Meet Suzie Bao | Marketing Leader

We had the good fortune of connecting with Suzie Bao and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Suzie, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
It’s about prioritizing for me. I use to be a typical workaholic supermom type, but realized that having it all, doesn’t mean I should do it all. It wasn’t healthy and certainly not sustainable. I now prioritize self-care first and foremost, family second and third career. It’s the only way to sustain all these priorities in a healthy way. Be ok with giving less effort to lower priority items.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
It’s been a very long road in my advertising/marketing career. For most of it, it’s been me carving a path for myself. I did not come from a privileged background or go to a prominent university, so I was compelled to work 3x as hard as the next person just to move the needle for myself. I never craved the limelight, just the occasional “good job” or some appreciation and when I didn’t receive it, I moved on. This was definitely not how I would approach things now. Partly due to my cultural upbringing and my human nature of “keep your head down, work hard and someone will notice” that only helped maybe 20% of the time. I now realize that I need to “Get Loud” and “Be more visible” and I’m the only one that will merchandise my great work to others. It not easy for me and quite frankly uncomfortable but I’ve worked to hard and long and still have much more to contribute. Just need the top executives to see it. And once I’m one of the top executives, you bet I will be on the look out for the quiet ones that need the lift like I did.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
L.A. has so much to offer. Some fun things to do and see would be the Getty Center, LACMA and the Broad museums. Shopping on Robertson Blvd for some celebrity sitings or Century City where there is an Eately. There’s lots of restaurants to explore, too. Not sure which ones survived the Pandemic, but Nobu Malibu is a great ocean front eatery. Republique is a great brunch spot. I’m hoping to try the much anticipated opening of Bicyclette Restaurant. I’ve been also wanting to try Axe throwing.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’ve had a small circle of peer mentors/friends that I turn to for advice over the years. Recently, I contribute being on the Advisory Board of Asians in Advertising that has opened up opportunities for me to be more visible in my field and elevate the community. This group will do great things and I’m excited to be part of this journey and continue to carve a path for others coming up.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suziebao/

Image Credits
AIA Board call image by Bernice Chao. Females Fwd Panel ad by Jessica Clifton. All other photos are with my iPhone.