Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristina Martinez and William Prickett.
Kristina and William, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Kristina – I was born & raised in Southern California. Growing up, I’ve always gravitated to activities that allowed me to tap into my creative side. I received my B.S. degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing from California State University San Marcos. My first job out of college was doing a leadership development program at Apple. I realized that social media was quickly becoming something that was a “must have” for companies due to it changing the way our world stayed connected. While still working full-time, I decided to take on an internship at an agency in social media marketing. After successfully completing my internship, I ended up working with a few startups which afforded me the opportunity to really test & hone my marketing skills. I’ve had some great mentors along the way, and have been very fortunate to be surrounded by amazing people who inspire me to keep growing. When we weren’t at our day jobs, William and I fell in love with the incredible craft beer community over the years. We helped some friends with their beer blog that focused on news & reviews, but we knew we wanted to focus more on the lifestyle side of the industry to help tell the amazing stories behind the incredible beer. Hoplight Social was born in California in 2016, but we both always wanted to live & experience somewhere new. We saw that the craft beer scene was growing in Atlanta, so we packed our bags, bought our house on the internet, & moved here. Life is about taking chances and we are so glad we took this one!
William – I too was born and raised in Southern California. I was an editor and part-time photographer for my High School yearbook. That was where my love for photography was born. After High School, I moved to San Diego to attend San Diego State University. I began as a Marketing and Business major but eventually switched to Journalism and Media Studies. After college, I became a Technical Recruiter. I met Kristina shortly after I graduated. Among many other things, we both shared a mutual love for beer and the industry. She encouraged me to use her Nikon D60, and I began shooting content for the beer blog we were helping out. Knowing we wanted more, we decided to branch out and I became our main photographer for Hoplight Social. I love working on our website because it gives me a creative outlet from my day job. I enjoy being on this adventure with the woman I love and meeting so many incredible people on our adventures. I can’t wait to continue to meet more amazing people and help share their stories with the world!
Has it been a smooth road?
We believe that nothing in life worth having has a smooth road, and if it’s smooth, then you might be on the wrong path. There will always be bumps & challenges with anything in life, but success rides on your ability to keep getting back up along the way. We were challenged when it came to building out our website initially because neither of us is a web developer, but we learned the basics to get our website up through trial and error. William really stepped up to train himself on an all-new camera system (we now shoot on Sony) and is continuing to develop his skills even now! We are both constantly challenging ourselves to be better. This is a full-time side hustle for both of us, so our biggest challenge is time. We don’t always have the time we would like to put into continuing to grow our business at a faster rate and sometimes have to be selective with what we can cover. We are also helping provide a mentorship opportunity for young marketing professionals, so that takes some additional time from us. Mentoring others for us is something we are both passionate about doing and are proud to be helping provide an outlet to other like-minded individuals who love the beer industry as much as we do. Smooth road? No. Worth it? 100%! The best is yet to come.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Hoplight Social – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We are beyond proud of what we’ve built & what we have accomplished so far! We’re excited that our team has grown & we now have writers in San Diego, Denver, & our new home base of Atlanta! Our mission is to help spotlight the awesome breweries & craft bars that bring great people together through events, lifestyle pieces, & cooking with beer. We’ve been able to help inspire others to try new beers & help change the perception that craft beers are only for a certain group of people. We really do believe there is a beer out there for everyone to enjoy! We are also proud to have a section of our website dedicated to highlighting the amazing women in the industry that are doing some incredible things! Because women love beer too!
A couple of things that we really feel sets our company apart from others:
- We are known for our ability to help produce great content that is share-worthy and gives the people we partner with the ability to use on their own channels. We’ve had multiple breweries, events, & even other publications leverage our photos.
- We are also known for the amount of time we spend getting to know the people we are featuring on our website. Many of our interviews & tours have turned into some amazing beer friends that we still keep in touch with!
- From our readers perspective, our website gives them a behind-the-scenes look into the industry they love. It also helps them figure out the best events & places to go to try new beers with amazing people. We are proud of the fact that all of our followers are organically grown & genuinely passionate about beer. Great beer brings great people together!
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and the least?
We love living in Atlanta and are glad we moved here! The culture and people here are refreshingly genuine. Not that it will shock anyone, but what we like least is definitely the traffic. It prevents us from visiting some of our favorite spots as frequently as we would like to! Cheers Atlanta!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hoplightsocial.com
- Email: info@hoplightsocial.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hoplightsocial/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hoplightsocial/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/hoplightsocial
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
