The online marketing world is a confused concoction of conflicting opinions. There’s no one, even the most influential marketing maestro, that can utter the words “I did this all on my own.” The most successful digital marketing influencers of this world are a sizzling hot cup of knowledge as they have developed their expertise and learned everything there is to know about the industry… from other people. The first step as an aspiring marketer is to seek knowledge from inspirational women in marketing who can offer you career-changing advice.  

We caught up with the strong female workforce at SEO company, Bigfoot Digital, for some advice on how to navigate the digital marketing industry and secure a position working for a business that values your expertise. Here’s the advice they offered to help kick-start your career in one of the most sought-after online industries:

1) Confidence is key 

This one may seem simple enough — but it’s super effective. Don’t let the fear of failure get in the way of pursuing a career that you can see yourself in for years to come. Have the courage to stand up for what you believe in a room filled with strong male leaders. The one-size-fits-all approach to digital marketing no longer works. There are so many ideas, strategies and proven tactics for success. So, when it comes to asserting your authority, this is your time to shine. Come prepared. 

2) Follow online influencers  

We don’t just mean the ones you come across during a frantic Google search for “top digital marketing blogs” minutes before your interview. It’s important to develop connections with people internally and externally that you can trust to deliver the best industry advice. Do your research, ask questions, and be prepared. Use your online skills to connect with business owners on LinkedIn and other professional networks. Read any posts, blogs, or shared content on their profiles to develop your understanding further. Be open to new ideas that will allow you to stand out from others in a challenging interview situation. 

3) Immerse yourself in all areas of digital marketing  

Research everything related to that business. What services do they offer? Do you have skills in one, or many, of these areas? SEO, social media, website design, paid advertising, and content writing are just some of the areas of digital marketing. Understanding the bigger picture will help you make smarter business decisions and having a broader skill set will always make you a more valuable candidate.  

4) Learn the buzzwords  

Digital marketers need to show a certain level of confidence using the critical digital marketing acronyms like PPC, SEO, CTR and SEM. So, what do they mean (no Googling)? They all have very different meanings and understanding them is a clear sign that you have the necessary level of knowledge and need no further training. The ability to speak with confidence about these areas of marketing without hesitation will show that you are up to speed with others in the industry.  

5) Personal projects  

While it’s important to indulge yourself in the latest marketing updates, don’t forget to test them out. Everything isn’t always black and white in the world of digital marketing (unless you are talking about hats) with many grey areas in between that are bad for business. Knowing the difference is essential when it comes to being a successful woman in marketing. It’s no good recommending an underhanded tactic you read about online that was good practice years ago. Keep your knowledge up-to-date, and don’t let those negative tactics trip you up in an interview.  

6) Digital development  

If you want to stand out in a room full of potential digital marketing masters, completing an industry course will do the trick. The difficulty is that anyone can get a qualification dated three years ago thinking they understand everything there is to know about marketing. The problem here is that nothing ever stays the same for long. As the industry matures, recruiters are becoming savvier about what separates people who can deliver on their promises from those who will end up costing them more money in the long run.  

At Bigfoot Digital, women make up over 90% of all full-time employees with opportunities for career progression frequently offered. It’s a supportive working environment that encourages women to take a leading role in the business and grow as professionals with industry-leading training provided at all times. They specialize in affordable SEO services, including social media marketing, website design and content management – employees are given a chance to expand their knowledge in these key areas of digital marketing. This is precisely the attitude you are looking for when connecting with professionals. Don’t settle for anything less than a business that will give you the best digital marketing experience. Show you are passionate, and willing to learn. The rest will fall into place naturally. 

The post How To Master Digital Marketing appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

But the road to business didn’t start immediately and it didn’t come easy. Petralia, who is the Co-Founder of Kabbage spent 15 years working with big and small companies on credit and e-commerce before starting her own company in the mid 90’s. Her adventure into entrepreneurship even included camping her way down the west coast and a little poo.

Petralia opens up about her entrepreneurial journey, the lessons she’s learned along the way – and how her company can help you get quick access to cash for your business.

You’ll also learn the three things you need to create a cushion of capital and three marketing strategies to apply to your business today.

HER Magazine: Your parents gave you a TRS-80 computer game at age 9 …what intrigued you about it? and how has it shaped who’ve you become today?

Kathryn Petralia: Two of my four parents were professors and were always working with computers, so it just seemed like something I should know how to do myself.  There were only two programs on the machine – a typing program and a mystery game.  So I learned how to type, which has been incredibly useful over the years, and how to find hidden treasures in ancient pyramids.  I still need to get to Egypt to see if I’ve retained that skill.

HER: Money is a tough topic, especially for women. A new study recently released reveals more women lose sleep over money than men. Does that surprise you?

KP: This doesn’t surprise me – women are responsible for more household spending than men overall, so it makes sense that they worry about money more than men.

HER: One of the biggest challenges for an entrepreneur is funding. How does Kabbage bridge that gap?

KP: One of the hardest parts about getting funding as an SMB is going through the loan application process.  It can be very time consuming, not to mention complex and confusing.  We make it easy by doing the hard work for our customers; in fewer than 10 minutes, most of our customers complete the application and have access to capital.  Our lines of credit allow customers to borrow what they need when they need it, and they never pay for funds they don’t need to borrow.

HER: You talk about leveraging technology to reexamine lending …what makes Kabbage unique when it comes to the lending process?

KP: Allowing our customers to give us direct access to the data they use to run their businesses makes the process much more streamlined.  We can quickly assess business performance and revenue and allow our customers to get back to running their businesses.  The persistent access we have to this data also enables us to provide a unique product – a line of credit that is flexible to meet the needs of growing businesses.

HER: Who is your service for? Who is your ‘average’ client?

KP: The idea for Kabbage was originally intended to provide capital to online businesses, particularly those selling on eBay, which meant retail businesses.  We have continuously expanded our customer base over the years and now serve all types of businesses, both online and offline.  Today somewhere between 15 and 20% of our customers are e-commerce businesses, and the rest represents all walks of businesses, including professional services, medical practices, spas/salons, retail, restaurants, construction and about any other type of business you can imagine.  Our average business customer generates hundreds of thousands a year in revenue, but our lines of credit range from $5,000 to $100,000, so we can serve a wide variety of customers.

HER: What’s the average business loan at Kabbage?

KP: Our average customer qualifies for a line of credit of around $25,000 and borrows around $7,000 five times a year.  Again, this is just an average; every customer is unique.

HER: The connotation around loans can be negative sometimes – how does Kabbage navigate that narrative?

KP: It hasn’t been our experience that small business borrowing has a negative connotation; most customers know that access to capital is important for a growing business.  Our customers view capital as a revenue-generating asset, and they use it responsibly for that purpose.  Our goal is to democratize access to capital and create transparency in an industry that can be very complicated.

HER: HER Magazine loves to focus on the entrepreneurial journey – you talk about camping your way down the west coast to launch a commerce startup in the mid-90s …we want to hear more about this! What gave you the drive to do this?

KP: I wish I could say I gave the process a lot of forethought, but the fact was I had meetings on the west coast, camping equipment and a limited budget, so it just made sense.  The best part was the drive down the coast from Seattle to San Francisco…though I think I destroyed the brakes on my rental car.  It also resulted in a few deals for my startup, so it was definitely a successful journey.

Read the full interview with Kathryn Petralia, inside of HER Magazine where she dishes helpful tips on marketing. Access February’s issue by downloading our magazine in iTunes or Google Play.

The post Let’s Talk Money & Marketing: Inside the Mind of COO Kathryn Petralia appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

John LeFevre, author of Straight to Hell: True Tales of Deviance, Debauchery and Billion-Dollar Deals, is a bad banker and he has just offered baby banker Justin a full-time job on his trading desk. But Justin has to toughen up first. He has to make a PowerPoint slide. “Do you think you can handle that?” LeFevre’s colleague Andy asks. Justin tentatively nods his head.

” I want you to take a survey of the guys on the trading floor–only the guys. Then I want you to chart it up, make a one-page PowerPoint summarizing the results, then present it to us. Here’s the survey question you are going to answer for me: There are five women in the credit sales team. Rank them in order of most f*ckable.” ~ excerpt from Straight to Hell, John LeFevre

The five women have nicknames based on their physical features such BF for Butter Face and Wally (a playful derivative of walrus) who is “about ten weeks of dedicated anorexia away from being hot”. Justin goes about his job and is mostly well received except for the pussies who find his survey question inappropriate.

To the author’s surprise, Roo (derivative of Kangaroo due to her FUPA) finishes first, and Wally second. An in-depth analysis of the results reveals that in fact Roo would be a ‘hate-f*ck’ and therefore not a valid measure of her true f*ckability. Making an adjustment for his hateful dynamic, Roo and Wally are placed in a statistical tie, the presentation is shredded and the group goes out for some celebratory debauchery.

Justin is pleased with himself. He passed the test. The torch has been passed to a new member of the banking team.

That was way back in the dark ages of 2015. This is 2016 and For the Love of Money by Sam Polk is the latest addition to the bad banker memoir genre. Whereas John LeFevre was addicted to booze, drugs and women, Sam Polk was addicted to food, booze, drugs, women and then he became addicted to money. Unlike LeFevre who remains an unrepentant bad banker from beginning to end when he retreats to wife, kids and golf course because he realizes his job is killing him, Polk displays self-awareness, vulnerability and a desire to be a good person that makes him a likeable bad banker. He quit his multi-million dollar Wall Street job to run two nonprofits that fight poverty-driven obesity. Other than taking a vow of poverty and chastity, a bad banker can’t get much more repentant than that.

Although the narrative arcs of two tales are wildly different, the two books corroborate each other in their depiction of a frat boy culture on Wall Street where greed rules and misogyny is its wingman. It’s no surprise that no woman has ever been the chief executive of a major investment bank. Polk wrote about the entrenched sexism of Wall Street in the recent New York Times essay “How Wall Street Bro Talk Keeps Women Down“. He regrets not speaking up for women, but his career advancement depended on being liked, and calling out colleagues for sexism gets you treated like a woman. Sexism is the glue that bonds the men together and, more importantly, excludes half the population as serious competition for the best jobs.

Both Straight from Hell and For the Love of Money give us an insider’s view of a world rarely seen unless it erupts into a lawsuit. Both books can trace their lineage to the first bad banker memoir, Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker. Lewis thought that he had written a cautionary tale, but the Wall Street life he presented was too glamorous, the game too much fun and the characters too delightfully eccentric.

What woman wouldn’t love to work with a character like The Piranha?

Liar’s Poker became a how-to book for scores of budding bankers including both John LeFevre and Sam Polk. It’s possible that LeFevre’s book that celebrates the joy of unbridled bro will become the playbook for the next generation of Wall Street players. It’s even possible that, in spite of its undercurrent of suffering and twelve-steps of recovery vibe, that Polk’s book could be read as a how-to-make-love-to-money book.

Interpretations may vary, but the lesson the bad banker memoirs have for women is clear: we can lean in all we want, but women will not get anywhere in business as long as the culture wants us to bend over.

About the Author: Who cares about the author when there are bad banker books to read. Straight to Hell and For the Love of Money should be required reading in all business schools and women’s studies departments, and would make for a lively co-ed book club paired with tequila shots and pink ladies.

” I’d like to bend her over the table, give her some meat.” The managing director roared. “What’s wrong Sam?” said the client, noticing I wasn’t laughing. I forced a smile and said “Nothing.” The managing director ordered another round. In the cab home I was furious. I should have spoken up, but I hadn’t. ~ excerpt from For the Love of Money, Sam Polk

Come on guys. Say something.

This article was written by Lynne Everatt

The post The Tale Of Two Bankers Is A Tale For All Women appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

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Stay with me here! On one side of the coin, you have the potential candidate.

“I pray I get this job,” says the potential candidate after the interview process is over.

On the other side of the coin, you have the potential employer.

“I pray this is the right person,” says the hopeful business owner.

However, when the chips are down, the focus is less on faith, and more about the strategic decisions that employers make when they are in the process of hiring employees.

It is common in business – particularly with smaller companies – for employers to hire fast to fill a position and fire slow in fear of a lawsuit or just to be “nice”.

But this is where the trouble really begins in an organization.

Raise the Bar HR Founder Kate Brown says she works with a number of employers who rush to fill vacant positions and often end up regretting taking on the wrong person.

“In a recent case, the departure of a key person on a project to a competitor left the team high and dry, and members of the team were left to carry the additional workload, working long hours and keeping up appearances to the client, who had every expectation of the work being fully resourced,” Brown says in an interview with HER Magazine.

In a panic – as you can imagine, this company began the search for a replacement immediately, and while many candidates came in and out of their doors for interviews, and a few were even offered the position, the competitive market for this position meant that it remained unfilled for a few months.

But waiting months to hire a replacement can sometimes not only slow things down, but put pressure on other employees.

“The project leader began to start compromising on the requirements, and eventually hired a ‘warm body’ to fill the seat,” says Brown.

This is when trouble began. The new recruit did not have the full skill set to fill the role, so the team was restructured to fill the gaps – and how frustrating do you think that is for the team? Despite hours of training, this new employee continue to need careful watching, making error after error.

Imagine dominios stacked up. When one falls, what happens next?

To read the full article in our monthly magazine, download the app in iTunes or GooglePlay

The post Hire slow, Fire fast appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

And then came an illness at the age of 26, when she was in the midst and at the height of her professional career. How did this Mexican American become the public relations powerhouse and aspiring talk show host she is today?

The University of Southern California honor grad whose career spans some serious name dropping like the Steve Harvey Morning Show, BET, MTV and WB opens up in an interview with HER Magazine about what drives her the most.

Guzman, who was mentored by Steve Harvey while she worked on projects with the media mogul for nine years is now the CEO of Elvie G PR – one of the fastest growing PR & Branding companies serving Hollywood. The published author of Your Blueprint says the key to building a strong foundation in your business is recognizing your biggest weaknesses.

After spending years behind the scenes working as a producer of ten television and radio shows, and representing dozens of celebrities through her PR firm – Elvira is creating her own talk show she believes will not only resonate with her clients, but the young aspiring entrepreneurial women who need to hear her message.

Q: With a diverse and unique background in media, what prompted you to begin a career as a talk show host?

Elvira: I feel like I’ve done every job behind the scenes and now it’s time I get in front of the camera to get my message to a broader audience. When I first started in the industry, I was 18 and very shy. It’s taken me years to build my confidence and now being in front of the camera is fun versus terrifying!

Q: What topics are you hoping to cover?

Elvira: Millennials need someone besides the Kardashians to look up to. I want to show young girls that you can go to school, help others and still have success/fame. On my show, we will discuss how to achieve our dreams, obstacles, making mistakes and forgiving ourselves, forgiving others/letting go, and tons of other topics that will be intended to awaken the audience to their best life yet. The outcome I am looking for is to heal the audience from their past pain, so they can remember who God intended them to be and rediscover their purpose in life.

Q. You’ve gained a global following by hosting and speaking at women’s empowerment seminars worldwide. 

Elvira: It’s extremely important that we all go back and teach/give/mentor others. I realize I am very fortunate to have had three millionaire mentors when I was 18 that taught me more than USC ever could. With them, I traveled the world and began doing philanthropy trips at 18. Through those experiences, I have gained knowledge that I must give to others because they have changed my life! I want others to experience the financial freedom and happiness I have attained from my mentors without having to go through all of the obstacles I’ve gone through. The main goal of my seminars is to remind people that from our pain comes our purpose, and if we can simply see beyond the pain, we will find our treasure!

Q. What is the biggest obstacle you faced in your career and how did you overcome it?

Elvira: I would have to say when I got sick when I was 26. I now realize the only valuable detail from that time is that God intended to redirect me to focus on my purpose versus my bank account. At that time, I didn’t understand how I could get sick when I played sports my entire life and I ate pretty healthy. But I found myself on a hospital bed not able to move and feeling depleted emotionally, spiritually and physically. It took me years to recover, and I did it slowly. I took myself to the spa, started working out more, complimented myself in the mirror even when I felt bad, took on clients who were kind, only saw friends who would speak positively, because at that moment, I could not deal with bad news. I had enough to deal with and I just wanted to talk about good things! Now years later, I am back and my body is better than it was when I played sports in college. It took time for me to get myself together again, but now I feel the pieces are assembled a little better because I feel a lot happier! Since then, I mentor, speak at juvenile halls and at-risk schools, help others in need and more importantly, I have a lot more compassion for others.

Q. If you were to give one piece of advice to women who are just starting their own business, what would that be?

Elvira: Only four percent of businesses make it past 10 years. My advice is to work smart and team up with great people who are strong where you are weak, and become one of the businesses that makes it! It’s possible, you just need to be determined, never give up, and always spend your time thinking about the solutions, not the problems!

The post Elvira Guzman’s Road to Becoming a Talk Show Host appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

You can learn more about Baya here: www.bayavoce.com

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“After founding the Academy of the Pacific and then creating Project Achieve, an educational information management system startup that led to working with World Economic Forum developing education and technology programs in Africa and the Middle East, I moved west to the Bay Area and started a family. I gave birth and became more excited about walking up the stairs to the nursery than hopping on a plane to Libya. I found myself attending yet another book fair fundraiser and thought, there must be a better way,” says Stacy Boyd in an interview with HER Magazine.

Her passionate creation Schoola was born in 2012.  The purpose driven business supports schools by putting paintbrushes, baseballs and violins back into the hands of children. A handful of schools started by running clothing drives. Then parents began to donate their gently used clothing; the idea of helping children took off – spreading warmth into the hearts of tens of thousands of people. The former school principal turned business woman soon found herself running the company full time.

“I had just been cleaning out my daughters’ closets and thought, wouldn’t it be amazing if we were able to turn this thing that every parent needs to do multiple times a year into something that could actually raise money for their schools?”

Boyd began with just five schools in San Francisco but it wasn’t long before the company grew, now serving 30,000 schools across the country, with top earning schools raising more than $50,000.

“When it comes to Schoola, our challenge has been managing growth! We were in just 5 schools 3 years ago. Today we are working to put art, music, drama, and many other things back into schools across the U.S. and help organizations like the Malala Fund.  We have moved warehouses several times over the past eighteen months to accommodate expansion,” explains Boyd. 

In 2015, Schoola’s mission went global through their partnership with Malala Fund.

“Malala Fund supports girls’ education projects in the most vulnerable communities around the world. The organization works to ensure access for all girls to a minimum of 12 years of quality education, particularly in the Global South,”  says Kelly Murphy, Director of Merchandising for Schoola. 

Tens of thousands of individual donors and five prestigious clothing brands have already donated clothing to be sold on Schoola to further Malala Fund’s mission of removing barriers to a safe, quality education for girls in the most vulnerable communities in the world. Now another big brand, Athleta is stepping up.

“We are beyond excited to team up with Athleta. They are a wonderful community-minded company, and with their focus on women’s empowerment, it felt like a natural fit for Malala Fund,” says Murphy.

With thousands of items at up to 70% off it’s easy to look good and do good. For every purchase made on Schoola, 40% of the proceeds go directly to the school or organization the item was donated on behalf of.

The Founder of Schoola says the road to success has been bumpy, and while there have been moments where managing growth seemed like a big mountain to climb – Boyd has done it with grace.

“Whether it is in my industry or another, my advice to women is to just do it. Dream big, decide what you want to do and then just make it happen. We all spend way too much time preparing ourselves to be ready to do something when the reality is we are ready and we just need to take the first step. You are more ready than you realize,” she says.

Boyd believes one of the most fatal mistakes for an entrepreneur is trying to do it alone.

“Team matters more than anything, but you need to hire not just for smarts but for big hearts. We have a terrific team at Schoola that can solve almost any problem sent their way. They are tenacious, smart, creative and dynamic. They are also good, kind-hearted people. A company or organization with smart, creative, driven and big-hearted people – in combination with a compelling mission – will go far,” says Boyd. 

Want to get involved? Start by cleaning out your closet. It’s as easy as boxing up your gently used clothes, printing a prepaid shipping label here and handing your box off to USPS.

Check out the Athleta items donated to Schoola for the benefit of Malala Fund here.

You can shop the brands that have donated to Schoola for the benefit of Malala Fund here.

The post From School Principal to Founder of Schoola appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

When she’s not working as a Pharmacist, she’s charging steadily toward her dreams of building a brand to positively impact an industry misunderstood.

“Pharmacists are medication experts so there is definitely an emphasis on medicine, but for me that’s just one aspect of a person’s well-being,” says Dr. Vand. 

There is nothing ordinary about this Doctor. The new age pharmacist can be found snap chatting healthy recipes, posting tips on Twitter and helpful advice on Instagram

Despite her undeniable beauty, Mona is a down to earth L.A. woman who loves talking to people – online and offline.

“My goal is to educate patients on as many lifestyle and diet modifications as possible, in hopes of preventing the need for medication at all.”

Why pharmacy school if she is so passionate about holistic health? Dr. Vand says as a teen she always loved science. She chose her career path while in high school, and enrolled in a six-year doctorate program at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

“I told myself I could always change majors, but it turns out, I loved it!”

Since becoming a pharmacist and moving to the City of Angels, Dr. Vand was inspired to take on a more holistic and modern approach to health care. Her goal is to help patients understand the connection between pharmaceutical science and overall wellness.

The Modern Pharmacist incorporates every aspect of her patient’s life into the health plans she creates for them.

Here are just some of the lifestyle updates she suggests:

• Meditation and Yoga in place of antianxiety and antidepressant medications
• A Plant based diet in place of blood pressure and cholesterol drugs
• Natural health and beauty remedies in place of chemical-bases treatment.

She also recommends natural beauty remedies like rose water ice cubes (yum, don’t eat them!) as a toner and coconut oil for nourishing your skin and hair.

Something else she’s unconventional about? Dr. Vand is a big believer in a plant-based diet. Mona is a Vegan.

“The key is to see how you feel after you eat certain foods. For example, if you have to take a Lactaid in order to tolerate dairy, or you feel sluggish after eating a lot of meat, your body is telling you something! It’s important to stop forcing things just because they taste good momentarily.”

Despite her passion for holistic health, Dr. Vand still believes there is a time and place for medication. She says in some cases antibiotics or medication are still the first-line of defense, and as a pharmacist sorting out antibiotics, pain medication and pills are still a part of her job.

Mona still stands by her mantra that changing your lifestyle will almost always be your first step to health and wellness.

For busy, on-the-go women Dr. Vand says staying healthy starts with three simple tactics:

• Smart Snacking
• Work Out in the morning (it’s proven to boost your mood)
• Stay Hydrated (water will keep you energized throughout the day)

“Always on the go equals grabbing unhealthy food because it’s easy and quick. The key is to always carry a few healthy snacks with you so you never starve,” says Mona. 

Dr. Vand regularly shares recipes, natural beauty treatments and other helpful tips on social media and her website

The post The Pharmacist Challenging the Status Quo appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

We’ve written the script to this story, but we don’t want to share it because HER Trailer will move each of you differently. There’s a reason we’ve left out her words – and her voice, for now. What is your story as you watch and listen to it? Share your perspective in the comments.

The post Unmake HER appeared first on HER Magazine ™.