A Song for a Quarter: A Leadership Chat with Mike Santoro, President of Walker Sands

As I sit down to write this leadership profile, I am reminded of the extraordinary challenges the communications industry has faced as fallout from COVID-19 continues to rattle the confidence of the American economy. To be a leader at this unique moment is to bear the stress with transparency, understanding, and patience.

I am curious to find if there’s a secret sauce to leading a marketing agency with confidence in turbulent times, or there’s just a “leader” personality trait written into someone like Mike Santoro of Walker Sands.

After almost 12 years serving as President of the B2B marketing agency, he’s earned his chops adding creative talent to the firm while expanding its capabilities in the tech sector. Previously Walker Sands’ Vice President of Client Services, Mike has experience using industry-leading measurement tools to support clients of all stripes and sizes. His contributions to the communications industry have been recognized by PRSA, which honored him as Chicago’s PR Professional of the Year award.

Little Giraffe

Tucked into Mike Santoro’s extensive resume is his experience co-founding and serving on the board of Little Giraffe, a non-profit organization created with the goal of supporting families whose babies were born prematurely in the NICU.

When asked if the skills for co-founding and leading a non-profit are different than those required for serving as president to a marketing agency, he notes that the need for applying basic business acumen remains the same. Although the audiences and missions for each organization may differ, staying organized and disciplined is a necessity.

So, what’s it like to work at Walker Sands

For graduating seniors, finding a shop that’s the right fit is half the battle of building confidence as a junior associate or intern. I asked Mike what a new hire can expect walking into Walker Sands, and how they gauge progress without being surprised with an unexpected performance review. His response—training with transparency and understanding the value of a mentor—nails what new graduates are looking for in an employer:

       “We’ve got a strong onboarding program that takes place over two weeks. For [younger associates], particularly interns, we assign you to a supervisor and a mentor. Your mentor is somebody outside of your department who’s maybe from your same hometown or who went to the same college as you—some sort of commonality. We believe in regular coaching throughout your career and a formal 360-performance review twice a year. We really believe in ongoing transparency and shout you out if you’re doing well, and be honest and coach if something isn’t working.”

Walker Sands’ combination of robust onboarding and transparent formal and informal check-ins should be considered the gold standard of proper training and onboarding — no one should ever be surprised with a negative performance review.

Further, the pairing of a junior associate with a more experienced employee in a different department provides the opportunity for honest feedback geared towards the new hire’s professional development.

Pitch it like Jordan 

We live in Chicago and conducted this interview after ESPN began airing its new Michael Jordan docuseries—you can’t blame us for referencing the greatest athletic leader during our conversation about leadership.

We chatted about why interns and junior associates should value, not groan, at tasks like building media lists and sending pitches out. Mike cites a scene in the Bulls’ documentary, during which Michael Jordan is sinking free throw after free throw. One by one—a shot you’d assume a man as talented as MJ mastered when he was a kid—he keeps on practicing:

       “In many ways pitching is like that fundamental skill. If you really understand how to pitch, you learn how to effectively communicate. You learn sales skills. You dive into learning about the industry and the value of the product you’re selling. And you learn a lot about rejection and how to get past it. It’s very real life, and these are all things that you continue to do throughout your career.”

Nurturing these building blocks of successful public relations is a key piece of advice valuable for everyone from a college intern to a decorated PR pro — you are never too good or too successful to get back to the basics.

Some parting words

My conversation with Mike Santoro has confirmed what I know to be true about real, successful leaders: they are well-rounded and pay “it” (their success) forward to the next generation of leaders. He makes introductions, he reviews resumes—he does his best to set up future communicators for success.

Mike adds that owning your mistakes and learning from them seems like a basic piece of advice, but it’s crucial for showing employers your capacity for growth and development. Acknowledging, managing, and moving on from errors is a skill useful both professionally and personally.

You can always learn something new

One of the first questions I asked Mike at the beginning of our interview is whether he thinks he was born with an entrepreneurial spirit, or if his role as President of Walker Sands just occurred organically as he developed his career.

He laughs as he remembers a time during his childhood when he sang for his neighbors “We Are the World” for 25 cents. Mike adds there are probably a bunch of stories from his childhood like that, but in the end it came down to wanting a job out of college and learning a bunch along the way. We can relate.

agency profile 

Walker Sands is a B2B marketing agency that specializes in leveraging industry-leading measurement tools to effectively tell its clients’ stories. Offices are headquartered in Chicago with locations in San Francisco and Seattle.

ABOUT THE LITTLE GIRAFFE

The Little Giraffe funds neonatal research and helps to support families whose babies have been born prematurely in the NICU. To learn more, please visit http://www.littlegiraffefoundation.org.

About the author

Alexandra Lewis is graduating from DePaul’s Public Relations and Advertising graduate program this June and hopes to continue her career in corporate communications and public relations.