Jennie Smythe, CEO Of Girlilla Marketing, Shares Life & Business Lessons In Upcoming Memoir

When Jennie Smythe created her Nashville-based Girlilla Marketing firm in 2008, she brought a wealth of knowledge and experience with her. She’d worked at Eleketra, Disney’s Hollywood Records, YAHOO! Music, Warner Brothers Records, and been at the forefront of the seismic shift in music when it began transitioning to digital.

“I started in the business in the late 90s and experienced the changing of the guard as it was going from terrestrial to digital,” Smythe explains. “I was lucky to be there as the revolution was happening, not only generationally, but professionally. And if you recall, a lot of people were scared, but I was excited. I saw it as an opportunity and wanted to be passionately involved.”

Her passion for music led her to take her first job as an intern at Elektra at the age of 19 and has guided her ever since.

Now, nearly three decades later, she’s written a memoir full of the personal and professional lessons from her early beginnings to building her award-winning digital marketing agency. Girlilla Marketing’s clients include Willie Nelson, Darius Rucker, Brooke Shields, Terry Crews, Kristen Chenoweth, and many others.

The book, set for release in April of 2025, looks back at her early jobs and career choices, her unique relationship with her formerly estranged father, what led to her stepping out creating her own company, and her battle with breast cancer. She settled on the idea of sharing what she’s learned in a book, nearly five years ago.

“I was fresh off breast cancer treatment, then we went into COVID, and like everybody else, I had a lot of time to reflect. And I realized I had all these life lessons from these amazing people, and a lot of those people had passed away.”

One of her most valuable career lessons came from the late Jay Frank, a music industry executive and her former boss at YAHOO! Music,

“He was an amazing guy,” Smythe recalls, “and he gave me one of my first employee reviews. I walked into his office very confident because I’d hit all my numbers and checked off every box on my job description. He spent the first ten minutes celebrating those accolades, then put the paper down, looked at me, and basically said, ‘You’re hitting all the marks on paper, but people don’t want to work for you.’”

She thought she was thriving, so what he said came as a shock.

He told her she came across as “abrasive” and a “know-it-all.” She’d failed to connect with her team.

“He went on to say, ‘You have to inspire confidence, you need to make sure they don’t feel the pressure you feel, you’ve got to take people with you,” Smythe explains. “Jay taught me to be a good leader.”

Throughout the book, she shares other business-related lessons, as well as a life-altering question that came from her father, as he was dying of pancreatic cancer. It would change her life.

“I was sitting with my dad at the hospital, and he came up out of a deep sleep one day. Out of the blue, he asked what I would do if I knew my life was half over? I recoiled back like, what? We don’t talk about feelings; what kind of question is that? But then I answered, and I was very clear. I would want to start my own company and travel more.”

When her father passed away, she immediately went into action to make both of those things happen.

Smythe created Girlilla Marketing, a female-led company that filled a gap she saw during her many years in the industry.

“Before I started my own company, during all of my work experience, I only worked for one woman. Everyone else happened to be male. And while I’m grateful for the experience, I wanted to see that change.”

One of her greatest personal challenges came when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She describes intense fear when she first got the news and wants to reassure others, the odds are in their favor for a positive recovery.

“Literally, statistically, you have an amazing chance of survivorship. No one said that to me for months and it was sad because I was so scared. The only statistic you hear is how many people get diagnosed which is one out of eight. And this year it’s one out of seven.”

Smythe’s hopes by sharing what she’s learned in both life and business, she can encourage others to live their best lives.

“Whether you come into the door because you’ve had breast cancer or you’re interested because you’ve heard of digital marketing, or maybe you’re an aspiring female entrepreneur. I hope people can see themselves in my story and know they can do it and be successful.”

Smythe’s book Becoming Girlilla, My Journey to Unleashing Good – in Real Life, Online and in Others, is set for release next April and now available for pre-order.

Becoming Girlilla – A Memoir by Jennie Smythe – Girlilla Marketing