On Advertising Champions, our host, Tony Stanol, interviews bright and engaging members of the digital advertising and media community. On this segment, Tony speaks with Paige Arnof-Fenn of Mavens & Moguls.
Mavens & Moguls is a virtual marketing department for organizations that want access to great talent on an as needed outsourced basis. We work with early stage VC-backed startups, Fortune 500 companies, nonprofit organizations and mid-emerging market firms looking for help with their communications, research, PR, branding or strategy as a seamless extension of their team. We are storytellers and content creators which is a great way to build your brand, increase your visibility more broadly, raise your profile and ultimately attract more attention/clients/customers. I have always loved telling and listening to stories since childhood. People do not remember facts and figures but if you tell them a story that touches them emotionally you get their attention and they want to hear more. People need to be educated, informed and/or entertained so I love to figure out how best to tell a story in a way that makes people pay attention and breaks through the noise. When you share what you know – your passion, your war stories, the good, bad and ugly – the content will flow and pour out of you. The stories will be interesting and the lessons will be real, people will remember you and come back for more. I think we are more relevant today than when we started 2+ decades ago, great stories never go out of style.
How do you define success?
My definition of success has changed a lot, instead of looking at finish lines – numbers, job titles, houses or cars, or a level of public profile – I factor in things like whether I get to do work that at least sometimes lets me feel like I made a genuine difference in the lives of other people. Success to me is about working with people I respect and admire for people I want to help succeed. To me, growth for growth’s sake is meaningless, but profitable growth with interesting clients solving important problems is what keeps me engaged and excited. It’s about the ability to spend time with people I love and care about. Creating an environment where your team and clients feel valued and appreciated makes me feel proud that I have built a successful business. Success is very personal so your definition will be–and should be–different than mine.
How did you get started in your field or work?
I did not plan on starting a company. I always wanted to go work for a large multi-national business and be a Fortune 500 CEO. When I was a student I looked at leaders like Meg Whitman & Ursula Burns as my role models. I started my career on Wall Street in the 80s and had a successful career in Corporate America at companies like Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola and worked at 3 different tech startups as the head of marketing, all had positive exits. I became an entrepreneur and took the leap right after 9/11 when the company I worked for cut their marketing. I had nothing to lose. I knew I had made it when Harvard wrote 2 case studies on my business a few years after I started it, we were very early to pioneer sharing resources on the marketing front (before my company it was really only done with HR, legal and accounting/finance).
What’s one thing we should know that makes your company unique?
Everyone in the group comes out of industry so our heads and hearts are much more aligned with our clients than a typical agency or consulting firm. We are not professional PowerPoint makers, we have actually done the job as marketing and communication leaders so our recommendations come from having been in our clients’ seats before. We are an extension of their team and spend their money the way they do, not as a vendor so I think that is a compelling angle when they hire us. We do not see marketing as a necessary evil, we believe in the power of great brands and think all organizations regardless of size or budget deserve great marketing advice. Our passion comes through in our tag line and everything we do. We believe marketing matters.
What was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome in your business?
My biggest challenge was that the people you start with are not always the ones who grow with you. The hardest lesson I learned when I started my company is not getting rid of weak people earlier than I did in the first few years of my business. I spent more time managing them than finding new customers. I knew in my gut they were not up to snuff but out of loyalty to them I let them hang around much longer than they should have. It would have been better for everyone to let them go as soon as the signs were there. They became more insecure and threatened as we grew which was not productive for the team. As soon as I let them go the culture got stronger and the bar higher. “A” team people like to be surrounded by other stars. It is true that you should hire slowly and fire quickly. I did not make that mistake again later on so learned it well the first time. I wish I had known it even earlier though but lesson learned for sure!
