Laurel Touby was honored with the 2011 Exceptional Woman in Publishing Award in San Francisco at EWIP’s third annual Women’s Leadership Conference. The sparkling and energetic honoree inspired the audience with the story of her unsuspecting rise from party host for freelance writers and editors to the CEO of mediabistro.com, a website for professionals working in media-related fields. In 2007, she sold the company for $23 million to Jupitermedia (now Web Media Brands). She is proud of her achievements (obviously, so are we) and remains involved with the business. Today, mediabistro.com has a million registered users with more than 12 million page views a month.

Touby charmed the conference attendees with her insightful “10 LESSONS“. The full speech is available on her personal blog, Culture Tripping.

1. NO AMOUNT OF TECH MAKES UP FOR CUSTOMERS
PUT YOUR AUDIENCE FIRST AND THE BUSINESS WILL FOLLOW

2. BE AUDACIOUS IN YOUR VISION

3. WRITE A PLAN

4. GET FUNDING

5. BLUFF WHEN NECESSARY

6. THINK OF TECH AS A MERE TOOL

7. KNOW YOUR STRENGTHS

8. HIRE HELP, NOT A PARTNER

9. DELEGATE WELL

10. KEEP YOUR HANDS DIRTY

Photo credit: Kathryn MacDonald