Your transcript

[00:00:00] Gillian: Naysla Edwards is someone you absolutely need to hear from. Her story is nothing short of amazing. She started her journey in Columbia, set her sights on a global career and moved to Australia while still learning English. Now that kind of courage and determination makes you rethink your own excuses.

[00:00:19] Today, Naysla is the Vice President of Brand, Marketing and Member Experience at American Express. She's worked all over the world from Sydney to Singapore, to France. Each move she's made; it has been for her very much about seizing opportunities and pushing herself to new limits. But what really impressed me about Naysla is how she constantly looks for ways to grow and make a meaningful impact. She repeatedly asks herself, what's my incremental? Like for her, it’s not just about doing the job, but about pushing boundaries and adding unique value. Like her approach to leadership is all about making a lasting difference. Even if you're not aiming for a vice president role or a senior executive role, you'll find Naysla's insights incredibly valuable. We dive into everything from the importance of setting clear goals, staying relevant in your organisation, and always being open to growth.

[00:01:21] I honestly believe her story will give you the motivation to take bold steps in your own career. So let's dive in.

[00:01:28] Welcome Naysla to the podcast. It is such a pleasure to have you here today.

[00:02:21] Naysla: Oh, thank you, Gillian, for having me.

[00:02:23] Gillian: Let's start off talking about you because I think, you know, business context counts for, a great deal and you had a very interesting career, Naysla, which has involved a lot of travel and working around the world. From Columbia to Sydney to Singapore to France, and now you're back in Australia, of course. So tell us about that. What inspired you to take that direction in your career? And did you love it? Did working in all those different destinations help you or inspire you?

[00:02:55] Naysla: Easy answer. I absolutely loved it. And to answer your question, I guess it's always good to start from the beginning. So you probably can tell from my accent, I am not Australian.

[00:03:06] I was born in Colombia, and I had a wonderful life there. I went to university, I graduated from a business management degree and as part of that, curriculum at the, at the university, we were allowed and encouraged to do internships. So my internship, in the last part of my degree was with, AC Nielsen, which is one of the largest media measurement companies in the world.

[00:03:31] And I think I was very lucky to have my first kind of corporate working experience with a company like that. It is a global business. And I got to get exposed to a lot of global brands that they were managing. And that was a critical moment in my career, because that exposure to all those global brands really ignited that curiosity for me.

[00:03:56] There is so much more there. Like I love my life here in Colombia, but is a big world. So many different cultures, so many different languages. So, I immediately got it in my head, I want to see the world. It really stayed with me and my family was very encouraging. So I finished my university degree and I put a goal and this is beginning of how important it is to start goals in your life, regardless if they are personal or professional.

[00:04:28] I put that goal that I was going to work for a year and then I was going to go overseas. And the clear objective there is working for Nielsen made me realize that, pretty much everyone that was managing global accounts was an English speaker. And I thought I need to learn English. If I want to get into a global career, or at least go and live in another country and explore the world, I need to learn English. So when I finished uni, I thought I'm going to work for a year and I'm going to go to an English speaking country where I can learn the language.

[00:05:02] I did that and I worked for a phenomenal advertising agency for a year. I was super clear with the MD that I was going to be here for a year. It was very interesting and a year later, I have a date in my calendar. I bought my ticket. I decided to come to Australia.

[00:05:17] I came here with no English. I live with my godparents who are Colombian, and they supported me, phenomenally in my, in my aspiration and I study, I study English and I was very lucky to get a job, in a great company called Carlson Wagonlit Travel.

[00:05:35] And with very little English, I started in the IT department. Like partnerships and negotiation and business management has always been kind of my, bread and butter, right? Building relationships and, and I was in I T doing data entry and it didn't really matter, right? I was just with that objective of trying to communicate in another language.

[00:05:57] Gillian: Did you study English in addition to being on site learning through your day to day interactions?

[00:06:03] Naysla: Absolutely. I had a student visa back then. I was enrolled in a university here. I was doing the English course. Uh, so I was studying, but you, you have to put a lot of effort into really learning a language. And I was in a bit of a hurry. So I did study, but I also realise and cousin was very kind to me and they sponsored me for a working visa. And I also started to do, validation of my bachelor degree here in Australia. So that pushed me into studying also within my field in the language, which it really pushed me.

[00:06:37] So those first years in Australia, I was booked down, really focused on, on the objective and a lot of support around me and especially my family here, but also the company I was working for. So to cut the story short, Carlson Wagonlit Travel is also a global company. And I put that goal to, I was having national roles.

[00:06:58] I end up moving to client management. You go back to where you belong. That’s how it happens. And, by the time I left Carlson Wagonlit, I was a senior client manager managing the New South Wales Government, which is the second largest corporate account in Australia.

[00:07:13] So I kind of have gone to that national level, as high as I could. I think the federal government was, was next. And between like in that last year at Carlson, I, I got introduced to a few people at American Express and they said, we will love you to come and work for AmEx. I admired AmEx and obviously it was the big competitor back then for, for Carlson.

[00:07:33] And I said, you know what? The only reason I will move I love this company is if I get a regional or a global job. You have to remind yourself. What was the goal, I said to achieve. Why did I came all the way across the world, left my family. And, you know, a year later, I got a call. We have the perfect job for you.

[00:07:54] It was an Asia Pacific role. It was managing global accounts within the Asia Pacific region at American Express Business Travel. And since joining American Express, I've been here 18 years. Absolutely love this company. And that's the journey that you refer to as you introduce the question. I work for American Express for just under two years here in Australia before applying for a role in Singapore, which I was successful.

[00:08:22] I moved to Singapore. After Singapore, I moved to France. I spent some time in the UK after that. And look at that time, life changed completely. Family changed completely. I had a daughter then and we decided as a family, to come back to Australia. But I love every experience of living overseas. And it was born from that exposure that I had to global brands right early in my corporate career.

[00:08:49] Gillian: That’s such a fascinating path that you've taken. But the thing that I'm most impressed with, because I studied a language at university, you know how hard it is, is just taking on and really owning that as a career enabler. And putting yourself in that very bold position to land in another country and figure it out.

[00:09:10] Do you know what I mean? It's a non-negotiable. I'm going to be here, I'm going to get a job, and I'm going to learn English. And how well that has supported you. Tell us about your role, just so we have that context as well.

[00:09:21] Naysla: So my current role, I'm basically the head of marketing here at American Express across Australia and New Zealand. And what that means is I'm responsible for our brand strategy and communication strategy. So it all starts with your, with your brand. It is, I think it is one, if not the most powerful asset that we have at the company. So it's defining that brand strategy and embedding that brand strategy across all communication that happens across the organisation. I'm also responsible for our experiential marketing strategy. So experiential marketing is something that I pretty much started from scratch here at American Express and is creating amazing experiences across the passion pillars for our customers such as dining, entertainment, music is huge, sports, the arts, food and wine. Of course, as head of marketing, I'm also responsible for our customer marketing communication strategy.

[00:10:17] So, I have two teams. One team runs our growth marketing strategy. So this is marketing initiatives that look at supporting our business to drive our shareholder metrics. So revenue, billings and many other metrics. And then I have a team that looks more after the life cycle marketing of our customers. So doing the right thing for our customer.

[00:10:38] Personalization of communications engagement. Really trying to drive that high utilisation of their benefits. Making sure that membership comes to life, basically. So that's, in a nutshell, my job today.

[00:10:50] Gillian: Yeah, and it's such a broad remit that’s also so creative and commercial and all of those things. Let's talk about.. you’re Vice President today. But at one point, you did that transition from being director to vice president. which is a significant step in anyone's career that step up and some of the things that we talk about in the RISE program or any of our women's career advancement programs is, you know, when you step up into some of those new senior opportunities, and it may not be a senior as yours, Naysla, but it can feel different. You know, maybe you encounter more difficult stakeholders, maybe the political environment feels more amplified, maybe you need to be more strategic, and demonstrate like there are different expectations and experiences quite often with those step-up opportunities, but what was it for you?

[00:11:42] Like, what surprised you the most when you made that transition from director to vice president?

[00:11:49] Naysla: When I was promoted to vice president, I was going from a team that it was about 10 or 12 people as a director to moving to a team that it was like over 30 people, if not more.

[00:12:02] Of course, it didn't surprise me that the people that was going to be reporting into me was very different from the colleagues that were reporting into me before. So, you immediately need to stop for a second and think what's the leadership approach I need to take into this new role?

[00:12:19] Because I think one of the challenges I see is when people get promoted and you continue to operate, and your leadership behaviors are exactly as you had them in the previous role. And it just doesn't work because the people under you, I had at the time and today, incredible people reporting directly to me, incredibly mature.

[00:12:41] They were directors, most of them, right? Doing the previous job that I was doing. So they didn't really need me to them or go in deep into the detail. And that's the interesting part about me is when I love something, and I get very passionate about things and that's kind of that creative mindset, I love to get deep down into the detail, right? I love it. But the reality is, is you don't need to get into the detail.

[00:13:07] So I had to very quickly learn that I needed to step back. Let the team know that I was there for them absolutely, have the clear strategy, the clear business plan, the direction that comes from me. But the team could then take that strategy and that priorities and direction to drive it and drive their teams and be empowered.

[00:13:30] So I, I was very open with my teams. Let me know if I'm too much into the detail. How much information do I need to have? And then you start to reorganise the way you connect with your teams, even the structure of how you connect with your teams. So that was something that didn't surprise me because I saw it so many times that people just try to continue to run the way they run before.

[00:13:51] And I guess I was a little bit aware about that. What surprised me probably the most or took me by surprise was as you realise that you're directing your team, leading your team is at this probably more senior level, you do need to spend more time with your peers to really partner with them and collaborate with them and influence because there are decisions we're making that are driving the company's success, right?

[00:14:19] That that can be completely, impactful to the success of the goals that we have set to achieve. So I probably realised that at that director level, I had a great relation relationship with my peers, but at this vice president level, I really needed to spend more time with the LFO, with the Head of Product, with the Head of Capabilities.

[00:14:42] Like get much deeper into my relationships with them and how we were influencing the business and how we're making decisions together and how we're collaborating. So, I went from, wow, I am part of this team now. This group of people feel that you belong. And Gillian, I'll tell you, I got the job.

[00:15:00] It was a very complex process. You go through a number of interviews, you have to study and prepare super hard. But even when you get the role, I had that imposter syndrome. You know, that, that voice that goes, how did I get here? My goodness me, I think I'm going to fail. Everyone is going to see. That's the other part of this, is remind yourself, I got here, I deserve this.

[00:15:25] Try to quiet that voice, whatever side of your shoulder it is, and try to focus on that voice that reminds you, you got this. You got it because you deserve it and you're gonna be great. There was a very, very senior executive at a large media company here in Australia, and he had a strong connection with our MD at the time, and somehow, Rachel, my leader then said to me, you should meet with him and have a coffee with him.

[00:15:52] think he knows a lot about the media world and the communications media world, it can be helpful for you. So I did that and we didn't talk about anything in relation to the job itself. Like we had a coffee and I remember he said to me, nicely, I'm going to give you an advice because this advice was given to me very early in my career.

[00:16:08] You need to go external. Like get out of Amex. You have that blue box inside of you. You love the company is very evident, but leading with an external perspective is going to be very important in this new role that you have. So get out and start to meet with the head of the networks, the head of the media companies, the head of everyone that influences communication and marketing in Australia and you'll see that you will have a much better perspective when you come internal and you're making decisions. And that was powerful advice because I started to create amazing networks within the industry and that led me to be invited to join CMO round tables, marketing councils for large social media companies, CMO panels. You know, you start to have a voice, not just in your company and with your team, but also in the industry and externally.

[00:17:03] And I thought, wow, the people I'm meeting and some of those people that I met back there are super close to me. I'm super grateful to them. But I realised very quickly, at least in the field that I chose in the profession that I chose externality and building really strong networks and having really strong, genuine connections with people, is super important for my personal and for my business success.

[00:17:31] Gillian: What do you think you do that makes you a good connector, better than most?

[00:18:09] Naysla: I guess it really comes from my love for people and my appreciation for what people bring to our lives. You have to genuinely care about others. And I think I, I do have that, but from a personality perspective, I'm an extrovert like I feed out of people. It gives me so much energy. It's so interesting when I kind of have to spend some time, a little bit, concentrating on something and sometimes I kind of have to go into a bubble to get some things done and I'm like, Oh my God, I'm missing the people. I'm missing that energy. And, and let's be honest, you won't be able to cultivate every single relationship you make in your life.

[00:18:49] It's very difficult. But there are some people that genuinely will stay with you through your journey. Now, for me, I have stayed in touch with every single leader I have worked for.

[00:19:00] And what is super interesting is, I think the reason why I have cultivated this relationship with all my former leaders and have a wonderful relationship with my current leader, is because we have shared passions.

[00:19:14] You know, even though they're very different jobs, we all care about people. We all care about service, customer. Most of these people put the customer at the centre of their decisions that we made. So we have a lot in common, right? And when I look at some of these relationships today, I actually have, ended up doing amazing partnerships like work wise, doing new business with them, even though we no longer work together, we actually now still work in a different capacity. So, I genuinely think that that shared passion and cultivating those relationships is very, very important. But then the other part, Gillian, of this is your commitment.

[00:19:54] So I mentioned before, after I started to meet all these people in the media industry and communication industry in Australia, you have to be prepared to put 100 percent into, you're going to do it. It's no point to say yes to everyone and then don't have the time or don't put the effort and your resources towards why you're joining those groups. Because that's your personal brand. When you say, okay, I'm going to join this group of people and we need to solve for these issues.

[00:20:25] You have to do it, right? You have to come to the table. You have to connect with those individuals, and you have to build that trust. So I think another part of me has been really not just building relationships for the sake of it, not just joining organisations to put it in a paper. It really doesn't matter.

[00:20:43] I’m really doing it firstly, continue to fulfill my personal purpose, but also to help others. And when you do it like that, genuine, you just come and bring your best self to supporting all these connections, people can see through you and people would love to have you back because they can see you're giving your everything to make these relationships work.

[00:21:06] So there is no special secret, but at the same time, I'm surrounded by so many amazing individuals, right? Like we could go around a room of thousands and ask the same question. What's their secret? Because what I have realised is that most of the times people are more willing to give and support each other than none.

[00:21:26] And you just have to really make sure when you hold that hand, that you truly hold it properly and take it to the next stage with you.

[00:21:35] Gillian: I love the principle about just seeing the good in people and being very authentic about that. And one of the, the massive benefits of that is you stop thinking about yourself. Don't you? You stop talking about all the nerves and all the stuff that gets in your way and you are focused on the individual and cultivating a richer discussion and relationship. Yeah. So good. Now, sometimes, and I'm sure you've seen this along your career, you can look out to that business landscape and you see leaders that were once so inspiring, and yet as the years trickle by, maybe it's only one or two years, they haven't developed themselves.

[00:22:14] Maybe they've hit a bit of a career plateau and consequently they're a little bit less valued in that business setting. They haven't kept up. So my question to you, Naysla, cause I would definitely describe you as someone who is very much the modern leader. How do you stay relevant and contemporary in your career?

[00:22:33] Naysla: Look, I think you, you do need to continue to follow your passions. Your purpose. What do you want to do? Like have clarity on your ambition. Once you know where you want to go, it focused you more on how you remain relevant because you can see the goal.

[00:22:51] And I think one of the challenges is that sometimes people don't know what they want to do. And that's a challenge. And I see it here at work. I see it in other companies. I see people that apply for everything and anything in the world. Some people just chase a promotion. And I don't think that's very healthy because you're trying to do something without having a clear goal into where you want to go. But, from my perspective, kind of defining where do I want to go and in which field I want to stay, then is arming myself externally and internally with tools into how I'm going to continue to grow and learn, through that process. Now, personally, for me, you said something before, it's like we become selfless, it's no more about us, it's about others.

[00:23:37] And when you become a senior leader in an organisation your perspective changes completely. You're responsible for so many people. I can't be worried about me. So I stopped for a second. I got the job. Let's say, I don't remember how long it was, but I felt a little bit more comfortable in that new job. And then I stopped for a second. I defined my ambition and I'm like, what's my incremental? What's my legacy? What are people gonna remember me for? Right?

[00:24:05] Like the way for me to continue to drive this energy and become relevant is to bring something that maybe wasn't expected for me and my leader has been completely transformational in our DNI efforts, but I quickly saw that ambition from her and I'm like, I'm going to jump here and I'm going to start to look at how we can drive more DNI in marketing, right?

[00:24:32] Like, how are we doing advertising? And then I started to hear about organizations like the UN Women and Unstereotype Alliance, which their objective is to remove stereotype or a handful of stereotypes from advertising. And I'm like, we need to do the is at AMEX and you start to go. I know how to do the role. I know how to do this job.

[00:24:51] I know how to run a brand campaign, but let's have a look at how we are portraying Australians within our advertising and lots of opportunities there. Then it evolved into how I'm going to support communities. So I got very close to the pride network here at American Express and ended up being an executive sponsor.

[00:25:09] We end up being the principal partners of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. And That was never written anywhere for me, but you continue to grow and you continue to give back to communities, to your colleagues, to your organisation, even to yourself and your family by redefining where do you want to spend your time?

[00:25:29] What's your legacy? What's your incremental? Doing your job is no longer what is expected from us. How are we pushing boundaries to really be remembered for things that really matter. So that has been a phenomenal journey for me is jumping into initiatives at work and outside of work that continue to help me realise that the world is bigger than the bubble I live in and how we can make a difference.

[00:25:55] So that's more the big picture of how I feel I have evolved as a leader and as a person and as a human, is that care less and really kind of giving exercise. But then I do want to make sure for those that are listening, that in the role is very important that you continue to challenge yourself and that you continue to have people in your teams and in your lives that ask you the very difficult questions and challenge you because if everyone agrees with you in your life, there's a problem right there. You want people, you want to hire people that are going to tell you, you haven't thought about this, this, this, this. And we have to collectively, as a unit that is my team, go on and start to solve for how innovation looks like.

[00:26:40] We used to have a CEO at American Express. His name is Ken Chenault. and he was absolutely fabulous. We all love him as much as our current CEO. And Ken used to say to us, we want to be the business that get us out of business. And I always remember that. Is we should be the company that pushes out to bring that new company that is going to continue to succeed.

[00:27:04] You think about American Express is 175 years old. Amex in Australia has been 70 years this year. So when you think about a company that is, that has existed for 175 years, is the innovation, is thinking differently is recreating themselves that push you forward. But you have to retain your values.

[00:27:24] You never compromise your values, right? Service trust security for me is who I am. We maintain our values entirely, but we continue to reinvent ourselves to grow.

[00:27:36] Gillian: And this whole thing around legacy, it's kind of like your Y frame, isn't it? And the whole stereotyping thing is so interesting. I think there's such an opportunity there. I had an incident yesterday in my personal life, where, we were doing something, husband and wife, and they left me off the email. Women feel invisible and we don't really want to feel invisible.

[00:27:58] Naysla: It's amazing. It's 2024. But it's still happening. You know, like when, when we joined the Unstereotype Alliance when I was looking at retail like campaigns, it was always the woman with the bag. Always the woman with the bag. She's the one that goes shopping. And I'm like, gosh, it's just not right. It's just, it's, it might not be harmful, but it's stereotyping. And then there is the harmful stereotype.

[00:28:22] It's, it's the things that we position anyone from different diversity, different communities, is positioned them in certain ways that is just, it's just not real. And you just said something really powerful. If I cannot see it, I cannot be it. And for our younger generations, our children, you know, sports like, the amazing story of the Matildas, where girls can see themselves, getting close to winning a World Cup.

[00:28:48] You know, I was born in Colombia. Massive, massive football country. football is huge. And football and soccer was my brother.

[00:28:57] I was other things. And today if we keep removing all those stereotypes of the toys that are for girls or the toys that are for boys and everyone playing with any type of toy regardless of the gender, just to go into gender as a one aspect, we will start to see children thinking differently. So there is so much opportunity Gillian and I think as a collective particularly everyone that has a voice.

[00:29:25] We need to continue to be very, very mindful of removing those stereotypes, particularly those harmful stereotypes.

[00:29:32] Gillian: I love that. It's a wonderful contribution. And a final question, Naysla, because you've had this incredible career. You've achieved so much and you're still young. what else would you like to pull off? Like what's important to you when you think about your future?

[00:29:47] Naysla: I do want to continue to progress in my career and I don't think I'm done with moving and seeing more of the world. So we are at a time, personally, where we're going to be here in Australia for a little longer, so it'd be interesting to see that there are less opportunities at AMEX from a global regional perspective here, but, I get involved myself.

[00:30:10] So I literally just join a project that is global. I'm flying to London in two weeks. So I'm working with the UK, with Mexico. It’s an innovation lab, super excited. So I think I need to like, maybe it goes back to that, how you stayed relevant, but also how you continue to feed that voices inside of you, that tells you, I really want to do this and this, but at the moment I can't do it, is a stretch stretching myself.

[00:30:35] So I will continue to look at those opportunities. They put a little bit of pressure. It's not easy to be in Australia, connecting with the UK and Mexico and New York, to be completely honest. That you do the very odd hours of the day, but when there is passion, you can do it. So I definitely will continue to seek for opportunities where I can, connect with more different countries, be more participative into what's happening outsideof Australia, because that's a passion of mine.

[00:31:02] Internally, I will continue to aspire for, for continuous growth. My role. changed quite dramatically a little under two years ago, I went from just be a B2C leader to a B2C B2B. So still learning about the B2B world has been fascinating, the support that we can give to small businesses. So, I think I, I'm going to continue to dive down into that B2C B2B world from a, from a marketing strategy and growth perspective.

[00:31:31] But then, the personal aspect is very important. So I currently sit in the board of Redfern Legal Centre, which is, legal centre that support people that don't have the resources to pay for a lawyer, but they need support. And it's particularly within underprivileged communities like First Nations, international students, victims of domestic violence that are trying to escape a home because of the situation that living, and they need a lawyer to try to go through fight like financial health, financial abuse. So, it's been phenomenal to sit at this board. And but it also make me realize that I would love to pursue other opportunities for collaborating with non for profit organisations, probably in passion areas of mine. So the arts, entertainment, music. So, it's something I'm at the moment, considering and working through and having conversations with people externally. I definitely feel that I can give more and we'll see, we'll see where the world takes me. I'm, I might move again to another country. We'll see. So I'm excited about the future and we have to be positive about the future.

[00:32:34] Gillian: You personify positivity, which I absolutely love. And as you know, we have a lot of C suite and senior executives on the podcast, but what I admire most about you, Naysla, and there's a lot to admire, is your energy and positivity and, you know, attitude counts for a lot, doesn't it?

[00:32:51] In terms of your application and focus and everything. And I just want to say thank you. It has been an absolute pleasure and delight speaking to you today and, your insights have been fantastic. So many great tips and moments of inspiration as well. So, thank you.

[00:33:06] Naysla: Thank you, Gillian. And back to you I mean, I feel super grateful for the invitation.