Melissa Lafsky Wall has quite the resume, with past stints that include practicing law, writing for the New York Times, and running branded content for startups. With all of these varying experiences under her belt, Lafksy Wall and co-founder Meghan Graham started Brick Wall Media in 2013 to help brands customize their content strategy. Here she shares some of the wisdom she’s gained in the wide world of content, and lays out where she sees the industry heading.

Position: Co-Founder and President, Brick Wall Media

Past jobs: Director of content at HowAboutWe.com; Newsweek editor; branded content consultant; editor in chief of Infrastructurist.com; deputy web editor at Discover Magazine; editor of the Freakonomics Blog on NYTimes.com; associate editor at The Huffington Post; lawyer

Hometown: Washington, DC

Education: BA in English from Dartmouth; JD from University of Virginia School of Law

Why did you decide to get into branded content?

I had experience as a digital editor/editorial director and I’d launched digital products like Newsweek’s iPad edition. So I was always very interested in launching new media products and experimenting in digital. In 2013 it became clear that new opportunities were opening in branded content, and enough dollars were being spent on it to launch really cool things and produce some exciting content.

How did you navigate the move to branded content?

Newsweek went under (and was eventually resurrected, but by then it was a totally different publication) so I was looking for my next move. I started out working with startups on their content strategies, creating and training their editorial teams and helping them understand what role content could play in their marketing/businesses. Then I  launched Brick Wall Media and took on a full roster of clients, from mid-stage startups to Fortune 100 brands.

How does writing branded content differ from the work of a reporter?

It totally depends on the brand, and the type of content they create. Some of the branded content Brick Wall creates will involve original reporting, so we work with veteran reporters who do a fantastic job. Plenty of articles don’t take those kinds of skills—just as they don’t in mainstream media.

Do you think that the two worlds will find more overlap in the future?

Media and content marketing are at the beginning of an arranged marriage. Given that it wasn’t totally voluntary on both sides, it’s an understandably rocky relationship right now. But all signs point to it stabilizing in the future, and even becoming amicable, perhaps even happy.

What advice do you have for anyone looking to get into branded content writing?

You need all the core skills of any other writing job—very strong writing, reporting, and analysis abilities, impeccable attention to detail, and a lot of talent and appetite for the business.

Be willing to learn skills outside your comfort zone as well. The reality of the industry is such that it’s very, very difficult to make a living as just a writer—and if you don’t have additional skills, be they editing or branding or project management, the list goes on, then you’re in a tight spot when it comes to differentiating yourself from the crowd.

Can you share something you’ve done in your writing career to get ahead?

I would always, always find a great editor to offer edits on every piece I’d written before it ever went live. Having an inexperienced editor, or no editor at all, is a detriment to anyone with a byline.

What’s a major lesson you learned as you were starting your own business?

If you don’t have the desire to face your biggest fears and insecurities on a daily basis, and do a million things every week that you’ve never done before and never thought you could do, then I absolutely do not recommend starting your own business.

What challenges might someone encounter when trying to transition from traditional journalism to branded content?

The biggest trap we see both brands and writers fall into is that neither one truly understands the other. Brand journalism is not the same environment as straight journalism—you’re now an employee in the marketing division of a company that does not produce content as its core business. So it’s going to be your job to educate your employer on how content is produced, managed and distributed. Where we come in is in supporting many content managers or brand editors in teaching their teams or bosses these lessons, and building support for content as an investment.

What can writers and editors do to get hired by a brand? Do you think most brands look to hire in-house?

We work with all our clients so they only hire for what they need, when they need it. But in general, a very common mistake we see brands make is to just “hire someone to take care of content” with no understanding that editorial director, managing editor, writer, project manager, content strategist and marketing manager are all separate jobs and skillsets. You can’t simply hire someone with editorial experience and expect them to know all of these things.

Writers looking to get hired by a brand are better off staying freelance if writing is all they want to do. Going in-house means taking on a host of other responsibilities, just as it does at a typical editorial publication.

Looking  to get your foot in the door and launch your career in content strategy? Mediabistro’s class, Digital Content Strategy, covers all the fundamentals, from identifying strategic goals to tracking analytics and key metrics to measure your success.

1. A Good Fit with the Culture

“You might be smart as heck or have great design skills, but if you are a poor fit with the agency’s culture, you’ll be miserable and so will your employer. When applying, candidates should do their research by checking the agency’s website and social media profiles, and read reviews on sites like GlassDoor. Agency hiring managers, on the other hand, should use behavioral interviewing questions to determine whether there is cultural fit. At my agency, we’ve developed a Culture Code and posted it to SlideShare. We also have it embedded on our careers page. I expect that anyone I’m interviewing will have reviewed it prior to meeting with me.” —Kathleen S. Booth, Owner and CEO, Quintain Marketing

2. Curiosity

“If you’re not curious about learning new things, it’s really hard, and you’ll have a lot of long nights and stressful times. But if you feel like each project is an opportunity you can grow from, you’ll be able to get through those times and find a lot of job satisfaction.” —Chris Graham, VP of Product and Advertising, HYFN

3. A Great Work Ethic

“The most important attribute for a new hire is work ethic. With no on-air experience, I wanted to be an on-air traffic reporter. I landed a traffic reporter gig at the number-one rated Armitron station in the country, reporting traffic from 3 AM to 11 AM on weekends. I left my home in Philadelphia at midnight on Friday night, drove three hours to DC and was on air at 3 AM. I did that gig for six months before landing a spokesperson gig on QVC for a gardening company. Show me a new hire who is on time and works till the job is completed, no matter what, and I will show you someone who I can’t wait to give a raise or promote so I can keep them.” —Marilyn Heywood Paige, VP of Marketing, Fig Advertising
If you’re looking to break into advertising, consider increasing your chances by taking a class. Mediabistro’s Online Social Media Courses teach you how to do everything from building brand stories to creating effective online ads.

In 2010, the e-commerce wunderkind Birchbox upended the beauty and cosmetics industry. Its affordable online subscription service that has garnered the young company exponential rates of growth, and subscribers have doubled to more than 800,000 since 2014 alone. The company is now in the UK, France and Spain, and there’s a brick and mortar store in New York City.

But Birchbox’s success is not solely based on the thrill its personalized, delightfully packaged mix of beauty and grooming samples and lifestyle products brings to people; Birchbox has won over its customers simply because the brand knows how to talk to them.

The woman behind the Birchbox voice is Mollie Chen, the former travel editor who sparked founders Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp’s idea for a business that merges the expertise and familiarity of a beauty insider buddy with the ease of receiving a cosmetics counter on one’s doorstep.

Chen explained that the founding team’s divergent beauty routines inspired the voice she crafted as the editorial director: “We approached it really simply: What would we, as women, want to read? Hayley is still pretty minimalist in her beauty routine. She loves learning about things, but is going to spend all day reading about beauty. Katia loves beauty products and has always been more on the side of an expert. And I fall somewhere in the middle, but I’m kind of a geek when it comes to skin care.”

Chen oversees and shapes content that make shopping with the brand a captivatingly immersive experience. Customers can turn to the Birchbox Magazine and blog, various social channels and YouTube videos for content as wide-ranging as interviews with beauty industry insiders, lifestyle hacks, makeup and workout tutorials and news-of-the-day pieces—all presented with equal parts verve and insight. And of course the shop is always there for those inclined to purchase the box or full-size products.

Here, Chen shares the content creation strategies that keep Birchbox’s nearly 500 brand partners satisfied and has its customers coming back.

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Name: Mollie Chen
Position: Editorial Director, Birchbox
Resume: Mollie joined Birchbox in July 2010, prior to the company’s launch in September 2010. Before Birchbox, Mollie spent five years as an editor at Condé Nast Traveler.
Birthdate: February 27, 1983
Education: Bachelor’s degree in social studies from Harvard University
Marital status: Single
Media mentor: “I was lucky to work with incredibly smart editors at Traveler, including Alison Humes and Dana Dickey.”
Career advice: “I’ve heard this from a few people, but you should always be learning in your job. If you’re not learning, it’s time to move on.”
Guilty pleasure: Eating popcorn for dinner
Last book read: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Twitter: @molliechen

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Describe your role as Birchbox’s editorial director.

Editorial at Birchbox is actually content. And I use the word content instead of editorial because it’s everything we say or do. It’s our brand and product pages in our shop. It’s all our marketing emails. I oversee our social media team alongside our chief marketing officer.

And obviously part of that are the articles and videos—everything works together. The voice and the content are really evident throughout every part of our business. I work with amazing editors, and I oversee our international, Birchbox Man and Birchbox Women businesses.

You were on a SXSW 2014 panel, and you said, “People should think of their brand as a person to enforce messaging and brand voice guidelines.” So who is Birchbox?

There are two things: who’s Birchbox and who’s the Birchbox customer. And by customer [we mean] if she was our friend what would we name her, what would she look like and what would her personality be. So there’s the person on the end of what you’re creating and there’s your brand.

The Birchbox brand is the savvy, approachable friend you have who always seems to know a little bit more than you and is always willing to share—this goes for both men and women. With men, we think of it as your cool uncle who gave you your first iPhone or showed you how to shave.

We want to make it clear that we’re always on board with you. We’re your buddy. We’re smart, we’re funny, we are out to have a good time and we’re self-aware. The brand itself is aspirational, but we’re never too cool for you.

How does the content team work with all the other teams at Birchbox?

Everything at Birchbox is very collaborative. There’s no such thing as a project that touches any one team, and I think that’s what I love about it. My team isn’t just a team of editors. They’re strategic thinkers who understand marketing and who think about the overall business goals.

They have a good sense of creative because they work super closely with our creative team. They think about distribution of their content because they work with the social team. Everything we do is cross-functional.

I guess a good way to think about how content works with other teams is that everyone here is after the win-win-win. So we think about it as a win for the customer: ‘I found the best product. It’s amazing and, not only did I find it through Birchbox, they taught me how to use it.’

That’s a great experience for the customer. For the brand, we want to have the right brand to meet the right customer and put that brand’s products in the right framework and context so the customers can understand them. And then for Birchbox, if those two things are working properly—if we’re connecting the right customers to the right brands, to the right content—we are winning.

[For example,] we just onboarded this new beauty company. No one knows who they are, but they are using the most amazing ingredients. Maybe we need to go talk to their founder and do a deep dive into those ingredients. And then we work extremely closely with marketing to think about the action we want the customer to take and the story we’re going to tell. [We think about] the value [we’re giving] to the customer, whether it’s an offer we’re sending them or a subscribe link.

We’re always thinking about how we can get them to click through and do what we want them to do.

What goes into creating content that, as you said, considers all three stakeholders: customer, brand partners and Birchbox?

We think about these things on a monthly basis, but also things are definitely on a daily basis. [We think] how are we going to bring [this month’s] theme to life? We start building our video and story lineup. And then on a day-to-day basis we keep a lookout for news, such as Lorde collaborating with MAC on a makeup line—is that something that our customers would love to know about?

What’s the Birchbox spin on that? Or we see that a customer tweeted a question about wearing sunscreen in the winter, and we whip up a blog post to answer them. So there’s the lineup that takes a longer view, and then there [are] the day-to-day reactions.

Birchbox has a very vocal and engaged community. How else do you use customers to shape content?

We are so lucky to have such an engaged community, and we really respect our customers. We [rely on] user-generated content—their pictures and what they’re saying about these products, and [create] an amazing gallery on our site.

What we like about this is it shows products and our boxes in the context of people’s homes and their lives. You can shop those if you want or you can just scroll through and consume.

We’re also constantly listening to [customers] in comments on videos and articles, and in emails we get. So we might just respond to them in a one-off way or we might take their comments and their questions and build out a story.

And we have a group of members called Birchbloggers who are our bloggers, but we’re not paying them anything. We sometimes send them products, but most of the time we’re just asking their opinions or reposting some of their content, using their reviews and trying to give them a bigger audience and help them succeed at their own initiatives. We want those real voices on our site.

What do you envision happening with content marketing for Birchbox and other brands, in general?

Something I’m excited about is mobile. We see that a huge percentage of our readers, our customers, are accessing Birchbox from their mobile device or they’re accessing it through our app. So that brings up questions of how do you tailor your content for an audience who’s reading on a smartphone or a tablet?

We’re thinking about not just how we want to tailor the messaging, but are there different types of content that we want to be putting on mobile? Are there different ways that people want to both shop and read if they’re not sitting at a desk?

In general, with content marketing, I think what is so cool—and I hope we’re working towards it—is what if we looked at Birchbox.com and there weren’t separate areas for the shop and for the magazine? What if it all just flowed together? That’s what I think is fascinating.

How have you grown as a storyteller, writer and editor through working in this role?

So much.

When you work at a place that’s transparent about business goals—how we’re going to get there and how everything is doing, not just how much we’re selling, but how this email’s performing, how the tech team is tweaking the site so people can find things quicker—you start thinking bigger than your own job.

I think that has likely made me a much stronger content strategist—just knowing what the goals are and being a part of setting them. So I now know a lot about marketing and brand relations, and I’ve worked really closely with our creative team.

Nothing I do is in a silo. Everything I do is attached to all these different teams at our company, and I think that’s helped me create something that’s ultimately stronger.

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Aside from the same title, CMOs today have a job that barely resembles the one they did ten, even five years ago. In fact, for CMOs at cutting-edge brands, marketing is only one of a wide range of responsibilities.
With more data at their disposal, businesses have grown more customer-centric than ever before. Among other things, this means that the rest of the C-suite is often looking for guidance from the CMO—the person in the organization who knows the most about listening and responding to customers. So how, exactly, do today’s best CMOs keep their businesses thriving in the digital age?
Let’s take a look at the top 10 qualities that great digital CMOs have in common:

10. Passion about Collaboration

Today’s business world might be referred to as “the digital era,” but it could also be called “the integration era.” As companies adopt an integrated technology approach and strive for great customer experiences, the CMO can no longer afford to work independently of the rest of the C-suite. Close working relationships and constant collaboration with other executives is often the difference between a good and a great CMO.

9. Love of Measurement

Even in the digital age, ROI can sometimes be an imperfect science. Customer journeys are unpredictable and complex attribution models always retain an element of subjectivity. Great digital CMOs don’t deny any of this, but they don’t use it as an excuse either. The more they can measure, the better positioned they are to make smart decisions.

8. Ability to See Fragmentation as Opportunity

Consumers today are spread out across more channels than ever before. And just to make things as tricky as possible for marketers, consumers now jump from device to device throughout the day. But rather than bang their heads against the wall, leading digital CMOs recognize that mobile is an incredible opportunity to build more intimate relationships with consumers and to engage them closer to the point of sale.

7. No Fear of Technology

Not all of today’s top CMOs are tech geeks. But they all tend to recognize that the right marketing technology will make them better at what they do and make their companies more efficient. Steep learning curves are never fun, but savvy CMOs take the time to master the tools they need.

6. No Embrace of Technology for Its Own Sake

Today’s top CMOs can’t afford to shy away from new tech, but they also can’t afford to be fooled into adopting expensive technologies for the sake of keeping up with the crowd. The best digital CMOs appreciate that new technology isn’t an end unto itself, and do their homework before implementing new solutions.

5. Willingness to Experiment

Data provides a CMO with information but not necessarily with answers. Savvy digital CMOs use data to listen to consumers and form hypotheses, but they never stop there. Rather, they test their hypotheses over and over to determine how customers actually behave.

4. Willingness to Bring Data Together

The C-suite needs to cooperate more than ever in the digital age—that’s because data integration is more important than ever. Today’s CMOs prioritize solutions that let them bring different data sets together on one marketing platform so that they can glean insights rapidly and understand how one channel influences the next.

3. Championing the Customer

The role of the CMO has evolved and expanded for one primary reason: CMOs understand the customer better than anyone in the organization. The best digital CMOs strive to make the rest of the team embrace the same customer-centric focus that has always been at the heart of great marketing.

2. Cooperation with the CIO

The best CMOs interact with leaders across the organization, but the most important relationship is generally the one that’s formed with the CIO. When the CMO and CIO are working in tandem, it becomes much easier to align goals, work more effectively and deliver better customer experiences.

1. Creation of a Culture of Adaptation

Digital never stops evolving, and the best CMOs recognize that they can’t predict the future. What they can do is create a culture of innovation that prioritizes rapid adaptation as consumer habits evolve and new technologies arise. The best digital CMOs will be ready for the very different job they’re likely to be doing in 2020.

Businesses typically have images attached to them—the suit-and-tie and 100-hour weeks of corporate finance; the lipstick and Louboutin of the fashion mag world; the hoodies and bromances of Silicon Valley. But what do you do if you love the job you do, but not the place where you’re doing it? If you know your place in the world is crafting clever copy or planning ad campaigns but want to do your thing in an all-hands-on-deck, innovation-focused environment, we’ve got some options for you.

Refinery29

“We want to build a brand that’s as iconic as MTV or ESPN for a new generation,” Refinery29 co-founder Philippe von Borries told Re/code this year. Those aspirations have been bolstered by astounding numbers for the lifestyle site targeting millennial women and headquartered in New York. The company’s 546 percent growth over the last three years, $51.3 million in revenue for 2014, and $50 million dollar investment from WPP and Scripps has allowed it to create a new video department primed for experimental production. Staff perks include a kitchen stocked with goodies and iced coffee on tap, weekly yoga classes and a dog-friendly office.

Chandelier Creative

Sometimes no matter how comfortable, fun and exciting office life may be, you need a place to get away from it all. New York-based ad agency Chandelier Creative has even that covered. When founder Richard Christiansen started building getaway spaces for staff to work and play in places like Montauk, he noticed that outdoor activities, fresh air and the comradery also elicited better work from his employees. Chandelier Ranch is the most recent, a four-bedroom house conceived and designed by Chandelier staff, where employees come to canoe, paint and plan out their latest projects.

Upworthy

Although headquartered in New York, Upworthy appeals to independent, self-motivated workers who want to have control over their hours. Almost all of Upworthy’s staff work remotely. Founders Peter Koechley and Eli Pariser don’t care where or when you do your work, or how many hours you spend on task, just as long as you get it done. And not only does Upworthy offer unlimited vacation time, the employer wants you to take time off, and will give you $1,000 toward your vacation if you do.

Centro

The darling of more than one publication’s best-places-to-work list, this Chi-Town-based media tech company’s CEO leads the charge on creating an environment that prizes talent over status and strives to make work life anxiety-free. There are bi-weekly yoga classes to help with that, as well as Ferris Bueller Days. These are offered on top of vacation days, for those mornings when you’d rather crash a parade than go to work, no questions asked.

Red Door Interactive

Open office? Check. Doorless, glass-walled or no-walled rooms for execs? Check. Encouraging a spirit of collaboration? Of course. Flexible schedule? Yep. San Francisco-based digital marketing agency Red Door Interactive likes to do things a bit differently, including holding most client presentations in its main space so that anyone and everyone can observe and give their input.

You were clearheaded when you decided to go pursue this whole writing thing. You knew you weren’t going into it for the money. But there’s a difference between not being able to afford a night of overpriced cocktails at a rooftop bar and having to decide which utility to avoid paying this month.

Whether your freelance journalism gigs aren’t covering your expenses or you’re looking to pad that work with a financial cushion, you may have to supplement the work you love with work that pays better. The good thing is, you practitioner of a low-paying craft of love, you can do it and still find yourself writing.

Pair your writing skills with some subject-specific knowledge you either already possess or are willing to develop to pick up some of these higher paying jobs.

PR Communications

Public relations is a natural sidestep for writers looking for additional work. After all, as a journalist you likely already have an inbox filled with the vCards of publicists and communications managers with whom you’ve established good working relationships. And you’re no doubt familiar with the standard styles for press releases and other industry communications. When pitching your talents to agencies or independent publicists, be sure to stress your social media fluency, as well as your knack for meeting tight deadlines, and packaging stories.

Technical Writing

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, technical writing is an industry that is growing at a faster than average rate. The projects available in this field vary and include writing instruction and how-to manuals and FAQs. The ability to take complex ideas and jargon and break it down into clear and understandable prose is already a key part of the journalist’s toolbox, making your skills a good sell in this field. When looking for jobs, play up any technical expertise you may have, especially in engineering, computer science and general science. Social media and web design experience are also key, as the world of how-to continues to migrate from in-the-box manuals to digital spaces.

Copywriting

The opportunities in this advertising and marketing field are vast. And different types of skills will be suitable for different types of copywriting work. Knowledge of a specialty subject (say fashion or beauty or home design) can be your way into some media companies, while short pithy, Twitter-length writing skills can help you land jobs like writing banner ads and product descriptions.

Business Writing

Here’s another large catchall category. Business writing can include everything from short marketing brochures and corporate speeches to white papers. The recurring theme of this article applies here as well: your ability to craft tight copy is what will get you work, and if you can demonstrate experience in the specific industry you’re targeting, all the better.

Grant Writing

From exercising legit research chops to engaging in different types of writing all tied to one proposal, there is a lot about this type of work that will feel very familiar and comfortable. Grant writing may hold extra appeal for narrative journalists. Since a key component of grant proposals involves crafting a persuasive, compelling story about the work an organization is doing, standard storytelling elements like descriptive language and character development are part of the package.

Greeting Card Writing

Offbeat, yes, but also high on the creativity scale. No days spent in research or hours spent composing required. If you have a gift for quickly spinning off a few catchy, memorable lines of birthday greetings, congratulatory offerings or condolences, it may be worth your time to send off some submissions and see what comes of it.

In 2001, Gabriel Shaoolian set up shop in his New York City apartment with nothing but a laptop computer and a passion for web design. In 2005, he ran a small digital agency consisting of 17 employees.

And since incorporating his business in 2007, Blue Fountain Media has grown to over 200 employees, and generated over $2 billion in revenue by building e-commerce websites for clients like Procter & Gamble, Harper Collins, AOL, AT&T and the NFL.

Though Shaoolian is exceptionally diligent and multitalented, he maintains no illusions about the freelance life. “There is no shortcut, there is no wizard,” he says. “No one is going to come into your company and do better than you can. Growing a company organically is a lot of sacrifice.”

What were you doing before you made your entrepreneurial leap?

I was a web designer, and I really enjoyed what I did. On my own, I started learning other things like video editing, development and dabbling in everything digital. I went off to become a freelancer and it just grew into a company. I never expected it to become what it is today.

Describe the early days of your freelance life.

Well, let me tell you, and I’ll tell anyone out there. It’s crazy.

You know, doing this without funding, you lose a lot of sleep, and you lose your life, really. The company becomes your life. It’s not easy. It’s not for someone who wants weekends and who wants vacations.

I tell people that you go on vacation and you are still thinking about work every second of every day.

I had no idea what I was in for.

I just wanted to build something small. But I realized that I can’t do everything on my own. If I want to do good work, I need team members that are specialized. As Blue Fountain Media grew, I started working on an infrastructure for the company. Guidelines and rules. I started working on titles for every role.

This might seem un-hip or un-cool, but let me tell you, when you have dozens of people in your organization, you need to have structure.

Which aspects of your early work were your favorite — and what was the most challenging? 

I loved designing sites. It was incredible. I was like an adult with crayons. I also loved that you could go talk to a client about an idea and a few months later, it’s a tangible interactive site. How cool is that?

You talk about an idea you have, and a few months later, we’re sitting down and there you are, clicking through it.

One thing that was challenging was the sales aspect: getting clients’ attention. Every company struggles with sales. It felt great to win a new client. But that was challenging.

Getting out there and doing sales is not for everybody. I worked in an electronics shop when I was in college; I also DJ’d, so I had a small amount of sales [experience]. But you really figure it out as you go along.

Did you have a moment when you realized your business was really taking off?

One morning I woke up and I realized that I had 17 people that were full time with me. And I had no salesperson. And I had heart palpitations.

At that point I realized that it was no longer going to be that small vision that I had, but it was growing into something on its own. So, it was exciting.

At the same time it was very nerve-wracking, because any CEO/founder will tell you, you feel responsible for your employees. They’re not just people that you hire and fire. They have families; they count on you [for] their paychecks.

You feel very accountable, and even if the team itself isn’t bringing in the cash, I’ve never had the heart to tell someone, “I’m not paying you; you’ve had a bad month.” I’ve never pulled that.

How does your work differ now from what you did in the very beginning?

[In the beginning] I was more hands-on, more creative. And now I feel that it’s more about logistics. I did wear many hats, and I’ve held every position in the company.

I’ve done sales, I’ve done management, I did some design work, I did some of the coding.

Today, I am more like a problem solver. People say CEOs are meant to be entrepreneurs, but very little of our time goes to being entrepreneurs. Most of our time goes towards problem solving.

Every company has problems. Apple, Facebook, Google — all companies have problems. The job of an executive is to realize those problems and work to fix them.

You say the site you planned and designed for AT&T does about $100,000 per second. And the site you did for the Green Bay Packers did $200 million in four days. When you started your company, having no idea how successful it would become, did you have any doubts?

There was a point when I was starting out when my friend was doing really well in real estate, and I was struggling to meet my month-to-month expenses. I told him, “Maybe I should do what you do.” He goes, “Well, if you want to come over, we could use someone, but, I see you love what you do. Stick with it.”

It was great advice. Do what you love, stick with it. Be patient. I think patience is what’s lacking amongst young people today. Things take time. That’s the best advice that I’ve got. [My company] didn’t happen overnight.

People have to understand, when you’re going into business, you have a budget, and you don’t need to eat, you don’t need to go out, you don’t need to have a life.

If you don’t know how to budget your business, you’re doomed for failure. I get emails from LinkedIn all the time from guys that are trying to start businesses or that have started businesses 10 years ago, and they need to grow. And they’re asking me, how did you do it? What advice do you have for me?

I tell them: I constantly invested. I reinvested back into BFM. I led a very humble life for many, many years. And I tell them, look, just do great work. Do good work for your clients.

Gabriel Shaoolian’s tips for freelancers and entrepreneurs:

1. If you are looking to expand, hire great people and take care of them before you take care of yourself. Pay them before you pay yourself.

2. Do great work. When I worked with my first few clients, I didn’t care how much I charged them; I just did great work. I also communicated and set up proper expectations with my clients.

3. Don’t be afraid to fail. I started a dating site, and it failed. I fail much more than I succeed. So what if you didn’t make the next Facebook. Just don’t make the same stupid mistakes — learn from your failure.

Selling millions of copies of his books, CDs and movies, raising over $150 million for PBS, and hosting a weekly Internet radio show was never something Dr. Wayne Dyer set out to do. Long before jet-setting across the world to give sold-out talks in some of the most prestigious venues in the world, this retired college professor was a “dirt poor” orphan who struggled to buy out the first printing of his debut book and schlepped across the country to sell them out of the trunk of his car.

Though he has countless fans around the world now, there are still those who call his teachings a bunch of bunk, accuse him of shrouding real life problems under a cloak of metaphysical psycho-babble, and point to his recent health battles as evidence that his teachings simply don’t work. Such mumblings heated up as he approached the March 2012 airing of his PBS special, Wishes Fulfilled: Mastering the Art of Manifestation, based on the book of the same name.

However, Dyer says he doesn’t need to convince his detractors of anything. “If people believe what I’m saying is just a bunch of nonsense, then they’re right.”

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Name: Dr. Wayne Dyer
Position: Author and motivational speaker
Resume: Put himself through college and became a professor at St. John’s University in New York. Wrote his first book, Your Erroneous Zones, in 1976 and financed his own promotional tour, which lead to 35 million copies sold and 64 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Has since written over 30 books, including several national bestsellers, and has been branded the “father of motivation.”
Birthday: May 10, 1940
Hometown: Detroit
Education: Doctorate from Wayne State University
Media Idol: “Dinah Shore, because she exuded kindness, passed no judgment, and treated everyone the same no matter what their status — kindly.”
Favorite TV show: Real Time with Bill Maher
Guilty pleasure: Poke with avocado. “I eat it four to five times a week.”
Last book read: Dying to Be Me by Anita Moorjani
Twitter handle: @DrWayneWDyer

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You sold your first book out of the trunk of your car. What was the first moment that you knew you were onto something much bigger?

Your Erroneous Zones was the book that went over the top simply because I believed in it so much.

But here’s the thing: My publisher had a list mentality, meaning, once they sold 5,000 copies, they would have considered it a success and moved on to the next author on their list. They wouldn’t have done anything else. I just couldn’t see myself doing a four-month thing.

I started talking about the book, bringing it to the university where I taught at the time, giving talks, appearing on the radio, but that wasn’t enough. I kept calling the publishing house asking them, “How’s the book doing?” They got so tired of me.

So, I decided to take things into my own hands. I became a bookstore. I ordered all the rest of the books in the first printing. Then, they had to print the second printing. I did the same thing after about two months.

Meanwhile, I was willing to do as much media as I could. I got a lot of breaks along the way, hired my own publicist because the publisher wouldn’t pay for it. We tried to get big national shows but none of them had heard of me. So, I did what I had to do. I packed up my car, took my 9-year-old daughter with me, and we went to every state, did any and every local media my publicist could get me.

Finally, somehow, Johnny Carson got a hold of my book, and the rest is history.

There are a lot of people who are unemployed or under-employed right now, particularly in the media business. What can people do to stay motivated?

I think about that all the time, every time I see these stories about these people. They’re just going through unemployment benefits and complaining that they can’t get any work but, if you put in your resume and there’s already a thousand resumes for that same job, you’re just going to be one of a thousand. But there are opportunities everywhere if you’re open to them.

I was walking in Central Park not long ago, and there was this 10-year-old kid there named Shawn who was juggling. He had a unicycle too. “What are you doing?” I asked him. He said, “Well, my dad left; my mom is hurt so she can’t work. I’ve got two brothers and a sister and this is how I earn my money. I can earn as much as $200 a day.” I asked him how he learned to juggle and he answered, “All you have to do is Google ‘How to juggle’ and it’s right on there.” See? You have to be open to the opportunities you’re surrounded by.

Look, if you got fired from a job, then that’s the universe’s way of telling you, “You’ve been doing this long enough.” Ask yourself what motivates you. What do you really love? And figure out a way to make a living at it. There’s so many ways to make money in the world. When I was an orphan, I was the richest kid at the orphanage, because everyone else was complaining about not having anything. But when I discovered that you could get two cents for a Coca-Cola bottle, I would follow people around who were drinking it and ask them if they were almost through with it.

You say to attract something in your life, you should “contemplate yourself as surrounded by the conditions in which you have it.” But how do you do that if you’re worried about bills?

It isn’t that I don’t feel bad about the people who are struggling. Remember, I came out of dirt poor conditions with absolutely no parents. I speak from first-hand experience. Instead of waiting for the government to do it, or for the factory to re-open, they can put their attention on abundance and prosperity will show up in your life. First of all, I’d be grateful that I didn’t have to work at that factory any longer. Put yourself in a state of gratitude. Then, act on those feelings and you will be guided. This is an abundant universe. There are angels out there. The fundamental truth is you become what you think about. If you’re thinking about unemployment, or how bad the economy is, or all the reasons why you can’t do something, you’ll get exactly that. Instead, align yourself with the type of energy you want to attract and those kinds of people will show up in your life.

There are critics who say that all this talk about the Law of Attraction and metaphysics is a bunch of hoopla. To what extent do you rely on science or your own research to prove that your teachings work?

“Whether you believe you can do it or whether you believe you can’t do it,” said Henry Ford, “either way, you’re right.” If people believe what I’m saying is just a bunch of nonsense, then they’re right. They’ve got themselves convinced. I don’t try to convince them of anything. I don’t need science to validate what I’m saying. Inside each and every one of us, we have a divine intelligence. When people think they can’t do something and they act upon that thought, they shut themselves out of the opportunities that exist around them. If they’re focusing on all the things missing, blaming the economy or the President, or the weather, or whatever else, they’re closing the doors. Yet, if you align with the world and see the goodness in it, then you elevate your life.

Authors, in particular, go through some lean times early in their careers. Is it unrealistic for them to want more wealth and to become bestsellers?

One of my favorite quotes is from Michelangelo, and it says “The greater danger is not that our hopes are too high and we fail to reach them, but rather that they are too low and we do.” Authors who are focused on becoming bestsellers are very likely to be disappointed almost all the time, because your success as a writer isn’t determined by what position you hold on a bestseller list or how many books you sell. Your success is based upon being able to express yourself in writing. And if people like the idea, then they’ll get it. My reputation is outside of my control. If I give a talk to a million people, there will be a million different reputations. Some still think I’m the biggest jerk that ever lived. I have nothing to do with any of that. You can only focus on your character. You have to let all the rest of the stuff, including your bestseller’s status take care of itself.

There is a lot of competition out there for New Age and thought leaders. What have you done to separate yourself from the pack, and how can aspiring authors do the same?

I don’t write the books. God writes the books and delivers the speeches. He’s doing this interview right now. He builds all the bridges. I don’t own any of these words. I don’t know where they’re coming from. I don’t take any credit for any of this. The essential lesson I’ve learned in life is to just be yourself. Treasure the magnificent being that you are and recognize first and foremost you’re not here as a human being only. You’re a spiritual being having a human experience. That’s who you are. That is all you need to know. Then, detach yourself from what other people think and from the outcome or how well you’re doing, how you stack up to others. Just trust it and be at peace with it.

What steps did you take to create such a massive empire and how can other authors create multiple streams of income?

I don’t have a step-by-step plan. You’re asking me to come up with a linear answer, and this is all non-linear. One thing though was that I was willing to do what I needed to do. If I needed to pay for my own expenses to travel across the country, I did it. It was worth being brave for. I define professional and personal success the way that David Thoreau described it, “If you advance confidently in the direction of your own dreams and endeavor to live the life which you have imagined, you will meet with success, unexpected in common hours.” Follow your dreams. Be willing to place into your imagination anything that you would like to manifest and be unwilling to place anything in your imagination that you do not want to manifest. So, don’t think, “I’m sick” or “I’m poor.” Contemplate yourself as if surrounded by the conditions in which you have your greatest desire and it will come to be.

A self-described “perfectionist,” Architectural Digest‘s editor-in-chief (and previous Elle Decor EIC) Margaret Russell has a refreshingly down to earth take on her career and the magazine that has defined it—which is in stark contrast to the sleek, slick veneer associated with the interior design industry and the magazines that covers its styles and stars.

While Top Design‘s fans raved about her glam wardrobe on the show’s blog back in 2007, (Russell told Women’s Wear Daily that once she found her way around the set she jetted home from Los Angeles, unpacked her suitcase full of “Jackie O sheaths” and high-tailed it back to the west coast with “every cocktail dress I owned.”), to hear Russell tell it the experience was anything but swanky. (Long hours! Nasty bloggers!)

To the legendarily loyal editor, the good life is embodied by the things she loves: “Simple, fresh flowers, especially peonies, garden roses, or hyacinths; good, strong coffee; Amagansett; my bed (‘I have a great bed.’); pasta Bolognese; vintage jewelry and really, really high heels that enable me to believe that I’m 5’8″ and not 5’3″. And, oh yes, working for the same magazine for 18 years.”

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Name: Margaret Russell
Position: Editor-in-chief & vice president, Elle Décor
Resume: Joined Elle Décor as part of the launch team as an associate editor in 1989 (“I was the second person hired.”) and was promoted to senior editor before the first issue hit the newsstand. Has systematically risen through the ranks holding various positions at the magazine including design and decorator editor before being named editor-in-chief. Named vice president in 2003. In 2010, moved to Architectural Digest where she holds the position of editor-in-chief. Author of Designing Women: Interiors by Leading Style Makers (Stewart, Tabori & Chang) and the upcoming So Chic: Glamorous Lives, Stylish Spaces (Filpacchi). Began her editorial career at Glamour.
Birthdate: “June 25th, several June 25ths ago.”
Hometown: New Canaan, Connecticut
Education: B.A. From Brown University; triple major in History, Political Science, and American Civilization.
Marital status: Divorced
First section of the Sunday Times: “Section One, page one. I don’t want to miss a thing.”
Favorite television show: “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. When I can’t sleep, I watch Law & Order or Sex and the City. And I TiVo Oprah and wish I would remember to record Charlie Rose and Meet the Press as well.”
Guilty pleasure: “Life’s too short; I’m never guilty about pleasure.”
Last book read: “I tend to read a few things at once. I’ve had some sad news lately, so I did a Nora Ephron extravaganza this weekend; reading her never ceases to make me laugh. But I’m halfway through The Grand Surprise, the compilation of Leo Lerman’s journals, which is fascinating.”

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How would you say you’ve gotten to where you are?

I’m where I am because of a combination of being willing to work hard and kismet—just being in the right place at the right time. Even bad decisions or difficult situations—getting divorced and moving back to New York—have resulted in my being offered some amazing opportunities.

Honestly, it sounds so mundane, but it’s hard work and actually just being curious and interested. Because I was on the launch team at Elle Décor, I’ve done almost every job there is at this magazine except physically lay it out.

A lot of that was because somebody would say, “Oh, we need someone to do this or do that” and I’d say, “Oh, I’ll try that. I’ve never done that before.” So, it’s been a lot of fun and kept me going here. I do think I have a bit of a reputation with my staff for being a bit of a workaholic, which is not fun when everyone wants to take summer Fridays off—I’m the one who is here. I really like work. It’s a pleasure for me.

That seems to be a prerequisite for the job of editor-in-chief. You can’t phone it in.

You really can’t. I feel really fortunate that I get to do what I love every day and actually get compensated for it.

I do think that when it comes down to it, the line between private and public [life] is somewhat blurry. There are days when I think, “Oh Lord, if only I had a job where I could walk out the door at six o’clock and not look at my Blackberry,” but that’s not what I signed on for. .

I actually really love it.

What did you learn in your first job that still has relevance in your career now?

That’s a really good question. I started as an editorial assistant at Glamour straight out of college.

Actually, I took the summer off, which I’m sure shocked my friends and made my family nervous. I worked with Ruth Whitney which was an experience unequaled. She really was an amazing editor-in-chief. For somebody right out of college she was this goddess of publishing—a smart, strong woman and a really good role model. I was trained by a really tough editor, Linda Whitmarsh, the design editor there.

She was really demanding and extremely tough. Whether I was making travel arrangements or sending out letters to readers who had written in, I learned that if you make a mistake the best thing you can to say, “I’ll do my best to make sure I don’t do it again.” I loathed making mistakes. It made me more of a perfectionist than I’d ever been before and [made me] realize the value of working hard. That that’s the way you get ahead.

How did you land your television gig on Bravo’s Top Design?

My trashy reality TV career. [Laughs] Bravo came to us. They spoke to several different magazines; I think there were about ten and they had narrowed it down to a few. They had done very well with Elle with Project Runway.

I was told they had seen my reel from the different times I’d been on The Today Show and that their concern was that I was too nice. I had to go in and be videotaped by this producer where she showed me these pictures and said, “Which of these is like your taste?” The pictures were just vile. As soon as I opened my mouth she realized I could be a tough judge.

Anything about doing television at that level that took you by surprise?

I had no idea that it took forever and ever.

The first day we were taping, we were there until 4:30 in the morning. The earliest night we got out of there was midnight. On average it was about 1:30 or 2 and there was no air conditioning when we were taping because of the sound. We were tired, sweaty, and cranky. It’s amazing that we were nice to anyone.

It was a really good experience because it’s made me more comfortable on camera. It certainly gave me a thicker skin having to write a blog and then finding out that all sorts of crazy people like to write crazy things online.

Everybody said, ‘Don’t read it.’ I read some of it. You take whatever good advice and criticism you can and also realize that some people are just mean.

Did you watch any reality shows before doing one?

I loved Project Runway and I did get hooked, partially because Nina [Garcia, Elle‘s fashion director] was on it.

Did Nina give you any tips?

She said don’t read the blogs. [Laughs] She did warn me and say, “You know, my darling, sometimes they shoot very, very late.” I thought, “Oh that’s just Project Runway, this will be different.” I did watch Queer Eye because I’m friends with Thom Filicia.

Before that, I actually wrote a whole column about it. I hated all those shows like Fear Factor. I just couldn’t stand them. I didn’t really have any great affection for them—unlike [Top Design judge and designer] Jonathan Adler, who was hysterical and made me meet all the housewives from Orange County when we were at TCA. It was funny.

How did you juggle your shooting schedule with your job at the magazine?

It was five weeks in Los Angeles. The first day of taping was October 11. I found out about it ten days before I had to go which is not, by the way, the way to get into reality TV.

I thought, “How am I going to get the magazine out?” I didn’t know something existed called the VPN card which Hachette doesn’t like to tell you about. It’s a code thing so you can break through the firewall so I could get into our InCopy and do all of our electronic bill paying long distance from my hotel room.

There was a lot of FedEx and phone calls. I came home whenever we had a three day break. It was a really interesting thing because it gave me a little distance on the magazine. I came back and made some staff changes, added three new fonts and a few new columns. Sometimes you’re too close to things.

I was also able to manage my time a little better. I actually managed to find time to work out twenty minutes a day.

Did the show have any effect on the Elle Décor brand?

It was good for the magazine because it put it in front of some people who were not necessarily very familiar with it. I think that’s always a good thing.

A lot of editors appear determined to become television personalities. Was that part of your master plan?

Oh gosh, no. Forget it. I have no interest in that whatsoever. Top Design was a lot of fun and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I think one of the reasons I’ve been successful at Elle Décor is because Elle Décor is really about Elle Décor, not Margaret Russell.

Even though I run this magazine, and to a degree it’s my taste or my embracing of other people’s taste, I have a really clear cut vision of brand and that’s my job here. I’m here to create and protect Elle Décor.

It is interesting, though, that so many editors seem to aspire to be stars.

I’m a middle child. I think that has a lot to do with how I run my life. I have a sister who is an actress and has always been the big sort of high-strung personality one and a younger brother who is a partner in a big law firm. I sort of made my own way. I’m always the peacekeeper diplomat in the family. It’s never been about me being the most important one, so I think the magazine benefits from that.

[Laughs] It shouldn’t be about one personality. It’s about people creating a magazine to attract a wide group of people.

You mentioned your blog for Top Design before. One of your entries was entitled “Fascinating and Terrifying People.” Who’s the most fascinating personality out there and who’s the most terrifying?

[Laughs] We didn’t come up with the names [of the entries]. I hate questions like that. [Laughs] I think Bill Clinton is a fascinating man. I think he’s been one of most fascinating personalities of our time.

And terrifying?

Oh. [Pauses] Honestly, I’m not so easily terrified. I’m not that fragile.

Why do you think people are so intimidated by decorators and interior designers?

I did a whole column on why it’s easier to buy a suit than a sofa. I think there is this sense that you’re making an investment. Not only are you making a statement about your personal life to anyone who comes in if you have a dinner party or a cocktail party, but there’s this idea that it’s hard to get rid of a sofa if you made a mistake.

I think it’s so sad because you can always slipcover something, you can always paint something. You can always change things. I don’t know why it’s so intimidating. It makes me very sad that it is. That’s why I’m glad there are good magazines out there that help demystify things for people. I love it when I see someone going through the magazine and ripping things out.

Often the deciding factor when I’m editing deciding between this and this is, “This one has more ideas.” I do know that people rely on magazines to help them decorate even if they’re using a professional architect or designer. Everybody has some folder of things they’ve collected.

What’s the biggest decorating mistake most people make?

They don’t know how to edit. They don’t know when to stop. There’s too much stuff. Also not looking with a fresh eye at the way they live. That’s the funny thing about shooting people’s houses. We don’t bring a truckload of stuff. Sometimes when we go in, we’ll bring some flowers or fruit or move a chair for a camera angle and more often than not people will leave it the way it was done for the photo shoot.

People keep things the same for far too long. I grew up in a house where, for the summer, my mother would slip cover everything and pull up the carpets and put down sisal [rugs]. Then in the winter, the heavier throws and the velvet pillows came out. It’s just such a nice thing because twice a year you get a refreshed look and it makes you celebrate the seasons.

What’s your biggest decorating pet peeve when you go to other people’s house?

My biggest pet peeve is just boring—when it looks like something just came from a catalog or someone who hired a designer and there’s not one look—a peony or something—that’s a sign of life.

I think rooms that look like hotel rooms are awful. As someone who has spent a lot of time in hotel rooms, I can tell you they should not be inspiring. Maybe the bathrooms—some hotel bathrooms are great—but not a living room.

Any celebrity house you’d love to get into that you haven’t seen?

We don’t do a lot of that. I don’t think celebrity necessarily equates itself into taste. I would think the bigger the celebrity, the greater the chance that someone has come in just like dressing you for red carpet.

I would love to see how the really intelligent actors and actresses of our time live. I would like to see Sigourney Weaver’s house. I’d love to see Meryl Streep’s house. I’m sure they have things that influence them and inform their lives in some way, so it’s less about the celebrity but more about the intellect.

I like seeing people’s offices. I think they’re very telling.

I love seeing people’s offices because you spend so much time there. I’m not a nosy person, but I am a curious person and I love seeing how people live and what’s important to them.

When we shot Julianne Moore’s loft that her brother-in-law had done it wasn’t a surprise that she had chosen to live that way but I loved that she loves interior design and she bought a lot of the stuff herself. I like seeing the thought and the mindfulness that goes into it.

What’s your dream job?

I have it.

Do you have a motto?

Actually it’s not a motto, it’s a word. My dad was longtime IBMer. When he died he was assistant general counsel. The IBM motto is ‘Think’ and it’s emblazoned on every pen, pencil, and pad. I have these vintage signs that say, “Think.” It sort of says it all.

Gearing up to ace an upcoming interview to land your dream job? Michelle McQuaid, author of Your Strengths Blueprint: How to be Engaged, Energized, and Happy at Work, says it’s important to prepare your brain to perform at its highest level. Instead of thinking positive thoughts and visualizing a successful interview, she suggests training your brain for the interview by demonstrating “heartfelt positivity” for prospective employers so they get the sense you are genuine and trustworthy.

In order to achieve heartfelt positivity, McQuaid recommends preparing for your interview by envisioning ways to flex your strengths while interacting with employers. She explains, “For example, can you use your strength of curiosity to ask insightful questions or your strength of creativity to demonstrate innovative ways to solve their challenges?”

She adds if you’re not certain of your strengths as you prepare for the interview, take a free 10-minute survey at The VIA Institute, a Cincinnati-based nonprofit focused on positive psychology that houses the world’s largest database on character and character strengths.

Vicki Salemi
Mediabistro career expert

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There are times when negotiating your salary can be a multi-layered and complicated process. Job seekers could be juggling three or more offers, playing companies off each other and stalling for time while the counteroffers pile up. On the other hand is someone who has been at his job for years, feels underpaid, is bringing in real results and dying to be included on an upcoming project, and yet hasn’t received a raise or promotion in two years. He’s frustrated and confused. So the question is: Have you asked for that raise?

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We’d all like to be visionary thinkers like Bezos, Buffett and Branson (the Three B’s of Bold Thinking) and achieve great things. But most of us aren’t bold visionaries. And that’s OK, because while you might never come up with the next big thing, you can decide to think differently from other people — and in the process, achieve differently from other people. Here are five things people think ruin their chances for success — and, more important, how you can think differently.

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With graduation season approaching, the bottom rung of the careers ladder — and how to grab hold — is on the minds of many first-time job seekers. As such, personal finance site WalletHub took a look at 109 varying types of entry-level jobs, evaluating them across 11 factors to determine which provide the most and least attractive opportunities to those seeking entry-level work.