Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Marie Imbordino.
Anna Marie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My story is not what you would expect. When I was a child, although I grew up in a very entrepreneurial family, I never desired to own my own business. I was always an arts-centered kid. Loving all things performance and fine art I could get my hands on. I graduated high school and took the recommendation from my family and school counselors to go to school for Interior Design so I can have a “real job” one day. Then my life was turned upside down when my what was told to be mild health condition Crohn’s Disease turned into a severe health crisis landing me in and out of hospitals, surgery, hospice, and other medical disasters for the next handful of years. Through that trying experience, I learned that life was precious, unpredictable, and wildly amazing beyond belief. I took that new found knowledge and changed everything. I dropped out of that school and decided to pursue performance arts and the business of performance arts. It was the best decision of my life.
Fast forward to years later I was working in a job in my field doing both marketing and performance. You think I would have been over the moon right? Here I am having my cake and eating it too. But something was gnawing at me. I was watching the business professionals around me suffering through the “starving artist” syndrome. I was watching business professionals feeding into negative and unethical business behaviors. I was watching business professionals fail and lose hope. But mostly, I was watching people suffer through lives they did not actually want.
One day enough was enough. For me, the choice to open Chicago Buzz Marketing was both spontaneous and predestined. I can tell now that everything I had done and learned was leading me right to where I am today. But ironically, the moment I decided to open the business, it was more of an epiphany than a plan. Something inside me, a nagging feeling in my gut, told me to do it, and I trusted that feeling and jumped. It was one of the scariest and most empowering moments of my life. When I opened the business I had no start-up plan, no help, no financing or loans, just some personal savings and a belief that this is what God was calling me to do next. I did not know if my idea would land. But I trusted that the world needed what I was trying to do; a fresh perspective on promotions based on passion, service, and community.
Chicago Buzz Marketing has surpassed already my wildest ideas of what it was capable of. I am blessed and honored every day to serve the community of business owners and artists that I do. Not to mention being able to work with a team of individuals who are smart, caring, and fearless innovators who challenge me and grow with me every day. We as an Ad Agency believe that service of humanity and the planet is the number one goal. We do not worry about having the highest profile clients, or the biggest payouts, or the industry acclaim. Our focus is 110% of serving others. That is why we got where we are today.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No way Jose! There has been nothing smooth about our road. Like every other small business in Chicagoland, we faced many challenges in building an effective and profitable business. Chicago Buzz Marketing traveled many miles up hill – both ways – in the waist-high snow to get where we are today. But challenges are just that. When I opened the business I “burnt the ship” and never even considered a backup plan. No matter what happens, I move forward as if success is the only acceptable outcome.
One of our biggest struggles was learning to choose the right clients to complement the firm’s vision. I always believed, although I also have learned the hard way, that not everyone is your customer. It is important to know who you are and what you are about, and to stick to that mission regardless how attractive some prospects may seem. Ultimately, you are in control of creating for yourself the business you would like to have. I have learned to never take a job I am not proud to be a part of. Life is about more than the money you make, so I fight to build a business that creates for me and my team the lives we have always wanted.
Please tell us about Chicago Buzz Marketing.
Chicago Buzz Marketing is a full-service marketing and public relations firm that believes in revolutionizing the way Chicago experiences the arts, entertainment, and hospitality. We strive to be cutting edge leaders in our industry: to talk to markets in new and creative ways that inspire, to generate content so contagious that your Grandma will be talking about it, to activate clients to not only be brand ambassadors but brand warriors. We work hard to be an Ad Agency cut from a different cloth, to combine passionate business owners with creative and conscious advertising, focusing on service and community enrichment. Some of our most popular services including social media training and management, traditional public relations, and unconventional marketing strategy.
Contact Info:
- Address: 535 S. Washington Street
Suite 25 Naperville, IL 60540 - Website: www.chicagobuzzmarketing.com
- Phone: 630-550-7510
- Email: annamarie@chicagobuzzmarketing.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chibuzzmarketing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chicagobuzzmarketinginfo
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/chicagobuzznews
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-marie-imbordino-b5314572
Image Credit:
Michelle Imbordino
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