Women’s Day is long over but not my love for strong independent women! I am pleased to bring to you a series on #WomenWhoInspire me. This is a short interview series with women who have left deep imprints in my life. As a part of the first interview of the series, I sat down with Sangeetha to ask her certain questions that she happily answered…
Imagine a successful young bank manager monitoring micro-finance activities for 50 branches. When everybody thought she was well settled, the bank manager stirs up the pot.
She resigns from her job and decides to follow her passion in one of the most unpredictable terrains- Marketing! It takes guts to give up a well-settled job and embark upon a new journey.
This is why I call her Iron Lady.
I am pleased to introduce you to Sangeetha S Abhishek– the powerhouse of talent, ideas, and perseverance. A professor at business schools, Sangeetha runs SODME Digital Marketing agency based out of Chennai.
Sangeetha managed to find some time out of her jam-packed schedule and answered a few of my questions. Here are the excerpts from the interview...
1. You left a well-settled job with a prestigious bank to begin your own venture. Was it scary?
Not at all. I was an impatient 25-year-old who wanted to make a difference.
2. What obstacles did you face when you began initially? How did you overcome them?
2014 is when Digital marketing was at a nascent stage. People considered it as something that is to be done free.
I was easily ignored in any meeting – young and being a woman. Teaching is my passion. Taught since 2011. Taking control of the room and making people listen to me is something I had practiced. I put it to use.
Finding talent was an issue. I could see that young people wanted to work in a swanky office and did not stay in my small office. I understood that there are so many talented women who had to stay at home because they did not have a support system at home.
I started working with Stay at home moms and freelancers. Because of this, the quality of my services was appreciated by my clients. When my fellow marketing agencies were delivering services employing newbies, I got to work with talented and experienced people.
I built a strong support system at home. I educated all my family members on the value of my work and requested each and every member to contribute to my growth – my husband, my mom, dad, mom in law, dad-in-law, my brother, and my little one. This way I was able to travel, stay at the office late, and focus on taking care of my team.
3. We see several women struggling to make a comeback after taking a break from their careers. Would you like to share a few tips for them?
If you want to work from home, research the work opportunities. Please do not keep asking people to suggest what’s good for you. take control, research on the internet. You know what interests you and what does not. Choose a field.
Invest in courses and classes. Do an internship, if needed. Start applying for jobs.
Do not worry about the break, do not compare yourself with people your age, stop falling for social media hoax job opportunities. Do your research.
Do not try to become the world’s best mom, best DIL, or the best wife. Do not hesitate to ask for help from your family.
4. Do you have a business mantra you follow religiously? What is it?
I have made it a point that I don’t talk about my family while making excuses like delays in project submissions or my unavailability. Excuses are always professional. I never discuss my family with clients.
I never promise sales and get a client. I would rather accept clients who believe in reality.
5. Do you think it is a lot more difficult for women entrepreneurs to get taken seriously? What has your journey been like?
Even at this age, it is difficult for women entrepreneurs. I go the extra mile to make people see me as an entrepreneur and not a woman entrepreneur.
I have learned that if I want to be taken seriously, I should stop expecting to be treated as a woman and not expect flexibility or special treatment.
I have also made sure that I would never put another woman down and work on lifting people up wherever and whenever I could.
6. It must be exhausting running a successful business and managing a home. How do you deal with the stress?
I am working on not taking the success or failure of my business, personally. We are 2 different entities. I have learned that the first 2 years of my business had been stressful mainly because of this.
Don’t let people comment on your motherhood. I am sharp with my words when people attempt that angle. Setting rules like this will stop people from feeding you the guilt which you are already fighting in your head.
7. How do you deal with difficult clients? Got any interesting stories to share with our readers?
Sometimes, we don’t deal with the business owners directly and have to work with their marketing team who are almost always insecure because they have not attempted to learn Digital Marketing. They try to play games between clients and us.
Most of the time, we will get this issue sorted out with the clients or get out of the project instead of putting my team in a toxic environment. When we are not allowed to add value, when there are toxic people, when we are paid the least, when we are doing unproductive work, it is time to fire the client.
I have made sure that my team never gets treated without respect. I give my client 2 chances to change their behavior and the third time, we will excuse ourselves out of the project.
Enjoying our #WomenWhoInspire series? Don’t forget to share it with your friends and family. Know someone who inspires you? Share the story with us at write@mayurii.com
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