Meet Helene Parker of Helene Parker Consulting

Today we’d like to introduce you to Helene Parker.

Hi Helene, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
I’m Hélène, read “Ellen” and I am the founder and CEO of Helene Parker Consulting LLC.

I have been working in the programmatic and digital advertising space for over 10 years and 3 years ago, I took a leap of faith and decided to work for myself.

It was an interesting august 1st in 2019 when I was called into the conference room at the media firm I was working at that time and was asked to politely leave. In other words, I was fired.

I had just found out I was pregnant and could feel nothing but peace in my heart. Why you may ask? Because I had decided that 2019 was the last year I would ever work for anyone outside of myself. I was exhausted and burnt out from constantly codeswitching or being one of the only black girls working in an office. It was exhausting getting surpassed by my white male counterpart for the position I worked hard for but also I trained them into.

Long story short, I have been working with amazing folks and sometimes sh*tty leadership. With that said, Helene Parker Consulting was created and we provide programmatic media solutions to agency and brand clients offering training and workshops, and talent acquisition.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The biggest lesson in my entrepreneurship journey has been my discovery of myself.

The more I invest in self-development, the more I discover my strengths and weaknesses. The more I understand my purpose and how to use my superpower to inspire me. The road the success, especially as an entrepreneur can sometimes be very lonely but I had the blessings of finding communities of entrepreneurs that I can learn from and get the support I needed.

It has been hard mentally and emotionally as running your business comes with different levels of challenges. True entrepreneurship maturity can be reflected in the month when things are extremely low but despite all, you gotta keep going!!!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
In the last 1.5 years, we shifted our business focus from staff augmentation to training and talent acquisition. I’ve discovered that my zone of genius was talking to people and learning from them. I also discovered that I had the patience and creativity to demystify any technical concept in the industry and enjoy the process.

We offer training and workshop to our clients focusing on programmatic activation where we teach any size teams the technical tools needed to run a programmatic department efficiently, including focusing on employee retention.

As we’ve served a few clients in the process, we’ve discovered that individuals like you and I, with no marketing background, were interested in my service.

There, The Reach and Frequency™ was launched. It is a course we created where we standardized the training we provided at a corporate level to individuals looking to pivot into a new career and learn a new skill.

With the course, we not only offer the basic skills needed to get started as a media buyer/trader (also known as a campaign manager) but we share essential insights that will be needed as they continue to grow in their career.

What we are the proudest of is that this course is currently being translated into Spanish and French, by a consultant on our team to increase global visibility and invite international talent to get started in the programmatic space. Likewise, American Sign Languages (ASL) will also be available the next year.

We are going to train people that look and sound different than you and me with different values and backgrounds. Why? Because the Advertising industry has a serious Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Representation challenge and I’m willing to get started on it.

We are still in our early stages and that is not a fear we hold!!

Of course, with the students we certify, we now offer to place them into lucrative and fulfilling jobs once they complete the course.

This is a journey, not a destination, and every day is a new learning curve. It’s exciting and sharing this with you makes me smile and makes my heart feel great.

What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Self-development is the secret to success. Partnership and community are a requirement on the journey to success.

Consistency is the most important skill anyone should have. Because when motivation and happiness don’t show up, only consistency can keep you going. Consistency will create a routine that will lead to efficiency and with time will become part of your value.

Sharing as you learn is super important and learning to share doesn’t come as easily.

Lastly, Confidence, commitment, and consistency are the 3 C’s of self-discovery.

Pricing:

• Team Workshops can start around $3,500 + depending on the team and need
• The course is $1,275 and each module can be purchased separately and vary between $175-$599
• Talent Acquisition can start at around 20% of the first year’s salary

Contact Info:

• Website: www.heleneparker.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/programmaticdigestpodcast/
• Twitter: @iamheleneparker
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBGMMRsZkw0IIUbQIJmMBxw
• Other: www.reachandfrequency.live