Meet Paige Arnof-Fenn, an avid marketer who turned her love for building brands into a profitable business called Mavens & Moguls.
Paige did not plan on starting a company. She always wanted to go work for a global business and be a Fortune 500 CEO. When she was a student, she looked at leaders like Meg Whitman & Ursula Burns as her role models. She started Mavens & Moguls after beginning her career on Wall Street in the 80s and having a successful career in Corporate America at companies like Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola and then working at 3 different startups as the head of marketing. All 3 startups had positive exits. She took the leap right after 9/11 when the company she worked for cut their marketing. She had nothing to lose.
Running a global marketing business provides her a platform to do work she truly enjoys with and for people she respects. “I get to set my priorities, I have time to travel (pre-Covid) and hang out with my inner circle, and I 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,” expresses Paige.
When Paige worked at big companies, she always felt the ball would roll with or without her, that if she got hit by a bus, someone new would be in her office right away. Now her DNA is in everything she does. She can trace every decision and sale to something she did or a decision she made, which is incredibly gratifying and fulfilling. Like most entrepreneurs, Paige is working harder and longer than ever, and she has never been happier. She asserts, “Working for yourself and building a business you started is incredibly rewarding and gratifying. It has been a lot of fun. I joke that I am an 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).”
Inspired by her passion, we at Insights Success got into conversation with Paige to learn more about her journey and how she and Mavens & Moguls are meeting the branding needs of businesses.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Tell us something more about Mavens & Moguls and its mission and vision.
My company’s mission is to bring world-class marketing talent and expertise to organizations that want to make a difference in the world. We believe every organization deserves the right words and pictures to tell their story in compelling ways. Our vision is that all companies, regardless of size or budget, should have access to the best marketing talent on an outsourced basis.
Enlighten us on how you have made an impact in the Marketing niche through your expertise in the market.
We are storytellers and content creators who help our clients in compelling ways by finding the right words and pictures to create interest for their products and services. Creating content is a great way to build your brand, increase your visibility more broadly, raise your profile, and ultimately attract more attention/clients/customers. I have always loved telling and listening to stories since childhood. In the early days of mankind, stories were a great way to communicate around the campfire, they are critical to the Bible, and they are still effective today. People do not remember facts and figures, but if you tell them a story that touches them emotionally, you get their attention, and they want to hear more. People need to be educated, informed and/or entertained, so I love to figure out how best to tell a story in a way that makes people pay attention and breaks through the noise. When you share what you know — your passion, your war stories, the good, bad and ugly — the content will flow and pour out of you. The stories will be interesting, and the lessons will be real; people will remember you and come back for more.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run and what are your future goals for Mavens & Moguls?
Successful businesses post-pandemic must be adaptable/agile, strong communicators, and have a growth mindset. They will be inclusive and collaborative because we never know when the next crisis will hit, so being able to adapt to change is critical. Staying nimble today is core to survival and ultimately success. We are measuring productivity going forward by what we get done; it is based on accomplishments, not activity.
My goal is to continue to build growth mindset teams because they never stop learning/experimenting. They are focused on the future and see opportunities ahead by creating a culture of learning/growth. It takes effort and a commitment to excellence for people to continually learn/grow, especially in a virtual/remote environment. I do not think there is one habit to keep teams sharp/fresh. I am using a combination of reading/learning online and off/attending conferences/talks/networking/ newsletters from influencers/TED talks/podcasts/finding mentors/listening to all feedback, good and bad. To stay relevant/keep growing, I try to encourage the team to prioritize professional development to keep skills fresh and stay on top of new trends/technologies.
What would be your advice to budding women entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the Marketing sector?
So much of success in marketing is about effective communications online and offline. My advice for success is to be a student for life, walk the streets and notice your surroundings. Do you know which movies won at the box office? Books on the NYT best seller list? Top Billboard and Grammy songs? Oscar winners? Why was Game of Thrones popular? Even if it is not your taste, you need to know about these things and have an opinion. A career in marketing and communications is about relevancy, so every day, I try to pay attention to pop culture, trends, etc. You have to keep your antenna up! You have to be driven, focused, intensely curious, and always be looking for the next way to make something better, be a good listener to clients, colleagues, feedback, the market to show respect for great ideas, and be a great communicator. With these traits and a strong work ethic, you increase the odds of succeeding.
