What in your background prepared you for what you are doing now?
I was lucky that at the university, my education was focused on not only learning the fundamentals, but also on learning the practical applications of the information learned within those courses. I truly think this gave me a very strong theoretical foundation on which to build, but the real life experience and the different working situations I had to pass through after that gave me the necessary building blocks to grow even more.
For me, success is also when I make someone happy and success is not always something that involves money or something that has other materialistic motivations or gains, it can be also be something very simple.
What do you see as the challenges of working in the adult online business? How do you overcome them?
I think that due to the financial circumstances around the globe that we all have been facing for some time now, the challenges in working in online have become maybe not different, but it has become much harder making successful advertisement campaigns and also the consequences of having a less than successful campaign have become much more severe. People are spending their euro/dollar much more carefully nowadays, which of course directly affects the advertising business. But it also opens up new doors for creative thinking, since companies are spending much more time investigating marketing behavior to find better and smarter ways to promote their products.
Does your work life affect your personal life?
I'm trying as much as possible to find a clear balance between my private and professional life by taking personal responsibility for my work-life balance. This includes speaking up when work expectations and demands are too high as well or too much, as well as working smart in order to gain more effectiveness. I'm doing that by organizing my daily schedule allowing myself a certain amount of time per task and trying not to get caught up in less productive tasks or activities. I think recognizing the importance of friends, family and exercise is a way of living a healthier life, both professionally and privately. These principles I try to live by as much as possible.
How do you evaluate success?
Success is when you reach your goal, whether you set that goal for yourself or somebody else sets it for you. Success can be achieved in work, in your studies, hobbies, sports or even family. For me, success is also when I make someone happy and success is not always something that involves money or something that has other materialistic motivations or gains, it can be also be something very simple.
Each month, industry news media organization XBIZ spotlights the career accomplishments and outstanding contributions of Women in Adult. WIA profiles offer an intimate look at the professional lives of the industry's most influential female executives. Women like Judy Shalom, Senior Sales Manager, Affil4you.