One the first day of the BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL conference, the women attendees wrapped up their day at BIA/Kelsey’s special networking session “Women Leading in Local.” Our speakers for this session were Tina Paparone and Angela Giovine, founders of Happenings Media. Angela and Tina shared their story and discussed techniques for successfully striking authentic chords within communities and keys to their revenue success — marketing solutions beyond the banner including sophisticated native advertising techniques.

BIA/Kelsey’s Celine Matthiessen with speakers Angela Giovine and Tina Paparone

Here are Tina and Angela’s four rules to live and work by:

1. FOLLOW YOUR PASSION: They say that a man (or of course woman) that follows their passion never work a day in their life. Bucks Happening actually didn’t start as a business; the website was simply a hobby, while we worked to build a different business. However, soon after launching, as readers were discovering the website, we received a call from a local print magazine who wanted to write a story on us. As we sat at the coffee shop trying to steer the conversation towards our “REAL” business, it became clear that 1) There was a real need for Bucks Happening and 2) We better start making money on it or stop spending so much time working on it! We quickly went to work on developing a business strategy.

It was at one of our first meetings with an advertiser that we had a moment of clarity. We were meeting with a local coffee roaster and cafe owner who was frustrated that he didn’t understand how to get his message to the community nor did he have the time to figure it out. As I listened to his story, I knew, “We can help.” We didn’t sit there and say “let’s be innovators in native advertising.” We simply said, what the best way to tell locals about this amazing coffee. And that included storytelling.

2. BOOTSTRAP: We both entered into entrepreneurship with our eyes wide open. As the famous start-up incubator Tech Stars likes to boast, it’s essential for the early-stage entrepreneur to remain “cheap to keep alive.” While it may not sound as sexy to start a business without millions of dollars of financing, doing things our own way, on our own dime, at our own pace allowed us to discover a path to success. Now we have a scalable model without having the collateral damage that a heavily funded company may experience. Moreso, we can take our bootstapping mentality and apply it to expand effectively.

3. IT’S OKAY TO BE AN OUTSIDER: We did not come from the media world. We are not journalist. But being outsiders allowed us to think outside the box. Our content, advertising, and business model were designed to fulfill a need without any preconceived notions of the way things had to be done. Especially in a time when the media world is shifting so dramatically, our ability to identify a problem and approach it with a fresh perspective is one of our biggest assets.

4. FOLLOW THEIR PASSION. Yes, our passion for what we do is crucial, but it isn’t just our own passion that drives growth; It’s harnessing the passion of others. This is a philosophy that we incorporate into almost everything we do — the articles we write, the campaigns we design, and the publishers that we support.

One great example of this is the creation of The Happening List, our annual People’s Choice voting competition, which is one of our most successful initiatives to date. We allow readers to vote for their favorite local people, places, businesses, and events. Through careful design and planning, this contest helps generated hundreds of thousands of email subscribers, massive branding awareness, and thousands of advertising leads.

BIA/Kelsey organized a special networking session during our LEADING IN LOCAL conference in the Fall of 2013. The initial meeting was such a success that the Women Leading in Local session has become a permanent installment at all of our conferences.

BIA/Kelsey’s MacKenzie Lovings at the Women Leading in Local networking session

The post At BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL: Four Rules to Live and Work By appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Networking is key at any conference and the opportunity to network with other women is considered to be of high importance to many of us females in the corporate world. BIA/Kelsey was sure to give its female conference attendees that opportunity at our Leading in Local: Interactive Local Media Conference during our second Women Leading in Local Session on Tuesday afternoon.

The theme of this conference’s WLIL session was all about starting up. How do women start up their day in the corporate world? How did they start their companies? How did they motivate themselves to become the successful business women they are today? The two keynote speakers during this session were Jayla Siciliano, Founder of Bon Affair and Anna Zornosa, Founder and CEO of Ruby Ribbon.

Bon Affair is the wine spritzer company created by women for women. Jayla’s vision for her company came to her during her career as a product specialist for Diesel and Burton. Her position involved a fair amount of social drinking and she was growing tired of the not so great feeling the day after an event. That is when her idea for an alocoholic beverage for women that was a little healthier was born.

Jayla’s start up story began with her blindly quitting her job and running with her idea. She sought out good advisers who could make up for the experience she did not have, she got her MBA, and then production began. Her first several batches of her wine spritzer proved to be a challenge for her with problems from leakage to tomato bits floating in the bottles. This was a struggle for her but she started everyday knowing that patience and persistence would get her through this challenge. After finding a new bottler, Bon Affair has taken off in California and she plans to spread to the rest of the United States soon.

Anna Zornosa’s idea for starting up Ruby Ribbon came to her in a very personal way: trying on shapewear alone in a Nordstrom dressing room. After struggling with the article of clothing for a while and experiencing the dressing room frustration all of us women know and resent, she decided it was time for a change.

Ruby Ribbon is the shapewear company that combines shapewear with everyday clothing. Her collection consists of new shaping basics that can easily work with any women’s existing wardrobe. As stated by Anna on the Ruby Ribbon website: “Ruby Ribbon was inspired by my simple desire to create a company built around the idea of empowering women to look and feel their best, while going after their dreams”.

Our Women Leading in Local sessions have proved to be a success at our last two conferences and we plan to continue them at our conferences moving forward. If you are a female attendee of our conference in May in Atlanta be sure to stop by the WLIL session.

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