| Appearance: | |
|---|---|
| Outlet: | The Huffington Post |
Media Appearances
What You Need To Create Stellar Teams Within Your Company
– Fast Company
What You Need To Create Stellar Teams Within Your Company
You may not need all star players for the best teamwork, but there are a few conditions to keep in mind before assembling your taskforce.
BY Tara Nicholle Nelson
I recently read that a cup of brewed coffee is only 4% coffee—the rest is water. When I read this, it struck me that such a small fraction could determine the essence of something and how it operates.
I work in Silicon Valley, where it’s extremely common for companies to prioritize the cultural fit of job candidates as highly as their skill set. But while many leaders believe if you hire only A-players, then you should end up with an A-team, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes all it takes is a small amount of star power.
The idea that all superstar performers will create unprecedented excellence at your company is actually a myth for a couple reasons:
| Date: | December 2, 2014 |
|---|---|
| Appearance: | What You Need To Create Stellar Teams Within Your Company |
| Outlet: | Fast Company |
| Format: | Other |
MyFitnessPal CMO: The boss shouldn’t be the only one weighing in on job candidates
– The Biz Journals
For Tara-Nicholle Nelson, the tough part about the traditional job interview is this: Candidates are good at the one-on-one.
“Interviews are hard because most people do pretty well,” Nelson said. “They come in and say the right things.”
Nelson is the chief marketing officer for MyFitnessPal, a healthy living app with more than 65 million users that also prides itself on having a collaborative staff. For her, the problem is this: When you assume that the most qualified candidates get the in-person interview, you’re dealing with a smaller pool of people who have prepared, who are cool under pressure and who appear to be well-suited for the position.
Not to mention there are entire industries and careers devoted to prepping interviewees for every possible question. (Seriously, when I was applying for my first job, I think I bought half the books on the job-search shelf at Barnes and Noble.)
So how does an interviewer decide who’s best?
Nelson’s strategy: Bring in the team. It’s a tactic employed by tech giants such as Amazon, and since Nelson was hired eight months ago, she’s used it to build her team of seven — and their marketing strategy — from nil. Collectively, the group controls everything from market research and user insights to social media and content generation, and collaboration is key to their success, Nelson says.
| Date: | October 15, 2014 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 11:50pm |
| Appearance: | MyFitnessPal CMO: The boss shouldn’t be the only one weighing in on job candidates |
| Outlet: | The Biz Journals |
| Format: | Other |
CVS’s Expensive Cigarette Ban Shows It Puts Brand Before Profit
– Entrepreneur.com and NBC.com
You might have heard by now about the CVS drugstore chain’s recent eyebrow-raising moves. First, it stopped selling all tobacco products, to the tune of a $2 billion annual loss. Then, the company changed its name from CVS Caremark Corp. to CVS Health.
These moves were not simply timed in sync, they were deeply related in meaning. CVS Health Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Troyen Brennan, explained that “The sale of tobacco in a retail pharmacy conflicts with the purpose of the health-care services delivered there. Even more important, there is evidence developing that indicates that removing tobacco products from retailers with pharmacies will lead to substantially lower rates of smoking with implications for reducing tobacco-related deaths.”
This statement represents so-called “brand strategy” stripped down to its most fundamental kernel. The company’s purpose is articulated in a three-point narrative that isn’t an abstraction, but a concrete action: CVS is a health company, so it won’t profit from selling products that kill, and it might actually save lives by not making these product available in stores.
| Date: | October 7, 2014 |
|---|---|
| Appearance: | CVS’s Expensive Cigarette Ban Shows It Puts Brand Before Profit |
| Outlet: | Entrepreneur |
| Format: | Other |
Habits: Tara-Nicholle Nelson, MyFitnessPal
– PR Week
Tara-Nicholle Nelson, VP, marketing at MyFitnessPal talks about Android phones, her dogs, and Giuliana and Bill.
Morning ritual
I get up early, around 4:45am. I get my kale smoothie together and drink it with a green tea chaser while I meditate, pray, and read something inspirational. Then I try to get my dogs, Aiko and Sumiko, out for a two-mile walk.
Biggest surprise on your iPhone/iPod
The biggest surprise is that I use an Android phone.
Daily required reading
The Bible, The New York Times, Hello Healthy (the MyFitnessPal blog), The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Fast Company, and a slew of health and fitness blogs and magazines.
| Date: | May 28, 2014 |
|---|---|
| Appearance: | Habits: Tara-Nicholle Nelson, MyFitnessPal |
| Outlet: | PR Week |
| Format: | Other |
How To Stop Being Mean To Yourself About Your Weight (Seriously!)
– MindBodyGreen.com
Recently, my kettlebell coach told me about some research he’d done on body image norms among various African cultures. I was fascinated to hear how some groups take great pains to intentionally “fatten up” young women to boost their marriage prospects. But it almost instantly reminded me of the old European royals and the fact that looking heavy was once an indicator of wealth, health and prosperity.
These examples sound bizarre to us, but they also surface a sort of wonderful possibility. We each possess the power to be the boss of how much mental real estate we devote to our weight. We don’t have to surrender how we feel about our bodies to any media storyline or fashion trend or ad campaign.
| Date: | March 16, 2014 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 4:43 a.m. |
| Appearance: | How To Stop Being Mean To Yourself About Your Weight (Seriously!) |
| Outlet: | Mindy Body Green |
| Format: | Other |
Social Sharing Makes Losing Weight Contagious, Finds MyFitnessPal
– recode
MyFitnessPal is a popular smartphone app that helps people lose weight by tracking what they eat. It works a lot better when people share their food diaries with friends.
MyFitnessPal users who share their daily calorie counts with friends lose two times the weight, on average, of those who don’t share.
Users who share their food diaries with 10 or more friends lose four times as much weight as the average — an average of 22.75 pounds during the total time they spend using the app.
That’s according to a new analysis of user data as well as user surveys by the app maker. It seems to align with academic research about behavior spreading between social groups like a contagion, according MyFitnessPal VP Tara-Nicholle Nelson.
| Date: | May 1, 2014 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 7:00 a.m. |
| Appearance: | Social Sharing Makes Losing Weight Contagious, Finds MyFitnessPal |
| Outlet: | recode |
| Format: | Other |
Silicon Valley Biz Journal
– “People on the Move”
Tara-Nicholle Nelson, VP of Marketing at MyFitnessPal
New Hire – She is overseeing all marketing, communications, data, and content at the company and managing the brand’s PR agency partner, SutherlandGold Group. As the marketing program continues to expand this year, the brand is planning to hire additional staffers soon.
| Date: | April 21, 2014 |
|---|---|
| Appearance: | Silicon Valley Biz Journal – “People on the Move” |
| Outlet: | Silicon Valley Biz Journal |
| Format: | Newspaper |