Today's episode discusses the evergreen benefits of working with diverse-owned suppliers including driving increased brand consistency, benefiting the communities the supplier operates within and represents, and improving work quality through different perspectives and approaches to problem solving, and how those benefits increase when using a supplier who authentically represents a specific target audience.

Guest, Wynter Blanquet-Warren, cautions that so much of the hurdle to effective DEI efforts and supplier diversity programs is the "lack of humanity." The solution: proactively put more partners and suppliers in front of marketing teams to remove barriers and help them meet their diversity goals, learn how to "be the face" and champion of supplier diversity within your organization, dig into your history, find your own triggers and motivations to be vulnerable, and have conversations about what you want to achieve so you can create community around the discussion.

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Wynter Blanquet-Warren, is the current Director of Creative & Business Operations at Walmart, is a marketing leader with deep experience in creative operations, account management, and outsourcing strategies. During her time in advertising, she led cross-functional teams in support of partners across financial services, CPG, and lifestyle brands. Transitioning into the tech industry, Wynter joined Sage Software to stand up project management and creative operations as part of a new global brand team. As Head of Agency Operations & Purchasing at Meta, Wynter led strategy, implementation and operations for a global preferred supplier program aimed at improving quality of work, performance, and cost savings for outsourced global business marketing programs and content. As a DEI champion, she also launched an internal supplier diversity initiative at Meta to galvanize incremental spend and support for diverse businesses.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wblanquet-warren/