Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
I’m sorry this week is just one giant promotion fest for all the things the Mighteorites and I are working on. I promise, very soon, we will get back to the business of talking about entertainment, feminism, business and life and career. But for now, I need to promote one more thing. And if I’m being honest, I’m very excited about this thing.
Today I am introducing the Internet Video Masterclass. A new web show that my team and I have brought into the world to help give brands, businesses, nonprofits and everyone in between, the tools they need to make better internet video for any and all platforms.
You can watch all of the videos here on our website.
Or, better yet, you can Subscribe to our YouTube channel so that you get all the latest. If you like these, I’ve already written season 2. And Beyonce may or may not be the theme of one of the episodes.
This is what we do every day at Mighteor: we make great internet video and we come up with ways to get it seen. I would be kind of failing myself and the entire premise upon which my business was formed if I was not growing and continuing to expand the usefulness of video content. Many of the things we talk about in the series are topics that we regularly discuss with our clients in planning their video strategy, and while I’m nervous about giving away all our knowledge, I’m truly hopeful that it opens the doors of possibility for other big things in Mighteor’s future.
So here is how you can help me out this week. Share the series with your friends. Your professional contacts. Your Twitter feed. The more we get this out there, the happier I will be.
And yes, I am aware that I’m a total goober in these videos.
No. I don’t know how to be less of a goober.
Christine Flemming (@WestsideCF) is a boundary pusher, content distruptor, strategist, and go-getter. She’s currently the the Vice President of Marketing for studioD, the branded content studio at Demand Media, creating custom content that connects consumers with the brands they love.
Flemming has risen through the ranks of the marketing world, becoming one of the industry’s most successful professionals. Flemming has cultivated a reputation for her quick and playful work—always strategic and never boring. See her career trajectory on LinkedIn.
But, as my grandmother would say, “She didn’t get this far just by looking good.” Check out Flemming’s interview with BGC and discover how she leaped over road blocks and cut through workplace bias.
Q: How did you discover your passion for working in online marketing?
A: I didn’t start out being passionate about “online marketing.” I was passionate about music, and early on in my career worked at Farmclub.com, AEG, Napster, Yahoo Music and then Yahoo Entertainment. I was fascinated by the business potential that the power of the internet held for the music industry. At Yahoo! I was fascinated by the reach of the internet. Now, at Demand Media, I’ve discovered the importance of the internet in every day life. The internet can provide an answer for nearly every question someone has, or a way to connect with anyone, anytime. Through my work here, I’ve discovered my passion for online marketing, and learned the importance of voice and positioning, and assembling the right team who will push the boundaries. It’s the only way to stand out from the pack.
Q: Where do you find your inspiration in life?
A: Usually at the end of an empty wine glass :) I always seem to be inspired by my team and colleagues. I’m inspired by open possibility and typically come up with most of my ideas in the shower or while driving…somewhere inconvenient where I can’t write it all down. Hiking with my dog, live music, lyrics, and the production of music all really inspire me personally and professionally. Professionally, I am also inspired, or at least fired up, to do better and win.
Q: In cultivating your own career in technology, what challenges did you overcome and what is your advice for women tackling those same issues?
A: I’ve always doubted myself. Technology is pretty daunting, and being on the creative side, it was something that I never wanted to dip my toe into. Turns out, I am really tech savvy. Until you get out and talk to other people, you don’t know how much you actually know. The internet has made everything attainable. Thinking about building a website myself would never cross my mind, but with tools like WordPress or Squarespace, I know I can tackle that. My mantra when I’m skiing down a tough trail is always, “you can do this, you’re not going to die”…I take the same approach with technology.
I also think it’s important to be decisive. Not everything requires a democratic process. It’s important to get consensus in a lot of cases, but I get infuriated by the silliest of discussions. i.e. “What should we call our team email alias?” That doesn’t warrant an in-person meeting, a slack conversation or an email. Just set up the email alias and tell us what it is.
Lastly, as women, we default to the nurturing role in an organization, especially in a marketing or creative role. Along the same lines of Lean In, women really need to lean out of being the default administrative assistant, group organizer, food orderer and travel agent. I see it constantly with myself and my own team. Let someone else remember to order the food for the meeting. Unless you’re their assistant, don’t book anyone else’s travel. Donald Draper days are over.
Q: If you could take any fictional character out for a drink, whom would you choose and what would you drink?
A: Pennie Lane from Almost Famous. She was an original groupie, toured with bands, hung out backstage, fell in love with lead singers, rubbed elbows with the likes of Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd and probably (at least in my mind) the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and everyone I have always loved before they were on the radio. It’s my favorite movie. I imagine we’d have cheap wine backstage somewhere.
Q: What would you tell your 13-year-old self?
A: See above about technology. You can do anything. If you ask yourself “what’s the worst that can happen?” and learn that’s not really so bad, then you’ll find yourself going further than you ever expected. Do whatever you can possibly do to gain confidence. Don’t let anyone else limit you and if they do, then it’s ok to use that to prove them wrong. Motivation is the goal and it doesn’t matter how you get it. Don’t worry if it seems like your jobs are all over the place. When you’ve had a few behind you, you’ll see that they all connected in some way and have gotten you to where you need to be.
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 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
Lizbeth Wawrzonek is a Lady Geek powerhouse creating articulate branding, smart content, soulful marketing, and compelling storytelling. She’s a freelancing strategist, advisor, and number one fan of small businesses and organizations and is taking the Twin Cities by storm. What makes her different from other shining freelancers? Wawrzonek harnesses “a unique blend of marketing expertise, business acumen and digital technology savvy, with roots in developing community relationships.”
We sat down with Wawrzonek to talk about her career accomplishments, passions, advice for rising freelancers, and teenage wisdom. Read on!
Q: How did you discover your passion?
A: I started out doing marketing and PR in very grassroots ways - through planning and promoting arts events and programs in my neighborhood of Stevens Square near downtown Minneapolis. Soon after that I worked as Events & Outreach Coordinator for Peace Coffee. Through these experiences I realized the power of connecting to people through word-of-mouth around shared areas of interest, and became convinced of the impact of voting with your dollar. It was then that I discovered the importance of helping people make informed decisions through intentional, meaningful communications tactics, which was a constant throughout my experiences working with much bigger brands at advertising agencies like Colle + McVoy and Zeus Jones.
Q: You help brands tell their story. What makes you a good storyteller?
A: I am fed by the inspiration of those people who have found a way to make a sustainable endeavor out of their vision to enhance the world. Once I dig into, absorb and understand how and why people have come to that vision, telling the story feels very natural and easy.
Q: What advice would you give fellow lady geeks who are considering harnessing their skills, becoming their own boss, and launching a freelance company?
A: Get clear with yourself about what feeds you and what your strengths and weaknesses are. Think creatively about people you know and how you can support each other’s work. Don’t overlook the importance of channeling the experiences you’ve had working for and with others as the foundation for your own solo endeavors. Begin and end each day by taking stock of what you are grateful for.
Q: You can choose one superpower. What is it?
A: The ability to be completely present in the moment, never defined by what’s happened in the past and never living for expectations of the future.
Q: What would you tell your 13-year-old self?
A: Every time in your life you start hearing a tiny voice getting louder and louder saying ‘Thats a really good idea, you should DO that,’ gol’ durnit, LISTEN! Write it down. Come back to it the next day. Write about it some more. Share it with someone you trust and ask how they would support you if you did it. Consider steps you would take in a month to pursue it and write your future self a note to come back to in a year to reconsider it. Never doubt that you can make it happen. And never think you’re too young or too old to make it happen.
That and to ask more questions and worry less about having the answers.
Photo by Leslie Plesser
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
I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be regularly contributing to the girl geek blog, The Mary Sue!
Yesterday, it was the Wonder Woman Shoes DIY, but today’s story is pretty awesome too. It’s all about how the viral marketing behind The Hunger Games movie is single-handedly shelling hundreds of thousands of dollars to a small island government.
Here’s a blurb:
“Most people who have checked out The Hunger Games viral marketing site www.thecapitol.pn have probably registered in their mind that the “.pn” domain is meant to be a shortening of Panem, the country in which the books take place. However, do you know what the “.pn” domain is typically used for?”
Please go read the rest here.
