This week on Own It we’re talking to Brandi LaFontaine from Together With. She is based in Victoria, British Columbia in Canada, but the agency has locations in Buenos Aires, Toronto, Miami and Louisville.
Together with lives in what they call a contrast – data with empathy, logic with intuition and collaboration with candor. You can tell this conversation will be very interesting.
Brandi and I talked about her journey to ownership which comes from the analytics, economics and financial side of the agency world. She led operations and managed analytics for a few firms before becoming CEO of Together With a little over two years ago.
As always, these conversations help all of us learn and get inspired. This one is no different.
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The "glass cliff" refers to the phenomenon where women and people of color are often given leadership opportunities when an organization is in crisis or at high risk, after others have stepped back. Brandi embraced such an opportunity, recognizing the high risk but also the potential for significant learning and positive impact by rallying the team.
True success for Brandi is ensuring that the people who pour their hearts and souls into the work are the ones who benefit from their labor. This means empowering the entire team with ownership stakes and fostering an environment where employees are so valuable they are constantly sought after by other companies, yet choose to stay because their current workplace is the best possible environment.
Brandi challenges the traditional view of tasks often assigned to women, like taking notes or planning team events, as "lesser." Instead, she argues that these activities are critical leadership functions. For example, "the person who holds the pen writes history," highlighting the power and strategic advantage of note-taking. Elevating these often-overlooked contributions as leadership roles changes the narrative and values women's work more highly.
Brandi emphasizes that leaders never truly feel "ready," and that's perfectly acceptable. She highlights that vulnerability and humanness are strengths, not weaknesses, in leadership. By acknowledging what you're not good at and building a team that complements your strengths, anyone can achieve great things. The key is to keep going and not let self-doubt or external narratives define your limits.
