What'cha Drinkin'? with Elizabeth Saulsbury
Editor's note: Automated speech-to-text transcription, edited lightly for clarity.
Emily Koenig Hapka:
Hello everyone. Welcome to What’cha Drinkin’? with Quirk’s. My name's Emily Koenig Hapka and I am the digital content editor here at Quirk’s. We began this series to help people socialize and connect while we're all social distancing. Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Elizabeth Saulsbury. Elizabeth is the senior research analyst at Cox Automotive. How are you doing, Elizabeth?
Elizabeth Saulsbury:
I'm good, Emily. How are you doing?
Emily Koenig Hapka:
I'm doing really well. We're starting this off a little bit early in our mornings, so I'll cut straight to the chase. What are you drinking?
Elizabeth Saulsbury:
Well, I am drinking a Starbucks House Blend coffee, which is not super interesting in and of itself, but I did bring out one of my favorite mugs today. I'm a fan of musicals and a Broadway and a friend got this for me a long time ago. It has little thumbnails of a bunch of Broadway shows.
Emily Koenig Hapka:
That's so awesome. I'm also drinking coffee. This is a Peace Coffee blend from local Minneapolis Peace Coffee Roasters and it's Birchwood Blend and it's served at one of my favorite local cafes which I'm not able to visit right now, but I can drink their coffee still. So I have set up a couple questions for you today. I know we first connected last year when you were up for the Outstanding Young Researcher Award at the Marketing Research and Insights Excellence Awards, and you went on to win that. Congratulations, again.
Elizabeth Saulsbury:
Thank you.
Emily Koenig Hapka:
I was wondering if you could just talk a little bit about your work at Cox Automotive and how you're feeling as a young professional during these challenging times.
Elizabeth Saulsbury:
So at Cox Automotive, I'm on our research and market intelligence team. I work on the client services side of the business. So in client you might call it, I specifically focus on Autotrader and Kelly Blue Book, which are our two consumer facing brands. So it's my job to be a liaison between our research team and the business to understand what research strategies are appropriate for different projects. As far as working from home right now, I passed the month threshold a few days ago of working from home and I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of this. I'm more in a rhythm for it now. It has been challenging at times, especially for an extrovert, but we've had a lot of support from our group and I've stayed in touch with friends from work on Zoom calls like this, Microsoft teams meetings, virtual happy hours and all that good stuff.
Emily Koenig Hapka:
That's awesome that you're able to still connect. What would you say is the best connecting tool that you are using right now?
Elizabeth Saulsbury:
I'm a big fan of Microsoft Teams. That's what our company-wide platform is. On the personal side, I've been using Zoom with family and friends and all that kind of thing. And then just a good old fashioned phone call honestly is always helpful.
Emily Koenig Hapka:
So if you could give a piece of advice to a young professional right now that's really early on in their marketing research career and probably struggling a little bit more than those of us who are in a few years into it, what would that advice be?
Elizabeth Saulsbury:
I think my advice would be, now is still a good time to network. Networking looks a little differently obviously nowadays because there aren't in-person events or anything like that, but there are a lot of virtual webinars. LinkedIn, of course, is still a good option and if I go on my LinkedIn or my Twitter right now, there's still a lot of action kind of happening in the professional world. So I would just say don't be shy about reaching out and making those connections even while you can't do it in person.
Emily Koenig Hapka:
Sure. I think that's great advice. I agree. I've seen a lot of people being even more active on LinkedIn than I've ever seen them before, giving their personal advice for researchers that are deep into their careers and have overcome some challenges themselves. So that's great. I have a hat here with some random questions that are just fun. This is actually my son's Minnesota Twins hat, so I'll pull one out for you.
Elizabeth Saulsbury:
I'm so excited.
Emily Koenig Hapka:
If you could have another career doing anything, what would it be?
Elizabeth Saulsbury:
Ooh, that's a good one. Growing up, I was that kid who changed her mind every week on what she wanted to be when she grew up. So let me think. I would say it would always probably be something related to writing which is kind of related to what I do now, but that's really a passion of mine. I was really close to going into journalism, so I can definitely see myself doing that. Yeah, I would probably say journalism would be my alternate career path.
Emily Koenig Hapka:
Well, as someone who went into journalism, I agree that that is a fabulous path to choose. Yeah. And so does writing get incorporated into a lot of your work right now?
Elizabeth Saulsbury:
It does. A lot of what I do, and I know Emily, we've talked about this before, but a lot of data storytelling is sort of how I describe it and turning research into a real story. So now more than ever, a lot of people have questions, especially related to COVID-19 and that kind of thing and how that's going to affect the automotive industry. So especially important right now I think, that my team and I craft stories that are really actionable and straightforward.
Emily Koenig Hapka:
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I agree. That's very important, especially now as stories are proving to be what connects us and helps us make sense of our world more than ever.
Elizabeth Saulsbury:
Very true.
Emily Koenig Hapka:
Well, thank you so much for sitting and sharing a cup of coffee with me. It was a pleasure to talk to you and I hope we can connect in person very soon.
Elizabeth Saulsbury:
Sure. Thanks so much, Emily. Cheers.
Emily Koenig Hapka:
Cheers.