How I Went From High School Dropout To Hot Momma
December 18th, 2008 | General
In episode four of the Womenwise Marketing podcast, I interviewed Kathy Korman Frey of The Hot Mommas Project. Today I finished my case study for the competition, and thought I’d share it with you.
According to the Hot Mommas Project web site, the “award-winning case studies serve as role models on paper for women and girls around the globe by showcasing not only successful business practices, but also successful personal practices including the identification of leadership abilities and work-life balance strategies.”
You can create your own case study and enter to win thousands of dollars in prizes. Here’s mine, including a picture taken around the time I quit high school.
High School Dropout To Hot Momma
Introduction
Yesterday the podcast wouldn’t load. Today both web sites and all three e-mail accounts were down. Kelly set her head on her desk and wondered when she’d ever get things right. As a perfectionist, she dreaded anything that made her seem unprofessional. How would it look—this glaring error message that popped up whenever people entered the web address to her internet marketing site? What would clients think when the e-mails they sent her came back marked ‘Delivery status notification: failure?’ How could she possibly eke out a living when the economy was tumbling and nothing was working in her favor?
Background
Kelly has never lead a conventional lifestyle. Both her parents are self-employed, and growing up, she watched them set their own schedules and follow their own rules. As a sophomore in high school, Kelly decided she wanted that kind of lifestyle too, and stunned teachers when she announced she was dropping out to home-school herself.
“At first they didn’t believe me,” Kelly says. “Then they started telling me I was making a huge mistake, and ruining my chances of getting into a good college. But my school was horribly overcrowded, the staff was miserable, and the atmosphere was so depressing that I felt like I had no other choice. I would have rather killed myself than stayed there for two more years.”
Kelly proved her teachers wrong. Through homeschooling, she rediscovered her love of learning and sped through the necessary high school credits. She took her first college course during the summer of her junior year, and got her bachelor’s degree over a year ahead of her peers.
“I was a good kid growing up,” Kelly says. “I got straight As, and almost always behaved. Sometimes I think life put me at that breaking point so I could learn that obeying authority and following the crowd aren’t always the best choices. Sometimes you have to tune everyone out and listen to your inner voice—because ultimately you’re the only person who knows what’s best for you.”
Kelly’s life took a similar route after college. She dabbled in administrative work, and ultimately landed the editor’s position she had dreamed about during childhood. But Kelly soon discovered that it wasn’t enough. More than anything, she wanted to be her own boss, and achieve success on her own terms. So she quit to start the internet marketing company she owns today.
Professional Issue
Self-employment wasn’t always easy. Kelly struggled for years to find her own rhythm. At first she tried keeping normal business hours, but her attention waned by 2 p.m. She tried forcing herself to keep working, but more often she would distract herself with e-mail or YouTube videos. Then she’d spend the rest of the day feeling guilty.
Success came when Kelly started working with her flaws instead of against them. She knew she was a terrible procrastinator. But she was too anal to miss a deadline—so she would assign short timeframes to each project and then tell her clients when to expect the work. While she might miss her own deadline, she would never keep a client waiting.
Kelly also noticed a larger pattern within her work challenges. As a woman in the marketing industry, her instincts and ideas were often very different than those of her male colleagues. She was less aggressive in her sales methods, for starters, and she preferred thinking of the competition as a group of like-minded friends, rather than opposing teammates.
If she was felt that way about marketing, Kelly realized, other women business owners must be experiencing similar challenges. She started mentioning this to colleagues and discovered she was right—women were having a hard time marketing their businesses, and lacked a resource that spoke directly to them.
This inspired Kelly’s latest project, Womenwise Marketing. Today she has a book proposal in the works and a blog and podcast that she’s actively promoting. Kelly envisions her site as a destination for women entrepreneurs who need marketing help, but she currently lacks the budget and time to reach this goal.
After she has completed the book proposal, Kelly plans to look for corporate sponsors that could get the site more publicity. She is also considering hiring an intern or an virtual assistant, but has little money saved up to pay their salary— and the current recession has made her especially cautious about spending money.
An even bigger question is how Kelly would work with someone else. She’s used to being her own boss, but could she be handle being the boss of someone else? Could she loosen her grip on the reins enough to let someone else take over a few tasks? The questions cloud her vision of the future.
Personal Issue
Balancing work with her family is currently easy for Kelly. Her boyfriend also works from home, so the two of them check in with each other throughout the day and maintain a close relationship.
Kelly hopes that in five years, her business will be earning more money, and she’ll have the flexibility she needs to start a family. But at 25 years old, she’s happy to make business the main focuses in life.
Discussion questions.
· Has your inner voice ever taken you off the beaten path in business or personal life? What were the results?
· Think of a personal trait that hinders you. Then brainstorm ways you can use it as a professional advantage.
· What are your feelings toward marketing? Do you believe that men and women have different marketing experiences?
· Nell Merlino, founder of Take Our Daughters To Work Day and the nonprofit program Count Me In, says, “Women-owned businesses have stayed small because they’ve stayed by themselves. The moment they reach out and hire people—that’s when the magic happens, and the business grows.” Do you agree or disagree? Do you think this is true in Kelly’s situation?
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