We recently connected with Claudia Gebhardt and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Claudia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

I’ve always been that person that doesn’t like asking for help, so I didn’t hire anyone until a little over a year ago. At that time I was mostly doing Pinterest marketing and took on a bit more than I could chew. I hired someone local for a few months to help me, but as business died down I wasn’t able to maintain having a team member.

When I started The Social Pour, I knew I wanted to budget accordingly to expand to a team of two. After 50+ applications via LinkedIn, I’m lucky to say that I hired Lexie Pitzen @lexiepitzen, who is our Editorial Assistant! Lexie checked off all the boxes and we are so grateful to have her on board!

I would not change anything regarding the two hires I have made in my business and just so thankful to be able to even have someone to help the magazine grow into something incredible!

Claudia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

In 2020, all while working full-time, I decided to start my own marketing business. I’ve been in marketing for over six years with experience in marketing strategy, project management, and social media. Since running my own business, I noticed a gap in the entrepreneurial space and wanted to do something outside the box.

That’s when The Social Pour, an online wine, and working women’s magazine was born! The main idea behind it is to spotlight women from all different industries who are business owners, work full-time, or are like me and juggle both. Topics generally include marketing, wine, career, business, and so much more.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

My goal was to always maintain good relationships and build a community, no matter if they were clients or not. I truly care about those around me and value all the hard work that others have done in the entrepreneurial space. When I think about the success it’s received, it comes down to the reputation of my marketing business which took a lot of time and dedication to build.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

With a marketing background, I thought running a business would be a BREEZE. I was very wrong. Starting a business is a lot harder than it looks. It goes way beyond having x amount of experience and you have to have your heart into it. I use a lot of my experience to run my marketing and magazine business, but it’s not the same strategy as I would use in my corporate job. My biggest advice to those wanting to start their own business is to make sure you are ready to continue to learn in order to grow!

Contact Info:

• Website: thesocialpourmag.com
• Instagram: @thesocialpourmag , @claudiamgebhardt
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-gebhardt-819b9b124/

Image Credits
Ava Veater @avajphoto