As the director of marketing for ClickSafety, Mindy Michalek leads a creative and hard working team dedicated to ClickSafety’s marketing and eCommerce strategy. Her main focus is to ensure that the marketing team aligns closely with the other ClickSafety departments, as well as collaborate with multiple Ascend shared service teams and with her fellow colleagues in the other Professional Education divisions. When it comes to focusing on goals, hers include making sure the team helps to hit the revenue targets, executing on key eCommerce and lead generating platform implementations, and executing and optimizing our marketing efforts. 

Outside of work, you can usually find Mindy at one of her kid’s soccer, track or basketball games (pre-COVID-19). She says she’s also rather competitive herself and enjoys playing softball and soccer. She balances her competitive side by spending time outside enjoying her garden and flowers or going for long walks. 

 

Q. What does an average day look like for you and your job?

A. An average day includes collaborative efforts with our product, sales and technology teams to make sure we’re bringing the right products and the right eCommerce/technology experience to our customer base. Mindy enjoys partnering with her talented team as they focus their efforts primarily on pay-per-click search engine advertising, emails, conferences, website experience, social platforms and the analytics needed to drive ROI positive marketing efforts. 

Q. What is one career lesson you’ve learned?

A. One important career lesson I learned early on is to allow the space for everyone to be an expert in their area of specialization. For example, when I work with creative designers, I always lay out the scope and goals of a project, and I try very hard to not dictate the final product vision. I’ve found that when I allow others to have creative liberty, they come up with ideas I’ve not considered, and the final product turns out to be better than I could have envisioned. This approach also requires any ego to be removed and results in professional relationships with mutual respect.

Q. What is one word that you would use to describe your work team, and why did you choose that word?

A. I consider myself to have two teams… One word to describe my marketing team would be “accountable.” I chose this word because each member of our team is consistently dependable and owns their work each and every day. One word to describe my ClickSafety team would be “driven.” The ClickSafety team as a whole is a very driven and passionate group, which is showcased daily by the quality of work output, as well as by the dedication to our customers and to each other. 

Q. What is one thing that people are surprised to find out about you?

A. I grew up on a horse farm in extreme Western NY (about an hour south of Buffalo). We very much lived off the land. Our garden was the size of an Olympic swimming pool, which matters because that’s a lot of weeding…81 hills of potatoes…9 rows x 9 hills…I digress. Also, horse chores before school, four-wheelers, hitting rocks with broom sticks to practice my softball swing, damning up a swimming hole in the creek …you name it…I fit the mold of the middle-of nowhere farmgirl for the first 18 years of my life. Those early years helped build character, responsibility, work ethic…the longing for having a store closer than 45 minutes away…and the desire to live somewhere that had less snow (i.e. not every Halloween and prom). 

Q. What book, movie or television show would you recommend people read or watch?

A. Since we’re all staying home right now, I would like to recommend a couple Netflix shows to keep you entertained. I recently binge-watched Ozark with Jason Bateman. It’s an incredible and intense 3-season series that will keep you on the edge of your seat. If you need less intensity and more humor, I’d also recommend Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld. I’m intrigued by hearing how the comedic mind works, and this series is a bunch of quick episodes with legendary comedians. 

 

We’re thankful for our talented team members and how they help us change lives!