Mavens & Moguls is a global strategic marketing consulting firm that provides marketing advice and innovative ideas to venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and business executives. The company has resources in major metro areas across the country and around the world.
A Determined Entrepreneur
Paige Arnof-Fenn, the Founder and CEO of Mavens & Moguls, did not plan to start a company, instead, she always wanted to work for a large multi-national business and be a Fortune 500 CEO. As a student, Paige looked at leaders like Meg Whitman & Ursula Burns as her role models. She graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Business School and is a popular speaker and columnist, who has written for Forbes.
Paige started her career in finance on Wall Street in the 80s. Soon after joining, she realized that she wanted to switch her career track. Paige says that being a financial analyst in investment banking paid well, but the hours and lifestyle did not leave time for anything else. Therefore, after two years, she decided to pursue an MBA which allowed her to rebrand herself. She got an opportunity as an intern in marketing, gained new skills and built her network and confidence.
Paige shares that getting an MBA was critical for her to find work she enjoyed and making the transition smooth. She took marketing classes and gained experience on and off campus that helped her build a resume in the new field. It gave her credibility as a marketer. She positioned herself as being strong analytically that would help her be a better marketer using data to make decisions. Paige thinks that "it is possible to rebrand yourself if you are strategic about the process. It is essential to have a story to explain your transition and show confidence in your decision not to be defensive about it." Paige realized the skills and activities she liked best in her finance career were the ones that would make her a better marketer.
When Paige shared that perspective with the recruiters, they understood her interest and offered her a job. Since then, she has loved her work and been in marketing. Paige initially worked at large Fortune 500 firms like Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola in marketing. After running marketing at three successful start-ups, she now is an entrepreneur. Her clients include Microsoft, Virgin, The New York Times Company, Colgate, venture-backed start-ups as well as non-profit organizations.
Leaving a Satisfied Career to Following a Passion
Paige feels that her early jobs offered her great experience, but she started really enjoying the work after she became an entrepreneur and took the leap right after 9/11 when the company she worked for started cutting its marketing. Paige had nothing to lose. Being an entrepreneur provided her with a platform to do work she truly enjoys with and people she respects.
Paige loves the autonomy, flexibility and the fact that she knows every day the impact that she has on her business. When she had worked at big companies, Paige always felt the ball would roll with or without her, that if she got hit by a bus, someone new would be in her office right away. Now, her DNA is in everything Mavens & Moguls does, and she can trace every decision seeing the role she played. Like most entrepreneurs, Paige is working harder and longer than ever, and she has never been happier.
Paige feels that working for oneself and building a business one has started is incredibly rewarding and gratifying. It has been a lot of fun; she jokes that she is an accidental entrepreneur. Paige knew she had made it as an entrepreneur when Harvard wrote 2 case studies on her business a few years after she started it. Her company was very early to pioneer sharing resources on the marketing front. “ I am so much happier in a career that allows me to use both sides of my brain, explore a more creative path and use my business acumen in all sizes and types of businesses from the very largest public companies to venture-backed startups and now running my own firm,” she adds.
Restructuring Business for Growth
Paige cites that her biggest mistake was not realizing sooner that the people one starts with are not always the ones who grow with you. The hardest lesson Paige learned that she should have gotten rid of weak people from her company earlier than she did in the first few years of her business. Paige spent more time trying to train old employees than finding ones with more relevant skillsets. She knew that they were not up to snuff but out of loyalty to them, Paige let them hang around much longer than they should have. Paige believes that 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 the company grew and that was not productive for the team. As soon as Paige let them go, the culture got stronger and the bar higher. Paige believes in hiring people slowly and firing quickly. She wishes she learned it even earlier though.
Succeeding with Ethics and Humour
Paige expresses that most of her business before Covid-19 came from public speaking and networking, so those are two crucial skills that have helped her succeed.
Paige also recommends that being thick-skinned, having a strong work ethic and a good sense of humour can make a tough job bearable. One has to be a magnet for great talent to be able to build a strong team too. Being an entrepreneur is the most difficult job one will ever love.
Paige suggests that a successful leader should hold three most significant traits. First is the strong moral compass, one cannot compromise on ethics and values. Second is the leader has to be a good communicator, so s/he rallies the troops and keeps them on the critical path. Last is a leader has to be technically competent and working hard to earn respect from the team with a great sense of humour.
Leveraging Effective Strategies to Deliver Better
Paige believes that smart technology runs our lives today, and it is hard to stay on top of the latest tools and platforms to take advantage of current trends. So, one may feel lost, confused or frustrated by all the options and noise in the market today. There will be new tools and technologies coming along the way. Mobile continues to grow and voice search is starting to explode. More than half of the search queries are now done by a voice which is a big disruptor.
Paige expresses that businesses will need an SEO strategy to support mobile-first/mobile-only and voice search to serve customers and clients better. The SEO strategy will need to accommodate relevant content, faster speed to enhance the user experience, natural language search for vocal queries and enhanced local SEO listings which will be a game-changer for many businesses. And, it will also help organizations to stay on top of all these trends.
Adopting Technologies to Stay Ahead of Time
According to Paige, disruption is about breaking tradition, shaking things up, challenging the status quo and forcing people to look at something with fresh eyes. It can be scary, exciting, and unsettling, but one must innovate and grow to stay relevant today. Innovation is about progress and change, transforming something into a new and improved state. Paige believes that to be successful as a leader; one has to embrace technology comfortably. If terms like digital, platform, omnichannel, AI make one nervous, the individual should pick another career path. One must keep learning and get comfortable with these concepts because disruption is a reality.
Paige is inspired by Sara Blakely at Spanx who represents both innovation and disruption. She identified a problem women had that was not being addressed, and thus created a new category making her a billionaire. Sara embodies all the best qualities of leaders and entrepreneurship: persistence, problem-solving, determination, smarts, visionary, energy and hustle, continuing to grow the brand and stay relevant.
Prioritizing Creativity
Paige's plan for the business post-Covid is to find new ways to bring creativity into her work and life. She thinks "as we age it is important not to become a creature of habit and to keep your antenna up to be exposed to new and fresh ideas, products, ways of thinking, people and experiences." It is so easy to get busy and let inertia kick in so Paige wants to make a conscious effort for the coming year to be more creative in everything. She believes that no matter what line of work one is in, making creativity a priority in 2021 will serve an individual well and make life more fun and interesting. It is no surprise that creativity is the top skill recruiters look for today.
Building Trust through Face-to-Face Interaction
Paige advises emerging leaders to disconnect from technology periodically and focus on cultivating human; face to face relationships while social distancing to grow your business. Meeting for coffee or lunch even virtually can accomplish so much more than e-mail exchanges, social media posts, etc., and it is a great way to get to know people better, in terms of their interests, hobbies, and dreams.
Paige has discovered that building relationships are what drives her business. Technology, on the other hand, supports them once they are solidified. Although technology helps advance the conversation, it will never replace the human interaction that builds trust over time.