Paige Arnof-Fenn founded Mavens & Moguls after starting her career on Wall Street in the 1980s, working for corporations like Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola, and then working as the head of marketing at three separate startups. All three startups had successful exits. She took the risk soon after 9/11, when her company’s marketing budget was reduced.
She recalls, “My first client came from a talk I gave to a professional networking group right after I hung up my shingle. 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, and it felt great that my talk was so well received and generated meetings and referrals as follow-up. I knew I had a real business.”
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Describe who you are as a person, inside and outside of the workplace.
I am a child of the 60s and 70s who grew up in the Deep South. All 4 of my grandparents were Southerners too. We all lived within a few hours’ drive when I was a child. I am the oldest of 3 and was always a good student and athlete growing up, being responsible and hard-working. My father and both grandfathers were in business, so I always thought I would go that route too. From a young age, I loved sports, movies, TV, and travel. From age 9 to 16, I went to a girls’ sports camp every summer for 2 months. I was an exchange student in France in high school and Italy in college. My family moved when I was in middle school, and I am still friends with most of the people I grew up with from school and camp. As an adult, I have lived and worked in NYC, LA, Bay Area, Atlanta, DC, Cincinnati, etc. but have been in Boston for the past 20+ years.
What has been your biggest learning since becoming an entrepreneur?
My biggest lesson was that the people you start with are not always the ones who grow with you. The hardest thing I learned when I started my company was to not get rid of weak people any earlier than I did in the first few years of my business. I spent more time managing them than finding new customers. I knew in my gut they were not up to snuff, but out of loyalty to them, I let them hang around much longer than they should have. It would have been better for everyone if they had let them go as soon as the signs were there. They became more insecure and 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. It is true that you should hire slowly and fire quickly. I did not make that mistake again later on, so I learned from it well the first time. I wish I’d known it sooner, but it’s a lesson I’ll never forget!
How do you motivate people to go the extra mile?
Communication is key to all of our community and employee engagement. To stay connected and keep the team on track, I try to set the tone upfront with one rule, when in doubt, over-communicate. Especially now that everyone is working remotely, it is key to set up regular e-mails, video, and conference calls. To raise morale, you have to develop trust and compassion above all else. As far as messaging goes, between the pandemic and the possible recession, leaders have an opportunity to further connect with anxious people and focus on the true relevance of their products or services. We have learned to acknowledge that things are different now, so we need to communicate in a way that will give our audiences better focus, helping them to create a bridge from today to the future. We need to communicate in a way that combines information and need, synthesising feelings and facts.
What gets you up in the morning? What motivates you?
I have always been a morning person, The importance of the morning is that it sets the tone for the rest of your day. When it starts strong, you build momentum. I do hard tasks first to get them out of the way, then delegate what I can, and only touch each e-mail once for best results. I don’t let others distract me or hijack my schedule to maximise my time. I stay motivated through a combination of curiosity, connecting, caffeine and communication. I love asking lots of questions and solving problems, so when I meet interesting people (now mostly virtual), I can’t help jumping in with ideas to help them thrive, plus I hate wasting time. I have always loved fixing things and helping out where I can. I love the challenge of cracking the code to see what works.
Kindly describe how you will specifically know what success looks like for you.
My definition of success has changed a lot. Instead of looking at finish lines–numbers, job titles, houses or cars, or a level of public profile–I factor in things like whether I get to do work that at least sometimes lets me feel like I made a genuine difference in the lives of other people. I love being helpful to my clients, nieces, nephews, godkids, mentees, etc. It is great to know my experience and hard fought lessons learned can be put to good use as an advisor, board member, coach, consultant, friend, volunteer, and aunt/godmother. I’ve always loved solving problems and enjoying running my business, I am so lucky to have created a platform where I can both give and receive so much joy and spend time with those who matter most to me.
What is some of the advice you give to aspiring women leaders who sees disability as a career barrier?
You do not exist today if you cannot be found online. You must have a digital presence to be taken seriously and respected. Being invisible online is a terrible strategy. I do a lot of work on personal branding and social media is only a part of it. Really, everything communicates—what you wear, drive, consume, listen to, your hobbies, interests, everything. The single most important ingredient in creating a great personal brand is authenticity.
What are your future plans to sustain Mavens & Moguls LLC’s success?
I have no idea where my business will go post pandemic, but I am confident I have built a great foundation with interesting clients and colleagues who value communication and want to use marketing best practises to make a difference in the world. It has been a circuitous route to get here, but as Steve Jobs said, it is only by looking backwards that you can make real sense of connecting the dots in life. “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.” So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. I believe I am on the right path and am going to follow it and see where it goes. The lessons from the pandemic that will stay with me include my gratitude and appreciation for the simplicity of good food, nature, my inner circle, essential products and services, and health. According to my experience, your network is your net worth, and your health is your wealth. Everything else is a distraction, so stay focused on what matters most.
Website: http://mavensandmoguls.com/
