Rookstool Interview for Stephanie Lomas

Bio

Stephanie Lomas is an experienced entrepreneur and technology professional. She has a degree in electronics and communications, which she put to good use by landing a job with one of the leading technology companies right out of college. Stephanie has been a denizen of the startup ecosystem for almost a decade now, and in that time, she’s gained invaluable experience in various fields and technologies.

Stephanie has always had a knack for technology. This led her to pursue a career in digital marketing, where she could learn about and work with the latest and greatest startups in the space. Her skillset eventually grew to the point where she founded her own company, Success Step, which provides marketing services to startups around the world. Stephanie is 100% dedicated to each and every one of her clients and is constantly looking for new and innovative ways to help them grow their businesses.

Stephanie is one of the industry’s top B2B inbound marketers, with experience in the e-commerce and retail segments. She has always focused on the quality and authenticity of service instead of benchmarking Success Steps against other agencies or chasing revenue goals. This focus on excellence has earned her a reputation as a thought leader in her field.

Success Steps is a B2B inbound marketing agency that nurtured its content marketing specialist specialty to become known as an authority in the SAAS products category. The sheer focus on SAAS products enabled the company to earn a reputation for being a jack of all trades, which it did not strive for deliberately. The agency’s success can be primarily attributed to Stephanie’s passion and commitment to providing quality services and support to her clients.

Stephanie Lomas is a serial entrepreneur who has started, grown, and sold numerous businesses over her career. She has taken to giving motivational speeches to budding entrepreneurs lately in order to help them avoid some of the mistakes she made along the way.

Stephanie believes in doing what you’re good at and comfortable with – you don’t need to chase after someone else’s achievements or try to do everything at once. One must decide on the growth rate and the operation’s size before beginning in order to set realistic expectations from the outset.

Stephanie is a dedicated marketer who doesn’t stop with creating a campaign or writing a piece just to promote her clients’ products. She doesn’t work merely to please the search engines but uses her exceptional storytelling ability to help a business’s audience picture themselves using the product or service most enticingly. Stephanie has an innate understanding of how people interact with brands and what makes them loyal followers. Her clients appreciate her dedication, hard work, and creativity in making their businesses thrive.

Stephanie lives with her husband and two kids in Chicago, IL. In her spare time, she enjoys cycling with her family and gardening. She also likes to enjoy lakeside Bar-B-Ques.

  1. What was your best/favorite subject in school?

I loved Math when I was in school and still I like playing with numbers and solving mathematical problems. Math has always given me a lot of satisfaction and boosted my energy and thinking capacity while studying. Even today as a digital marketer, my love of math’s helps me analyze the metrics and camping results in a better way than anyone else with no inclination to math’s. I love the number game and can solve mental math’s problems for hours at a stretch without getting bored. It is my favorite time pass to date. And it helps me polish the analytical skills that definitely offer me an edge in my business too. 

2. What was your first job?

After graduating from the University of Colorado with a degree in electronic and communications engineering, I joined S7 Technology Inc. as a trainee. I worked under the guidance of my manager, fulfilling various tasks ranging from assisting staff with new projects, offering suggestions on existing methods, conducting research, writing reports, and managing data. My job responsibilities included attending meetings, conducting desktop and field research, and performing all practical and administrative duties assigned by my supervisor. I had to travel to other sites when required, assisting on projects, and writing up reports. I learned how to work in a team and be prepared to step outside of my comfort zone during my first job. 

3. Where and how did you first get into the industry you currently work in?

I look at my engineering degree as an experience that gave me an understanding of technology and helped me find business-related jobs in the engineering industry. Despite my engineering degree, my passion was always for marketing. I liked creating impact and selling ideas to people. Since I didn’t have any academic background in business or management, initially it was hard for me to find a marketing-related role in large companies. That was when I started looking at opportunities within startups, where I landed a role in a marketing and business development department. 

4. How have those jobs prepared you for what you do now?

The skills and expertise I gained through sales and business development jobs helped me immensely in making decisions about every aspect of my business today. I worked for three years in the field of business marketing. This experience gave me an understanding of how to find potential clients, pitch a product or service, and persuade companies to do business with you. I’m an introvert who came out of his comfort zone to do cold calling to potential clients. I learned to research to find companies who might be interested in the product under discussion. I practiced sales scripts to ensure a great conversation with them. All this experience helped me prepare for my own entrepreneurial venture on a deep level—how I can help my clients and how I can communicate the value proposition in a better way.

5. Describe the best day of work you’ve ever had.

Two years into the marketing industry, I was awarded the best performance award by my employer and I consider that the best day of work I have ever had. It was so satisfying and encouraging that I was able to follow my dreams and actually do good in them. All my hard work paid off and was acknowledged by the experts in the field. 

6. How do you keep yourself motivated?

I believe building a seamless process helps a lot in staying motivated and driven. When I started Success Steps, I found it really hard to keep up with all the work, meeting clients, handling staff, and creating campaigns. But over the years, I have successfully built out a process that has enabled me to stay on top of it. I have mastered time management with experience. Now I try to automate the process most of the time and often spread out the tasks between myself and my team. 

7. What kind of business ideas excites you most?

Any business that helps people achieve their dreams excites me. A business that helps people, collaborate and build strong relationships with their clients is something that means a lot to me.

8. Have you ever tried any unorthodox techniques to attract attention to your business?

Yes, I did! I hired a couple of professional artists to design an artistic advertisement in my office front window as well as on billboards across the city. The above-average artwork helped draw the eye and showed that people truly care about unorthodox things and ideas.

In the following year, I tried another unique marketing idea and that was I opted to sponsor amateur artists and students for public sidewalk chalking in the city. This strategy also generated a lot of engagement and attracted an audience in and of itself.

9. What personal achievement are you most proud of?

I increased the sales of one of my company’s maiden clients by $5000 per month through the implementation of a dedicated marketing plan to bring in more business. I feel really proud of that achievement to date.

10. What wisdom would you have liked to share with yourself when you first started out?

Never seek perfection. Always work with maximum sincerity and give your 100% to what you commit to doing but never get intimidated by perfection. Perfection will come with time and experience. Learn to strike a balance. Over-analyzing isn’t a great idea regarding time management. 

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