From Executive Assistant to Chief Marketing Officer: Alicia Tillman’s Journey to Delta Airlines

In this latest episode of Making Waves, Hal Rosenbluth interviews Chief Marketing Officer of Delta Airlines, Alicia Tillman as she shares her remarkable journey from executive assistant to a prominent leadership position in one of the world’s most prestigious airlines. Read on, listen or watch to discover the insights and inspirations behind her ascent in the travel and aviation industry.

Interview:

Hal:

Today, I’ll be chatting with Alicia Tillman. Alicia is chief marketing officer of Delta Airlines, one of the most prestigious airlines in the world, one that is admired by so many. Alicia started as my executive assistant, and now…..Chief Marketing Officer of Delta Airlines, one of the largest, most well -respected airlines in the world. Alicia, how the heck did you do this?

Alicia:

Well, it is amazing to be with you and thank you for the opportunity to have a conversation with you today. It’s been many years. This was my working with you was my first stop right out of school working at Rosenbluth International and a company and your leadership that I reference….time and time again across this what’s now a 25 year journey. And if I’m to really look back and answer the question of how I did it, so much of it is what the opportunities are that I had when I started my journey and to be part of Rosenbluth International which is a company that was known for many things and that

its core was your leadership philosophy and your focus on employees and the care and the attention and the appreciation and the learning and the development, that you instilled in all of us….That was, and I know we’ll spend some time talking a bit more about that today, but being able to be exposed to that and part of that, very early the start of my career really, was what shaped me and what I carried with me as I lead, as I innovate, as I grow. These are the things that have stuck with me and helped shape who I am at my core. So I credit you and your leadership really of being such a strong part of guiding me through this journey.

Hal:

Well, that’s very kind of you to say. Thank you very much. But it takes a hell of a lot more than that. I mean, you’ve developed unbelievable skills. And I’m in awe of the type of messaging that you do in marketing. You’re now representing a global entity. It is a little bit different, although we were global, but you now really have to understand the trends that are going on around the globe. How do you pick up on those things? What do you do to know?

Alicia:

Well, I think you have to be born with a certain level of curiosity. And so I definitely have always had a tremendous curiosity for learning, for growth, for understanding, for the power of connection and empathy, what an understanding of others means and helping you learn and grow. And so I’ve always had those skills in particular that I’ve never departed from and in fact have used a lot to just help guide me.

You know, I’m a big believer as I know you are too, in really understanding really at the root of what’s going to drive greatness and in leading organizational success.  If you think about the build of an organization, it starts with hiring the best people, but in order to hire the best people, you have to have a strong vision about what it is that you’re trying to achieve and where it is you want to go, and then how can you find the right skills? And then I think even more importantly, the really nice, good people who truly understand, yes, they’re smart and they’re great at their craft….But they are almost better at understanding how to connect with people, how to collaborate, how to have a voice, how to have empathy, and how to be really intentional with your views and your leadership. And so, when you can combine that all together, you know, I’ve practiced that tremendously through my career with every role that I’ve taken on. I’ve always started with let me get an understanding of what we’re trying to achieve and where are we great and where can we be better? And then what do we have from a talent perspective? What’s working, what’s not? Where do we need to think differently about the talent we have in the organization? And then once we assemble that, how do we build an external strategy that’s going to be reflective of both? you know, who we are as an organization, but also ambitious in the sense of where we want to go, because I’m a believer that people attach themselves to certainly truth where, what is the reality of what you offer today? How does that help me? But then where do you want to go and how can I be part of that journey with you? And that’s the ambitious part. And that’s so much of what vision encompasses. And so I’ve always tried to practice and have a great balance. And I will tell you that’s what led me to marketing in particular, I think marketing is the one function in organization that is in support of almost every aspect of the group from product to our people management, to our sales organization, to our account management teams, technology, etc.

Marketing has this beautiful ability to take what is core to each of those functions and tell that in a way that’s representative of the people and how they are the ones that are focused on delivering the ultimate value that goes to our customers. And so the sort of packaging and the storytelling of that, I think is just so inspiring on so many levels.And when you can balance that with a great understanding of customers, which I spend a lot of time looking at data and insights, which is important because customers don’t want buy products that are not relevant to them. And they also want to understand what it is that products can enable them to do better or differently or new. And so just staying on top of all of those things and having it come together to form your story and help support. what it is the future opportunities are from a product perspective to help support new revenue opportunities, et cetera. That’s kind of how I think about leadership, but also how I keep a pulse on what is right for our business in terms of what marketing is best enabled to support.

Hal:

So you join Delta Airlines as an officer of the company. And you get to, I guess, first meet a lot of the other officers and of course, your team. How was that experience?

Alicia:

Well, it was a new kid coming to school on the first day type of feeling. And we’ve all been there. And so we can all relate. It’s sort of I had part anxiety because it was new and there was so much that I didn’t know. And some of the anxiety was I was I grew up in the northeast my whole life and I relocated to Atlanta for the role. So it was, you know, a lot of nervousness and anxiety that I had just because of all the personal pieces of change together with starting a new role. And it was then also on the other side, just unbelievable levels of excitement because I started my career in the travel industry and over the course of my career, I spent time at both financial services and credit card from an Amex perspective during my time there, and then technology when I was at SAP. And so now to come back around and to take the experiences that I had over the past 20 plus years and think about the potential of what we could build with Delta given the strength that I’m already building from.

So I had that excitement. And so the good news is, is the excitement definitely outweighed any anxiety I had. And, you know, the greatest moment was when I walked into the door on my first day and my team was all there and they were cheering me on and excited for me to be there. Cause that’s the other thing too. You worry about whether or not you will be embraced and whether or not people will be excited for you to be here. And everybody of course was. And so that made the anxiety go away quite quickly and just have this ability to kind of channel that into a vision and a strategy and a source of inspiration to both recognize the team for what they’ve achieved, but alsohave the ability to dream about what more we could do, provided I think a great source of inspiration. So it’s been amazing, an amazing eight months so far.

Hal:

Oh, that’s great. And it shows. I follow a lot of what you do. And of course, going back and forth to my cattle ranch in North Dakota, I fly Delta all the time. And one of the beautiful things about Delta is, and it really helps in marketing, is the image and the reality are the same.

Alicia:

Thank you.

Hal:

And one of the things that I’ve always admired about you is that you’re a great thinker. And I’ve always wondered, how much of it is instinct and gut when it comes to how you think?

Alicia:

I think at the leadership level, I think it’s the overwhelming majority. And it’s, I will say that of course I can speak on behalf of myself, but I think. Great leaders do spend the majority of their time thinking and hypothesizing and imagining what can be. And I think, their ability to then empower a team to really then chart the path in terms of now, let’s get into the finer details about how we get there. The whole operational side of a vision, I think that is largely left to experts and their given functions. And that’s the beauty as to why corporations are structured the way they are. There’s always a finance team, an HR team, a technology team, a sales team, a marketing team. And within each of those functions, they are experts in how to construct the greatest story to be able to wrap around the beautiful innovation and making sure the products and services are always on the cutting edge and sales helping to inform what our customers most need. All of those working together becomes the reality of powering a vision, which I think to me, I’m a dreamer. And I’m definitely more of a yes person in terms of a belief on where we can go. And sure, my team helps to kind of sprinkle a fair dose of reality on that as they should, but I’m definitely the one who’s sort of pushing for more and for…thinking that goes beyond the sort of day to day that we’re tasked with. And it’s, how do we think more in terms of where we wanna be in five years is sort of my number one focus, while the team is not only focused on delivering today, but they’re delivering today in the context of building up that foundation for where we can go in five years as well.

And so, you know, just sort of a long way to say, I spend definitely the majority of my time thinking, believing, and in a lot of ways recognizing what can be less so focusing on the here and now, but more what our potential is in terms of where we can go.

Hal:

Well, you know, change, we always used to think of it as fast. It’s now hypersonic. And you could almost have five years in, in two months and then another five years and two months—so your mind, you know, you’re always thinking. And you’re dreaming and you’re putting all that together. But do you ever have downtime? Can you kind of shut your mind down for a little bit and just chill? Is that, are you able to do that?

Alicia:

Yes, and the good news is I’ve never sort of mastered the juggle. And I think having everything really balanced in life, I think, is an impossible goal to have. And it’s more about how do you kind of fit everything because everything matters and somehow you do. So my kids are definitely my down time.

My daughter just turned 15 and my son will be 13 next month. And you know also your kids are much older than mine, although I knew them when they were babies. You have no choice but to, and that’s the beauty of kids. They are a part of you and you want to be part of their life and you wanna help shape them, because as parents, that’s the greatest gift and the greatest role beyond anything else and certainly because they are our future and they will shape the world in which they are growing into and will be part of.

So they are my downtime for sure between sports and hobbies and things that they want to do. You find a way. Every night when I come home from work.Yes, I’m always thinking about work on one side of my brain, but then physically, I’m interacting entirely with them. And same holds true on the weekends. It’s like, I think at any leadership level, you, the one thing you do learn how to master is how to compartmentalize all aspects of your life. And you kind of reserve certain parts of who you are for certain things in your life. And when you’re in it, you’re in it. and you feel and everybody around you feel that you are totally in it. At the same time, you’re able to engage at a level that sort of unlocks something else that you have going on, be it professionally or what have you. And I’ve always believed how to and why I love just the family aspect to sort of what kind of keeps the balance is. I’m a better mom because I’m an executive and I’m a better executive because I’m a mom.

I do feel that crossover, I feel like empathy is exercised at a greater level as a parent in a professional setting. And I think sometimes having a little bit more rigor and organization in the household benefits because, you know, that’s how I lead things professionally. And so I find that the balance often occurs because you’re sort of sharing in ways in which you operate and kind of both of those functions and both benefit as a result of it.

Hal:

Well, you’ve been a great role model to so many people, both in your personal life and obviously in business. What kind of advice would you give to someone that’s aspiring to kind of lead your life, but get into marketing and, not their skills per se, but…What advice would you give them?

Alicia:

There are so many competing influences in life, especially I look at my kids and I look at how they’re growing up and how they learn, how they interact, how they build friendships, what compels them to buy one product over the other. And I will say it’s entirely different from how my generation operated. So this is a…a generation, if we were to think about gen alphas in particular, which they represent, this is a generation that has entirely been born and raised in a world of technology. And they’ve also been exposed at a macro level to a world that’s almost permanently in crisis. I think someone recently, when I was at the Consumer Electronics Show, earlier this year talked about this generation living in a perma crisis. And, you know, be it, you know, constant acts of terrorism that have become just a way of something we expect, sadly, to a global pandemic that is a not even a once in a lifetime thing. It just happened to happen in our lifetime. And so there’s this there’s a tremendous amount of anxiety that exists in the generations that are behind us about to enter the workforce in a few years. And what I say, especially be it Gen Alpha or Gen Z, and Gen Z has been in the workforce for just a few years now is beyond all the noises and all the distraction and all the things that are tugging at you mentally and physically in life know a couple of things: Number one, that is going to be your life; Know that there’s always going be a newer technology that’s going to help you run more efficiently and you’ve got to figure out what makes the most sense for you. You’re always going to be living in a crisis on some level, be it socially or tugging at your values and your views. You need to know what you believe in.

And then the third, I think if you kind of take those two things into account, know what, what matters to you most. And it’s not necessarily, what do you want to do for the rest of your life? But just maybe dissect that a bit and recognize what are the things that are though important to you, maybe you believe strongly and you’re guided by a strong sense of values and purpose. Okay. We’ll unpack that at an even deeper level. What does that mean to you? What’s important to you by way of purpose and values. Think about what environments you thrive in. Are you an individual contributor or are you someone who thrives in settings that enable you to be highly social and interacting with many people? Just ask yourself many of those questions and if you can hone in on just a few answers to those questions then focus there because it will naturally guide you. And everybody has some close people around them, be it a parent, a sibling, maybe it’s a counselor on some level, best friend, and have them also tell you what they see in you. Because oftentimes there are certain things that you will always know about yourself and you’ll practice them and you’ll use that as a guide.

But I think some of the most revealing and most inspirational things that you can often learn about yourself are those of which others experience from you. So ask them, what do you think I’m good at? What do you think is a profession that’s going to attach itself to these things that I’m great at that you could see me in? And I certainly, when I look back on my life, I can absolutely…talk about people who pointed me into specific career directions when as a 18 or 19 year old, I had no idea what certain attributes about myself, where that would lead me. And so that’s what I would say. And I think beyond that Hal, it’s like, don’t get overwhelmed. Life is a series of ups and downs. And I said to someone recently that I was mentoring right out of school, first job, and she had just beautiful energy and passion. And I said, just do me one favor. And she wanted my advice on marketing and leadership and career path. I said, just do me one favor. Look, this world can sometimes feel really awful and it’s going to try to almost take away your sizzle, your passion, your energy. Do not ever lose that, ever, ever. The world needs more energy, the world needs more passion. And if you can have this in yourself, it will absolutely set you apart from one person to the next. And beyond anything else, just don’t lose that. Don’t lose your passion, even when the world tries to take that away from you.

Hal:

Boy, that is so insightful, so informative, so today for the world that we live in. So spot on, Alicia. You’re an amazing individual and God, it’s so great to talk with you today everything that you’ve imparted on people that will be so helpful to them in their careers. Congratulations again for all you’ve accomplished and all that you will accomplish with that attitude that you have and insight into living in this world. That’ll all go far. So thank you so much. Thank you very much. You bet.

Alicia:

Thank you. Thank you for that Hal.