Jenn Leahy of Dragon Army: How To Take Your Company From Good To Great
An Interview With Jerome Knyszewski
Consistency — Stay even-keeled and project/model the behaviors you wish to see in your team and company. Your team will always take the lead from their leaders and inconsistent behavior can really disrupt company culture and have people questioning your vision and priorities.
As part of my series about the “How To Take Your Company From Good To Great”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jenn Leahy.
Jenn took the helm at Dragon Army as President, to drive the company’s growth.
Jenn brings 15 years of mobile, digital, social and brand-building experience with her. A proven client and team leader, she’s had success in building product solutions, campaigns and activations for the world’s biggest brands across a variety of industries such as Nike, Coke, Wells Fargo, Chick-fil-A, BMW and Turner.
Before coming to Dragon Army, Jenn led the global repositioning for Nike Women’s social media.
Jenn also led business development and client services at Grey NY, SF and ATL, where she architected the agency’s early business development practices for client’s like E*Trade, Reliant Energy and Diageo. She’s led fast-growing, interdisciplinary teams of over 50+ during her career and considers client satisfaction as the single most important thing for teams to focused on, in order to achieve growth.
Jenn’s a native New Yorker who now lives in Midtown Atlanta with her husband Brian and doggies, Fred and Ginger.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Believe it or not, I got started on the dance floor! I was actually a professional dancer for years and my undergraduate and graduate degrees are both in Dance Performance and African Studies. But when I relocated from Philadelphia to Atlanta 20 years ago, I fell into a digital marketing role at a local agency. I jumped in, eager to learn and do any task I could — answering phones, office management, administrative tasks. Now I’ve been in this industry for 20 years.
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?
Digital marketing is a very different industry today compared to what it was 20 years ago. When I started in this field, it was a matter of doing whatever it took, day in and day out, to complete the tasks at hand. I suffered abusive language, worked 90+ hour work weeks, Digital marketing is a very different industry today compared to what it was 20 years ago. When I started in this field, it was a matter of doing whatever it took, day in and day out, to complete the tasks at hand. I suffered abusive language, worked 90+ hour work weeks and even slept overnight at the office to spend more time working than commuting or sleeping.
Over the years, this industry has been impacted by economic change. I learned early on that business fluctuates dramatically, so it’s essential to have a strong work ethic and positive attitude to get up every day and get the job done. These are traits I saw in my parents when I was growing up. They did whatever it took to raise my siblings and myself on very little. My dad always worked multiple jobs to make ends meet and give the family what we needed, so remarkably, it never felt like we were lacking. He had a strong work ethic and a “can do’’ attitude, which I see reflected in myself today. and even slept overnight at the office to spend more time working than commuting or sleeping.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
Midway into my career, I was at an agency pitching a golf cart manufacturer. They agreed to a meeting and came to meet us in Atlanta. I thought it would be cool if we rented a golf cart of theirs to pick them up and drive them to where we did the pitch meeting. As soon as we were on the road going 15 MPH among cars hitting 50 MPH, I knew it wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had and realized we were giving them a bad impression.
Once we safely made it to our meeting location, we laughed it off, and the adrenaline turned out to be a great kick-off to the meeting. It was definitely an ice breaker. Looking back, I’d never repeat that, but it taught me about how to plan better.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
At Dragon Army, we are all about doing innovative, cutting-edge work. We stand out because we are a team of people who actively care about other people and are striving to make the world and our community a better place. Recently, we asked our team what was most important to them and what they were focusing on. One of our developers stated he was dedicated to being the best husband and father. His response resonated with me because, unfortunately, in this industry and really as a society, it’s easy to get caught up in the grind and forget what matters. Great pitch decks and creative marketing campaigns aren’t what make a team or workplace special. At Dragon Army, we know that collaborating with people who genuinely want to be better human beings dictates how we run our business, treat our team, and serve our partners. We get better at our jobs when we are focused on bettering our personal lives as well.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
We often hear the term “work/life balance,” but I believe a better way to represent this is through the term “work/life harmony.” It’s not an original concept, but we genuinely use it to make decisions for our organization and people.
The work we do is demanding by nature and will inevitably require extra time in the office, whether it’s late evenings or even weekends. Instead of kicking yourself for this, it’s important to find harmony and give yourself grace and space for the things that are important. Especially when you become a leader, it’s important to remind yourself that your title doesn’t make you any more special or important; you’re just a person. When we stop putting so much pressure on ourselves to deliver and remember to find harmony, it’s easier to build a good team of healthy, high-functioning people.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
One of my very first mentors was BA Albert, an amazing creative leader in Atlanta. She had an excellent career that took her all over the country but eventually came back to Atlanta to be closer to her home state, Alabama. She was the first person to take a chance on me in digital marketing when I was still a dancer. I think she recognized in me what I now recognize as I grow our team at Dragon Army. First, lead with empathy and kindness. Next, hire people with a good mindset who are disciplined, hard workers; give them an opportunity and they can do incredible things.
Her tagline for the company was “Have fun, tell the truth, and be your best.” As a leader, this has become my mantra. Are we having fun? Are we being honest as partners? Are we doing everything we can to be our best?
Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. The title of this series is “How to take your company from good to great”. Let’s start with defining our terms. How would you define a “good” company, what does that look like? How would you define a “great” company, what does that look like?
Jim Collins’ book, “Good to Great,” is one of our mandatory readings in our leadership group. He defines good to great like this: At a basic level, good companies might have decent revenue and profit; they can point to business metrics showing accomplishment. But really great companies recognize that their employees want to be part of a winning team, contribute to real results and be part of the company’s exciting growth. He describes it as a concept of a flywheel: you put in the hard work slowly over time, do things with consistency, practice and rigor, and at some point that wheel will spin on its own. A lot of leaders and companies think the pivotal moments — acquiring a company or making an investment — are what shapes their growth or defines them. But genuinely great, smart change happens more over the long haul through good practice more than it does in the moments that get a lot of attention.
Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to lead a company from Good to Great? Please share a story or an example for each.
1 — Consistency — Stay even-keeled and project/model the behaviors you wish to see in your team and company. Your team will always take the lead from their leaders and inconsistent behavior can really disrupt company culture and have people questioning your vision and priorities.
2 — Discipline — Never let performance reviews and 1:1 conversations with other team members slip when things are seemingly “good.” These are the times to proactively focus on the future.
3 — Practice — Have rigor around new business and growth activities — predictable and consistent growth demands practice and constant refinement.
4 — Credibility — Back up what you message and say from a marketing perspective with actual results and reasons to believe it is true.
5 — Authenticity — Always act in accordance with your company purpose, vision, tenants and values.
Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. Can you help articulate for our readers a few reasons why a business should consider becoming a purpose driven business, or consider having a social impact angle?
Being purpose-driven only works for a business if it feels authentic, can be supported by the business, and if its people believe in it. If those things exist, a purpose-driven organization can be powerful as it allows them to give their team, their client and their customers a bigger reason to buy into their brand.
Right now, Dragon Army is going through the process of certifying to become a Certified B Corporation. We use our purpose-driven values each and every day as a company and it pays off by giving constant daily clarity around our direction and reason for doing what we do. Being clear on a purpose helps our team stay focused and gives them a reason to believe in what we do each day more effectively.
What would you advise to a business leader who initially went through years of successive growth, but has now reached a standstill. From your experience do you have any general advice about how to boost growth and “restart their engines”?
The key is consistency and discipline. Strong leaders sometimes need to go back to basics, setting small goals so the team feels the momentum and wins. As those small wins add up, momentum kicks in and you get more wins; it’s a cycle that grows more and becomes more attractive to workers and customers. When business leaders don’t have a consistent strategy for growth, they can tend to focus on it only when other aspects of the business aren’t working well. By then it can be too late; the economy can take a hit or the industry can slow down. It takes discipline to stay focused on growth all along.
This approach to growth has worked really well for me at Dragon Army and in my career in general. Staying true to the philosophy means taking care of our team, and staying consistent and disciplined every day so we don’t get in a position where, suddenly, we don’t know what to do.
Generating new business, increasing your profits, or at least maintaining your financial stability can be challenging during good times, even more so during turbulent times. Can you share some of the strategies you use to keep forging ahead and not lose growth traction during a difficult economy?
Don’t slow down when the company is booming. During COVID-19, we were still busy because we’d been building upon our momentum for a while. Optimism helps and gives a good sense of stability to your team so they can focus on what they need to and not on the problem at hand. When leaders feel and show the weight of tough times it can affect the whole team; keeping a positive attitude about the future leaves room for opportunity.
In your experience, which aspect of running a company tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?
The best leaders I’ve worked with tend to be more optimistic and it helps them take on challenges. But I’ve also worked with senior people who had to switch positions or leave their position to go to an entirely new industry; it can be a struggle to navigate unknown territory.
One of the things that great leaders can do, and which can be taken for granted, is to be a student; take the time to really understand their business. It’s important because it builds trust in a team. If the team believes in what they’re going through, it builds confidence for the leader. Part of that dynamic is taking a step back to zoom in at critical times so the team knows their leader gets it, understands what’s needed, and can deliver.
Chick-fil-A is a great example of an incredible culture. One of the first things they do for new employees is make sure they know each other’s roles. You might be someone taking orders at the drive-thru, but you’ll have learned how to prep everything in the back of house, how the food is made, and how cash registers and the POS system work. That innate understanding of what everyone around is tasked with builds trust and flexibility in the team.
A strong team is a connected, highly dependent system. Every component of the system is critical. As a leader, it’s important to remember how complex business can be. At Dragon Army, knowing all the ins and outs of our industry allows me to make more informed decisions because I’ve done every job in the company.
As you know, “conversion” means to convert a visit into a sale. In your experience what are the best strategies a business should use to increase conversion rates?
At Dragon Army, we often get clients looking to increase conversion, but they’ll forget that they’re really talking about a human being making a decision. Every human is motivated by something different, and there’s always a trigger to personalize their motivation to move them from consideration to purchase.
We’ve started looking at that in a new and different way. We look at the game world and how they think about engagement and conversion. Unlike digital marketers, when games first started, in order to survive in the app store they had to convert. And that meant they had to find new ways to think about how people are motivated, what triggers create the actions the game designer and the players want. At Dragon Army, we study the science of motivation and triggers, then apply them in digital engagement experiences from website and mobile designs to social media content.
Businesses looking for new ways to look at conversion can draw inspiration from other industries, other digital marketing, or products out there that have figured it out. Look for inspiration in unexpected places — our study of gaming has propelled a lot of the work we do.
Of course, the main way to increase conversion rates is to create a trusted and beloved brand. Can you share a few ways that a business can earn a reputation as a trusted and beloved brand?
First and foremost, a business must be true to itself. Be authentic, have consistency, and meet and exceed a consumer’s expectations. Brand love builds over time, not just from one good experience. Think about your own experiences. Why did you try something for the first time? When someone tells us they love a service or product, we trust them. So when a brand is struggling to establish itself, focusing on word of mouth and influencer management are good ways to establish trust and expand your audience at scale. It’s taking the time to nurture brand advocates and support them in spreading the word to influence others.
Great customer service and great customer experience are essential to build a beloved brand and essential to be successful in general. In your experience what are a few of the most important things a business leader should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience?
Think about how you want customers to feel when they’re spending time with you. Go back to the fact that while you may be a leader, you’re a human first and foremost. Consider that when you’re looking at your customer’s journey. One of our biggest purposes at Dragon Army is to inspire happiness. About four years ago, we moved into a new space and the first thing I did was take a look at what the experience would be for a customer or partner coming there for the first time. I looked at it from the lens of, does it inspire their happiness?
What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
One common mistake I’ve seen is putting the wrong people in the wrong leadership positions, whether due to personality, attitude or skill set. So much can go wrong.
Another mistake is not prioritizing growth as a huge component of what you do. Growth, sales and marketing must always be at the forefront, not an afterthought. Don’t scale down just because revenue scales down. I always invest in leadership and the development of our team so the culture can stay strong. I also focus on growth so our team has better advantages and can deliver better work. In turn, this will only help us grow as well.
Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Keep it simple. When I consider where the world is going and what I want for our world, I want people to build better relationships and be kind to one another. We’re all desperately trying to be heard, so we don’t stop to listen to one another. Maybe I’d start a quiet movement, where people take time to listen to someone else in their life in an effort to bring us closer together rather than further apart.
How can our readers further follow you online?
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
