Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Chavez.
Hi Stephanie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born in San Antonio and raised in Dallas, and I went to the University of Texas at Arlington and studied business. I had two kids just two years apart who are obviously grown now and doing incredible things in the world.
I have always had a strong work ethic. I’ve been working since my first job at 15 at a dry cleaner. My first office job was when I was a junior in high school at an insurance company. I found that I really loved the business aspect of things. From there, I went on to work for a market research firm for three years. This provided me with incredible knowledge and background.
After that, I moved on to working with a company that managed insurance for car dealerships. For eight years, I supported a large sales team on the marketing side of things. I switched companies but continued to work on a marketing and sales team for website development and hosting company.
At this point, I decided to step out on my own by creating a marketing company so I could be my own boss. This ended up being how I met Shama. At my company, we did websites and dabbled in social media. Keep in mind this was back in 2008 when social media wasn’t really a thing for companies. Somewhere in there, I stumbled upon Shama’s newsletter at the time. I found her incredibly insightful and agreed with a lot of her postings.
I began following her on Twitter; her stuff was so ahead of the time. I ended up setting alerts for her tweets to come to my phone. One day she tweeted asking for help in the Dallas area with a website, and I jumped on the opportunity. A week later, she called me asking if I was a public speaker and comfortable talking in front of groups. She was supposed to speak for a small women’s networking group and asked if I could do it for her as she had gotten sick. I was floored to be asked to speak on her behalf. We hadn’t even met at this point. I did it, and she got such great feedback. She then told me if I ever got tired of running my own business, I could come work for hers. I jumped at the opportunity as Shama was such a visionary and I believed so much in what she did. I joined Zen, and off we went.
After five years with Zen, I got an offer I couldn’t refuse to build a marketing team from the ground up.
Fast forward to January of 2020, Shama and I reconnected in Dallas. Shama mentioned she would love to have me back if I was interested. At this point, she had kids and was looking to step back a bit and have someone else handle the day-to-day. I was ready for a change, so I returned to Zen. As you may know, this was right around when COVID hit and the world shut down. The whole thing ended up being a blessing in disguise as the previous company did events, so I would’ve lost my job. I transitioned into the role of President, and here I am two-plus years later, happy to be a part of it all.
Giving back in the form of servant leadership is a cause near and dear to my heart. I’m a firm believer that empathy and emotional intelligence are so important. Humans are just that, human. If you take care of your employees first, everything else falls into place. If they’re happy to be here, they’ll want to work hard and bring success to clients. I strive to make sure everyone feels taken care of and supported every day we show up to work.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I have always been bold for my age. I started out young at a market research firm. I excelled and did well there. I was young and female in a male-dominated space; two strikes against me. I’ve dealt with not being promoted due to gender despite doing everything the same and even training a guy to do my job. Don’t know the answers? Take classes and courses and learn them yourself. I’m self-taught; knowledge is power.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My journey with Zen Media started in 2009 when Founder Shama Hyder’s theories on how social media could be used for marketing caught my eye. In Zen’s infancy, it was just Shama and I taking over the world—and building one of the first-ever social media marketing agencies that resulted in $1M+ in annual revenue in just three years and top-tier clients around the globe.
We grew the company together for five years, scaling the start-up to 40 employees with clients around the globe. Though I left for a different opportunity for a few years, I came back at the beginning of 2020 to take on the role of Global CMO and was promoted to President in 2021.
I believe that trust and credibility are the basis on which B2-B relationships develop. I coach companies interested in lasting for the long term to understand that maintaining trust translates to a stronger brand reputation, a more reliable social license to operate, and an ability to attract and retain talent and capital. Great thought leaders and their teams create full editorial calendars with strategies ahead of time to create valuable content strategically and regularly.
What we do at Zen is unique. We work together to build an engaged, hungry, ready-to-buy audience that trusts our clients and will buy from them in an exceedingly competitive marketplace. To compete, every player on the team must be at the top of their game both from a credentials perspective and in their personality and value system. We are frontrunners who help other frontrunners succeed.
Seemingly small initiatives, like themed days (Moments Monday is followed by Kudos Tuesday), virtual workplace parties, and thoughtful birthday gifts, are important to me. I believe that it is varied yet consistent actions that, together, make the biggest impact.
Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
In all honesty, I’m not a huge risk-taker. Don’t get me wrong; sometimes, it makes sense to take a calculated risk. Those are the kinds of risks I’m comfortable with. However, I now have clients and 65 people to worry about; there’s a lot at stake, so less risk is taken at this point. When you have so many people depending on you, the days of taking a lot of risks are over.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://zenmedia.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephaniecross/
