Entrepreneur and Social Media Guru, Stephanie Cartin of Entreprenista

You’re at a cocktail party and someone says, “What do you do?” How do you answer?

I’m an Entreprenista! I am addicted to finding solutions to problems and creating a business or community to solve for them. I’m the CEO of Entreprenista and The Entreprenista League and also the Co-Founder of Socialfly. 

Tell us more about your podcast and Socialfly.

At Entreprenista, our mission is to celebrate the stories of women business leaders and learn from the lessons of the women that are paving the way forward. The two companies are really well aligned in that way. Whether it’s having an in-depth conversation with a leader about the process of bootstrapping a business, to recommending trusted solutions to help our audience make the most of their ecommerce site, Entreprenista is the Number #1 resource for female business owners across the country. Naturally, the Entreprenista Podcast celebrates female founders and business leaders as they share stories and best practices across different industries. We also recently launched our membership community, The Entreprenista League. The Entreprenista League provides direct access to myself and  Courtney and our inner circle of successful female founders and entreprenistas, along with free trials and discounts to the business tools and solutions that have helped us scale our businesses. Members can leverage the Entreprenista platform for website and social media features to our large and powerful audience for personal brand and business exposure, and receive peer-to-peer support, mentorship, educational programming, and access to exclusive content and virtual networking events guaranteed to lead to meaningful connections. The goal of the Entreprenista League is to empower, inspire and help the current and aspiring generation of female leaders and entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams and celebrate their success.

Socialfly is a full service social media marketing and influencer agency. We specialize in creating social media strategies to drive results for brands that are looking to women audiences and have worked with over 300 brands including the Girl Scouts, WE tv, Conair, Slimfast, 20th Century Fox and Univision. 

Now that you’ve successfully created your own company with your best friend, could you ever go back to working for someone else?

Absolutely not! I know the importance of having a business partner and the value of an incredible team, and have learned so much about how to divide and conquer in business. I love being able to create things and bring them to life, and would always choose to have a partner versus starting a new venture on my own. 

Courtney and I have found a successful business partnership because we both have the same vision and have complementary skill sets. I have always been focused on business development and marketing and Courtney has been focused on the operations and managing the finances. 

What don’t we see behind the scenes as you build and scale both companies?

I try my best to share as much as possible on social media so people can see what it is really like to build and grow a business. However, sometimes there are not enough hours in the day to be creating content all day and there are times that we just can share absolutely everything. You do not always see the late night conversations Courtney and I have at 11pm talking about challenges we are having in the business and doing our best to constantly problem solve. 

We built our now-multi-million-dollar social and digital marketing business entirely from scratch using our own money, strategic networking, and a handful of scrappy techniques that helped us fill in the gaps that we had in experience, resources, and know-how. We felt it was in our best interest to keep control and see how far we could take our business without seeking funding. We met a number of entrepreneurs through our networking groups who needed social and digital media help, and so we were able to exchange that for services including office space, legal consultation, and even public relations help in the first year of business. As we saw the results, we knew we had made the right decision.

Socialfly’s rapid growth is something I am extremely proud of. People are in disbelief when they hear what we have been able to accomplish without raising money. 

As a founder, how do you balance being creative with being organized?

Surrounding myself - virtually or in person, if possible - with smart, creative people is key. I am so motivated and inspired by my partner and our teams. I also find that I can be more creative when my time is properly managed. It’s still a work in progress as I try not to schedule back-to-back Zoom meetings, but I’m getting there. 

We can barely get off the couch lately. But you managed to grow an entirely new business strategy. How?

Passion. I often remind myself that Courtney and I started Socialfly because we were both extremely passionate about social media and saw a real need in the market for an agency dedicated to social media services. On the Entreprenista side, we wanted to find a medium that allowed us to share guidance and wisdom to inspire women to take the leap of faith and follow their dreams. We relied on the guidance and mentorship of other female entrepreneurs when we started our company and it was important for us to give back. We’ve organically grown our companies and created a family of rockstars. It has been so rewarding to watch our team learn and grow personally and professionally over the years and I always get so excited as we help our clients and partners achieve their goals.

We’re almost 2 years into WFH life, since then you’ve moved to Florida and away from the New York office. What are the pros and cons of working from home?

There were a lot of learning curves and challenges once we started working from home. The flexibility has been wonderful, but I have to remind myself to separate work and life now that there’s no commute or office environment to break up the day. I have an almost 2 year old and she is home while I am home working, and while I am so grateful to be home with her, I still have to schedule my time to be with her. We also had to learn how to have productive meetings over Zoom, which led to the invention of Digicards, a fun and innovative tool to improve virtual meetings and help fight “Zoom fatigue”. 

What mistakes or challenges have you learned from the most?

 From the moment you decide to launch your own business, you will be faced with an onslaught of obstacles to overcome, many of which you never expected. Whether that means facing rejection from potential investors or any number of logistical hiccups while you try to build a team and expand your business, it is important to let your vision for the company guide you and help you overcome daily frustrations. 

Additionally, entrepreneurs have to do all of this while sometimes facing issues in their personal life, adding another layer of difficulty to the task. I personally struggled with both chronic illness and a difficult pregnancy while running my business, and resilience helped me balance taking care of myself while continuing to grow my company. The most important lesson I have learned and the best piece of advice I can give is not to put so much pressure on yourself. I always say all you can do is the best you can do, each day! This mantra keeps me motivated and dedicated to giving my all every day and never let minor setbacks get in the way of our success.

Everyone must want to “pick your brain” about being a female founder. How do you decide which random emails to answer?

I try to answer everything. Seriously. I love to give chances because so many people took a chance on me and Courtney as we were launching Socialfly and Entreprenista. If I can’t get to an email, I’ll pass it along to one of my team members. At the very least, we always want to make connections. Through the Entreprenista league I now have weekly office hours where members of the EL can come to my zoom chats and bring any business questions they have. I am looking forward to welcoming so many new Entreprenistas to the league! You can always send me an email to steph@socialflyny.com or a DM on instagram @stephjillcartin if you have any questions. 

What have you found is the best way to lead your team?

Courtney and I are both strong believers in leading with kindness. We also treat our team the same way we treat our business partnership: with trust and open communication. 

What’s next for your business?

We are excited to continue to grow our Entreprenista League, a community to help women founders and leaders make meaningful business connections and  have the support that we relied on when we first started Socialfly! I hope you will join us in our community and I can’t wait to meet each of you!