Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Paige Arnof-fenn. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Paige , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?
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. It was a 1 year agreement for a 6 figure engagement which 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 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.
Paige , 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?
I started a global branding and digital marketing firm 22 years ago but 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, they all had positive exits. Those jobs gave me great experience but I really started to love my career when 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 in 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). My dad and I both got our MBAs at HBS and for him to see they wrote about my company as a model of success was a big deal. He had always been very proud of me but the Harvard cases took it to another level. It made me realize I built a real business that might inspire others and I was very proud to be recognized for doing work I truly enjoyed not just for having an important title at an impressive company. If you are not excited by your job, I am a big fan of finding ways to bridge to another track to find something you truly enjoy spending time doing that shares your talents and gifts.
I am also very proud of the work we have done for organizations across many categories and geographies. We branded and launched a conference as part of the Sundance Film Festival to “invest in media that matters,” we created a major fundraising opportunity for a nonprofit celebrating a milestone anniversary for helping people live productive lives with AIDS, we rebranded and renamed 2 social service agencies that help people with mental disabilities and we rebranded and elevated the profile and awareness of a for-profit organization that is an intensive family and community-based treatment program that focuses on addressing all environmental systems that impact chronic and violent juvenile offenders — their homes and families, schools and teachers, neighborhoods and friends. These are all great organizations that are better off today because of our work and that is incredibly fulfilling. However the one client I am most proud of is an industrial products company based in New Orleans that we started working with just before Katrina and continued to work with them for years after. Our work with them spanned many areas and we were able to “keep the trains moving” post-Katrina when their biggest trade show of the year was happening and they ended up as the belle of the ball there, our branding work for them helped them recruit great talent after the storm, the tag line we created for them helped them solidify their message and in conjunction with the branding messages we developed for them, stand out from the pack of competitors. I grew up in New Orleans so helping a local business means a lot to me even though I have not lived there since college.
My company’s mission is to bring world class marketing talent and expertise to organizations that want to make a difference in the world regardless of size or budget. We believe every organization deserves the right words and pictures to tell their story in compelling ways.
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
In the first few years of my business I had pitched a CEO about a month before I ran into her at a networking event where she was the keynote speaker and her topic was about being a woman leader in a traditionally male-dominated business. I had followed up after sending my proposal several times via e-mail and voice mail but the CEO never returned any of my messages or even acknowledged receipt of the proposal requested. You can imagine my shock when she announced at this event as part of her speech that she believes it is important to put your money where your mouth is and for women CEOs to support other respected & well-run women’s businesses and that is why she has hired my firm to handle all her company’s marketing & PR! Everyone congratulated me after, it was a better endorsement than the New York Times because she was very well known and had the reputation of being very tough with high standards so I got a LOT of business from people in the room that night because they thought if I was able to impress her I must be very good 😉 To think I almost did not even show up maybe seeing me there is what prompted her to pull the trigger and hire us? I sold more business in the month that followed than l ever had since starting my company so we really began to scale quickly at that point and got a lot of referrals as a result! It was a big day in our history for sure. Wasn’t it Woody Allen who said 80% of success is just showing up. It is a strategy that has worked for me and has been fun way to build my marketing business.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
For the first 5 years of my business I was scared to go on vacation for fear all my hard work would unravel. Then my world changed when my in-laws, father, mom and stepdad all started to get sick and I wanted to be there for them. They all lived thousands of miles away so I started to work less. After years of decline they each died about 8 months apart (7 people in 6 years) and I became executrix which is like having another job at times. So I had to take very good care of myself or I would not have been helpful to anyone else. I started working out every day and planning me time on my calendar. I became more comfortable with white space in my day and stopped over scheduling myself. And guess what? My business did not suffer, in fact it has become stronger. We moved up the food chain and have better clients now.
Through something bad came something good. I do not think I could ever go back. I am so much happier and more productive as an entrepreneur than I ever was working for others. It is all about controlling your calendar. I no longer try to squeeze in more meetings or hit multiple events at night. As an entrepreneur, I can be selective. Less really is more. I’ve chosen quality over quantity. It sounds trivial but it is true. I created a platform to do work I enjoy and feel energized by. I feel I have found my purpose because I used to work all the time and life was passing me by. I got raises and promotions but I was all work and no play and I did not feel fulfilled. Since starting my business I have joined boards and volunteered at several organizations. I am a mentor to the next generation of leaders and have helped build a very successful anti-bullying program that >250,000 middle school aged kids have gone through. As a marketing consultant I am able to write articles, contribute to books and speak at events to share my experience and lessons learned.
Covid definitely made me and my business more resilient too. 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 crisis periods. So first and foremost I have learned to help small businesses to be flexible and open minded so we could keep working together during the crisis and create more flexible capacity going forward. In my experience resilience is the key trait for entrepreneurial success which has lead me to focus on:
Persistence/determination — a lot of people tell you no (investors, board, customers, etc.) so you have to be driven and learn to say no to distractions you cannot pursue every opportunity so be selective and concentrate on only those ideas with the greatest potential say no to everything else
Learning — intensely curious and always looking for the next way to make something better
Listening — to customers, critics, feedback, the market and your team to show respect for great talent and ideas
Communication — there has never been a more important time to provide accurate, empathetic communication with transparency, truthfulness and timeliness
Strong moral compass — you cannot compromise on ethics and values
Bonus — great sense humor and fun to work with
These are what makes the biggest difference between success and failure I think because the road is always bumpy and you know you will have to overcome obstacles along the way. With resilience you increase the odds to pivot, recover and succeed.
