Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Stanton.
Amy, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I worked in account management in advertising in NYC straight out of college. I thought it would provide a good foundation for whatever was to come – and it did! I worked at big agencies and small ones (including a design firm) and fell into the unexpected job of running marketing and communications for New York’s Olympic bid, NYC2012.
It was a game changer – I learned so much, met the most amazing people and, most importantly, realized that working for something purposeful was the ultimate motivator. I went on to serve as the first-ever Chief Marketing Officer of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and, after a brief time there (less than a year), I started my own business. I had an idea to build an agency focused on women’s sports and female athletes. I wanted to build positive female role models and, after working with the most amazing Olympic athletes during the Olympic bid.
For the first two years, I worked with a business partner, and then we split up, and I moved back to LA (where I’m from originally) and the business quickly evolved and broadened to be all about healthy, active living. We’re now full-service marketing, and PR agency focused on brands and individuals in the health, wellness, natural foods, beauty, sports, and fitness – all things I love! And we’re building platforms for inspiring, philosophy-driven brands and people that are doing good in the world. So it feels purposeful.
Most recently, I co-wrote a book called The Feminine Revolution, focused on inspiring women to fully embrace our femininity and feminine qualities as superpowers. This is an entirely new challenge and new experience and feels like it’s sparking a conversation that is helping many women already (which is exciting!)
Has it been a smooth road?
Definitely not a smooth road. I like to say “moments of greatness.” After lots of experience and many ups and downs, it becomes clear that we wouldn’t want a smooth road! It’s the bumps and challenges and even the failures that teach us and help us grow the most.
My first challenge was figuring out what I wanted to do! My advertising career was never going to be the end all be all, and I knew that. I felt it. I had to be open to what came my way – in a million years, I would never have thought I would be working on the Olympic Bid (I had never heard of such a thing!) I was open to it and went with the flow. And thank goodness – it was the best job ever and a truly life-changing experience.
Starting a business is a grind. Running a business is a grind! Every day something goes wrong. Thankfully many things also go right. Splitting up with my business partner felt like the end of the world – it was insanely stressful for a variety of reasons, the biggest one being that I wasn’t certain I could do it alone. But now, ten years on my own, I know… I can do it alone! (Although I’m far from alone because I have my wonderful team and lots of amazing mentors and guides around me.)
As a client-focused PR agency, we are constantly working to make sure we’re succeeding on all of our accounts and that each client is happy. That is impossible! They are rarely all happy at the same time, so we have to roll with the punches and do our best possible work – that’s all we can do. Client management can be tough. Hiring and managing staff and making sure the team is gelling and happy – constant work and many challenges. But they’re worth it.
Our team is fantastic and very dedicated to the business and our clients. I could go on and on about the various struggles. That said, I choose each and every one of them! I get to decide what I do with tomorrow, and I am choosing my agency, my book, my team and almost every aspect of my life. It’s liberating to see it that way.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Stanton & Company story. Tell us more about the business.
Stanton & Company is a full-service marketing and PR agency, focused on healthy active living and promoting philosophy-driven brands and individuals.
Our primary areas of focus are health and wellness, natural foods, sports, fitness, and beauty and we work with both companies and individuals on ongoing PR campaigns, product launches, book launches and more. In addition to PR, we represent a handful of incredible athletes and experts as their marketing agency. And we also produce large scale events.
These days PR is more complex than ever – media relations is, of course, a key part and also more complex than ever because of the many different mediums and vehicles for reaching consumers. In addition, most PR campaigns include influencer engagement, event activation and sponsorship, brand partnership development, sampling and seeding and more. It’s an exciting time to be working in marketing and PR.
Our focus in healthy active living and also our deep expertise building brands built by and targeted at women set us apart from other agencies. The fact that we’re working with brands and individuals that are focused on making a positive impact (in addition to selling great products) is inspiring and motivating.
And because we work in PR AND produce events AND represent athletes and experts, we are knowledgeable in each of these areas and, more broadly understand the landscape – this is valuable for us and for our clients. I’m most proud of our wonderful team and the wonderful group of clients we’ve assembled over the years.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
So much is changing. PR is a brand builder and business driver more than ever before. In the context of building PR campaigns for brands and individuals, we have an opportunity to be creative, innovate and think outside of the box because no two campaigns can be (or should be) the same.
And since the landscape is changing so radically and so quickly, we need to be on our toes, staying ahead of the trends, watching what’s working and thinking about what’s next… constantly. It’s exciting to see so much evolution and that brands are pushing for more creativity and are as a result, more willing to take risks.
Gone are the days where clients are investing their full budgets in TV commercials. Now it doesn’t make sense to spend money on any marketing initiatives that can’t also be amplified by PR and digital. Times are changing, and it’s exciting to be part of that change.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.stanton-company.com
- Phone: 310.305.7800
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stantoncompany/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StantonCompany/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/StantonCompany
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