Why This Ex-BuzzFeed, Ex-Cheddar Executive Left the Media Industry
Melissa Rosenthal was living the dream. At 25, already a rising star at BuzzFeed in that company's heyday, Rosenthal ran a global team of 150 and was recognized as Forbes 30 Under 30. It was "just a sweeping amount of accolades at such a young age, and I saw myself having a very long career in media. The world was my oyster."?
But Rosenthal had nagging doubts. First about the business model — total reliance on ad revenue — and then about her own abilities. Online media's reliance on ads, she concluded well before anyone would hear of such a thing (or at least admit to it), was a house of cards. And, in a cruel irony, it was her own imposter syndrome that kept her tilting at what she knew in her gut was a windmill. Even when she followed her boss to Cheddar.
"I ate, slept, dreamed, breathed everything about this company and this industry, but it didn't feel stable and it didn't feel safe," Rosenthal told Catalyst. "I saw the patterns, I saw the signals, but everyone else in the industry just didn't seem as alarmed as I was."
The turning point — the moment Rosenthal decided she had to take another path — was when the Cheddar suits decreed there must be a 4X increase in revenue, to $200 million, in two years. In a saturated digital media market, and you aren't Google or Facebook.
"I looked at our CFO at the time and I said, 'Is this real? Do they expect us to hit 200 million in revenue in two years?' And he looked at me, he chuckled, and just shrugged his shoulders."?
That was it. "Everything I had questioned, everything I was skeptical about had been validated by that laugh," Rosenthal said.
"The reality was I was right all along. I was just muted by opinions and people that were stronger than me, more successful than me, had worked in the industry longer than me. And my imposter syndrome stopped me from following my gut and stopped me from trusting my instincts very early on."
There is much more to Rosenthal's journey. Get the full story in the latest episode of Catalyst.
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2 天前Very helpful
I take a Growth?listic approach to building sustainable growth. I work with startups - scaling founder-led sales and SMBs ? A growth mindset isn't just for individuals; it's the driving force behind successful companies.
1 周SMH 11/20 updated UA. 8. LinkedIn “Dos and Don’ts” 8.2. Don’ts You will agree not to: 13. Use bots or other unauthorized automated methods to access the Services, add or download contacts, send or redirect messages, create, comment on, like, share, or re-share posts, or otherwise drive inauthentic engagement; 14. Engage in “framing”, “mirroring”, or otherwise simulating the appearance or function of the Services; 17. Violate the?Professional Community Policy certain?third party terms?where applicable, or any additional terms concerning a specific Service that are provided when you sign up for or start using such Service; Professional Community Policies, Please make the effort to create original, professional, relevant, and interesting content in order to gain engagement. Don't do things to artificially increase engagement with your content. Respond authentically to others’ content and don’t agree with others ahead of time to like or re-share each other’s content. #LinkedinLaw
I take a Growth?listic approach to building sustainable growth. I work with startups - scaling founder-led sales and SMBs ? A growth mindset isn't just for individuals; it's the driving force behind successful companies.
1 周Does anyone on LinkedIn News? staff read comments? Melissa's a Top Voice, LinkedIn? features her in The Catalyst and promotes her despite Melissa currently being in 17 Engagement Pods. Under the current user agreement of LinkedIn? 8.2. Don’ts 13. Use bots or other automated methods to access the Services, add or download contacts, send or redirect messages; 15. Engage in “framing,” “mirroring,” or otherwise simulating the appearance or function of the Services; Spam Policies: We may remove or limit the distribution of content designed to artificially increase engagement through misuse or misrepresentation of LinkedIn’s features. After twice thinking I have seen it all and "this takes the cake"....this is leaving me speechless: LinkedIn News features a user who violates the current and future user agreement of LinkedIn and The Professional Community Policy. Here's the proof: https://lnkd.in/e2vAsaEe Daniel - Despite offers from your own user base to help identify and combat violating users, you and other execs ignored these offers thereby allowing this to happen, users notified you of violations ??. You reward rulebreakers violating your TOS with TOP VOICE Blue Badges and promote them. Shame.....Shame.... #LinkedInLaw
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1 周Very informative
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2 周Very informative