Female Disruptors: Ania Puczylowska of Brand Socialite On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
“If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes — then learn how to do it later!” was something I was told last year when we said yes to a project that I wasn’t sure we could handle. One thing I learned throughout the process was that if you don’t know something, you can always outsource it or collaborate with another agency. It also led to learning new skills and acquiring new clients. It’s sort of like going to school, but you get paid to do it.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ania Puczylowska.
After working within the experiential marketing industry representing the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy portfolio of brands for over a decade, Ania launched Brand Socialite in the midst of the pandemic as a disruptor to the experiential marketing sector. Motivated by personal experiences with staffing crises and lack of modern automation, Ania’s mission was to help brands and boost event ROI while decreasing SG&A costs. Since Brand Socialite’s launch in 2020, Ania has helped startups and Fortune 100 names alike, such as Nike, NerdWallet, and Diplomatico Rum navigate the pandemic and create successful experiential marketing campaigns.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Thank you for having me! Looking back, I became a strong business leader at a very young age. My entrepreneurial journey began with my immigration to the United States from Poland shortly after communism was abolished. With very little English, I helped my mother start a business while trying to adjust to a new environment, culture, high school, and language. After high school, I took time off to work as a counselor for adults with mental disabilities. With lots of support from my intimate circle, I became the first in my family to attend a four-year university. After earning my bachelor’s degree, I set out to Miami to begin my professional career. Working in real estate and radio laid the foundation for me to excel in my current career, as it helped me develop communication and marketing skills that I still use to this day and gave me the confidence to attract better clients. Since the real estate market crashed, I came across an opportunity in the wines and spirits industry. I was approached by a Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy executive who opened a few doors for me and introduced me to the world of luxury. I had never worked in this industry before, but all of the skills I acquired in earlier roles came in very handy. I had to think quickly on my feet, recruit a brand new team, and learned that “the devil is in the details”. In little over a year, I was transferred to Los Angeles to continue expanding my skill sets and help restructure the Southern California market. After two years, I was identified as the only viable candidate for the Southeast Region Manager role. This was not only a huge honor but an amazing opportunity to expand my knowledge in an elevated role with more responsibilities. I recognized that there are new skills I needed to master in order to be successful and continue my growth within the organization. I quickly learned how to cultivate teams, strengthen client relations and manage seven-digit budgets across multiple markets. Learning liquor laws for each state was a new territory for me. My new skills became very appealing to the LVMH West Region executive team and opened the door to another career advancement and relocation back to LA. After a decade of working with the most prestigious brands in the wine and spirit industry, I decided to launch my own agency. In 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, Brand Socialite was born.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Currently, the experiential marketing industry is challenged by ineffective recruitment, leading to the over-promise and under-delivery of capable talent for events. Staff shortages due to last-minute call-outs further tarnish human experiences with special events and negatively impact event ROI. Brand Socialite offers a multidimensional customer engagement platform that uses mobile matchmaking technology to curate the ideal temporary staff that engages with event managers through a variety of experiences. Our technology creates a value exchange in which individuals and businesses gain on-demand access to talent in as little as a few hours.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Many come to mind, but one that sticks out was one that happened while I was working on a national experiential marketing campaign in collaboration with Janelle Monae. We were delivering gift bags backstage and ended up at her green room. Even though we knocked on the door and didn’t hear a response, upon opening it, we discovered the very frazzled singer visibly upset that we were invading her space.
We scared the living you-know-what out of her and she was very persistent in having us leave, as she wanted privacy. Later that day, I got a chance to do a meet-and-greet with her, and while posing for a photo with her, she said “I remember you!”. I was incredibly embarrassed and apologized left and right. The photo didn’t come out very well, but it made for a great story!
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I’ve had many mentors throughout my journey that allowed me to get to where I am today. I was fortunate to make a friend in grad school, Dr. Chidinma Chima-Melton, who is a pulmonary and critical care physician. She became my mentor during a turbulent time while trying to launch my company. I was hanging by a thread and ready to give up on the whole idea during unforeseen circumstances. When I find myself hitting a wall, I call a friend. Dr. Chima-Melton listened to me and asked one pivotal question that significantly impacted my entrepreneur journey and allowed me to continue my venture.
I was also fortunate enough to find a friend and mentor in one of my clients, Sheila Hackbarth. As the saying goes, “a client will become a friend quicker than a friend will become a client”. I watched her be loyal to a company that passed on promoting her to higher positions for over a decade. However, she still handled everything with such grace and professionalism. Sheila has a talent for telling people to go to hell and getting them to actually enjoy the ride. Working by her side for so many years helped me develop soft skills and elevated my emotional intelligence at work and in my personal life. She allowed me to see the value I bring to the table.
Lastly, I had a professor in grad school who pushed me to launch my business despite all of the obstacles and challenges that came my way. Professor Dan Nathanson was instrumental in helping me stay the course in grad school and allowed me to work on my business idea on my own. Grad school is set up for teams to work on projects together, not for solo entrepreneurs. When my team fell apart and I wanted to continue, he didn’t hesitate to continue being my advisor without me having to ask for support.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disrupting is not always necessarily good, as it can have unintended negative consequences even if the technology itself is something beneficial to the whole of society. A great example of this is Uber, which was a major disruptor of the taxi industry. In its inception, it had a lot of positive qualities, mainly that it was incredibly convenient for consumers. However, as its technology evolved, it started affecting its workers to the point of affecting their mental health and in many ways exploiting them out of benefits that other full time employees enjoy.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
“The devil is in the details” was one of my client’s favorite sayings when I first started working with luxury brands. Luxury is created in small details that lead to a flawless experience for consumers. She drilled this idea into my head every time there was a minor flaw in the execution of a marketing campaign. Some might call this demanding–I call it elevating the entire game in marketing.
“If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes — then learn how to do it later!” was something I was told last year when we said yes to a project that I wasn’t sure we could handle. One thing I learned throughout the process was that if you don’t know something, you can always outsource it or collaborate with another agency. It also led to learning new skills and acquiring new clients. It’s sort of like going to school, but you get paid to do it.
Finally, “everyone wants to be the boss until it’s time to do boss things” is a saying I practice in my company. I often play this game of “good cop bad cop” with my team. Usually, they must deal with clients or part-time employees and be on the front lines of the day-to-day grind. I always tell them to play the good cop while I play the bad cop who says no to things and enforces the rules. Everyone wants to be liked and it’s not easy to be the enforcer but someone has to do it. It’s not always pleasant, but it’s necessary!
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
The current method of staffing live events with promotional models, bartenders, sommeliers, etc., is obsolete and lacks modern automation. The process is far too dependent on human efforts, is very susceptible to errors, and brings additional unnecessary SG&A costs. Brand Socialite will incorporate modern capabilities to include performance ratings, verification of professional certifications, and talent-location tracking. This will reduce the complexity and the resulting friction between brands and their distributors and accounts. Talent pools will gain access to increased job listings, no longer limited by only the options at their talent agency. By bringing an on-demand, app-based system to this industry, we expect to optimize each of these previously-problematic areas!
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
One of the biggest challenges that women face in the workplace is being labeled as “bossy” or “aggressive” when it comes to making decisions. We constantly need to prove our worth in order to get VC funding for our business cases. We are either labeled too aggressive or ignored by other men in the industry. I experienced this while working with a vendor in the tech space. My old business partner and I were working on a project and one of the vendors would only reply to his emails and completely ignore my communication. I privately told him that I felt it was happening because I am a woman and I kept on bringing it back up. He didn’t believe me and thought I was being ridiculous. This also means that women must be more educated than their male counterparts to get into the c-suite. As of March 2022, women comprised only 15% of leadership roles in the nation’s largest public corporations. (Source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/03/ceos-fortune-500-companies-female/)
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
There are so many I can think of (“Atomic Habits” by James Clear, “Never Split the Difference” by Chris Voss). However, one book that truly opened my eyes to how we as women think differently in the workplace is “How Women Rise” by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith. As women, we are taught countless self-sabotaging behaviors from a young age. These behaviors hold us back in both our careers and as entrepreneurs. This book will help any woman identify those behaviors and help them break unhealthy habits.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I think that a more collectivist mentality would benefit the world greatly. I am very passionate about providing opportunities to the younger generation and opening doors for them. I spend a lot of my free time coaching high school students that are part of underserved communities — a segment of the population that could greatly benefit from exposure to new skills and opportunities.
I come from a country that didn’t have a lot of diversity, so I really believe that inspiring a movement of inclusivity will go a very long way in making the world a better place. Hate is not something that kids know when they’re born; it is taught to them. As such, we need to be more understanding and appreciative of others’ unique viewpoints. In addition, it’s important that we let people become who they want to be as opposed to having their desires be dictated by society. There are many gifted people in the world who simply haven’t received the acceptance they need in order to flourish and make the world a better place in their own special ways.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I thoroughly believe that “we rise by lifting others”. I am a true believer that as a leader, it is your responsibility to serve the people that you manage and help them develop skills that will take their careers to the next level. I am proud to say that I have helped shape a career for many people I have worked with in the past, present, and certainly in the near future. I want to teach them everything I know, and, later down the road, they might be my client, my boss, or even my mentor.
How can our readers follow you online?
Personal IG: aniaisabella
Business IG: brandsocialite
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandsocialiteinc/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brandsocialite/
Personal Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniapuczylowska/
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Ania Puczylowska of Brand Socialite On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.