Her Story
About Martine
My school community is called The Paid Creative, and I help business owners navigate different areas of their business. It has four parts. I learned that in order to really perform well, I have to be more productive with my time, so I create opportunities for them to work on their own productivity. Of course, we talk AI and different prompts you can use and how you can use AI to grow your business. But also as a business owner, you've got to do some kind of social media and marketing, so I share with them how I use content creation to grow my business and some of the systems I use in that area. The other way that I help is through creating designs through Canva. So I teach a lot of classes around Canva, simple things that people can do to become skilled so that they can take care of some of their own designs right in-house without having to pay someone. We're a lively, fun community, and my work is centered around just helping people get those first couple of sales in their business by being more productive, leveraging AI, integrating content creation, and designing with Canva. My general goal is I want to help 1,000 business owners make money in their own businesses. In the next couple years, I'd like to touch enough people that a thousand individuals make money in their business, whether it's through the designs they create, content creation, or how they're using AI now.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Martine
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to being told no. There was a state scholarship I was working really hard to get, and I kept missing the qualifications by 1 or 2. The state would send a letter that essentially says, based on these scores and numbers, you don't qualify for a scholarship, but also you don't need to go to college, you need to take this alternative path. It made me so angry because who are you, state, to tell anyone what their path is because of a number on a piece of paper. I never got the scholarship, but I got 20 grand in other places. My first couple years of college were pretty much free. I've learned that when someone outside of me decides that they're going to tell me who I am, then you've pretty much lit the match for me to show you that I can be all these things if I'm willing to put in the work, commit, and achieve the goals. So I would say the power of someone saying who I am or someone attempting to put me in a box that serves them. Every time someone says, well, you're this, it's all over again. I'm like, no, I'm not that. And if I'm willing to put in the work, who knows?
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
AI's gotta play a role. If you want to shorten the time that it takes to get to your achieved goals, then make sure you're learning AI. In 2026, you need to be learning AI, be familiar with it, and help it get you where you're trying to go more accurately, but also faster.
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