CM sister pub PRNEWS recently spoke to two CMOs with PR backgrounds, Esther-Mireya Tejeda, Chief Marketing Officer of Anywhere Real Estate, and Kelly Calabria, the Chief Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. The conversation touched on the convergence of PR and marketing, how their earlier roles in communications benefitted their careers, and what PR pros and marketers with C-suite aspirations should be focusing on. Following are three key takeaways, and here’s the full Q&A.

• Know your customer. Focus on customer insights to build the stories that will resonate with your audience. Become a subject matter expert on the customer and learn who they are, what they do and why they do it.
• Be a business leader before you are a function leader. Use your subject matter expertise in communications to drive the overall business strategy and connect the work happening on your team to the broader business goals.
• Know your business—and think big picture. In order to bring relevant strategies to your partners or clients, engage in the bigger, broader conversations and understand the nuances related to the business to add value in those conversations.