Mogul is an online platform that brings women from all the world together onto a shared space of ideas and collaborations.
Founded by the enterprising Tiffany Pham in 2014, the website quickly burgeoned into a media empire and was soon enjoying a reach of 18 million women per week, as well as managing more than 1,500 influencers.
Headquartered in New York, the success of Mogul harks back to the career Pham had built in the media industry as well as her determination to make it work.
1. She Didn’t Become A Media Mogul Overnight
Pham’s journey started at age 14 upon the death of her grandmother.
According to Pham, her grandmother worked tirelessly to democratise information across Asia through newspapers. And upon her passing, Pham decided that it would be only right to honour this inspiring individual by taking on her legacy.
Juggling 3 jobs across the global media industry, Pham woke up one day to find herself on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, and females everywhere were writing in to be inspired by her.
Here was the tipping point – what if there was a platform where women could exchange information and grow stronger together?
“At that time, I’d written a book on how to better align the IT infrastructure with business strategies, and I realised that if I could teach myself to code, I could make this a reality for younger women around the world like myself.”
“So every single day I worked on the three jobs I had, and then at 3 a.m. sat down at the kitchen table and taught myself Ruby on Rails. After a couple of weeks, I built the first iteration of Mogul.”
2. Success Isn’t The Founder’s Alone
Pham might have built the first Mogul platform by herself, but she attributes its success to thousands of people.
Working at CBS gave her a front row seat to the company’s growth, as well as how partnerships enabled profitability. “It was the perfect place to develop insights into what Mogul could become one day,” Pham describes.
But aside from the professional connections nurtured and the team who strived beside her, Pham reveals the Mogul community of women was the most important factor of all.
“When I look back at the phenomenal growth of Mogul, I recognise that timing, hard work, and endless persistence were key components to our momentum and now vital impact as a worldwide platform, reaching 18 million women per week across 196 countries and 30,470 cities.”
“What I did not realise at the start was how much friendship would serve as the most key component of all. It was our team’s strong and genuine friendships with amazing women all around the world that brought us to where we are today.”
3. Tips On Standing Out In The Crowd
Here, Pham notes that the importance lies in the friendships that you build, because they “can help you enter each of the companies no matter what size in the right way.”
Meeting people at networking sessions is simply not enough, it is also important to know who the decision makers are.
“Figure it out through various platforms like LinkedIn or by just discussing it in online groups. And then with that person, figure out who you know mutually, who can make a recommendation that will help you to rise up above the noise.”
Another crucial aspect is to develop true friendship and relationships, as opposed to superficial, one-time relationships from working together on a project.
“It’s about creating a true friendship whether through initial teas or coffees, or by finding ways in which you collaborate together through small projects or tasks.”
4. To Fail Is To Move Forward
Pham had a father with an entrepreneurial mindset, and as such she grew up in an environment where failure was acceptable, where she believed that falling was something she “needed to do”.
The important part here, is to move past the ‘no’s and get to the ‘yes’s, Pham states.
“There’s actually no failing because as long as we’re moving forward, everything is OK. And as you’re learning, in the end, you’re winning. In the end, true failure is not doing. Not trying.”
5. On Being A Great Manager And Leader
Given the scale of Mogul, Pham has to manage multiple teams, one of which remotely.
When it comes to the topic of managing her teams, Pham shares that she works “hand in hand to create a culture of full transparency and real-time feedback.”
“Every single day there’s no hesitation in providing ideas and suggestions that can help us improve all together.”
Pham reflects on how Mogul’s success was built on a strong team, built from the contacts she had made over the years, as well as active Mogul users themselves.
“My team always sets very aggressive goals and together, we figure out ways to achieve them, even if they seem impossible at first. I have learned, alongside everyone else at Mogul, that achieving the “impossible” is usually actually possible with hard work, dedication, and creativity (or out-of-the-box thinking), and setting ourselves up for success involves first creating these dream goals.”
“Every time we have done this, we’ve actually surpassed what once seemed impossible.”
Featured Image Credit: ofmercer
https://web.facebook.com/vulcanpost/posts/1065211510289404
