I have had the pleasure to Social-Media brainstorm with an inspiring woman over the past 3 years, since launching SMSimplifier. I met Stephanie Heinatz when I was just getting started with Social Media marketing and ironically she, also, was getting ready to launch a full-time business of Social Media and Public Relations marketing. She has been a journalist and had worked for years in Public Relations, and now she was ready to fully immerse herself in the world of working for herself, as a business.
I, Wendy, wasn't exactly sure what my business would look like, in 2012. It certainly wasn't going to be fulltime with a brick-and-mortar shop, like Stephanie's vision was. My vision was simpler: I was going to supplement our family's income, while the kiddos were napping. And, I couldn't afford childcare, while I figured it out. Stephanie and I spoke a lot in those days - we had different goals, but both felt that marketing-is-the-core-of-any-business and we are relationship-building storytellers. I watch her clients. She "likes" mine. She inspires me. I know that I can still think, "let-me-bounce-this-idea-off-Stephanie" and she'll be there for me.
The rest of my story? I have continued to have a business that is part of the family's life. I play with my boys, during the day, rarely answering my phone. We go on field trips and I post, blog and research while they are asleep. They attend my appointments with me and their cute little noggins are on more timelines than I care to admit.
The rest of Stephanie's story? He business, coined Consociate Media, has grown and grown. Her husband quit HIS job about a year in and now they have seven people on the team. AND, they continue to grow and grow and grow. Ask any business in Gloucester - if they haven't hired Consociate Media, they wish they could afford to!
Fast Forward to November 2015 (three short years after launching Consociate Media): Stephanie has taken on another role, editor of a newly launched magazine called The Local Scoop! This magazine will help you discover the best-kept secrets of the greater Williamsburg, Virginia area. The first issue just hit the stands.
Stephanie says, "Stories are the most powerful way to reach people, to inspire people, to enact change for good in our world. When you look at what The Local Scoop has set out to do, it’s just that.”
The inaugural Williamsburg edition includes a Williamsburg food and wine crawl, holiday fashions, and a unique charitable group of women - just in time to inspire more of us to be benevolent businesses, during the Christmas season. I, for one, cannot wait to get my hands on a print copy of the first issue of The Local Scoop! I just read the online version, here.
Congratulations, Stephanie!