Hi,

 

I’m Mariam, I’m a certified Shopify developer with an 11-year background in marketing. I specialize in helping e-commerce businesses build optimized sites with high-growth marketing in mind. I’ve worked with multi-national brands as well as local small businesses in Vancouver BC. (keep reading for more interesting details).

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After many years in marketing and working in e-commerce I started Caffeinated Media Solutions, to bridge the gap between small businesses and their online sales strategy with Shopify.

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But let me give you a less formulaic response and tell you how I got here really...

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By 2005, I'd failed the LSAT twice.  I'm not sure if my dream of becoming a hotshot criminal defence attorney was enough to lead me to a third attempt. The LSAT is not something one does for kicks ... maybe sadists and people who want it more than I did.

 

I had even written test #2 while living in South Korea fulfilling my other dream of living abroad straight out of university. My family (with me in tow) had emigrated to Canada from Egypt in 1989 and there was always something in me that moved me to experience more of life than the linear path I'd been taught to pursue.  I didn't fully intend on being too far off the linear path but here we are. So it went, Ottawa ---> South Korea ---> Ottawa ---> Vancouver and the opportunity to travel to Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Mexico, Cuba, Egypt, (do we count the US as 'travel?) and there's so many more on the list! (NB: most of the travels were done on an extreme budget and solo!)

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Highlights:

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I came to Canada without a word of English and ended up teaching English in South Korea.

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I made a documentary on adoption laws in Cambodia in 2011 with my best friend. We'd intended on filming it in Egypt but a little thing called the Arab Spring had erupted a week before we were to fly there. It screened at the Female Eye Film Festival. (humble brag?)

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I self-published a novel in 2018. 

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I completed the BMO marathon once and have a medal to prove it. That is all that needs to be said. ​

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I was laid off 3 total times in my life (twice back to back in 2019)

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I started Caffeinated Media Solutions in 2015 (after layoff #1), but didn't have enough knowledge or willpower (or support systems) to continue on the solopreneur path and then restarted it in 2019 without looking back. 

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I became a Dateline junkie since the Serial podcast took off and True Crime morphed into an industry of its own. 

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I have worked with some AMAZING business owners as my clients and have been inspired by their stories, their work ethic and their fortitude.

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Put me in a room with anyone and we can find something to chat about. Chronic illness, immigration, bankruptcy/debt consolidation, how to get the best deal on your phone/home internet plans, how to run a marathon without quitting even when the volunteer on a bike offers you 3 opportunities to throw in the towel, how to travel solo as a woman, how to work at a criminal defence office, doing stand up comedy, getting your house burgled and of course how to start a solopreneurship and keep going even through a pandemic.

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Important to all of the above, is where to find the best coffee in Vancouver, because it's the lifeblood that has kept me going! 

 

I probably can't talk poetry, cryptocurrency and NFTs.  But I'm happy to listen!

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So, even though I grew up in a very Orthodox home, I suppose I turned out anything orthodox! 

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If you have a business with a story behind it, let's tell it together! 

 

Because behind every great business, is s a great story! 

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