Today we’d like to introduce you to Erica Kirkland
Hi Erica, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
At a very young age I developed a love and passion for reading. Later on my love of language turned into a love of writing. By the time I was in high school, I had my heart set on becoming a journalist. I worked on the local school paper and contributed a column to our local town’s paper on behalf of the high school. My goal was to become an investigative journalist and work at a major daily paper but my career took me down a completely different path.
After graduating from college with a diploma in print journalism, I applied for as many jobs as I could related to the field of journalist and writing. After a few weeks I had three job offers: a junior reporter at a weekly paper in a remote town, an assistant for an heritage foundation and the editor of a magazine for floral designers. Being the editor of a magazine the minute I left school was not only appealing but felt like a great stepping stone, allowing me to skip some of the time most journalists have to put in before they become an editor.
I was adapt at my job and began working on two other titles for this magazine publisher, one for pizza operators and one for Bakers. I decided to make a career move and look for a job closer to the Greater Toronto Area where most of Canadas’s publishers are based. At that company, I worked on titles for spas, golf course superintendents and the construction industry. After six months, I received a call on my cell phone one night from the then publisher of Retail News, produced by the not-for-profit Canadian Gift Association. I had no idea how she got my number but she had been following my work and felt I was the ideal candidate to editor their magazine as they were about to up the frequency from four issues to six and felt they needed a full time editor on board.
During my tenor at the association I quickly made my way up the management chain, becoming the Publications Manager which required interacting with a very active and vocal board of directors, managing budgets, managing sales people and a lot of administration tasks that did not fulfill my creative passions.
One a new president came onboard who I did not see eye to eye with I approached the board and told them I was resigning. They offered me the opportunity to strip down my duties just to editing, allow me to do it on contract from home while being able to pursue other creative endeavors including writing and styling for consumer and home decor magazines which I had always wanted to do. Turned out, working in the business-to-business media field is much more rewarding. Unlike writing about the coolest side table a consumer can buy, my work actually helps business owners improve their business and make more money – it impacts their livelihoods and that brings me a sense of purpose which fuels my passion to serve the independent retailers I do through my two publications for small store owners. There is something about this industry and being a champion for small businesses that has really gotten under my skin. Like a dog with a bone, I can’t let it go!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Never! Being an entrepreneur is every easy. Every day throws a new fire your way. You have no idea what you to expect. Plus you have to wear so many hats, have your finger on or at least be aware of all aspects of your business and how the are functioning. Then there are the legal challenges – one’s launched against you and one’s you launch against others which is par for the course with copyright infringement or trademark challenges. Add to this the ups and downs of the economy which drastically impact our industry and magazine advertising and it’s never a smooth road. What I’ve learned is that by having processes in place and doing a lot of pre-planning, in combination with working smart, not hard, allows you to accomplish what you need to every week despite all the unexpected bombs that get dropped on your lap. That and surrounding yourself with colleagues who you can trust complicity. My contributors and freelancers are an integral part of my team and I treat them with the utmost respect. They feel ownership of the publications I produce because I give them the freedom to have that ownership. It’s a team effort after all. I’m just the leader of the team and my job is surround myself with people who know the stuff I don’t know and then let them do their job! My freelancers love that I give them the freedom to pitch me ideas. They are always great ideas an it saves me a lot of work. A win-win. That is what I look for all the time. I also like to uplift people and be a cheerleader. That makes me feel good as a business leader.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
What sets my publications apart from most on the market these days is that we still believe in church and state. My role is to provide unbiased content that is tailored to my audience – not my advertisers. When they felt the pressure of reduced advertising spending, too many magazines and newspapers began to bow down to advertisers who wanted them to run content about their content or services as advertorials – ads disguised as editorials. To me this is tricking the reader and I don’t run advertorials. I decide what products we will feature based on the qualities of that product not whether it’s from an advertisers. It’s essential my readers can trust that what they read and the products they see are ones that are vetted for them. We exist to provide independent store owners with the best advice they can get because we have not gone the route too many publishers have gone which is to run scare and cater to their advertisers for fear of losing their business. By doing this you loose your business because your business as a publisher is based on eyeballs. If your readers can’t trust what you write you loose credibility, readers loose interest, your advertisers return on investment drops and your publication becomes less relevant. I’ve seen this happen time and time again. Stick to the principles of good journalism and the business will come your way!
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Jeez. This is tough, especially for women and women in media. There aren’t many of us. I don’t have one peer that is a female but I am part of a networking group of independent publishers who are committed to their markets and editorial integrity. I love our monthly meetings because I’m in a room with people who know exactly what I deal with everyday and I love the energy and the synergy. It’s uplifting and makes me feel less alone. I never gave up on trying to find a network. I joined numerous boards and volunteered on lots of committees and that is how I found this group that I was invited to. My advice would be don’t stop looking and don’t be afraid to ask. Lots of people ask me for my help and I am always happy to give it to a budding journalist or business owner.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.instoremagazine.ca
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/instoremag/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InStoreMagazine
- Other: https://www.giftbeat.com
Image Credits
Photography by Will Fournier
Expect for Giftbeat images – those are all supplied artwork
