In this episode of Entrepreneur’s Enigma, host Seth Goldstein delves into the captivating journey of Paige Arnof-Fenn, the Founder and CEO of Mavens and Moguls. Paige shares her transition from a traditional corporate career to becoming a successful entrepreneur. She provides valuable insights and experiences from her marketing career, including her ventures with startups and her evolution into a renowned keynote speaker. Paige also offers wisdom on the benefits of a positive attitude, networking on LinkedIn, and the joys and challenges of entrepreneurship. Join Seth and Paige as they unravel the ups and downs of entrepreneurship and the invaluable lessons learned along the way.

Key Moments

[05:37] Storytelling, connecting through podcasts, virtual conferences popularity.

[06:50] Owning a company brings freedom and excitement.

[11:27] LinkedIn fan, not active on other platforms.

Find Paige Online

https://www.mavensandmoguls.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigearnoffenn/

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Transcript Provided by CastMagic.io

Seth [00:00:00]:
Entrepreneur’s Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship to the wins and the fails that we all face being entrepreneurs, how we learn from adversity. Every week I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth Goldstein. Come with me on the journey. This is Entrepreneurs Enigma. Let’s get started. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the entrepreneur’s Enigma podcast.

Seth [00:00:35]:
Email me by now. It’s been over 200 episodes. I’m Seth, your host with the most, and I have Paige Arnoff Fenn. I think I said that right. Right.

Paige [00:00:45]:
Awesome.

Seth [00:00:46]:
Perfect. Paige is the founder and CEO of a global marketing and branding firm called Mavens and Moguls based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. So pretty much next to Boston, but not, but where Harvard is essentially She actually went to Harvard, she went to Stanford, smart cookie over here. So, she’s worked with Microsoft, Virgin, the New York Times company, Colgate Venture Back Startups, as well as nonprofits. And she’s also served on several several boards. She’s a popular speaker, and she’s also a communist, so she doesn’t sleep at all. So she doesn’t sleep. She just doesn’t sleep.

Seth [00:01:23]:
She’s she’s running for objects on her own, Forbes to name a few, and, you know, let’s rock and roll. So Paige, how you doing?

Paige [00:01:32]:
Doing great. Thank you, Seth, for having me. I’m excited to chat with you today.

Seth [00:01:38]:
Oh, awesome. So how did this all get started? Have you always wanted to be in marketing or, like, I mean, I think I would say you’re late and you’ve done the corporate grind for a while. You were VP of marketing at Inc. Your VP marketing is CMO at Zipcar. Now it’s not EVS, which is kinda, like, less exciting. I mean, Zipcar is kinda cooler brand at EVIS. But, you also, you know, were the launch. You are also SVP of marketing at Launch Media, which was sold went public, then sold to Yahoo.

Seth [00:02:08]:
So and now who knows where it is now? Cause yeah, where who knows where Yahoo is now, but yeah, go figure. Right?

Paige [00:02:14]:
Exactly.

Seth [00:02:14]:
So how is, so how did you find your way into entrepreneurship?

Paige [00:02:18]:
Through the back door. I mean, I think looking back, isn’t it Steve Jobs who said, you know, you can connect the dots dots going backwards, but you know, when I was a student, I thought I was gonna be corporate America all the way. I looked at people like Meg Whitman as my role models. I wanted to be kind of a fortune 500 CEO run a big company, big brand. And I started my marketing career at big companies like Procter and gamble and Coca Cola. So as you said, I started on a very traditional corporate path. You know, big consumer products, brands that are sold all over the world, some of the most recognized brands in the world. And then when the internet started taking off in the mid to late nineties, I got bitten by the dotcom bug and all those startups you were grabbing.

Paige [00:03:14]:
Yeah. I ended up leaving my, my big cushy corporate job and running marketing at 3 consecutive startups that all had good exits. And then right after 9:11, when you’re old enough to remember, marketing kind of,

Seth [00:03:29]:
and I was a sophomore in, or sophomore in college.

Paige [00:03:33]:
Yeah. So I was already in the working world and, you know, marketing jobs disappeared after 911 because the stock market went crazy and all these companies worried they were not going to be able to raise money again. And, I hung out a shingle to turn into a, you know, consultant and thinking I’d do it a little, and that was 22 years ago. So here I am still going strong.

Seth [00:04:02]:
That’s awesome. I mean, that that’s kind of, it’s kind of how it happens. I mean, ghostly me, I started out, like, I left journalism and needed to figure out something, you know, to do. And I was doing marketing in college a little bit, and I decided, like, let me hang out my shingle to get a job. Never did. And 16 years later, I’m still doing it. I’m still kicking. Still kicking.

Seth [00:04:23]:
So it’s wild. So you’ve done a lot and you’re also a keynote speaker. So what’s that like? You know, I mean, that’s a whole another beast being a keynote speaker.

Paige [00:04:34]:
No, I didn’t start out as a keynote. I started out on a panel, you know, just being one of the many, but chiming in. I’ve moderate, I moderated panels. And then as I got more comfortable, I started, being kind of a baby speaker at a bigger conference, maybe in one of the breakout rooms with smaller audiences.

Seth [00:05:02]:
And then

Paige [00:05:03]:
I kind of worked my way up the food chain and yeah, I’ve keynoted at some really awesome events. And as you get more comfortable, I think you build your confidence and you kind of know what works for you. You’ll you’ll figure out your style. Like I’m not a big, PowerPoint user. I like to, you know, walk around.

Seth [00:05:27]:
Sorry. You’re more of a talker. Yeah.

Paige [00:05:31]:
Exact I’m a big talker. Hangout. Yeah. Exactly.

Seth [00:05:33]:
We’re gonna take a quick break here from our sponsors and get right back to the show.

Paige [00:05:37]:
And I I like telling stories kind of the good, the bad, and the ugly. I think that’s what people can really relate to. So I’m not somebody who puts on, like, a formal presentation with lots of bells and whistles. I, you know, I like a mic where you can walk around the audience and talk to people and, you know, really relate to people on a more direct level. But you know, and now I love being on podcasts. I like doing virtual conferences. I think we all got a lot more comfortable during the pandemic. And it’s so nice to not have to be able to not need to travel, to go, you know, I’ve spoken at conferences all over the world during the pandemic as virtual events kind of took off.

Paige [00:06:26]:
So that’s been really nice. I I love

Seth [00:06:31]:
it. That’s fine. Cause you can do it from the comfort of your own home, you know, version on top, PJs on the bottom. No one no one’s the wiser, that kind of thing. It’s great.

Paige [00:06:40]:
You got it.

Seth [00:06:44]:
Exactly. So what’s the best thing about being entrepreneur versus being in the corporate world in your mind?

Paige [00:06:50]:
Well, I guess there are a lot of great things. The best is probably that, like, you own it. It stops with you. It starts with you. There are no excuses, you know? You know, when you’re working for a big company, it’s not always, you’re not always doing what you think is best or what, what your, you know, crazy idea is that you wanna test or learn from. But when it’s your company, when it’s you, when, you know, the buck stops with you, it’s up to you. And I love that. I mean, a lot of people might be stressed out or feel the pressure, but I think that’s, that’s kind of gets my adrenaline going and it gets me excited to be creative, to try something completely crazy.

Paige [00:07:37]:
See if it works. And if it doesn’t work, try and figure out why it didn’t work and try something else. I really like kind of having my feet to the fire and Yeah. It’s just, I’m sure you feel the same way when it’s

Seth [00:07:51]:
Pivot. Yeah.

Paige [00:07:52]:
Yeah. When it’s your business, you figure it out.

Seth [00:07:54]:
Constant. Exactly. That’s wild. Then what’s what keeps you up at night? What’s the scariest thing about being an entrepreneur?

Paige [00:08:06]:
Oh, I don’t know. After 22 years, not much when my head hits the pillow. I’m exhausted

Seth [00:08:11]:
to that, to

Paige [00:08:12]:
be dawdy honest. I don’t know. I mean, I think in this world that we live in with artificial intelligence and everything at Internet speed, you know, it’s exhausting. And you have to be on every minute of every day to kinda keep your antenna up, following the trends, staying up on what’s new, what’s working, what’s not working. I was just reading an article this morning about all the new words that were added to the dictionary for 2024. And I’m shocked at how many of the the words I didn’t even I you know, it it hadn’t hit my radar yet. So I think, you know, I love,

Seth [00:08:52]:
like, rest rest of the day.

Paige [00:08:54]:
You’re always learning and growing and trying to figure out kind of what’s new, what’s working, what’s not working. Why is it working? Why is it not working? And that’s what keeps it fun.

Seth [00:09:07]:
Yeah. Absolutely. And Riz, I think Riz, the charisma, but Riz is the new word of the Yeah. I gotcha. I gotcha.

Paige [00:09:13]:
Last year.

Seth [00:09:13]:
Was Riz.

Paige [00:09:14]:
Not what Riz

Seth [00:09:15]:
heard of. It

Paige [00:09:16]:
got raised. You got it.

Seth [00:09:18]:
More than I did. I was like, what is?

Paige [00:09:22]:
Thanks.

Seth [00:09:22]:
There’s a positive term. I, at first, I was like, I wasn’t sure what to make of that word. I was like, what? But apparently, it’s a word, so we’ll go with it. Right?

Paige [00:09:30]:
Exactly.

Seth [00:09:33]:
Exactly. So what is the most important thing we carry with you all the time?

Paige [00:09:39]:
To carry with you all the time? I think a a great attitude

Seth [00:09:42]:
Or it can be it can be woo woo. Yeah. It could be woo woo, or it can be servicing both. So

Paige [00:09:48]:
I mean, I think having a great attitude, kind of a can do attitude and a growth mindset will take you very far. Love it. You know, you want, you always wanna learn and grow. And, you know, if you have a growth mindset, you see the world in a way where, you know, you and I don’t have to be in competition just because we both, you know, live in the digital marketing world. There’s a way we

Seth [00:10:15]:
can, you

Paige [00:10:17]:
know, we can, we can both win. We can both, you know, bake more pies and create more exciting stuff for the world. And I, I see though I see people that have kind of more of a, positive attitude and see opportunities and not challenges, just do better, I think, and they’re happier and they’re more successful.

Seth [00:10:46]:
That’s awesome. I mean, that’s really what you need to have. I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs when they come out of the wor in the world, they’re like everyone’s up against me. It’s, you know, it’s a fight. It’s the survival of the fittest. And this is an old mentality. Whereas now it’s like, you look at it and, you know, marketers can work together sometimes, you know, solo practitioners need more support on stuff.

Paige [00:11:09]:
Without a doubt. No. I mean,

Seth [00:11:11]:
it just seems a.

Paige [00:11:12]:
Life is not a zero sum game. If you win, it doesn’t mean I lose. We can both win.

Seth [00:11:21]:
Absolutely. So, Paige, where are the people where is your meme Waterhole online? Like, where do you hang out the most?

Paige [00:11:27]:
I’m really a LinkedIn, fan. I am not all over the place by any means. Some buddies of mine in college, very, very focused, very streamlined. Some buddies of mine in college, co founded LinkedIn. So I was, aware of it before it kind of exploded. And I, I, I really started there and it kind of does it all for me. I don’t feel the need to be on X, Twitter, whatever we’re calling it, you know, snap Pinterest, Facebook. I, you know, my, my clients are not looking for me in all these other platforms.

Paige [00:12:10]:
I think LinkedIn is the way you build trusted relationships in a digital economy before people want to talk to you or hire you or return your phone call or meet you for lunch or coffee. They’re gonna Google you and check you out. And 9 times out of 10 in my business, they’re gonna look for you on LinkedIn. And if they don’t know anybody that, you know, that’s gonna raise a red flag, but you and I know a ton of people

Seth [00:12:37]:
in account.

Paige [00:12:38]:
You know, we have a lot of overlap in our works. And so that builds trust because people I know and respect are on your, LinkedIn. And so I think, wow, Seth looks like a really good guy. He’s someone I should know. I want to reach out because, you know, people vouch for me, vouch for you. And that’s a good sign. It

Seth [00:13:00]:
is. It’s great. So, Paige, this has been so much fun. I told you it was gonna be a quick podcast because it’s bite sized. The whole idea of a pod this podcast is I wanna ramble for an hour because I it’s supposed to be a small commute or a commute to your downstairs office or whatever. Like, something people let’s knock on and get some good insights. So thank you so much for being on the show. I really appreciate it.

Seth [00:13:22]:
Everyone, go check out page on LinkedIn, and then allheart links are over there. And then Alexa will be in the show notes as well and connect with Paige. She’s wonderful.

Paige [00:13:32]:
Thank you, Seth. Really fun chatting with you today. I really appreciate it.

Seth [00:13:36]:
Awesome. That was a great show. If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show. If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, look no further than the marketing podcast network at marketing podcasts.net. Gold’s theme, I hope you have enjoyed this episode.