The First Chapter

Starts with a blank page.

Hey! Thanks for dropping by.  I’m so thankful to have the opportunity to carve out my little corner of the web, to build a place where I can share my thoughts and experiences on marketing, living a creative life and going for goals.  I am starting a brand new chapter of my life, and sitting in front of me is a stark white, blank page.  I’m scared, excited, giddy as all get up and totally paralyzed.  The world is my oyster right now and I can’t decide if I want to place it on a shelf or string it on a necklace!

Let me back up a bit.

I had the pleasure and the joy of graduating from college with a degree in marketing and public relations from Duquesne University in 2010…yea, the year when the market crashed and everyone cut their, you guessed it, marketing budgets.  Since that lackluster start, I’ve had six jobs in six years.  None of them were glamorous.  A few were horrible.  The rest just weren’t me.  I wasn’t happy.  Deep down, I’ve always wanted to start something of my own.  This had led me to start a few different side projects that I had hoped to one day turn into a full time career.  After a few years of what seemed like shouting into the massive and expansive abyss that is the internet, I connected with a really cool company called Idea Hunt.  Think of them as a crowdsourcing platform for ideas – the Kickstarter of problem solving and growth hacking.  Users (It’s free to use guys so come on  and join!) get to provide feedback and ideas directly to companies.  The community of hunters then give feedback and up-vote other ideas until the hunt is over and a winner is selected!  I just won a $20 Amazon gift card the other day when my idea was selected as a finalist!

But wait! It’s gets even better!

So, I fell in love with the platform and sign up for the emails.  I’m already jazzed about this new community when I get an email asking me if I’d like to become a Founding Member of Idea Hunt.  I’m all in.  I shoot back and give them my YES! And next thing I know I’m on Slack chatting with the founders and other Idea Hunters from across the world.  The idea that had won me the $20 Amazon Gift Card was something that they were interested in me having help out with and I was happy to do it because when you help someone else, you’re bound to get something good in return, right? Well I was expecting to meet someone that might need some freelance help here and there so that I could start to build a client base and leave my daytime job…but what I got instead, was an invitation to interview for their Director of Community Growth Management position!

Can you believe it?

Next week I’m flying to Amsterdam to attend The Next Web with Idea Hunt! And then heading over to Sweden to meet the rest of the team in person!  The interviews, the job description, everything has happened so fast that I can’t believe it’s really happening.  In working with a foreign company, we decided that it was easiest for me to set up my own LLC – so yea not only am I getting the job of a lifetime, but I’m also now starting my own company! In just over a week, I’ll be networking with other start ups, tech companies, web designers and more!  I cannot wait to take my passion for creativity, service and growth management and channel it all into Idea Hunt!

Are you going to The Next Web? Let me know! Email me at maggie @ mckeatingsolutions . com

Want to learn more about my passion for community management? Read my interview with Idea Hunt