Interviewing Leslie Brody

Interview with Leslie Brody for the Medelia Monitor website

I’m thrilled to have been invited to participate in the Medelia Monitor community. As its Director, I invite each of you to participate in our blog, our polls and our surveys. And always, I invite you to share your opinions with us - on all topics - so that we truly reflect all of the “Voice(s) of Women in America” today.

Who I Am

I’m Leslie Brody, a wife, a businesswoman, a professor, and a mom to Gemma, a seven-year-old Bischon Frisee. Please don’t laugh. Gemma is an integral part of our family and my husband would be the first to agree. We live in a high-rise condominium and Gemma has earned the title of building mascot. That said, my view of the world comes both from ground level and from the vantage point of the 20th Floor.

My Background

As I was heading off to college, my mother gave me some advice. She said, “don’t be an English or business major, rather, learn a trade”. So, based on my undergraduate degree I am an elementary school teacher – but I’m also someone who never taught. I loved the children but hated the bureaucracy. So, so much for Plan A, but “hooray” for Plan B. Luckily, Time Warner was hiring in their magazine division and they needed someone to do research (and where typing 60+ wpm wasn’t critical.) That was me! And, I’ve worked happily in various marketing and research positions ever since.

After a long and successful stint at Time Warner and Time Magazine, I joined Working Mother Magazine as their Marketing Director, creating both research and advertising programs for diverse marketers from fast food to fast cars to fast wealth. Then, along came a new corporate owner, with a fresh vision. The birth of Working Woman Network led to the creation of the Businesswomen’s Research Institute, the company’s corporate research division. Here we explored some previously uncharted ground within the women’s market, exploring topics like women’s media consumption, hotel preferences, and attitudes toward automotive purchasing. Each time, eyes opened wide and we heard, again and again, “I never knew that (about my female customers).”

For Fun

Travel and food are my twin passions, and fortunately, my husband shares both. Most recently, we returned from a visit to Vietnam and Cambodia, gaining amazing insights into the people, the food and cultures located more than halfway around the world. We even rode an elephant, and I have the picture to prove it. Would you believe that in Vietnam they call the war, which we refer to as the Vietnam War, “the American War?”
I’d go back in a heartbeat!

Previous Interviews Archive :

Interviewing Lisa Briskie

Interviewing Angie Johnson

Interviewing Eileen Farnham

Interviewing Jennifer Pol

Interviewing Alexis Fieldman