From Montana to Miami: Mitch's Journey Through AI, Marketing and Career Growth
Mitch McLeod | Advisor, Product Marketing | Florida, United States
Originally Published: November 14, 2024
My name is Mitch McLeod, I’m a native of Montana and a graduate of Boston University. I lived in Boston for five years after graduating, and now I live in Miami, FL. In my free time I am an avid reader and athlete, I am learning Spanish because my partner is from Madrid, and my bucket list goal is to visit every National Park in the United States.
My current role is on the Generative AI (GenAI) portfolio marketing team. My responsibilities are to help articulate the benefits of the Dell AI Factory, Dell’s framework to help organizations accelerate their AI journey. The Dell AI Factory comprises a portfolio of products, solutions and services optimized for AI workloads. It brings together these AI-optimized technologies with an open ecosystem of partners, validated and integrated solutions, expert services and best practices to help customers achieve AI outcomes faster.
My Career Journey
I started in the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Field Marketing team, helping to run customer events and sales plays. That year was when COVID hit, so we had to transition halfway through my rotation into crafting breakthrough customer presentations for use over Zoom. I leveraged those skills to land a content creation role in the Dell APEX organization, a newly formed team focusing on multicloud and as-a-Service. I have held many roles within that org, including social media, events, and now back to content creation and messaging as our team has transitioned into AI.
While looking back at my time in the Marketing Development Program (MDP), it’s the soft skills I learned then that prepared me for success during my career. Yes, I had to learn about company processes and our technology, but I arguably grew more while learning how to network, actively listen and work with others. Also, my first role required a lot of meetings with sales teams; understanding how to respectfully ask for their time while managing deadlines is a skill I lean on every single day.
An impactful piece of advice I’ve learned is to 'just say yes.' I have been given a ton of projects that went far outside my comfort zone, but I never once said no. Instead, those projects have elevated my visibility and accelerated my career growth. Even if I failed, I learned valuable lessons and made a name for myself as an innovator and as someone eager to know how to do better.
Mitch M.
Advisor, Product Marketing
Utilizing Artificial Intelligence in my Role
I use GenAI tools in my role every single day. Specifically, I use our proprietary content creation tools to churn out all sorts of written content, such as outlines of presentations and eBooks, presentation abstracts, text chunks and even entire blogs. A specific example that stands out is executing follow-ups with customers after an industry event I attended – I uploaded my notes, and our tool provided me with personalized emails for all 20 customers I met with, helping me deliver what would have been an hours-long process in a matter of minutes.
As AI transforms the future of marketing, I believe we will all become less writers and more editors. Now, I can generate pages and pages of text with proper prompting at the click of a button. The trick is to understand if that information is accurate, and to make sure the information I asked for is all included.
One of my biggest accomplishments has been the launch of GenAI Days, a strategic, customer-facing event series aimed at educating high-value customers about the world of GenAI, and how Dell is positioned to be a strategic partner in this world. In this role, I often interface with VPs, heads of sales, and key strategic partners. Most importantly, this event has helped to forge a tight partnership between portfolio marketing and the Executive Briefing Program (EBP) team who helps us execute these events.
Advice Learned Along the Way
“The business is your business,” as my mentor once said. It has taken me a while to realize that I can affect the entire Dell Technologies organization; also, understanding that things that happen “far away” in Dell can impact me. I would encourage all younger in career team members to take the time to listen to what is happening at the company, and understand how their work can help address any challenges the company is facing.
An impactful piece of advice I’ve learned is to “just say yes.” I have been given a ton of projects that went far outside my comfort zone, but I never once said no. Instead, those projects have elevated my visibility and accelerated my career growth. Even if I failed, I learned valuable lessons and made a name for myself as an innovator and as someone eager to know how to do better.
Finally, I encourage all new MDP team members to stay close with their cohort and others within the MDP orbit. These are folks who will likely become peers members in the future, or even down the line co-leaders within the same organization. Leverage those relationships and lean on the common ground we all have as members of this program. It can help make a large company feel smaller.
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