248: Listen, Learn and Leap with Eileen Gittins

Is there a pain point or question that you’ve been meaning to solve with your business? What if there is competition around your idea? How do you succeed at marketing when your beginning budget isn’t big enough? Today’s guest Eileen Gittins, Co-Founder, and CEO of BossyGrl learned the answer to these questions and more on her multilayered entrepreneurial journey. BossyGrl is a new groundbreaking platform enabling female entrepreneurs to create and grow real e-commerce businesses. Her team and she are on a mission to change the current state of gender inequality in the workplace by helping Gen Z girls develop real-world business skills, confidence, and experience. Did I mention that she’s founded multiple tech companies including the well-known self-publishing company Blurb?! In today’s episode you will… See why girls should participate on sports teams to learn about entrepreneurship Discover why competition around your good idea isn’t a bad thing Know when, to be honest with yourself and move on in your journey Understand the difference between being competent at a job versus being the right person Find out what to do when your starting marketing budget is low Learn the value of communicating directly with customers INSIGHTS: “There’s something in those life lessons learned early, not in an academic context, in a team and sports context.” Eileen Gittins “I was in e-commerce at the very beginning and built tools that enabled marketers to understand who were coming to their websites and how they were behaving; it was sort of behavioral segmentation so they could do a better job of designing the web experience.” Eileen Gittins “The whole idea behind Blurb started with personal pain.” Eileen Gittins “When you have a good idea, an idea whose time has come, where it’s sort of the confluence of a lot of different things coming together to create a business or market opportunity, you’re probably not the only one who sees it...that’s not a reason to stop, in fact you can actually leverage that.” Eileen Gittins “Honestly, I am an entrepreneur. I love creating things from nothing. I love seeing an opportunity that I am passionate about. I’m very mission-driven in that way and if it’s something that really captures my imagination, I am just itching to go and do another one.” Eileen Gittins “I was itching to do something new, itching for another problem to solve. I got honest with myself and that’s very hard to do, especially having a long career and being CEO many times, was I actually the best person to be running Blurb at that time? Were my skill sets the best attuned to really scale the company operationally and make it more efficient?” Eileen Gittins “When you’re decent at things you can do—a lot of things—it doesn’t mean you love them, it doesn’t mean you’re the best at it and it doesn’t mean it’s the best thing for your business.” Eileen Gittins “In a world where you are starting a business and have no money for marketing, you have to become a chief storyteller, get your butt out there and figure out how you are going to drive media coverage. Your job is to get the word out leveraging all the channels you have.” Eileen Gittins “Even though our place of business was digital people want to know who is behind the screen; the more you can humanize your business in that way, the more people become attached to your brand and they tell their friends about you.” Eileen Gittins “Find ways to engage your customers and get them to share your story for you.” Eileen Gittins “93% of all early-stage funding dollars in 2015 went to 100% male teams.” Eileen Gittins “If we could get young girls and women to actually learn how to be an entrepreneur by being one, then by the time they enter the workforce they would be entering the workforce with a skillset, confidence and the language of business and that would make it harder for people to dismiss them.” Eileen Gittins RESOURCES: BossyGrl Website Eileen’s Twitter Eileen LinkedIn “Made to Stick” by Chip Heath Blurb