A Mentor with your Saturday afternoon Starbucks!

A little late- I know, but as promised my "before the weekend" (come on folks, we're only a few hours into it) post! This past Tuesday I met with Pepper Evans, the VP of Digital Marketing and Social Media Development. Going into the meeting I wasn't sure what to expect- and I got a lot more than I imaged...a new mentor! I already have an amazing male mentor in my arsenal, but I am excited to tell you about my new female mentor (as long as she OK with that)! Pepper's journey began Travel Holiday where she lead the company in putting all of their assets online for the 1st time. As a young 25 year old living in the city, this was an amazing feat in my eyes- getting a then largely male business scene to agree to a new aged and out of the box idea. From there, she moved around from start-up to start-up working in what she called the "Silicon Alley." Ending up at USQ Ventures sometime around the new millennium Pepper focused again on convincing venture capitalists that online was where it's at- and that's where they needed to be. When 9/11 struck the big city, and all of us around the country, Pepper explained a concept to me I had never realized existed at the time. Working for a venture capitalist prior to 9/11 meant she was out of a job post attacks. Applying and searching for jobs became an almost impossible task due to the fact that jobs were slim, and innovative positions were shunned. Meaning- all things digital sort of came to a halt. We have to remember that with the new millennium, the digital age was still only years old and such a fresh/new concept to the "boys club," for lack of a better term, seemed like a threat after our country had been hit so hard. Pepper shared with me that through her journey in digital, someone actually told her they thought online was a "fad." I wonder where that person is now- after we just had a record day for Cyber Monday with over $1.25 billion spent online. Now at Amex, Pepper plays a huge role in the company's social media efforts from a branding standpoint. She has done everything from start online content communities for the golf enthusiast card holder, to new product launches such as Serve (similar to Google Wallet). Through the hour I spent with Pepper I get a glimpse of who she was a business woman and a person. Towards the end of our chat we touched on unearthly concepts. In regards to the soul- she explained that if someone is meant to do something, they can't be without it- because it is apart of them (such is true with what we do in both our personal and professional lives). But I was most happy to hear her belief about Karma- in that if you inherently feel blessed as a result of all your hard work- the most important part is to give back. My lesson in all of this is that sometimes- no matter how hard it is to do the right thing, it will pay off in the end. And come close of day, only you will know how much GOOD you've done for the soul :)
xoxo AA