In this 6‑question, 7‑minute interview on the Winning at Business and Life podcast, Professor Pete Alexander talks with Brandy Martin, Director of Digital Publishing at the American Medical Association (AMA). Brandy explains that the most rewarding aspect of her work is the constant influx of new digital marketing technologies, which fuels her love of learning and innovation. She emphasizes that relationship building—working cross‑functionally with internal teams, vendors, and partners, and managing conflict—is essential for successful content strategy. In the context of the COVID‑19 pandemic, she highlights the need for agility and the ability to pivot quickly to meet market changes. Brandy also acknowledges her mentor, Monique Terrell, director of digital strategy at the College of American Pathologists, and shares her first professional role as a research assistant in a Computational Biophysics Laboratory at the University of Illinois School of Medicine, noting how that technical and scientific foundation informs her current focus on healthcare content. The episode concludes with a call to connect with Brandy on LinkedIn and a reminder to follow the podcast on various platforms.
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This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Hello, I am Brandy Martin, and I am the Director of Digital Publishing at the American Medical Association.
Brandy, it's so great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?
Well, being in the digital marketing and web strategy field, it is exciting because there's always new technologies that are coming up for you to learn, and I enjoy learning, so it keeps me on my toes. And it keeps me innovating new things.
And I would assume learning too, because as you get new technology, you got to figure out how to use it. Am I right?
Absolutely. Absolutely. That's the part that I absolutely love, is learning all about the different technologies that come about, the different ways to reach customers, and the different content strategies that you can put in place to engage your customers. Cool.
I love it. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
I think one of the most important chapters for companies to read would be Relationship Building. And the reason for that is because in any type of business you're in, but particularly when you're in content strategy and digital marketing, you need to be able to work with your internal teams and work cross-functionally. You then need to be able to work with vendors and partners, and you need to know how to negotiate, facilitate, as well as resolve conflict to keep projects moving.
And resolving that conflict. Yeah. If you don't resolve that conflict, I can only imagine the kind of stress that that would create.
Absolutely.
Yeah. Question number 4, other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
Well, in the industry that I'm in, I think one of the key elements is to be agile. You need to be adaptable and flexible because things change all the time. And of course, currently in our COVID-19 environment, it really has illustrated how it's important to be able to pivot and adapt to what's happening in the marketplace to be able to deliver.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and it's being that flexibility. I mean, my goodness, who would have thought, you know, 3 months ago be in a place where we are right now. It's, it's, it's crazy, isn't it?
Exactly. It's, it's really helped to make us think very differently and outside the box, for sure.
Absolutely. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
Well, I would like to acknowledge Monique Terrell. She is the director of digital strategy at the College of American pathologist, and I used to work for her actually many years ago, and she's been a great mentor and is a great friend.
Wonderful.
She has good, great insights as well.
I love it. Thank you for that referral. I'll reach out to her. And our final question, question number 6: Please tell me about your first job.
So my first job was very unique, that I worked at the University of Illinois School School of Medicine in the Computational Biophysics Laboratory as a research assistant. So the be— my beginnings were thinking about going towards being a scientist. So it is interesting where my career finally has ended up because I'm not necessarily a scientist, but I focus in healthcare and medicine content. And in the Computational Biophysics Lab, we were working on computers and putting models together of different molecules. And so I'm not necessarily in that field, but I do work with computers from a perspective of putting web content together as well as knowing some front-end development.
So it sounds like it was a perfect introduction to your current role because, you know, you have that technology side of it with the computers and then the content side of it, you know, being, being from the, the medical side. I think it, it was a match made in heaven early in your career.
Absolutely. It was a great foundation for me. And I was able to do that for the grant. Lasted for 3 summers. So it was very interesting. I learned a lot.
I bet. So much for being on the show. How could people find you?
You can find me on LinkedIn.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
