Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:00:00] Whatever it is that you're thinking about, you don't feel like everything needs to be perfect in order to get a launch or to get it live. Just get something up there because, then, there will just be so much more, kind of, feedback and momentum to be able to carry it forward. Otherwise, you can just get stuck in the planning stages forever.

Andy Molinsky: [00:00:18] Welcome to From the Dorm Room to the Board Room, a podcast where we provide insights, tips, and inspiration for college students and young professionals, so they can make a really successful transition from college life to the professional world and beyond.

Andy Molinsky: [00:00:36] My name is Andy Molinsky, and I'm your host. I am also a Professor of Organizational Behavior and International Management at Brandeis University's International Business School where we record and produce this podcast.

Andy Molinsky: [00:00:53] Stephanie Kaplan Lewis is the Co-Founder, and CEO, and Editor-in-Chief of Her Campus Media, the number one media brand for college women, which she co-founded in 2009 as an undergraduate at Harvard. Her Campus now reaches more college women than any other media brand. Stephanie has been named to Forbes 30 Under 30, Inc 30 Under 30, Business Week 25 Under 25. And Her Campus has been named Entrepreneur Magazine's Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America, Forbes 100 Best Websites for Women, and 10 best Websites for Millennial Women. And I'm really happy to have you with us today. Thanks so much for joining us, Stephanie.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:01:33] Yeah. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to chat.

Andy Molinsky: [00:01:35] But let's jump right into it. Tell us briefly what -- I mentioned lots of listeners already know about Her Campus but give us a sense of what Her Campus is. And then, we'll sort of rewind back to how you got it started.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:01:47] Great. So, Her Campus, as you touched on, is the number one media site for college women and a college marketing company. And what's really central to that is our flagship site, which is hercampus.com, and that's a content site that covers anything and everything that college women would want to know about.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:02:02] What was really unique about it is that all the content is written entirely by college women. So, it's written by the top college journalists from schools all across the country. And when we do that, basically, it's powered by this campus chapter network that we've built over the past almost 10 years of campus chapters at 400 colleges and universities all across the country and internationally as well.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:02:24] And so, each of these campus chapters is a student organization on campus. On average, it's made up of about 30 women who are involved for creating local content, or hosting events on campus, or posting in social media, they're publicizing. And, really, they're doing all of this in order to really, kind of, get their feet wet and get the clips and experience that they're going to need to be able to move on to media and marketing jobs and internships in the real world.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:02:45] And that's kind of at the core of what we do is this mission of serving college women, empowering college women both in looking at that audience as a whole, and that in everything that we're doing, we're looking to serve college women with our content, with our programming, with our lines, but, also, then, really drilling down and serving this group of college women that make up the Her Campus team where women are looking to go on to careers in  media, in journalism, in marketing, education, entrepreneurship, and really giving them skill sets, and equipping them with the tools that they need to go on and be successful.

Andy Molinsky: [00:03:15] So, this is a great story. So, the title of our podcast is From the Dorm Room to the Board Room. And we talked earlier. And this is truly a case of, really, the dorm room being the board room, at least, at first. So, tell us how you got this up and running at Harvard when you were an undergraduate. Tell us the story of how you started it, how you started running it, and then how you transitioned from Harvard to a postgraduate experience running the company.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:03:42] Yeah. So, we got our start during undergrad at Harvard. And basically, where my co-founders - Windsor and Annie, and I - met working on a student publication at Harvard that, at the time, was an annual print magazine. That was, basically, Harvard's lifestyle and fashion annual print magazine. And we had gotten involved with it as an extracurricular. And then, the three of us ended up becoming board members of that organization, taking it over.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:04:05] And once we did so, we decided we wanted to transition everything from print to online for, now, obvious reasons of why you want to move things online. And, basically, once we did so, even though what we were feeding was really just this student publication for Harvard women, it really just started blowing up and attracting attention from college women, not just at Harvard, but all across the country.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:04:24] And we started hearing from a lot of these women, and on and on will shout and say, "Hey, I love what you're doing, but I wish there was one for my school. I love reading Harvard ones, but it's kind of Harvard-specific." And then, there were also a ton of women who reached out and said, "Hey, I love what you're doing. I wish something like this existed at my school. I dream of growing up to work for Glamour, or Vogue, or Marie Claire one day, but the only outlet I have on my campus is the school newspaper. Can you give us advice on how to start something like this at our school?"

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:04:49] And so, we kind of realized through this that we were really hitting on a nerve here and really kind of identified this need both on kind of the readers' side, in terms of being hungry for this kind of content, but, also, honestly, the journalists' side, and that they were looking for an outlet, looking for a platform where they could get this kind of experience that they weren't able to get elsewhere already.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:05:09] And so, we said, "Hey, maybe there's something that we could do here to kind of tee what we've been doing Harvard and do that on a national scale for college women everywhere." And so, we decided to enter Harvard's business plan competition and really use that as a way to kind of flesh out our idea, kind of think through all the different pieces of it. And then, sure enough we went on to win that business competition, which was during our junior year.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:05:33] And then, of course, the business plan competition is a little far cry from having an actual live, up-and-running business. So, that's when the real work really began. And we, then, spent that summer between junior and senior year living together in New York City, all doing related internships, working on Her Campus nights and weekends to get everything ready to launch that fall when we got back campus. And then, we launched Her Campus in September of 2009. We're coming up on our 10th birthday this fall, which is wild.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:06:00] And hercampus.com was launched. And then, really, throughout that school year, we said, "Hey, we have this opportunity while we're still students. This isn't as risky of a thing to do. Just yes, let's really take advantage of this time to work as hard as we can, really see if we can get enough traction to be able to do this on a full-time basis when we graduate, rather than take another job, or graduate school, or something like that."

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:06:22] And so, that's what we did. And then, around December of that year, there was kind of enough, sort of, feedback from all directions that made us feel confident to make that decision of, "Hey, we're going to be all in. We're going to do this." And Windsor and I were graduating. So, that was easy. Annie was actually one year behind us. So, she ended up deciding to take a leave of absence from Harvard, so that she could be all in full-time too. And that's when we got really kind of put our foot on the gas pedal and get going once school was over.

Andy Molinsky: [00:06:52] So, that's an amazing story. No, you didn't major in Business, right?

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:06:59] No. So, Harvard is all Liberal Arts at the undergrad level, which not everyone has clearly realized. So, there was no opportunity for us to even take a business course, an accounting course, marketing. There was no journalism or anything like that. So, I was a Psychology major, Windsor was a History and Science major, and Annie was a Visual Arts major. And it was really -- those are just topics that we were interested in, and we enjoyed taking courses in. And that was really three things outside the classroom that we could lean into more of our interests.

Andy Molinsky: [00:07:28] Was there anything -- I'm just curious, anything that you did learn in college that was helpful for you as you were kind of piecing this all together?

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:07:38] I think, college is helpful, especially at Harvard, you're given a ton of freedom, and ton of leadership, and a ton of autonomy both with your school or the course, and that you're the one that kind of has to just be on top of everything in a completely different way than you are in high school, but also through the extracurriculars especially where you're really just given a ton of opportunity and a ton of autonomy to just really kind of take something and run with it.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:08:01] And, I think, having that amount of freedom really can kind of give you the confidence to be comfortable kind of not just doing graduating, going into some entry level role someplace, but you really feel like you're set up in your position to be able to take on a lot more responsibility, which I think was nice.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:08:16] And time management, for sure. You have a million things going on all the time with schoolwork, your extracurriculars, jobs on campus, sororities, et cetera. And so, in some ways, then just having to focus on kind of doing one job after you graduate, it sometimes feels easier than in school when you're juggling 50 million different responsibilities at any given time.

Andy Molinsky: [00:08:34] It's true. Though you did say also, and I've heard this before actually, that there is a benefit to starting something while in college. Say more about that. I think that's interesting.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:08:48] Yeah. So, I think it makes so much sense to get going on something while you're in school. On the one hand, people might feel like, "Oh, I'm so busy while I'm still a student. I don't have time. I should just basically graduate." But, really, in college, for the one thing, it felt less risky to get going on something while you're in college. You're not making the decision to do your startup versus take a job or go to grad school. You have it as kind of this testing ground, which is nice. It's much lower risk.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:09:12] At worst, if things don't pan out, then it was this side project that you tried out, and move on, and you do something else as opposed to having that real sort of opportunity cost of whatever else you need. What if you're doing otherwise during that time?

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:09:24] But the other piece of it too is, I think, people are just so willing to help out students in so many ways. There's so many resources that you have access to as a student via speakers coming to campus you, fairs and things that happen at school, and people are just so much more willing to kind of listen to you and give you advice while you're still a student. So, I think it's really key to kind of take advantage of that time because once you've graduated, you're out in the working world, and you don't have as many resources just at your fingertips the way you do at a college or university.

Andy Molinsky: [00:09:53] Yeah, that's very interesting. I agree with that too. And how about misconceptions that you think college students have about transitioning from college to the professional world? I know you've lived it. Your co-founders have lived it. And you worked with so many college women who are living it or about to live it. What's your view on that?

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:10:16] Totally. So, I mean, it certainly depends on what kind of workplace you're going into because there's, obviously, such a wide range of working at a startup environment, like your campus or an earlier stage startup environment, or now 10 years year old versus going into, I mean, either a consulting or something like that. it varies a ton.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:10:31] But, I think, in general, a lot of college students feel like, "Okay. I'm going to graduate, and get a job, and work at a place where I need to be just like super professional, super buttoned-up, and that's kind of totally different than my personal life. And I really need to be this just like very serious, very buttoned-up person in the workplace. And then, it's kind of like a totally different persona.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:10:51] And I think more and more employers are really looking for people to bring your best selves to work because it makes the employees happier. And then, obviously, for the employer, it ends up leading to greater retention for them when they have happier employees that are just excited to come to work every day and feel comfortable in the work rather than feeling like they need to put on a suit, and act more serious, and not act like that 21 or 22-year-old that they are.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:11:14] So, I think, work should be a place where you can kind of bring your whole self to work, and that's something that we've definitely really focused on Her Campus as we've kind of created this culture over the years and thought about different initiatives, and different committees, and things that exist within the company. So, you should be able to bring your whole self to work and not feel like you have to go to work and turn on this one person, and then, when you get home you get to be your real self because, I mean, that's exhausting, and it doesn't have to be that way, say, for maybe some very, very formal professional environment. So, that's one thing I would say.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:11:47] And the other kind of a totally different, sort of, piece of the workplace dynamic is, I think, it's amazing that people feel more comfortable now advocating for themselves, asking for raises. That's fantastic. It's something you should always do. But there is kind of a learning curve to understanding when it's appropriate and when it isn't. And I think, some people have this idea that they can come into a role, and if they do a great job, within three or six bottles, maybe they're going to get promoted, they're going to get a raise because they've been such a great job.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:12:16] And, really, I think a lot of employers are setup still on much more of the, kind of, an annual review, annual raise kind of system in terms of their budgeting, in terms of their performance review system. And so, I think, when you're taking a job initially, that's the time to kind of negotiate for the set of responsibilities you want, the compensation package that you want.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:12:35] Once you get in there, give it your, all go above and beyond. And then, wait until that annual review to really kind of be able to say, "Hey, here are all the amazing things I did this year. Here's why I deserve a raise, or promotion, or whatever it is," not when you've been in the job for three or six months. And I think it's great that people can be so eager, but it's a two-way street. You have to kind of figure out what's going to work for you, and what's going to work for the employer.

Andy Molinsky: [00:12:57] Great. Great advice. And I'd love to just actually circle back to the college experience. And I loved your point about using college as an opportunity to try something out entrepreneurial. How about using college as an opportunity to, sort of, practice some of the skills that you'll need in the real world? Like when you step into a company, learning to give feedback, performance reviews, speaking up, voicing your opinion, being assertive, all these, sort of, soft skills that I think are so important in the workplace. Can college be sort of a training ground for that too?

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:13:32] Absolutely. And I think that's a great place for it to be that kind of training ground. And even, you can think about how those things might be applied in more of a college setting, whether it's going to office hours, or speaking with your professors proactively, or maybe in response to a project you can do as long as you help, or something like that, and learning to navigate those kind of tricky conversations, and learning to navigate the conversation asking for constructive and critical feedback, and learning to be receptive to it because those are really important skills in the workplace, for sure.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:14:01] As well as kind of seeking out opportunities to find mentors, to find advisors, and figuring out how to start kind of building those relationships and maintaining them because so much of your career success is really about relationships and relationship-building. And that's just kind of your key to unlocking knowledge and information in a lot of ways and, also, to unlocking connections and opportunities. So, I think, there's absolutely an opportunity while still in college to really use it as the, sort of, training ground to practice those kinds of things that maybe are taught in the classroom.

Andy Molinsky: [00:14:31] So, I'm glad you mentioned mentors. So, that was going to be my next question actually. So, mentors are so important. What's been your experience? I'm actually curious which are what your experience has been in terms of having a mentor but, also, perhaps mentoring.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:14:47] Yeah. So, mentors have been huge for us on Her Campus definitely still now, but especially in the early days. So, during that summer between junior and senior year when we're getting ready to launch, one thing we were really intentional about was just networking as much as we could, and seeking out mentors, and basically just making connections in all different parts of the industry who could kind of be sort of advisors in all different kind of areas or domain expertise.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:15:11] And then, really being intentional about keeping in touch with those contacts and those relationships because, I think, there's one piece of it, which is kind of networking to begin with and making the connections. But then, after you meet with them at events or had an informational interview with them, or something like that, how do you then keep in touch with that, so that then at X, Y, Z later date in the future, you really still have that connection really strongly to be able to tap into.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:15:34] So, one thing that we did is we created what we called our supporters listserv, which is basically a listserv of all these kinds of industry contacts, mentor type people we had met. And, actually, up until very recently, until almost a year ago, we sent out a monthly email to our supporters listserv that would kind of include the latest updates on our business, what we are working on, things coming up next in the areas that we were looking for advice or help on.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:15:59] And that was a really great way to be able to maintain a kind of large swath of relationships. more efficiently. And so, we can kind of stay on people's radar. And then, when something came up, it was like, "Wow, I'd really love to chat with this person about it because, I think, they'd really be able to help us." That person is kind of up to speed with what we were doing, which was nice.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:16:18] And on the mentoring side, mentoring is really just so kind of built into Her Campus' DNA. And that is really all about mentoring the next generation of college women, this next generation of journalists, of marketers. And so, really, everything that we're doing on an every single day basis really goes back to that. It, even, is really this kind of common thread that runs through every single initiative and project of ours.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:16:43] And then, one thing that's really neat to see is that we kind of work with these women while they're at college, thousands of contributors while they're in college. And then, getting to build those relationships that maybe we hire them after they graduate, or maybe even see where they go on to work after they graduate, and finding a way to partner with them or team up in the amazing roles that they're in now.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:17:00] And it's so rewarding for us to see incredible things that Her Campus alum have gone on to do, and they're now working at every place in the industry that you can think of from major magazines, major marketing agencies, they're writing books, they're broadcast journalists.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:17:15] So, it's really incredible for us to see that kind of Her Campus effect now that we've been at this for more years, and there are all these women that have gone through, sort of, the Her Campus program in college, and then gone on to have these incredible things that they do.

Andy Molinsky: [00:17:27] What you've built is really quite amazing. It sounds like you must be a very productive person. Can you share a productivity tip for us? Something that kind of -- I don't know, that helps you do what you do, and could be something obvious, could be something that is sort of unusual, but I think people like to hear this.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:17:47] Yeah, let's see. So, on a day-to-day basis, I mean, there's so many things flying around all the time. It's really a matter of keeping them all organized. And so, truly, really specific, these sort of apps or plugins that I use. One is called Wunderlist. And that's basically a to-do list tool that I use.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:18:05] And the reason that I like it is because you can set it up to do just recurring events. So, maybe there's a to-do that's like a weekly to-do, or a daily to-do, or a monthly to-do, or a quarterly to-do, you can create it that way because that's just really how I like to, sort of, manage all my different things. So, I really like using that. And then, looking at that as kind of my to-do list for the day. I'm going back and forth at all times between that list, and then, sort of, what's popped up in my inbox.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:18:29] And then, on the e-mail inbox side of things, the tool I really like to use is Boomerang, which is a plugin that basically you can have an email, kind of, get returned to your inbox after a certain amount of time. And you can set different kind of parameters for it. So, maybe it's like, if this email hasn't been replied to within two weeks, then send it back to the inbox.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:18:48] So, for example, when you're reaching out to someone, or you have something going outbound, and then you would need to remember to follow up or see whether that person got back to you, instead of me to keeping track of that, as soon as you send an email, you can set this boomerang reminder. And then, it'll come back to your inbox when you're going to need it.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:19:03] So, I'm always trying to find tools and plugins like that to just sort of optimize things, so that you don't have to have a million things floating around in your head at all times, and you know that they're written down someplace and organized, and you can sort of release them from your brain.

Andy Molinsky: [00:19:18] Wow, really cool. I might have to try those. All right. Last question for you, if you could sort of rewind and go back in time and, sort of, in your current persona, give advice to your 20-year-old college self where you were just starting out Her Campus, and maybe even Her Campus wasn't really Her Campus yet, what advice would you give to your younger self?

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:19:46] I think, the advice that we often give to college students is really like whatever the idea is, whatever it is you're thinking about, just do it now. I think, people often feel like, "Oh, in order to really get going on something, I need to do a ton of research, a ton of planning. Maybe I need to raise money, or I need to wait until I have more experience, until I have more time." Really, you're only going to get busier as time goes on. And as we've touched on already, college is the time when you just have so many things at your fingertips that are just never going to be the case again.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:20:13] So, whatever it is that you're thinking about, don't feel like everything needs to be perfect in order to get it launched or to get it live. Just get something up there because, then, there will just be so much more, kind of, feedback and momentum to be able to carry it forward. Otherwise, you can just get stuck in the planning stages forever. So, just get going on something. It doesn't need to be perfect by any means, but kind of having that momentum will be what can take you forward and probably inform what you're doing better than any amount of researching you had.

Andy Molinsky: [00:20:41] I just have to ask one quick follow-up because I'm imagining myself as a college student, and hearing that, and saying, "Oh, gosh I don't know if I have the confidence. I feel like, 'Who am I to start something?'" the old impostor syndrome. Do any sort of views on that kind of combating that for people who might feel that, who might have some great ideas, but might sort of almost hold themselves back?

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:21:09] Yeah. And I think that's something that you deal with, kind of, in college and beyond. There's certainly still days where I feel like that, no question. And I think the, sort of, antidote to that is young people are the ones with the kind of new fresh ideas. They're not so entrenched in the way that things have always been done. So, they're much more positioned to be able to see opportunities and have new and really productive ideas.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:21:30] But, of course, at the same time, yeah, you don't have the experience someone else does. And that's what really kind of building that network of advisors and mentors to have some advice. And so, I think, trust in yourself in that if you have the ideas, and the passion, and the work ethic to go after something, you really can and should do it.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:21:47] But, yeah, give yourself more confidence by knowing that you're going to surround yourself with people in your corner that you can go to when something comes up, that you've never seen before, that you don't know how to make sense of. And that can kind of help to sort of fill in that gap. It's not you all alone, but your, kind of, passion, and ideas, and sort of freshness are really what's needed to get things off the ground. And then, couple that with a strong network.

Andy Molinsky: [00:22:11] Great. Great advice. I think that would be really helpful for people. So, we're at the end of our chat. I really want to thank you so much for being our guest. Her Campus is just such a cool platform, and it's really impressive what you've built. Can you tell listeners, if they want -- where to go? Obviously, Her Campus, but where to go to find out more about you, Her Campus, or any other activities you'd like to send people to?

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:22:33] Yeah, that would be great. So, hercampus.com is our main website, but we would love for you to follow us on Instagram. Our Instagram going to handle this @hercamous. And then, coming up most immediately, our Her Conference. It is a huge women's empowerment conference that we put out every year. We've got one happening in LA on June 1st, and in New York City on June 22nd. And you can find more about those by going to herconference.com.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:22:54] And then, we're also actively hiring both for interns and for full-time positions. And hercampusmedia.com is more of our kind of career applicant-facing site. So, if you're interested in a career in any of the different areas we touch on, we're hiring in marketing, in sales, in design, and editorial, and web. We would absolutely love for you to check out what we're up to and what we're hiring for. So, thanks so much.

Andy Molinsky: [00:23:22] Okay. So, you heard it there. Check out Her Campus. Lots of great stuff going on. And Stephanie, thanks so much for being on today. I really appreciate it.

Stephanie Kaplan Lewis: [00:23:30] Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it too.

Andy Molinsky: [00:23:35] Thank you for listening to From the Dorm Room to the Board Room. If you're interested in learning more about the work that I do in helping people step outside their comfort zones and transition successfully into the professional world, please visit my website, www.andymolinsky.com. That's A-N-D-Y-M-O-L-I-N-S-K-Y dot com. And, also, feel free to email me directly at andy@andymolinsky.com with any feedback or ideas for guests for future podcasts.

Andy Molinsky: [00:24:04] This podcast is brought to you by Brandeis University's International Business School. By teaching rigorous business, finance, and economics, connecting students to best practices, and immersing them in international experiences, Brandeis International Business School prepares exceptional individuals from around the globe to become principled professionals in companies and public institutions worldwide. Thank you so much for listening.