Wynne is the brains behind Swaggle’s clever campaigns. Here, Wynne shares with Inside Retail how she stays focused on the long-term without getting distracted by driving short-term gains, what makes her ‘swaggle’ and her views on leadership. Inside Retail: Let’s talk career journey; how did you get into the retail industry, and what are some of the roles you’ve held along the way? Emma Wynne: I’ve had a pretty varied career. From creative advertising, working at the likes of Clemenger and Cummins&Partners, to digital publishing at The Urban List and then moving into pure startup growth roles when I moved to the UK. Since being back in Australia, I’ve been helping to grow new businesses launching Kind bars at Mars, and driving growth at Providoor, before moving to Swaggle as the head of marketing. IR: What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in your career and how have you dealt with them? EW: The main challenge, especially working in direct-to-consumer and startup is always how to continue to focus on the long-term planning aspect, without getting distracted by driving short-term gains. It’s similar to the work of Binet and Field on The Long and Short of It for media investment. It applies to your time investment, too. IR: What are some of your career highlights so far?  EW: Winning agency of the year when I was at Cummins&Partners, I think I was employee number five, so it really felt like we had a hand in building the business from scratch. The incredible levels of growth we were able to achieve at The Urban List – from  20,000 readers, three cities and 15 employees, to an audience of over 2.5 million, and a team of 40+ employees, spanning seven cities across Australia and New Zealand. Having a hand in building Pasta Evangelists in the UK, which went on to sell to Barilla for approximately £48 million. And the ‘Swaggle Hunt’ – burying a giant bone on Rose Bay dog beach and getting coverage across Sunrise and 7 News. IR: What do you love about your job? EW: I love that every day is different. I love working towards targets, and being creative about how we reach them and being able to test and learn. And I love my team – a group of highly skilled experts in their areas. IR: What advice would you give someone who wants to get into your line of work? EW: Always keep learning – when I’m hiring, it might not be about finding the person who has the experience, but if they can show that they are passionate about their area and a willingness and curiosity to learn, those are the kind of people you want on your team. IR: What key leadership lessons have you kept from your career learnings? EW: Trust your team and your agency partners. You’ve hired or are working with these people because they are the experts. Trust and lean into their strengths IR: Any advice for those wanting to climb the corporate ladder? EW: This is a hard one to answer as I don’t see myself as prioritising this in my career. IR: Where do you go for career advice? EW: I’m a huge podcast listener. I’ve even got one podcast app for what I call my ‘fun podcasts’, and one for my ‘business podcasts’ — so that’s a huge resource for me. There are some great books and studies that I turn to time, and time again, but more for marketing and growth strategy, The Long and the Short of It and Traction are a few off the top of my head. IR: Who are your business heroes? EW: I lean more into the marketing heroes area and I’m a big fan of Mark Ritson, I enjoy his take on things, and his love of research and data. I love the work Dr Karen Nelson-Field has done around attention and the Uncensored CMO podcast with Jon Evans. He has some awesome guests and shares some great research on marketing effectiveness.