We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful DeAnna Kane. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with DeAnna below.

DeAnna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

It may sound cliche to say that starting a business is scary. But that doesn’t make it any less true. Especially when you know you will be doing it without capital and investors. I knew absolutely nothing of the publishing world other than buying my favorite magazines and pouring over them for the latest trends, fashions, housewares, and everything in between. However, I had been formulating a plan for several months that would combine our knowledge of writing, event planning, and hospitality with my long-time friend and now business partner, Leslie.

I approached Leslie with my idea and simply asked her about starting a magazine. I stated we both had extensive experience in event planning and producing large conference events. We both had extensive experience in etiquette and hospitality. I had discovered years earlier that I somewhat had a talent for writing as well as having an entrepreneurial mind. When I mentioned the idea of starting a magazine, her eyes lit up, and she excitedly told me it was always her dream to have a magazine. She then asked me what do we do? I replied, “I have no idea.” Then, she asked how we would get started. To which I repeated, “I have no idea! But I’ll figure it out!”

Over the next several months, we brainstormed our ideas about what the magazine would look like. We wanted beautiful photos that told a story, and we wanted engaging content that showed the simplicity of hosting a gathering for a small group of just a few to hundreds or more. We also wanted practical tips and advice for women in all areas of home, family, work, community, and everything else that touched women’s lives. Our goal was to encourage others to create connection and community in a world that seemed to be closing itself off in isolation.

We settled on the name of our first publication. It would be called Heart of Hospitality. We loved how it told exactly who we were and what we did. The magazine would be all about hospitality in love.

Once we had figured out our direction, I then poured over the internet, trying to figure out the best way to start a publishing company for our magazine. It didn’t take me long to do a cost analysis and discover that moving right to print without investors was a bad idea. We decided early on that we didn’t want to take on investors because we didn’t want to have outside voices trying to dictate how the magazine moved forward over time. We had a very clear vision of what we wanted our magazine to look like and how we wanted to accomplish that. We also had little to no capital to get started.

Our process of starting up the magazine made sense to begin on a digital platform as the overhead costs were fairly minimal, and since we would be doing most of the work, it made sense to keep our overhead down as much as possible. We didn’t have money to pay writers, so we had friends who offered to write articles for free in exchange for credit, and I took on most of the writing and content creation. Leslie handled much of the photoshoots and staging. It was a learning process for both of us as we had no publishing experience. We just knew we had a message to get out and lots of ways we wanted to share that information.

When it came down to putting together our first issue, I researched many design platforms and decided that Canva Pro was where we wanted to start. It was simple to lay out each page, affordable, and after scoping out other magazines, I found a pattern of page layouts that worked. We shot our entire first issue (and pretty much every issue since) on an iPhone camera. We staged shoots in my kitchen, my backyard, alongside the house, at the beach, at the park, and pretty much anywhere else we could that didn’t cost any money.

As we approached the launch date, I researched a company for distribution and decided on E-Page View. We launched the premier issue of Heart of Hospitality Magazine in August 2019. It was a momentous day as I hit enter when uploading the issue, and seeing our first issue become live was a fantastic sensation.

Over the next few months, we learned a lot about content, photography, and working with each other. We poured over content creation and creative ways to present our information that was accurate and attractive to readers. We found one of the keys to a successful business relationship is laughing. And we laughed a lot. However, our immediate success wasn’t to come as quickly as we had hoped as tragedy hit—the Covid Pandemic.

When Covid hit, it pushed us back astronomically on two levels. One was that we couldn’t attend any events to promote our publication. Everything had shut down, and there was no way to let people know they could purchase a subscription. Two was that the shutdown propelled people to utilize social media more than ever, and the content was free.

We had to devise a way to get our magazine out. Over the following two issues, it was discovered that we had some deficits with our distribution platform, and I immediately searched for a new one that would help serve us better. I found one that was not only a distribution platform but served as a “magazine stand” as well, And it was international.

Within months of switching our client base over, we hit multi-national countries, and it looked like we would finally have some skin in the game. A few years later, we have grown to several thousand subscribers in 35 countries with our Heart of Hospitality magazine. We have added new features and listened to our base to understand the needs of our readers. We have developed a unique publication that spans several points of interest for all our readers and has become a source of information for women all in one place.

It was not an easy start, but we agree that it sure has been fun! We continue to have fun each day and often comment on how it really doesn’t feel like work. We love what we do and want to continue to create engaging content that offers encouragement for others to connect with people around them.

DeAnna Kane, Hospitality and Etiquette Expert
kcmediapublishing.com
heartofhospitalitymagazine.com
Insta: heartofhospitalitymag
FB: Heart of Hospitality Magazine

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

My extensive experience in writing and hosting events contributed to the idea that there is a lost art to hospitality, and we wanted to create a solid foundation to bring such principles back to the forefront of society. Etiquette is an overlooked practice, and as generations move forward, I see less and less as each generation falls further and further into what we used to know as polite society. It isn’t that people are just rude by nature; it’s more like they just don’t know. Hospitality and etiquette were by-products of material being taught in home economics classes at school, but it is no longer being offered. Long gone are the days of Emily Post, and life has changed so drastically from her time in the early 1900s.

Our women’s lifestyle magazines offer up a little bit of everything as women are making a more substantial presence in the workforce and they are becoming leaders in their communities. Women make up for over 70% of purchasing decisions, and we want to empower them to be making the best decisions they can for themselves, their families, and their communities. We encourage extending hospitality, but we also dip into lifestyle practices such as empowering women to learn more about self-sustaining decision-making such as buying a house or car, negotiating with contractors, legal issues, and more. When women are informed, they are empowered. When women thrive, economies thrive. Heart of Hospitality is more than just decorating a pretty table; it’s a lifestyle.

In a world where people are becoming increasingly isolated, we are losing the ability for community and connection. Our goal at KC Media publishing, through Heart of Hospitality, is to help others create community. We like to call it, “finding your tribe.” We go beyond just basic decorating and lifestyle practices by bringing encouragement and practical skills and tips to create connection in the community.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Publishing is a crazy world, and similar to social media, it seems to be ever-changing. We knew nothing about publishing when we started KC Media Publishing, but we knew we had a great idea. When we launched our first publication, Heart of Hospitality, we found a niche market with a need and began to fill that need.

During the pandemic, we saw another need. We noticed that many people were fearful and unsure about what the future would look like. We saw that people needed information, encouragement, and practical advice on how to make it through the crisis. We saw popular survivalist ideas flourish on social media, but we felt that the message being broadcast was a little doomsday. We decided that information regarding emergency preparedness, survival, homesteading, etc, was necessary, but we wanted to present it in a way that didn’t promote fear.

Thus, we created our second publication, The Empowered magazine. This publication brought tips and ideas for every facet of life, including survival, emergency preparedness, legal issues, homesteading, business, family, and so much more. We combined our love of beautiful photos to tell a story and began to share our information with women in a relaxing but practical way. We taught subjects such as how to can your food, how to buy a car, what supplies to have in an emergency, where to store supplies or extra food, etc. We created our Tips pages similar to what can be found in Heart of Hospitality, and people loved the quick references to great ideas. It was a way for us to share vital information without spreading fear.

This was a pivot in and of itself from our first publication. Still, when the world started reopening, the need for this information fell by the wayside as the crisis seemed to be alleviated over time. We decided to merge the two publications, and now the same information we had in The Empowered Magazine can be found in Heart of Hospitality. It made sense as we are working to encourage a better life for women everywhere, and we wanted to extend information to all areas that might be useful in helping women achieve that goal by empowering them with information they may not have previously thought they needed.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

It may be superfluous to say capital is vital to starting and growing your business. When first starting our publishing company, we didn’t have capital. Not a penny was raised. We used some savings and an Smart Phone to put together our first issue. I don’t highly recommend this way, but after launching our first publication in August of 2019, then the Covid Pandemic hitting only a few months later, it was a blessing not to have a large sum of funds with investors who would want accountability for our spending.

Since everything was closed down, we didn’t have the option or ability to attend events to promote the magazine. We had social media, but we didn’t know enough about it to utilize it in a way that benefited our business. We started by spreading the word through people we knew and then switching our publication to an international digital newsstand that would promote our magazine. We had a niche market, and when you typed in the search bar for hospitality magazine, we were the first to show.

Since we have not taken on investors, nor raised any other type of capital, we retain all our IP rights, and we don’t have a board of directors to answer to. We have no loans to repay and are not losing money on paying any interest on loans. Fortunately, we have had a lot of support from people who believe in our product and love what we are doing. We are in our fifth year now and have a multi-thousand subscriber base, and we are in 35 countries. Not bad for a small duo team with no money and a Smart Phone!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://heartofhospitalitymagazine.com/
• Instagram: heartofhospitalitymag
• Facebook: Heart of Hospitality Magazine