Laurel Mintz founded the marketing agency Elevate My Brand, which she also runs as the CEO. Her unique background has prepared her to handle challenging tasks that deliver consistent success to her agency.
Earlier in her career, Laurel Mintz has worked with several prestigious brands such as Le Bec Fin, Public House Restaurant Group, Bassett Furniture, and Julie Hewitt Cosmetics. While working with these brands, she came up with and executed her personal and innovative consulting work. Since then, her ambition has evolved to becoming a bigger player in the marketing industry.
A decade later, Laurel Mintz has “created an agency family” that serves both startups and established global brands, such as Facebook, Verizon Digital Media Group, PAW Patrol and Zendesk. Since 2009, she has earned numerous accolades and top talent for her agency.
Laurel Mintz works according to her favorite saying, FIOGID, meaning “Figure it out, get it done.” Now, she is one of the Board of Directors for the Network for Teaching Leadership, the Women Founders Network, and the UCLA Restaurant Conference. She also writes a column for Inc. magazine, titled “On Brand,” which comes out weekly. Her writing has appeared in Entrepreneur, USA Today, The American Marketing Association, and the C-Suite Quarterly Magazine.
Among Laurel Mintz and Elevate My Brand’s many awards and recognitions are the W3 Silver Award for the PAW Patrol Road Patrol Campaign; the 2017 Patrick Soon-Shiong Innovation Award; the LABJ Women in Business Award; and the Comerica and LA Lakers’ Women’s Business Award.
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Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Laurel Mintz: If you had asked me in college where I saw myself in 10 years, I would never have predicted that I’d ever run my own marketing agency. I was in my twenties and I had just earned my J.D. and M.B.A., and I was getting my start in the legal world with a myopic focus on partner track.
I fell into entrepreneurship when I had to run our family business right out of school. My father had become ill and I had to make sure that our family could survive. I was 26 and had a team of 60 and ran two 20,000-square-foot custom retail shops. It was definitely a trial by fire, but I learned about buying, merchandising, marketing, sales, advertising … you name it. I even baked cookies in store for big events.
When my dad recovered and I was able to step away, I was asked to consult for other retailers I had developed relationships with in the time I ran the showrooms. In 2007, I partnered up with a friend in San Francisco who ran a venture fund and we worked to put together projects for our clients and get them off the ground. It was really exciting.
A few years later, I was asked to be a founding member of the Los Angeles Consulting Group (LACG). That was a great partnership, but the firm was focused on financial services, so I exited and started Elevate My Brand. At that point, I realized what I was good at and, more importantly, what I wanted to do and for what kind of clientele. And I never looked back.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?
Laurel Mintz: Making the leap from a 1 woman shop working out of my apartment to hiring people and moving into a legitimate office was probably one of the hardest decisions/times when starting to grow my business. I definitely considered just keeping it small but I knew that wasn’t my long-term vision. Ultimately I got the drive to continue because I knew I hadn’t reached my potential yet. That drove me to move forward even through the uncertainty and fear.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
Laurel Mintz: When I went to hire my first assistant I was so overwhelmed hence the need for an assistant. I was interviewing and somehow got the resumes and initial vetting calls mixed up. The girl I ended up hiring I thought had told me on the phone that she had just had a baby. When she showed up she was 22 and slim and I was totally confused. I told her she looked amazing and I couldn’t believe that she was so young with her first child. She was completely confused and we had a good laugh when we realized the mistake I made. I ended up hiring her.
The takeaway from that experience was 1. It was clear I truly needed an EA to support me as I was totally overwhelmed, 2. That you can get through anything with humor and 3. Never make assumptions about people or their circumstances.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you please share your “Five Things You Need To Know To Delegate Effectively and Be Completely Satisfied With the Results?” Please share a story or an example for each.
Laurel Mintz:
- You can’t grow a business without delegating
- Know that when you delegate, others may not do things the same way you do and that’s ok
- Define what you’re good at
- Define what you’re bad at
- Hire for the later
We have an activity called red light green light to help with this process. You look at your calendar for the month or a few weeks. You highlight in green the things that light you up. You highlight in red the things on your calendar that drain you and that you absolutely hate. The rest is negotiable. This exercise will help you understand that you should be spending your time and energy in areas where your energy is strong and will also help you define the roles you need to hire for.
Jerome Knyszewski: One of the obstacles to proper delegating is the oft quoted cliche “If you want something done right do it yourself.” Is this saying true? Is it false? Is there a way to reconcile it with the importance of delegating?
Laurel Mintz: This is totally false. As mentioned previously, it’s important to be ok knowing that someone else may no do things the exact same way that you do and that it’s ok. In the long run, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s good enough. The perfectionist mentality is what this quote is really speaking to and it’s a totally unhealthy mentality.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Laurel Mintz: You can find me on:
My Instagram and Elevate My Brand’s Instagram
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
