We recently connected with Angela Tyler and have shared our conversation below.

Angela, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

You always hear these wild stories of entrepreneurs taking crazy risks. I do think it’s true that a lot of entrepreneurs thrive off that. But, I’m not one of them.

I’ve always considered myself pretty introverted and relatively risk-averse. I say this to illustrate that you don’t have to be a big risk-taker to be successful. That said, you do have to take some risks.

When I look back at certain points of my career I can clearly see that what at the time felt like just another decision, was actually a risk. Like the year I moved to San Francisco with my then-partner. It was a move I was 100% against and determined not to enjoy. I spent a solid 2-months sulking and making the worst of it. But, one day, I decided to stop being a sad sack and actually put some effort in. My business was barely a few months old when I started emailing Bay Area blogs to do a bit of PR for myself.

One day, I got a response back from a blog that told me “no, we aren’t able to feature your business right now but how would you like to come to this meetup we do every week for musicians and industry called Balanced Breakfast?”

To be honest my first reaction was disappointment. I wanted a feature, not to be invited to an event! But I knew the power of networking and I was on the hunt for my first clients, so I went.

The event was held at a small cafe and when I walked in, it instantly felt like home. The founder & person I’d been emailing, Stefan, immediately came over to greet me and scooped me under his wing, introducing me to everyone. “This is Angela, she runs a PR company!” It was like I’d been a part of the group forever. In the span of a few minutes, I had 30+ new friends, all of whom were genuinely excited to meet me and help me achieve my vision. My goals became their goals and theirs, mine. It was the truest form of community I’d ever felt.

The large risk of moving to San Francisco, and those smaller risks of allowing myself to enjoy it, to reach out, to actually make myself go to this event at 8am on a Thursday, they just felt like decisions at the time. I didn’t know how they’d change my life. But sometimes that’s how it goes with risks. They don’t feel monumental. They just feel like little decisions.

Balanced Breakfast would become instrumental in who I am as a person and who I became as a business leader. It’s been 8 years and not only did that meet-up give me some of my first clients and opportunities (and continues to this day) but it’s introduced me to some of my dearest friends, and adventures I couldn’t have anticipated (like that time I did a 5-month road trip setting up Balanced Breakfast chapters in cities across North America.) But that’s a story for another time…

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

It’s great to meet you! If you’re reading this, I’m honored. I’m Angela, I’ve been in the music industry for over a decade now, first launching a blog in 2009 (RIP Infectious Magazine) and later in 2014 founding Muddy Paw PR, which we recently rebranded to MP Co. Throughout the years I’ve spoken at SXSW, CD Baby’s DIY Musician Conference, Canadian Music Week, Indie Week, and others on the topics of publicity, branding, entrepreneurship, networking, and fan-building. All of these are at the core of what we do at MP Co.

As a strategic PR and marketing agency we work with both musicians and brands on publicity campaigns and direct-to-fan marketing that helps grow (and sustain) your audience. We’ve helped clients place on major sites like Forbes and American Songwriter, as well as grow their email lists, increase sales, you name it. Community and relationships are at the core of all we do, and we bring that to every campaign.

Also I named my company after my dog so, if you have photos of your pet you want to share, I’m your girl.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

Yes! I’m a big believer in diversifying your income and really creating an ecosystem around your business. It’s a fine line between not having so many lines of income that you’re constantly distracted or pulled in different directions, but having enough that you can meet your audience where they’re at, and never solely relying on one income stream.

When I first started MP Co, I only offered PR. That’s it. It was honestly simpler that way because I could get really good at it and create a strong system. But once I had a system, I expanded.

First it was by taking on monthly writing gigs (guest blogs) which served as both a revenue stream and a way to connect with new clients. Then, once I had a system for that I added things like strategy sessions, marketing, and so on. It’s allowed us to work with so many more clients and really take them on a customer journey. They may discover us through a guest blog, then reach out and not be ready for PR but instead be perfect for a strategy session, and then a year from now, PR and marketing. It’s all part of being able to meet them where they’re at, and serve them in what they need most in that moment.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

This is less of a lesson and more of a crutch that I had to unlearn, and that is the idea I had that being introverted meant I would never be able to do certain things that would make me successful. I thought that because I was introverted I was never going to be good at talking to people, or networking, or taking risks, or doing all those things you need to do in order to build a business.

I always felt like as an introvert, I was destined to be the shy one in the corner and that I was better off in the background. I used that as an excuse to not do the things that I was scared of, and to not push myself to grow. Simply put, I had been telling myself my whole life that being an introvert was a disadvantage, and I had to unlearn that.

When I started MP Co. I knew I had to break out of that shell. A huge part of success in any industry, but especially the music industry is who you know. IE networking. I was going to have to get comfortable mingling in a room of strangers and having phone calls with clients. It was part of the job now.

So, I forced myself to do it. I purposely scheduled several phone calls per week just to get over the discomfort and I made myself go to 1-2 networking events per week and walk up to strangers and have awkward conversations. At first, it was terrible! I was so awkward and my inexperience showed. But you know, it got better. And what started off as me being a nervous mess eventually turned into me absolutely loving networking. And it changed because I made myself go through the messy middle to come out the other side and, I stopped looking at being an introvert as a weakness. Instead, I saw it for what it was. A strength.

I mean, come on, the ability to connect with others, to feel what they feel, to see them for who they are, to listen….those are major skills when it comes to entrepreneurship and networking. I just had to start seeing them as such and unlearn that being an introvert was a disadvantage, because really, it was the opposite.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wearemp.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearempco/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amastrogiacomo/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/angela_mastro
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQCR43X9VQ42Gj60Mp-_E7Q
• Other: https://medium.com/@mpco