We continue our #DIDAYSGIRLPOWER column with an interview with Veronica Benini aka Spora, a true web captain whose energy and talent has not only made her name but has become a true inspiration to many women
From architect to blogger to successful entrepreneur. What is the common denominator that has accompanied your professional choices?
Empowerment. Everything I have undertaken has started from a need to convey independence, self-esteem, confidence. I do it for free in high schools and colleges with guest speeches, I do it for free on Instagram, I do it and 9 other Muses at every inspirational event we hold twice a year, and last but not least it is structuring all my for-profit activities. Because in the end it really matters why you do what you do. Making money from it is one of the consequences.
The web has been an instrumental tool in your career. How has the way you communicate changed over time? What about your community?
I started with a blog on Splinder in 2005, part of the first lever of bloggers. After a little year I had understood not only Community but THE Community and niches. I spoke to women from the very beginning because I started the blog to do prevention against the papillomavirus: the web seemed to me the best place to reach as many women as possible, and it did. My Community has evolved over the years because I have evolved as well. A lot of people come back now because they hear about me and they say, "Come on, I used to follow you on Splinder, look how far you've come!" and it's very nice. Let's say you go by sight at first, then you start to understand certain dynamics and you accompany them, often you induce them. When your Community is strong enough you start to pique the interest of brands and you have two choices: you monetize it or you sell it to brands. I decided to monetize it myself back in 2010 with the creation of Stiletto Academy, then Insplagenda, consulting and finally Corsetty.
Not everyone knows that you have a hand behind the successful communication of Cynical Beautician. Can you tell us how the idea for the vignettes came about?
Cristina was following me in a choral blog where I talked about sex with irony. She came to meet me at an aperitif and invited me to her Medical Aesthetic Center, already established in Buonarroti Square. She told me that she wanted to make vignettes to hang on the walls of the booths with this fictitious Cynical Aesthetician sharply responding to clients' absurd questions. He told me the first text, "I'm bloated," and the Cynic replies, "No, you're fat." And there I saw as in a very quick roundup of illustrations on Facebook and the thousands of shares. That same afternoon I opened her page drawing the cartoon with that facet that became her logo, and I kept it for a year and a half sharing to my Community every cartoon to create her first hard core of fans. Then she, understanding the dynamics of not only communication but also marketing applied to social continued with videos and newsletters until she became that holy monster of stories. She would not have become the Cynical Beautician if she were not a genius.
Have you ever been afraid of failure? How have you dealt with professional failure?
I failed many times and it was bad every single time. In 2012 I launched a line of transformable sandals and I couldn't get problems with the model corrected. I had to "abort" the startup after doing the press launch and coming out in many newspapers and women's magazines. I chose to recount my failure as being part of my journey, I find that if you have never taken a muse you will not really understand how to undertake it, and the reason is simple: it is less serious than you think, although painful for ego, pockets and image, so if it has never happened to you you will be much more afraid and much less daring than someone who has already failed. Try it and fail and then instead of pretending: tell about it.
How important do you think a bachelor's or master's degree in marketing or communications is in building one's career path?
It doesn't matter much where you learn because communication skills are of the person, they are not due to training, and then because in Italy there is not a single training institution capable of training in the new web professions. They do theory and never practice. I myself do training but I orient it toward practice and the development of lateral thinking: you have to learn to use imagination and forethought, empathy and empathy to create a good communication strategy. I would say that a successful marketer or communicator is 50 percent emotional intelligence, 40 percent travel and experiences of all kinds, 10 percent training. There is no point in bullshitting us: if you are not intelligent and if you have not opened your mind to the world, you are not up to anything exceptional and you end up doing CTAs on the Facebook pages of multinational brands.
Does this apply only to freelancers or also to those who want to work as employees perhaps in a large company?
It's worth more pre freelancers because companies want CTAs and influencers with bought fans.
Those who follow you know that in your enterprise you also pay special attention to welfare. What "measures" do you take to promote the welfare of the people who work for you?
I worked from a very young age and did everything: waitress, dishwasher, babysitter, au pair, promoter, 3D designer in open space. Then I pursued a career in Architecture and Engineering and became an international manager. Having been at the bottom of the work pyramid, I understood which bosses made me feel part of the company and which ones didn't, and I always tried to put all the good things together with others that I would enjoy, because if you are an employee, it is hard for you to want to fight with blood sweat and tears for a turnover that is not yours: you still see the salary at the end of the month, whether you bang the right amount or you bang a lot more.
When I realized that: okay you work for the money, but you stay in one place for the corporate culture, I decided to create my own, and really in my own way. In July 2018, I opened SPORA SRL on Corso Italia in Milan, and I told myself I was going to create a cool place with happy people. We sign contracts with the unicorn pen, we have introduced and will continue to introduce free things like macha in the coffee stations, tampons and panty liners in the bathroom, trainer for everyone twice a week in the bunker, we eat together almost every Friday and I have a personal lunch with each one once a month to hear how it's going.
We are organizing the annual trip to Marrakech and the Salampiades: the first salami-throwing Olympics in the hallway because I have always done business in a hurried way (precisely like throwing a salami in a hallway) and I want to honor the recklessness that allowed me to create 4 crazy startups, still active and growing 200-300% annually. We bring dogs into the office, the occasional improbable song like "It's big and it won't fit!!!" goes off, and we get big laughs in directing and editing courses because the mood is clear: we have fun because we want our runners to have fun while they learn. Instagram stickers are part of the work protocols for each project and they have to be off the hook. It's not easy to find people who fit into our mood, that's why I tell it: that way when a position opens up, my Community knows exactly what it's like to work with us and we don't waste time with people from CTA above. I look at Richard Branson serving lipstick coffees on his planes and Elon Musk giving away a flamethrower and I say to myself cool girls: if they do it then we can do it too. And we are doing it.
What is the biggest obstacle you have encountered in your work as a consultant among women who want to launch their own business?
Many believe that if you call influencers you make a lot of money right away, there is no culture between awareness and conversion; they don't understand the seeding and the tail that a campaign can have, even in the following months. They don't understand that being on social is a full-time job and you can't just do it once in a while or have your cousin do it; that Instagram is not a catalog and that you don't do CTAs (I resent CTAs, I know). That's why I only take on the personal path those who have already done at least istafaiga online and have the basics. After all, my hours are limited and I prefer to work with well-disposed people, the rest I struggle with. Sometimes with hourly consulting I find in the studio a parliamentarian, a multinational company executive, the CEO of an established brand, a historical newspaper or someone who makes cakes at home. It's a roller coaster and we come out exhausted but whipped up with ideas, for me it's addictive this 60-minute clock race to turn a project, brand, product around and get it back on track not only in 2019 but also able to stop the finger scrolling the feed. I am a sensation seeker always bordering on hypomania and I drug myself with these challenges. My type of client seeks this kind of disruption.
In conclusion, what advice would you give to a person who is working as an employee but dreams of starting their own business?
That it is not for everyone and that you will try many before you quail right. That you have 2 years of overlap between salaried work during the day and your own work in the evenings and weekends. That you'll realize you're on the right track if doing your own stuff doesn't weigh you down and make you feel like a dragon. Very important: bill well before you take the Big Leap, because so many people think their idea is the bomb but they don't do real sales tests, in the real market, with real people and real money, and then they stay on their asses by randomly pitching. Guys, start selling right away to see if it works, to adjust the product and dynamics, but don't quit your job to give yourself to your startup, it doesn't work that way. That's why it's for a few off-the-wall characters.
I currently have an exorbitant monthly fixed, I keep hiring and moving people around in roles and offices to optimize both the company and their aptitudes, and I am serene, but if you are of the kind that stresses out and doesn't have a kick-ass business model, then forget it because BM is everything and we are in an era where you have to make up your own business model. Another thing: investor rounds seem like the coolest stuff in the world with the thousands magically dropping into your account, but then you have people in your house who not only own you but put their mouth on everything. If you really have the soul of an entrepreneur you don't want people between your ovaries and you want to do your own thing, even if it goes wrong. I have a 59-year-old mentor who occasionally tells me True, you're going to screw up. I tell her everything and she is precious. I also go to the psy once a week, because getting your head in order is the greatest gift we can give ourselves and it turbocharges you in ways you never imagined. And I don't see why I should deny myself from becoming the best version of myself. If you want to be cool on stages find an idea that is scalable virtually, get your ass kicked by having fun with Salampiadi or similia, and don't get incubated. The market is us, and we are millions of asses.
Ilenia Dalmasso