Jemima Myers is the founder and director of award-winning digital marketing agency Social Chameleon. She has over eight years of experience working both in-house and as an independent marketing consultant, managing digital marketing activities in the UK and internationally. A graduate in strategic business management from UAL and registered Chartered Manager with the Chartered Management Institute, she specialises in omni-channel marketing and organic social growth strategy.
I have over eight years of experience working both in house and as an independent marketing consultant, managing digital marketing activities for a range of clients in the UK and internationally. A graduate in strategic business management from UAL, and a registered Chartered Manager with the Chartered Management Institute, I specialise in SEO and organic social growth strategy.
I founded ‘Social Chameleon’ – a London-based digital marketing agency, and now have a team of 20 ambitious marketers and digital content creators and now cater for clients globally, helping them manage their global organic strategy through social media management, content creation and search engine optimization (SEO) – amongst other activities!
Not really! I sort of fell into marketing at the age of 18 while trying to decide what I wanted to do as a career. I knew I had always wanted to pursue a business career-path, but I didn’t go to uni after finishing my A-levels, which is the more typical route to follow. At 18, I was offered a role with a fashion company which allowed me to travel internationally, following a volunteer position I had with them.
This threw me in at the deep end, and facilitated me in developing various skills through the challenging and varied work that was given to me.
It also gave me exposure to a number of other businesses which allowed me to develop an understanding of how different companies operate.
About 10 months into launching Social Chameleon, we went nearly two months without onboarding any new clients. It felt as if we were plateauing, and I had no idea what to do next. I was anxious that the agency would never move beyond this level, which made me doubt our work. After talking things through with my partner, we discussed potential ways forward and all the obstacles that Social Chameleon had already overcome. Following this, I developed a forward plan, and the following week I pitched for a 6 figure contract, which a month later we closed.
I suppose making the leap from SMEs to global entities. I worked with SMEs for much of my early career and whilst working with them can be very rewarding, I’ve always had designs for the agency to cater for much larger accounts – after all, we’ve got a fantastic team, so why cap their abilities?
In the last six months we’ve really managed to propel the agency forward, now working with a number of global entities – including a few household brands!
I strongly believe that raw talent is not enough, and a strong work ethic is the key to success.
If you are naturally capable, but you’re not willing to work hard, you will not achieve the best results.
When I was at school, I was privileged enough to be pretty able academically, often performing in the top percentile of my year. Because of this, when I reached sixth form, I thought I could coast through on natural ability, without real focus on my work. I trusted that I would do well in my A Level exams based on my natural talent. Of course I was wrong, and had a big surprise on results day.
Now being a business owner, and seeing the journeys of many entrepreneurs throughout the years, I can clearly see that it is rarely those with the most talent who get the furthest. Those who work incredibly hard to achieve what they want, and are committed to overcoming any obstacle, they go the furthest. Staunch work ethic is a necessity.
There have been times when I have put in 100-hour weeks – but I must emphasise that I’ve done this by choice, not because I had to.
It depends what is meant by ‘mentor’. In its most literal sense – to guide someone – I would say that I spend almost every day mentoring my team. Whilst many of our team members are already experienced marketers, they still need guidance on agency practices, personal career progression and upskilling. Whilst I’m certainly not an expert in mentorship, these are all things I work with my team on on a daily basis.
I’d increase the education around technology as a career for young women. Tech is still an industry that is heavily dominated by men, and whilst I don’t think there are huge barriers preventing women from entering the industry, I think the association of jobs with men deters women from pursuing it at a younger stage in their careers.
Success isn’t luck – it’s hard work. Growing up, I was often left to believe that success largely came down to “who you know” or being in the “right place, at the right time”.
But as I’ve grown older, I believe success is largely down to how much time and effort you put into something.
Yes, we might get a ‘lucky break’ from time to time, but that lucky break might result from a decision you made or an action you took. I think this view makes a lot of people feel uncomfortable, because it makes them feel accountable for their own success. But the sooner you accept this view, the sooner you can dedicate time to pursuing your goals and achieving them.
We’re currently working on a project that is top-secret – I can’t tell you much about it, but it’s very exciting!
