‘Embrace naiveté’: Exceptional Women Out West podcast featuring Seema Miller, chief strategy officer, David&Goliath
From growing up in India to making her way to the middle of Illinois for graduate school, Seema Miller, chief strategist for David&Goliath, has made it her business to embrace vulnerability and naïveté. The former is likely due to her experiences as someone who came to the United States and “looked different” from most of the people around her. The latter is in part because of work experience that allowed her to take a step back and let certain things go — to ask the questions that get to better insights.
What makes Miller’s perspective so interesting and bold is her love of cognitive dissonance (“every one of us has it”) — the fact that, somewhere and somehow, we are a square peg trying to get into a round hole. In her case, she points to her being “the smallest person in (her) house” as a source of strength.
Miller’s path is filled with awakenings. Determining what she was willing (and not willing) to give up, the myth of “having it all,” and learning to “do something that scares the living shit out of you” are just a few pieces of sage wisdom for not just women, but anyone in the industry.
A fierce supporter of the team concept, she is a huge proponent of ensuring that everyone gets props, not just those charged with ideas (“I don’t think there is enough credit given. There’s too much on just the (creative) 1%”).
Enjoy our conversation filled with surprise, candor and a point of view that is certain to inspire.
Exceptional Women Out West is a podcast that highlights and celebrates both the great achievement, lives and POV of amazing women in the Western US and Canada. Listen to previous episodes here. If you would like to nominate women out west to be part of the show, please contact North America Editor at Large, Doug Zanger.