By now you’ve probably heard me espouse the importance of reading the trades. Right? Well, I feel compelled to show you how it worked for me, recently.
A few weeks ago, I woke up to my regular routine of brushing my teeth while reading the trades, around 6:30am. I saw the blurb below and followed the subsequent pathway to success (names changes to protect the innocent!).
AtomicOnline’s women-targeted community site SheKnows.com has partnered with Endemol USA to develop and produce an interactive lifestyle series demonstrating ways for women to save money but still have fun. Endemol’s web hits include “Married on MySpace,” which was spun off into a reality series for Hispanic-targeted network SiTV.
Since, this info seemed to be right in my sweet spot of women-focused lifestyle programming, I dug further. I went to SheKnows.com and surfed, read and researched who owns the site. Yes, this took some TIME PEOPLE! Like a fine wine…
After I had some valuable info (read: NAMES!) I put my thinking cap on and pondered any contacts I had at adjoining companies. It turns out that I didn’t have to clear out too many cobwebs as one name “Sally Sue” popped out, right away. Sally Sue actually used to intern for my HUSBAND, Marty! BINGO. I was in luck.
I asked Marty to email her and reintroduce us in hopes that she had some inside info or contacts at SheKnows.com. Of course, Sally Sue knew people on the inside and was more than happy to forward along my info! Score. My work was done, for a bit.
Over the next 2 weeks, I thanked and followed up with Sally Sue, a few times. She nudged her contact a bit and before I knew it, SheKnows.com was emailing Marty in order to get in touch with ME!
Lo and behold, SheKnows.com and I are shooting a series of DIY segments for their site (RIGHT NOW, in fact!) ALL because of a blurb I read in the trades, the subsequent homework I did… oh, and thanks to the help of a friend.
Lesson to be learned: read the trades, plot the dots, connect the dots, follow the line.
In the infamous words of my husband, Marty Metro, “Good luck and be yourself!”
Tracy, I love it!!! Congrats on making it happen.