Eleven Questions with Brazen Careerist Penelope Trunk

Many people just know you as the awesome blogger and power woman behind Brazen Careerist, can you let us a little into the world of Miss Trunk?

I like to think that each of us working on the same stuff – figuring out who we are and what we want and how to get it. Those questions get progressively easier, but I’m not sure we ever get off the first one. That’s where I am, too.

Many young bloggers and Entrepreneurs say they draw inspiration from you, for example Monica O’Brien who is one of my favorite bloggers. Is there anyone you draw your own inspiration from?

Oh, I like Monica’s blog. She’s great at writing about gender. And, actually, I think that tons of bloggers are good at something. The trick is to find what you’re good at so you can inspire other people. Sometimes I find that watching someone figure out what they are good at is as inspiring as seeing someone be great.

Bloggers who I like:

Rebecca Thorman at Modite

Holly Hoffman – at WorkLoveLife

Lance, at Honey and Lance

Sam Davidson at Cool People Care

You put yourself out there on your blog posts and in a recent one, you explained why. Do you ever get people who give you bad feedback, send you emails criticizing you e.t.c? If you do, how do you deal with them personally?

I get emails criticizing me every day. I read them all. I like direct feedback, and sometimes, in person, people are hesitant to be direct. So I sort of like that people will just say anything on my blog — they spare no feelings there. Sometimes I think they are off base, and sometimes I think they’re right. In either case, I think about it. Because the way to get better is to be open to criticism.

A lot of young Gen Y entrepreneurs tend to get stuck after the idea is conceived and they’ve written their business plan. Can you tell us briefly how you started your first company? From the idea conception, through seeking funds, marketing and launching?

My first company was one I thought about for a year before I started. I knew I had intellectual property — math software from my investor’s company. I realized that I could buy math.com pretty cheaply, and then I looked around for what else could go on the site. I found out that Swarthmore College had a huge grant from the NSF to build math teaching tools, but Swarthmore had no idea what to do with them. So I put them on my site. And I decided that with that stuff, I needed to market to teachers. That’s how I figured out what my business was. It was incremental and I was very flexible. It’s important when you think of a business idea to know that a business is a bunch of very small, always changing ideas. It’s not one, big, stagnant idea.

You talk a lot about your constant quest for more funds for Brazen Careerist. Can you shed light on the effect of the sad state of the economy on securing funds for already established companies like Brazen Careerist? What about new start-ups run by novice entrepreneurs looking for seed funds?

There is plenty of money for companies that have a good idea. Really. The reason we ran into trouble is that we did not time everything well. But even when we were in really really bad shape, there was funding for us. You need to have all your ducks in a row to get funding. There is sort of a checklist of stuff you need. If you have that, you’ll get money. If you don’t have that, it is probably not the right time for you to get funding.

I have been told several times by many C.E.Os I have had the privilege of sitting down with that in business, it’s more about who you know than what you know. Do you agree?

Yes. Definitely. You need to be able to surround yourself with people who can fill in your own gaps in skills. I am constantly calling people for help and advice. I think young people don’t realize how often — each day! — very experienced people ask for help with an email or something like that. You need a network of people you can ask for help.

This is actually why Brazen Careerist works so well for entrepreneurs. Because for an entrepreneur their network is everything. And you need to be part of a community of people who can collaborate with you. That means you need to be talking with people to find out their ideas.

Also, entrepreneurs typically do not have useful resumes. They work for themselves and they change jobs a lot. Most people who are entrepreneurs also have been fired a few times: Not good for the Resume. Brazen Careerist’s ideas-based resume is perfect for the entrepreneur who is full of ideas and short on linear, corporate experience.

What are your views on the continuous rise and rise of social media as it pertains to company and personal branding?

My views? I don’t know. Is this controversial? It seems good for everyone. People telling more about themselves means that people can make better decisions about who to work with.

How did you start out as an entrepreneur? Most if not all entrepreneurs experience failure at some point, how did/do you deal with them? And how well do you handle rejection?

I keep trying. I have had a lot of failure in my life that I keep plugging away at so that it is not actually a failure. Most of how we approach life’s hardships is hard-wired — how optimistic we are. And you can test yourself to see the optimism you were born with. A friend once told me that entrepreneurs are optimists and VCs are pessimists.

The biggest thing about facing failure is to just get out of bed in the morning and try something else. Keep trying. Brazen Careerist ran out of money a few times. And we all just refused to give up.

What is the best advice you’ve ever got?

The more you know yourself the better you’ll be at getting what you want — in all aspects of life. You can know yourself faster by going to therapy.

When Penelope Trunk isn’t working, speaking e.t.c. what does she do for fun?

I think there is time in life to only do three things well. We spend a lot of our lives denying this, and trying to make it not true for us. But it’s true. So, like most people my age, I have time for work, kids and a significant other. That’s pretty much it. I mean, I work out a lot, but it’s not nearly as high a priority as the other stuff. The faster you can admit that you only have time to do three things well, the faster you can stop making yourself crazy trying to do more.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this! On a final note, give me and other gen Y entrepreneurs reading this one advice.

Be open to criticism. If someone thinks you can’t take it, you won’t get feedback, and you won’t grow.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Entrepreneurs: Make Decisions (startupprofessionals.com)
• 15 Tips for a Successful Entrepreneur (menson.wordpress.com)

Tagged as: Brazen Careerist, business, entrepreneur, Penelope Trunk, start-up