Meet a LiveIntenter | Charles Ensley
This blog post is from the Meet A LiveIntenter series, a spotlight on the professional and cultural experiences of LiveIntent employees.
Around LiveIntent, we know Charles for his dry humor, loyalty to Taco Bell, and problem-solving abilities. He began his LiveIntent journey right out of college, starting off as a Business Operations Analyst progressing to Business Operations Manager.
During his time at LiveIntent, Charles has created processes and procedures to help our teams function more effectively and efficiently. He’s played a tremendous role in developing our Employee Resource Groups, known internally as our Belonging, Inclusion, and Diversity (BID) with Intent Groups. Charles has been instrumental in driving our DEI initiatives. He’s helped organize donations in the form of ad space to promote causes aligned with LiveIntent values, aiding several non-profits, including the NAACP and Black Girls Code.
Learn more about Charles and his professional journey at LiveIntent below.
What led you to LiveIntent?
I joined LiveIntent as my first job out of Hamilton College. As was the case for many of my classmates, I spent the month before my graduation scouring the internet for jobs aligned with my Economics major. However, I didn’t find anything that I could see myself doing long term. Fortunately, a friend of mine was already interviewing for a position at LiveIntent and recommended I check out the opening for the Business Operations Analyst role. Both the role and company stood out to me and were unlike all other opportunities I’d seen. After meeting several members of the team, I felt a strong connection and thankfully received the offer.
What’s the greatest bit of advice you’ve received?
Greatest advice:
In team situations, the best way to keep making progress is to make sure everyone leaves a discussion with a clear understanding and ownership of next steps. This approach eliminates ambiguity and ensures accountability.
Other great advice:
When boiling pasta, your water should be about as salty as the sea.
What are some initiatives you’ve helped drive through Belonging, Inclusion, and Diversity at LiveIntent?
From the outset, I served as Chair on the Professional Development & Owning Your Identity subcommittee. The subcommittee highlighted Mental Health Awareness Month and helped employees learn more about balancing productivity while caring for their mental health. These were important initiatives to the organization as we transitioned to remote work during the pandemic. We also led critical discussions on gender bias and racism in hiring and promotions.
At the beginning of 2020, I had the privilege of stepping into a leadership role for the overall BID organization. In this time, I helped plan programming for our monthly meetings, launched internal events for Black History and Pride months, and restructured BID to serve as an inclusive forum and foundation for our Employee Resource Groups.
What’s one word you would use to describe your team?
Dependable. Everyone is incredibly organized, and our full team meets almost daily to review priorities. I’ve learned the best work strategies from my teammates.
What are three things most people don’t know about you?
When I was young, I won a Roll-A-Ball Horse Racing tournament at Dave & Busters. The prize was a little golden statue of a horse, which I still have on my shelf back home in San Diego.
I can juggle a few different ways: traditional 3-ball, kicking a soccer ball, and bouncing a golf ball on a club.
I worked as a cook in a Mexican restaurant for a couple of summers. Mashing 20 lbs. of guacamole by hand is a serious workout.
What’s been your work from home routine?
I’ll preface this by saying that before we began working from home, I used to wake up at about 8:45, roll out of bed and walk over to the office. Then I’d spend the first 10 minutes booting up my computer and my brain.
I have no idea what happened, but now I wake up around 7:15. I have a cup of cold brew and read the news (subscribe to Morning Brew using my referral link—I’m only a few away from a free coffee mug). Then I head out for a run along the water on the West Side Highway. The first meeting of my day is typically our team standup, and then I get to work on whichever projects are on my plate. I have a daily calendar block for myself to take a lunch break, which I’ve found very helpful in maintaining work-life balance. Afternoons are generally more meeting-heavy than the mornings. Then I wrap up the day by reviewing activity in Salesforce. After work, I watch sports if they’re on, or find something on Netflix.
What’s your favorite part of working at LiveIntent?
The people, of course, starting with my team. I can’t imagine being put in a better position to succeed, getting to work with and learn from each of them every day. But as a whole, people at LiveIntent work to uplift each other.
Interested in working at LiveIntent? We’re hiring! Check out our open roles here.
