By Juliana Garcia (MBA Alumni)
This journey has truly emphasized the value of resilience in the face of rejections. Every ‘no’ I receive brings me closer to a ‘yes’, and it’s amazing how much you grow from facing these situations.
-Juliana Garcia
My name is Juliana Garcia. I was born in Bogota, the capital city of Colombia. When I grew up, I always felt interested in entertainment, books and everything related to art. I went to school for advertising and marketing in Argentina and worked for an advertising agency in Columbia for 3 years. Then I worked in event marketing, handling corporate events for big brands like Samsung and Procter & Gamble. Then I realized that digital marketing was growing so fast, especially now everything can be tracked from your phone. I decided to pursue a digital program offered by UCLA extension and move to the United States. I was lucky to land a job in in-house marketing at a Latin company that sold tickets for Latin concerts, and it was interesting. I learned a lot about digital marketing and decided to create my own business. So I started my MBA at Stanton University in 2019.
My first enterprise was an online jewelry company. My friend and I were doing everything: marketing, shipping, and organizing. We did a lot of experiments with digital marketing on Etsy, Google, and Facebook. However, retail marketing was difficult, especially when the COVID pandemic hit, everything went so slow.
I went back to Columbia during the pandemic and got hired by a digital marketing agency. My job was done remotely, and so I learned how to manage my time and communicate with clients virtually and from my boss how to manage a whole team. These skills are valuable when I open my own digital marketing agency. I’m doing some social media for my clients: keeping track of what’s going on and reporting what people like and look for in social media. My focus is getting more new clients and scaling up the business.
Marketing is very broad and important in showcasing a brand or a business credibility. It also aims to keep people engaged in what the company does. Digital marketing includes several means of communication, such as emails, websites, social media, and influencers. It involves content creation, branding, advertising, relationship management, and so on.
The first challenge when I created my own start-up was managing administration matters: permits, government filing, and taxes. It was very complicated but fortunately, I found fastfilings.com, a service company helping me go through all this process for an affordable fee. Another challenge is getting clients. It is hard because you need to knock on a lot of doors. This year, I have had the opportunity to share more than 20 proposals, resulting in 3 successful agreements. This journey has truly emphasized the value of resilience in the face of rejections. Every ‘no’ I receive brings me closer to a ‘yes’, and it is amazing how much you grow from facing these situations.
Networking is essential to entrepreneurs and job seekers. Some of my networks are referred by my friends who are Stanton students in Garden Grove and Los Angeles. There are a lot of free events for networking in Los Angeles and Orange County too. For example, I joined events for female entrepreneurs and the tech industry. A good advice, especially here in the United States, is to have your business card. I did a simple one at Staples and I found it super useful in those networking events where everybody exchanges their cards and LinkedIn profile. If you are a shy person, it is hard to get out of your comfort zone and talk with a bunch of strangers. What you can do is bring a friend with you. I think a lot of people are open to meet you and see what you are offering. There are also free webinars and summits that you can learn to empower your business. Then you can just stay a little longer, hang out, and give out some of your ideas. It has been a good strategy to get to know more people.