“The hardest part about being an entrepreneur is taking everything on yourself.” with Christina Towle and Chaya Weiner
The hardest part about being an entrepreneur is taking everything on yourself. It can be overwhelming and lonely at the beginning. It is when you start to find your network and start building a team of colleagues that compliment your own skills, you start to get in your groove and see your success. I like to see myself as an Entrepreneur with an Entourage — the more people I have around me, the better I feel and more successful I am!
As part of my series about the leadership lessons of accomplished business leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Christina Towle, the founder and CEO of BuzzBright PR She received her B.A. from Princeton University and has worked in production for Manhattan media companies including Wiley, Forbes Magazine, and ABC News helping with the launch of Good Morning America Weekend starting September 4, 2004. Christina’s work focuses on Natural Brand and Healthy Lifestyle marketing and wellness development. She has a proven track record of placements within national outlets utilizing consumer, medical, and natural brand media including Huffington Post, Redbook, Oprah, NBC news, Whole Foods Magazine, The Examiner, and Dr. Oz Show. In 2009, Christina was certified as a Clinical Nutritionist from The Natural Healing Institute of Naturopathy, which is why she is keen to support natural brands and their health benefits.
Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I was lucky enough to secure an internship with WABC news my third year at Princeton in 2001…a few weeks before 9/11. Experiencing the newsroom during that time put me, and I’m sure many of us, on a path towards bettering our world…working not for myself but for others [My company’s motto is exactly that — The bee is more honored than other animals, not because she labors, but because she labors for others. -St. John Chrysostom] My internship lead to a fulltime position at ABC network news. It was during that time I discovered that the stories that most interested me were the health and wellness stories. Once I became pregnant with my son [now 12] I really immersed myself into nutrition and obtained my degree in Clinical Nutrition. The combination of Media and Nutrition eventually lead to the founding of my PR company — BuzzBright PR . We represent inspiring and innovative wellness brands and talent.
Can you share your story of Grit and Success? First can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?
The hardest part about being an entrepreneur is taking everything on yourself. It can be overwhelming and lonely at the beginning. It is when you start to find your network and start building a team of colleagues that compliment your own skills, you start to get in your groove and see your success. I like to see myself as an Entrepreneur with an Entourage — the more people I have around me, the better I feel and more successful I am!
Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?
Amazing Grace. That is how I strive to live my life…with grace for myself and for those around me. As long as I walk my day with grace and love, I feel I’ve contributed to making the world a better place to live.
So, how are things going today? How did Grit lead to your eventual success?
Every day is a gift! I wake up eager to work for my clients, who are like family, and work with my team…who have become family! We work hard yet still manage to laugh, learn, enjoy and most importantly, leave a positive impression on our world.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Perhaps not a mistake, but I learned that I had so much enthusiasm for my work and to go all-energy, all the time that I would forget to breathe. So now, I consciously try to breathe as I pitch articles, write press releases, send out samples, make calls etc. I trained with Lauren Roxburgh,dubbed the body whisperer by Gwyneth Paltrow and she was key to my learning to work from a stance of power and control with conscious breath.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
My team is passionate about well-being and includes a Clinical Nutritionist, Ph.D., and two professional athletes — enabling us to garnish high-quality and organic media placements for brands. We are also dynamic not only at work but out of office. My CFO is training for the 20/20 Olympics, we work at non-profits for children and the LGBTQ community, and we are full-time parents, partners, and friends. We understand our high-performing clients and companies’ lives because we live matching lives and are still able to thrive
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Again, learning breath work is key. The more air we take in and toxic air we let out, the calmer and more focused one will be.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
At ABC news, I worked as a PA for Cynthia McFadden. We worked side-by-side and I got to witness how it is to thrive in life. Cynthia was powerful and graceful at the same time. She juggled professional duties along with personal. She was full-on, all day long yet there was an element of grace that she maintained that I keep close to my heart and try to emulate today.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
My company will only promote brands and talent that we believe will improve lives — helping to make people feel healthier, happier, calmer, or more enlightened.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
· Observe others and take elements of their stories that have brought them success and try to incorporate into your story
· Enjoy daily morning rituals that ground you and set you on a path for a successful day
· Work from the heart — that is where the ultimate strength and smarts exists.
· Exchange Grit for Grace
· Learn how to let-go with gratitude and welcome-in with gratitude
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I want our children to take Stress out of their vocabulary. If they could see adults working, accomplishing, and garnishing success without stress, the world’s vibration would become more peaceful. There would be more smiles, less health issues, and more positive done on our planet.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
@_Christinaliv
@buzzbright
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
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About the author:
Chaya Weiner is the Director of branding and photography at Authority Magazine’s Thought Leader Incubator. TLI is a thought leadership program that helps leaders establish a brand as a trusted authority in their field. Please click HERE to learn more about Thought Leader Incubator.
