Alpha Delta Pi - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

STAR The newsletter for alumnae and friends of Sigma Chapter of Alpha Delta Pi at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign sigmaofadpi.com Alumna Spotlight: Kara Smith Brown '00 How ADPi is in your life as an alumnae? The most important women in my life are ADPis. They are the women who know me, keep me humble, and are my biggest champions. These women and the real relationships that started in college and matured over time are what keep me grounded. Most cherished memory of ADPi? There are so many! How do you choose? Recruitment my senior year was a really special time. ADPi was my home in college, the one spot on campus where I always had a place. Recruitment senior year felt like the end of an era, there was something special about those weeks, knowing it was the beginning of the end. I remember feeling a mixture of excitement, relief, and sadness. What advice do you have for current members? I recently went to a Morgan Stanley talk about empowering women. The woman presenters had some great advice that I'm going to steal: your summers are precious. Get the best internship you can. Even if you hate what you do during the summer, it is short term and the jobs you don't like are one career opportunity you can scratch off your list. You've completed an IronMan competition. Tell us about that! In my 20s I got really into fitness and cycling. I used to teach those cycling classes that make you want to throw up. In 2006, I did my first mini-triathlon and was hooked. I'm naturally goal- oriented and IronMan felt like the ultimate goal. It takes a year or more to train. Lucky for me, I worked in a building with a gym in the basement and got a free membership as an instructor. I ran the 2008 Chicago Marathon and did two and three-a-day workouts for about a year to prepare. I finished the IronMan Wisconsin in September 2009. Seems like forever ago now! Share with us what you have been doing post- college and anything exciting happening in your personal life. A lot has happened in more than a decade! In 2006, I was an early employee at a startup, back when it wasn't cool to work for a startup. Echo Global Logistics grew 3,000% in three years and my name is on the 2009 IPO press release (NYSE:ECHO). The group that started Echo also started Groupon, and I was fortunate to be around the entrepreneurial spirit in those early years. Since then, I've gone between in-house marketing gigs and owning my own shop. My husband, Eric, and our two girls, Kate (5) and Liza (3), moved to Atlanta in 2016. I'm the CEO of a consulting firm and we're growing quickly. I'm loving every minute. Can you tell us a about what you are doing now, especially what inspired you to go out on your own? Right now, I'm the CEO of my own marketing consulting firm. Mid-size business to business companies that don't have a budget for a chief marketing officer hire us for strategy, planning, and execution of all things marketing - from social media to enterprise data management and reporting. Starting my own shop was an accident. In my mind, being an entrepreneur was always for other people (usually men) braver than me. In 2012, Eric and I moved back to Chicago from Nashville to have our first baby. I was going to be the best stay-at-home-mom ever and finish the MBA I started. The reality was very different. I was bored at home. Really bored. A friend and awesome lady-boss business owner asked me to help her with some email newsletters-- easy stuff. SmithBrown Marketing grew from there. What's your ultimate goal for SmithBrown? Only 2% of all female-led businesses will ever break $1M in revenue (Forbes). My ultimate goal is to buck that trend. I'm proud to report I'm on track to do just that and even better - I'm doing it with an all-female team. Working on a small team with a tough #ladyboss isn't for everybody, but for the right women, I'm committed to being a safe place for them to grow, fail, and win. Find me: smithbrownmarketing.com Social (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram): @smithbrownmktg LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kara-smith-brown-18b5293 Fall 2017 SIGMA We are proud to spotlight alumna Kara Smith Brown! Kara lives in Atlanta and runs her own marketing consulting company, SmithBrown Marketing. The Sigma of Alpha Delta Pi 2017 Campaign is making great progress! Thanks to generous contributions from 25 sisters, we raised over $2,300 in less than one month! Contributions to the Sigma of Alpha Delta Pi 2017 Campaign will fund: • Renovations for all five bathrooms • Continued home repairs If you have not given to this important effort thus far, we invite you to join the growing list of donors! To do this, simply visit sigmaofadpi.com and click "Support the Campaign." By making a financial donation to Sigma of Alpha Delta Pi, you are ensuring the home of our sisters is one that will stand for another hundred years. Any donation makes a difference and we appreciate your investment in Alpha Delta Pi. Thank you for supporting our sisters. Together we are Sigma Strong. Join 25 Sigma Sisters and Make a Difference! $0 $15,000 Goal $2,500 $12,500 $10,000 $2,365 Raised $5,000 $7,500

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