MEET DONNA CRAVOTTA

Born in Brooklyn and crafted in Manhattan, I’m a true New Yorker.

After over 25 years in the corporate world working in global law firms, principally at Shearman & Sterling, I found that my priorities had shifted. Commuting and long hours away from home were no longer an option. So this single mom bought a domain name, built a bad website and took a leap of faith. I walked away from the “safe” career and launched my first business in 2006 to help small businesses navigate the online world.

For the first year or so I tried various things, none were really a fit. Then social media came on the scene and I quickly realized the power and potential. I fell in love and never looked back.

One of my clients asked me to take on her PR. At the time, she was investing $5,000 per month with a PR firm who landed great print media—she was in prestigious magazines and won beauty awards for her boutique line of luxury hand cream—but she sold nothing.

We took on the challenge and brought a fresh approach, we engaged on social media with her target market and existing customers. We connected with small industry blogs for reviews, contests and interviews. To our surprise, in under a year, she hit over $100,000 in sales with a very limited budget. More importantly, she was noticed by the right people… her product line was acquired by a major vendor and she has been featured on HSN 12 times, selling out twice.

This was my chocolate/peanut butter moment. I realized the power of creating a marketing mix and knew I needed to help other small businesses realize their potential through the system we built together. I started to implement this system with other clients, and it worked every time, regardless of their industry. Years later, the tools have changed, but the process remains the same. I call the The Gather Method™.

I LOVE what I do, the aspect of my work that gets my adrenaline going is when a client truly understands that the power of social media is not a hack or a tactic, but rather the ability to listen to what your audience is asking for and joining them in conversation… This is when extraordinary opportunities simply show up. The possibilities are endless…

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