Today we’d like to introduce you to Angie May Yarusso.
Angie May, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started my career journey in Tucson, AZ as a marketing major at the University of Arizona and an intern at Michael Bolchalk advertising. Michael Bolchalk was an incredible mentor, showcasing the work agencies did for clients. He allowed me to be much more involved with clients then I expected. In fact, one of my first tasks was to walk through the user experience of homebuilders first website – this makes me feel. My job was to do what we now call QA. This experience changed the direction I pursued out of college, I thought I wanted to work at a large agency in Chicago and changed my mind as I learned how the media industry works. My first job was as an AE at The New Times in Phoenix. In addition to selling the print assets, they had just launched their website and we were quickly trained to sell across platforms.
Cross-platform selling and digital usability started early and has followed me throughout my career. My entire media career has been centered around using a music, traditional media, and digital experience to deliver great marketing campaigns. Being successful at this intersection has required constant optimism, consistent team development, and the ability to positively evolve organizations.
My role today is freakishly similar to much of the work I have done over the last 20+ years. Even with the incredible amount of change the internet and smartphones have driven, reaching and connecting to humans has not changed that much. What every platform and technology you use, engaging people requires a rock solid idea, great content/creative, reaching the right audience at the right moment. Doing this today is a lot more complex with data, and software tools allowing us to move faster and get smarter, but the basic need for ideas, content, and the right reach have not changed.
Has it been a smooth road?
Of course not, struggles are the meaty part of life. We all have them and those who can overcome and learn from them, lead richer lives. My struggles have been centered around two themes. First, working to figure out how to balance being a mom and a successful career as a woman who loves what she does. Second, figuring out where my talents and skills fit within organizations.
I had my son, Calvin, in May of 2007. I was living with by not married to his father and my job at Emmis Communications consumed my life. I felt like there was no way I was going to be able to manage my job and be a mom so I quit and immediately started looking for work at a digital company. I, fortunately, was in a position to cover my expenses for several months and was confident I would find a job that would allow me to learn more about digital and deliver a better work-life balance. I landed a job at Yahoo! when I was 5 months pregnant. For 10 years I have been juggling motherhood and career, my biggest accomplishment with this juggle is being ok with my performance in each role.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Emmis Digital story. Tell us more about the business.
Emmis is a 30-year-old media company with radio stations and a magazine publication. We are a boutique company specializing in audience lifestyle development with a focus on personality and influencer development. This audience specialization delivers authentic and custom marketing campaigns for advertisers. While we have large enough scale to play in the audio and digital landscape, our multiplatform and influencer approach to connecting with audiences is what sets us apart.
I am most proud of the culture of our company. We have always put people first and operate off 11 commandments. Not only do we develop great employees our approach to business is also an approach to life that those who want to make a difference and do the right thing thrive in.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The radio industry is in the middle of a complete business disruption. All our competitors in this space are working to figure out how we continue to reach audiences as they shift to digital and keep up the technology and data advertisers demand today. Operationally we have to evolve to serve more than just radio products which are requiring restructuring of our audience development teams, training and evolution of our sales staffs, and new resources needed to remain competitive with creative ideas and deliverables like video, graphics, storytelling, and project management to get everything done.
Contact Info:
- Address: 401 N. Franklin Suite 5S
Chicago IL 60654 - Website: www.emmis.com
- Phone: 312-948-9671
- Email: Support@emmisdigital.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amaychicago/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/angie.m.cook?ref=bookmarks
- Twitter: @amaychicago
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