On today’s episode, Irina sits down with Cathy Murphy, CEO & Co-Founder of Venus Media Group. Before starting Venus in 2017, she spent 20 years working at large media companies like Facebook, Instagram, Pandora and CBS. She was able to gain a ton of insight into the social media space and culture and experience a lot of personal growth and self-knowledge that helped shape her into the CEO she is today.
The turning point in her life when she decided she wanted to become an entrepreneur was around when she turned 40. In addition to vocalizing her dream of having an ad agency to her friends and family, certain traumatic events also helped accelerate her career path. At that point, Cathy was working all hours – even on vacation, she was getting up at 5 to try to get some hours in before her daughter work up. She was burning out and then ended up having a severe ear infection where she lost hearing in one ear for 4 months. She was on disability from Facebook and had this revelation that she couldn’t continue like this anymore. She was destroying her health and working around the clock. Venus Media was born shortly thereafter…
Cathy met her co-founder, Sylvia, through a common connection. Cathy always liked working on a team so having a partner in this venture was important to her. Before even starting they had very candid conversations about their finances, likes/dislikes, roles/responsibilities, etc. This is what helped cement their relationship and confirm their partnership in the business.
Cathy’s advice is to always listen when you set out to become an entrepreneur. Listen to potential clients, your family, friends, and don’t be afraid to take advice from everyone and evaluate what could work for you. In terms of advertising tips, Cathy finds that her #1 tool to get new clients is LinkedIn. When she puts out personalized content that is meaningful it gets more connection from her contacts. She also advises that more content is better than less, so don’t wait to get the perfect, most curated post. Just post!
Lastly, regarding paid social media, unless you have a minimum of $7-$10K per month, it’s won’t have a strong impact, and you’re better off going to a networking event that will have more of an immediate impact on your business. All advertising is about reach and frequency – the right people, the right time, the right message, the right number of times – In order to get that level of effectiveness, it’ll cost money. Cathy’s advice to new businesses is to save some money before starting a social media campaign. Understand the difference between organic and paid social. It’s not about getting likes and followers – it’s about targeting the right audience of people who can and want to buy your product or services.
To find out more, check out Venus’ website.
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