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Mary Brodie
Founder and Digital Strategist at Gearmark
Dallas, United States
By listening to your team and customers, I can help your company improve their customer relationships and increase revenue.
I help companies develop strategies and programs for digital customer experiences (20+ years, startups to Fortune 500s).
I work with executives to identify and clarify opportunities or problems in their organization, their product, or their customer relationships through research. I’ll often do my own research or coordinate a team to gather raw data, discover data patterns and trends, and make recommendations based on that work.
We consider solutions that use strategies that complement the corporate vision and help the teams visualize the results. My background in marketing and business processes/automation/digital transformation allows me to work with the team to create cohesive and effective user experience, product, and content strategies.
With the team’s input, we develop an actionable plan and if appropriate, I orchestrate them to deliver it. I have led, orchestrated, and coached teams of up to 10 direct reports and ~70 people while in a PMO to deliver results like: on-time product or program launches, improved lead generation programs, increased product usage, high-quality product, and ultimately revenue growth. I often build consensus between marketing, design, IT, sales, operations, product development, outside vendors, and consultants to achieve objectives and goals. My goal: enable all team members to collaborate harmoniously while owning their roles.
Author of Revenue or Relationships: Win Both! A customer experience primer to shift your perspective of business. (2019)
I have spoken at the national Agile conference (Agile 2014 and 2015), Big Design Dallas (2015, 2018), and CXTalks (Dallas 2018). I have also witten articles about user experience trends, chatbots, and voice interfaces.
Customer Experience & Communications
Brand Strategy | Content & Social Media Research & Strategy | User Experience Research & Strategy | Customer Engagement | Lead Generation | Thought Leadership | External & Internal Communications | Product Marketing | Integrated Marketing | Persona Research
Digital Strategy & Transformation
Automation & Process Improvement | Product Strategy & Development | Agile Methodology & Development Process | KPIs & Reporting | Data Analytics & Insights
Leadership
Listening & Team Communication | Entrepreneurship | Change Management | Consensus Building & Conflict Resolution | Project Management | Program Management
Mary Brodie
Points
Academic
0
Author
297
Influencer
68
Speaker
15
Entrepreneur
20
Total
400
Points based upon Thinkers360 patent-pending algorithm.
Self-compassion, breathing, and authenticity in five parts
Medium
March 04, 2025
While at college, I often took public transportation to get from point A to point B. I would usually start my journey by walking, then catch a subway or bus, possibly a train, and finally walk or take a cab for the last leg of the journey.
Tags: Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, Marketing
How I approach constructive criticism
Medium
December 24, 2024
In this excerpt, I outline how I approach constructive criticism. To me, constructive criticism is a conversation between a creator and whomever is experiencing the creation. Sadly, I think this skill is getting lost. Listening is a key component to improving an experience — to understand what it is and imagine the possibilities of what it could be. I hope you find this helpful!
Tags: Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, Management
The currency of time and where you spend it
Medium
December 18, 2024
“Spending time.” It’s an expression we frequently use when we talk about what we do with our days. We use money metaphors when we talk about time because, like money, it is finite and limited. However, time is more valuable than money, because you can’t earn more time. You only have the time you have available during your life. You can’t add more hours, minutes, or seconds in a day. You can’t loan people time; your time is yours alone.
Tags: Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, Marketing
Accept the message from the messenger
Medium
December 16, 2024
Every person is like a classroom and listening to them is an opportunity for us to learn something new. We may discover something about the world, who they are, or who we are.
Tags: Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, Management
My relationship with myself and the larger world
Medium
October 02, 2024
My motivation for conversation and connection is often based on how I see my role in the world at any point in time. Buddhism study has shown me that there are two approaches to participating in a conversation based on your relationship with yourself and your outlook on life
Tags: Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, Marketing
My life changed the moment I decided to embrace acceptance
Medium
September 12, 2024
This is the final chapter of my new book that will be with my editor in a few weeks. The book is about the role of acceptance in listening to help people be better listeners. Enjoy!
Tags: Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, Marketing
Guest on the Elevate your Business podcast, hosted by Ed Jarecki
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June 03, 2024
About a month ago, Ed Jarecki sent me an email to invite me to be a guest on his podcast. I'm so glad I responded! Ed hosts a podcast where professionals share how they define success (and how that definition has changed over time), how they overcome challenges, and the impact technical i
Content has been created, just not here.
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June 03, 2024
Although I haven’t posted here in a long while, I have a good reason for that. I have been busy creating all types of materials for Gearmark, my company. For example, I worked on a series of ebooks about Gearmark’s process steps: Listening Read how Gearmark approaches listening for emplo
I'm not even sure how the viral-ness of it happened. All I remember is that one night, I decided to post some commentary connecting Wendy's and their “dynamic pricing” to its customer experience. Within minutes, I had dozens of reactions and comments. And the momentum didn’t stop.
Tags: Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, Business Strategy
Why I took a class about compassion and what I learned - Part 1: How it started
Gearmark - Revenue or Relationships
July 11, 2022
We often take for granted that we know what compassion is and how it works. When I share that I recently attended compassion training people either chuckle or act like I didn’t say anything. But there are many who are curious about what I learned how it has had a profound impact on my life.
Tags: Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, Business Strategy
Becoming a dragon warrior organization: what nephrologists share in common with Kung Fu Panda’s Po
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April 26, 2022
The Kung Fu Panda movies are so successful because of their inspiring message: you’ll succeed if you are true to yourself. My absolute favorite of the series is Kung Fu Panda 3. To summarize, the story starts with Po, the Jack Black panda, teaching the Furious Five Kung Fu. He fails miserably. Eve
Books I have been reading lately
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January 25, 2022
How do I spend my weekends now? Writing and reading as I work on thoughts for my new book (my previous book, Revenue or Relationships: Win Both! is here too). Here is a collection of books I have been reading lately. Enjoy! The Art of Power – Thich Nhat Hanh Rest: Why You Get More […]
Five ways a compassionate company can support psychological safety for customers and employees
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October 13, 2021
With the rise of digital transformation and automation, a company is no longer a contained place with employees inside and customers outside. It’s not even a transparent box where your customers see inside your company. It is a thin membrane where customers enter and exit, directly experiencin
People are at the core of business
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May 04, 2021
It has been a while since I posted because I have been busy making videos and creating workbooks for the Revenue or Relationships website to support my book. And speaking of the book…I’m revising some of it to make a second edition. If anything, I’m rearranging it to make it shorte
Why Amazon Wins in the Shipping Experience Department: They Are in the Goldilocks Zone
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November 03, 2020
Getting a package delivered through the mail is always an exciting moment, whether you are receiving a surprise gift or an order that you placed. The anticipation to receive it builds as you track the package’s progress from its origination point to your door. Seeing its progress and eventual deli
When Basic Becomes a Revelation: Creating Content as an Expert
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October 07, 2020
When you are an expert, there is a tendency to think everyone knows what you know, although they most likely don’t. Most people outside of your field of expertise probably don’t think about the concepts you do or consider the various perspectives that you do. They probably don’
During COVID, Being a Leader Means Embracing Compassion
LinkedIn
September 24, 2020
...or Stop the Emotional Barf.
Emotional barf in the workplace. Eau, right? But lately, we see it too often. And it’s pretty awful. With COVID 19, the cultural realization of deep systemic racism, our environmental crisis, and unpredictable national, state, and local leadership, just to name a few issues, company leaders are experiencing a lot of emotions coming from their teams. And themselves.
What makes a great vision or mission statement?
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March 08, 2020
Hi all! It has been a while since I posted because I have been working on creating videos to promote my book, Revenue or Relationships: Win Both. I'm also working on a short course and workbook that will accompany the book. Oh yes, and a podcast (that will start soon). Plus projects. It has been
Inclusion: It’s not just politics. It really is about the brand and company values.
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December 19, 2019
Recently, Hallmark Channel USA (Hallmark’s TV station) aired ads featuring same sex couples. Here is the ad: One Million Moms, an organization self-described as “a division of the American Family Association, was begun to give moms an impact with the decision-makers and let them know we
Leadership starts with how you lead yourself
LinkedIn
July 26, 2018
I think the hardest professional change is transitioning from "doing the work" to becoming a leader. There’s no guidebook for how to do it. There are no obvious signs available to tell us that we’ve made it. Other people may believe that we have achieved leadership status through how they experience us, but it’s close to impossible for us to see it ourselves.
Acceptance. The Key to Being a Good Listener.
Gearmark
June 25, 2025
I love to listen to people and learn about their life stories. Whenever I listen to others, I listen to their words, stories, actions, emotions, and feelings, and I observe my emotional responses to them. I not only discover who they are, but I have my own experience interacting with them, bringing my own sense of meaning to that conversation. Listening then becomes an exercise in being present with someone else, helping them feel seen and heard, and not alone. I accept others as they are and their experiences as their truth.
In these pages, I share how I embrace acceptance. I describe how my journey discovering compassion and Buddhism supported my listening practice at work and in my personal relationships. We may believe that there are secret approaches to listen better. However, I have found that by shifting my mindset to accept situations, people, words stated, actions expressed, sentiments, or who I am as-is improves listening. We often don't realize how the stories we tell ourselves obscure our perception of what's happening around us. Acceptance allows us to go beyond that and listen with less judgment to see reality and truth (or the existence of many truths). And once we see that truth, we can be more open to build honest relationships.
Revenue or Relationships? Win Both: A Customer Experience Primer to Shift Your Perspective of Business
Gearmark
October 19, 2019
To create engaging customer experiences, you need to shift your perspective of business. The basics of business hasn’t changed. You still need a vision, a mission, a brand, an operations and action plan, and a way to measure success. But how you view your customers and inspire them to make decisions has changed with automation. Today, companies and their employees can directly interact with customers, creating a type of community. Add to that the emergence of more people-driven work methodologies, and you can see how successful business relationships are emerging to be as important as transactions in how they impact the bottom line. Business is about people, conversations, solving problems, and customer experiences. Closing a sale requires a successful customer relationship built over many interactions, digital or live. It’s hard to make a useful product without customer input and feedback. To keep a customer returning, you need to earn their trust and respect them during each experience of your brand. Such events can provide your employees the information they need to respect your customers and continue to build a relationship with them. Imagine what we could learn about our customers, our companies, and our customer experiences if we could measure that relationship value and contribution to the business? With automation, this may be possible. Discover the connection between relationships and revenue through customer experiences so your company can succeed in our automated world.
Tags: Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, Marketing
5 eBooks
Don’t Just Sell to Customers. Include Them.
Gearmark
November 27, 2023
Personas and customer journeys are tools that can help you discover (or rediscover) who your organization’s customers are and how your organization can engage with them to build a sense of belonging. Such tools can help reconnect the organization to its customer communities, bridging the gap between them. In this guide, we’ll review how personas, journeys, goals, outcomes, and metrics can be used to improve your customer’s digital experience, build belonging and community, and ultimately, increase revenue.
Tags: Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, Marketing
Listening
Gearmark
November 27, 2022
People ask me what I think the most important skill set is for a digital experience designer or strategist, and I always respond with“listening”. In this ebook, I describe my approach to interviews and listening.
Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Digital Transformation
Assess for customer purchase journeys
Gearmark
November 27, 2022
What's the best way to use the information gathered during Listening to identify a company's symptoms and problems? This ebook outlines an approach that uses journeys and service blueprints plus some data analysis for interview/qualitative data.
Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Digital Transformation
PART 2 Brand: How You Communicate the Experience
Gearmark - Revenue or Relationships Win Both
August 16, 2021
My favorite way to describe branding: It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it.
This workbook will guide you to consider what your brand is and to determine if it is consistent with your understanding of your company. From there, you can decide if you are communicating your company’s brand in the most effective and engaging way.
Questions you'll be able to answer after working on these exercises:
Is your company’s brand communication aligned with its brand values?
Does your company’s customer experiences reflect its culture and values?
How do you want your customers and stakeholders to experience your company?
Is the company’s brand and experience contributing to the bottom line?
Tags: Business Strategy, Customer Experience, Digital Transformation
PART 1 Vision: What Is the Value You Provide?
Gearmark - Revenue or Relationships Win Both
July 19, 2021
As we all know, a company’s vision defines who the company is, what it does, and where it wants to be in the future. Rather than outline a plan to achieve goals, it outlines the value the company will provide now and in the future to various stakeholders, including customers, the industry, and society. A company’s vision is timeless, rarely changes, and is usually transformative and inspiring.
These workbook exercises will help you:
Evaluate and analyze your mission and vision statement,
Discover how your mission and vision statements do or do not contribute to your company’s culture, and
Determine your long-term direction to change an industry or the world.
Tags: Business Strategy, Customer Experience, Digital Transformation
1 Founder
Gearmark
Gearmark
February 01, 2005
Partnered with numerous clients to provide strategy, planning, and implementation for various product, marketing, and customer experience/user experience initiatives. Work with B2B and B2C clients in technology, advertising, healthcare, media, travel, financial services, and insurance. Work completed ranged from strategy to UX to metrics analysis to managing roadmaps/story writing to content strategy. Major clients include revshop, HP/HPE, Blue Shield of California, Switchfly, and PsPrint. These were multi-year, multi-project engagements.
About a month ago, Ed Jarecki sent me an email to invite me to be a guest on his podcast. I'm so glad I responded!
Ed hosts a podcast where professionals share how they define success (and how that definition has changed over time), how they overcome challenges, and the impact technical innovations have on businesses. Of course, everyone who attends has a different story and point of view on how they got where they are now. And he has dozens of these interviews on his channel. It's worth checking out.
Join Thinkers360 for free! Are you a Reader/Writer, Thought Leader/Influencer (looking to increase your earnings), or an Enterprise User (looking to work with experts)?
Self-compassion, breathing, and authenticity in five parts
How I approach constructive criticism
The currency of time and where you spend it
My relationship with myself and the larger world
My life changed the moment I decided to embrace acceptance
Or what I learned from my LinkedIn post about dynamic pricing and fast food
Advice for Wendy's
Habit for Compassion: Communicate with Curiosity - Part 1
Why I took a class about compassion and what I learned - Part 1: How it started
During COVID, Being a Leader Means Embracing Compassion
Leadership starts with how you lead yourself
Acceptance. The Key to Being a Good Listener.
Revenue or Relationships? Win Both: A Customer Experience Primer to Shift Your Perspective of Business
Don’t Just Sell to Customers. Include Them.
Listening
Assess for customer purchase journeys
Gearmark
