Be Good to the People Around You: Interview with Google Americas Region CMO Lisa Gevelber

I recently went one on one with Lisa Gevelber, Chief Marketing Officer for the Americas Region at Google. Lisa also leads Google for Startups and founded and leads Grow with Google.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth? 

Lisa: My dad and his brother were the first in their family to go to college and my brothers and I each put ourselves through college by working since we were in our teens. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to earn a college degree, an opportunity which is still out of reach for most Americans. After college, a Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble took a bet on me - a kid who knew nothing about business or marketing and didn’t have an MBA like most P&G recruits.  At P&G I learned how to write (the one-page memo is king there) and how to run a business. I moved to Silicon Valley in the 90s because I wanted to help build new businesses. I joined a few early stage startups and Intuit where I worked on one of the first software as a service products - QuickBooks Online edition, which we launched in 2000.  At Intuit I learned how to deeply understand customer needs and build great end-to-end experiences. 

I’ve been at Google over 12 years as the CMO of the Americas and for many years was also the CMO of Google’s Global Ads and Commerce business. In 2017, I founded Grow with Google - Google’s initiative to drive economic opportunity and equity.  Through this program we’ve helped over 90 million people around the world grow their skills, careers and businesses. Our Google Career Certificates help people without college degrees get the training they need for well-paying jobs in high growth fields like data analytics, user experience design, IT support, and project management. I’m so proud of our first 70,000 US graduates and look forward to continuing to expand our reach.

Adam: What is your best advice for those working at big organizations on how to best climb the corporate ladder? 

Lisa: Focus less on climbing a ladder and more on doing your best work, learning from others and from your mistakes, and lifting up the people around you. Especially in large organizations, you accomplish very little on your own. The big impactful work takes multiple people working together. Whether you are the most junior or most senior person on the team, you can both inspire and enable those around you. I love that movie, Miracle, about the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team. My takeaway from the film, which I try to live up to: dream big, work hard, play team. 

Adam: What is your best advice for entrepreneurs and those working at small businesses on how to cultivate partnerships with large companies? 

Lisa: Effective partnerships have something important in them for both parties. The key is in clearly understanding and delivering on those things. What’s your unique value add to the larger enterprise and especially when working with large organizations - how will you reassure them of your ability to deliver on it?

Adam: What is the most important attribute of an effective CMO?

Lisa: The ability to attract great talent and build an amazing team with a mix of skills who can be teachers as well as learners.

Adam: What are three things everyone should understand about marketing? 

Lisa: Marketing is about understanding your audience and meeting them where they are.  Great marketers have a respect for their audience, real insights about them and an ability to put those insights to work. The art is in meeting the user where they are with a compelling proposition they connect with. 

Adam: What are three things people who work in marketing should understand? 

Lisa: 1) All great work starts with an important insight. 2) You need to be constantly learning and optimizing. 3) You have to care as much about your customer’s experience as you do about getting a new customer.

Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level? 

Lisa: Effective leaders are those who can attract and grow talent, unite them around a sense of purpose and create a culture based on shared values. I’m in a constant learner’s journey to become a better leader. The best advice I have is to make sure you receive feedback well so people are willing to give it to you.  The only way I know to get better is to learn from my mistakes and get lots of feedback on what I need to do better. 

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders? 

Lisa: 1) Be curious. 2) Be great at receiving feedback; 3)  Be good to the people around you.

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received? 

Lisa: Seek first to understand then to be understood. (Quote from Stephen R. Covey.)

Adam: What is one thing everyone should be doing to pay it forward? 

Lisa: Find a way to be an ally. When Hispanic/Latino employees at Google wanted to start an employee resource group and needed an executive sponsor, I volunteered. I helped them get it off the ground and supported them for years. Similarly, when the Veteran / Military Spouse employee resource group needed a sponsor, I volunteered and helped build programs for the military community inside and outside of Google.


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

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