Tamara Littleton 00:12
This is the Genuine Humans podcast brought to you by Social Element. I’m Tamara Littleton
Wendy Christie 00:18
and I’m Wendy Christie
Tamara Littleton 00:22
in our podcast, we’ll discover the stories of the leaders behind the brands and the trailblazers who are making a real difference in our industry. We’ll delve into how they got to where they are today
Wendy Christie 00:33
and we’ll hear about the genuine humans who supported and influenced them along the way.
Tamara Littleton 00:44
Welcome back to Genuine Humans, and I’m here with my co-host, Wendy Christie. Wendy, how are you doing?
Wendy Christie 00:49
Hello, I’m really well, thank you. How are you?
Tamara Littleton 00:52
Very well, full of the joys of spring and also very happy that we are being joined by an incredible woman today, a very special Genuine Humans guest, Mays Elansari. Mays is a senior brand marketing specialist who’s worked agency side and brand side at Penhaligons, and most recently as the marketing director of EMEA at Subway. Welcome to Genuine Humans, Mays. It’s so lovely to have you here.
Mays Elansari 01:18
Thank you so much, Tamara and Wendy for having me. Absolute pleasure.
Tamara Littleton 01:20
Right, we’re going to get straight in Mays. And a question that I like to ask our guests is, how the hell did you get to where you are now? How did you fall into marketing? Do you want to give everyone a bit of a flavour of that early career and sort of what brought you into the industry?
Mays Elansari 01:38
Yeah, absolutely so, funnily enough, I started almost by mistake. So I studied marketing in my management course at university, and I absolutely loved it. And since then, I kind of went into summer internships at Coke and Visa and British Gas, and I just found exactly what I wanted to do.
Mays Elansari 01:58
And from there, I jumped, actually agency side, having started at McCann Erickson all the way back in the early 2000s and I just fell in love with the industry, the people, the creativity, the variety, actually, I would have to say, that just fueled my kind of curiosity even more and energy. And that was, I’d say, where I really started my real career, professionally at McCann Erickson, having worked on some amazing large blue-chip organisations like Reckitt Benckiser, managing a portfolio of their brands across the region, really dissecting and understanding not just the processes, but from an account management perspective, being the glue from internally and externally. And then I kind of moved on, and I worked on Johnson & Johnson ACUVUE contact lenses, which was great because I used to wear contacts. So very relevant.
Tamara Littleton 02:52
I used to wear those ones. Very good, good, soft ones. Yes.
Mays Elansari 02:55
Oh, yeah, there you go, another customer! But yeah, it always helps, obviously, when you use the products and the services. So that was a lot of fun. Very different kind of going into pharmaceutical obviously, than from FMCG. I then got promoted and moved on to MasterCard, so huge financial kind of consumer-led brand, which was super integrated as a brand, but also internally at McCann Ericsson and part of McCann world group, working kind of as an integrated, holistic approach, and really being an extension of the client, which was amazing having worked and being exposed from the B2B and the B2C side of customer, consumer relationships and the brand, and working on Priceless campaign was such an eye-opener on really how brands look at the brand building side of things, not only just the performance, but that really the importance of a customer-led insight and how that can really transcend and go across platforms and campaigns and messages and customers. And then last but not least, having worked on Tiffany & Co, I used to always joke, you know, credit cards and diamonds, you know, girls’ best friends.
Tamara Littleton 04:03
That’s a lovely brand to work on, let’s face it.
Mays Elansari 04:06
Absolutely beautiful heritage brand, but also so contemporary and modern at the same time. And that was very specific. So going from mass brand and MasterCard all the way through to very niche, very specific and targeted audience and very experiential, actual activations and campaigns, so such a wide breadth of experience and knowledge and brands and markets, so that really, I guess, I’d say, kind of catapulted me into the world of almost nothing is limitless, because I had such a variety of experience that I kind of wanted even more.
Mays Elansari 04:42
But then, for personal reasons, we decided to move to the Middle East. My husband and I, and we were based in Kuwait, and I continued, actually my agency side at BBDO, running the second largest bank in the Middle East, based in the Gulf, which was great and very much kind of taking my experience, obviously, on MasterCard. But also my Western experience in the UK, bringing it to the Middle East, I then got head hunted to move client-side, but with a twist, because it was actually for a company called Muhammad H Alshaya, which is one of the largest franchise companies in the Middle East. So I was like, “Well, you know, franchise, I’m not so sure.” But actually what was great about the role and the remit was that it was starting really from scratch. And so even though it was a franchise relationship, they really wanted someone to come who had both, you know, agency experience building brands. And that was really what excited me to the role and to the position and the opportunity was starting off with Pinkberry, which is a frozen yoghurt concept, a huge American brand, actually, that they had brought into the Middle East with a lot of opportunity. But Alshaya being very much, I would say, an ops and property led organisation at that stage, growing very quickly, really saw the importance and the critical need for brand building marketeer.
Mays Elansari 06:00
So I came in, and rather than just focusing on store openings, it was like, right? Let’s put a strategy in place. What are the brand values and the proposition? What is MPD and all the different platforms and channels? Could they help us to kind of get that and communicate it, and so really use that for years to build the brand really and engage with our consumers and create a pipeline. I was very fortunate to then, with all the hard work and the strategy and the growth and success I had built on Pinkberry, was promoted to run the food division as Head of Marketing and Comms, and that was a little more about portfolio management. Again, having done that at McCann was a great opportunity, and so I was wearing multiple hats, both at a divisional level. But also then, you know, leading the brands. So whether that was Dean & DeLuca, Bouchon Bakery, 400Gradi, each one had a kind of variety of different sectors. So Pinkberry was very much QSR LED. But for example, Bridgewater Chocolate was a retail brand, very niche, very kind of handmade, all crafted chocolates that we had brought from Connecticut. So how do I help deliver, create and formulate these brands that some of them really didn’t have a marketing strategy that was specific to the region. So finding that balance of you know, honing into what made the brand special and unique and distinctive, but then ensuring that that had local relevancy on a local level across different markets within the region. So quite a varied experience of having to kind of jump back from macro to macro level.
Tamara Littleton 07:34
You’re, like, the ultimate Brand Builder, aren’t you? What an incredible experience!
Mays Elansari 07:40
Yeah, it was a very, very exciting period, to your point, because I was building brands, I was launching brands, I was reformulating brands, and so having that opportunity to really scale them from scratch. And some of them were licences, so we would just get a logo, bit of guidelines in the background. And so it was a great well, what, what does this brand represent? What does that market look like, who are our audience? What are the products and the services that we can, can really own and build. And so it was kind of like flying the plane while building the plane, while creating the roadmap. So, yeah, it was a great journey, a huge experience, and kind of baptism by fire at the same time, which is great, because I was building a team. And as a generalist marketeer, which I love, it was perfect, because I had really the remit of brand comms, you know, advertising creative all the way through to like, social, digital, CRM, MPD, insights. I mean, the list kind of grew and grew across multiple brands, across multiple regions and platforms. So really, really fortunate. Worked very hard, but a lot of experience gained.
Mays Elansari 08:46
But then we kind of got homesick after seven years, so we decided to come back to London, back to the UK, and did a couple of contract roles to kind of figure out what I wanted to do, having come back, obviously, from the Middle East, but realised actually I still wanted to stay client-side and through some contacts in referrals, I got a job at Penhaligon’s, beautiful fragrance, brand of amazing heritage. But it was great because, again, one of the things that I see as a red thread throughout my career is, were where the challenges were and how I could really help add value and what Penhaligon’s, while it was a great, established brand, they really wanted to elevate their in store experience, but bring that from the kind of offline to online. They were really known for their customer experience in store, that personalisation, you know, of course, fragrance being one of the senses around scent. So how could you really do that from a brand and a product perspective online? So working with the ecomm team, not only just to kind of think about acquisition strategy, but really bringing that brand alive through partnerships and different kinds of opportunities. So a completely different mindset and a different learning curve that I had, really, I guess, got onto the skin of the brand and the business, which was so exciting.
Mays Elansari 10:05
And then I’d say, unfortunately, you know, at that time, you know, COVID happened, and, yeah, threw all of us off our socks, unfortunately. But everyone comes, come back on, you know, and stronger, which is great. And I got a call from my old line manager, my old boss, and he said, “listen, you know, I’ve got an interesting opportunity. Would you be interested in that?” I said, “Oh, okay, tell me more.” And it was like, well, it’s different from the food that we’ve done before, which was, you know, casual dining, QSR, a bit of retail. But he’s like, this is, it’s a big it’s a big brand. I said, “Okay, great. You know, you’re hooking me in.” And it was at Subway, which I was like, “oh my God, Subway. I haven’t heard about that brand in such a long time!” He was like, “yes, exactly! And that is the reason why, you know, it would be great if you can, you know, get on board. It’s a mat cover.” I said, well, “not a problem actually, I’d love it, love the challenge. It sounds like there’s a lot of scope and bandwidth for me to kind of come in and see how I can help.” And that’s exactly what I did. I jumped in as Head of Marketing and comms for UK and Ireland. And when I joined in ‘21 it was 2300 stores. So huge geographical footprint, phenomenal piece of business, amazing brand, but I think we had just lost our way a little and so that was the great opportunity, which was kind of opening the lid and saying, right, it’s a mat cover. But at same time, there’s so much opportunity and excitement around, right? How can I help both bring my agency and client side experience to help? I would say, you know, refresh the brand and make it a little more locally relevant, through culture, through fame moments, and really being a bit more strategic in how do we show up, and what do we mean to our consumers, rather than being maybe just tactical and very product-led. So it did that for a year and a bit, which was so much fun. I mean, it was crazy. It was very full on bullet train, in the sense of it being quite an intense period of time, but so rewarding at the same time.
Tamara Littleton 12:06
And those opportunities don’t always come up to, sort of, like, really, sort of, you know, a well known and respected brand, but just bringing a, you know, a sort of bit of freshness to it is such a great opportunity.
Mays Elansari 12:16
So true, so true. And as a marketeer, it’s like a dream come true, to your point, which is, it wasn’t broken and we didn’t have to relaunch, but it was actually looking at, how can you refresh, you know, revive some of the brand, kind of retell our story, we look at internally about our values and our proposition, and then how do we communicate that and engage with our audience? And so really, to your point about, there are many opportunities at such a large scale of such a large company to do those so yeah, definitely an exciting moment to kind of jump straight in. Enjoyed it so much at the UK and Ireland, and had a great opportunity to then get promoted and do that basically as a marketing director for EMEA across 20 markets, 6000 stores. And really, kind of to your point, taking that one step further to say, right, how do we show up across the region? How do we create continuity? Where do those kind of strategic opportunities lie, whether they’re through cost efficiencies, looking at agencies and partnerships, looking at, you know, how do we show up at different kind of passion points for our consumers that really resonate. And so that was the kind of next period of Subway that my next chapter as I kind of evolved into that role. And so hopefully that was a nice recap of my experience today.
Tamara Littleton 12:19
It’s wonderful. Thank you. I mean, there’s a kind of blown away by how many brands you’ve actually worked on and just incredible brands. So yeah, thank you. Thank you very much for that.
Mays Elansari 13:44
Yeah, very, very lucky. But I think at the same time to your point, sometimes they happen for a reason, when you get to work on some of these brands, is there’s kind of that red thread that you’re able to kind of extract. And it was great that having worked on some really, truly global, kind of iconic brands and being part of their growth and success.
Wendy Christie 14:02
So let’s pick at that thread a little bit more Mays, if you don’t mind. So you mentioned studying marketing at university, so it sounds like you knew fairly early on that this was something that you wanted to be involved in. So going a little bit further back to when you were a child, at what point do you think you sort of became aware of what marketing was and that it was something you were interested in, and was there anything else that you wanted to be when you grew up?
Mays Elansari 14:27
Yeah, so I’ll start with the fun part of the question. So I probably say my earliest recollection of what I wanted to do when I grew up was to be a private detective.
Wendy Christie 14:39
Oh, fantastic!
Mays Elansari 14:40
And I think that comes from just being curious and at the same time being a problem solver. And I think I would say that those two things, still, you know, resonate with me as an adult. But moving on from the private detective, which clearly I didn’t, you know, progress with, but in a way, I realised that I wanted to do something that was super-creative. You know, I knew that I didn’t, maybe instinctively know that it was advertising or marketing, but my mother was an artist, my father a financial banker. So there was something there between those two that I wanted to kind of, I guess, hone in on. I was always surrounded by amazing art, going to exhibitions, whether it was, you know, painting or sculpture or woodwork or whatever it may be.
Mays Elansari 15:27
And I’m one of three daughters, and we’re all very creative in our own way. And I think you know, when you’re in that environment, it kind of enables you to really look at things that you’re passionate about, but at the same time, what you’re able to also pinpoint things that you’re interested in. And so I knew when I went to university, and that’s why management, sociology kind of gave me a wide enough bandwidth. And then when I started doing the marketing courses, it just struck a chord, and I and it really helped me to be super laser-focused when I came out of university and when I started applying for all the ad agencies coming out of Royal Holloway, thinking, right, where am I going to start my, you know, path, and what does that look like?
Wendy Christie 16:11
And maybe the private detective work is something you could do as a bit of a side hustle, you know, maybe you’re already doing it!
Mays Elansari 16:19
Exactly! I haven’t closed that door yet.
Wendy Christie 16:22
And did you have people around you who you particularly looked up to when you were a child?
Mays Elansari 16:27
Definitely, I would say I was very lucky to have very strong and motivating and inspiring women in my family, so my mother being the person that I can really celebrate and thank for being the person that I am today, a phenomenal woman. She really had gone through some harder points in her life, but I think really came out and led by example, and I think the clarity of knowing who she was, the values that she was able to instil in myself and my sisters. So I’m originally from Syria, having grown up all my life in London, but, you know, coming from the Middle East to London and the UK was quite a big feat for her and the family, and so it’s really knowing who you are that she would instil that into us growing up, but at the same time embracing, you know, living in the UK and being part of the West. And I think that it’s such, such a beautiful trait to be able to kind of embrace but also protect at the same time knowing who you are. And I think, you know, that self belief really set me up for success, I would say, not only my adult but also my career. And so I definitely give a lot of the attribute and acknowledgement to her.
Mays Elansari 17:45
And my grandmother, funnily enough, and the other woman, I would say, who was such a powerhouse and, you know, raising so many children, but who all really focused on education and, again, values, but also family. So family is a very big contributor to myself and my wider family. So I think my mother and my grandmother would definitely be the bigger, biggest contributors to me growing up.
Wendy Christie 18:10
Wonderful, and as you’ve gone through your education and your career, bringing us a little bit more up to date again, have there been other Genuine Humans who’ve really influenced or supported you along the way that you’d like to acknowledge while you’ve got the platform?
Mays Elansari 18:25
Yeah, of course I’d love to, so at McCann. I mean, there were so many, of course, having worked across so many brands, but I would definitely say one individual that really stood out for me was my managing partner at that time was Kate Fulford-Brown. I really looked up to her, because I think again, coming out through she was such a strong individual. And I say that in a positive, not in a negative, I hope that, just to be clear.
Tamara Littleton 18:52
We’re all about strong women. Don’t worry.
Mays Elansari 18:54
Yeah, no, I know. But I wanted to just be clear, as in, when I say that, I mean through strength, through kind of her leadership, very nurturing and really, kind of, I would say, took me underneath her wings, and I’m really grateful for that, because, actually, she really encouraged me to be much more strategic and much more open minded and future of thinking. And, you know, I’ll always remember really fond memories of working with her at the same time, she made it super fun and engaging, which you know, you can appreciate in a super fast paced agency environment is really difficult, yeah, with such high, you know, demanding clients and, you know, processes and time frames she made it seem so kind of effortless, which you know, at that time felt mind boggling. But yeah, I definitely looked up to her, and I loved how she supported myself in the team and encouraged us to be the best versions of ourselves, really.
Mays Elansari 19:50
And then I would say at Alshaya, another, I would say, mentor. He was my line manager at the time. But I would say, and also, afterwards at Subway was Nigel Doughty. So Nigel and I got on really well. Still get on really well, but, you know, we were chalk and cheese, but at the same time, you know, we would complete each other’s sentences. Work-wise, when you bring both two very passionate people, especially around food, is always very animated and energetic. But again, really pushed me. Not that I needed more pushing and encouragement, but it was great because he did push me to really outside of my comfort zone, which, you know, I really appreciated, because you get to unlock and learn new things as you kind of progress through your career. And I think that’s where, again, you get to add more value, where you feel like so much more rewarding. And Nigel definitely did that and really supported me and encouraged me throughout my career, mentoring me. So I definitely like to have a shout out to Nigel and Kate for really, I guess, and seeing a lot of the you know, bright-eyed young marketeer and agency account woman to really driving and paving the way for me moving forward.
Tamara Littleton 20:02
So Mays, let’s bring it back to you. And I’d love to know what you consider your superpowers to be, and how has that perhaps impacted your approach to working across multiple sectors and markets.
Mays Elansari 21:22
Yeah, I mean, I think I’m very fortunate that I’m very clear on my superpowers and that it’s around being flexible and agile. And I think that really comes from, you know, when I was at McCann Erickson, having worked across multiple industries, multiple brands, multiple markets and channels, and finding those challenges to really be able to jump in to understand what is the problem that we need to solve, and then thinking about how best to do it with a, you know, the brand hat on, and making sure that, you know, whatever it may be, it had to be really relevant and resonate with our customer. So, you know, every opportunity that I see, or every, you know, career that I’ve had, whenever I’ve walked in, I’ve really thought about, what is it that I’m able to help deliver? What is the problem that we need to solve, and how I can wear multiple hats at the same time? And it’s quite difficult to do that. It’s still challenging sometimes. But you know, having done, you know, one single brand versus a portfolio of brands working on a corporate level, working slightly in the franchise.
Mays Elansari 22:29
So having, again, even those experiences within different business models, you have to learn to adapt and to be flexible and agile, because all the different you know, companies and company values have different cultures, and so sometimes you have to lead those, and sometimes you have to kind of adapt to them. And so I think, as a leader and as a marketeer, specifically, you know, it’s having the bandwidth and the awareness to understand, what is it that, you know, what is my role to play here, and how can I really help add value?
Tamara Littleton 22:59
And that kind of maps quite well with resilience, which is so key in leadership. And how have you built up your resilience? Is it something that you’ve consciously done?
Mays Elansari 23:10
I think it came probably through situational, you know, experiences. I would say I think resilience came more maybe from a personal perspective. I think, you know, having grown up, I believe, with a mother and a family who were quite resilient in itself, you know, we were grown up to say, you know, we could do anything. We could be anybody. You’ve got to keep on carving that space and protecting it. And I think that intrinsically, was a, I don’t want to say, just a skill, maybe just a value that, you know, I really grew up with and so that’s why I tend to talk a lot about problem solving. You know, whenever you come up with a problem, it was always about right? So what’s the solution like? Right? Find a way to tackle it, rather than just come with a problem. And so I think part of that was embracing what those challenges were and trying to be resilient.
Mays Elansari 24:01
And I think, you know, again, going back to my mother, is like, how do I lead by example, both for myself, for the team, for leadership, for women, for whoever it may be. And I think that really, you know, shows through some of those opportunities of leaning into them and saying, Well, this is the challenge or hurdle that we have to face, whether it’s on an individual or personal level or professional. And so it was really about finding ways of, how do you pivot and kind of lean into them, rather than shying away. I tend to kind of run towards them and say, right, okay, let’s just understand the why. And you know what it is that we can do. And I think leadership was also part of that, because, you know, being resilient and understanding and having that self belief and staying true to my values always helped me have that clarity.
Tamara Littleton 24:49
Yeah, that absolutely makes sense. And you have mentioned a few times that you sort of, you’ve been brand-side, you’ve been agency-side, I’m not going to put you on the spot and say, which do you prefer? Because I don’t think it’s quite as clear cut as that. But what key lessons have you taken from working agency side and client side?
Mays Elansari 25:08
Yeah for sure. Listen, I can say they were both my favourite, if that would be politically correct. No, I say them because, honestly, I loved my time, my time at McCann, because I really felt like, you know, the experience and the environment and the brands and the team, the exposure that I had, really set me up for success. So I give a lot of credit, but also to myself, because I had lasted for so long, you know, agency wise, you know, no one ever tends to stay more than three or four years. So I definitely did my time at McCann, but also because it was testament that I kept on growing and learning. So it made sense for me to kind of stay.
Mays Elansari 25:45
But really, I love being client-side, because I feel like I’m part of the solution. I’m part of the upfront thinking and the planning and driving the business forward, not just the advertising side, as much as it was fun being client side just was a whole different ball game of really leading the business in the brand, and thinking about everything else from a different lens. And so I really, I would say client- side, definitely at this time in my career I’m enjoying the most.
Mays Elansari 26:12
And then what I learned, I guess, from agency-side, is just the pace, the fast paced environment. It was phenomenal. I mean, especially when you’re working on large brands, multi markets, different time zones, you know, especially MasterCard. Head Office was in New York and in the States, you know, I was based in London. I had 32 markets across India. So, you know, again, having that being super structured, being super having a framework, but also about connections, because I had to speak to 32 heads, you know, across the regions, and so a lot of that was through collaboration and working together and understanding their local needs. And how do I help and navigate what we wanted on a regional level, and making sure that I was navigating those conversations with global so I think collaboration and communication really played a fundamental part and some of the key learnings that I was able to take client-side. Because, of course, when you go client-side, I’m like, listen for better or for worse, I’ve been there and done that, but actually it’s usually for the better, I have to say, because knowing what I know and the experience that I have, I have a lot more, of course, respect for the agencies and for partners, and that was a really big thing for me, was that, you know, I used to hate some of the clients, or some of the companies were like, yes, our vendor, or, you know, our supplier, and that would drive me crazy, and I’d be like, “you mean our partner, or our extension of our team, or, you know, the guys who sit there and really kind of bring to life what we wanted to communicate.” And I think that was really important. So that respect to agencies and with another learning that I think I took with me,
Tamara Littleton 27:46
Yeah, walking both paths and those, I mean, your passion and experience is so it really comes through. But what’s exciting you most about the direction of the industry? Because there’s a lot going on at the moment.
Mays Elansari 27:58
There is, I know. I mean, honestly tomorrow, I think I would say that it’s the fact that we’re having, after probably, what, 5-10, years, of just everyone using the word performance and now are saying brand, and probably more, it’s the brand and performance, and it’s finding that middle ground and finding the balance of both brand and performance, because I don’t think one can work without the other. I think probably, when I first started, it was all about brand-building, which was great. And then it was like, right, well, where does the conversion, you know, look at the whole funnel. And now it’s, you know, kind of saying, right? It’s great that we want growth, but you can’t have growth without brand. And what does that look like? And so how can we be really hand in hand, and look at the 60/40 rule, or Les Binet, and, you know, Peter Fields and talking about Mark Ritson, and, you know, thinking about all the great marketeers who are really trying to make a difference in understanding that marketing really is an investment and not a cost. And so having its seat at the table, I think, you know, really energises marketeers to say, right, you know, we’ve got a lot to add, and a lot of value and growth will come out. So that, I think, is the exciting part to see that transition from performance more to brand, and finding that balance between both of those.
Wendy Christie 29:12
Thank you, Mays. So we’re going to move on to the last section of the podcast now, where we’ll ask you some quick fire personal questions. So let’s start with an easy one. What’s your idea of a perfect weekend?
Mays Elansari 29:25
Oh, that’s a good question. I probably say if I could sleep in, because I rarely do. I think that’s an easy one. But I think also just being surrounded by friends and family, a great table, you know, laid out with amazing food, you know, I’m from the Middle East, so, you know, and I work in food, and I think of food, so food plays a big role, straight to a special place in my heart, but probably also then having a nice, long walk on the beach with some sunshine and just relaxing. I think, you know, life has become super fast paced, so enjoying that and taking fresh air brings a bit of joy to everybody.
Wendy Christie 30:02
That sounds absolutely lovely. How would your friends describe you?
Mays Elansari 30:07
I think they’d probably say I’m extremely loyal, quite energetic and passionate. I think Tamara, you mentioned that already, I’d love to organise parties, and that’s another thing. Probably, when I grew up, I might be a party planner, by the way, wash the space, but yes, I think just, you know, energetic, loyal, caring, but also quite organised and like to plan things.
Wendy Christie 30:33
How would you fare in a zombie apocalypse?
Mays Elansari 30:42
That is such a random question! Okay, I hope it doesn’t happen, but if it did, I would probably go into and I hope I can say this like a kick ass mode, and I would just be like, right problem, but how are we going to solve it and go straight for it head on?
Tamara Littleton 30:57
I think you’re going to rebrand the zombies as well. You know, I think, I think you could get there, okay, what would be the tagline on a poster for a movie about your life?
Mays Elansari 31:10
I think it would be that if you don’t stand for something, then you’ll fall for anything again. I think just having those values and being very much driven by them. It feels like it would be great way to capture, you know, what I’m all about.
Wendy Christie 31:26
Can you repeat that tagline? Because it was just amazing. I want to hear it again.
Mays Elansari 31:30
If you don’t stand for something, then you’ll fall for anything.
Wendy Christie 31:34
Fantastic!
Tamara Littleton 31:35
Starring Mays, I’ve just made you like Cher. You’re just now Mays.
Mays Elansari 31:41
Yes, I love that.
Tamara Littleton 31:44
Okay, so the last one is, is there anything that we didn’t ask you, any question that you wish we had asked you, or or any closing thoughts, I’m going to hand the platform over to you now. Mays.
Mays Elansari 31:54
Thank you, Tamara and Wendy, first of all, thank you for giving me the platform and for allowing me to share my experience. I think the last thing I would love to close and really think about is obviously having celebrated the 8th of March, which was International Women’s Day, I’m a real advocate for having these conversations about empowering each other, lifting each other up, and really encouraging us to have the voice, ironically, on your podcast. But it’s really about thinking about what role we have to play, whether it’s about encouraging, you know, a male allyship, whether it’s about encouraging, you know, females to have their voice and sharing it louder and prouder and unapologetic. You know, I really believe that it shouldn’t be just one day on the 8th of March. I would love us to have every day be Women’s Day. I don’t think we need an excuse, if anything, we need to just be bolder and bigger and celebrate each other. So I would love to just encourage even if it’s one small ripple effect that I could have, or just yourselves by having this podcast makes such a big difference to reach you know, gender equality, the pay gap, you know, non harassment. I mean, the list could go on. I just think that, you know, we work really hard, sometimes, you know, much harder than we should. But with that resilience, I think there should come the opportunity in the time where, you know, we don’t have to hear from PwC that it’s going to take 45 years plus for gender equality. Some of these stats are just too big, and we need to be bolder with some of our actions. And companies and brands and leadership all have a role to play in that.
Wendy Christie 33:41
You’ve been listening to Genuine Humans brought to you by Social Element. If you loved what you heard, remember to rate review and subscribe.