With a background in media and entertainment, and now as a coach, Pruzan-Roy brings energy and expertise to her clients, and her executive background gives her a unique advantage to her coaching. She guides leaders and emerging leaders to step up to the next level by helping them identify and leverage their strengths, conquer their inner critic, use their voice and rediscover their purpose, all in service of achieving both their professional and personal goals.
Pruzan-Roy’s session, “Resilience in a Shifting Media Industry: Thriving Through Career Disruptions and Pivoting to Success,” touched on many aspects of her own experience, as well as media insights—no matter if they are within an organization or have been freed from the shackles of one.
“My goal with what I want to impart in my session is really two-fold,” says Pruzan-Roy. “The first part is to talk about my journey. I’m a 20-year veteran of this industry. I was freed from the shackles so to speak, in 2020 and I don’t want to spoil the presentation but was really given a gift to be able to figure out if I wanted to continue down that road or not. It’s not only about how I kept up but when we think about how disruptive it feels now, as I was going through it, it felt disruptive every time something new came up. It’s really about how you can adapt to that and then also either figure out what you want from there or possibly even pivot and find different kinds of success.”
You are alluding to the fact that we talked about levels of disruption earlier and in the Media Insights Perspectives Report session. This community obviously is feeling disrupted. We can find out a little bit more about that through the report itself. You did share some thoughts, some of which you cover in that session. But what else did you bring to the report that you can showcase here for us?
Pruzan-Roy says, “I loved being asked to be a part of the report because I have been out of the industry for a few years—so I’m coming to it from a consumer perspective and how different it is for me. When I was in the business, I knew everything that was going to air. When it was going to air, I was recording everything. Now I have no clue. It’s funny. I was just telling someone earlier today that my 86-year-old father texted my husband and I to ask if we had watched the Bookie on Max. And I said, what’s the Bookie? The idea that we’re not being fed these messages is concerning, and there’s got to be a better way in because I love content. I love entertainment. I love it all. And they’re missing me. That’s problematic for me.”
Fair enough. Now, you are still working with aspects of the industry. Could you share similarities and differences, key distinctions between industries that might help the mindset of someone that’s in media insights?
“I work with multiple industries, but I will say that the clients that are not only closest to my heart, and that I work with the most are from media and from tech. Both of which I think are undergoing significant changes, and it’s scary,” she says. “I certainly still understand the business. One thing that I love working with clients on is transferable skills. For instance, I did one thing for so long that it became my identity. I was research. And so being able to uncover what you’re passionate about and how you’re able to do the things that you do now in a different way, or for a different type of employer, or doing something completely different, which is what I did. I don’t want anyone to lose hope because there’s consolidation, because there’s a lot out there. There’s so much talent out there. And there’s got to be homes for them because there’s unique voices. There are unique perspectives that are being untapped right now.”
That brings us into the discussion of our panel at the conference. One of the things that we talked about was when sourcing talent look elsewhere. Don’t look for yourself. Don’t look within the industry. Look outside.
“What I have learned about being a leader, and this doesn’t just apply to media insights, is that you don’t have to have all the answers all the time,” relates Pruzan-Roy. “And when you can surround yourself with people who have the answers or can get you the answers, it allows you to do your job better. Being able to identify where’s the gap between what I do well and where I maybe need some help with? And find those people because they are out there and it’s only going to make you better. There’s no competition here. It’s just about strengthening the team—and strengthening the goals and getting there faster.”
Watch the complete video from the Media Insights & Engagement Conference as Seth Adler and Tracy Pruzan-Roy discuss doing more with less, communicating with senior leadership, and artificial intelligence.
