5 on the 5th Interview: Mallie Hart

This month’s interview is with design extraordinare Mallie Hart of Go Creative Go. I met Mallie through the Social Solutions Collective. She’s become a good friend and business partner. What I love most about her is her tell-it-like-it-is attitude. We all need someone who will tell us stuff straight up – the good and the bad. Below is my interview with her and I highly suggest you go follow her when you’re done 🙂

Name: Mallie Hart

Title: Marketing Director

Company: Go Creative Go!

Website/Blog: http://www.gocreativego.com

Twitter Handle: @gotweetsgo

Question 1: Why did you choose to work in this industry?

Having spent many years working as a graphic and web designer, I briefly stepped away from the running of my own business to assist with the web presence of a local CBS affiliate – a television station. At that time social media marketing for business entities was fairly new and I convinced my manager that the station should get busy on Facebook and Twitter. I was hooked. It paired my love of words with visuals and I’ve never turned back!

Question 2: How do you keep continuing your education and staying up on all the latest trends and changes?

I attend a LOT of webinars, listen to a lot of podcasts, take part in a wide variety of tweetchats and sign up for many a digital event. I don’t take part in too many IRL events, as they just don’t fit into my schedule. However, I can always carve out an hour for learning. I’m also a voracious reader of both books and blogs. I feel I manage to keep more than up to date and on top of ideas and discussions that matter.

It’s important to remember that no matter how much you educate yourself, this industry moves too fast to truly know it all. Embrace that and focus on staying educated on your strengths and your greatest weaknesses, and you’ll be your best.

Question 3: What do you love the most about working in your industry? What bothers you the most?

I love the conversational and discussion opportunities. Connecting and conversing on social channels means there’s always someone to chat up. You don’t have to wait for IRL events to dig into a topic, start a conversation or even have an amiable argument. 

Information and ideas are at our fingertips. mere inches away from our screens. Even better, the creators of that information, of those ideas are readily available and accessible. What’s not to love about that?

What bothers me the most? When social media “professionals” feel the need to weigh in with their “expert” opinion on EVERYTHING.

Seriously? There’s absolutely no way to be an across the board expert on all things social. The platforms, the sharing style, the terms of service … all of it just changes too often and too quickly for anyone to be an across all platforms expert.

Let’s stop embracing the “jack of all trades, master of none” social media marketer mentality. Focus on a few key areas where you can excel, then collaborate or contract out the areas that you find less than exceptional.

Question 4: What is the hardest situation you’ve encountered in your business and how did you handle it?

It can be hard to let a client go when you realize that you’re not getting them what they need, because no matter what you do, you can’t get them to see the value and importance of the tasks you’re recommending they undertake on a regular basis.

The oft-heard phrase, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink,” is so very true in these instances. I can lead a client to the idea of social media and relationship marketing, but it they can’t understand, appreciate and value that kind of marketing, they can never effectively engage in it.

Question 5: What is the best business advice you’ve been given and why has it stayed with you?

The best business advice I ever got wasn’t actually business advice. I’ve always been very athletic and I’ve always engaged in athletic pursuits. Whilst training for endurance cycling and adventure racing events I was often reminded that I needed to recover as hard as I trained. It’s fantastically sound advice for entrepreneurs, too.

When you own your own business you often find yourself burning the candle at both ends. It’s important to remember to schedule and partake in adequate downtime between the launches and deadlines that often mean late nights, early mornings and frenzied feeds at our desk. You can overwork yourself to the point where anything you produce isn’t up to par.

Taking that rest, recuperating and rejuvenating is good for you, good for your business and good for your clients.

One for the road…

Bonus: If you could come back to life as any person from the history, who would it be?

Hmmmm … I majored in medieval history, so you’d think I’d mention some epic and heroic woman from the historic past. But many of them faced so much controversy and so much unrest that I find the idea of reliving their lives quite unappealing.

I’m a huge music fan, especially punk rock and hardcore, but I don’t think I’d want to come back as a member of the Sex Pistols or the Clash, as they sure got spit on and/or beat up a lot.

So, I find myself thinking I might like to come back as Rebecca Rusch, a powerhouse princess in the endurance mountain biking and adventure racing world. She’s a champion, an incredible athlete and a force to be reckoned with. I’m quite athletic, but her bike skills and epic endurance are something I can only dream about.