“Lean in more,” Haley Paas from Verizon

Meet Haley Paas, SVP, Media, at Verizon, where she finds ways to connect consumers and the business together through impactful, appealing creative and stand-out messaging in today's vast media landscape. She oversees Verizon’s media strategy, activation, and marketing measurement while also managing agency relationships and maintaining operational excellence. She has also launched the company’s first internal creator team, advancing creative ecosystems across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Haley’s leadership approach is made up of analytical rigor and cultural fluency, which she blends into her decade of experience across brand, agency, and platform. 

Haley joined Morgan James, Content Marketing Specialist at SiriusXM Media, to uncover how to find confidence to advocate for yourself, what strategies work (and don’t work), and why learning these skills early on in your career can change your entire trajectory. 

Check out the full interview below, then listen to some insightful takeaways from the conversation.

Invest time in learning.

Highlight: “Another example of that in my career is, really actually seeking out those places that you feel deeply uncomfortable. I think if you touch on a topic and you're like, ‘Oh, I know nothing about that and that scares me.’ That actually means you should probably lean in more to get a baseline understanding of what that's all about… But I would say, even if it's uncomfortable or you're not personally interested in the world of how the business functions and financials, if you do want to have a senior leadership position, I would invest the time for sure because it will pay off and then it doesn't become as scary, and that's not your core job. So, yes, you may not be interested when you're doing the hard work—learning—but then you have that knowledge for the rest of your career moving forward.” - Haley Paas

Check in with your intentions.

Highlights “Introverts tend to wrestle with that internal dialog of like, ‘Do I speak up now? Do I speak up now?’ And I always try to take a look and do a quick check-in and think, ‘Is this about my ego, or is this about impact?’ And if it's about impact, and I really am passionate about, ‘This thing needs to be said, or things might go off track, or if I don't say this, I missed the opportunity to make this thing a little bit better.’ That's when I always speak up. But when I'm speaking, just to speak or just to promote myself without a real purpose, that's where I tend to just say, like, ‘Yeah, I can just use my listening ears for now and I don't really need to speak up or advocate for myself.’” - Haley Paas

Think about what you’re comfortable doing. 

Highlight: “Think about what you're comfortable doing. It never worked for me, and still doesn't, when I'm trying to be something that I'm not or I'm going deeply against what's natural or feels comfortable for me. So, if you're more of a casual person, then just talk with someone—getting coffee, or in the hallway, or on the elevator, or just something super casual that can open up the door for further conversation. If you're more of, ‘I like to write on Slack to people’ or more of a digital communicator, texting, try that. Try whatever you're comfortable with. I think it's really just about putting yourself out there.” - Haley Paas

Hustle for what you want.

Highlight: “You can also think about, ‘Who else do I need to really be exposed to my work, to me, to my leadership in order to get to that next level?’ So, thinking about the advocates that you want to create for yourself within your current environment that will help get you there… So I mean like, ‘Hey, this is my current job. I wanna go here. Can you give me a special project or a special assignment? And I'm just gonna hustle and prove that I can get this; I can operate this next level.’ Because again, you have to demonstrate that you are there before you're actually there. And then you need to be relentless with asking, checking in, asking, and be really clear about what your expectations are.” - Haley Paas

Promote yourself and your team.

Highlight: “People won't know what you're great at unless you tell them. They won't know that great insight or the great project outcome or the idea that you had unless you told them. And so I think when you reframe it as like, ‘This isn't about me self-promoting. This is about me sharing my work or thinking in order to advance the business or the culture,’ or whatever it is that you're focused on or your company's focused on at that time… I also have always liked to use the word ‘we.’ ‘We did this, the team did this.’ And then calling out the things that were uniquely your own contributions I think can be helpful too. But when a team did contribute, it's a good look to always make sure you're including others when you're sharing the work out as well.” - Haley Paas

Speaking up for yourself should come just as naturally as putting in the work. And sometimes all it takes is leaning in to the parts that seem the most intimidating—you never know what doors they may open. For more inspiring conversations like this, check out the Pass the Mic page.

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