Today we’d like to introduce you to Wendi W. McGowan-Ellis.
Wendi, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
From 2004 to 2006, I served as Chief Marketing Officer for a small startup print magazine called Re:D, Regarding Dallas. Our target audience lived in Uptown, Downtown, Deep Ellum, Oaklawn, Lakewood, The Cedars, and we loving called this 30 year-old to 50 year-old psycho-graphic “The $30,000 Millionaire.”
As we moved into 2006, printing the magazine became more and more expensive and email campaign companies like Groupon and Daily Candy were on the rise. One of the founding partners of Re:D, Jaime Chambron, had the idea to turn the print publication into a digital-only property centered around a weekly email “calendar update” of all the events and activities that would be of interest to our target audience. Jaime and I carried Re:D forward for another year as an informational email which we built up to almost 40,000 subscribers.
Starting in 2009 and until 2014, I went back into corporate marketing, content management, and digital strategy for companies like Verizon, Bottle Rocket, Accenture Interactive, and Valtech.
All these experiences laid the foundation for the company I co-founded in 2013 and serve as CEO today, Lifestyle Frisco. Lifestyle Frisco is a hyper-local, digital-first, new media company that focuses on storytelling across multiple digital platforms in Frisco, Texas. We use insights gained through content creation to build creative campaigns that drive business results for our clients AND engaging and informative media for our audiences.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road of an entrepreneur is never smooth, and things never move as fast as you want. Struggles have included self-funding Lifestyle Frisco for all 4.5 years that the company has been in existence. My co-founder and husband, V. Scott Ellis, has his own digital consulting company, VSEllis that is over 10 years old and has not only supported us personally, but also Lifestyle Frisco as it has gotten off the ground.
Struggles also include focus. The only way to success is dedicated, deliberate, and consistent focus on this business and its revenue generating opportunities. Entrepreneurs tend to have “shiny object syndrome” and Scott and I constantly keep ourselves in check to make sure we capitalizing on real opportunities for the company and clearing everything else out of the way.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Lifestyle Frisco story. Tell us more about the business.
Lifestyle Frisco is a hyper-local, digital-first, new media company that focuses on storytelling across multiple platforms in Frisco, Texas. We use insights gained through content creation to build creative campaigns that drive business results for our clients AND engaging and informative media for our audiences.
Delivering hyper-local information and content about Frisco, Texas – Life, business, entertainment, fashion, arts, dining, nightlife, sports, travel, and real estate that’s close to home and even closer to our hearts. On a cutting-edge web and mobile publishing platform, our writers and editors are citizens and denizens of Frisco contributing stories, photos, videos, and events.
Population 150,000, Frisco continues to be one of the fastest growing communities in the country every year since 2000 and for a lot of good reasons. With easy access to Dallas, a moderate cost of living, a Top 10-rated school district in Texas, and a thriving business community, Frisco is a great place to live well without breaking the bank. While Frisco has a rich history, much of the community is less than 10 years old, so Frisco provides a good mix of good ole’ Texas and modern amenities.
As the CEO, Wendi is responsible for building and leading a team of digital, mobile, social, and content strategists and creators to partner with clients driving their business outcomes with best-in-class creative, modern video production, media planning and distribution, digital marketing, research and insights, Alexa voice services, and whatever comes next. Lifestyle Frisco is the premier platform with local lifestyle content that connects our community.
Most proud of: This past spring, upon the winning election of Mayor Jeff Cheney, he and his wife Dana decided to merge their website Frisco-Online.com into the Lifestyle Frisco property. Founded in 1999, Frisco-Online was one of the first online platforms in Frisco dedicated to hyper-local content, lead generation, and forums, which is the most trafficked part of the site. Frisco-Online was purchased in 2004 by Jeff Cheney along with wife Dana Cheney. Since he recently moved into his new role as the Mayor of Frisco, Jeff and Dana wanted to put Frisco-Online into the hands of a leadership team whose goal was to help local business prosper.
“When Dana and I purchased Frisco-Online in 2004, social media as we know it today didn’t exist… Before Facebook, Twitter, or even MySpace. We wanted the website to create ways for the community to connect with each other, as well as local businesses, in ways they never could before. We’ve been proud to be such a cornerstone for the community to come together over the last 13 years,” said Cheney, recently elected Mayor of Frisco and realtor/broker associate at the Cheney Group, a real estate company based in Frisco. “One component we always wanted to bring to the site is custom content and more engaging stories. Today, Lifestyle Frisco is the leader in our market for those reasons and so it made sense for us to join in partnership to create something really special.”
“This merger couldn’t be more exciting for Scott and me. When we launched 4.5 years ago, we had a vision to be the premier digital media company in Frisco, and by partnering with Jeff and Dana, we’ll achieve that goal. Our mission is to use the power of storytelling to inform, entertain, and connect local audiences while building local businesses,” said McGowan-Ellis, who is the CEO of Lifestyle Frisco.
The combined operations will immediately have over 60,000 monthly unique visitors with Lifestyle Frisco delivering high quality content for local consumers while providing an opportunity for advertisers to reach targeted audiences.
The two sites will merge and relaunch on the LifestyleFrisco.com domain in January 2018, as the flagship product of LsF Media Group, LLC. The group has plans expand to other cities with similar demographics in the near future.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck is simply where opportunity and preparedness meet. We make our own luck in life and in business.
Pricing:
- Business Page on Lifestyle Frisco (core product) – $1500, for a full year
- Sponsored Content Series of articles on Lifestyle Frisco – $1000, one time fee
- Still Life Video on Lifestyle Frisco – $500, one time fee
- Audio Podcast sponsored on Lifestyle Frisco – $750, one time fee
- Full Production Video on Lifestyle Frisco – $1800-$3200 depending 1, 2, or 3 minutes final cut, one time fee
Contact Info:
- Website: http://LifestyleFrisco.com
- Phone: 214.212.4055
- Email: wendi@lifestylefrisco.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/LifestyleFrisco
- Facebook: Facebook.com/LifestyleFrisco
- Twitter: Twitter.com/LsFrisco
Image Credit:
LifestyleFrisco.com
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