Member StoriesKristie Holt

Tell us about your career path

I opened the Local Hub Bicycle company a little over three years ago. So I was in the corporate world, I managed an inside sales team before so I didn't really have a lot of marketing experience before opening my own business.

And when I opened the business I just tried to figure it out myself so It was all very much self-taught. We started out doing a website, social media, before we opened the shop, and did a lot of events, which really helped us when the shop opened. Since that time it's all been self-taught and I hadn't really figured out how to go forward.

So, when the idea to take an online class with the Digital Marketing Institute came about I just kind of jumped at it because I knew that it could help me as a small business owner to take my business forward.

What attracted you to the Digital Marketing Institute?

I chose the Digital Marketing Institute over the other programs I was looking at because of the real world experience that the teachers had, and also the after class experience. I knew there would be opportunities to develop my skills and also to network with other people in digital marketing.

What course did you study and why?

I selected the Digital Marketing Professional program because it had more entry-level areas. Because I never studied digital marketing before, I just kind of learn hands on, I really wanted to take it down to the basic steps and work my way up to things that were more complicated that I hadn't taken into account for.

How has this helped your business?

If you don't come from a marketing background and don't understand how social media works or SEO works, that's something that we just don't know so we have to seek the information out. And I really feel like the Digital Marketing program helped me be a better business owner and helped me be able to grow my business digitally because of that information.