Name: Nicole Smith
Position: NASCAR Dir of Growth Segment Marketing
Age: 36
Where I'm from: Bay Area
Where I call home: Daytona Beach
Focusing on right now: Growing the fan base, with specific focus on younger and more diverse fans.
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Smith said NASCAR has been making a more concerted
effort in the Hispanic community
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Best advice: Relationships matter. How you treat people is just as important as the outcome, because you'll probably have to work with those people again. It goes back to the whole small-world theory. In sports, the world is even smaller.
A must for a new hire: People who are resourceful, creative and collaborative. Of those three, collaborative is probably the most important. It would be really easy if we could do everything by ourselves and our own way, but that's not how it works. It's very important to work with other people, consider other perspectives. That's how you get the best product.
Exec I admire the most: Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Exec VP/Global Marketing, Sales & Travel Operations LESLIE FERRARO. I really enjoyed working for her. The one thing I admired most about her was her perspective. She works hard and is incredibly smart but she is a compassionate leader and treats the people who work for her -- whether you're her assistant or vice president -- with the same amount of respect. Therefore, people respect her and work hard for her. She also manages the balance of work and family.
Best book I've read this year: I read some fiction but am too embarrassed to say what they are. I like to read books on leadership and leadership styles, effective management. Some people sometimes don't distinguish very well between managing and leading, and I think it's a very important distinction.
First thing in the morning: I work out. I think it saves my life, just having that dedicated time to myself to do something. It's really important. I just ran my first half-marathon last month, but I also have a personal trainer here and it's the best thing I could have done for myself. I'm learning how to lift a little heavy, believe it or not.
Talking tech: Especially right now focusing on youth and young adults -- I have to stay youthful myself. So that means watching what they watch and reading what they read. The proliferation of the tablet has been huge for me. I can take TV, movies, internet, everything everywhere. I use my Kindle a lot, I'm a big Amazon person.
Must have music: A little bit of everything. When I'm at work, I tend to listen to loungey-type stuff, but I like pop music. I'm a closet KATY PERRY fan, unfortunately. I also like SAM SMITH, that kind of stuff.
Food for thought: I always try to find a Sprinkles Cupcakes when I'm on the road. I don't know if that qualifies as food, but if I'm in a city that has a Sprinkles Cupcakes, you can pretty much guarantee that I'm going to find it. They started in L.A. and have opened locations in Dallas, Chicago and San Francisco.
How I unwind: Just a nice, quiet dinner with friends or a movie. I have a very outgoing personality but I live the life of an introvert. I like things really low key and quiet when I can get them that way. I'm big into action movies, Marvel or "X-MEN," superhero movies are cool. But I also like romantic comedies. I can't help it.
Day in the life: Before I got here and we had a change in the growth segment team, NASCAR laid out a very extensive research process of what they thought their growth areas should be. Those focuses were primarily in youth. So we're looking at kids 8-12, young adults, people in that college-to-first-job life stage. Particularly, we're focused on multicultural. Looking across the board, but with some specific focus in the Hispanic market. NASCAR definitely has been making a more concerted effort in the Hispanic community.
