Welcome to the first of our new series, featuring Marketing Women talking about their careers.
Steph Graham is the trail-blazing Founder of Gusto Careers, a digital hub dedicated to helping aspiring Communications professionals’ kick-start their careers. Inspired by her own experience as an intern and her love for mentoring others, Steph launched Gusto Careers in 2018. Steph shares her insights about finding your dream career, the importance of mentoring and why we all need a ‘GO AND DO IT’ mantra.
Firstly, tell us a little bit about yourself
After graduating from RMIT University with a Bachelor of Communications (Public Relations) I started working as a Marketing Assistant in Real Estate. After a year of working, I was encouraged into a sales role, which wasn’t my passion, PR was. So at 22, I quit my job to intern at two different PR agencies, unpaid, 5 days a week.
After completing my internship, I landed a full time role with Flourish PR and worked on some amazing projects including the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Noosa Food and Wine Festival, and my favourite – working with Olivia Newton-John to promote her annual ‘Wellness Walk’ for the ONJ Cancer and Wellness Centre. After 3 years, I moved to Thread Communications (Crocmedia) and managed the Marketing Partnership activities between McDonalds Victoria/Tasmania and Hawthorn/North Melbourne Football Clubs.
During my 6 years of working in Marketing and PR, I developed a passion for mentoring Interns and junior staff. It was from mentoring and through my own experiences as a young intern that I created Gusto Careers. Since I started Gusto in 2018, I’ve built a strong following and member base of ambitious students and graduates and worked with some amazing Marketing & Communications companies to help them hire Interns and Graduates!
Sounds like mentorship has played a significant role in your life. How important is it?
Mentorship is SO important! I think everyone needs a mentor – no matter what stage you’re at in your career. It’s so important to have someone who you can go to for inspiration, bounce ideas off and gain career guidance. I got involved with the MWI Mentoring Program because I’m really passionate about helping young professionals and I love to give career advice!
Who inspires you?
Anyone who is an entrepreneur inspires me! I love to read profiles of ambitious people who have successfully launched a business, because it takes a lot of guts and passion and I really admire that!
Love it! I’m sure we have some aspiring entrepreneurs within our MWI community. How do you approach goal setting?
Setting goals helps me stay accountable and drives ambition!
It helps you to look at the big picture and identify what’s important to you and the tasks that you’re going to do each day to help you achieve your goals.
Visualizing your goals and then writing them down means that they’re real and achievable!
How do you stay relevant?
As a business owner, it’s so important to stay relevant! I do this by setting aside time every day to read and educate myself about what’s happening in the world, current industry trends and latest news headlines. To be well informed is one of the greatest powers that you can have! I also ensure that I’m regularly engaging with my peers via social media platform and generating content that’s relevant to them.
Is there anything you wish you could tell your younger self?
You are young and you have time!!! I always felt like I was so old (even when I was 18) and that there was a time limit to establish my career. I felt like I had to get everything done by the time I was 25, but even looking back to myself at 25… I was still so young! Good things take time, so use your 20’s to have fun and experiment with different things. You’ll be surprised how easily you stumble across your dream career while you’re having fun!
And lastly, if you could have a billboard with anything on it, what would it say?
GO AND DO IT!
When I first started Gusto, I actually had pieces of paper that I stuck on the roof of my bedroom with motivating messages, and ‘Go and do it’ always got me in the mood to hustle! I also like it because it can also be related to anything in life (career, exercise, housework, travel)
Steph Graham is currently a Mentor for MWI’s Mentor Program. Applications are now open for the September intake. Apply here
Instagram: @gustocareers
Facebook: @gustocareers
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/gusto-careers/
