Suggestions
Marisa Santoro
↗️ Helping professionals advance their careers and increase their impact. - Career Coach - Corporate Leadership Trainer - Keynote Speaker - Author (McGraw Hill)
Professional Background
Marisa Santoro is an accomplished entrepreneur and former IT executive with extensive experience in the financial services sector, specifically on Wall Street. She is the CEO and Founder of the innovative career platform, In Our Shoes, which is dedicated to empowering professionals to navigate their careers with confidence and purpose. With a robust background in technology and leadership, Marisa is not only a guiding force in helping individuals find fulfilling work, but she herself is a role model for aspiring leaders.
Marisa has a rich history of leadership within various organizations, where she honed her skills in coaching mid-career professionals, executives, and consultants. Her commitment is evident in her role as a corporate leadership trainer and career coach at In Our Shoes. She provides valuable insights and resources that help individuals grow into new leadership roles, gain recognition and respect for their contributions, and communicate their value effectively both in professional and informal settings.
Education and Achievements
Marisa's educational credentials provide a strong foundation for her multifaceted career. She holds a Master of Science in Information Systems from New York University's esteemed Courant & Stern School of Study, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science from Pace University's Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. This combination of technical expertise and understanding of business acumen has greatly influenced her approach to career coaching and leadership training.
In addition to her educational background, Marisa has authored the book "Own Your Authority," published by McGraw Hill, which addresses the importance of self-trust and clarity in effective communication. She recognizes that many professionals struggle with the inner critic that often hinders their ability to assert themselves confidently. Through her writing and workshops, Marisa shares strategies to overcome these challenges, helping individuals to own their authority and take charge of their careers.
Notable Achievements
Marisa’s achievements extend beyond her professional roles and into recognition by her peers and industry leaders. She was honored in 2015 with the Women of Influence award from NY Business Journals and BizWomen.com, celebrating her impact in the business community and her ability to inspire and empower others. As a TEDx speaker, her talk titled "Speaking Without Apology" resonates with audiences looking to improve their communication skills and assert their voices in professional spaces.
As a national career columnist for the American City Business Journals, Marisa shares her expertise on various career-related topics, providing insight and guidance to professionals across the nation. Her columns often emphasize strategies that help individuals articulate their value, enhance their credibility, and navigate the complexities of the modern workplace.
Leadership and Coaching Focus
Marisa’s coaching philosophy revolves around helping professionals break through self-imposed barriers and discover their core values and motivations, necessary for effective leadership. Her resources, such as the “Confidence Formula: 101 Ways to Communicate at Work with Clarity and Ease,” empower individuals to express themselves with ease and authority. Additionally, her 5 Top Strategies to Own Your Authority provide actionable steps for readers to take charge of their profession and lead without hesitation.
At In Our Shoes, Marisa emphasizes the significance of diversity and inclusion in leadership and career development. As a M/WBE Diverse Supplier, she is committed to promoting equal opportunities in the workplace and ensuring that diverse voices are heard and respected in all business aspects. This dedication not only enhances company culture but also enriches community engagement and outreach efforts.
Professional Partnerships
Marisa's affiliations with various organizations enhance her coaching practice and widen her impact. As a partner with Wiley Everything DiSC, she provides assessments that help individuals understand their communication styles and how to work effectively with different personality types. Additionally, her role as a Success Principles Trainer with the Jack Canfield Companies allows her to introduce advanced personal development methodologies to her clients, further strengthening their leadership capabilities.
Personal Life
Beyond her professional accomplishments, Marisa is a devoted mother of two junior leaders. She firmly believes in nurturing the next generation to become confident, resilient individuals who can lead with purpose. Marisa’s ability to balance a bustling career with family demonstrates her commitment not only to professional success but also to fostering leadership qualities in her children.
In summary, Marisa Santoro is a dynamic leader and an influential voice in the realm of career development and professional growth. Her innovative approach to coaching, combined with her extensive expertise in finance and technology, positions her as a thought leader in empowering individuals to take charge of their career trajectories. Through her authorial, speaking, and coaching efforts, she continues to leave a significant impact on the professional landscape, inspiring countless individuals to own their authority and pursue work that aligns with their values and aspirations.
People also viewed
Related People
Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.