Join us today with another interview in our blog series: Authenticated Answers! We sat down with Lauren Del Vecchio, Email Deliverability Manager at Yotpo.
At Valimail, we take our work seriously but try not to take ourselves too seriously. This value inspires us to get to the heart of what makes people unique and how it affects their careers to provide valuable advice, inspiration, and insights to people working with email daily.
In this lighthearted interview series, we connect with experts from the email, IT, security, ISP, and authentication spaces to learn more about them and their experiences.
About Lauren Del Vecchio
Lauren is the Email Deliverability Manager at Yotpo, a retention marketing platform. With experience managing deliverability at HubSpot and Klaviyo, Lauren loves diving deep into email infrastructure and untangling complicated sending issues.
When she’s not in the email deliverability trenches or fighting spam, you’ll find her hiking with her dogs and husband, rewatching early 2000s TV shows (currently watching Gilmore Girls), going to the beach, or running.
How do you stay motivated when learning something challenging or frustrating?
I’m big on breaking complicated things into smaller pieces and celebrating the wins along the way. It kind of feels like a fun puzzle this way.
Last year, I learned how to play tennis, which was fun and very challenging for me. The sport is really different from my usual strengths, so the learning curve was pretty steep. One of the toughest things for me was learning how to serve. I had to break down each part of the serve into small, manageable steps and really focus on each tiny motion.
Eventually, I got the hang of it. And even though it’s just one part of the game, I celebrated every time I nailed a good serve—lots of high-fives included.
What’s your favorite way to show gratitude?
I love a good, old-fashioned handwritten thank-you note. There is something special about the ritual of finding the perfect stationery, a good pen, and sitting down at a desk to express thanks.
If I can’t send a physical note, a thoughtfully written email works. I usually spend a few minutes every Friday to show gratitude or share positive feedback to a coworker or friend. It’s a habit I picked up from a wonderful teammate at HubSpot, and it’s stuck with me.
What’s the funniest mistake you’ve made, and how’d you handle it?
Early in my career, during an internship, I was given the task of faxing a document. I’m part of a generation where fax machines were mostly obsolete by the time I started working. I had heard about them and seen them in movies but never actually used one. It was early in the morning, and the office was almost empty, so I didn’t feel comfortable asking anyone for help. Wanting to impress my boss, I decided to figure it out on my own.
After about an hour of fighting with the fax machine, my boss called me over. Apparently, the recipient had called him to say they’d received a blank document…. several times. It turns out I loaded the paper wrong, and since I wasn’t sure if it worked, I just kept re-dialing the number and sending it again. I finally had to fess up that I was just guessing and truly had no idea what I was doing. I was mortified, but we both had a good laugh about it.
Lesson learned: you’ll never know everything – especially if it’s about ancient technology – just ask for help, even if it’s awkward!
What’s the smallest hill you are willing to die on?
Vanilla ice cream is the elite ice cream flavor. I don’t understand when people say it has no flavor.
How would you explain DMARC to your grandparents, friends, or relatives?
DMARC is like a security bouncer at a swanky nightclub. They are responsible for checking everyone’s identification to make sure they are who they say they are and they are supposed to be allowed inside. DMARC does this with email to decide if emails should be allowed in your inbox.
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