectations and specific measures of success, make it

Lindsay Poss:

easier for both brands and brand collaborators to get what they

Lindsay Poss:

need. And choosing creators that align with brand values is

Lindsay Poss:

important for maintaining authenticity. One thing that you

Lindsay Poss:

should have just super exciting is that you have a game, a

Lindsay Poss:

partnership coming with a game developer, that's really cool

Lindsay Poss:

and unique. At least we couldn't think of another organization

Lindsay Poss:

that had done that quite yet. And I'm excited for it to come

Lindsay Poss:

out and for people to view it because he said that the

Lindsay Poss:

characters are super fun and cute. That's a talked about

Lindsay Poss:

Genji and how you give a very specific measure that 50% of the

Lindsay Poss:

creativity and innovation and dei principles come from being a

Lindsay Poss:

multinational company where you have to learn different business

Lindsay Poss:

cultures, you have to interact across different value

Lindsay Poss:

spectrums, and just really learn who you're dealing with. So I

Lindsay Poss:

appreciate the exact number there. And we ended with a lot

Lindsay Poss:

of the philanthropic initiatives you're involved with at Genji,

Lindsay Poss:

putting the ones for International Women's month,

Lindsay Poss:

through your support for the broadcast her initiative, I

Lindsay Poss:

thought it was really greatly pointed out that everyone should

Lindsay Poss:

try to act out their values. They're not just posting which

Lindsay Poss:

can be really great, but also doing things to actually help

Lindsay Poss:

organizations as much as you can. And I know that you all are

Lindsay Poss:

doing a lot to support a for Ukraine. And you're also doing a

Lindsay Poss:

lot in the college and education space to directly help folks

Lindsay Poss:

there. So for our last segment, I do this on every show, like to

Lindsay Poss:

ask each guest for a moment of reflection. So just the chance

Lindsay Poss:

to kind of think back on your career and answer what is one

Lindsay Poss:

thing you would like to tell your younger self about getting

Lindsay Poss:

into the gaming industry and being successful.

Unknown:

I guess like fake it till you make it. But, but put

Unknown:

real thought into how you're going to make it you know, you

Unknown:

can't fake it forever. You have to fake it and go in with an

Unknown:

open mind to learn to understand community. So

Lindsay Poss:

you're saying don't be in Adelphi pretend to

Lindsay Poss:

be a German Eris claim you have $60 million to watch.

Unknown:

And Adelphi like I her voice saying, like, run it

Unknown:

again. It's just echoing in my head for the last few weeks. Why

Unknown:

you being so dramatic? Yeah, basically, you know, yes. It's

Unknown:

good to believe in yourself. Yes. It's good to be confident.

Unknown:

Yes. It's good to you know, sell yourself right. Because you are

Unknown:

you are valuable. Like you know, like you should never undersell

Unknown:

your your skill set. But yes, don't be an Adobe. Yeah,

Lindsay Poss:

so fake it fake that confidence, but don't fake

Lindsay Poss:

the skill behind it.

Unknown:

Yes. Like you have to learn, you know, you have to be

Unknown:

open minded and willing to understand things that you don't

Unknown:

know, you know, and admit that you don't know it at least to

Unknown:

yourself so that you can, you know, improve them.

Lindsay Poss:

Like that. Don't be at Adelphi but be a little

Lindsay Poss:

bit of an adult a little bit.

Unknown:

Yes. Don't be the tender swindler at all. But

Unknown:

yeah, no, yeah. at all, not a little not even a little bit.

Lindsay Poss:

No, there's no redeemable qualities. They're

Lindsay Poss:

part of void. Well, Tina, thank you so much for coming on. Where

Lindsay Poss:

can people find and follow you and follow Genji and all the

Lindsay Poss:

cool stuff you guys

Unknown:

coming up? You can follow Genji on Twitter at Genji

Unknown:

for or Genji? I hope not let me

Unknown:

just Changi on Twitter, and you can follow me on Twitter and

Unknown:

Instagram at Hi juicy party. Oh hai GC party ca RT y yay.

Lindsay Poss:

For all our listeners out there, make sure

Lindsay Poss:

you keep leaving those five star ratings and reviews. Be sure to

Lindsay Poss:

check out other holodeck media podcasts, including meta

Lindsay Poss:

business for all the metaverse, finance stories you could ever

Lindsay Poss:

want. In business of esports for interviews with industry

Lindsay Poss:

leaders, I'm on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn at

Lindsay Poss:

Lindsey path and you can catch me Wednesday nights on the

Lindsay Poss:

business of esports live after show. You can catch this podcast

Lindsay Poss:

and your feed every Tuesday sometimes Wednesday. We'll see

Lindsay Poss:

you next week.

Unknown:

Thanks for joining us here on meta woman. Make sure to

Unknown:

subscribe to this podcast everywhere you get your

Unknown:

podcasts, leave a five star review and tell your friends,

Unknown:

family and colleagues all about us. Also, make sure to follow

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About the Podcast

META Woman
Weekly metaverse content - for women, by women
Meta Woman will focus on addressing the issues, opportunities, and challenges facing women in the development of the Metaverse. Top female executives and business people operating within the gaming and crypto industries bring a wide range of perspectives through regular guest appearances.