Exploring the Future of Digital Advertising with Kya Sainsbury-Carter
This week on the podcast, Brent is joined by Kya Sainsbury-Carter, the Corporate Vice President for Microsoft Advertising. During the episode Kya kicks off by sharing her personal journey, from studying international business at the University of Arkansas to her unexpected but rewarding career in technology. As they continue in the episode, Kya discusses the rapidly changing landscape of advertising and how Microsoft is driving innovation in this space. Kya also highlights the diverse range of products and platforms that Microsoft offers for advertising, including MSN, Bing, Outlook, Xbox, and Skype. She explains how Microsoft Advertising works closely with advertisers, agencies, and publishers to find audiences within the Microsoft ecosystem and extend their reach across the web. Finally, Kya emphasizes the importance of building a business that matters and the goal of making a substantial impact in the industry.
Transcript
Kya Sainsbury-Carter: Advertising. It's funny. I always say like,
Speaker:we're in this really rapid period of change. And people
Speaker:around me say like, it's always in a rapid period of change.
Speaker:That's not a differentiator.
Brent Williams:Welcome to the Be Epic podcast, brought to you
Brent Williams:by the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of
Brent Williams:Arkansas. I'm your host, Brent Williams. Together, we'll
Brent Williams:explore the dynamic landscape of business, and uncover the
Brent Williams:strategies, insights and stories that drive business today. Well,
Brent Williams:today I have with me Kya Sainsbury-Carter, and Kya is the
Brent Williams:Corporate Vice President for Microsoft Advertising, and is a
Brent Williams:proud Walton College alum. So Kya, thank you for joining me.
Brent Williams:Kya Sainsbury-Carter: Thank you so much for having me. I'm
Brent Williams:thrilled to be here.
Brent Williams:We're excited to have you engaged and well, one,
Brent Williams:what an exciting time I would think to be at Microsoft
Brent Williams:advertising. And maybe just let's start there sort of like,
Brent Williams:tell us a little more about what you do at Microsoft.
Brent Williams:Kya Sainsbury-Carter: Sure. And you know, probably it's helpful
Brent Williams:to tell you a little bit about my how I got here from from my
Brent Williams:experience at the University of Arkansas. I have spent most of
Brent Williams:my career in technology. And I got started in tech, probably
Brent Williams:pretty randomly, to be honest, I didn't, it wasn't wasn't the
Brent Williams:plan, necessarily. But as I grew in tech, I became more and more
Brent Williams:interested in getting closer to the customer to the end
Brent Williams:customer. And in terms of how we use the internet, to facilitate
Brent Williams:the engagement that we had with our customers, so that was at
Brent Williams:Compaq. That was at Hewlett Packard, I worked at a startup.
Brent Williams:And the way that I came to Microsoft is that when I worked
Brent Williams:at a startup, I was running a whole product from sort of end
Brent Williams:to end on the business side, you know, doing market research,
Brent Williams:writing specs, doing business modeling, and I was also doing
Brent Williams:the marketing. And as a part of the marketing, we were doing
Brent Williams:some search marketing. And so I started learning about
Brent Williams:advertising, and loved it, was super interested in it. And it
Brent Williams:was a huge growth space. And so I transitioned from more of a
Brent Williams:technology product angle in my career to moving into digital
Brent Williams:advertising. I worked at an agency managing a big team at an
Brent Williams:agency and then was hired by Microsoft, as Microsoft was
Brent Williams:building out an ad business. So that's how I got here 17 years
Brent Williams:ago. And I've done pretty much all the things there are to be
Brent Williams:done except for technical roles in the ads business. And in this
Brent Williams:role running Microsoft Advertising, I look across all
Brent Williams:global sales marketing operations support functions,
Brent Williams:and then work very, very closely with my engineering partner who
Brent Williams:will be jointly manage the business together manage the p&l
Brent Williams:together, to monetize Microsoft's assets through
Brent Williams:advertising, and to act as a monetization engine for the web
Brent Williams:for other companies as well. And so we have both a large, what we
Brent Williams:call owned and operated business with MSN, with Bing, with
Brent Williams:Outlook, Xbox, Skype, and more. And then we also work with many,
Brent Williams:many partners outside of the company, as a monetization
Brent Williams:partner, and of course, many advertisers and brands around
Brent Williams:the world. So it's, it's a very fun and interesting job very
Brent Williams:intense, high paced, building a business at Microsoft is really
Brent Williams:interesting, because building a business here that matters means
Brent Williams:it needs to get to be pretty big, we're an $18 billion
Brent Williams:business now, and looking to grow and take share and become
Brent Williams:substantially more impactful in the industry.
Brent Williams:And so you know, you mentioned the various if
Brent Williams:platforms is right, or products that Microsoft has, and so
Brent Williams:you're able to sell, I guess, advertising on behalf of
Brent Williams:customers across all of those different products. Is that, is
Brent Williams:that correct?
Brent Williams:Kya Sainsbury-Carter: Yeah, so we so we do a few different
Brent Williams:things. So we will go out and work with advertisers and
Brent Williams:agencies, ad agencies to buy inventory on our platform. So
Brent Williams:it's find their audiences within the Microsoft ecosystem. And so
Brent Williams:that's a big part of what we do. And then we can also help them
Brent Williams:extend those audiences looking further across the web. And then
Brent Williams:we also work with publishers very closely who are looking to
Brent Williams:monetize their own content. And we are their ad tech partner, we
Brent Williams:bring them demand from the advertisers and agencies that we
Brent Williams:work with. So we have, I'd say a couple of different ways that we
Brent Williams:work with the industry to either find audiences where we are or
Brent Williams:to find their audiences elsewhere to to expand from
Brent Williams:there.
Brent Williams:Now was, you know, you found yourself in
Brent Williams:technology. Did you really have technology in your background
Brent Williams:academically I, or did really, that just kind of become the
Brent Williams:path and you grew and learned throughout your career?
Brent Williams:Kya Sainsbury-Carter: Honestly, it just became the path. When I
Brent Williams:was at the U of A, I was focused on international business, that
Brent Williams:was my passion. And I had transferred. And so as a
Brent Williams:transfer student, I also had a bunch of other rigmarole that I
Brent Williams:needed to deal with. So. But that was my that was my primary
Brent Williams:passion. And then I went and got an MBA also focused in
Brent Williams:international business. So my main focus was on how to how do
Brent Williams:I get into roles where I can be navigating complex, global
Brent Williams:multinational dynamics on the business end of things. And
Brent Williams:that's both exciting, but also really, really broad, because
Brent Williams:you could basically work anywhere, and do anything as
Brent Williams:long as it was a company that worked outside the US. And so I
Brent Williams:ended up actually, in my first job out of grad school, I was in
Brent Williams:finance, because I had loved my finance classes. And I had a
Brent Williams:great learning moment, which was I was decent at finance in the
Brent Williams:classroom. But I was not, it was not my talent in the practical
Brent Williams:world, and I didn't love it, it did not love me. And so I just
Brent Williams:went looking for something else. And I applied for a job online
Brent Williams:in 1996. So as you can imagine, dial up, that was a really slow
Brent Williams:process.
Brent Williams:Yeah.
Brent Williams:Kya Sainsbury-Carter: And somehow out of the mound of
Brent Williams:resumes, Compaq said, we want to hire you for a product marketing
Brent Williams:role. And I said, sounds great. And we moved to Houston. So the
Brent Williams:thing I would say, I think about myself, but in general is like I
Brent Williams:was willing to take risks and move away from what I studied to
Brent Williams:some degree from finance, in order to go and find this global
Brent Williams:exposure and, and technology is what found me and I found it and
Brent Williams:we really loved each other. So then I was on that path. And it
Brent Williams:made sense. But no, I'm not a technologist. I'm not a
Brent Williams:technical person by trade, or education, I think I have a
Brent Williams:passion for what technology helps us accomplish. And I have
Brent Williams:a passion for what technology helps us do in terms of drive
Brent Williams:impact at scale. So I've always really been drawn to that. And
Brent Williams:you can do a lot of really interesting multinational
Brent Williams:business in these spaces, and there tends to be a lot of
Brent Williams:building, you know, building a new business, a new product, a
Brent Williams:new capability, going into a new market. And I'm a builder. And
Brent Williams:so you sort of never seem to run out of opportunities to grow and
Brent Williams:continue learning. And yeah, that's why I've been at
Brent Williams:Microsoft for 17 years in the same business unit. Because I
Brent Williams:have never run out of interesting things to do, where
Brent Williams:I'm growing and have an opportunity to take on more and,
Brent Williams:and be ambitious about the impact that we're driving. And,
Brent Williams:and so I've never seen any reason to leave and and they
Brent Williams:keep wanting me here, so I'll stick around.
Brent Williams:Well, it seems like it's been a really good
Brent Williams:fit, looking at your career trajectory. You know, digital
Brent Williams:advertising, you know, over the last. You've been in it for many
Brent Williams:years now. You've seen it, I know evolve probably rapidly at
Brent Williams:times, maybe rapidly now. I'd love to have your view of how
Brent Williams:you see it evolving and changing, and maybe even what
Brent Williams:are some of the things you're excited about for the future?
Brent Williams:Kya Sainsbury-Carter: Yeah, definitely. It's like
Brent Williams:advertising. It's funny. I always say like, we're in this
Brent Williams:really rapid period of change. And people around me say like,
Brent Williams:it's always in a rapid period of change. That's not a
Brent Williams:differentiator. But it's an interesting time right now,
Brent Williams:because of a few different dimensions. You have, you have
Brent Williams:this time where we have more and more and more content creation
Brent Williams:on the web, of all types, whether that's, you know, social
Brent Williams:media, whether it's niche news outlets, whether it's, you know,
Brent Williams:creative type of stuff. There's there's more and more content,
Brent Williams:which is great for consumers. And then there's also a need to
Brent Williams:support that content creation, financially through either
Brent Williams:subscription models or through advertising. At the same time
Brent Williams:that that dynamic is happening where you need more advertising
Brent Williams:that works and that is effective and relevant for advertisers.
Brent Williams:Now their regulations are really changing the game. So you have a
Brent Williams:number of well intended, and I think directionally correct
Brent Williams:regulations that are happening globally and locally, that are
Brent Williams:driving pretty tectonic changes in how digital advertising is
Brent Williams:executed, and how efficient it is for advertisers. So that's
Brent Williams:sort of an interesting juxtaposition, if you will. And
Brent Williams:then you add on generative AI really exploding, which is going
Brent Williams:to enable, you know, exponential steps forward in things like
Brent Williams:mass personalization of offers and ad copy and mass creative
Brent Williams:development where you could get one ad creative, and I could get
Brent Williams:one and 10,000 other people could get their own based on
Brent Williams:what would make most sense to us. So you have this this
Brent Williams:period, that's that's happening or starting to kick off now that
Brent Williams:is going to drive this like really remarkable level of
Brent Williams:increased experiences for consumers. And it should be more
Brent Williams:efficient for advertisers. And it should drive improved
Brent Williams:outcomes for content owners, news publishers. So all of this
Brent Williams:is happening at the same time. And I think all of it together,
Brent Williams:at the same time means that you advertising is in a period not
Brent Williams:of rapid change, which is generally what we would say, but
Brent Williams:is in a true period of transformation. And our position
Brent Williams:from a Microsoft advertising perspective. And as a partner of
Brent Williams:these primary stakeholders in the advertising ecosystem, you
Brent Williams:have consumers, you have advertisers, and brands, and
Brent Williams:then you have publishers, is that these changes that that
Brent Williams:we're driving and participating in, should be grounded and
Brent Williams:purpose driven transformation versus massive disruption.
Brent Williams:Because it feels like a very disruptive time. And disruption
Brent Williams:can be great. But it also can be exhausting and take a lot of
Brent Williams:resources. And so you have companies, advertisers, brands,
Brent Williams:agencies, whoever, you know, they they're tired, people are
Brent Williams:tired, they're spread thin, they're taking on new
Brent Williams:capabilities with fewer employees, the market needs are
Brent Williams:shifting, and they're complex. And so we look at advertising
Brent Williams:shifting and say, okay, this is exciting transformation is
Brent Williams:exciting. How can we work together with our stakeholders
Brent Williams:to innovate with purpose, versus to disrupt, so that we can all
Brent Williams:come along on that journey in a way that's pragmatic and
Brent Williams:realistic. And I think that is very helpful in terms of us sort
Brent Williams:of speaking the same language with our clients, with our
Brent Williams:partners, and working constantly to make sure that we're aligned
Brent Williams:versus often running, doing our own thing.
Brent Williams:What a wonderful point and thought, and that is
Brent Williams:that that positioning of purposeful transformation, I'm
Brent Williams:sure it allows you to sort of ground yourself, it almost feels
Brent Williams:like it allows you to gather yourself in a in a space that
Brent Williams:I'm sure if you allow it to look chaotic, could because there's
Brent Williams:so many options out there. But I assume that that's a way to
Brent Williams:really start getting alignment toward where you want to go
Brent Williams:together as partners.
Brent Williams:Kya Sainsbury-Carter: Absolutely, absolutely. And we view it as a
Brent Williams:as a big part of sort of our brand promise is, it will
Brent Williams:absolutely we are innovative. We have the power of Microsoft
Brent Williams:behind us from a machine learning and an AI perspective.
Brent Williams:We have the power of Microsoft behind us in terms of running on
Brent Williams:trust and viewing privacy as a human right. And these are very
Brent Williams:important things to drive meaningful innovation. But
Brent Williams:grounding ourselves from a brand perception and a brand promise
Brent Williams:perspective in innovating with purpose does help us focus and
Brent Williams:it also helps I think our clients feel like we're not
Brent Williams:disrupting for disruptions sake. We're not disrupting for our own
Brent Williams:sake and our own benefit. But we are looking at at how do we
Brent Williams:solve our joint problems and pursue our joint opportunities
Brent Williams:and ways that are purposeful for both of us. And it's very
Brent Williams:clarifying.
Brent Williams:The yeah, the societal benefit, if you will,
Brent Williams:that that advertising allows, I think is truly very purposeful.
Brent Williams:And I can understand why, why you and your team would would
Brent Williams:rally behind that purpose. You know, you mentioned AI, and you
Brent Williams:know, it made me think about how do you think we will see AI,
Brent Williams:conversational AI really start to transform search marketing
Brent Williams:and the future probably already is but what are some of the
Brent Williams:things you're seeing and interested in going forward?
Brent Williams:Kya Sainsbury-Carter: Yeah, it's, it's an exciting time to
Brent Williams:be in this job, I'll be honest, you know, there's not always
Brent Williams:something so exciting going on as the entire world's changing.
Brent Williams:So I feel very lucky to be in this job, particularly in this
Brent Williams:moment. And I'll start with saying, you know, we're in a
Brent Williams:period of learning, both, both internally and together with our
Brent Williams:clients and partners. So I think the definitive answer on how AI
Brent Williams:will say will change search marketing is is somewhat of an
Brent Williams:evolving topic, which makes it both really exciting, it also
Brent Williams:makes people a little bit nervous about the unknown. But
Brent Williams:but I, I constantly feel like it's important to sort of state
Brent Williams:that we're not in a place of definitive knowledge, we're in a
Brent Williams:place of evolving knowledge, I'd categorize the change that we're
Brent Williams:seeing, and that we anticipate continuing to see really in
Brent Williams:three areas. One is around the consumer behavior and consumer
Brent Williams:experience. One is around the advertiser opportunity. And then
Brent Williams:the third is around the publisher evolution and how
Brent Williams:publishers are engaging. And we're seeing probably the most
Brent Williams:on consumer behavior, because that's sort of the tip of the
Brent Williams:spear on this. But when you think about consumers engaging
Brent Williams:with search, which is now not a new thing, that's a very
Brent Williams:standard thing that people do if they have broadband access. But
Brent Williams:it was a few things that we're observing that will drive change
Brent Williams:include things as basic as, like search queries, if you go in to
Brent Williams:Bing, you, you had search queries are become becoming
Brent Williams:longer and more conversational. And that makes sense. I mean,
Brent Williams:you would anticipate it if you've used chat. But it's been
Brent Williams:interesting to see in practice. So you previously, I might have
Brent Williams:gone in and typed, like three words to try and explain what
Brent Williams:I'm what I'm trying to accomplish. And now I'll type
Brent Williams:like three sentences that really get extremely precise on what
Brent Williams:I'm trying to do. So that that's the first thing. We're also I
Brent Williams:think, naturally seeing more queries in the form of a
Brent Williams:question. And so you're, you're seeing people behave a bit
Brent Williams:differently there, which enables a lot more as an advertiser,
Brent Williams:because you understand, actually, and it of course,
Brent Williams:enables a lot for Microsoft advertising, because we
Brent Williams:understand what someone's actually looking for. So we can
Brent Williams:provide it to them and provide a better experience. We're also
Brent Williams:seeing the consumer decision journey like that, you can see
Brent Williams:online has more searches and more breath, because it's easier
Brent Williams:to converse, essentially. So that you don't get annoyed and
Brent Williams:walk away and go into a store you, you keep asking questions
Brent Williams:and keep refining your understanding. But we're seeing
Brent Williams:that that the length of time in that decision journey from
Brent Williams:starting to do some high end, or high funnel level research to
Brent Williams:actually like making a purchase decision is decreasing. So that
Brent Williams:is really interesting. If you're, let's say in the
Brent Williams:automotive industry, if that decision journey goes from a
Brent Williams:couple of months, where you do a ton of research, and you go to
Brent Williams:some dealerships, and you test drive some cars, and then you do
Brent Williams:more research, and you know, whatever your process is, and it
Brent Williams:goes down to a few weeks. That's really substantial shift in
Brent Williams:terms of the role that search marketing can play. Obviously,
Brent Williams:it's only one piece in terms of all the forms of advertising
Brent Williams:that exist, but it's really interesting. So there's a lot
Brent Williams:going on on the consumer side, as well. From an advertiser
Brent Williams:perspective, you know, it's very much it's, it will change many,
Brent Williams:many, many things. There's the ad units that can be offered,
Brent Williams:that will change and the way in which consumers are engaging
Brent Williams:with those ad units, of course, but there's also, I was
Brent Williams:mentioning before, the opportunity to drive mass
Brent Williams:personalization. And so if you're a brand, and you're
Brent Williams:trying to tell your story, or make an offer to Kya, that is
Brent Williams:not the same offer that you are going to be interested in. Right
Brent Williams:now, we're both going to probably see a similar offer.
Brent Williams:Maybe there'll be geographically diverse, but we're probably
Brent Williams:similar in age and you know, how we the things that are happening
Brent Williams:in our lives. And so we're going to see the same type of
Brent Williams:demographically oriented offer versus an opportunity to show me
Brent Williams:something that really works for me and show you something that
Brent Williams:really works for you to show me a creative that will resonate
Brent Williams:for me and you you know want a different one and 10,000 other
Brent Williams:people a different one. So there are some pretty substantial
Brent Williams:shifts that AI will bring that are really very exciting when
Brent Williams:you think about where you apply your talent, that you can apply
Brent Williams:them to higher order work that's more valuable, more interesting
Brent Williams:drives better outcomes, and get this incredible outcome for your
Brent Williams:customers. So it's really, really exciting. And we also see
Brent Williams:a lot of interesting outcomes on the publisher side of things
Brent Williams:where, you know, people are investing tremendous amounts of
Brent Williams:money, creating great content and great experiences, and
Brent Williams:having an opportunity to monetize that in different ways
Brent Williams:that makes sense in the context of a given publisher, given
Brent Williams:vertical. So I think I could talk about this for days, but
Brent Williams:the short answer is, it will, it will change everything, but it
Brent Williams:won't necessarily be overnight, because the consumer has to
Brent Williams:change first.
Brent Williams:Yeah. Yeah, do well, you've already you
Brent Williams:answered this, to some degree, you know, the consumer's
Brent Williams:changing the way they're engaging with search. Did you
Brent Williams:say has there been a change happening over time? And then
Brent Williams:maybe, you know, the, I guess the launch of publicly available
Brent Williams:chat tools have really caused that to explode. Did you already
Brent Williams:see some of these trends? And have they increased with like,
Brent Williams:for example, you know, the release of ChatGPT earlier in
Brent Williams:the year?
Brent Williams:Kya Sainsbury-Carter: Not to my knowledge, in terms of the what
Brent Williams:we look at. No, I wouldn't say that we were seeing some of
Brent Williams:these trends, the technology, I think, the way that search grew
Brent Williams:up, created an unnatural inorganic behavior, right, like
Brent Williams:the way that you typically have searched. And then you see 10
Brent Williams:blue links. And you know, we've, Bing, on Bing, we've innovated
Brent Williams:on those 10 blue links quite a bit, but the way that you search
Brent Williams:was ground into you. And so people started to search in a
Brent Williams:way that is not how they would have actually asked a question.
Brent Williams:So this is Kya's opinion, this is not Microsoft, well
Brent Williams:researched opinion. But in that construct, it feels like we're
Brent Williams:going back to what, what is more natural, and is, of course, more
Brent Williams:conversational. But the technology needed to enable it
Brent Williams:by by creating a good outcome. Because if you use the
Brent Williams:traditional surge, you know, as I play around with this a lot,
Brent Williams:put something in chat. And then to put the same query in, in
Brent Williams:traditional search, you know, you do not get at all the same
Brent Williams:type of outcomes. And so they're actually both very valuable. If
Brent Williams:I want something really, really simple, I still use the
Brent Williams:traditional search route, because it's easy, and it's
Brent Williams:fast. If I want something that I don't think is simple, and that
Brent Williams:really requires me to provide more detail, then I use chat.
Brent Williams:And so that I think is another interesting behavior that we're
Brent Williams:seeing is you come for chat, potentially, because it's cool,
Brent Williams:and it's exciting, and it's different. But you will end up
Brent Williams:using both. And that's also really empowering for consumers,
Brent Williams:which is that we're not saying now shift over here and only do
Brent Williams:this, we're saying this is really great in certain
Brent Williams:scenarios, and we're going to make it a great experience for
Brent Williams:the consumer, we're going to help advertisers make money from
Brent Williams:it, we're going to make sure publishers benefit. But this is
Brent Williams:also super valuable. And so let's not lose sight of this.
Brent Williams:And together, they are powerful.
Brent Williams:I love that. It's an and between between the
Brent Williams:tools that we can customize as we learn as consumers. You know,
Brent Williams:when you, one thing I was wondering, as you were talking
Brent Williams:maybe particularly let's let's focus on advertisers. It seems
Brent Williams:like you know, there's a lot of options out there. And how do
Brent Williams:you help advertisers really understand the value that
Brent Williams:they're creating through your platforms? I'm assuming closed
Brent Williams:loop reporting and analytics are a key way to do that. But just
Brent Williams:what's the what's really important to advertisers as they
Brent Williams:think about why do I want to partner with Microsoft
Brent Williams:advertising to reach consumers?
Brent Williams:Kya Sainsbury-Carter: Yeah, well, it's the million dollar
Brent Williams:question. Of course, there is a lot out there. And and we look
Brent Williams:at it. I mean, certainly, if you get down to the very tactical
Brent Williams:and practical levels, you know, having all of the right type of
Brent Williams:measurement and attribution reporting and tools that help
Brent Williams:advertisers build confidence that they're seeing outcomes
Brent Williams:from the money that they're spending, of course, those are
Brent Williams:table stakes for even being in the conversation, you know,
Brent Williams:viewability those types of things. If, if you're coming and
Brent Williams:you don't have that, then that is a very difficult conversation
Brent Williams:to even be to even get to the table and be in the actual
Brent Williams:dialogue. But I think, you know, at sort of the higher order,
Brent Williams:like why do business with Microsoft advertising, we look
Brent Williams:at it as we have something that no one else offers in the
Brent Williams:market. And breaking that down into its component parts. And
Brent Williams:helping advertisers understand that and then helping them
Brent Williams:understand how they would execute within that ecosystem is
Brent Williams:the story that we have to tell. But, but we believe that we have
Brent Williams:something that no one else offers in the market, in terms
Brent Williams:of the breadth and depth of our ecosystem. From an audience
Brent Williams:perspective, if you look across what Microsoft brings into the
Brent Williams:market, the users of those those products and the audience that
Brent Williams:that creates, for us, it's incredibly powerful. That
Brent Williams:encompasses you know, everything from windows, all the way to
Brent Williams:Xbox, and sort of everything in between. Then, if you drill down
Brent Williams:a little bit into how we bring that to life, you know, we have
Brent Williams:full funnel marketing solutions that cross every channel, every
Brent Williams:segment, we're global. But that audience piece is the big piece
Brent Williams:in terms of, you know, no one else has this because at the end
Brent Williams:of the day, advertisers, brands, agencies are looking for How can
Brent Williams:I find my valuable audience, as much of it is possible, in a
Brent Williams:reputable environment, that is privacy first, that cares about
Brent Williams:my data, that that is less, you know, not so focused on making
Brent Williams:their own money that they will, you know, make decisions that
Brent Williams:are bad for my business, and then how do I bring that to life
Brent Williams:in an efficient way that works within my ecosystem so that I
Brent Williams:don't have to, like, hire a whole new team to work with
Brent Williams:Microsoft or to work with whoever. And then of course, it
Brent Williams:has to perform. And those are the table stakes. But I think
Brent Williams:that that's really that's where I have our team focused is
Brent Williams:telling that higher order story and making sure that advertisers
Brent Williams:see that value that we can bring, that is really unique. If
Brent Williams:you look from you know, from windows, to, to having a news
Brent Williams:publisher with MSN, to having a social business network was
Brent Williams:LinkedIn to having a retail media platform to having Outlook
Brent Williams:to having Xbox as a gaming platform to having Bing as a
Brent Williams:search engine, like you keep adding these pieces, we've,
Brent Williams:we've acquired several companies in the last few years that have
Brent Williams:really brought a lot to our tech stack, so that we can execute in
Brent Williams:ways that make sense for advertisers. And then at our
Brent Williams:core, you know, we are an advertising business. So we have
Brent Williams:all of these other pieces that make sure that it is performant,
Brent Williams:which is of course, at the end of the day, what is going to
Brent Williams:bring that advertiser back to do it again. So it's all of that
Brent Williams:and, and we are, I think right now in a really interesting
Brent Williams:place around telling that story and having all those pieces
Brent Williams:together in the same place.
Brent Williams:Well, it is truly an amazing suite of
Brent Williams:products that you get the chance to, to provide to the
Brent Williams:advertisers. Truly amazing opportunity. Well, you know, we
Brent Williams:started a little bit with your journey to to where you're at
Brent Williams:today. And maybe just a slight twist on that, you know, as
Brent Williams:you've gone through this career journey, might get you to
Brent Williams:reflect a little bit on a couple of questions. And the first is
Brent Williams:just like, how have you seen your leadership style develop?
Brent Williams:And, and who are you as a leader that's leading a really large
Brent Williams:business and assumably a pretty large team?
Brent Williams:Kya Sainsbury-Carter: Yeah, it's it's been an interesting
Brent Williams:journey. I think, lots of people and I certainly always thought
Brent Williams:this about myself, have some natural leadership skills or, or
Brent Williams:interest at least. And then of course, you need some actual
Brent Williams:experience to help you bring those skills to life and, and
Brent Williams:really develop them. I think, you know, my leadership style
Brent Williams:has changed probably the most dramatically from leading by
Brent Williams:doing versus, you know, leading by coaching and enabling and
Brent Williams:empowering and of course, you have to do that as you scale.
Brent Williams:That's impossible to be effective as you scale if you
Brent Williams:don't make that change, but, but I started making that change
Brent Williams:much earlier when I was managing smaller teams by just seeing
Brent Williams:that leading by doing doesn't really resonate with people.
Brent Williams:People don't feel empowered to grow if you step in front of
Brent Williams:them to do it for them and then hope that they learned. And you
Brent Williams:know, I remember I worked at Piggly Wiggly when I was in high
Brent Williams:school, which people outside the South would not know Piggly
Brent Williams:Wiggly, but I'm sure you do. And I had this really distinct
Brent Williams:memory of, we had someone new who had started who was older
Brent Williams:than I was, by probably, I don't know, four or five years maybe.
Brent Williams:And, and her the age is only important in that I'm sure she
Brent Williams:had lots of wisdom and capability that I didn't have
Brent Williams:because I was 16. And I was training her and I just kept
Brent Williams:stepping in front of her and doing things at the cash
Brent Williams:register. And finally, she was mature enough to say, this is
Brent Williams:not helpful to me. I need you to teach me so that I don't need
Brent Williams:you anymore. And I can do my job by myself. And so even from the
Brent Williams:earliest of times, I think you you receive leadership lessons
Brent Williams:from people that consistently say, help me be great, so we can
Brent Williams:be great. And that that has been probably my biggest life's
Brent Williams:learning because I have a bias for action, I like to get things
Brent Williams:done. I don't mind rolling my sleeves up. And so at each stage
Brent Williams:of leadership, as I take on a bigger team, or broader scope,
Brent Williams:or more global or whatever it might be, there's a need to
Brent Williams:continue reinventing yourself in that way. And you know, I lead a
Brent Williams:team of about 1,500 people, I can't obviously roll my sleeves
Brent Williams:up and do everything. That would both be ridiculous, and also me
Brent Williams:failing to do my job effectively. But I need to roll
Brent Williams:up my sleeves sometimes, and do some things. And so finding that
Brent Williams:right balance, and building an environment or cultivating an
Brent Williams:environment where people feel valued and empowered, and like
Brent Williams:they will receive coaching, where it's okay to take risks
Brent Williams:and to fail. And to try again, has been an evolution that I
Brent Williams:have been very aware of. Because I've been I've had the gift of
Brent Williams:lots of feedback. And, and lots of people in my life who've been
Brent Williams:willing to be super honest with me and say, hey, these things
Brent Williams:work, and these things don't and, and a lot of them have been
Brent Williams:sort of on that, that trajectory and that topic.
Brent Williams:Well, Kya, that resonates with me personally,
Brent Williams:just that that transition, you know, from doer to leader,
Brent Williams:actually can be a real challenging one. But, but you're
Brent Williams:exactly right. You know, you do find I agree with you, that you
Brent Williams:find that when you work on empowering and serving and
Brent Williams:helping and teaching your team that, you know, the the
Brent Williams:multiplicative impact is so much greater than anything you could
Brent Williams:have done as a doer that becomes very, very rewarding. You know,
Brent Williams:the Walton College, you know, we have, we have about 8,000
Brent Williams:undergraduate students and, you know, 600 or so graduate
Brent Williams:students. And, you know, if you were to put yourself back in
Brent Williams:those shoes, of being, you know, an undergraduate student that is
Brent Williams:about ready to go out into the workforce based on everything
Brent Williams:you've learned, what's one piece of advice that you would give?
Brent Williams:Kya Sainsbury-Carter: My biggest piece of advice is to take
Brent Williams:risks. And I think you have to frame risk taking against your
Brent Williams:own personal risk profile, which is important. What is risk to
Brent Williams:one person that's acceptable is not the same to another person.
Brent Williams:But take risks with things that make you uncomfortable, that
Brent Williams:aren't conventional, that aren't what all your classmates did.
Brent Williams:It's not for everyone, but it's definitely been right for me,
Brent Williams:and I'll share a couple of examples. You know, I when I got
Brent Williams:out of high school, I couldn't wait to get out of Arkansas and
Brent Williams:I went away to school. And I was livin' my non Arkansas dream.
Brent Williams:And it wasn't for me. I didn't like the city I was in the
Brent Williams:school was expensive. I was going into debt. And I
Brent Williams:transitioned to back to Arkansas, the place I was trying
Brent Williams:to leave and everyone around me thought that was absolutely
Brent Williams:insane. And it felt risky. Because everyone said what are
Brent Williams:you doing? You're on a track. Why are you changing your track?
Brent Williams:And it felt right to me. I had been to summer school in
Brent Williams:Fayetteville. I had loved it. I had lots of friends there. It
Brent Williams:was affordable. The classes were great. And so I did it. You know
Brent Williams:and I similarly when I moved to Houston to work at Compaq, like
Brent Williams:I didn't know technology. I don't know why they chose to
Brent Williams:take a chance on me. But I seize seized that chance and said,
Brent Williams:okay, like, I'm gonna try that. And I had never worked in
Brent Williams:advertising. But the the sort of opportunity presented itself as
Brent Williams:I was learning. And it was a growing space where I knew that
Brent Williams:I would be able to do some really interesting things. And
Brent Williams:so I took a chance on that. And it's been an unconventional
Brent Williams:path. But it's been a path where I have learned businesses in a
Brent Williams:very breadth and depth way. And I've always had a job that I
Brent Williams:liked. And that was interesting. And so that's my, my advice. It
Brent Williams:doesn't have to always be financial risk. That I mean,
Brent Williams:that makes me very uncomfortable. I don't like
Brent Williams:taking financial risk. It doesn't always have to be
Brent Williams:existential risk. But you have to be stepping outside your
Brent Williams:comfort zone and taking chances on yourself, and taking chances
Brent Williams:on new functions, jobs, companies, cities. And when you
Brent Williams:do, I think really interesting things happen. And sometimes it
Brent Williams:doesn't work out and it's okay.
Brent Williams:We're certainly proud of the of the career that
Brent Williams:you've made, and particularly at Microsoft. So thank you for
Brent Williams:being willing to share your wisdom with us today.
Brent Williams:Kya Sainsbury-Carter: Oh, well, thank you so much for having me.
Brent Williams:On behalf of the Walton College, thank you for
Brent Williams:joining us for this captivating conversation. To stay connected
Brent Williams:and never miss an episode., simply search for Be Epic on
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