As student president of the American Advertising Federation, I oversaw the National Advertising Student Competition. We competed against student organizations from across the country, creating and pitching marketing campaigns for major brands. [The competition] taught me a lot about how brands work, and what marketers care about. 

Launching my own student-led agency taught me how to sell. We landed our first piece of business through sheer persistence, and used the success of our first sale to land consecutive business. It reinforced the values my parents taught me—never publish anything (school, career, or otherwise) that you don’t want your name attached to. It set me apart from other candidates and landed me my first job at Ogilvy.

I moved to New York a month later with two suitcases and $2,000. I saved up the first $1,000 working part-time and my parents matched it.

I stayed in a hostel for the first month while I found a job and then hunted for an apartment. I freelanced as an Assistant Account Executive during my search. My two pals (and our dog Guinness) joined me in signing the lease, and the three of us crammed into a one-bedroom apartment.

I had an awesome group of friends in my “freshman” class at Ogilvy who helped me become comfortable with the city. We worked long hours but pushed each other to go out and experience the city afterward. It also helped tremendously to have a home, pals, and a dog to return to each night.

Thank you. Showing and telling goes a long way. Carefully documenting (through photos, logs, etc.) my internships allowed me to demonstrate what I'd learned. Having not just studied but actually produced advertising campaigns allowed me to share my thought process and the results of my work.

One girl on the student competition team with me once tried to claim credit for work I’d done when we were interviewing for the same job. I didn’t even know she was interviewing for it!  Being able to both show my work and tell the backstory made it clear I'd actually completed the work without having to throw her under the bus.

Yes, frequently. To some extent, it’s good to never “know” you’ve made the right choice. You shouldn't feel you've arrived, then sit proud and idle. 

I wanted to join Ogilvy when I read Ogilvy on Advertising in eighth grade. By twenty-five, I’d done that and was running a pretty big show. I thought I’d peaked! I grew bored, and decided to take up an offer from an especially nutty mentor on going into publishing. It was a hard decision, but in hindsight, I’d have been so limited if I hadn’t pushed myself further into the unknown. 

Always make certain you’re getting back from a company what you feel you’ve put in. That could be money, but it’s more likely experience, advancement, exposure, an education, etc. 

Marketing at its best is great storytelling, and journalists are some of the world’s best storytellers. Contently merges these two worlds. We play a part in interconnecting journalists and marketers by connecting freelance creatives who tell stories to make a living with brands who need great storytellers. It’s rewarding to play a role in improving marketing through challenging how the industry thinks about storytelling.

Contently clients are brands that connect with their audiences through content marketing. I work with [those brands] to help them better understand the world of storytelling and what their teams, operations, etc. need to do to be as successful as possible.

Marketing clients are, as you might suspect, some of the most creative business minds out there.  As a student of marketing, it’s a hell of a lot of fun to get to interface with marketers to help them solve problems. I learn more than I could from reading any book or attending any conference.  You may have guessed this already, but I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to media. The more I can learn, the more I get to geek out with the best of them.

We know Jason quite well at Contently, and I’ve heard him speak at Content Marketing World (yes, that’s a thing). Too much marketing focuses on getting content to a customer or capturing the customer's information. At the end of the day, if you spend money on technologies that get content to people, but you don’t bother to make that content great, those people won’t care. 

At Contently, we believe half of the equation is saying something people find interesting enough to repeat, and the other half is listening to what matters to them so you can share something even better next time. We leverage our background (and the background of the freelancers we work with) in journalism to keep everything “story-worthy.” We also use our proprietary analytics in order to clearly understand what people like reading so that we can make each round of stories even better.

I look for teachers. Selling shouldn’t feel like selling—you have to earn the customer’s business. Good selling should feel like you’re “saving” a client from something.

Teachers are in the business of making the complex simple, understandable, and memorable. They improve the situation of their students. Good salespeople leave their customers better off after they’ve met. They help save them.

I think people think there’s a major difference between big brands like The Wall Street Journal and Contently. There really isn’t. You can wear jeans at Contently, you wear Brooks Brothers at The Journal. Outside of that they’re very similar, in teams, tone, and social aspects.

I chose to work at a smaller company because I wanted to make a bigger dent. I wanted to be a part of the story instead of continuing one. It’s that simple. I also get to bring my dog, Maddie. That’s a pretty big perk.

You’re your own best marketer. That’s a bit cliché, but it’s important—especially for women. One time I found a bunch of great information online, printed it, and dropped it the doorsteps of the executives on our IBM account at Ogilvy. People loved it, but I didn’t leave a cover note saying who it was from. My boss at the time told me, “no one else is going to show off for you.”

Women are often taught to be small. To pose. To cross our legs, feet, arms, hands. To bind ourselves in small clothes and smaller shoes. To take up as little space as possible. I’d advise against this. No one ever changed the world by being demure. 

I’m a big fan of learning about people. New York is an amazing place for people watching. I’m extra lucky that my career allows me to travel. I’m regularly exposed to all sorts of people, customs, and culture. You don’t need to go far to find something or someone excellent. 

I just started the next phase of my career, moving from sales to developing brands strategically.  It’s back to my roots, and going back feels right. I’m excited to see what’s next for Contently because it’s only going up from here.