 Deirdre Cavener, Owner
Deirdre has decades of diverse and high level experience in business, marketing, information technologies and entrepreneurship. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business with a minor in Management Information Systems from the University of South Florida graduating Magna Cum Laude and holds a professional certification from Microsoft in Analyzing Requirements and Defining Solutions Architecture.
Deirdre is a visionary, strong leader and global thinker.
She has worked in several industries including finance, education, networking, telecommunications, architectural, housing, recruiting, mental health and accounting.
In Information Technology she has experience in computer programming, database design, data warehousing, system analysis and design, and web application development.
Strengths Finder Results
Ideation, Maximizer, Strategic, Achiever, Learner
Visit the Strengths Finder website to find our what hidden talents you posses, where you should focus your energy, and live your passion. We give this test to everyone that works at Kiss Marketing, Inc. to ensure that we assemble the best team for the company.
KISS Marketing Job Responsibilities
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Corporate strategic planning, analysis and implementation.
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Creates search engine optimization plans for clients, company and corporate brands.
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Conducts keyword research and analysis to align clients marketing strategies with growth.
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Creates Internet marketing plans for clients.
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Manages client projects.
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Writes digital marketing proposals.
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Creates alliances with strategic partners.
Professional Accolades
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One of 30 business owners across the United States invited by Google and the Interactive Advertising Agency to travel to Washington DC to lobby for small business publishers. (June 2009)
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Tampa Bay Business Journal, Business Woman of the Year Technology Finalist (June 2009)
Education & Certifications
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University of South Florida
College of Business Administration
Degree: Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Major: Management Information Systems (MIS)
Honors: Magna Cum Laude
Graduated: August 9, 1996 |
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St. Petersburg College
Degree: Associate in Arts (AA)
Graduated: May 6, 1994 |
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Certification: Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)
Area of Expertise: Analyzing Requirements & Defining Solutions Architecture |
Deirdre Cavener I.T. Doesn't Get Any Better
By Chary Southmayd
Deirdre Cavener makes an indelible impression on you from the moment you meet her. Her statuesque appearance and easy smile that exudes friendliness and confidence are immediate clues that this is someone who has it all together. Scratching below that attractive surface in conversation reveals an extremely intelligent and focused woman who has always known exactly what she wanted and has been willing to work for it. Cavener followed a bit of a circuitous route on the path to success, but there is no doubt that she was born and bred to lead the charge in today’s digital frontier.
Cavener is the creator and driving force behind Seminole-based KISS Marketing, a full-service digital marketing company that specializes in search engine optimization, Internet marketing, Web site development and digital advertising. In 2001, she launched Go Local Tampa Bay, a local Web site portal (portal with a personality, she calls it) comprised of 150,000 pages of anything you could ever want to find in the Tampa Bay area. She has also created Women Empower and My Green Pages Local Network, an online business directory network for 150 cities found in every state across the USA.
Cavener was motivated to start her business 7 years ago in part by frustration at what should have been an easy task, coupled with disgust at the good ol’ boy attitudes she encountered in the corporate world. Searching the Internet for a dentist in the Seminole area, Cavener wasn’t able to find exactly what she needed. She knew there was a huge void that begged to be filled. “Knowing my database background, I was thinking how easy it should be,” she said.
“If you put the yellow pages and chamber of commerce in a blender, out would come Go Local Tampa Bay,” Cavener said. “And now we have Tampa Bay’s first customized local search engine.”
A self-described “whiz at data entry,” Cavener’s love for everything computer started early in life. She worked at a computerized tax firm when she was still in high school. She has always had the innate ability for high-speed analysis.
“My brain works like a computer,” she said, in understated fashion.
She was motivated even more to follow her vision and take the leap to business ownership when she overheard the president of a Clearwater company in which she was the vice president of application development, refer to her as “his token female.”
“I walked in at 5:00 the next morning, packed up my desk and left,” she said. “I was determined to open my own business.” Cavener’s family thought she was “nuts” to walk away from a six-figure job and enter a realm of financial uncertainty, but this very determined woman never looked back. She had a vision and followed what have proven to be very reliable instincts.
Deirdre is at the youngest end of the baby boom generation. Like many other baby boomers, she encountered and ultimately conquered a bit of a bumpy ride en route to achieving her goals. After moving from the Washington D.C. area where she had grown up to Madeira Beach at age 20, Deirdre quickly learned she was in for a rude awakening. The fact that she had proven herself to be highly motivated in D.C. didn’t matter when she hit the Sunshine State. Without a college degree, finding a job here was tough. She settled for a job working in a gift shop at John’s Pass before landing data entry employment at the Eckerd Corporation offices. From there she moved on to Fotomat in downtown St. Petersburg, working in computer operations.
At Fotomat, fate stepped in. She met her future husband, fell in love, married and had back-to-back pregnancies. It was not exactly what she had envisioned for her life. “Growing up, I swore I would never have kids. I was on the total corporate track,” she said.
The marriage eventually ended, leaving Cavener to raise her two young daughters, Brittany and Danielle, on a very tight budget. They had to go on food stamps to make ends meet. That experience made a lasting impression. “I remember that ordeal as if it was yesterday,” she said. “It was the most mortifying thing I’ve even been through. They are so mean to you in those offices.”
A single mom with two daughters to care for, Cavener did what was necessary to get by. She badly wanted to complete her college education. She took classes at night and ran a day care during the daytime. She also worked as a statistics teaching assistant at USF. “It paid me a big $5 an hour, but it was sink or swim. I wanted to do what it took to raise my kids how I grew up,” she said.
And she grew up in a family of considerable means. Cavener was born in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. When she was 12, her father, an engineer at Magnavox, moved the family to Washington, D.C. and started his own engineering company, which became very successful. “I saw my dad take that step – moving out of the stability of Magnavox where he had worked himself way up,” she said, revealing insight into a scenario that she would later mirror.
When she was just 14, she worked in her father’s office, typing the company’s computer documents, for which she was paid $1 a page. She keeps a treasured photograph of her and her father posing with one of the very first computers in the 1960’s. “That put me on the path I stayed on, and am still on – anything to do with computers,” she said.
At age 32, Cavener graduated from USF with a 3.9 GPA. Her first job after graduation was a Faculty position at the University of South Florida FMHI, running computer operations. She fondly remembers the day a doctor at FMHI told her that someday she would be president of her own company. “He was right, I was so driven,” she said. “I’ve always been an over-achiever.” After 5 years at FMHI, her desire to excel led Cavener to seek her next challenge.
“My entrepreneurial spirit leads me to move on when I see that my job is done and there is nothing else I can do to benefit the company,” she said. Referring to herself as a “database design guru,” Cavener was hired at Lucent Technologies, where she designed the entire enterprise data model for the company. After less than two years there, she accepted that ill-fated job with a Clearwater start-up company where she encountered the “token female” comment. That small-minded insult catapulted her to seek independence, financial security for her family and personal satisfaction.
Cavener credits her parents, James and Joyce, who were excellent role models, with instilling in her a strong ethical foundation. She is disturbed by the lack of ethics she encounters among others working in search engine optimization, which is one of her specialties. “That’s a very corrupt field,” she said. “Lots of people are being ripped off.” With all that she has achieved, if she could have any one thing come true, she said it would be to spend one more day with her mom and dad, who are both deceased.
Cavener also credits two high-profile people with changing her life in recent years – Dr. Wayne Dyer and Joel Osteen. “I’ve always known what I wanted, and they’ve taught me that if you put it out to the universe and you are willing to work for it, it will be delivered to you when it’s time,” she said. “Nothing fazes me anymore, because everything will work out OK.” She watches Osteen’s television program every Sunday morning, calling it “a half-hour of making me feel good.”
She also credits her business partner, Patty Sebok, with making a tremendous difference in her life. Sebok was actually Cavener’s first client, before later coming on board at KISS. “She is my Godsend and one of the most phenomenal women I’ve ever met. I’m an idea person, but I don’t want to do the daily part of things. Patty does that, she is my rock. It’s the best relationship I’ve ever had. We fit together exactly as two business partners should,” Cavener said.
Anyone who would assume that such successful women on the digital frontier must dress to the nines and head to a lavish high rise office every day might be surprised to find out that nothing could be further from the truth. “People think we are some big operation,” Cavener said with a bit of a mischievous smile. “It would be funny for them to see how we really work - out of my house, wearing baseball caps and tennis shoes. That’s exactly how I wanted it. I did my corporate gig and I would never want to do that again.”
Cavener has settled in to a very rewarding life, with a deep love for her daughters, pride in their accomplishments and the peace that comes with achieving total freedom. “I never want to have to rely on anyone else. When I turned 40, I got my wings,” she said. “I’m so peaceful and content now. Everything is going exactly the way it should be.”
Previous Professional Experience
October 2000 – July 2001, Digital Vault, Inc.
Vice President of Application Development
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Responsible for strategically planning all digital marketing initiatives for corporate clients.
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Wrote development contracts and managed projects from inception to completion.
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Researched marketing trends and emerging technologies.
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Development information architecture for web initiatives.
February 2000 - October 2000, Lucent NetworkCare
Team Lead/Project Manager
Environment: MS Project, Oracle 7.3.2, VBA, Access 2000, Front Page 2000, T.O.A.D., ERwin, Visio, HTML, ASP, Informatica
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Responsible for managing a team of 15 Enterprise Data Analysts, Web Developers and Informatica Developers.
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Conducted technical interviews and wrote pre-hiring assessments (SQL and Data Modeling).
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Established new hire guidelines and trained staff on company policies, procedures, and software tools.
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Responsible for all Project Management in the department.
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Researched emerging technologies, wrote white papers on those technologies and presented them to upper management.
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Planned and managed the development and delivery of the department intranet.
November 1999 - February 2000, MGA Technologies/Lucent NetworkCare
Senior Enterprise Data Analyst – Responsible for the Designing the Enterprise Logical Data Model
Environment: Oracle 7.3.2, VBA, Access 2000, Front Page 2000, HTML, ASP
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Constructed ERD’s for the Enterprise Logical Data Model and various software applications
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Conducted technical interviews, wrote skills assessment, and recommended on-site interviews based on the completed assessment
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Wrote Data Modeling 101 training and taught data modeling class
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Developed project database application used to track Enterprise projects, status, documentation, project owners, tasks and sub tasks.
1998 - 1999, Independent Consultant
Business Systems Analysis/Systems Development/Project Management
Environment: SQL Server, Visual Basic, VBA, Access, MS FrontPage 2000, ASP
Conducted requirements analysis, designed, and developed six major client/server database applications using MS Access, Visual Basic, VBA, and SQL Server. Provided Y2K platform and software remediation. Analyzed requirements, designed, and developed the following client/server line of business projects.
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Intermedia Communications Incorporated: Reviewed, analyzed, and re-mediated the Service and Work Order Tracking System incorporating over 500 code modules, 100 stored procedures, and 300 tables using off-the-shelf analysis tools and custom-developed utilities in VBA which exploited the Access environment COM object model.
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Stern and Associates, Inc.: Developed Recruitment Client Job Tracking Application
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Bay Area Systems, Inc: Point of Sale System incorporating customer tracking, cash layaway, account management and reporting.
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Mezrah Financial Group: Executive Benefit Tracking System incorporating customer identification, benefit deferral and allocation.
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Dealer Profit Systems: Distributed Client/Server Invoicing System.
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Tampa Housing Authority: HUD Property Appraisal incorporating property development, construction, and unit assessment costs.
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Optical Imaging, Inc.: Analyzed existing database applications for design flaws and performance improvements. Provided on-site consulting and training.
1996 – 1999, University of South Florida/Florida Mental Health Institute
Senior Developer/Web Master/Project Manager - Faculty Position
Environment: MS Access, Visual Basic, VBA, NT 4.0, IIS 4.0.
Developed requirements, constructed, and managed multiple database software projects for FMHI. Designed and built ERD models and table relationships. Enforced integrity rules: entity, referential, business. Identified criteria, established validation rules, and set required properties. Produced aggregate quality assurance reports. Managed NT 4.0 domain user and workgroup level security. Integrated information via import and export specifications. Programmed CBF and modules using Visual Basic (VBA). Developed and managed web sites. Published end-user manuals. Trained end-user’s and provided product support.
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Developed a complete mental health software suite currently being used at all mental health providers in Florida.
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Statewide Outcomes Web Site: Designed, developed and managed IIS 4.0 web site providing access and download capabilities to a geographically disperse client base.
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Keynote speaker on user-centric design, Behavioral Health Care Conference, 1996 and 1997.
1994 – 1997, University of South Florida/Information and Decision Sciences
Teaching Assistant, Statistics II
Liaison between professor and students in video taped classroom presentations. Responsible for supervision, testing, grading, and tutoring of Statistics II students for the University of South Florida's St. Petersburg Campus. Trained and assisted students on statistics software package (ASP).
1991 – 1994, Self Employed
Environment: IBM PC
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Managed a licensed daycare center while attending college full-time during the evening.
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Responsible for record-keeping, taxes, and licensing requirements.
1987 – 1989, Recordcopy Services, Inc.
Computer Operator/Trainer
Environment: IBM PC/Proprietary Payroll Software
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Responsible for operational management functions in the organization.
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Developed quality control procedures for accounting and payroll IS systems.
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Consulted on all customized mission critical software programs.
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Trained new employees on data processing operations.
1985 – 1986, Allstate Insurance Company
Unit Leader/Auto Claims Computer Data Entry Operator
Environment: IBM Mainframe
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Assisted supervisor on work distribution, scheduling, and forecasting.
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Trained staff on various computer applications and business rule processing.
1980 – 1984, Tymshare, Inc.
Data Entry Supervisor
Environment: Nixdorf Mainframe
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Supervised staff of 40 day shift data entry operators and 1 night shift supervisor.
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Responsible for system saves, weekly automatic batch loads, batch processing, and disaster recovery.
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Trained data entry operators on processing and verifying individual, partnership, and corporate tax returns.
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Responsible for staffing and organizing the department during each tax season (November - April 15)
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