Teresa Mueller has over 20 years under her belt in the marketing space. 

And thanks to her AboveBoard membership, she has a new, impressive role to add to her resume: Head of Marketing at Form Health. 

Ahead, we chat with Teresa about getting her start in marketing, shifting and adjusting throughout her career,  and the personal philosophy that keeps her driven. 

How did you launch your career in marketing?

I’ve worked in marketing for around 20 years after making a career pivot from engineering following business school. I launched my career in traditional brand management roles in big CPG companies  like Johnson & Johnson and Heinz.

"I wanted to make sure my work was making a difference."

After about 10 years, I had learned a lot and started looking for a next role where I could have a bigger impact. I wanted to be able to lead and build teams and make sure that my work was making a difference.

Can you walk me through your career trajectory after that shift?

When I started looking for opportunities in earlier stage companies, I landed at a company called 4moms that focused on high-tech baby products. I joined right after a significant investment round—which was an exciting time because we were investing in product development, brand building, and building the team.

I was there for about 5 years and we increased the business tenfold, added dozens of team members, and launched multiple new products in new categories. After 4moms, I did some consulting with Pittsburgh-based start-ups while taking my time looking for the next role that felt like a good fit—something that was mission-driven and a brand that I could be excited about. I landed at a company called GoNoodle that creates short-form movement focused video content for kids.

"What motivates me is working for a brand that I feel good about where I can have a big impact."

My objective there was to translate the latent awareness that we have with 5-10 year olds who used the videos at school into creating a home audience so those kids could also benefit from active screen time. It was super fun and a really great brand to be a part of. I was there for about a year and a half and then started to look for opportunities closer to home in Pittsburgh. At that time, I was commuting back and forth to Nashville and had personal reasons why I needed to spend more time at home. 

I started at North American Dental Group in the fall of 2019, a dental services organization that provided non-clinical administrative services to  250+ dental clinics across 15 states. The pandemic hit not long after I joined and dental was a tough industry to be in during that time. It wasn’t fun, but I learned a ton as we navigated the crisis including having to furlough the team and close our clinics. Eventually, I decided to move on from that position and was on the search for new opportunities—that led me to discover Form Health.

What is your personal philosophy behind the opportunities you choose to pursue and take on?

Early in my career, it was all about training and having access to great leaders that I could learn from which is why I chose to spend time at companies like Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, and Heinz. Since then, what motivates me is working for a brand that I feel good about where I can have a big impact. For me, that means a mission-driven brand that matters in people’s lives. I really like building teams and value being a part of an organization where marketing is something that the Founder/CEO believes in and supports.

How did the pandemic impact the way you view your job, both in your daily life and overall as a marketer?

Definitely the idea of remote work first comes to mind. For GoNoodle I was half remote and half in-person in Nashville, which felt like a good mix. But, I will say that my experience during the pandemic reinforced that awesome teams can work really well together remotely which also gives you access to the best talent no matter where they are.

I’m grateful that Form Health feels the same way because, with them being based in Boston, the opportunity wouldn’t have worked out otherwise. From a consumer trend standpoint, the mass adoption of telehealth and people’s increasing comfort and desire to connect more virtually with their healthcare providers has become a massive driver in the healthcare industry. With telemedicine, patients don’t have to drive to clinics that can be far from home, pay to park, and trudge through a hospital to see an overbooked medical provider for a short visit. You can now get access to that same individual from your couch for a dedicated 30 minute appointment. That’s pretty awesome. Seeing how that’s going to completely influence the future of healthcare is pretty compelling and I’m excited to be a part of that.

What led you to join AboveBoard?

After leaving my position at North American Dental Group, I started exploring other opportunities that were more like my earlier stage opportunities. I started doing outreach and connected with a previous contact from True Search who introduced me to AboveBoard. I checked it out, signed up, and started raising my hand to put my name out there for several opportunities.

"My experience during the pandemic reinforced that awesome teams can work really well together remotely."

Could you describe your experience using AboveBoard to search for new opportunities?

I’m pleasantly surprised by the number, breadth, and quality of opportunities that AboveBoard has. I am also really impressed with AboveBoard’s communication and responsiveness.

I expressed interest in a wide range of opportunities because I believe that marketing skills are transferable and I’m always interested in learning about new roles and industries. And I had recruiters from around 4-6 opportunities say that they were interested in connecting, which is a really amazing response rate.

So often, it feels like you put your name out in the mix and either never hear back from anyone or just get rejections. It was awesome that AboveBoard felt like a good return on my investment of time spent exploring opportunities and reaching out. You closed the loop and kept me informed, which is respectful as candidates are engaged in an active job search.

How did you discover your most recent role at Form Health?

I connected with a recruiter for another healthcare opportunity, but that company was pretty far along in the process with another candidate that they were excited about. We had a great conversation and the recruiter thought I could actually be a good fit for another opportunity, which turned out to be my current role as Head of Marketing at Form Health.

"So often, it feels like you put your name out in the mix and either never hear back from anyone or just get rejections. It was awesome that AboveBoard felt like a good return on my investment."

It all moved very quickly after that initial connection. I connected with the initial recruiter within my first couple of weeks on the platform in mid-May and started at Form Health in mid-July. It’s a great fit—an opportunity to leverage my marketing skills to have a big impact on the company’s success and on patients who are living with obesity. I’m excited about de-stigmatizing obesity and helping patients achieve sustainable weight loss through our telemedicine program.