"Be brave and figure it out," Ritu Trivedi from Mindshare

Meet Ritu Trivedi, Client President at Mindshare, where she leads retail and QSR businesses across multiple accounts. Ritu’s impressive background in digital strategy, marketing, and buying allows her to lead, challenge, and transform businesses. Having spent her entire career in digital media, combined with responsibility and oversight for traditional channels, Ritu has a unique vantage point of the media landscape and its evolution over time that help to better evaluate communication opportunities for her clients. 

She has won many industry accolades, is a frequent contributor to panels, and her thoughts have been published in many publications such as Adweek, Mediapost, and NY Times. Ritu is also Vice President of the industry organization 212 NYC, and she sits on many advisory boards for organizations such as the Ad Council and OWR. When she’s not at work, Ritu enjoys dancing to music with her family, spreading wisdom to her children, and hosting parties with friends. 

In her Pass The Mic interview with Priscilla Valls, Sales VP, Agency Partnerships, Ritu opens up about the experiences and challenges she faced to get to where she is today and how you can be brave and figure it out too. Listen to the full interview and some highlighted moments below. 

Get involved in something new.

Highlight: “To me, it has been a true journey, but it's also been a journey of take risks, get involved in something new. And you may have to stretch yourself. You may be uncomfortable, but that's when the best things happen to you. That's when the best things come your way, and you may end up again being very lucky and being part of something that could be very exciting.” - Ritu Trivedi 

Be brave.

Highlight: "The one thing I will say is: Just be brave. Be brave. Nobody has anything figured out. That's the beauty of this industry. Whether it was five years ago, ten years ago, or five years from now, ten years from now, this industry is going to continue to change and evolve.” - Ritu Trivedi 

Build your own brand.

Highlight: "I think a big one that I have learned and something I’m beginning to do a little bit of work on now, is building your brand… The one thing we stopped doing is advertising and marketing ourselves. We are a product. We have to make sure people are aware of us and our achievements, but we find it so hard, both as people, but especially as women, to talk about that." - Ritu Trivedi

Share your stories. 

Highlight: "The one thing that I have learned is not only did we not have representation, but we also didn't have a lot of people who would share stories and be vulnerable. And when people did, you learn so much from that… For me, what I have learned is: Be vulnerable. Share your stories. You will touch somebody. You will make them brave to share theirs. And that's how we make everybody brave together.“ - Ritu Trivedi

Eat humble pie every day. 

Highlight: "In a client leadership role, you gotta eat humble pie every day. You are leading a team, but you're spotlighting your team's work. You're making sure people shine, but you're also the throat to choke, and you're taking accountability on everyone's behalf… I wasn't handed a playbook, and I had to learn a lot of those lessons on my own. And being vulnerable about that, sharing with people, how I continue to stretch, how I continue to make myself uncomfortable.” - Ritu Trivedi 

Rethink your next chapter.

Highlight: “We have a lot of people in the industry right now who are going through similar sort of trials and tribulations, and I say to them, it's a very meaningful pause, if that's what you want to consider it as and if that's what you want to take it as. Don't take it as a defeat. Don't take it as a failure. Don't take it as something that is a full stop. It's a comma. And you need to now rethink about what the world will look like for you in the next chapter.” - Ritu Trivedi 

Take Ritu's advice and be brave. Sharing your stories and taking meaningful pauses may be the key to your next chapter. For more from powerful female leaders, check out the Pass The Mic page.