Career Path of a Founder and CEO at Mustard and Moxie
Anna's career path was anything but linear, starting with film production studies at NYU, then transitioning through a stint in the film industry which "wasn't making me happy," and a return to waiting tables while building a freelance marketing portfolio. This ultimately led to a corporate marketing role, an unexpected layoff, an executive MBA at UCLA Anderson, and the surprising launch of their own successful marketing and branding consulting firm, Mustard & Moxie, focusing on nonprofits and social enterprises.
Career Exploration, Overcoming Challenges, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Executive/Leadership
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Anna Boudinot
Founder & CEO
Mustard & Moxie
New York University, 2000
UCLA Anderson MBA
Film, Media Arts, Visual Arts
Nonprofit, Foundations & Grantmaking, Advertising, Communications & Marketing
Entrepreneurship and Business Owner
Scholarship Recipient, LGBTQ
Video Highlights
1. Anna's career path highlights a non-linear progression, starting from film production to corporate marketing and finally entrepreneurship, showcasing adaptability and a willingness to pivot.
2. Her experience navigating a layoff and leveraging a graduate degree (UCLA Anderson's executive MBA program) to launch a successful consulting firm (Mustard & Moxie) demonstrates resilience and resourcefulness.
3. Her transition from film production to marketing reveals a transferable skillset, emphasizing storytelling and audience engagement as core competencies valuable across various creative fields. This could encourage students to explore diverse applications of their skills.
Transcript
Could you walk me through your career path, starting with your experiences in college? Did you have any internships or jobs before your career role?
I had a very unusual career path. I studied film and television production as an undergrad in New York City at NYU. After graduating, I eventually made my way to Los Angeles where I worked in the film industry for a few years.
I didn't love working in the film industry; it wasn't what I had expected as an art student. I wasn't prepared for the business side of things, and it just wasn't making me happy. So, in my early thirties, I decided I wanted to change career paths.
While I was doing that, I went back to a restaurant job, like I'd had in my early twenties, and waited tables. That was not fun. But while I was waiting tables, I had a flexible schedule and started picking up freelance work as a copywriter for marketing projects. I also managed social media pages and wrote blog posts and email newsletters.
After a few years of that, I had built up a portfolio strong enough to get my first marketing job at a corporation. I was actually pretty happy that there are similarities between marketing and filmmaking. I think that's why I thrive in marketing; it's about figuring out how to tell a story that makes your audience feel a certain way. That's true whether you're making a movie, an advertisement, or a website for a company's product or service.
I worked in corporate marketing for a few years and was quite surprised when I was laid off from a tech company in 2018. I took that as a moment to reassess my career path and decide what I wanted to do next. That's when I decided to go to grad school.
I applied to grad schools and got into UCLA Anderson's executive MBA program. This program is designed for people who have been out in the workforce for a couple of decades. So I was in a group of other students who were very experienced in their roles and their companies. There were entrepreneurs, CEOs, and people with amazing experiences that I had never encountered before.
My intention was to continue my work as a marketing consultant and get back into the corporate world. I thought that having UCLA Anderson on my resume would give me more credibility and connections so I could get back into a marketing role, work my way up the corporate ladder, and maybe be a chief marketing officer one day.
That didn't happen at all. Instead, I got into grad school and was surrounded by all these amazing resources, classmates, and professors. I wound up starting my own company, which is something I never thought I was going to do. My company is called Mustard and Moxie. We are a marketing and branding consulting firm, and our clients are primarily nonprofit organizations and social enterprises.