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Cathy McPhillips is the Chief Growth Officer at the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, Cathy is a Buckeye through and through. Growing up in Lakewood, Ohio, she attended Ohio University to study journalism. While at OU, she worked at The Post, the school newspaper that started her content career—amassing 30 years of marketing expertise in a variety of roles and organizations, including agencies, B2C, restaurants, and non-profits, as well as starting up and running her consulting firm for 13 years. Cathy was the original marketing lead at the Content Marketing Institute and an OG member of the Orange Foundation. She is as gracious with her time and knowledge as her kindness and participates on several not-for-profit boards and committees.
Ambitious and reliable, Cathy never loses sight of humor's importance: "You've got to find the joy and happiness in what you do; otherwise, what's the point". Growing up in a large family, she knows how to navigate a crowd and get to the root of what must be done. That alone will get someone far in life but add it to an uncanny ability to remember people and places and make the right decision at the right time, and there is no wonder how she lands top roles with exciting companies on the cusp of greatness. A far cry from early visions of being a librarian.
Reflective and loyal, Cathy takes her time making significant decisions. It took her several months, and being pro-actively locked out of her email while on vacation (thank you, Pam Pulizzi), to realize it was the right move to give up her own business and go all in with her CMI-orange-obsessed posse. She has the same gut feeling as Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute "It's not about the technology – which is admitted very cool" but knows the team will help make life better via the AI tools that are popping up everywhere.
Cathy's best advice – trust in yourself. Believe in what you are doing, get a little uncomfortable trying new things, and excel where you didn't think you could.
