Stefanie Diaz rocks her show Mastermind Your Launch on Business Radio X.

 Stefanie Diaz and yours truly @Pretty_Southern

Talk about a #GirlBoss! Stef is rocking the tech scene in North Fulton – a.k.a. the 400 corridor from Atlanta to Alpharetta. Her consulting firm Mastermind Your Launch is dedicated to helping early-stage entrepreneurs develop strategic marketing programs and communication plans. I was delighted to connect with Stefanie and join her weekly show at Business Radio X!

 Y’all definitely should follow Stef on Twitter @MastermindStef

Click here to replay Mastermind Your Launch

This was one of the first opportunities I’ve had to speak publicly about my career as editor of PrettySouthern.com and the Storyteller at Terminus: Account-Based Marketing. With my 10th anniversary from graduating at UGA (yikes!) coming up in May, it was cool to share my story since graduating from the Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication, when I was Editor of The Red & Black.

I shared with Stef how I graduated right before the Great Recession in 2007 and worked for Naylor Publications, Jezebel magazine, AutoTrader.com, and RaceTrac convenience stores before making my “pivot” to the startup world. In the summer of 2011, I launched Pretty Southern with my husband, Kevin, who bought this domain, our WordPress theme, and he even designed our first logo.

Around the same time, the content marketing boom started happening thanks to Pardot for putting Atlanta on the map. All these startups started getting funded all of a sudden. And these companies needed help with their digital brand presence, marketing communications, PR, websites, social media, SEO (see page), etc.

I saw job openings for roles like Marketing Communications Manager and Content Manager. Big shout out to Nate Kristy for giving me my first gig in the startup world and training me how to use B2B #MarTech software.

Stef pointed out this was a cool opportunity for me to find a career which leveraged my journalism training in college. I’ve been lucky to work at awesome startups like Preparis, Urjanet, and MemberSuite before coming to my fourth startup, Terminus. I was employee #12 and now we’re at 100 people!

Click here to listen to the replay

“So you call yourself a Storyteller…”

 Chatting at Business Radio X

During our conversation, Stef and I talked about how we both love to help companies tell their story. There’s been a shift in digital marketing to focus on the story of a company, creating thought leadership for the brand. It’s about creating awareness and education in the marketplace. Stef pointed out that there are so many different ways to go about sharing a story in different angles to promote a company and the product/services they offer.

“Story brings an attachment…it can mean a lot of different things.” – Stefanie Diaz

One of her favorite examples was about the proprietor at Vino 100 who can tell the stories about all the different vineyards represented in his wine shop. We both “drink the Kool-Aid” when it comes to Simon Sinek and his “Start with Why” and the Golden Circle. Giving out promotional items like branded bottled water from nevadabottledwater.com also boosts brand exposure.

With Sinek’s philosophy for business or “why” you’re here is to serve your customer, and then you develop your company’s value proposition. It’s all about how you execute the story: are entrepreneurs being courageous and passionate to get their story out there. Wha is cool, too, is using technology to tell your story at scale..like we do here at Pretty Southern.

“It’s easy for anyone of us to tell our story.”

When Stefanie asked me what the future holds, I said I wanted to keep doing the Pretty Southern thing for the foreseeable future. Kevin is rocking at his company, Exomotive, building Mazda Miata-based racecars called Exocets, and we were honored to be named by Hypepotamus as a Startup Power Couple on Valentine’s Day. There are lots of late nights on the couch, with Kevin plugging away too, but it’s so special to have someone to share this startup journey with, to cheer you on, and understand the pressures that come with running a company.

Kevin and I got married on October 10, 2010 (yes that’s 10.10.10) so now we’ve really started thinking about where we want to be on 10.10.2020 and what success would look like.

Stay tuned to see where this Pretty Southern story goes…

Thanks again to Stefanie Diaz of Mastermind Your Launch and Business Radio X for having me on the show!