Strategies for Inclusion and Diversifying Leadership in the Gaming Industry With Gina Joseph

January 19, 2024

Strategies for Inclusion and Diversifying Leadership in the Gaming Industry With Gina Joseph

Gina Joseph is the Chief Strategy Officer at VentureBeat and GamesBeat, the leading sources for news, events, and groundbreaking research used to help leaders make intuitive decisions. Gina brings two decades of expertise in media and technology to her role. As a first-generation Afghan American woman, she actively champions diversity and inclusion, especially for women leaders.

Gina is also the Founder of VentureBeat Lab, an innovative publishing arm focused on thought leadership, consultancy, and branded content. Additionally, she holds the distinction of being the first Afghan American board member for a games publisher in the US and is the sole Afghan woman occupying a C-level role in a games and tech publication. As a board member for The Daily Californian and the alumni network for Harvard Women, Gina has been recognized in Forbes and Digiday.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

Gina Joseph discusses Midwest Games and what attracted her to the organization
Tactics to increase diversity in leadership and executive positions in the gaming industry
What is Chief, and how has it positively impacted Gina?
The current state of AI and its potential effects on the gaming industry
Why did Gina create VentureBeat Lab?
Gina shares various vertical go-to-market strategies
How Gina conquered imposter syndrome
The importance of community building in the gaming industry

In this episode…

With diversity and inclusion increasingly recognized as essential to professional success, the gaming industry provides an opportunity for diverse voices to excel, especially with more women joining the space. What are some strategies for fostering diversity in women leadership roles?

Diversity in leadership requires a commitment to fostering an inclusive environment where people from disparate backgrounds feel valued and heard. Gina Joseph, a trailblazer in the industry, emphasizes the cruciality of actively seeking diverse voices to bring fresh perspectives and innovative ideas to the table. One key strategy that Gina advocates for is establishing mentorship and sponsorship programs. Allowing underrepresented talent to access guidance and support from experienced leaders breaks barriers and fosters professional growth. Gina also highlights the need for programs that encourage people from various backgrounds to pursue careers in gaming. This creates a pipeline of talent that reflects the industry’s varied player base.

Join Lizzie Mintus on today’s episode of the Here’s Waldo Podcast, where she is joined by Gina Joseph, the Chief Strategy Officer at VentureBeat, to discuss diversifying leadership in the gaming industry. Gina talks about what attracted her to join Midwest Games, how Chief has positively impacted her career, the current state of AI in gaming, and her reasons for creating VentureBeat Lab.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode...

This episode is brought to you by Here’s Waldo Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm specializing in the video game industry that prioritizes quality over quantity and values transparency, communication, and diversity. We partner with companies, creatives, and programmers to understand the why behind their needs and provide a white-glove experience that ensures a win-win outcome.

The industry evolves. The market changes. But at Here’s Waldo Recruiting, our commitment to happy candidates and clients does not.

We understand that searching for the best and brightest talent can be overwhelming, so let our customer-first staff of professionals do the leg work for you by heading over to hereswaldorecruiting.com.

Episode Transcript

Welcome to the Here's Waldo Podcast, where we sit down with top visionaries and creatives in the video game industry. Together, we'll unravel their journeys and learn more about the path they're forging ahead. Now, let's get started with the show.

Lizzie Mintus: I'm Lizzie Mintus, founder and CEO of Here's Waldo Recruiting, a boutique video game recruitment firm. This is the Here's Waldo Podcast. In every episode, we dive deep into conversations with creatives, founders, and executives about what it takes to be successful. You can expect to hear valuable lessons from their journey and get a glimpse into the future of the industry.

This episode is brought to you by Here's Waldo Recruiting, a boutique recruitment firm for the game industry. We value quality over quantity, transparency, communication, and diversity. We partner with companies, creatives, and programmers to understand the why behind their needs. Today we have Gina Joseph with us.

Gina is the Chief Strategy Officer for VentureBeat and GamesBeat, and a seasoned executive with nearly 20 years of experience in media and tech. Beyond her role at VentureBeat, Gina is a dedicated advocate for diversity and inclusion, particularly for women leaders. She serves as a board member for the Daily Californian and the Alumni Network for Harvard Women.

She has been featured on Forbes and Digiday. She recently joined the board of directors for Midwest Games, a publisher who received over 3 million in funding. She is the first Afghan American board member in the U. S. for a games publisher and the first and only Afghan woman to hold a C level role for a games and tech publication.

Gina is also the founder of VentureBeat Lab, an innovative arm specializing in thought leadership consultancy, events, and branded content. She has closed major partnerships with tech giants such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, NVIDIA, Samsung, and more. Let's get started. Thank you so much for being here.

Gina Joseph: Oh, it's my absolute pleasure. Thank you, Lizzie, so much for having me and the warm welcome. I'm so excited to be here and such a fan of what you do. Thank you.

Lizzie Mintus: I'm a fan of what you do. I'm excited. I saw that you recently joined the board of Midwest Games. Congrats. I had Ben Kvalo on the podcast.

He's an amazing person. Can you share a bit more about Midwest and what made you join?

Gina Joseph: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. I'm incredibly humbled and excited to join the board for Midwest Games. Midwest Games truly represents the gap that we have in the industry and that gap is something that I'm really passionate about, and I think you are too, which is increasing diversity and inclusion and investing into underrepresented communities.

It's humbling and so refreshing to see an organization start and build a company with that mission being what they stand for. You think about so many corporations that launch a product, and then alongside it, there's an initiative to make sure we have diversity and inclusion top of mind.

This is different. This is their mission, and this is exactly what they're focusing on. So that obviously drew me to them. And Ben, who's the CEO is an incredible leader. And I truly mean that because one of the things that's so important to me is to invest into leaders and who really values a company culture that their employees, their team will value and foster.

And so I am really excited to see how people will be able to see what they're doing in terms of bringing games from anywhere, but also how they're working with their teams to create it. So he really embodies a lot of the things that I look for in a CEO and I'm so humbled to have the opportunity to join the board and support this amazing initiative, which I think is going to pave a new way for the gaming industry and disrupt in a way that's so desperately needed.

Innovation can come from anywhere and it doesn't have to come from metropolitan cities. It can come from the Midwest and other communities. And so I just can't wait for them to share more news about what they're doing.

Lizzie Mintus: Me too. And if you ever meet Ben, you've just loved Ben. To Ben is to love Ben. He's so personable and the perfect face for that.

Gina Joseph: Yeah. I think being a CEO, it's so refreshing when it's someone who has humility and can build the team alongside them, I couldn't agree more.

Lizzie Mintus: Congrats again. How do you think companies can attract more women into leadership roles and board roles?

Gina Joseph: That's a really good question. I think it really starts with intention. One of the things that one of our speakers said at our GamesBeat Women in Games Breakfast is, it was a similar question with someone else, how do you increase the number of women in games? What do we do?

The way one of the speakers answered it was, I absolutely loved it and I couldn't agree more. And what she said was, we need to stop only hiring women who are already in the games industry. We have to open the door for people who are in other industries because otherwise, you're not going to grow.

I really love that. When you get a job listing out there and opportunity out there, you have to keep that in mind so that it does welcome those who have the skill set and capabilities to do the job. But as soon as you say, required to have gaming industry experience or preferred, if you do, then that person is less likely to apply or feel like they are qualified for the job.

So we really need to encourage everyone to apply for opportunities. Seek opportunities and not feel like just because I don't have gaming industry expertise, I'm not fit for the job because that's absolutely not true. You can take your expertise and apply it anywhere.

And in fact, it's going to be more beneficial for that corporation to hire from outside of the industry to bring in the perspectives that you're not thinking about. So if you're a streaming company and you only want people on the ad sales teams to come from a TV background and you're missing the boat, right? Because they're going to bring the same kind of concepts and ways that they're working with their advertisers to you. But out of the box and creative ideas is going to mean you also have to think out of the box when you do hire. And you mentioned women on boards, how do you increase that? I think again, it comes with the intention.

You have to understand the impact women have on boards. What I mean by that is, there was a Harvard Business Review study that said- just by adding one woman on a board, you've significantly increased your ROI as board members, yet only 2 percent of Fortune 500 companies have a group of board members where 50 percent or more are women.

And if you're not making money, if you're not innovating, and you're wondering why, maybe take a look at how many women really represent who's on the board, and the power of that as well. Women, control 50%. of the U. S. wealth, and 40% globally. They influence 80 percent of the buying decision making. The statistics prove it out.

I would say as women, too, we also need to not question our abilities and, think maybe I don't look like everyone in the room. I'm too young. I don't have the experience to be on a boardwalk. No, you got to go after it and you have to know that you are capable because if we don't, then we're going to have a lot of the same type of people on the board roles and the same kind of output.

And it goes both ways, right? People need to go after it. And you also need to welcome it.

Lizzie Mintus: Right. Women need to be educated that they can do it and have supporters and mentors. I was talking to Rachel Kayser from about this too. I think that with all the layoffs and with all, there's a lot of applications for a lot of roles. So you have options. But if you just post it to your network is probably full of people that look just like you.

It's probably a bunch of other white guys, right? Women and people of color are statistically less likely to apply. So you can tweak the verbiage and you can put out some really good content. But I really think that you also need to have your team aligned and then have somebody, a recruiter, even the hiring manager, really actively seek out people that are different from you and reach out and believe in them. That's a really big part of it. Otherwise, they just wait for who comes to you. It's the same old people.

Gina Joseph: You're so right. And I think, that belief is so important because I think it's more than a checkbox. Oh, I'm hiring, and now have a more diverse team. It doesn't end there. You have to actually understand the implications and the value that comes out of it.

Just by having one person on your team who has the same ethnicity as your consumer, you're two times more likely to build out a product or service that's going to better suit them. There's all these statistics that really back up the reason why diversity leads to better innovation, leads to higher even margins.

Going back to Midwest games, this is exactly why I think all of this makes so much sense where it's a missed opportunity to miss gap. So I think that understanding of why it's important is just so important for leaders to be really aware of as they're making decisions, and you're not just trying to check off the box and feel like you're representing the industry.

There was a study by PwC that said only 15 percent of corporate directors believe that they rank excellent when it comes to their diversity and inclusion and 83% feel like they didn't need to do a better job of representing inclusivity. We clearly have a lot of work to do, but it's going to take a community effort to get there.

Lizzie Mintus: I saw that you're a member of Chief. Can you talk a little bit about what Chief is and the benefit it's had on you?

Gina Joseph: Yeah, absolutely. So I joined Chief about a year ago. Any network or community that supports women leaders., I'm going to be a fan of right away, right? So I'm really honored and humbled to have the opportunity to be a member of Chief. What they do is they're very committed to elevating, supporting and putting a spotlight on women who are in executive roles, also helping them maybe get roles that they're aspiring to get.

So they do a really good job of hosting events, bringing these women together, connecting them through core groups. On a monthly, sometimes quarterly basis, you'll meet together with your core group and you'll have some really meaningful, off the record discussions. The healthy part about that is, it's so important, I think in any new leadership role or no matter where you are in your career to get perspectives outside of your bubble. Step outside of your workplace, expand your network, meet with as many people as you can to learn what their challenges are, what's working for them so that you can continue to think more creatively and what you do. Because you only know what you're exposed to, right?

This is one of the things that one of my professors taught me at HBS. He dropped this term called epistemological fragmentation. And the first thing I said, that's a big word and I have no idea what it means. Then he got to the point, which was, we only know what we know because of what we're exposed to and that is so important as leaders to understand. The decisions that you make are based off of the information that you're exposed to. Going back to inclusivity, it's so important to have so many perspectives so you can make more informed and better decisions. So I think that it becomes so much more important and what we do and how we're trying to get things done.

Lizzie Mintus: Absolutely. I know you do a lot of work and do even some speaking events about AI and games. Can you talk a little bit about the current state of it and the future?

Gina Joseph: Yeah, two things come to mind when I think about AI and how it's going to impact games accessibility and speed.

We're going to have access to a lot more games. We're going to see an output in a number of games increase significantly. That's going to be in part due to the speed- the ability to have technology so that you can create more games. So you think about the folks who don't have that technical background. Now they can rely on a piece of technology that's going to help them create games and you no longer need to have a background like that to rely on.

So better resources for indie developers and smaller teams to get things done. Integrator accessibility and output in the gaming industry. So it's absolutely going to be game changing. I think in terms of how it's going to impact this industry, just like AI is impacting every industry is going to impact every single person in this world in some fashion or form but it's going to be so important to understand the benefits of it and how you can really leverage it to your advantage, so that you can stay ahead of the head of the game and really make sure that you are utilizing the technology in the best way to support the goals that you have at hand.

Lizzie Mintus: What about women in the AI space? I feel like that is even more bleak than women in games, right?

Gina Joseph: Yeah, unfortunately, it's something that needs a lot of work. VentureBeat have been hosting Women in AI Breakfast and Awards for 5 years now. Of course, everyone's talking about AI now. But VentureBeat had a intentional pivot and focus to cover AI and data tech strategy news about 4 years ago.

We've been talking about this for a while. You can go to our site, 99 percent of our coverage is focused on AI and data tech strategy. Because we're a leading new source and covering AI news, I believe it comes with the responsibility. Media companies have the responsibilities to put a spotlight on important initiatives and what is more important than the representation of women in AI. We have so much work to do there because when I think about when we put together these events and how important it is for us to have women representation, guess what? There's not enough women in the industry.

They're not being featured on stage because there's not enough and maybe they're hesitant to raise their hand, or they're not in an executive role. Again, we need to be intentional. We need to be able to find ways to bring more women into the industry, and know that we value the expertise that they have that they can apply into the industry.

At the end of the day, it's going to be the people behind AI that's going to make the difference and that matters. Especially because of how powerful this technology is, if we don't have the right, people behind the technology, then you're not going to have fair or unbiased results. Those are things that we just really need to support, something I'm really passionate about, women in AI, women in games, women in tech.

We absolutely have to support them, put a spotlight on women AI and make sure they hold more board roles within AI companies. We know that's been news a lot so that we have a strong representation. And again, it's not about being fair. It's about do you want your company to succeed, innovate, make a lot of money, and meet the needs of the consumer in the marketplace. You know what you got to get

Lizzie Mintus: That's a good way of putting it. There are so many studies, which I feel like people ignore. It makes your company more profitable, right?

I know you founded VentureBeat Lab. Can you share a little bit more about that?

Gina Joseph: Absolutely. When I joined VentureBeat almost, I think five and a half years ago, I immediately saw an opportunity for us to work with partners in a much more creative way. It was really a response into the demand I was seeing. It was no longer about the scale, but more about the creative idea. And so being in the publishing and media industry and marketing and media, just really understanding what people want, how they want to work with partners, what they value- it took all those things into consideration.

VB Lab represents our process of how we work with our partners. And the processes we listen, ideate and then create. Really what that means is, listen, so we take time to really understand your goals. What are you, what are your challenges? What are you looking to achieve? We do, we'll do a competitive landscape. We're going to work together to really understand where you are and where you're trying to go.

And then the ideate, but we ideate alongside you. A lot of my partners will share that, I will share with you that I honestly feel like they're a part of my team. So if I work with big tech company or an emerging startup, I'm ideating alongside them. We're working together. We're pulling up a whiteboard. We're collaborating and they really value that. And I do too, because it allows me to really understand how they're thinking, what they need, and for me to build the right solution for them and for my team to build the right solution for them. So we're innovating alongside each other and we're utilizing our strengths to get things done. And then we create. What I mean by create is we're going to thoughtfully launch this partnership.

A really good example of a VB lab partnership is with Facebook gaming. We hosted three years ago, we launched a fully custom, at the time, virtual only game, because it was during the pandemic where we launched this partnership. This wasn't an event on our calendar and it wasn't something that we immediately were talking together about, hosting an event. But based off of their needs and their goals and the fit that we saw, it made a lot of sense for us to create an event around a specific topic and to showcase their thought leadership, showcase our thought leadership, work in partnership with each other to bring other thought leaders in the industry and create this event around the metaverse that we would kick off the year with, and we did it three years in a row. It was really successful.

So it's an example of something that's not on our editorial calendar or events media calendar, but we created a custom strategic opportunity for a partner because of how of a well fit they were for the opportunity and how much we felt like it would bring value to everyone in the community.

It's also about making sure that the partnership serving the people you're looking to serve. So I look at our clients as not actually the partners that we work with. I look at them as the partners that we work with to serve our readers, our community, and our audience. So I keep them top of mind so that we continue to build value for the community and find the right partners to launch these digital campaigns with their content campaigns or video series with so that we're giving the industry the best insights possible by partnering with some of the most innovative companies in the world.

Lizzie Mintus: I love your events, and I think people love to have things put on for them and you do it so well. So if anybody has not been to a VB event, highly recommend.

In these partnership strategy sessions, once you have your idea, how do you think about a go to market strategy?

Gina Joseph: Really good question. And that's probably one of my favorite parts about marketing is the ideation and creation of what does that strategy look like?

So go to market strategy is going to obviously look different for everyone. It really depends on where you are and the phase of your marketing efforts. So let's talk about thought leadership, for instance, right? So if you're an emerging startup and you're looking to establish your authority as a thought leader, and that's something that we say we can do at VB Lab because we offer a thought leadership platform. We influence the influential business decision makers visit our site to get news, to get informed about what's happening in the industry. It's the executives who are attending our conferences. And so in order to build and establish your authority as a thought leader, you have to build the right kind of campaign to support it.

I like to look at it in 3 different phases. Phase 1 of your go to market strategy should be exactly that building your thought leadership. Building awareness, engaging with the community, and really being authentic while you're doing it. When you think about that leadership, we're in such a saturated marketplace- the tech industry, the gaming industry, AI, everyone's talking about AI, right? So how do you stand out?

I wrote an article about this a couple years ago and interviewed some marketing leaders and also some of my professors at Harvard. It really just comes down to your differentiator.

What are you doing that's different? Making sure people really understand that and the value that you're bringing to them, making sure that they also understand that. So your differentiator is what's going to help you stand out. And phase 1 of your marketing strategy should be hyper focused on building this awareness, taking time to make sure people know what you're doing, and they know that you care.

You have to really focus it on phase 1 before you go into phase 2 and 3, which is more about lead generation or conversion and sales and expecting those kind of activations to happen. If you hit the gas pedal and skip some of those steps, then you're prematurely going into the marketplace, expecting high returns when you haven't even had a chance to actually engage with the consumer.

So you think about the brands that you really resignate with or the companies that you love or follow. You probably, it's probably, you probably have a reason behind that. You had some kind of experience that really made you value them, whether it was the expertise that they offered, whether the product was something that you just really enjoyed, the service that you enjoyed, they have to take time to understand your audience, deliver to them, showcase your value and it will all come together. You naturally get the return on investment as you launch your campaign.

Lizzie Mintus: So interesting. I love thinking about brand and thinking about why do you love the companies you love? What are the values of Disney and then how do they make you trust them and continue? I guess Disney is a great example.

Gina Joseph: It is. I love to see. Yeah, I know. Everybody loves Disney.

Lizzie Mintus: So do you feel like go to market is pretty similar if you're running an event or if you're trying to create a company or you're trying to be a thought leader, how would it differentiate between different startups, larger company where you're already pretty established,

Gina Joseph: You said if you're more established, how would that differentiate you? When you think about what thought leadership is, you need it no matter where you are and you're positioning. What I mean by that is, why are these big tech companies? Why do they want to show up at these events and speak because of the importance of thought leadership? You have to continue to engage with the community, continue to showcase how you're a thought leader, the value that you're bringing. It doesn't matter how big your brand becomes. It's something that you're going to have to continue to do and understand, the value.

Thought leadership is only effective if it's done right. So you have to understand what kind of strategy to build alongside each phase. So that's why you see those executives speaking at these events because of the value that it brings in.

Now, what is go to market strategy look like when you build an event? What I would start with is, if you're looking to build an event to a specific community, you have to start with again, who you're trying to serve. I always like to start with the objective and I do this with my team too.

We're in a meeting and sometimes we'll go in different directions, and I would say, okay, what is our goal? What is our objective? What are we looking to achieve? You start with that and let's say you're, you have an audience in mind. What do they value the most? You got to start with that and then build upon it. Don't just create an event to create an event. Make sure there's a mission and purpose behind the event and an actual objective.

You could do that by really understanding what they value. What do they want to get out of events? What are their top 3 value propositions? I learned this from Felix, who is my strategy professor at Harvard Business School, where he talks about this and in his newest book called Better, Simpler, Stats Strategy. You uncover the top 3 value propositions that your target audience is looking for and then you build upon that.

Once you launch your events, you think about who your competitors are or who else is posting similar events and how they rank against these top three values. If you're ranking high, you're getting it right because you're delivering on the values that they're looking for.

Events are always going to be about content, consume consumption, thought leadership, people want to go there to get insights, learn. They're also going to be about experiences. And then the third part, I think the big part is the networking- to get opportunity to meet people. And one of the things that I really love that we're doing here at GamesBeat and VentureBeat is keeping our events intimate intentionally.

You see a lot of industry events where there's tens and thousands of people and big showcases and a lot going on and exciting. And that's fabulous. That's great. But if you have an objective where you want to open the door for people to have a conversation with an executive as he or she gets off stage, then you're going to have a more intimate event and allow for that opportunity to happen.

So I get a lot of feedback where people say, oh, it's so great to actually meet that keynote speaker, the founder of Tetris, I got to meet him at your Game Speed event. That's awesome. I love hearing that and they actually get connections. Those are some of the value propositions that I have seen attendees really value when it comes to events.

Coming from an angle of a media organization, we're not an events only company and I don't like to look at it that way as well. We're a multimedia company that host events. So there's a lot of value in what we bring, because it's not just attending an event, sponsoring an event, making a splash, and then it disappears. You're getting press that comes along with it. You're getting a spotlight. We live stream our content. It's on demand. It's accessible. We have a lot of hybrid content and where it's digital and in person, but anyone in the world can tune in and consume the content. That's really important to me. Inclusivity, keeping that up top of mind. Making sure at least 50% of the attendees and speakers represent women or of diverse backgrounds.

I would love it to be 90%, but we have a lot of work to do, I think, in the industry to have that representation so you could get there too. I hope that was helpful, but at the end of the day, it's going to be deliver your events based off of your objective and who you're trying to serve.

Lizzie Mintus: And do you survey who you're trying to serve first to figure out their values? How do you get to that?

Gina Joseph: Yeah, that's the most ideal way to do it. You have to take time to meet with them to get their input so that they can tell you what they value versus you making the assumptions. Data driven decisions- data points are always going to help you understand. If you don't have the resources, let's say you're a small team and you want to start and launch something right? There's ways that you could do it where you can connect with people in the community, get their input, attend other events, see what they're doing and what's working for them. Have conversations and then test it out. Have as many event and then survey your attendees afterwards. What did they like? What didn't they like? What would they like to see more of? So it can be an ongoing process.

One of the things that I'm a big fan of when you think about the marketing aspect, any product building is continuing to optimize. You have to always optimize your events. Learn what's working, what's not, and there's no such thing as having a perfect event and stopping rate. And we all know that. In order to build success, you have to continue to optimize. Optimization means adapting to the change needs of the marketplace.

I've been in an industry where I've watched people consume content in different ways. We were first consuming content through traditional newspapers and magazines that we went to digital and then we went from desktop to mobile. And guess what? That's going to be the same case with events.

People were going to consume and go to events for different reasons. And after the pandemic, there's now a new normal where there is a something called a virtual event, which wasn't really in our world before. That's now possible. And I think we're so much more connected as a community because of something that came out of the pandemic, which I think was one of the positives of how we can stay together and host events virtually and not only depend on in person events.

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah, remote work, remote events really changed a lot and it's not going away. So it's nice. But I think for me, it's so nice to be back in person and I love how intimate your events are. And like you said, being able to talk to people because I like GDC. It's a lot though. And I'm a really extroverted person, so I imagine for the average person, it's quite a lot.

Do you have any stories of obstacles you had to overcome when launching VBL, just like the initial early days, your first partnership, getting yourself out the door?

Gina Joseph: Yeah, I think if we don't have obstacles and we're probably not doing things right. We have to continue to learn and adapt.

I previously was at Hearst Corporation, which there were lots of resources around you and big teams- much different than joining a smaller media company. Actually people don't realize how small VentureBeat and GamesBeat is. We take it as a compliment because we're doing big things and have a big influence in the tech community.

But I would say, when you work for a startup like environment or a smaller team, your biggest challenge is probably going to be like resources, right? How do you really build upon something so big based off the demand you see with limited resources. One of the things I love to do is roll up my sleeves, work through ambiguity and get creative and find ways to get it done. And so when you have these big tech partners who have all the resources in the world coming to you and wanting to work with someone like you to host an event, then you must be doing something that's when I knew that we could do it and we can absolutely deliver these kind of campaigns and partnerships for our clients. Because we have the influence, we have the community, and we have the ability to get it done. So definitely taught me a lot about how to continue to be creative, wear multiple hats, right? Very common in our world here to bring this vision to life.

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah. Do you have any insights into if people are looking to do partnerships with major brands, you've closed so many deals, what do you think makes a major brand want to do a partnership with you? Is it just understanding truly what you have to offer, their need being authentic?

Gina Joseph: That's a big part of it. It's probably similar to what a lot of people here, which is a consultative approach. Really understanding their needs and delivering. But it's also going to be, I'm a big advocate of having a trusted partnership and relationship, you have to be able to have build a partnership based off of trust where they know that they can come to you as an advisor, and you have their best interests at hand. And you're going to be there for them, and you're going to exceed expectations and deliver and that you actually care, right? I think this is so important. People can see if you genuinely care about what you're doing and what you're working on. I think that goes a long way, right?

You and I, we share a lot of passions around elevating women in the industry and because we care about it. So if we work on an initiative around it, and we build something amazing and then people will be like, yeah, this makes sense. I want to be a part of it too. And also goes the other way, caring about what, where they are and in the marketplace where they're trying to go and helping them get there.

A lot of times in sales we see, here's our list of products and services- it can be transactional. I just want you to get the deal done versus, I care. I actually want to understand what you're doing. I'm passionate about this. I love doing this. I want to build this out. And I think the big takeaway from VB Lab is, I'm committed to creating a custom partnership opportunity for you. And that shows a lot of the care and authenticity behind it, because we're going to take the time to do the legwork and build something exclusively for you, versus, here's my products and services. I think this is going to work great based off of your goals. Let's get it done. Complete different process that people value.

If you were on the other end, what are some of the things that would really value in a partnership and in how you work with each other. It becomes even better when you know, your partners become your friends and you build relationships. Then you're start having fun.

Lizzie Mintus: It's the same in my world, but I think maybe the 1st key is to work doing something you care about. So you can be authentic. If you have passion, you can do anything.

You've had so much success. You launched BB labs. You put on all these events. You sit on boards. Can you talk about imposter syndrome? I love to talk about it because everybody feels it. And I love when successful people share about their experience with imposter syndrome and how they navigated it and just normalizing it.

Gina Joseph: Firstly, thank you. And secondly, I love that you asked this question, and I love that you put a spotlight on it in your podcast. So thank you for that. And I think it's so important for us to have that humility and feel like it's okay to be vulnerable and share these kinds of things which we don't see a lot of in the tech industry, especially in leadership. For me, I talked a little bit about this in the Digiday podcast that I did too, I was always the youngest in the room, right?

I started out in my career, really young, right out of college. I was very driven. And so I gained a lot of experience at a young age and was able to bring more to the table at at my age. With that said, it came with a lot of hurdles where I didn't look like everyone in the room. When you had an opinion or an idea, and you're working for a traditional media company, and your job is to drive innovation and bring strategy. So this is a time where, Facebook was exclusive to college students and digital news was a brand new idea and concept.

What do you mean you can consume ads online? Right? So I was the one driving that innovation and that digital strategy for media companies at the time. When you face others who have opinions or are used to certain ways of working, then you start to doubt yourself because if they don't welcome it. Our folks around you look at it as a threat first versus an opportunity to accelerate innovation because it's a new concept that they're not familiar with, then you begin to doubt yourself. And I think this is why inclusivity becomes even more important so that we can build a culture where ideas are welcomed and innovation can actually be a thing, right?

When you face that at a young age, obviously, you're going to doubt yourself. Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to approach it differently? Is my idea wrong? But I learned very quickly that, no, my idea was not wrong. It's just I have a lot of walls to break. I'm going to have a lot of walls to break in the corporate world to get my idea across because that's just how the current process is.

As soon as prove it out, then things start to change, right? And so I think that's the disadvantage that we probably have when you don't look like everyone in the room or you don't fit that kind of stereotype.

The other part of it is, I think as a woman, we often question ourselves. And I think this is so important because you mentioned that in the beginning. I would see men get promoted into c level roles ahead of me, despite me, definitely knowing that I overexceeded goals throughout my career.

I'm sure this has not only been the case for me. This is obviously a thing, right? How do you break the glass ceiling and how can women obtain more executive roles? And so I think when things like that happen, you also start questioning yourself- do I need to be more aggressive in meetings? Do I come off too passive? Am I doing things wrong? Is my leadership style wrong?

No, you're not wrong. Obviously we all need to work on ways to optimize how we are as leaders and learn and grow. But what I'm saying is if you have a hurdle to get to where you're trying to grow in your career, or if you have a hurdle in terms of trying to get an idea across that is a really good one, don't immediately question yourself. It could just be the environment that is not used to welcoming those kind of ideas. You're doing your job by presenting those creative ideas and by pushing the envelope and by giving feedback.

The good news is more and more companies are creating company cultures that really foster this. So one of the things I love about, for instance, the Netflix culture that is talked about in the book, "no rules" is they have a culture that really starts with freedom and responsibility. You give people the freedom to do their jobs, but it comes to the responsibility to get it done. And they really welcome feedback.

One of my professors, Linda Hill at HBS talked about how company culture directly affects how productive you are as an organization. And so it's so important to be a part of a company that embodies that culture so that you can get an opportunity to do those things.

But if you're not in that position, I just really want to remind people that it shouldn't stop you from the idea that you have in hand or the aspirations that you have to work up the ladder, because you do have what it takes. And your idea is amazing and there's always ways to get to where you're looking to go and never give up.

As much as that sounds a book cliche, I think never give up. Things do come full circle. My first job working in the media industry was working for the Daily Californian at UC Berkeley's Newspaper. It was student run. And I've come full circle now, and now I'm on the board for the Daily Californian.

If you would have asked me 20 years ago, when I was a student launching these digital ads for this newspaper, if I would have been on the board, I'd be like, what are you talking about? Maybe in 40, 50, 60 years, right? So don't doubt yourself. I have a long way to go. I have a lot to learn. You have to stay open minded. But at the same time, you know that you are worth it, and that you can get it done.

Lizzie Mintus: You're so inspiring. I like what you said about not feeling like you were wrong in the situation, but realizing that people just might not be used to you and the way that you operate and your worldview. So that's important and resonated. I'm also always the youngest. We talked about this at GamesBeat. I'm the youngest. I'm a woman. I don't look like everybody in the game industry, but I'm running with it. I'm rocking it. That's okay. That's who I am, right? But it takes a while to get to that place.

I know there are so many upcoming GamesBeat events. Can you share a bit about what people have to look forward to?

Gina Joseph: Yeah, I'm so excited. And thank you for asking. And I loved having you, Lizzie, at our last GamesBeat Next event. I hope to see you at all of them in the future. And I don't doubt that we're going to be working closely on upcoming events, too. So I'm excited about that.

The event that we have coming up next is going to be our flagship event, GamesBeat Summit. I think we're in year 17. I can't keep up.

All the credit goes to Dean Takahashi and the GamesBeat team. Dean is really the founder behind the GamesBeat events and he does an incredible job creating the content alongside the GamesBeat team. I absolutely love working with him. You'll often see me on LinkedIn rooting him on and just being so inspired and in awe of what he does. He published like 70 stories around CES on these past three days. I don't know how he gets it done. I don't know if he has the time to explain to me how he gets it done because he's so busy. But I'm just humbled for the opportunity to work alongside him on these events.

So we have our flagship event, GamesBeat Summit, coming up in May in Los Angeles. Then we'll have our fall event again, Game Speed Next, which will be in San Francisco. We're also excited to share that we'll be hosting, the GameBeat at the Games Awards, again in December at the Grammy Museum in LA. We did it for the first year this past month and it was a great success. So we're excited to bring that back.

Also really excited about something that we announced that the last half of the year is our partnership with Xsolla. So we're going to be going on a 2024 Global GamesBeat Tour in partnership with Xsolla. The first event will be in Austin's Texas at Southwest in March. Xsolla has been in another partner who's an example who has been an incredible fit in terms of our mission and focus and bringing diversity and inclusion into the gaming industry.

The whole idea behind this tour is we're coming to a city near you. It's a global tour, so we'll be going to cities overseas. We have done events overseas before, but this is the first time we're doing it publicly, where people can request an invite to attend. They'll be intimate in settings. So really excited about working with Xsolla team on that initiative.

They are also our sponsor for Women in Games and Diversity and Inclusion Breakfast for both of our events, so it shows a true commitment that they have to serving these communities and in working alongside GamesBeat to get it done.

Lastly, we cover all gaming industry events, right? So GDC, we cover it extensively. And so oftentimes, we'll have experiences of our many events or gatherings around these industry events. We're planning on announcing a few more, so stay tuned, but you can definitely learn more about it on our GamesBeat site. I hope to see many of you there this year.

Lizzie Mintus: Good. I'm excited to hang out with you. I feel like you've done a great job building up and encouraging leaders in this space. Can you share a little bit more about just strategies on community building and why you think it's so important?

Gina Joseph: Yeah, I think it all starts and ends with community. And you probably know this more than I do based off of your influence on Linkedin and what you're doing to build your community. I think community again, just to go back to my common theme is like objective, right? What is the purpose of this community? What are you looking to achieve and why is it important to you? Those are the things that you need to think about when you think about strategy and building your community. And then if you want to build a following, what value or insights are you offering that's valuable to the community you're looking to serve so that they continue to get value from you and everyone in the room is getting something out of it, versus the person speaking or the person hosting the event or the person, quote, unquote, leading the community.

I think community is about everyone helping each other to and being there for one another. Authentic about it, right? You have to care about what this community is focused on and what you're looking to achieve. But at the end of the day, strategy is always about building value.

It's not about trying to build the largest and best community in the industry. That's a goal, right? Strategy is the value that you're creating to get there. So as your value goes up, the willingness of the community to get together increases. Do you always have to keep the people around you in mind before you try to launch or engage or, do something that's going to kick off a community or grow one.

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah, sounds like being thoughtful is the first step and thinking about what you can bring to other people instead of what you can bring for yourself.

Gina Joseph: Yeah, that's one of my favorite words. Thoughtful. I use it so much when talking to people. I need to find a synonym.

Lizzie Mintus: I'm sure that you can. I have one last question.

What are you most excited about in the game industry over the next few years?

Gina Joseph: Oh, gosh, that's a hard one because I'm excited about a lot of things. One of the things that made me really fall in love with this industry is the people behind it. And I truly mean that. The gaming industry and the clients that I get to work with and the people that I meet, they truly care and they're passionate and they're like becoming my friends, in a very authentic like way.

I'm just really taken back by how much they're there for each other. And the industry is really underrepresented. So I think what I'm really excited about is for people to really understand the industry because as someone who is not a day to day gamer looks at the industry probably in a different lens than someone who is, it's really eye opening in terms of what this industry really embodies, what it's looking to achieve, and how it's going to get there.

The other part that I'm really excited about is initiatives to support women in games and diversity and inclusion. That's only increasing, right? You think about organizations like Midwest Games, who's 100 percent committed to that. It excites me the most because I see a ton of opportunity. We all know that this industry is going to build so much revenue. 500 billion is expected in just a few years, beating out TV and entertainment and music.

That speaks volumes in itself. But I think the impact and influence and the way it's represented in the industry is going to change. It's going to be the people behind the industry that's going to bring that change. And that's why it's so important to invest into the right teams, the right communities, so that we can be as inclusive. And as representative and really deliver what the industry is looking for in the gaming industry.

And the last part I'll say is, I think it's going to be redefined. What I mean by that, are you engaging with content? How do you engage with content? That's the definition of the future of the gaming industry, right? You think of immersive media and accessibility and how you're consuming with content and how you're interacting these new generations that are coming in and how they're interacting with the gaming industry and how we're going to adapt to that all around excitement.

And obviously with the layoffs happening right now, that's incredibly hard to see. And I'm optimistic that things are going to get better from here. There's so much amazing talent out there. I can't wait to see what they're going to do, honestly. I know that there are capable of doing so much and I hope they'll stay in the industry because we need them.

Lizzie Mintus: Yeah, I think there are a lot of new studios that are popping up and when there are difficult times, amazing things come from it. So I'm optimistic too. We've been talking to Gina Joseph, who is chief strategy officer at VentureBeat and GamesBeat. Where can people go to learn more about you or attend a GamesBeat event, or maybe contribute to GamesBeat as an organization?

Gina Joseph: Thank you so much, Lizzie. I love to meet as many folks as I can, and I've been meeting a lot of folks on LinkedIn. So you can find me on LinkedIn, and hopefully we can connect. You can learn about GamesBeat events by visiting our site, and checking out upcoming events.

Let us know what events you're interested in, give us feedback. Obviously, I talked a lot about understanding audience and what they're looking for so much. So always looking for feedback and hope to see more and more faces at our events in 2024.

And Lizzie, I just can't thank you enough for all you do for Women In Games, and for this industry, and just for taking the time to meet with me and meet with other influencers and thought leaders in the industry. I think what you're doing is such a game changer. It's so needed. I'm so humbled to be here, and I can't thank you enough.

Lizzie Mintus: Thank you so much. I think the same about you. Thank you for being here today.

Thanks so much for listening to the show this week. To catch all the latest from Here's Waldo, you can follow us on LinkedIn. Be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes. We'll see you next time.

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