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

Hi Christina , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Big Media Agency is an integrated marketing communications firm. We specialize in Public Relations, Social Media, Web Design, Search Marketing and Branding. We believe every person (organization or company) possesses a blueprint or a brand. Whether they choose to perfect or amplify it or not, we can help that blueprint become big.

Earlier in my career, I worked for several advertising agencies/ marketing communications firms in the DMV area. I enjoyed the work and the people with whom I worked. However, I didn’t see many people who looked like me – a Black woman who was significantly older than the “in” crowd, who maybe wasn’t the coolest dresser (I always looked nice, but no fads), and who was the mother of two children.

Before that, I worked as a staff writer for Baltimore City Paper. I thoroughly enjoyed “giving a voice to the voiceless,” writing stories about those who were from marginalized or underserved communities, and getting to the heart of their storytelling. My journey taught me that many of these interviewees had one thing in common – they each had a big idea, a big dream, or a big vision. As I interviewed everyone from local politicians to Baltimore residents and covered stories about everything from education to the arts, I realized that while these interviewees had big ideas like I did, they varied in theme. Some wanted to open a restaurant or a food truck, others wanted to build a community garden for local children, and others wanted to expose a corrupt political system or eliminate crime from their neighborhoods. Almost always, when those big ideas were carried out, they had a big impact on local communities and the people who dwelled within them. However, few of those who had big ideas, seemed to have the courage and or resources to execute them.

I created Big Media Agency because I needed a place where an ordinary person like me, a divorced mother of two who had a big idea, could show up as her authentic self. I wanted to. to work with and mentor a team of talented individuals who believe in shared responsibility, and who could help me take that big idea to the next level. I created Big Media Agency because I believed that executives at large corporations needed to see someone like me, an everyday Black woman with a story to tell and who possesses the innate ability to help other people’s stories reach their intended targets. Finally, I created the agency so that other Black women (and women of various ethnicities) could believe in their big ideas too.

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 am a former situation comedy writer and journalist. I often found myself being pitched by public relations professionals who wanted me to author a story on their event, subject, a person of interest, etc. I decided to expand my talents in media and try my hand at public relations, and marketing communications as a whole.

My unique ability to “find the story” within any brand, and market that story to cutomers in a core target market.

We have been very fortunate to accomplish impressive feats for our clients at Big Media Agency, including screening two documentaries for 71 colleges and universities across the country within a few months and.garnering 10,000 YouTube subscriptions in 14 days for our Maryland Public Television client, and countless other feats. However, I am most proud of creating a healthy, collaborative team environment where my employees want to come to work and exceed expectations.

I want potential clients/followers/fans to know that in addition to being brilliant creatives, we apply a growth mindset to our work, we are fun and we are genuinely nice people with whom you will enjoy working.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Throughout my life I have heard references to work being hard. Things like – “you have to work hard in life,” etc. permeated my consciousness. I challenge that theory. In life it is important to work smarter and not harder. Putting processes in place to help you as and individual and your team members work “smarter” instead of “harder” can not only improve organization and efficiency, it can also help to create the kind of work environment that breeds more creative solutions.

Additionally, it is important to remember that words have power. The connotation of the word hard is negative. However the connotation of the word smart is positive. I choose to focus on the positive.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

My side hustle turned into a full time business/career quite naturally over time. As I continued to work in the field of marketing communications, many of my friends, colleagues, and relatives began to ask questions about how to go to market with products and/or start or grow their businesses. Then, they began to hire me to create websites for and market those businesses. Eventually the requests were too large for me to handle myself, so I had to build a team. The rest is history – Big Media Agency was born!

Contact Info:

• Website: bigmediaagency.com
• Instagram: @realbigmediaagency
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigMediaAgency
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bigmediaagency/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bigmediaagency

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