Mike Johnston, Director of Business Analytics at fintech company Spreddy, has driven business impact by leveraging data analytics tools like Looker and Census to trigger personalized marketing messages based on product usage. He shares his journey into working in data, from teaching math to joining a finance operations team, and how he eventually landed at Spreddy. Johnston's first project at Spreddy involved implementing a modern data tech stack and using Looker to build out business rules. He now uses Census to pull product usage data into Salesforce and Pardot, enabling personalized messages based on customer behavior. This has had a significant impact on the business, allowing for more informed prioritization and operationalization of data, ultimately fueling pipeline revenue growth and customer retention. Johnston advises others in the data space to prioritize understanding business impact and working closely with customers and operations teams to identify opportunities for data-driven improvements.