We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ashley Staten. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ashley below.
Ashley, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?
In 2017, I went to a KPop Meetup by myself. By taking this risk, I met some of my closest friends! After a wonderful time, I began planning events with them, as well as some on my own. I found it was great to create an open and supportive community for a niche audience. It is valuable to find your people, and those who are interested in similar things, and sometimes it can be hard when it isn’t something that is super mainstream (at least it wasn’t 6 years ago). Creating this community was something I wanted for myself, and in return, became something others appreciated as well.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I have always been interested in meeting new people, experiencing new places, and learning about other cultures. While in college, I studied abroad at Pusan National University in Busan, South Korea in the fall of 2019. Throughout my time in college, I was also part of a KPop dance group. We performed at the Grand Rapids Asian-Pacific Festival in 2018 and 2019. We also planned many KPop meetups in the city together. After the pandemic, I saw exponential growth in KPop’s Popularity. I thought it was a great opportunity to get started again with event planning and launching RAL Entertainment. RAL Entertainment is a Hallyu-inspired entertainment agency that strives to create a community for Lovers of the Hallyu Wave in West Michigan. This includes planning events and activities for fans of Korean entertainment. I love building connections with people on a personal level and am always open to collaborating with other KPop creators.
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
Last spring, I decided to attend a KPop dance showcase held by the GVSU dance club. I went to the event to meet others and share business for future events. I was able to connect with many people in the area. The turnout for my meetup doubled compared to the previous one before the pandemic.
How did you build your audience on social media?
How I built my audience on social media was mostly due to outreach. I make sure to have QR codes on my business cards and I also used relevant hashtags when posting. I would also say that posting videos on Instagram and Tiktok helped me reach more people as well. My advice for those starting to build a social media presence is to just get started. Even if you haven’t prepared multiple posts, sharing your existing posts and videos on your story is a good way to keep yourself in front of others. Exposure is key!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sites.google.com/view/ralentertainment/home
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ral_entertainment/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RAL.Entertainment3
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-staten3/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/OfficialRAL_Ent
- Other: https://linktr.ee/ralent
Image Credits
Photo credits to Ashley Staten, Alisa Carter, Natalie Banasiak and Shyanne Calvin.