Women Of The C-Suite: Becca Booker of Homemade Social On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive
An Interview With Doug Noll
Having an amazing contract from the beginning will do wonders for your business. The contract that we have now for our social media clients I didn’t rework until we were in business for three years, but it would’ve been incredibly helpful to have sooner.
As a part of our interview series called “Women Of The C-Suite”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Becca Booker.
Northern California made, Becca received a double major in Marketing and Journalism from Barrett, The Honors College at ASU and now lives in sunny Phoenix, Arizona. Becca started Homemade Social to work hands-on with lifestyle and e-commerce brands and to implement social media and Facebook advertising strategies to elevate their brand and reach. Dubbed the “modern social media queen” by AZ Foothills, Becca is revolutionizing the digital marketing game and inspiring brands to use innovative tactics to grow their online presence.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Hi! First of all, so grateful for the opportunity to be interviewed. I moved to Arizona in 2011 to study Marketing & Journalism (with an emphasis in PR) at Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University. My first dip into the industry was in 2012 right after Instagram came to market, and I managed the social media account for my sorority in college. That’s when I first discovered I love social media and wanted to look into this as a career, so I took on a few additional social media jobs throughout college. After I graduated, I worked as the Marketing Director at a local start-up. Fast forward to a few years later, I started doing freelance social media marketing as a side hustle in 2018. Eventually, my freelance business grew so rapidly that I knew I needed to expand. That’s when Homemade Social was born!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
Funny you ask. The most “interesting” thing that’s happened since starting Homemade Social was having to take a celebrity client to justice claims court. Basically, we ran the socials for a company owned by a big-name celebrity for quite some time, and they eventually stopped paying their invoices. We had attempted to collect payment for 6 months and were completely ghosted by the company’s team, so I had to take them to justice claims court. My first thought was that this person is a big time celebrity and definitely has the money to pay the invoices. I never thought I’d have to do anything like this working in social media…but here I am. You never know what kind of hat you’ll have to wear as an entrepreneur!
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Yes. Oh boy. So for our first Homemade Social merch drop in June of last year, 50 people ordered a limited-edition mug and we sold out almost overnight. Unfortunately, ten of the 50 mugs broke in transit on their way to the customers and I had to refund them. Because we sold out, I couldn’t send them a new mug! It was a disaster, but we handled it as professionally as we could. It wasn’t funny at the moment, but I can laugh about it now because it was a silly mishap. Now, I’m much better at testing new ventures before jumping in to ensure we’ll have a positive customer or client outcome. We definitely should’ve tested our packaging prior to shipping the mugs.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My therapist. I believe a healthy mind is directly related to the success of my business. Any issues you’re working through in your personal life will affect your business ventures, so it’s important to address those before they negatively impact your team or clients.
Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader?
I mean, yes, as a leader I have to make difficult decisions every day. But one instance stands out the most: I had to let an awesome team member go during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was hard enough as is, but the worst part was that I had to break the news over Zoom. Looking back, I was just doing my best to keep the company afloat during highly uncertain times.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?
I say this all the time: I consider myself to be a glorified project manager. I rely heavily on the rest of the team to make sure everything runs smoothly. HR and accounting are outsourced, but I oversee those tasks and wear a lot of different hats.
I feel like my main job focus at Homemade Social is helping to foster relationships with our clients and keeping our team happy, so I try to be as personable as I can be. It’s been amazing to see those relationships blossom. The nature of an agency is selling a service, which people provide, so our team’s happiness, work product, and efficiency are our most important assets.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive? Can you explain what you mean?
Being a CEO is the hardest thing ever, but it does get easier over time. Now that I’m 5 years into self-employment, I work 35 hours a week, have great work-life boundaries, and have been able to build my dream life, but it wasn’t always this way. Being a CEO doesn’t have to dictate how you live your life — it should be the other way around! Since I’m CEO, I get to decide how I work and do business.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
The biggest challenge as a female executive is getting people to listen to you and your ideas, and having to constantly overexplain yourself when making a recommendation or suggesting a change for a client. I face this all the time and particularly encountered this early on since I started the company at such a young age.
What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?
I’m at the point where I don’t do any social media content creation anymore, I just oversee the process. Being the owner of a digital marketing agency, I thought I would be creating content for the rest of my career!
Is everyone cut out to be an executive? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?
An important trait is that you can’t always be a people pleaser. This is something I had to unlearn. Not everyone is going to love what you’re doing or what decisions you make and that’s OK.
Another important trait is that you have to be comfortable and confident enough to prioritize yourself. People that allow work to completely take over their lives often fail because running a business is like a marathon, not a sprint. It’s so easy to get burnt out.
The last thing I’ll say on this point is that you really have to want it. There are so many other jobs that are much less stressful and less demanding and you’ll be handed so many opportunities to throw in the towel and give up. There hasn’t been a moment where I didn’t want this, and I’m forever grateful!
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
1 . Having an amazing contract from the beginning will do wonders for your business. The contract that we have now for our social media clients I didn’t rework until we were in business for three years, but it would’ve been incredibly helpful to have sooner.
2 . The people closest to you can sometimes feel like the least supportive when you’re first starting out, mostly because they are projecting their own insecurities onto you. I experienced this with some of my closest friends in my early twenties. Back in 2018, I was selected to be on my very first podcast, and I jokingly made a comment about how I was going to be famous and some of my friends actually rolled their eyes! However, it’s interesting now because I’ve had some of those same people inquiring about getting hired at Homemade Social. A totally full-circle moment.
3 . Both clients and employees will come and go, and it’s worth investing in those that stick around. One of our favorite clients is another female business owner who we’ve worked with for nearly 3 years. I love how we respect each other’s boundaries, and because I understand exactly what she’s looking for, we don’t even need to do monthly calls. Aside from work, we’re always in communication about her dating life, dogs, and we just have the best banter. It’s so fun!
4 . Working in social media takes away some of the fun of social media. I used to create a lot of influencer-style content for my personal social media accounts, but since Homemade Social took off I’ve put all my energy into my client’s socials and have less energy leftover to create my own content. Burnout can be very real at times.
5 . Running a business gets easier. I’ve never been a mom, but I would equate starting a business to having a newborn and how it gets easier and more natural as the child grows up. Homemade Social is like my first child.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Social media-free Sundays! Even though my entire business runs by our usage of social media, I’m all about healthy boundaries. I think the world might be a happier place with social media-free Sundays. Unplugging is SO important for our sanity and health.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them
O.M.G. I would absolutely love to have lunch with Emma Grede. She started in a similar place by owning a PR agency and worked her way up by making incredible connections along the way. Now, she’s the co-owner of Good American and oversees plenty of other business ventures too. She got to where she is because of the relationships she built. Also, a side note, she’s a mom (which I hope to be someday too) and I want to ask her how she does it all!
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
About the Interviewer: Douglas E. Noll, JD, MA was born nearly blind, crippled with club feet, partially deaf, and left-handed. He overcame all of these obstacles to become a successful civil trial lawyer. In 2000, he abandoned his law practice to become a peacemaker. His calling is to serve humanity, and he executes his calling at many levels. He is an award-winning author, teacher, and trainer. He is a highly experienced mediator. Doug’s work carries him from international work to helping people resolve deep interpersonal and ideological conflicts. Doug teaches his innovative de-escalation skill that calms any angry person in 90 seconds or less. With Laurel Kaufer, Doug founded Prison of Peace in 2009. The Prison of Peace project trains life and long terms incarcerated people to be powerful peacemakers and mediators. He has been deeply moved by inmates who have learned and applied deep, empathic listening skills, leadership skills, and problem-solving skills to reduce violence in their prison communities. Their dedication to learning, improving, and serving their communities motivates him to expand the principles of Prison of Peace so that every human wanting to learn the skills of peace may do so. Doug’s awards include California Lawyer Magazine Lawyer of the Year, Best Lawyers in America Lawyer of the Year, Purpose Prize Fellow, International Academy of Mediators Syd Leezak Award of Excellence, National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals Neutral of the Year. His four books have won a number of awards and commendations. Doug’s podcast, Listen With Leaders, is now accepting guests. Click on this link to learn more and apply.
