Can we make listening a way of life? An interview with Ellen Wilcox

I had to pause, rewind and hit play again when I heard Ellen Wilcox describe her job as the “head of listening” at the consumer venture capital firm Listen during the latest episode of the Speaking of Phenomenal podcast. I’m not very well-versed in business jargon, and wanted to make sure I wasn’t confounding her role with the company’s name. 

Yes, Ellen listens for a living. But what might seem like a simple human trait, for her, is an activity that demands preparation and intentionality. Professionally, that meant, for instance, prompting midlife women to talk, without interruption, about their joys and challenges. At a personal level, her listening skills enabled her to engage in deeper conversations with her mother.

Ellen listens to consumers to understand their needs and stories. Then, she talks to the clients in which Listen invests, most of them business-to-business companies, and tries to turn the human component from her findings into “investment conviction.” 

For the report on modern midlife womanhood, Ellen wanted to find insights that went beyond the usual practice of “breaking a woman down” into parts, like contraception, perimenopause, mental health and sexual health. 

“It was kind of just like piecing her body apart and then putting market value sizes to each of those component parts,” Ellen, who has a background in human-centered design thinking, told host Amy Boyle. “And I couldn’t help but wonder…what might a consumer obsessed view into women’s health really look like?”

The “obsession” led to a nearly radical listening method in which participants were minimally prompted so they could speak freely. 

One finding showed that women tend to resort to self-care before seeking professional help, which can create gaps between need and demand, even when women are pretty much aware of those needs. Examples include health issues like endometriosis and incontinence, which are often normalized and minimized.

Ellen, who is in her early 30s, wrote the report not for midlife women, but for people who could learn more about them, including men and younger audiences. “We must be able to listen because that’s really where investing in untapped and amazing opportunities is going to lie,” she said. “Being able to very quickly get smart and very quickly build conviction in people and topics and subjects that we don’t maybe personally have experiences in.”

One final idea that combines listening, storytelling and the non-linearity (so commonly discussed in the Speaking of Phenomenal Podcast): The better we listen to the stories of others, the better we tell our own.  

“I think that the beauty of the modern career is that we’re all having portfolio careers,” Ellen told Amy. “How do you tell that momentum story?”

She gives us three concrete tips:

1- appreciate the diversity of perspectives you’ve gained

2- believe it’s true

3- tell that passionate story

Can we try these three steps, one at a time?

You can join Listen’s consumer club here.

Carolina Baldin is a freelance journalist from Brazil. Having worked in law, policy and regulation, she is passionate about everyday stories that illustrate larger issues. She graduated from a master's program at Northwestern University in 2023 and became a guest blogger on the "Speaking of Phenomenal" podcast blog in March 2024.