Storytelling, Self-Advocacy, and Success — A Leadership Talk with Ying Wang, General Manager, Xumo Advertising

Growing up in Jackson, Mississippi, in an area where it was rare to see Asians, Ying Wang was desperate not to play into Asian stereotypes. Wang, who immigrated to the United States at age four, described her racial identity as central to her early interest in journalism. 

“I think that actually impacted the choices I made in terms of the hobbies I did and the careers I chose,” she said, recalling that she had thought there were “no Asians in journalism.” She remembered thinking, “I want to be different.” 

Wang moved to Boston to attend Harvard University, where she majored in Economics and Psychology and pursued her journalistic interests, writing for the Harvard Crimson and Harvard Magazine.

“I spent most of my time, extracurricularly, at the Crimson,” she said, adding that “that gave me a really great … training ground into storytelling.” She believed that “being a journalist at the time was such a noble career.”

She interned at local ABC television stations in DC and Boston, and became drawn to the business side of media. After a brief stint in media-focused consulting, which Wang described as a “backup plan,” she decided to get an MBA and attended The Wharton School.

After graduating, she joined Freewheel, where she spent more than a decade and held senior leadership roles across strategy, operations, and advertising technology. She helped drive the company's growth during a transformative period for the media industry, working closely with publishers, distributors, and advertisers to advance data-driven and premium video advertising solutions. 

Establishing herself as a respected leader at the intersection of media, technology, and business innovation, Wang moved to Comcast Advertising as a VP of Strategic Initiatives. A short two years later, she became the General Manager of Xumo Advertising, the advertising business of Xumo, a streaming and connected TV platform owned by Comcast and Charter, where she leads the company's advertising strategy, partnerships, and revenue growth initiatives, helping brands and media partners navigate the rapidly evolving streaming landscape.

Xumo has a free streaming television service with its own app called Xumo Play, which has “over 400 free streaming channels,” according to Wang, and can be downloaded to any smart TV or mobile device. What differentiates Xumo from peer streaming services, according to Wang, is its multifaceted focus, as they stream both news and narrative television. Wang referred to using Xumo as the “lean-back experience” for consumers. “It’s the new cable,” she said. 

Wang first joined Comcast long before it acquired Xumo. Twelve years ago, she was in management consulting for Comcast, but she has branched out quite a bit since then. She said that she has “wanted, always, to end up in media and entertainment.” Since her first job at Comcast, she has worked in jobs “from business operations to strategy.” Her current role as general manager involves overseeing “sales, operations, and marketing” for the company. 

Working in the business side of the entertainment industry “was not necessarily how I thought my career would go,” Wang said. 

Wang recalled feeling as though she had no peers or mentors of similar backgrounds in the industry, especially at the beginning of her career. Being the only woman or only Asian person in a room only intensified this feeling and pushed her to seek out “other mentors who had similar journeys,” she recalled. Wang described her relationships with fellow women of color as empowering. 

It was determination and exploration that brought her to her current career path. “I didn’t even know what kinds of jobs were available to me, in those industries,” Wang said about her time searching for a future career while in business school. “I called every single media alumni I could find … it took a lot of coffee chats, a lot of going to visit companies” to find her niche.

“I think one early mistake I made was assuming that my work would speak for itself,” said Wang when asked to reflect on the initial stages of her career. Wang believes that self-advocacy and taking initiative are key skills to develop in the media and entertainment industry—tools anyone interested in furthering their career and personal development should master. 

She believes that most of her current opportunities have come from taking the initiative to address problems she has noticed within the organizations she has been a part of. “A lot of my jobs actually have come not from applying to jobs, but identifying problems that the business wasn’t solving, and pitching myself to take on that new task or role.

That was how her current job came about. When Comcast acquired Xumo Advertising, Wang was working as chief of staff to the president of Comcast Advertising. Her task was to analyze Xumo’s business model and come up with a solution to anything inefficient. 

Wang concluded that “We needed a dedicated advertising team. I pitched it to [the president], and then in sort of the same kind of breath, I was like, ‘I would love to run this business if there’s an opportunity.’” 

Wang described this determination to take on new tasks as fundamental to her career and her mindset. “I would always raise my hand,” she said, when confronted with the opportunity to take on new responsibility, and she believes that that is “how I’ve been able to manufacture growth in my company.” 

When she landed her new position at Xumo Advertising, Wang said, “It was a really important point in my career where I started to learn a lot of the jobs … that I might want, might not even exist.” Wang realized that she could take advantage of the circumstances around her and build the job she wanted within her company — actively pushing her career in the direction she most desired. 

“I wanted to carve my own path,” she said. She’s managed to do that quite successfully just by putting herself out there. 

Wang is bullish on the importance of self-advocacy and relationship building. “Go up to your manager… and compliment them on something they did,” she said. Since digital communication is ubiquitous nowadays, Wang emphasized that “the benefit of a one-to-one conversation with someone, or a handwritten note” is immense. 

She added that she always recognizes the extra little bits of effort her employees put into connecting with her. “Don’t forget about some of those really small gestures.”