About This Episode
In this episode, we’re joined by Silvia Martin. Silvia is the founder and SEO consultant at Trebole Marketing. She is a trilingual marketing professional in English, French, and Spanish, passionate about helping businesses improve their online presence and organic revenue. Alongside being an avid speaker and a certified mentor collaborating with WYK Digital, Women in Tech SEO, and Santander in their respective mentoring programs, Silvia is also a judge at the EU Search Awards.
Silvia specializes in strategy and technical SEO and has more than nine years of experience helping a wide range of leading brands improve their online visibility and organic performance. She has also lived in five different countries: Spain, Canada, France, China, and the UK. She did a marketing master’s while living in France and working in the hospitality industry, and has also worked at Oracle and the US and UK. She worked in-house and SEO agency side, and now she’s an independent consultant.
(As a mentor) I’m helping others grow, so it’s like having a team or …sharing knowledge… I make time for it because it’s beneficial for me, and also I love helping others grow and giving back to the community. – Silvia Martin
A professional mentor can be an invaluable tool for professional growth when you are on the journey to developing your soft skills.
This episode is for you if you’re curious about:
- The value of having a mentor.
- Where to find a mentor and how important finding the “right” mentor is.
- How to become a mentor yourself.
- What skills can mentoring help you develop?
- How mentoring can positively impact your career.
Tune in for an insightful conversation with Silvia Martin!
Connect With Silvia
- Learn about Trebole Marketing
- Connect with Silvia on LinkedIn
- Follow her on Twitter
Resources
- WYK Digital
- The Santander Breakthrough Women Business Leaders’ Mentoring Programme
- WTSMentorship
- GROW Coaching Model
- (Book) Atomic Habits by James Clear
- (Book) Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss
- (Book) Master Mentors by Scott Jeffrey Miller
- Freelance Coalition for Developing Countries
- BIPOC EFA Chapter
Check out all of the resources mentioned across our other episodes.
Other episodes you’ll enjoy:
- S1E19: How to Communicate Negative News and Become a Better Listener to be a More Effective Marketer – Dana Theus
- S2E04: Automate Your Podcast Processes with Joe Casabona
- S1E14: Evaluate Your SEO Skills As A Digital Marketer – Chris Green
Loved this episode?
Leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Tweet and tag us @dmvictories!
Episode Transcript
➡️ [Download episode transcript]
[00:00:00] Katherine Ong
Welcome to the Digital Marketing Victories podcast, a monthly show where we celebrate and learn from the change makers in digital marketing. Great digital marketers understand that people are the most challenging part of doing their jobs. And this show focuses on the people part of digital marketing wins. What tactics or skills the guest used to align people with their marketing strategy? I’m your host Katherine Watier Ong the owner of WO Strategies, LLC, we focus on increasing organic discovery for enterprise sized science focused clients. Thank you for joining me. Let’s get into it and celebrate our victories.
Today we’re joined by Silvia Martin. Silvia is an independent SEO consultant and founder of Trebole she specializes in SEO strategy, and technical SEO, and has more than nine years of experience helping a wide range of leading brands improve their online visibility and organic performance. She has also lived in five different countries, Spain, Canada, France, China, and the UK. She did a marketing master’s while living in France and working in the hospitality industry, and has also worked at Oracle and the US, and UK, she worked in-house SEO agency side, and now she’s an independent consultant.
She’s also a certified mentor and collaborates with Women Tech SEO, and the Santander mentoring programs. So this show is going to be perfect for you. If you’re interested in the value of having a mentor, where to find a mentor, how to become a mentor yourself, and how mentoring can positively impact your career. So Sylvia, welcome to the show.
[00:01:34] Silvia Martin
Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here with you.
[00:01:37] Katherine Ong
So can you just tell our listeners a little bit more about yourself, your background, how you got into digital marketing, and how you got into mentoring?
[00:01:45] Silvia Martin
Yeah, sure. So you did a brilliant introduction. Thank you for that. So, as you already said, I’m an independent SEO consultant, I’m based in London and I work remotely with international clients. I did start my own company around three and a half years ago now. Yeah, time flies and my background is in the travel sector, or as you said. So, yeah, I did a study travel and hospitality management and then I did work for different companies in the travel sector, but I always wanted to do marketing and then, when I was living in France, in Paris, I decided to make the transition, you know like change career and go for the marketing bit.
So I did a marketing masters. It was two years and it was great because it was starting like two weeks and then one week working. So it was like both experiences together. So it was really good.
[00:01:55] Katherine Ong
Oh cool.
[00:01:55] Silvia Martin
Yeah, I did really enjoy it. And then after that, when it finished, I decided to move to England. As you might see here in this podcast, I did a start from scratch. Different times in my life. I do like changes and challenges. So, yeah, then I moved to England because I really wanted to focus on digital marketing and, you know, start this new career and I thought that it was a great place to be. Because of people that I knew that were based in England, they said that there were a lot of opportunities there. So I said, okay, let’s give it a try. And now you know everything is going well. It’s been almost nine years here in the UK, the same time as being SEO, and, yeah, I had a great experience. So now I’m doing this SEO consulting and also mentoring, as you said. Yeah.
[00:03:38] Katherine Ong
Yeah, so I’m kind of curious, especially as you’re an independent SEO, right? So it’s mostly just you and so am I, so I know how busy your schedule can be. So why did you decide to squeeze in mentoring? Because it’s a time commitment.
[00:03:40] Silvia Martin
I know it is. But you know, when I discovered mentoring, I fell in love. It’s like SEO, it’s the same, and the thing is it gives me so much. Like it’s very fulfilling. I find it very fulfilling. I am also an independent, as you said. So it gives me a connection too. I’m helping others grow, so it’s kind of having a team or you know that kind of experience sharing knowledge and, yeah, I really make time for it because it’s really beneficial for me and also I love helping others grow and giving back to the community. That’s another thing because when I started, I did find several people who helped me out, you know. So now I want to do the same.
[00:04:29] Katherine Ong
I completely vibe with that. I’ve had folks that have helped, and so I like to help other folks out if I can. So, do you actually have a mentor yourself?
[00:04:41] Silvia Martin
Yeah. So back to your question, when I started doing mentoring, I started doing mentoring with Women in Tech SEO. That was the first time when I discovered mentoring. And then, after doing the first cohort as a mentor, then I joined the following one as a mentee. So that was my first time having a formal mentor and it was really good. And it was in a time that I really needed that kind of help and support because it’s when I changed.
I did this also starting from scratch, kind of, you know, like doing this freelancing, having my own company. So it’s a transition, right? So it’s a mindset shift and I thought it was very interesting to see, you know, to talk with other people that were in the same situation when they did it before and to share the experience. So, yeah, that’s the first thing. And then also I had like a coach, because, you know, mentoring and coaching is kind of, you know, blurring lines, kind of similar. So I did have a business coach at the beginning of when I set up my business as an independent consultant, which also helped me a lot.
And then now when I’m okay, I decided to keep going with the mentoring part and going back to the certification. Yes, so as part of one of the mentoring that I did with the Santander Bank, they did offer the certification as a mentor. So it was the same. It was great because it was the experience of doing, I had a mentee and at the same time, I did this to follow up the syllabus and these mentoring courses, to get an exam and also the certification. So it was great that I did it, like in 2022, I think last year.
[00:06:25] Katherine Ong
Yes, yeah, and so for the listeners. The Women in Tech SEO mentoring program is free for members of the Women in Tech SEO group. Coaching, I’m assuming your business coaching – you paid for that service, right? Yeah. So out of all your mentoring programs, are they all free? I know that one is free.
[00:06:43] Silvia Martin
The ones that I do participate in. Yes, they’re all free. Yeah, and I think that’s one of the good things about mentoring. There’s also paid mentoring, but most of the programs are free. So that’s one of the amazing benefits, especially for the mentees. Right? For us, you give your time for free, but you give, you have other things back, right? For that time, but for the mentees, it’s amazing, you know, it’s a great opportunity.
[00:07:09] Katherine Ong
So, what kind of thing can a mentor help you with? Because I think people might have an understanding of what a business coach might help you with a little bit. But with mentorship, what kind of things do you help your mentees with?
[00:07:20] Silvia Martin
Yeah. So there’s a wide range of things that you can help with. So, for example, in my case because it’s everything from your experience, right? So what I have experienced is digital marketing, getting into digital marketing. So, for example, the WYK Digital program is about helping young people to get their first job in digital. It’s not only specific for SEO, it’s more like wider.
So they are helping you with the interviews, preparing for it, you know, like doing the research, guiding them. Also, like helping them sometimes they don’t know what it’s to offer, right, like what kind of different positions they can apply for, or, you know, it’s about that, about guidance, showing them the big picture and then helping with the specific challenge that they have. So that’s one thing that I do.
Another thing is helping people that want to become a freelancer, because I did that. So the same is true, you help with your experience and also offer, as I said again, like guidance for a specific challenge. Most of the people they ask you, like you know, because it’s that when you do a transition like that, it’s scary, so they have a lot of questions. So it’s great to have a mentor or someone like that that you can, you know, bounce ideas off of and they can help you. And of course you can do it without a mentor, but the mentor is going to add a lot of value and is going to help you avoid some mistakes. Hopefully, you know.
[00:08:52] Katherine Ong
So do you think that the questions you get and you help with are largely tactical, or are they largely in the soft skills bucket of digital marketing?
[00:09:03] Silvia Martin
Yeah, I think it’s mostly soft skills, and then it’s a lot of guidance with the technical or tactical because mentoring is not teaching right. It’s helping others discover how to do things, but they are the ones who need to do the things. So, for example, if their goal is to learn more about, for example, a CEO, I can guide them, I can tell them about their resources, or if they have specific questions, but I’m not going to teach them. Take a CEO as a teacher, you know.
[00:09:33] Katherine Ong
Yeah, so I just feel like there might be. There might need to be some clarity around that. That’s why I wanted to ask you that question. But it’s helpful if you’ve gotten stuck and it’s due to the human part of you trying to get your SEO strategy pushed through.
So, how do you think mentoring has impacted your career? I mean, clearly you obviously didn’t start with three mentoring programs that you were supporting at once, but now you’re up to three and so clearly you’re seeing benefit from it. Other than just feeling good that you’re helping others, what other things have you sort of gotten from the programs?
[00:10:07] Silvia Martin
Yeah, so it gives you perspective. You know it’s a new way of viewing things. You need to stay up to date to help your mentees, to guide them. It makes you think out of the box also. Also, it’s great for networking too, and I think that, yeah, the perspective thing is great, because sometimes you are just on your side of whatever maybe SEO, so seeing things in a different way, in a fresh new way, or looking at their challenges. It always helps with your own ones and your own situations too.
[00:10:42] Katherine Ong
Yeah, I always feel like I spend a lot of time training new- to-SEO clients and I always find it really helpful to talk to generally more new-to-SEO people, because oftentimes we get stuck in wonky language. It’s helpful to see how they think about it.
So you mentioned one of the certificates. So, for that program, the one from the bank, did you actually get training to become a mentor?
[00:11:06] Silvia Martin
Yes, I did, and it was for free also, you know.
[00:11:09] Katherine Ong
Oh, amazing.
[00:11:10] Silvia Martin
Yeah, so I got the certification thanks to that program. So I did offer my time and I was doing the mentorship as a mentor and then they gave me the training, so it was like online training, learning. You know the basics and the foundations of mentoring, because there’s like five different stages of mentoring and that first you need to build a rapport with your mentee and then you need to have trust and a connection, right, because that’s the same, I guess, for coaches and other people, or, like team members, you cannot help everyone, right. There has to be something that clicks, or something that you know that you inspire the other person or you have similar goals or values, or you know there has to be something there. It’s very important for the relationship to work and also, to be very transparent and honest, because that’s another of the values of mentorship.
That is, a one-to-one relationship, you can ask as many questions as you want, is a safe space, and I think that that’s the thing that, for example, if you’re working in a company, you don’t ask these kind of questions to your manager or sometimes even to your peers, because you know there’s this, it’s not the same. You know you don’t want to appear weak or that you don’t know the answer or whatever. But with a mentor, you can open up, which is great in this kind of relationship. And then you need to set up the goals together and then help them.
The same helps them know what to do next, guiding them with the steps, but there, they need to do their own work. The mentor is like someone who guides you, but you are the one who needs to, okay, think about what are the steps, where are you now, and what do you want to achieve. And then the mentor gives clarity, and perspective and helps also when there’s like a bottleneck or things like that. But yeah, it’s mainly the mentee who has to do all the hard work.
[00:13:23] Katherine Ong
And it’s probably super important for SEOs to find a mentor if they can, because you might be in an organization where your manager does not have background on how to build your SEO career potentially, and mentoring can be for your overall career right. So it could be yes, I’m working at X job, but I want to be in this other role, and it’s not going to be at this company, and obviously, you can’t have your manager help you with those kinds of tricky questions.
[00:13:51] Silvia Martin
That’s the thing. It’s the transition, right? It’s something new that you want to do or something that you need guidance with. So, that’s what mentorship is ideal.
[00:14:00] Katherine Ong
I also know that the Women in Tech SEO Mentoring Program definitely supports solos. So, for instance, if I’m having challenges and I want a mentee I could apply, which obviously there’s nobody else in my life at the moment that would help me with that. I’m a mentor. I don’t have a manager.
So, what soft skills do you think you’ve been able to improve personally because you’re a mentor?
[00:14:26] Silvia Martin
I think that communication helps with that, with giving feedback in a positive way also because it’s that mentoring is about helping others, and inspiring them in a good way. So that helps with that, with giving feedback in a constructive way. Leadership, too, because the same you need to be there guiding and helping them a lot in a way, but they are the ones that, as I said before, they need to be responsible for all the actions of the mentorship.
Clarity and one thing is I find it like SEO, like finding patterns. So with different mentees, you will see different patterns, and then you will help them with this. Clarity also, and active listening. Sometimes they think that their goal is one, and maybe for all the things that they say, you can see patterns, and it’s like okay, maybe that’s your goal, but you can identify maybe behaviors or things that are happening that are not helping them to achieve that goal, or maybe it’s because they need to change the goal. All of these things are great, and mentoring helps with it.
[00:15:48] Katherine Ong
So how do you tactically help your mentees set their goals and work toward them? Do you have a format that you use as part of the mentor program? Are they coming to you already with goals set? Do they come a bit more lost?
[00:16:05] Silvia Martin
Yeah, so it depends on the program because some of the programs, for example, Women in Tech SEO that we mentioned before, is really great because they give you a framework already, so they give you a handout and you can follow it if you want, or you can just get inspiration from there and then see with your mentee what works for both. But that’s great. It gives you some kind of guidance for goal setting and for everything, if not in general.
I like to go to this framework that is called GROW, and I think it’s from coaching, and it helps because it means goals, reality, options, and then the will or the steps that they need to do, and it helps you the same right because you need to have a clear structure to help them set their goals. That needs to be realistic, right, and also like they need to do a lot of thinking and research about okay, if I want these, what are the steps? And then you help them along the way they share with you, and you both together refine different things, or if they have questions, and also accountability because that’s another thing right, we all can have.
For example, I have this goal of going to the gym. You know, that’s a goal that everyone has and then nobody does it. So accountability is also important, right? So, the mentor will help with that. We’ll say okay, you said that you are going to do X, have you done it?
You know in all of these different sessions that you do, so you help with the action, stepping into the action, because sometimes the same there are things that there are only ideas. You would like to do it, you know, sometimes, you know what you need to do, but you don’t done it still. So you just need some confidence, accountability, and help to really move towards achieving your goals.
[00:17:57] Katherine Ong
How many mentees do you think you’ve mentored that are goal-driven and can hit the goals and what do you think are the percentages of times you’re sort of helping them figure out how to build good habits to get to their goals? Then, as a part of that, do you suggest any books that they read? Like Atomic Habits or that kind of thing around how to actually get to the goals and get stuff done?
[00:18:21] Silvia Martin
Yeah, it depends. Yeah, I will recommend them books, depending on what they need, because the same thing, tailor-made for each of the mentees, so it’s kind of starting from scratch, a little bit from each person.
But I will say that most of the people are already goal-oriented, because someone that signs for the program, because most of this is formal mentoring, what I’m talking about, right, because there’s formal mentoring and there’s informal mentoring If someone already takes the step in to go to the formal mentoring is because they’re really interested and they can achieve goals. You know that they are goal-oriented. And then maybe they need specific help in some of the parts of it.
Right, Because if not, they will have done it alone. They need just a little sometimes, just a little push that they need, or is that accountability or just a little something?
And then some of the people, for example, there’s one of the programs that is also free, right? So some people sign up, and maybe they don’t go through. They don’t keep either the goals or the mentorship. But that’s up to them if they don’t feel like it, actually they can commit the time and the actions because that’s what really matters.
[00:19:42] Katherine Ong
Well, you can’t do much, you can’t.
[00:19:45] Silvia Martin
I know they’re not motivated.
[00:19:46] Katherine Ong
I don’t know what you do if they’re not motivated.
[00:19:48] Silvia Martin
And the thing is, some of the time, this mentoring is for free and also is kind of mandatory; for example, in the weak program is part of what they need to do to achieve and get the certificate and everything. So some people they’re not really that motivated to do it. It’s like, okay, I have to tick a box. But honestly, I only had one case like that, and the rest were very, very motivated. So yeah, so far, so good. I’ve been lucky.
[00:20:16] Katherine Ong
So what advice would you give somebody who’s interested in being, that’s interested in being a mentee, that’s looking for a mentor?
[00:20:26] Silvia Martin
Yeah, so the main thing is to reflect about — why? What is the main thing that they want to achieve? You know, what is the main goal? Is that a transition, is it that they want to do a career change or a different role? So, identify the need, right? Like why do they want to mentor? And then, once they know that and what they want to achieve with that, is look online.
There are so many different programs out there and, as we were saying before, they are mostly free, and there are a lot of amazing people that they give, for free, the time to help others to achieve these goals or to get them already, you know, in the right direction. Right, because usually, mentorship is like two, or three months depending on the program, but usually, it’s something like that.
So, yeah, the first step will be that clarity on what they want. Then look for the right program because different programs have different objectives, right, like, for example, Women in Tech SEO is very well organized because when you sign up as a mentor/mentee, they tell you okay, what do you need help with? And they give you like three or four options, and I know one of them is that you want to be like a freelancer. Another is career. You want to advance your career, so that’s going to help you to match with the right mentor for your needs.
So that’s another thing. And then another thing that they can do is informal mentoring. So if they don’t have the time to commit to it because it’s a time commitment, especially for the mentee, as I was saying, because they need to do a lot of work and a lot of actions and reflections, and the informal mentoring is also like a great way of starting so these they can do it like in different ways. So you know, we learn from each other. So you can learn from podcasts like this one or other podcasts. You can learn from books, as you were saying also.
We were mentioning books and, for example, regarding the books, there are two of them that I really highly recommend. So one is Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss, and it’s great because there’s like different people, I don’t know if it’s 15 or 30 right now, there’s like a lot of different people, and it’s like the same five or six questions for all of them, and it gives you so much food for thought, like how the same question, different people that do it in different ways. And I mean this thing about mentoring is also about learning from others, but you need to try if it works for you because that’s the thing, right? I know everyone has the same kind of drivers and motivations or way of thinking or living, but it’s good to know as much as you can about different ways of doing things and then try them and find what works for you. So this is really good.
And there’s another Master Mentor. This one is 30 people, and the same is like different questions and they give you a lot of insights and things that make you think and then reflect on you know how to change or do things. So those are really really great books.
[00:23:49] Katherine Ong
Well, and I’ve personally found so. I only recently became a mentor with the Women at Tech SEO, not this cohort but a previous one, but I’m also pretty senior in my career. When I was more junior, and I needed a mentor, I actually really clicked with a consultant who was my boss inside a nonprofit I was working at and then I left, but she was doing her own thing as a consultant and stuff, and I just really vibed with her, and I would occasionally just drop her note, be like can we have coffee? And it was amazing, like she’s and she’s on the show, by the way, Dana Theus, who’s she’s talked about her coaching business on the show but super helpful. And yeah, she did help me when I had moments of transition for free, just because I’m assuming she connected with me, too.
But that’s another way to find informal mentors. If you particularly like a boss or a consultant you meet, you know in real life, just ask them if you could take a little bit of their time to ask them some questions. But, yeah, very valuable.
So, have you had any mentee success stories that you could share? Have you had any breakthrough moments where, like, I don’t know, they started at a real crisis moment, and you got them into a better place?
[00:25:07] Silvia Martin
For example, I have some people that got jobs in digital. So that’s a really good win. And this is for the week program, and they help young people that have a difficult kind of background, so it’s maybe they don’t have a career, they don’t have a university degree or something like that. They give them like an accelerator of digital marketing, and then a course is like 11 weeks, something very intense, and then with all these mentors, they train them, then guide them, and it’s great to be part of that success and help them achieve. You know, having the first digital job is really, really great. So I had a few of them like that.
Another is from other programs that they wanted to be a freelancer, and it’s like, oh, I’m doubting yes or no, and then you guide them, you’re helping them, and then when you see them achieve what they want, it’s really amazing. You know, like to share the win with them and, yeah, that’s really great.
[00:26:23] Katherine Ong
Are any of your programs accepting mentors or mentees?
[00:26:28] Silvia Martin
Oh yes, all of them, Okay. For example, Women in Tech SEO. They just did one right now, I don’t know if you weren’t in time to do it.
[00:26:35] Katherine Ong
Yeah, I didn’t have time to be a mentor this time, but yes.
[00:26:39] Silvia Martin
But yeah, it just happened right now. I’m going to be a mentor to them again. It’s going to start now, at the end of September, and it’s like two months of mentoring, but they do it like twice a year, so there’s like different opportunities for people if they want to join as a mentor or mentee.
[00:26:58] Katherine Ong
I think they usually have too many mentees. Right, it was an application process, and I think they’re always looking for more mentors on that side of the coin. Yeah, yeah.
[00:27:08] Silvia Martin
So that’s one. And then WYK Digital also. They always looking for mentors, and they can apply online. So, I think I will share the links with you if people want to have more information. And there’s another, the Freelance Coalition for BIPOC freelancers. That’s the same. They’re always looking for mentors. So, yeah, and the same.
My advice is to find what you can be helpful with, and what is value that you can give as a mentor because we all will have something that you can share and help others with and then try to find the program that matches it. Sometimes, you can find it just by chance. For example, this is the WYK Digital program. I found it because I was on LinkedIn, and one of my contacts posted oh there’s, this program is new, they’re looking for mentors, and you know, I just saw it, and I said, you know, it looks great, I want to try it.
So, yeah, I would like to tell people not to be afraid, you know, try different things, maybe you will like it and you can help other people. So, as you said, like usually, mentors are more difficult to find because you give your time for free, but I know, so there’s. This is not only about that. It’s also about people saying, oh, I don’t know if I’m going to be a good mentor. You know, like self-doubt and a lot of imposter syndrome, we all have that. But I will say to people, don’t think about that, just go and try it, because you never know. If you don’t try, you need to give it a try.
[00:30:31] Katherine Ong
And how can people learn more about you?
[00:30:36] Silvia Martin
So I’m part of LinkedIn, like everyone so that they can find me there. Sylvia Martin SEO, with my company Trebole.
[00:30:45] Katherine Ong
Great. Well, it was awesome having you on the show. I hope that everybody who’s listening thinks about becoming a mentor or mentee, if you have not already, because we both believe it’s a great way to improve your soft skills. So, thanks for having me. Thanks for being on the show.
[00:31:00] Silvia Martin
Thank you so much.
[00:31:07] Katherine Ong
Thanks so much for listening. To find out more about the podcast and what we’re up to, go to digital marketing victories.com. And if you like what you heard, subscribe to us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Write us a comment and share the podcast, please. I’m always looking for new ideas, topics, and guests. Email us at admin@wostrategies.com or DM us on Twitter @dmvictories. Thanks for listening.
[00:31:07] Katherine Watier Ong: Thanks so much for listening. To find out more about the podcast and what we’re up to, go to digitalmarketingvictories.com. And if you like what you heard, subscribe to us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Rate us, comment, and share the podcast, please. I’m always looking for new ideas, topics, and guests. Email us at admin@wostrategies.com or DM us on Twitter at @dmvictories.
Thanks for listening.
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