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Data, Diversity, and Disruption

Ariela Nerubay, Chief Marketing Officer at Jumex USA, shares how her passion lies in segmentation, cultural sensitivity, and building communities where consumers feel seen, heard, and part of something bigger.
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Data, Diversity, and Disruption

"I'm a passionate marketer when it comes to just bringing new ideas to life, but I'm even more passionate about ensuring that those ideas create communities where everybody feels seen, heard, and therefore, you establish a deeper connection with consumers." Ariela Nerubay Turndorf, CMO of Jumex USA

On this episode of Time for a Reset, Marketing Podcast: Insights from Global Brand Marketers, brought to you by Overline, host Tiffany Wilburn sits down with Ariela Nerubay, CMO of Jumex USA, to explore how legacy brands can innovate without compromising authenticity. Drawing on decades of experience with brands like Disney and Walmart, Ariela explains how first-party data, cultural nuance, and AI-powered segmentation can drive effective, modern marketing strategies. From multicultural outreach to brand consistency across languages, she shares a blueprint for transforming heritage brands for new generations. 

What does it take to evolve a heritage brand without watering down its essence? On this episode of Time for a Reset, Marketing Podcast: Insights from Global Brand Marketers, brought to you by Overline, host Tiffany Wilburn sits down with Ariela Nerubay, CMO of Jumex USA, to unpack how legacy brands can evolve without erasing what made them iconic. Drawing from decades of experience at brands like Disney and Walmart, Ariela shares how to turn first-party data, cultural nuance, and AI-powered segmentation into action. From multicultural marketing to message consistency, it’s a masterclass in modernizing with purpose.

Tune in to learn more about:

  • How to evolve legacy brands while maintaining core customer loyalty
  • The "Natural Extension" framework for successful brand innovation 
  • Why first-party data capabilities are crucial for modern CPG marketing success
  • How to authentically connect with multicultural audiences
  • The importance of maintaining brand consistency across languages and channels
  • Why direct consumer interaction and real-world experience remain critical for modern marketers
  • How to leverage AI and digital marketing for precise consumer segmentation 
  • The strategic approach to expanding distribution channels 

Ariela Nerubay is the Chief Marketing Officer at Jumex, where she leads brand growth and innovation initiatives across multiple product lines and market segments. With over 20 years of experience in multicultural marketing, she has held executive roles at prominent organizations including Walmart, Comcast, Allstate, Univision Communications, The Walt Disney Company, Fox Studios, and Sony Pictures. Her expertise spans multicultural consumer engagement, digital and data-driven marketing strategies. Beyond her corporate role, Ariela serves as an adjunct professor at USC's Marshall School of Business, teaching multicultural and digital marketing, and is a senior consultant at the Inclusive Leaders Group. Her achievements include receiving the Luminary Award from the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communication and the Successful Latinas in Business Award.

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Ariela Nerubay – 00:00:00:

 

I had dibs into the largest data lake or first-party data that any marketer could have. A data lake that was dirty, by the way, because nobody used it and nobody knew how to manage it from a marketing standpoint. And I was able to, within seven years of being there, really turn that whole operation and modernize it and digitize it and bring it to the next century and ensuring that that data is not only utilized, but it’s enriched and it’s tapped into, as we did our email marketing segmentation strategies, we integrate a lot of AI features, and we saw our results skyrocket.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:00:42:

 

Welcome to Time for a Reset: The Marketing Podcast from Overline. I’m Tiffany Wilburn, global marketing strategy practice lead here at Overline, and I’m your host for this episode. The Time for a Reset podcast takes you inside the minds of senior marketers leading top global brands around the world. Join us to explore what they want to reset in today’s evolving business landscape and discover strategies for successful brand growth. No fluff, no buzzwords, just bold conversations packed with sharp insights, proven strategies and moves that create sustainable brand impact. Well, excited to speak with you, Ariela, today, especially given your robust background in the area of marketing. Ariela Nerubay is an accomplished award-winning Chief Marketing Officer with over 20 years of experience. She is known for seamlessly blending creativity with strategic business acumen to drive growth and innovation. Specializing specifically in multicultural consumer engagement, she has led executive roles at companies such as Walmart, Comcast, Allstate, Univision Communications, The Walt Disney Company, Fox Studios, and Sony Pictures, where she spearheaded marketing initiatives, specifically targeting the US hispanic market. In her current role as Chief Marketing Officer at Jumex, Ariela continues to drive brand growth and innovation. Under her leadership, the brand has launched Jumex Hard Arizona, expanding its sustainability efforts and the return of my beloved Odwalla brand. I’m excited to talk about that. Ariela also serves as an adjunct professor for the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and Communication, where she teaches multicultural and digital marketing. Additionally, she is a senior consultant at the Inclusive Leaders Group, specializing in diversity, equity, and inclusion and belonging strategies for Hispanic and Latino employees. Ariella’s dedication to her field and community has earned her numerous accolades, including the Luminary Award from the National Association for Multiethnicity in Communication and the Successful Latinas in Business Award in Media and Communications category by the National Latina Business Women Association. My word. Escaliente in here. Your accomplishments are so plentiful. I’m very excited to have a chance to speak with you, learn more about you and your background and hear just your unique perspective on how you build brands. But thank you for being on the show.

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:03:44:

 

Thank you, Tiffany. And I just want to clarify that Jumex Hard is actually distributed by Arizona, but it’s a Jumex, Grupo Jumex property. So we’re super excited to have amazing partners that we have forged incredible relationships and with whom we’re bringing to life a lot of different products that are only available in the US and not in Mexico. So that’s quite the new challenge.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:04:10:

 

If you were to have the opportunity to hit a reset button, just to hit a reset button on anything, what would you hit reset on and why?

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:04:20:

 

So I would say that if I have to press the reset button on something, it would be for sure on AI. And I know that this could sound a little controversial since everybody talks about AI and how AI is helping marketers become more efficient. I am a big user of AI personally. I literally use it every day in my work and it absolutely helps me and my team be a lot more productive. However, I think that as marketers, we jumped on it a little too fast. I think that as a marketer rmarker, your role and your goal is to connect authentically with consumers. And the use of AI as a tool that replaces the human touch is something that people recognize and people do not appreciate when they feel that it’s a machine that is talking to them. So I think that when AI became the thing not long ago. And we all as markers jumped up really quickly onto it, we should have taken a little bit of a pause and determine where AI is appropriate and where it isn’t. Especially after we saw during the Christmas season just last year, the backlash that consumers had against Coke and their holiday fully AI-generated commercial. There is a huge sensitivity around it. We want to be seen and heard by humans, not by machines. So again, if I were to put a reset, I would say let’s think about where AI is appropriate and where it is not. Of course, very differently, AI is phenomenal when it comes to segmentation marketing and automation of emails and automation of journeys and really understanding how can we be more thoughtful about providing the right offer to the right consumer at the right time. And that is phenomenal. But I think that we should really think about the human aspect of where AI cannot replace the human. So that would be my answer.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:06:39:

 

Very good. Well, obviously, you’re an accomplished marketeer. Can you tell me a little bit about your journey, how you came to have a passion for this industry and how that passion has shaped your perspective on marketing?

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:06:54:

 

Absolutely. Well, I have to say that my passion is not for an industry specifically, but is a passion for marketing, a passion for segmentation, a passion for being culturally in tuned, a passion for being respectful with the audience where you honor who they are and where they come from. And that creates authentic connections, especially with young generations that are not the kind of consumer that likes to be spoken at or spoken to, but spoken with and really being involved into the journey and the co-creation of a brand. Young generations today are very sensitive to really feeling that are part of something greater than themselves and that they’re engaging with companies that genuinely care about making a difference in their lives and in the planet that they live in. So I’m a passionate marketer when it comes to just bringing new ideas to life, but I’m even more passionate about ensuring that those ideas create communities where everybody feels seen, heard, and therefore you establish a deeper connection with consumers.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:08:15:

 

I hear an accent and I butchered Jumex’s name. So please help me understand what your individual experience is and how your background influences that perspective that you just offer.

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:08:30:

 

Well, that’s a great question. My background is I’m from Mexico City, born, raised, educated. I moved here already in my mid-20s. So I was already a little bit of a grown-up when I moved to America. And the interesting thing is that the first job I had was in Hispanic media. And that gave me access to the community because I was doing a lot of on-camera reporting at the time. And in the reporting process, I got to learn about immigration, health care, all of the different topics that our Latino communities were so pressed and they were so important to them. So I figured, wow, I mean, there’s so much need and so much opportunity in the community to make a real impact that then my career continued to evolve in the marketing space where I ended up working for PR agencies that are focusing on the Hispanic market, ad agencies that focus on the Hispanic market. Then I went back on the media side, servicing the Hispanic community. So I can say that I have crafted really a career that has been devoted to serving underserved communities that now fast forward 20 something years and the Latino community has become the largest and fastest growing ethnic community in America. They really represent 20% of the population today, 30% by 2060. So having a path that focuses on a particular segment that is growing, that is unique, that has evolved tremendously over the past couple of decades from a Spanish dominant immigrant primarily community into today, seven out of 10 Latinos are actually English dominant US born. There is a huge evolution on consumer mindset that I have been able to witness and evolve with. And therefore, all of my marketing techniques, strategies and initiatives have continued to grow and evolve with the consumer segment. But not only Latino, I am passionate about all segments. As you mentioned, I’m a professor at USC. I teach how to be thoughtful when communicating strategies for the Black, Asian, and Hispanic consumers. When I was at Disney, I was the VP of Multicultural Marketing, so launching initiatives for all segments and all ethnic groups. And now with digital marketing and AI, there is just not an excuse to say, well, one segment is already served with the general market mainstream. Because today you can truly segment and culturally adapt every marketing asset you have for particular nuances. And those are the ones that make consumers feel, oh gosh, you’re really seeing me. You really get me. You’re speaking my language. You’re giving me a cultural nuance that doesn’t necessarily have to be always ethnic centric because it could be generational. It could be I’m speaking Gen Z language versus Millennial language versus XR language. Today, the consumer is so tremendously segmented and self-aware about their own differences that as a marketer, it behooves you to really take a deep dive into understanding how AI and digital marketing can help you genuinely, very specifically connect with all these individual segments authentically.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:12:05:

 

There’s a shift I have noticed in the market as well, where consumers are confident and enthusiastic about finding their small communities and those small communities become the segments that you’re talking about. And when we think about like Jumex expanding their segments, expanding their business beyond maybe the markets they’re serving today, how are you thinking about reaching those new segments from a brand extension perspective or a product line extension? How are you actually operationalizing, expanding the boundaries of the brand?

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:12:48:

 

I love that question because that’s exactly what Jumex is doing today by launching Jumex Hard. So to give you a little story, as I was mentioning before, there are so many segments out there and the Latino population evolved from being core, again, Spanish dependent, to now being second generation, English mainstream. So when you have a legacy brand like Jumex that people grew up with and consider their childhood drink, how do you evolve the brand from being a childhood drink that my Mexico-born parent brought to the table every morning while I was having breakfast to this is the brand that I now carry on a 12 pack into a party now as an adult, right? So the way to evolve that really required some product innovation. So we evolved the development of our traditional blue can, which is on a much larger 16 ounce format. And we developed these smaller thin can format, which is actually trending as all of the energy drinks and the cool coffees are all in this slim can. So then we actually transitioned our product into a thinner can and then added alcohol. And all of a sudden, we took the market by storm because the new Gen Z generations on TikTok that have seen and loved our brand as children, all of a sudden they’re like, oh my God, now this is a drink for me as a young adult. So what our strategy was to reach out to them, tap into influencer marketing, tap into the power of TikTok to really elevate the brand and help it transition from a childhood family brand to an adult brand. And we were extremely successful. I have to say the first four months since we launched this brand, we have received about 12 million interactions online, 1 million mentions, and with simply, honestly, very minimal efforts, all focused on influencer marketing. And people loved it. And they’ve talked about it. And we are now actually about to announce, so I can’t give you the preview just yet, but we’re about to announce our new partner for national distribution in a new format. Because these slim cans are just not enough for the party. They’re amazing for the party when you bring your 12 pack, but you know, you run through them a lot. So there is a new size and format that we’re going to be announcing very soon. And we’re super excited to introduce it. So that’s a perfect example of how a legacy brand expands its horizons within the same market from a core brand into a second generation, completely new audience. And that’s just for Jumex Heart as an example. But there is a lot more examples are going to come down the pipeline because I’m also responsible for repositioning Jumex as a mother brand to even beyond the Hispanic market. And we’ve done a lot of research that has shown that Jumex is extremely relevant, not only to Latinos, but also to non-Hispanic whites and other multicultural audiences. Through our studies, we learned that half of our cells actually are done by non-Hispanic consumers. Obviously, in terms of revenues, we monetize our brand in a much faster and bigger way with Latinos because we have bigger families. We buy the product in bulk in more quantities and more often. But in terms of actual audiences that are buying it, it’s a half and half. So it’s setting the stage for us to really go out with marketing that becomes more mainstream and repositions this brand the way that Corona did it at the time or Pacífico. All of those beers that they’re from Mexico, but doesn’t mean that only Mexicans drink it, right? So that’s kind of what we’re going with.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:17:09:

 

I love that. Clearly, you’re passionate about product innovation, which I see as one of the most integral ways to develop an emotional relationship with your consumers. What makes a new product innovation idea feel right to you for the brand and for the consumer where they are today?

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:17:31:

 

An innovation idea is right when the brand extension is natural. So, for example, when we’re talking about Jumex Hard being a nectar that all of a sudden has alcohol, it’s still a beverage. Jumex has been positioned as a beverage, but also as a fruit company. So if we were to expand into different areas or different product lines, fruits would have to lead the way. In fact, I have to say that part of my goals this year is to position myself as the mango queen. And why the mango queen is because Jumex mango is one of the most popular flavors. It’s the number one selling product that we have. So mango being such a powerful brand, you can think of other brands that associate themselves with different flavors. I don’t want to name competitors, but, you know, some other brands, you think of cranberries, you immediately think of a particular brand. So we want everybody in the US, that when they think of mango, they think of Jumex. So if I’m thinking of product innovation related to mango, I can see mango in many places, right? You can see mango in packaged goods that are very clearly associated with snacking or morning cereal or pick-me-up protein bars. I mean, I don’t know. There is a lot of places where mango can play an important role. And I think that would be a natural brand extension for us.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:19:06:

 

I completely agree with you. Our house is a mango house as well. Dried mango, fresh mango juice, everything.

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:19:15:

 

Mango yogurt, mango food. I mean, there’s mango. What doesn’t go with mango? I mean, it’s just such an awesome, juicy, sweet, and delicious and nutritious fruit that just the name of it already makes me happy.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:19:30:

 

Yeah, I love it. And when you’re thinking about those extensions of the brand into new categories, what are you doing, if anything, specifically to ensure that the Jumex brand isn’t diluted as you go into cereals or potentially as you go into the snacking category? How are you protecting that mother brand? Or is that something that is given to the consumer in a certain regard? Because the brand truly is what the consumer believes it is in their hearts and minds.

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:20:05:

 

So that’s a great question. So we’re protecting the brand again by staying true to our origin of fruit and to our philosophy of only participating in products that are good for the consumer, good for our planet. We believe in sustainability. We believe in a vertical integration that ensures that our products are handled from farm to bottle in a way that is extremely safe, high quality, inconsistent, and reliable in flavor. So what we would make sure is that when we launch any brand extensions that are either produced by us or produced by our partners is that there is alignment from a brand standpoint, from a production, from an operation standpoint. Whenever we put our name on, we know it’s a quality product because the customer expects a quality product. So we wouldn’t be able to put our stamp of approval or our logo on a product that just doesn’t meet our standards. That’s how we’re protecting our brand. By guaranteeing that if you have the Jumex logo on the product, the flavor, the quality, and the sustainability, and the consistency of this experience will be there for you.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:21:27:

 

Okay. I love that. That makes total sense. And so you started to talk about how you are envisioning growing the brand and growing your product penetration across the proverbial store. Are you simultaneously taking action to grow marketing as a function of the organization? And if so, what’s your first move in building what might be called a modern marketing engine for Jumex?

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:21:59:

 

That’s a great question. What Jumex faces is something that many packaged goods companies face. I come from big data company. My former role before Jumex was at a retail store that did 90% of their sales on their private level credit card. So I had divs into the largest data lake or first party data that any marketer could have. A data lake that was dirty, by the way, because nobody used it and nobody knew how to manage it from a marketing standpoint. And I was able to, within seven years of being there, really turn that whole operation and modernize it and digitize it and bring it to the next century and ensuring that that data is not only utilized, but it’s enriched and it’s tapped into as we did our email marketing segmentation strategies. We integrate a lot of AI features and we saw our results skyrocket. So my goal is that I want to bring a lot of that know-how to Jumex as we start building our first-party data capabilities. So for the longest time, again, packaged goods, they sell in the store and you either have their registered data, but you don’t know who they are. Or you buy secondary data from sources like Nielsen or others. But again, it’s all registered data. They tell you, oh, in these particular demographic or geographic locations, you sell this much and this frequent and with this speed of restock, etc. which is great to know, but it doesn’t tell me as a marketer who is buying this. I mean, I don’t know who they are. Why are they buying it? Why did they stop buying it? So we have been conducting a lot of research on our own to get a sense as I start to rebrand and reposition who makes as a major leading mango and other  fruits food brand. But I am very keen on developing a first-party data initiative. Obviously, to do that, you need to have an email marketing engine. You need to have rewards program and program that enables loyalty and information gathering from your customers. And that is exactly what I’m set to build. I don’t know that it will be completed before the close of the year, but it’s definitely on the works.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:24:25:

 

It sounds like the right thing to do, first of all, but it also sounds like it’s going to be an exciting initiative that you undertake. When you envision yourself in that future state, how do you anticipate you will evolve Jumex with that modern marketing engine approach to engage with, to learn about, to develop a relationship with your new consumers while not alienating the legacy consumer who had Jumex brought to their kitchen table by their mother or father every day? How are you envisioning balancing a world in that future state?

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:25:08:

 

That’s a great question, especially because it ties back to the segmentation strategies that we talked about. You are never to alienate your core customer. Your core customer is the one that builds you up, is the one that follows you around. No matter where you go and how you change and how you evolve, these are loyal customers that over the years have been buying the product and serving it at their tables. So I don’t believe that you alienate customers by expanding into multiple languages and making it available in different places. It just expands their access because they are evolving too. There is a lot of communities that when they move into this country as immigrants, they start in one location. But as their lifestyle evolves, as their children go to college, as their economical power grows, then they move and they evolve and they transition into different areas and into different markets. Their language capacity also improves. So I do believe, especially because, again, talking about our Hispanic customer, which is our loyal customer, there is a big number, a big portion of them who are bilingual, bicultural. So inherently, if we start promoting our products in English, let’s say, or we go into English language media, that would be a way to invite them in a different channel with a different approach. But we are still going to remain in the Spanish language world for them so that no matter where you find us, you will see a consistent image and a consistent set of values that are communicated to you, which are family first. And again, we’re a family friendly company. We believe in products that are good for you and good for the environment. We believe in giving you high quality at a price that is reasonable. So when I’m thinking of that, whether you receive that message in English, in Spanish, in Univision or in ABC, the consistency is going to be there. And that’s how you don’t alienate. I think the alienation comes when a brand is not consistent and speaks in one space to an audience very differently than in a different space to another audience, because then it just doesn’t feel authentic. And it feels like, are you talking at me or to me or with me, right? I just want to be on the same side of the table as my consumers, regardless of which table is it.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:27:43:

 

I love that analogy. Having the ambition as a brand to be on the same side of the table as your consumer. Given the fact that you’ve been working in this industry for such a long time, you have so much experience navigating the nuances of expanding a brand into new markets without alienating your existing base consumer. Have you seen particular signals in the past from your existing consumer or things that you’re watching out for that might lead you to believe the expansion isn’t going well or they might be feeling alienated, even if that was not the intention?

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:28:25:

 

Not really, because we haven’t launched the brand expansion yet. I joined the company eight months ago. And in the last eight months, we launched Jumex Hard which was a hit. It literally flew off the shelves within 30 days and we have been tremendously successful. We just recently soft launched Odwalla, which is another smoothies and juice brand at Expo West. We’re finalizing distribution agreements and we’re literally about to launch our first direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform on Amazon. Those are the two main projects that I’ve been working on, as well as a lot of research in terms of how do we expand to other categories. And I’m building, as we speak, the relaunch of the brand to other segments and expand beyond core and bilingual as well. So this is very nascent. I’m at the beginning of that strategy. If we check back in six months from now, then I will be able to tell you if I found any resistance. But as I’m mentioning, because I’m doing it with my team in a very thoughtful and intentional way to ensure that the brand voice is the brand voice that they have grown up with. We’re not reinventing the brand. We’re just expanding positioning to other potential customer segments. You will experience the brand as you know it, but even better. I’m hoping I don’t get anybody feeling isolated, but we’re being very intentional about not doing that. So I’ll keep you posted.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:29:58:

 

Yeah, definitely do. And you’ve talked about expanding the brand and the expansion of category. Are you also thinking about expanding distribution channels? So you mentioned Amazon with Odwalla. Are you looking at distribution expansion or channel expansion with Jumex as well?

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:30:17:

 

Absolutely. So Jumex is going to be everywhere. That’s part of the goal on building a loyalty program, right? Is that we want you to have access to our product in store, online, on Amazon, everywhere. We currently have an Amazon store that has been managed and thriving for many years, but we’re going to take it to a whole new level. We definitely want to be in social channels and talk shop. And everywhere where you live, we need to bring the product to you because we put the consumer at the center of everything that we do. So if you want to buy a product, again, online, on social or in the corner store near you, we will make sure that this product is available to you on your terms and how you want it.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:31:08:

 

Awesome, awesome. Thinking about what you just mentioned, meeting your consumers where they are, what do you think the people who are on your team, the marketeers of tomorrow, the leaders of tomorrow will need to be really great at in order to meet the consumer where they’re at?

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:31:28:

 

I would think definitely getting out of their desks and their offices and walking the streets. It’s very simple. You need to talk to people. You need to speak to consumers. You need to go to the stores. You need to see who’s buying your product in person and then have a conversation with them and say, well, what do you like so much about the product? I noticed that you’re grabbing the mango flavor. How do you use it? Do you cook with it? Do you drink it? Do you serve it at home? I mean, I just want to learn about you and how you interact with this product. And there’s so much insight that you get out of real human interaction. I think that as a society, we have moved into such a digital space where we just text and interact in social media. And we come to our offices and we sit in our desks and manage brands concepts from our offices. But the reality is that the world out there could be very different and that research is directional and it’s good direction. But there is a vast number of cultural and behavioral nuggets. That you only get when you are down on the streets talking to the real people that are consuming your product every day. So my suggestion would be, you want to succeed? Don’t stay inside your screen or inside your room and get out to the world and experience it and be in touch with it. Smell it like literally all of your senses. Touch it, smell it, see it, hear it, and then use that experience and bring it back into your office to create thoughtful connecting initiatives.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:33:06:

 

A good dose of healthy curiosity makes for a strong marketer.

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:33:10:

 

That’s right.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:33:11:

 

What do you think you’re still learning or working on in order to grow your marketing capabilities?

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:33:18:

 

So that’s why I’m a professor. I think I learn more from my students than they learn from me. Every day I go into the classroom and I teach them what I do, but their questions are the ones that give me the nuggets. I have been teaching for seven or eight years now. So I have technically taught two different generations, the Millennials and now the Gen Zs. And I can definitely see very clear differences in their perspectives. So by going to the classroom every single week, interacting with a very specific consumer and getting their points of view on all different aspects of marketing, because we have discussions that center around loyalty, about brand reputation, about segmentation marketing, about so many different topics. That’s what keeps me fresh and engaged. And as I say, out of my office and into the classroom where the real people, I don’t see generations as statistics. Or as studies that I just read about. I have actually those generations in my own household. I am mother to three Zs, and actually two Zs and a Y, which makes it very interesting. And then, I’m also professor to Zs and Millennials. So I get to experience all of them and have thoughtful conversations about marketing and about brands. What brands they love, what brands they don’t, and why. And that is an ongoing learning for me, year-round, every week of every year. And that keeps me fresh.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:34:58:

 

I love that. I’ve had an opportunity to be in the classroom as well in the last few years. And I completely agree with you. What I learned from the kids is so valuable. It really humbles me. It really does. So I love that. Congratulations on your fourth child. What is the book called and where can we find it?

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:35:19:

 

Well, I love that question because the book is called Not Pausing, which kind of reinforced the whole concept of not resetting, not starting over. But I’m literally just going. I’m Not Pausing. And it’s a book about how we really need to honor women after 40. Because women after 40 could be perceived as, you know, starting to slow down or pause. And I interviewed like 200 women in the C-suite. And the result is like women are more engaged and thriving after 40 than ever before. And we’re certainly Not Pausing. So it’s a perspective about women empowerment after 40. And I’m very proud of the book that I finished. And therefore, again, I really believe leading a life with a big job, writing a book, having three kids and a husband and a million other activities. You can do anything if you just set your mind to it.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:36:16:

 

I love that. Being a part of that club over 40, I really resonate with the takeaway of your book. I think that there’s a lot of people, whether they’re in the community of over 40 and an executive or not, that can appreciate that message. I’m curious, did you find that there were any cultural differences? If you interviewed some of the women that were maybe an executive in Mexico or an executive in the US or executives outside of the US, were there any cultural differences you found?

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:36:48:

 

So all the executives I interviewed were in the US and the differences were more ethnic and backgrounds than actual, how many, I guess, country of origin, many of them. I interviewed people that were of Asian descent, Black descent, from Mexico, from all different places. But what was consistent, really, is the fact that we’re out there thriving and that the fact that we’re not stopping and Not Pausing. And that fact that we should not allow other people name our journeys and that we are the ones who are out there every single day building a path for other women to follow so that we can open up the C-suite to others. We need our men to support us and understand us and elevate us so that then we can elevate our own women up to the same path. So that was the consistency, like everybody really is focused on let’s succeed together. We all boats rise and it gets lonely at the top because there’s less of us up there. So I think that was definitely the consistent message that the higher up women go up in the corporate ladder, then the lonelier we become. But no matter how lonely we become, we still keep fighting so that we can bring more of us up there.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:38:06:

 

And the greater the importance of community becomes. That’s a word that I have taken on for this year is community for myself personally. Very much inspired by what you just shared.

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:38:18:

 

That’s beautiful.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:38:20:

 

Well, I want to thank you for one, just sharing your point of view on your background, on your thoughts on how the future marketeers of the world can be successful. I also just really greatly appreciate your vulnerability and your candor. It was a pleasure talking with you.

 

 

Ariela Nerubay – 00:38:37:

 

It was lovely to meet you, Tiffany. I really enjoyed this conversation and I appreciate you taking the time to get to know me a little bit.

 

 

Tiffany Wilburn – 00:38:45:

 

Of course. All right. Well, thanks, everyone. That’s a wrap for today’s episode of Time for a Reset, brought to you by Overline. I’m Tiffany Wilburn, and I hope the insights shared today help you sharpen your strategy and push your brand forward. We want to hear from you. If you’re enjoying Time for a Reset, please leave us a comment or a review on your preferred platform and subscribe to be the first to know when a new episode drops. Catch you next time when we sit down with another senior marketing leader. Cheers.

 

 

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