Karolina Szweda: Head of Growth Marketing at Connect Earth

Karolina Szweda is a highly experienced, passionate, and mission-driven professional with a unique ability to seamlessly navigate various industries. With an extensive background in global, cross-functional roles spanning five different countries, she deeply understands the ever-evolving tech landscape. 

Currently serving as the Head of Growth Marketing at Connect Earth, Karolina brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her role. Driven by a solid commitment to personal growth, giving back, and sustainability, Karolina’s values drive her ambition to create a brighter world. As an inspiring leader, she actively shares her experiences through mentorship and education, ensuring that others can benefit from her experience and avoid making similar mistakes. 

Equipped with a master’s degree in business and management, complemented by additional courses and self-learning experiences, Karolina Szweda possesses knowledge and insight into achieving success and an innate curiosity for understanding the bigger picture. With a passion for continuous learning, she consistently seeks to expand her knowledge and skills to stay ahead in the ever-evolving field of marketing. Her unwavering dedication, exceptional skill set, and vast industry knowledge make her a true asset in any professional setting.

About Connect Earth

Founded in 2021, Connect Earth is a London-based environmental data company that democratises easy access to sustainability data. With their carbon tracking API technology, Connect Earth are on a mission to empower people and SMEs to make sustainable choices and bridge the gap between intent, knowledge and action. Connect Earth supports financial institutions and FinTechs in offering their customers transparent insights into the climate impact of their spending and support their carbon accounting efforts.

Connect Earth’s ultimate vision is for a world where sustainability is fully integrated into consumer and business spending decisions, enabling everyone to take action through user-friendly tools that align with everyday use.

As Connect Earth’s first marketing employee, Karolina’s responsibilities are far-reaching and vital for company growth. When asked about her day-to-day responsibilities, Karolina stated that her work incorporates “building and scaling the marketing function, starting with the development of the marketing strategy to optimise marketing channels, sales enablement, web development, making first hires and managing an agency.” As a result, Karolina’s work in bringing Connect Earth to a broader audience is an essential cornerstone in the company’s positioning efforts.

According to Karolina, one of her most notable accomplishments is her ability to attract and hire brilliant individuals who are significantly contributing to Connect Earth’s success. By fostering a culture of collaboration and empowerment, she has built a high-performing team that consistently delivers outstanding outcomes. Moreover, when asked for her favourite part of her industry, Karolina offered, “People who believe they can make a change and don’t wait for someone else to do it!”

Getting to Know Karolina Szweda

Throughout her illustrious career, Karolina has honed her adaptability, creativity, communication skills, persuasion, and critical thinking abilities, all soft skills that she considers essential to her role. These qualities, combined with her unwavering dedication, have helped Karolina successfully navigate complex challenges, leveraging her exceptional problem-solving skills to drive impactful results.

Karolina firmly believes that difficult situations can be effectively resolved through clear communication and providing constructive feedback. Indeed, when discussing the importance of soft skills in her professional role, she opined, “Most difficult situations are a result of poor communication. In a fast-paced startup, people don’t spend enough time briefing each other or planning out the details – you often figure things out as you go. If team members don’t clearly communicate their expectations, things can go the wrong way very quickly. This is when the ability to communicate clearly and upfront, as well as the ability to give and receive feedback, are crucial to making these work relationships sustainable.”

Stating her fundamental values to be personal growth, giving back to the community, and a commitment to sustainability, it’s clear that Karolina strongly believes in constant personal, societal, and environmental improvements to make the world a better place. 

When discussing personal development, Karolina said, “Each day, I try to be a slightly better version of myself and make the world around me a little better as well.” Furthermore, regarding sustainability, Karolina confirmed, “I try to leave as little damage on our planet as possible, trying to keep in mind the environmental consequences of my actions. It’s important to know, however, that there is no point in aiming for perfection. It’s about taking one small step at a time rather than making many changes and discouraging ourselves. It’s about making habits sticky and sustainable.”

Karolina at Growy

When deciding to offer coaching services through Growy, Karolina considered the importance of mentors in her own development and how she could fulfil a similar role for others. “I’ve always been lucky to have supportive mentors around me, and they taught me so much.” She said. “I believe that you don’t have to learn only from your own mistakes. If you’re perceptive enough, you can learn from the experience’s of others. For this reason, I’m always happy to share the ups and downs of my journey!”

Teaching on subjects including Marketing, Leadership, Adaptability, and Personal Growth, Karolina hopes that her potential students will “Get clarity around finding their potential and a professional or personal growth path.”

For more information on Karolina Szweda and her professional experience, please visit her LinkedIn profile.