The InnovateMR Blog

“I’m from California!”

That’s my answer when someone asks where I’m from. More often than not, no one can actually guess my ethnicity and no other answer seemed to really fit.

I am mixed race, with a Scottish/Irish father, a second generation American, and a Filipina mother, a foreign-born American citizen. Sometimes it’s overwhelming; knowing there isn’t anywhere else in the world that I truly fit in other than my hometown of Los Angeles. My dark hair, eyes, and complexion doesn’t typically jive with Irish redheads, my white features sometimes makes Filipina seem out of the question, and my eccentric unironic use of the word “dude” screams west coast even just a few states over. My last name doesn’t even offer any hints; it was changed from “Strachan” to its phonetic “Strawn” when my distant relatives arrived at Ellis Island to work in American factories during the Industrial Revolution. And Molly? That name comes from Star Trek after Officer Miles O’Brien’s on-screen daughter, Molly O’Brien. Turns out, I am about as melting pot as you could get.

As a B2B marketing professional, I know the lengths that businesses will sometimes go to make themselves look good. “Let’s be sure we control the narrative.” “We need good PR on this.” “I’d rather position us like this on the topic, we need to be seen as a thought leader.” I’m not saying that having these conversations are not important. Of course, I am an advocate for keeping track of all of these items to ensure business success, but it’s important to remember that it isn’t everything. You definitely cannot force a message if you’re changing a narrative, already have bad PR, or don’t have the knowledge to be a thought leader. There’s only so much “fake it ‘till you make it” you can get away with until someone calls you out.