Being Geek Chic is a blog for stylish geeks, sophisticated nerds and people who enjoy the musings of a complete dork. Join us as we dream of driving the TARDIS, cuddle with our eBooks and test out an iPad sleeve. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi and a team of brilliant lady nerds. Meet the team.
Meet Lindsi Gish (@lindsi). Specialities include: killer marketing strategies, digital oriented communications, solution implementing, semi-serious cycling, and amazing godmother-ing.
She’s a Minneapolis-based communications wonder woman with a wealth of PR, marketing, and digital design experience under her belt (check out her impressive LinkedIn). After kicking ass and taking names in nonprofit settings and global PR agencies, Gish took the plunge and launched her own storytelling/strategizing/streamlining company, gish&co.
One year later, this lady geek is living the dream. On her own terms and with incredible initiative and energy, she is “helping good people get good work done.” And what’s cooler than that?
So, in her own words, discover how Gish finds her inspiration, puts it to work, and ultimately, conquers the world.
Q: How did you discover your passion for digital communications and marketing? Why do you love the web so much?
A: I had a professor by the name of Mike Morgan (goes by MC Morgan) who taught a couple of classes I loved—one was Elements of E-Rhetoric, and the other was Weblogs and Wikis. (Yes: Weblogs! This was over a decade ago, mind you.) I remember the rhetoric class sparking something in me—it made us consider how people create, consume, and collaborate on content online, and how that could change the way people communicate, and work, and live. And in the weblogs class, we had to create our own blogs and post to them regularly. That’s how I learned to code—by figuring out how to customize my Blogger template. And it’s also why I started playing around with Photoshop (a bootlegged version I downloaded from Limewire, of course)—to create custom headers and that kind of thing.
So, that was the start of it. After college, I also had an awesome boss who introduced me to things like Social Media Breakfast and MinneBar, and taught me how to set up my first WordPress site, and let me experiment with design, and social, and SEO. He helped me understand that this stuff I loved playing around with could actually help me earn my living—and he definitely believed in me more than I believed in myself at that point.
Truth be told, though, I’m not passionate about digital communications and marketing. My business tagline is “helping good people get good work done”—because that’s the part I love. Helping interesting, talented people and organizations making important, needed changes in the world. People who just need someone who cares about their thing, and can help them get other people to know and care about it, too. Marketing and communications is simply how I make that happen.
Q: Where do you find your inspiration when working?
A: If anyone has a silver bullet answer to this question, holla atcha girl, would you?
The truth is, it’s hard. When I ran communications at Second Harvest Heartland, I would often tell people that nonprofit work seemed, from the outside, as though it would be really rewarding—but it’s still a business at the end of the day. At any workplace, you’ll still struggle with workload, team dynamics, politics, all of that. But I would regularly and intentionally remind myself that the stress I was going through didn’t hold a candle to the stress of a working mother, just trying to feed her family. That’s why we were doing what we were doing.
Today, running my own little business, my world is a whole lot different. Setting my own schedule, choosing the types of projects I want to work on, and the people I want to do them with, is a dream—no doubt. I feel really fortunate to have the opportunity. So now, that’s what motivates me. I have to work to sustain this life—so I do.
Q: If you could have any superhero power, what would it be?
A: Dang, I totally had an answer ready for “What vegetable would you be?” (an onion, obviously… LAYERS), but not the superhero question.
Can I travel at the speed of light? Is that allowed? Because it would be killer to be able to see the world without spending a fortune on flights—or wasting a day on either end, for that matter. (If that’s not a real superhero power, then we need a new superhero. LET’S WRITE IT! That’s totally geek chic!)
Q: If you could take any fictional character out for a drink, whom would you choose and what would you drink?
A: Full disclosure: I totally opened my Goodreads account to get ideas for this one. Turns out I read a lot of garbage teen fiction, thrillers, and business books. Debating the merits of whether authors of certain business books are “fictional” is a discussion for another blog post. Or cocktail date, in this case.
For lack of a better idea at the moment, I’ve got to say Mae from The Circle. This book. Ugh. I hated it. Or, rather, I hated the experience of reading it. But I reference it all the time, so, something happened. Synopsis: it’s a dystopian (and I guess Orwellian) novel about the post-Facebook/Google/Amazon world, suggesting that total and complete transparency by all and for all is necessary and just. The problem: Mae is such a flighty and dense and ridiculous protagonist that I wound up hollering at her at every turn.
So, my answer: Mae Holland. And the drink: the tidal wave shot. Google it.
(Next time, I promise to have a better answer like: An Old Fashioned with Holden Caulfield. I just prefer to be happy.)
Q: What would you tell your 13-year-old self?
A: Whoa. First, that life gets easier. (There was a point right around age 13 when I was desperately trying to convince my dad that we should move away so I could go to a different school and have a fresh start.)
A few more thoughts:
Emma Bauer is a Being Geek Chic Contributor. Clearly, she’s got great taste. She is a PR enthusiast, dog lover, tea drinker, art appreciator, and of course, aspires to Be Geek Chic. Follow her on Twitter: @emmalynnbauer
Meet Meghan Wilker (@irishgirl). She’s a spectacle-wearing, kick butt tech and content strategist and sometimes Bollywood dancer. During the day, Wilker oversees the planning and execution of web, mobile, and application development projects as the COO of Clockwork Active Media - an über-hip, Minneapolis-based digital design/communications/interactive agency. Wilker and her Clockwork colleagues excel in solving clients’ complex problems with smart and engaging strategies.
Pretty cool, right? But there’s even more to this Lady Geek of the Week. She’s the co-author of Interactive Project Management: Pixels, People, and Process (New Riders 2012), and was named a “Woman to Watch” by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.
Wilker’s also co-founder of the Geek Girls Guide, a blog dedicated to making web technology accessible and exciting and cultivating a movement of tech-energized women (and men!) online.
Oh, and Wilker’s resume is chock-full of public speaking gigs. She’s on a mission to change how people think about interactive work while empowering her fellow lady geeks.
Wilker took an unconventional path to the amazing career she’s carved for herself today - which included dropping out of college. Check out her interview with Being Geek Chic and she’ll tell you more!
Q: How did you discover your passion?
A: For me, it was a long, slow process. My passion is partly about technology and geeky stuff — but I also have this innate ability to see what needs to be done, and make it happen. It took me a long time to realize that those were a unique combination of skills, and that I could make a career out of it.
As a kid, I was exposed to computers (I remember playing on a Commodore 64 at our kitchen table) — and I took all of the computer courses offered in high school (okay, the ONE course offered at my high school), but I don’t come from a very technical family and didn’t really have anyone around to direct me down a more technical path. I was always very strong at writing and communication, though — and among my friends, I was always the organizer: the kid who decided we should all go to the mall, and figured out whose mom would drop us off, who would pick us up, and when.
As technology evolved and the internet emerged, I started becoming an avid user of technology. I especially loved the ability to connect with people from all over the world and in the late 90s spent a lot of time in Yahoo! chatrooms and on IRC. But, again, I didn’t really have an understanding of how I could turn what I was doing into a job.
I dropped out of college after less than a year. After spending a few years working, I went back to school and was planning to become a copywriter. During that time, I was working as an account executive for a marketing firm. The project I was working on involved working with a team of developers and end users. I was writing documentation to help the developers understand the changes I wanted to make to the database and user interface. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was writing use cases and creating information architecture documents. I knew what I wanted to accomplish, but I didn’t have the language or formal education to know that what I was doing was an actual discipline. I was just doing it by instinct at that point. I also worked for a boss who had really high standards for communication and precision; she helped my hone my attention to detail, which was invaluable.
While I was at that job, I met Nancy Lyons, who at that time was the President of Bitstream Underground — an ISP and web development shop. She gave me my first job in the interactive industry and that really changed the trajectory of my career. All of a sudden, I felt like I was home — like I had found “my people.” Suddenly, these seemingly unrelated skills that I had — a love of technology, an understanding of the end user, the ability to figure out what needed to be done and do it, good communication skills — all fit together like puzzle pieces.
I’ve had many job titles in the 13 years since then, but the core of what I do has remained the same: I help lead teams that get things done, and have fun doing it.
Q: In addition to co-running Geek Girls Guide and excelling as the COO of Clockwork Active Media, you also lend your smarts and speak at various events. What’s your favorite topic to discuss with your fellow lady geeks? How do you empower them?
A: I think one of my favorite topics is probably also the thing that makes people feel empowered, and it’s that you don’t have to have everything figured out. Sometimes our career path is a long and winding road and the most important thing is to listen to your gut. When I took that first job at Bistream 13 years ago, it was a step down in pay and in title. Not only that, the dot com bubble had just burst, so the industry that I was about to move into was in the throes of a major bust. On paper, the decision made no sense. But I knew, in my gut, that I needed to take the job. And it was the best decision I ever made — it was a literal turning point in my career.
Q: When did you discover you were “geeky?”
A: I guess it depends on how you define the word geek. I’ve mostly just liked what I like, whether or not the people around me agreed. (Translation: I was really not cool in high school.)
Q: You can choose one superpower. What is it?
A: Okay, so being a project manager-type person you have to know that I really pondered this question and (of course) had to do some research to make sure I was picking the best possible choice. This list kept me busy for a while.
And while teleportation is really tempting, I didn’t see the superpower I want on this list: the ability to operate without any sleep. That way I could do more stuff, but not be tired.
Q: What would you tell your 13-year-old self?
A: Stop begging your mom for a perm.
Emma Bauer is a Being Geek Chic Contributor. Clearly, she’s got great taste. She is a PR enthusiast, history scholar, tea drinker, fashion devotee, and of course, aspires to Be Geek Chic. Follow her on Twitter: @emmalynnbauer
Introducing this week’s Lady Geek of the Week: Amy Webb. She’s the CEO of Webbmedia Group, a digital strategy agency that’s solving the problems of Fortune 100 and Global 1000 companies, government agencies, media organizations, and foundations. You can follower her on Twitter @webbmedia.
But perhaps the reason why we love her the best is that she recently authored “Data, A Love Story.” After attempting – and failing – to find love via online dating, she took matters into her own hands. Or rather, the hands of her male alter ego. Using digital strategy and sharp intellect, she met her ideal man (now husband!). And for the benefit of her fellow lady geeks, she turned her story into a written memoir.
And that memoir is now receiving national press from the likes of People Magazine, Time, Washington Post, the New York Times, Elle Magazine, Good Morning America, The View, Marketplace, Wall Street Journal, Slate, Huffington Post, CNN, CNN Radio, The Guardian, 20/20 and more. To top it off, check out Webb’s accompanying TED Talk.
As a bonus, Webb speaks fluent Japanese, has been a reporter for Newsweek (Tokyo) and the Wall Street Journal (Hong Kong), and kills at the classical clarinet. Who knew!
So check out Webb’s interview with Being Geek Chic to glean inspirations that will fuel your own passions. And, discover Webb’s number one piece of advice. Given her fast paced career in digital strategy, you might be surprised…
