Angela Earl:  A Marketing Leader Driving Change in B2B Tech

Angela Earl is Vice President Global Marketing at RFPIO, a software provider that enables organizations to optimize a critical, and often missing, part of their sales process. With a background focused in B2B tech, and previous roles including CRO and agency founder, Angela leads RFPIO's global marketing and sales development teams. Her passion is empowering motivated teams to produce quality work that drives results.  

Learning from the little moments 

Angela recounts many moments throughout her career that shifted her perspective and ultimately influenced who she became, some a little—and others a lot.  "I believe every experience has the opportunity to shape who we are, if we are willing to be changed" says Angela.   

She believes that the most impactful lessons were not from a specific moment or event; instead, she says, it was the people she shared the journey with. From smart and supportive colleagues that became some of her best friends, to leaders who demonstrated attributes she seeks to embody in her own leadership style — every step of the way, she has been fortunate to be surrounded by exceptional and outstanding individuals.  

One of Angela's first jobs was working in an escrow office. Her great aunt helped her to get the job. While she was always present to encourage Angela, she also watched her niece live up to her standards. As per Angela, there was no one better than her Aunt Lana to make sure she grew up to be a dependable and detailed member of the team. Her aunt also taught her that one could work hard and have fun simultaneously. 

"I can still remember preparing for client meetings late into the evening and how it never felt much like work. Laughter would fill the office, often because of some comment or joke, she made," Angela reminisces. "Aunt Lana made work fun, where colleagues were also friends. In later years, I would have similar relationships of my own, and many colleagues would become dear friends," she adds. 

She spent nearly a decade-long building a career as an Executive Assistant where she supported executives and leaders in financial services and investments. During her last post as an assistant was working for Gene Kim, the founder of Tripwire, an provider of technology for security and compliance automation, Angela had a lot of interaction with the marketing and sales teams and decided to make a career change.  

"When I think about the time I was deciding my career direction, among the many family, friends, and colleagues who supported me, one person stands out," Angela says. "A manager from marketing met with me to understand my goals and to share her experiences," but it was what she did next that would have a lasting effect. "Then she made introductions to various hiring managers, offering her endorsement of my ability despite my lack of marketing experience."  She further adds, "Her care was pivotal at that moment — and because of her, I rarely turn down an opportunity to help someone just getting started in marketing." 

But starting over brought about an unexpected challenge. Her time working among several executives gave her a great deal of understanding about business and numbers through an executive lens. She climbed to success quickly and in doing so had built up her confidence as an executive assistant. But that confidence would not transfer to her new role.   

Despite having a good sense for what needed to be done, she lacked the confidence to speak up and she found herself hesitating to share ideas.  She attributes finding her voice to the supportive colleagues she had at Tripwire. Their support along with some successful projects helped build her confidence, and launched Angela into what would become a successful marketing career. 

Finding her leadership style 

The value of hard work was a trait Angela picked up at an early age and was reinforced consistently by the leaders in her life. With her eye always on the next step, her success was easily linked to her "putting in the work" to make her dreams come true. But as for many eager and successful young professionals, the fear of failure seemed to be always lurking just below the surface.  

When making a transition in her career she remembers grappling with the fear of making the wrong choice. One of her mentors recommended she read Carol Dwek's book, Mindset. The book felt written for her situation and she couldn't put it down, reading well into the wee hours and most of the next day, she finished it in just over 24 hours. Few books have had such a profound impact on her, this one in particular changed her view of the world, and her path in it. From then on, Angela sought to nurture a growth mindset in herself and her teams. 

Allowing empathy into her work life was not as sudden a change, and was something Angela learned later in her career. Ironically the first person to demonstrate hard work would also be the one to teach her how to embrace empathy and together these traits would define Angela's leadership style. 

Just as she founded Haatzama Marketing, Angela became the primary caretaker of her ailing grandmother. In an instant life would no longer allow her to grind at the office all hours of the day and night. Mornings had a routine, evenings had a routine, and work happened when it could. 

As I began to care for my grandmother I was forced to be vulnerable at work in a way I never had before," she says. "As I began to open up to others, their empathy enveloped me. For three precious years I ran a successful agency and cared for the woman that raised me, and I emerged forever changed by the experience." 

While empathy is often looked at as a trait or leadership quality, Angela believes it can also be a business principal. Knowing that empathy starts with being a good listener, Angela does her best to bring an open mind and capacity to understand to every decision. From lead generation to marketing strategy, she states that putting oneself in another's shoes will always be a helpful expecise. 

Embracing digital transformation 

Angela started her marketing career shortly after technologies like Apple's iphone and Marketo's marketing automation were invented. From her first moments as a marketer she experienced one disruptive technology after another.  

Learning marketing in this environment honed Angela's ability to manage change. "Change was constant and exciting," recalls Angela. "We knew we were stepping into a whole new era of marketing and could not wait to hear about the latest developments."   

She recounts one of her first responsibilities in marketing was to manage lead contracts and that within weeks of taking on the new role, she automated the task from taking days to only a matter of hours.   

Disruptive technologies continue today including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation that are enabling software companies like RFPIO, where Angela works, to augment their users' abilities, and deliver more successful and predictable outcomes than possible without the solutions.  

And while Angela admits the advancements continue to be exciting, she has learned the importance of system governance and the value of the human element of technology.  "Technology should enable the people using it to achieve more than they could on their own," Angela adds, "The most impactful software informs action and decision making, not replaces it." 

A similar belief is held by RFPIO — and is one of the shared values that reassured Angela, this was a team she wanted to join. The company's history is full of stories from customers who have achieved success attributed to adopting their software. More than that, RFPIO gives users back time that can be spent on strategic initiatives, projects, or with those they care about. 

Angela sees a bright future for RFPIO and the response management industry, a segment of sales technology at the very beginning of its digital transformation, with a future that she believes is reminiscent of her early days in marketing.  

ABOUT RFPIO  

RFPIO is a cloud-based response management software firm that enables companies to improve win rates through untethered content management. As the industry's first AI-powered solution, RFPIO's answer library provides centralized content along with a collaboration hub. 

Through robust and bi-directional integrations, with an open API, teams can connect with their people and content, and collaborate without boundaries. Built by a team possessing extensive experience in response management, the company delivers a comfortable user experience so that its customers can focus on optimization and strategy. RFPIO is the trusted solution for many enterprise organizations, including Google, Adobe, Atlassian, Change Healthcare, Broadcom, Tenable, Zoom Video, and more.