We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Beth Hilton a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Beth thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Feeling successful is important to keep you motivated, focused and inspired…when things go well, we get that dopamine rush that says “Yes, it’s all happening!” As an entrepreneur, the first step to take is to define success FOR YOURSELF without regard for the opinions of the industry, the neighbors, or your critics. Set measurable goals for your first months and years, and celebrate each achievement! The second step is to periodically expand your definition of success as your business grows….perhaps adding a new success benchmark such as a financial goal or the addition of support staff. Eventually, you may reach a point where you want to attempt a more mainstream measure of success, such as winning a coveted award, but I wouldn’t start out by seeking outside reinforcement, save it for later. Learn to foster your own inner sense of success first, it’ll be much more rewarding, and a stabilizing force in your business. With The B Company, my initial goal was to find work/life balance: serving my clients by earning impressive publicity results while also establishing a home-based business that would allow me to personally raise my family. Because I was clear about my idea of success, I wasn’t concerned with being the biggest agency, rather I was grateful to be able to work with that business model for five years before deciding to add more services and staff to our mix.

Beth, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Ah! I’m much more comfortable talking about my clients, but I’ll share a little peek behind the scenes!

I am the founder/president of Hilton Entertainment LLC and The B Company, a boutique agency with a California vibe that delivers high-quality publicity and social marketing services. Our core team of 5 people and various partners assist our clients in reaching their career, media and/or business goals, focusing on a limited number of select clients.

My teen & college years were spent in Pennsylvania and England before I began studying Communications and Journalism at Temple University. I began my career in New York City as an Associate Editor at Advanstar Communications, and after a few years, I was recruited over to The Rowland Company, a top public relations firm where I learned communications marketing from some of the best. The early years in one’s career are demanding, but I met some of my greatest friends during that era…I encourage the next generations to network like mad in that early career phase, and keep in touch with people!

However, New York is so cold, and I’d always dreamt of living in California, so I up and moved to Los Angeles. Not knowing anyone, I had to start over by volunteering on film sets and registering with an employment agency…those were great ways to meet people and to learn my way around the city and the studios. In a happy accident, I was called to temp at Rhino Records; the company had a social consciousness program that I really admired, so I accepted their full-time job offer in Business Affairs, working there until we merged with Warner Music Group.

At that point, I saw an opportunity to get back on the management track because traditional music marketing was missing a lot of the tools that I’d learned in my earlier career. Eventually, I launched a Strategic Promotions department for Warner Music Group, focusing on partnerships with the other AOL/TimeWarner companies and Fortune 500 Brands. It was a fantastic challenge and I loved finding innovative and exciting campaigns for our artists with brands such as Nestle, Cadillac, General Mills, NASCAR, Revlon and many more. This was a career phase of heavy travel and high stress, so when starting a family became my next priority, I decided it was time to strike out on my own.

I officially launched The B Company in 2002 and have been happily in service to musicians, filmmakers and authors ever since! We’ve helped dozens of individuals, record labels and production companies with media coaching, branding, design, building awareness, social media marketing, business development, and awards recognition. I am most proud of the fact that our clients return to work with us over and over again, and often become our good friends, too.

Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?

Great question! Yes, I bought a “sister” business this year. As I shared earlier, my first job was as a magazine editor, and my college degree’s deep focus was magazine production. As a publicist, I have work with many publications, but as the media world changes, we are losing a lot of them to lack of funding and consolidation. Earlier this year, one of my favorite music writers, Dick Metcalf, announced that he’d be shutting down his Contemporary Fusion Reviews publication for personal reasons. I was sad to see another publication shuttered, when musicians so desperately need solid music reviews to gain awareness in this crowded space. One night, I had an “Ah-Ha” moment: I could offer to buy Contemporary Fusion Reviews and keep it going! I liked its layout, and I thought editing it would be inspiring….little did I know what a robust site it was, so I am still learning my way around, hiring music reviewers to help with the onslaught of music submissions! The acquisition process was relatively easy: I issued an offer letter, which was accepted and signed. It included a consulting fee agreement for Dick to continue with training me and managing the site during the transition phase, and finally, we transferred the domain ownership and executed all that is entailed with that process. Sometimes, as business leaders, we have to pitch in and sustain those entities that are important to our communities. We were so pleased to announce that this editorial music site will continue to thrive, and Dick’s legacy will remain at ContemporaryFusionReviews.com

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Yes, while I work or take my long walks, I am always listening to podcasts and audiobooks, often about creativity, inspiration and marketing. There are so many to choose from, but I heartily recommend all of Malcolm Gladwell’s books, especially The Tipping Point and Blink, as ways to begin thinking outside of your own box and comfort zones.

I also believe in the power of guided meditations, both for resetting our thought patterns, and, for telling you what your heart and mind desperately need to hear! I hope your readers each have someone in the “real world” who is telling them how awesome, loved and capable they are, but if they don’t (yet), then recorded meditations can be a very powerful tool.  I recommend trying them in the mornings upon waking before any negative brain chatter begins. A search on Audible, Amazon or Youtube will turn up endless options, so be specific in your search words, such as “Guided Meditation to Stop Craving Chocolate at Night.” I also love all the holistic wellness and self-healing books by Andrew Weill.

Specific to the music industry, the industry bibles are Don Passman’s book “All You Need to Know About the Music Business”…it’s a fun must-read. Others great ones are “This Business of Music Marketing and Promotion” by Tad Lathrop and Jim Pettigrew, Jr., and, This Business of Music by Krasilovsky and Shemel. More recently, Ari Herstand published an update on his “How to Make It In the New Music Business” which is really helpful. DIY Musicians could spend days on YouTube watching how-to business videos by music coaches on the latest marketing and distribution techniques; I recommend browsing quite a bit before signing up for paid coaching services that you might not need. To find free info, start with a search on YouTube for @AndrewSouthworth, and the algorithm will then suggest additional “experts” to watch and follow. I find that these are helpful in keeping up to date on the ever-changing tools across all the streaming services.

Finally, take time to curate movies and books purely for joy and fulfilment. Avoid “must see” lists and box office reports. Rather, seek out creators who make you laugh, who open your mind, or who inspire you to dream. We all need more uniqueness and originality in our lives!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thebcompany.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebcompany
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBCompanyPRandMarketing
• Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bethhilton
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/The_B_Company
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@TheBCompany