“Set boundaries,” Maria Tullin with Horizon Media

Meet Maria Tullin, SVP, Managing Director, Performance Audio, at Horizon Media where she oversees Horizon Media’s Podcast Center of Excellence, national broadcast, streaming, and satellite spending across the company's portfolio of brands. Her curious and fearless pursuit of first-to-market innovative solutions and ad technology drives impact and favorable results while making her a wonderful leader. Maria is also dedicated to raising the profile of audio internally and externally for the advertising and marketing industry. She also strives to address audio’s measurement challenges and works to bring more transparency and attribution to the channel.  

Maria joined Morgan James, Content Marketing Specialist at SiriusXM Media, to be a part of a special, upcoming season of the Pass the Mic Podcast called Mentor Me. In her interview, they discussed the challenges of navigating work-life balance as you rise in your career and how younger generations of female leaders can find balance.

Listen in on the conversation with Maria and what she had to say in her full interview, then check out highlights from the conversation. 

Ask for help earlier.

Highlight: “It's about setting a boundary of time for me. So, earlier in my career when I did not have kids, I wasn't great at setting boundaries at all. And I would just say. ‘Yes,’ and ‘I'll help you and I will do this;’ and I jumped into a lot of things because that was what excited me about my job. So I would always say yes… Sometimes things are a priority, but you don't have time to do them. So, It's important to make sure that I'm asking for help, not waiting for the last minute to ask for help, and not wanting to put other people in a bad position because now it's too late. So, asking earlier, whether that's someone at work who knows something a little bit better than you and can maybe do it faster. Asking for help is a big part of making sure the priorities get done, even when you don't have time for them” - Maria Tullin

Learn to prioritize.

Highlight: “I think I've let some stuff go. At some point you have to practice getting things done. Perfection is the enemy of getting things done. Making sure that you're reaching the quality of work that you want to reach while not becoming obsessive over it is something that I've struggled with. And it's helped me to get back to prioritization and making sure that you're completing the task so that we can move on to the next task.” - Maria Tullin

Set yourself up for success.

Highlight: “It's important to make sure that you are organized enough to set yourself up for success, getting the help that you need, taking your spouse, whoever that may be, and saying, ‘Okay, we need to work on this together.’ Whether it's, ‘You're doing the dishes, and I'm taking care of the kids,’ or ‘You're doing this, and I am doing that,’ lunches, whatever the case may be… We're talking about women, but it's not just about women, it's about cooperation.” - Maria Tullin

Raise your hand.

Highlight: “Nobody's going to take accountability for your career progression except you. So, raising your hand when there's an opportunity, raising your hand, and just letting your boss know, ‘Hey, I saw that you're doing this thing. I couldn't do it, or you didn't ask me to do it, but I'm interested in it. Can you tell me about it?’ Even if it's not something that you have time for, showing interest in different things that you are seeing other people around you doing, it sparks things because it helps people to understand what you're looking for and where you're trying to go.” - Maria Tullin

Play to everyone’s strengths.

Highlight: “When I look at my team, and we're growing my team right now, it's really important to make sure that we're playing to everybody's strengths while also pushing people a little bit in different directions, giving them enough work that they're comfortable in so that they can still stretch in other directions. I don't wanna say, ‘You're the broadcast person, here's all the broadcast stuff,’ because then that person's just pigeonholed. They're not teaching anyone else, and they're not learning anything else.” - Maria Tullin

Find your passion at work.

Highlight: “I think the catch-22 is making sure that you're setting boundaries, fine, but also making sure that you are working hard and being passionate about what you're doing. Does that mean you're going to love your job always? No. You're not gonna always love your job. I'm very fortunate that I care very much about my job, and I get to talk about something I like all day, but that's not always gonna be the case. And you have to make yourself be passionate about it anyway. Otherwise, you're not going to have a good time.” - Maria Tullin

Maria’s practice in setting boundaries, learning to prioritize, and finding her passions are the keys to being a successful leader. For more inspirational content, check out the Pass the Mic page.

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