For too long, kindness has been associated with weakness. The opposite is true. Kindness is strength. Kindness is clarity. Kindness is bold.
Cassie Roma is a powerhouse in the boardroom, in front of a camera, and speaking in front of local & global audiences on business & personal topics that impassion her.
Yep, this California native is a powerhouse of business & entertainment. And, after 18 years in New Zealand counts herself as a proud YanKiwi.
Passionate about creative content, social media strategy, the influencer economy, and storytelling across mediums both emerging and traditional, Cassie has literally lived & breathed the digital revolution. All the while steering the social media & digital storytelling ships for brands like Air New Zealand, ANZ Bank, Mighty River Power, NZME, & The Warehouse Group. As of 2021, she can also chalk up Advisor to the CEO on The Apprentice Aotearoa on TV1 here in New Zealand.
She can also add the title of entrepreneur to her title now as she is currently Founder & Director of CR&Co - her newest venture into storytelling for business, brand strategy, social media mastery, influencer marketing & beyond.
Cassie has been awarded & recognised globally as a thought leader in the fields of social media marketing, storytelling for brands, digital marketing, and the anthropological power of brand in the lives of consumers. She’s also an author, keynote speaker, professional coach, & mentor. Her main professional goal? Delivering results while having fun doing it. By embracing change, actively driving innovation, growing positive community engagement, deepening customer service standards, and streamlining reporting across business units, Cassie has truly cut her teeth on the cutting edge. She’s also one big bundle of positive energy fuelled by the belief that great corporate culture is built on a foundation of kindness!
Beyond the office, Cassie spends her free time working on projects that aim to put necessary, powerful, & impactful stores into the world - most of which aim to lift others through education, diversity, & action. Cassie is a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community & speaks often on topics that include Pride & empowering women in the workplace.
At home, Cassie is a proud momma & wife. She loves getting outdoors while soaking up some sunshine & revelling in stolen moments with loved ones. A buttery chardonnay never goes astray, either.
Talking Points
Ethical Marketing: Brands as Gatekeepers, Marketers as Moral Compasses
The role of brands in a world of democratised digital influence, content creation, & the ability to influence media is consistently changing. In a world in flux, what role should brands be playing when it comes to influencers, media spending, social & cultural movements? When should brands speak up for or against causes that are political, societal, or ethical? Are we, as marketers, ready to pivot hard & lean into understanding our customers as people & not as data points? Cassie Roma is here to dive deep into some of the biggest topics that we should all be talking about.
Ethical Marketing: Brands as Gatekeepers, Marketers as Moral Compasses
Storytelling for Business
In today's fast-paced digital world, we’re all living & working in a world stuck on play. There’s no pause. Because of this, it’s the attention economy that we’re trying to master. Brands, influencers, new media, & traditional programming alike are all vying for our time when it comes to the content we consume & the ability to influence us. When it comes to building strong, successful brands in a new world, it’s the age-old principles of storytelling that drive the best creative results & that help great marketers stand out from the pack. Cassie Roma is an expert in helping brands build strategies around stories, creative execution, insight, data, distribution & amplification.
Storytelling for Business
The Glorification of Busy: Slowing Down to Speed Up
If you’re like me, your life is a bit like a hamster wheel - built specifically for our human legs and cardiovascular machines, but not so much primed for healthy minds or souls. We live out our best years as worker bees, bound by a monotonous and perpetual cycle that has been colloquially dubbed the 9-to-5. I say colloquially because we all know that, as professional, we’d love an actual 9-to-5. I’ve heard typical working hours called out as “Gentlemen’s hours” often. Ahem, gentlepeople. This is 2019. In this session Cassie talks about realistic strategies for making space to slow-down, to think deeply, and to find time to work more effectively across your day-to-day projects.
The Glorification of Busy: Slowing Down to Speed Up
Influence Schminfluence
Let’s face it, one person’s influencer is another person’s ‘unfollow.’ So in today’s social media-laden society, how do we as marketers & brands define influence when looking through the eyes of our customers? Is the term ‘influencer’ a smug smokescreen or a powerful tool in our branded-content & online social media arsenal? Cassie Roma breaks all of the rules to help you build your most impactful strategies yet when it comes to experts, gurus, ambassadors, & (yep, you guessed it) influencers.
Influence Schminfluence
Growing Up Social
Social media will NEVER AGAIN be as it was in the golden years... so now what? What are macro and micro trends in the video and online space that have the potential to change the world as we see it, or to crush some of the major foundations that we believe to be unbreakable.
Growing Up Social
Algorithms for Good: Standing on the Right Side of History
Almost everything we do, share, connect with, click on, or consume is tracked online & is used as fuel to feed massive content machines. Of the major players online, algorithms rule what we see, when we see it, and how often we’re served one piece of content over another. For a lot of our Millennial & Gen Z consumers, algorithms aren’t the deliverers of good, contextual information. Instead, we see a world where what we’re served can just as well divide us as it does bring us together. Which begs the question: as marketers, how we can re-train algorithms rather than simply try to game or crack them? Also, how do we as guardians of budget lines & big reach platforms imbue humanity and diversity into everything we do?Algorithms for Good: Standing on the Right Side of History
In a world of wide-open, world-wide-webs, who are the gatekeepers?
Women On Top
Goodbye old boys clubs, hello women in leadership! Digging deep into a once-taboo topic, we dive into top tips from top players on how they help to empower women in traditionally male industries as well as how they themselves have become progressively more comfortable with taking up space at the proverbial table. As the old/new saying goes, "If there are no more seats at the table, bring a folding chair."
Women On Top
Driving Diversity
Just as we all have our own unique view of the world, so too do we have a unique understanding on what diversity means. In a time where we all know that we need to think about and build diversity into our content streams, how do we do this? What are the rules (if there are any) around ensuring safe spaces online and in your own channels? Let’s talk algorithms, ethics, humanity, & the beauty of diversity.
Driving Diversity
Workshops
• The Next Best Thing to IRL (bringing the passion & energy of live events to online conferences, webinars, & workshops)Workshops
• Flexible Working 101/Working From Home: Getting The Most Out Of Your Work From Home Days
• Building Resilience Through Change
• Leveraging Partnerships/Communities Online
• Connecting With Employees, Your Best Bet - Webinars, Zoom meetings, & Facebook Messenger Chats
• What's Your Story? Storytelling To Build Empathy & Resilience
• Crisis Comms Management (Who/What/How/When to respond, escalate, build workflow, etc)
• Engagement, Confidence, & Creativity at Work
• Growing Your Content Creation Confidence (getting comfortable in finding your voice & sharing ideas online)
Leading With Kindness, Not Niceness
As seen on The Apprentice Aotearoa Cassie’s brand of #KindnessWarrior leadership is neither weak nor saccharine sweet. Cassie believes that clarity is kindness - especially at work. She also instills in all of her teams & projects an ethos of collaboration & teamwork that is built upon a foundation of trust & empathy, not fear & competition. Are you looking to build the leaders of tomorrow? Then build them with Cassie. You’ll be one step ahead of the rest when you do
Leading With Kindness, Not Niceness
Cassie is a truly innovative thinker and practitioner in the field of global marketing. She has great insight on how to build your business both locally and worldwide using innovative combin ... keep reading VidCon International
Cassie’s special blend of industry insight, strategic thinking, and creative brilliance is truly unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. She leads with more kindness than I’ve ever experienced, and has broken more ground in brand storytelling than any other human in her field. Radiating sunshine, ridiculous brain power and a passion for telling stories in the right way - working with Cassie is a privilege
Cassie is magnetic. She lives her life with soul and purpose. Everything Cassie turns her head to in life or work, she contributes her whole self. Cassie has a CV that dazzles, and she delivers for clients above and beyond expectation, with intelligence, thoughtfulness, empathy, verve, attention to detail and her fierce sense of humour. Above all, Cassie is an absolute pleasure to know
Cassie was an absolute delight! She really set the tone for the week of celebration. She was engaging and emotive which can be difficult on teams. We loved having her back!