Woman Owned Agency

Woman Owned Agency

by Sheryle Gillihan

Entrepreneurship Technology

Season 1

Sara Graybill: Leaning in to Her Technical Expertise

Sara Graybill is a self-proclaimed nerd and loves everything related to technology. Her desire to help everyone understand the technical side of their website led her to start Graybill Creative where she helps bridge the gap between developers and designers and make sure everyone is on the same page. Graybill Creative is a WordPress development agency that focuses on providing development and website maintenance services to other agencies. Mentioned in this episode: Graybill Creative (https://graybillcreative.com/) YouTube link: https://youtu.be/sx0pDo4WYAY Episode Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TVq6n1PSWJ1vvDCogpET1pG8HxblgTg8/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=115663019257131925403&rtpof=true&sd=true

Heather Steele: Building a Business That Fit the Life She Needed

Heather is the founder and CEO of Blue Steele Solutions. She started her marketing agency in 2010 because she was tired of seeing great people fail just because they couldn’t clearly communicate their value. Heather's team helps clients create websites and content that make it clear exactly what problems they solve for their customers, leading to more leads and more sales for them. Heather is also slightly obsessed with sharing her tricks for habit-tracking, time blocking, and running an agency on a 25-hour/week schedule. Mentioned in this episode: Blue Steele Solutions (https://bluesteelesolutions.com/) Youtube link: https://youtu.be/D5837EOP7uM Episode Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EWQJbZ185U2A3GqgZc64PIkTOFbOIrbn/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=115663019257131925403&rtpof=true&sd=true

Rebecca Gill: Savvy SEO Expert and an Alpaca Mom

Rebecca Gill has over twenty years of experience with sales and marketing, with fifteen of those spent practicing and educating others in search engine optimization. She is an SEO consultant and educator providing personalized digital marketing solutions for clients wanting to expand their online presence and who are also willing to be a vested partner in achieving those results. Whether a solo entrepreneur, digital agency, small business, or enterprise corporation, Rebecca offers a direct and honest approach to planning a path to online success with both search engines and the user experience. A serial trainer at heart, Rebecca also offers a variety of learning opportunities for end users, freelancers, and developers who want to become more knowledgeable about the how and why of SEO and SEM activities. Mentioned in this episode: Web Savvy Marketing (https://web-savvy-marketing.com/) YouTube link: https://youtu.be/NqyjsRveTwI Episode Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UbRXzK_lA3UatYZCDyS1gecBpk_Rq4ww/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=115663019257131925403&rtpof=true&sd=true

Maiya Holliday: Growing a Freelance Gig into a Thriving Agency

Maiya Holliday, CEO and Founder of Mangrove Web Development is a creative leader and collaborator who crafts digital solutions to augment the impact of changemakers. She is a self-taught coder with over a decade of hands-on experience. Maiya aligns folks toward actionable goals that help articulate and communicate their organization’s purpose and impact on the web, with people, planet, purpose, and equity at the core. She has led over 200 website projects for changemakers and purpose-driven organizations. Maiya led Mangrove to become a Certified B Corp in 2016 and has since championed the cause of socially and environmentally conscious businesses deepening their impact. She values working alongside a diverse team of talented people who are passionate about what they do. A Bay Area native, Maiya now lives in the mountains in Truckee, CA with her family of wild, adventurous boys. Mentioned in this episode: Mangrove Web - https://mangrove-web.com/ Lynn Johnson of Hella Social Impact - https://www.hellasocialimpact.com/team Youtube link: https://youtu.be/ED9ZvlIgzgA Episode Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wBGYwcb-uIpLzd8rDM2QkQi9wO1g-BFR/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=115663019257131925403&rtpof=true&sd=true

Barbara O'Reilly: Fundraising or budgeting, which comes first?

Barbara O’Reilly is the founder and principal at Windmill Hill Consulting. Whether it was leading record-setting reunion classes, securing tens of millions of dollars from global corporations following some of the most devastating natural disasters around the world, or overseeing a team that grew donor engagement of major individual donors committed to historic preservation, Barbara O’Reilly, CFRE understands that fundraising is much more than just raising money. It’s about enabling donors to realize their philanthropic dreams for issues that are most important to them and to be part of the change they want to see in the world. Barbara brings to her clients nearly thirty years of major gifts, annual fund, and campaign fundraising experience at major non-profit organizations including Harvard University, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Oxford University in England, and the American Red Cross. Barbara became a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) in 2015 and an AFP Master Trainer in 2018. She serves as immediate past president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Washington DC Metro Chapter and as a former member of the Advisory Panel for Rogare, The Fundraising Think Tank in the U.K. She is a longstanding Partner in Advancement of the Center for Nonprofit Advancement, a member of the Association Foundation Group (AFG), and Windmill Hill Consulting is a member firm of The Giving Institute. She is also a member of the faculty of the Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management and Leadership at the University of Maryland’s Do Good Institute. She is a frequent guest presenter at national and international conferences and on various webinars hosted by Network for Good, DonorSearch, Bloomerang, Firespring, OneCause, Boardable, UST, and Qgiv. Barbara received her BA in English from Barnard College/Columbia University and her ALM in Celtic Studies from Harvard University. Mentioned in this episode: https://www.whillconsulting.com/ https://www.whillconsulting.com/trainings https://www.whillconsulting.com/unlocked-resources-explainer-page Shoutouts: Barlele owned by Taylor Shanklin (https://www.barlele.com/) TaylorMade Experience owned by Christina Taylor (https://taylormadeexperience.com/) YouTube link: https://youtu.be/6BC1PmzvC3E Episode Transcript: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ndl8Lr_OxkPyn4ZXO3aFCgdhvaS0GnYj/view?usp=share_link

Leah Frazier: From lawyer, to model, to media maven

Leah Frazier is a 2-Time Emmy Award-Winning and 10-Time ADDY Award-Winning entrepreneur and was recognized as one of Dallas' most successful women for 2015. She is a multi-licensed attorney turned marketing and communications guru, who unapologetically left the practice of law to pursue her entrepreneurial ventures. In 2020, Leah was recognized by Dallas Innovates as one of the Future 50 Leaders in Dallas-Fort Worth for tech, innovation, and disruption and as a winner of the 2020 “Inno on Fire” award from American Inno’s North Texas Inno media outlet, for her service to the startup, small business, and entrepreneurial community. Just recently, Leah was named as one of the “top 10 inspiring black women in the marketing and communications industry to follow” by Top Rank Marketing, and also as the 2021 Black Women in Media Trailblazer Award in the Media category. Leah has built a multi-faceted empire as an award-winning journalist, publicist, media personality, digital marketing expert, and in-demand consultant to notable brands. Leah is the CEO and proud owner of Think Three Media – an award-winning creative marketing and communications agency focused on the areas of content marketing, social media marketing, communications, and public relations services for brands spanning the industries of fashion, beauty, fintech, public speaking, the performing arts, food, lifestyle, and more. The company’s podcast, PR Yourself with Leah Frazier® teaches PR tips and tricks to small businesses and ranks in the top 5% of podcasts in the world. Leah’s work has been featured and mentioned in Forbes, Vogue.com, NBC, CW, CBS Local, Chase TV, Fox TV, Good Morning Texas, Haute Living Magazine, D Magazine, CEO Blog Nation, and many other outlets as an expert in PR and entrepreneurship. Leah has cultivated top-tier partnerships with Toyota, the Dallas Mavericks, Belk, Cantu Beauty, Marshall's, Via Spiga, Vogue, Brahmin, Neiman Marcus, Warner Bros., Shoedazzle, Yosi Samra Shoes, and more. Leah co-authored her first book in 2018, The Success Factor, which reached #1 as a Best Seller for Women and Business reads, and was also awarded an African- American Literary Award. Her second co-authored title, Promise: A Global Women’s Devotional became a best seller in 2020 as well. She recently released her first eBook, Lessons from the Bottom: Losing One’s Self to Gain Success earlier this year, and is working on her signature PR Yourself ® book to be released in early 2022. Mentioned in this episode: https://thinkthreemedia.com/ YouTube link: https://youtu.be/2NVkZeIchpY

Anne Stefanyk: Choosing projects that touch our hearts

As Founder and CEO of Kanopi Studios, Anne helps create clarity around project needs and turns client conversations into actionable outcomes. As someone at the intersection of business development, marketing, and technology, Anne provides digital strategy to clients and organizations in the nonprofit, higher education, government, and corporate sectors. She enjoys helping clients identify their problems, translating it all into plain language, and then empowering the Kanopi team to execute stunning website solutions that strengthen brands and help companies succeed. Kanopi was born from Anne’s desire to build strong, sustainable, creative websites and provide for their growth beyond launch. The name “Kanopi” represents her passion not only for treehouses but for websites, as both are sustainable ecosystems under a larger canopy: both have beautiful architecture, can be simple or complex, are customizable within their landscape, have strong foundations, need to accommodate constant growth and change, and are limited only by creativity. As such, Kanopi provides quality customer service with a holistic approach that covers the full lifecycle of a website, from initial strategy to beyond launch. When she’s not advocating for the open-source community or running her web agency, she enjoys yoga and meditation, time on a bike or in the water, and hanging with her nephew. Mentioned in this podcast: https://kanopi.com/ B Lab and B Corps (https://bcorporation.net) YouTube Episode Link: https://youtu.be/rxgI7bJ8DU8

Lindsey Miller: We can't control how people see us, or can we?

After spending a decade in politics and almost the same amount of time in the WordPress and WooCommerce ecosystem, Lindsey Miller created Content Journey. Her passion for making a difference in the world led her to create a business built around the success of others. Content Journey combines SEO best practices with purposeful content to increase brand awareness. Her ability to make the complex simple is a breath of fresh air in the world of marketing and communications. She has an extensive working knowledge of audience movements, data-driven strategy towards content creation, and SEO. Clients at Content Journey always feel heard and acknowledged for their struggles. Lindsey with the help of the whole team at Content Journey works towards the success of clients with relentless pursuit. -- A side note about Lindsey... It was clear to me the first time I met Lindsey that her experience in politics has given her a keen understanding of what it takes to build a brand, create a following, and essentially feed the marketing engine. What surprises me in this interview is that those lessons and habits did not naturally translate to marketing herself and learning how to be a boss. Her service-oriented nature and her humility in some cases got in the way of being able to champion her own initiatives. It echos some of my other interviews with women where we talk about being too close to a problem or hiring an expert to help us because it's too difficult to self-implement. Mentioned in this episode: Content Journey (https://contentjourney.com) Pixel Cut Labs, now Propellic (https://propellic.com/) Rebecca Gill of Web Savvy Marketing (https://web-savvy-marketing.com/) Lindsay Halsey, owner of Pathfinder SEO (https://pathfinderseo.com/blog/author/lindsay-halsey/) Kimberly Lipari of Valet (https://valet.io/author/kimberly/) Hundred Magazine (https://www.hundredmag.com/about) Brené Brown's Dare to Lead Podcast (https://brenebrown.com/podcast-show/dare-to-lead/) Enneagram Empowerment (https://www.amazon.com/Enneagram-Empowerment-Discover-Personality-Potential/dp/1615649816) The Enneagram & You (https://www.amazon.com/Enneagram-You-Understand-Personality-Relationships/dp/1507212720) YouTube URL: https://youtu.be/v_Co6HTmJbQ Episode Transcript: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MmGc2_qSIidqVweXcjDmwXptxhd63VAs/view?usp=share_link

Corey Kohn: Stumbling into an ESOP and bringing dignity back to work

In this episode, Corey Kohn shares their unique agency structure as an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) and how she accidentally fell into this role that has given her so much joy. As an entrepreneur and business leader, Corey has grown the reputation of Dojo4, a boutique software agency that she co-founded and has led for over a decade, to stand out in the industry for its work building exemplary technology while modeling social and organizational innovation. Nurturing businesses to be the building blocks of a saner, healthier, and more compassionate world is her passion. She is known for her writing and community work that advocates for a more enlightened, human way of doing business. All this is made possible through the good company of her exceptionally patient husband, Michael, and brave, funny daughters, Florence and Phoebe. Mentioned in this episode: https://www.dojo4.com/ B Lab and B Corps (https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/) Maiya Holliday of Mangrove (https://mangrove-web.com/about/) Jessica Kellner of Bark Media (https://www.barkmediaco.com/our-team/) Alyssa Herr of Unity Web Agency (https://unitywebagency.com/about/) YouTube link: https://youtu.be/RbbAF9wgTds Episode Transcript: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WXKs7YrFU-EMJYY455vsGDGztqFTRy7n/view?usp=share_link

Tiffani Martin: She lost her sight, but not her vision

Tiffani Martin is a strategist, author, branding extraordinaire, and the founder and CEO of Jancynco and Visiotech. After losing her sight at the age of 28 due to diabetic retinopathy, Tiffani began to realize how limiting society's resources were for those with disabilities. She longed to bridge the gap between technological brands and the community often ostracized in product development—people like her. Tiffani began her career as a digital engagement agent at Square 1 Agency after graduating from the University of North Texas with a bachelor's degree in business entrepreneurship. While at Square 1, she worked with some of the nation's top brands, developing their personal and unique marketing identities, and thrusting them into a new realm of recognition. She is the author of “Branding the Heart: A Guide to Digital Engagement for Non-Profit Organizations” and co-author of “Be prolific: Do Success Different”. She is a fierce believer that although she may have lost her sight, she has not lost her vision. She is determined to use Visiotech as a catalyst to inspire others to reach beyond their disability. Tiffani is happily married and resides in Dallas, TX. Mentioned in this video: JancynCo (http://jancynco.com/) VisioTech (https://visiotech.co/) TR Moore and her nonprofit Ladies for Art, Culture and Education (https://www.facebook.com/ForeverLaceOrg/) YouTube link: https://youtu.be/eFbT08u2mN4 Episode Transcript: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G___Zmyib7mX0O7grFhk_XAWB0HdLu-Z/view?usp=sharing

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