Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Bea Egeto. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Bea, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I’ve been fortunate to be part of a number of amazing projects and was able to bring them to fruition. I was able to walk away with more experience, know what my strengths and weaknesses were during the process and proceed with fine tuning my abilities for the next one. When it came time for me to take my own passion project and make it a reality, I relied on my fortitude to overcome a lot of challenges that were basically headwind throughout most of the process. This project thus became the most meaningful for me so far, since I was able to push through these hurdles and make it what it is today, and that project is The Bunker Experience.

Bea, 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?

My name is Bea Egeto, I’m an entrepreneur with businesses in the entertainment industry as well as in advertising. My main focus early in my career was being in entertainment, I was always a dreamer and a storyteller, I wanted to find a way to be involved in the magical world of stories. I had the opportunity to work for a smaller production company that produced scripted online content, which opened my eyes to storytelling in a different medium other than the traditional TV/Theatrical avenue. It was a thrilling time to be working on new, groundbreaking streaming projects, and be in the forefront of what streaming eventually will be. As a producer and a production manager I learned hands on what it takes to bring a story to life, all the hard work and obstacles you have to jump through in order to tell a tale. For anything to be noticed you have to build an audience and what better way to do that than social media. Since the firm I was working for was small but mighty, we had to take on a lot of different facets of the project in order to make it successful. This is how I learned the ins-and-outs of social media marketing, which later on I branched off into a business onto itself.

I launched my social media marketing company, Interactive Agents, iagents.tv in 2010 offering clients of all industries a full scale social media advertising services, including creative content writing, reputation management, evaluation, influencer marketing and more.

I’ve had a project that I was carrying in my back pocket even as I was working full steam in social media, and kept it alive. I wrote it as a choose-your-own-adventure story written specifically for online content where the audience had a chance to select how the story was going. Eventually I switched gears and decided to take this idea and make it into a live adventure game, so the audience can be part of the story in real life, without the screen. This project is The Bunker Experience, www.thebunkerexperience.com, located in Pasadena.

I’ve been very fortunate for the opportunities I’ve been given, and didn’t hesitate to learn on the job even if it was out of my comfort zone. What the hardest part was in all of my businesses was the amount of responsibility that you as the owner, leader, creator etc. have to take on and perfect in order to succeed, being the owner also means it’s your reputation is on the line so you better do a hell of a job in all areas to overcome the competition. This also becomes your proudest accomplishment as well.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One of my toughest challenges was to introduce a new business idea to the city of Pasadena. Adventure games were not a common business type and the city had a lot of strict rules that did not apply to my idea, so they did not know if and how they should apply these rules that would fit my business. Not to mention, the location I wanted to set the business up was in a historical building so there were additional hurdles that came about due to the regulations on these type of buildings. I was flat out given a “NO” from most of the permit departments as I approached them with my vision and offered details about the game. I’ve persisted in asking for solutions rather and assured all the departments that I’ll come back with their concerns figured out and put them at ease where all regulations and rules were completely abided by. I’ve worked hard with local architects, the building owner and other vendors in order to turn the departments’ decision and give me the much needed “Yes” for the business to open. It took over 9 months to get everything finalized and approved. My business partners lost faith in the city, however I kept them optimistic and told them not to give up on this dream. Eventually I prevailed. My resilience, fortitude and drive turned the tide. My advice to new entrepreneurs is not to allow challenges and obstacles to stand in your way, but to believe in yourself and push even harder to make your dream come true and open your own business. It’s worth it! You’re worth it!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

One of the most important marketing tools is social media marketing. I not only know this as a marketer but also as a business owner, so I see this from both sides. The first thing I did when we opened The Bunker Experience was to give this business a unique branding. Since we are a post-apocalyptic theme, I went with a war-like gas mask visual. In order to stand out from your competition you have to lean in to what makes you different than others. Create a line of content that is unique to your branding and is interesting for your target audience. Staying consistent with this line of creative content is the key. Of course engagement is the number one goal so making sure I posted content that was fun, relative to The Bunker and interesting enough to make the audience pause on my post and actually engage (Like, Comment, Share) is what I wanted. Influencers are a big plus as well, reaching out to relevant influencers in my area was a huge help with allowing me to reach a bigger fan base and introduce the brand.    

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thebunkerexperience.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebunkerexperience/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thebunkerexperience/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bea-egeto-2281289/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-bunker-experience-pasadena