How Three Young Professional Women Make their Mark in a Male-Dominated Industry
With roots in rail bridge engineering, ARE is transforming itself into a national engineering and technology company. It’s a huge marketing challenge to go from rail bridge management for short line railroads to becoming a well-known technology provider of engineering, UAS, GIS data collection, and Software as a Service (SaaS) in several market verticals. This doesn’t stand in the way of our female-led marketing and branding team. Every day they are making our presence known in the traditionally male-dominated industries of transportation, energy, construction, and environmental engineering.
Team Development
What I want to share with you is a story about a company comprised of incredibly talented, compassionate, and creative people. This is a story about a company working toward strengthening its value proposition and achieving sustainable growth. It’s a story about a company’s journey toward becoming better and the challenges faced along the way. Just one way we are doing this is through our marketing and branding strategy, specifically, through the efforts of three extraordinary and talented professional women; Lindsey Mitchell, Rhoda Deng, and Aja Lucero. These employees of ARE do not come from traditional marketing backgrounds; in fact, quite the opposite (professional aviator, environmental engineer, and human resource specialist). Each day they dedicate themselves to the job of building the industry’s understanding of “who we are” and “what we provide” through daily social media posts and monthly newsletters. To achieve this takes education and a whole lot of it. Education that respects why our existing customers work with us and knowledge that reaches the needs of engaging new customers to want to work with us. Accomplishing this in an industry and work environment that is predominantly male-oriented is no easy feat, but no worries! These women have stayed focused on the task at hand and not the barriers. They’ve embraced the challenge of applying their knowledge and experiences in each other’s professional careers into ways that can facilitate our goals of building ARE’s brand recognition—all while maintaining their typical 8-5 responsibilities.
Professional Growth
Honestly, it’s been amazing to watch the professional growth of these women and how their efforts turn out results. Today, marketing at ARE is a well-tuned engine. These women submerse themselves in research, discover new stories, customer briefings/debriefings, field operations, event participation, implement and manage our CRM systems, and so much more. They roll their sleeves up and have no concern with getting their hands dirty or jumping in the trenches. They’ve built a cross-functional team without even being asked to do so. They’ve inspired other team members to want to get involved, brainstorm, and share ideas. They’ve learned to trust in each other’s instincts and research. They encourage each other and don’t let critique get in the way of the success of the team. Each woman has brought new skills to the business and found not only the time to train themselves, but also other employees.
Simply put… they’ve brought character, passion, and leadership to something we all deem necessary. Along the way, they’ve strengthened our company’s culture and mindset towards continuous improvement. ARE is fortunate to have employees like Lindsey, Rhoda, and Aja. They represent the best in what every company needs. They exemplify will-power and fortitude, setting gender aside, and focusing on the talents they possess. This is the most enlightening aspect of these professional women.
I appreciate the effort from everyone at ARE. Without losing the core values and foundation upon which our company was built, our team continues working together and doing their part, adding to ARE’s story.