Paige Arnof-Fenn is the founder & CEO of global marketing and digital branding firm Mavens & Moguls based in Cambridge, MA. Her clients include Microsoft, Virgin, The New York Times Company, Colgate, venture-backed startups as well as nonprofit organizations. She graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Business School. Paige serves on several private company and nonprofit Boards in the US, UK, and Italy, is a popular speaker and columnist who has written for Entrepreneur and Forbes.
Please tell us a little bit about your company – what is Mavens & Moguls all about?
We a global network of seasoned marketing experts who can do anything a marketing department, market research shop, public relations firm or ad agency does on an as-needed or outsourced basis. We have resources in major metro areas across the country and around the world. For some organizations, we are their marketing department and for others, we are an extension of their team to help scale or get through a crunch period.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
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 startups as the head of marketing. 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. Being an entrepreneur provides me a platform to do work I truly enjoy with and for people I respect. I get to set my priorities, I have time to travel and hang out with my inner circle, and work out every day. It has been a journey to get here but I am lucky to have found it.
I love the autonomy, flexibility, and the fact that I know every day the impact that I have on my business. When I worked at big companies I always felt the ball would roll with or without me, that if I got hit by a bus someone new would be in my office right away. Now my DNA is in everything we do and I can trace every decision and sale to something I did or a decision I made and that is incredibly gratifying and fulfilling. Like most entrepreneurs, I am working harder and longer than ever and I have never been happier. Working for yourself and building a business you started is incredibly rewarding and gratifying. It has been a lot of fun, I joke that I am the accidental entrepreneur. I knew I had made it as an entrepreneur 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 are your plans, how do you plan to grow this company?
Pivoting to online meetings, webinars, etc. is a smart and productive way companies can continue to have conversations that educate and inform, build relationships and move forward during this crisis period. So first and foremost I have learned to help small businesses to be flexible and open-minded so we can keep working together during the crisis and create more flexible capacity going forward over the next year as the economy reopens. If small groups on the team want to talk through specific issues (managing anxiety, kids, parents, etc.) virtual coffee meetings online have been helpful too. A few colleagues have even met online after work for virtual happy hour/beer/cocktails as well when they had more time to chat. It is starting to feel like the new normal by leveraging technology to build and maintain my relationships. We have learned that finding routines and things we can control helps I think.
Communication is key to all of our community, customer, and employee engagement. Another pivot because of the lockdown, this is a great time to build your brand through online marketing and social media. Social media and technology are 24/7 so it is easy to get sucked into it but you do not have to let it run your life! My advice is to pick a few things you enjoy doing and do them really well. You cannot be everywhere all the time so choose high impact activities that work for you and play to your strengths. I am a big fan of Content Marketing and Thought Leadership which are great ways to build your brand, increase your visibility more broadly, raise your profile and attract more clients/customers.
Activities like hosting a podcast or webinar, speaking at a conference when possible, writing articles, building your following on social media all contribute increasing your awareness with potential customers and building your credibility with a larger community. If you are not committed to blogging at regular intervals (weekly/biweekly/monthly) instead of trying to start your own blog or newsletter, try contributing regularly to existing well-trafficked blogs in your industry or newsletters of like-minded organizations reaching the same target audience as you. Make sure you put your URL or contact info on it so they can find you and follow up. When your articles or talks become available online, make sure to send them out via social media to all your friends, followers, and contacts.
Everyone is not going to like you or hire you but for the ones who would be a great fit for you make sure they feel and keep a connection and give them a reason to remember you so that when they need your help they think of you first. Don’t let social media drive you crazy, you do not need to be everywhere, the key is just to pick your platform, it does not matter which ones you choose just pick one or 2 that are authentic to you. It should look and sound like you and the brand you have built. Whether yours is polished or more informal, chatty or academic, humorous or snarky, it is a way for your personality to come through. Whether you are B2B or B2C, thought leaders need to be on LinkedIn so that they can be found easily. It adds credibility and transparency when you know the people you are meeting or working with know people in common.
LinkedIn has become more than an online resume or rolodex, it is the foundation for building trusted relationships in the digital economy. You do not need to blog or be on all social media platforms but make sure you are active on the ones where you are. If your audience does not use Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to find you then you do not need to make them a priority. For many professional service businesses like mine, leveraging LinkedIn matters the most.
We have earned that CRM tools are only as effective as the relationships you have built so disconnecting from technology periodically and focusing on cultivating human, face to face relationships when not social distancing is important. 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, their interests, hobbies, and dreams. I have found that building trusted relationships is what drives my business and technology supports them once they are solidified. Technology helps advance the conversation but it will never replace the human interaction that builds trust over time.
I predict the most trusted leaders and brands will have a big competitive advantage in the new normal that evolves in a post-Corona world. Employees, customers, and clients will remember who treated them well during the crisis and they will be rewarded with loyalty from earning that trust during the bad times. The current crisis has provided a stage for our political and business leaders to rise to the occasion. We have learned that it is about touching people in meaningful ways which may mean being less busy not more for a while. Maybe the silver lining is that this crisis reminds us that we have always needed each other and we have learned that everyone is struggling right now to find a new normal so the key is to show our humanity and compassion while we look out for one another. With Zoom, social media, cell phones, etc. we see that technology does not have to be isolating it can be used to build our real-world communities and relationships too!
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from them?
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. Out of loyalty to them, I let them hang around much longer than they should have. They became more insecure/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 so hire slowly and fire quickly.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
Our name really sets us apart I think. For my company when I started the firm I jokingly referred to the women as the Marketing Mavens & the guys as the Marketing Moguls & for short I called them Mavens & Moguls as a working name but never expected it would stick. I did research over e-mail with prospective clients, referrers, media, etc & tested ~100 names. Mavens & Moguls was one choice on the list & to my great delight & surprise it came out as a clear winner. It has helped us be memorable and stand out from the pack. Because I have a hyphenated last name half the battle is for clients to be able to find you when they need your help. I have had clients tell me they could not remember anything other than my first name & one word of my company so they googled Paige & Mavens and we popped right up. I was at an event one day and a venture capitalist started waving in my direction and shouted “hi Maven!” across the crowd, everyone looked my way and we ended up getting introduced to a portfolio company that hired us! Names contribute to your brand and in our case, I think it has been a major plus. Maven is Yiddish for expert and a Mogul is someone of rank, power or distinction in a specified area. I like the alliteration and I think it sets us apart from other consulting firms. It shows a little personality & attitude and implies we do not take ourselves too seriously. Would you rather hire “Strategic Marketing Solutions” or Mavens & Moguls? We are the “not your father’s Oldsmobile” of marketing firms. If nothing else our name is a great conversation starter and getting into a conversation is all it takes to open a door.
What are three books or courses you recommend for new entrepreneurs?
I read a lot for professional development and usually prefer books by practitioners because they are more relevant and have current examples from pop culture vs. theories based on research. I also like the classics that have advice that has withstood the test of time and in this case the best book I can recommend is How To Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie — it is evergreen with insights on manners and people/human nature. In my experience, you can learn a lot from books which offer practical advice whether you are someone just starting a career in business as well as anyone managing and leading a team. It was published almost 100 years ago and the advice has held up so you cannot go wrong with this one. Others I recommend that inspire me and keep my skills relevant are:
Everybody Writes: Your go to guide to creating ridiculously good content by Ann Handley
Handley argues that in an online world everyone is a writer so you need to learn how to create content that attracts and retains people’s attention. She provides practical tips, easy grammar and usage rules that are valuable whether you are working with a big brand or startup these are best practices that will make your writing better. Great advice we can all benefit from now more than ever.
Fanocracy — Turning fans into customers and customers into fans by David Meerman Scott.
David’s new book is a real-world practitioner’s guide from someone who has lived the job from the front line, he has been there and done it so he tells it like it is not theoretically but from the trenches. The name of the game to grow today is how to get your fans engaged online and here is the manual to do it.
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
I recommend NOT spending money on things like fancy brochures, letterhead, business cards, etc. Until you know your business is launched I would say to put your budget into things that help fill your pipeline with customers. Getting your URL and a website up and running is key. I created online stationery for proposals and invoices, ordered my cards online and made downloadable materials as leave-behinds for people looking for more information to help me find clients more quickly. I know other business owners who spent thousands of dollars on these things and found it was a waste of money. Your story will evolve as you find your market, you need to look professional and have a web site to be taken seriously but embossed paper with watermarks and heavy card stock is not going to accelerate your sales cycle. Find those reference customers quickly, use them to get testimonials and referrals. There is plenty of time later to dress things up!
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
It is important to create a strong brand, good reputation, and differentiate yourself from your competitors. My first client came from a talk I gave to a professional networking group. Someone from the audience came up to me after and made an introduction which resulted in my first project a few weeks later. I felt great that my talk was so well received and generated meetings and referrals as follow up, I knew I had a real business. I still give lots of talks (virtually now) and it is a great way to generate leads and business. I think having a good reputation is incredibly important to building a strong B2B business. Here are the lessons that experience taught me:
- Do great work that people will talk about
- Give lots of talks even virtually and use examples from your experience, I do a lot of public speaking online and offline when not social distancing, host podcasts, and webinars which leads to people talking about me online, tweeting, etc.
- Join networking groups to meet people who are the multipliers in your industry, they talk to everybody and know everyone, they have large followings so you need to connect with them online too.
- Be active on social media so you can share your talks and content and your followers can help spread the word.
- Generate lots of fresh content that will push down any potential bad comments online.
- Monitor your online data to shut down trolls and misinformation, there are several online tools to alert you of potential problems (some are free others are for a fee)
It continues to be a great source of leads and has served me well.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
You do not exist today if you cannot be found online. As a business, you must have a website and I’d argue businesses always need SEO because the whole point of having a website is to make it easy for customers to find you. Being invisible online is a terrible strategy so making sure your site is keyword rich, mobile-friendly, loads quickly, and produces meaningful content today is the price of entry. That also happens to be a great foundation for effective SEO. Your home page is the most important to hook in prospective clients and customers if it does not load quickly or they do not see something that grabs their attention the opportunity will be lost. It must include enough of your value proposition to start the conversation so they will click further to learn more about your product or service. The goal is to make the navigation intuitive and easy so they follow the breadcrumbs to get their questions answered or problems solved. When your brand foundation is strong the metrics show that you shorten the sales cycle and people spend more time on your site. I started my company when websites were basically a brochure online and search was a novelty. The sites have gotten fancier over the years and search engines have changed their algorithms to keep up with customer demand for better and more relevant search capability.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
A mentor once told me and I have come to appreciate and realize is that to stay sane and be successful “me time” is not a luxury or pampering, it is maintenance! The mentor shared that respecting my time on the calendar and taking myself as seriously as I take my most important clients is the least I can do for self-care because if I am not at my peak performance I am not going to be useful to anyone else either, my advice is to:
Give yourself permission to say no. Whether it means sleeping in (no to an alarm clock), meditating, taking a walk, or just turning off my phone and computer (no I will respond later on my own schedule), simple acts of letting myself relax and enjoy the moment are the very best gifts I can give myself. You can fill a calendar to stay busy but what matters most is having impact on people’s lives and that has nothing to do with volume of activity, it is about touching people in meaningful ways which may mean being less busy not more.
Disconnect from technology periodically and focus on cultivating human, face to face relationships (when not social distancing). Even meeting for virtual coffee or drinks 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, their interests, hobbies, and dreams. I have found that building relationships is what drives my business and technology supports them once they are solidified. Technology helps advance the conversation but it will never replace the human interaction that builds trust over time. I used to get out of the office 3-5 days a week which was a great way to stay connected, shake up my routine, and get going before the virus hit.
Taking breaks with exercise — I do something active every day to stay healthy and break up my day.
What is your favorite quote?
This quote really resonates with me:
- I am strong because I have been weak
- I am fearless because I have been scared
- I am wise because I have been foolish
It is an important reminder that stumbling is part of the journey to success. As an entrepreneur you just have to keep going and pick yourself up and be smarter every time you get up and try again. It was true for Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, Sara Blakely and it is true for me too!
Another one I really like is “you have to make mistakes to find out who you aren’t.” Again, making mistakes is just part of the process. Brilliant.
How can we get in touch with you?
You can visit my company website Mavens And Moguls.com, find me on social media via LinkedIn.
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