1. On Starting Your Second Life Now with Geoff Tanner

Overview

As one of my first interviews on The Sustainable Ambition Podcast, I was thrilled to be joined by a friend and former client, Geoff Tanner, who is currently Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer at the J.M. Smucker Company. (Read more about Geoff below in his bio.) Not only is Geoff a successful marketer and growth-minded business leader and innovator, he's a present and wonderful father to his two children.

In this conversation we cover a lot of ground from starting one's second career sooner than you think to ruthless prioritization to the fact that people want to be led by genuine, authentic leaders who bring their whole selves to work. And, yes, I do ask him how he balances work and raising two young children.

I hope you find the conversation as helpful and insightful as I did. Thank you for being on, Geoff!

More about Our Guest

Geoff Tanner is the Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer at the J.M. Smucker Company. He defines his mission as championing, nurturing, and enabling every element of brand building and driving growth within the organization. To him, achieving this starts and ends with unleashing the passion, capabilities, agility and creativity of employees and strategic partners.

In his current role, Geoff oversees teams dedicated to supporting the consumer and customer experience across the commercial funnel. This includes Consumer Engagement, Innovation, Insights & Analytics, as well as the U.S. Retail Sales, Market Development and eCommerce organizations. He is responsible for ensuring the seamless integration of all teams focused on delivering world class products, marketing and sales experiences. A key element of the role is ‘stitching’ external agency partners to also support the ‘Power of One’ approach.

Geoff believes that growth in today’s market requires being 100% consumer and customer-centric. It starts with deeply understanding consumer needs and the jobs consumers hire products for and then extends to offering products that delight, marketing that excites and retail sales experiences that exceed expectations. He is quick to note that in today’s market, delivering those world class experiences requires overcoming obstacles and missteps. He believes it is imperative that companies be willing to step outside of comfort zones, test unique executions and then be ready to quickly learn and optimize.

Prior to taking on his current role, Geoff led a dramatic transformation of how Smucker participates in the categories it is part of and engages consumers with its leading and emerging brands. This reimagining of how the Company goes to market included the transformation and development of new models for Innovation, Marketing, E-commerce and External Venturing. Before joining Smucker, Geoff held the positions of Senior Vice President of Growth and Vice President of Marketing for Big Heart Pet Brands.

Geoff earned an MBA at Duke University and a bachelor’s degree in commerce as well as one in political science and government while at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.

Geoff is also a husband and father of two beautiful children.

Topics Covered

  • The importance of pacing one's career and being honest about the demands of certain roles

  • In managing one's career, be open to picking up a range of experiences

  • Ruthless prioritization and maximization of one's time to protect time for what's important, like being present for one's kids once done with or home from work or maintaining your health

  • How multi-tasking actually works for him (e.g., reading emails during meetings, working out while reading required business materials) and how he's willing to accept negative feedback on multi-tasking in meetings, because in exchange it would mean giving up time with his children in the evenings

  • The fact that satisfaction around one's career is different in your 20’s (you have time, have fun, take risks), 30’s (be driven), and 40’s (it becomes a job)

  • How we don’t talk enough about how at mid-career, especially, you have to think about how you're going to sustain yourself and your career - that you need to pull forward some of the things you think you’d do when you retire into the now

  • Start your second career now and if you have a "4" in front of your age, this is especially important for you

  • “Managing Oneself” by Peter Drucker, which in reading kicked Geoff off on this quest to bring more “Sustainable Ambition” into his own life. Drucker says that if you haven't started your second act well into your first act, you won't have a second act

  • How putting your time towards priorities outside of work makes one generally happier and makes the “sum greater than the parts”

  • That balance isn’t the goal; at times one will need to “work hard” professionally or personally

  • Great advice he received to get the things you don’t like doing off your plate; outsource it to free up time to put towards professional AND personal fulfillment

  • Leadership is about being genuine and authentic. People want to work for and be led by real people, so bring your full self to work.

  • Geoff’s favorite career advice: Widen your tolerances and be patient with your career.

  • One of Geoff's best time-saving and productivity tips? What I'd call the “West Wing” 5-minute meeting. Geoff would say pick up the phone and clarify live in just 5 minutes vs. wasting time with possible misunderstanding via email.

  • And a shout out to Daily Harvest, which Geoff can't live without, because it gives him all the nutrition he needs in the day

Resources Mentioned

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1. On Starting Your Second Life Now with Geoff Tanner

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2020Kathy OnetoRight Aspiration, Right Effort