Today we’d like to introduce you to Leslie Green.
Hi Leslie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m an Austin native who attended Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. I have a BA in Communication and minors in New Media and Sports Management. I graduated in 2014 with my sight set on pursuing a career that married these specialties. Social media wasn’t ever the plan, but I bought in early when I realized its potential for career growth and brand marketing. My first job was a Social Media Assistant for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee — known online as Team USA. My notable projects included: launching the Snapchat channel at the 2015 Aspen X Games, Live-Tweeting the 2015 Women’s World Cup, and covering the 2015 Pan-American Games. After my time in Colorado Springs, I took a leap of faith and moved to New York City to pursue sports media. My Olympic experience influenced my work for years to come.
My first role in NYC was as a Social Media Producer for Sports Illustrated. In this role, I developed platform strategy and created real-time content and graphics for major sporting events, like Super Bowl 50. My proudest accomplishment was building the social strategy for SI Swim Launch Week. In my next chapter, I joined SELF Magazine as a social media assistant. This role married my love for health and passion for women’s empowerment. I dove in headfirst to help redevelop this legacy brand’s tone online. During my tenure, I helped grow their Instagram account by 200K+ followers and nurtured a passionate, new-wave wellness community. The secret sauce to scaling community and shifting brand perception online: cutting the Instagram BS and being real. Across channels, we showcased authentic imagery, relatable user-generated stories and let influencers and athletes lift the curtains on their lives. And we didn’t just highlight well-known figures, our social-first stories gave a platform and spotlight to communities who need it most. The best part: This hard work paid off. SELF’s social team won an Ellie in 2018.
Today, I am a Sr. Social Strategist at HubSpot — a leading CRM Platform. In this role, I develop the playbooks and frameworks that guide all content across our branded social media channels. My social strategy portfolio includes HubSpot’s first Global Brand Campaign with Kathryn Hahn, Marketing Hub Enterprise, Sales Hub Enterprise, Operations Hub, The Hustle acquisition, INBOUND ’19-21, and more. What I love most about this role is strategizing social content that pushes the boundaries of B2B communications to develop more trust and connection with our audience, all while partnering with team’s across the organization to bring innovative ideas to life.
Beyond social strategy, I’m passionate about process. Social ops is an undervalued area of expertise (and arguably not the sexiest part of social media), but it’s one I believe is the crucial foundation to building a high-performing, agile, and happy team. Making my team’s life easier (and more fun) is always the goal. By operationalizing a social team’s workflows for content production, publishing, campaign management, and team projects, you can make sure people who love social — stay in social. I hear time and time again that people are quitting this industry because of burnout and lack of leadership. I’m aiming to change that. To foster more mentorship and leadership within the social media industry, I developed a Slack workspace for women working in social — called Women Who Gram. The mission of this network is to connect, elevate, & educate social pros.
Three words that best describe what I like to do when I’m not focused on my day job: move, create, connect. As a former collegiate athlete, movement is my mental and physical medicine. I love to create things that make people happy – sometimes that’s social content — and sometimes is concrete candles or cards. My recent obsession is making handmade concrete candles. So far, I’ve only created custom orders for friends and family, but itching to scale up soon. Stay tuned!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’ve moved around a lot since graduating in 2014 from Trinity — four states in eight years — and many of the challenges I’ve faced in my career have stemmed from working in new places with new people who come from all different backgrounds. You don’t grow unless you get out of your comfort zone and I’m so grateful for the wide range of perspectives and people I’ve met along the way.
The biggest culture shock that stands out is my leap of faith from Colorado to New York City. I really had no idea what to expect but I knew if I didn’t jump into the deep end in my early twenties, I probably would get comfortable and wouldn’t later. I was making absolutely terrible pay and squeezing every dollar I could to live in Manhattan. But despite everything the city threw at me I tried to stay aligned with my values: work hard, be honest, and be kind. There were situations and people that tested me, but day over day I tried to remain focused on the experiences and relationships I was building.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m best known a for my work in social media across various industries, including sports, media, and tech. I’m most proud of being able to be adaptable, lean into the lifelong learning mentality, and remain in such a quickly changing industry. I want to help encourage emerging social talent rise up and work for companies who see their value. Social media marketers and professionals consistently get wrapped up in the “social media intern” narrative and it’s tired. I hope I’m known for helping connect others to opportunities that make them happy and give mentorship to those who need it.
What does success mean to you?
I define success as living in alignment with my values: work hard, be honest, and be kind. I feel most successful on a daily basis when I’ve prioritized my mental and physical well-being. Professionally, I feel most successful when I’ve helped someone else solve a problem, scale their ideas, and create impact that gives them meaning.
Contact Info:
- Email: lesliehgreen@gmail.com
- Website: lesliehgreen.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/lesliehgreen
- Twitter: twitter.com/lesliehgreen
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesliehoehngreen/
Image Credits
Justin Taylor, Taylor Wilder
