We were lucky to catch up with Maria Consuelo Gonima recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Maria Consuelo, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

I’m happy to say that I would have started my business exactly when I did. It basically happened on a lark. The moment moved me into declaring I was going out on my own.

I began my first business in my early 20s and learned so much by just trying, messing up, and trying again. After years of booking, putting on shows, and DJing in San Antonio, Austin, and San Francisco, I moved to LA and went into corporate work because I wanted to learn on a larger scale. My goal was to learn from the best before returning to entrepreneurship, and I was grateful to be trusted with leadership roles at such a young age.

I can attribute most big moves in my career to making extreme efforts to be at the right place at the right time.

The decision to start my business came spontaneously. I worked in-house at a gaming company I enjoyed working for. However, former colleagues from my work with mun2, Audible, Paramount, Hulu, Fullscreen, and others approached me to collaborate with them. I considered moonlighting for a bit but finally confronted my emotions about starting my business.

I was in that phase where I kept saying to myself I needed just one more big brand or one more major accomplishment before I was really ready.

But the day had come. The moment struck me. The words came from my mouth faster than my brain could process them. I declared to my boss that I was starting my own business and asked the company to be my first client and hire me as their external agency.

To my surprise, it worked! Despite not feeling entirely ready, this leap of faith set the foundation for my next entrepreneurial journey.

Starting sooner might have meant missing out on crucial learning opportunities, while starting later could have delayed my business’s growth and impact. I’ve since been able to work for film festivals, AI companies, gaming studios, VR producers, artists, theatres, nonprofits, and more.

The experiences and lessons I gained along the way were invaluable and shaped my approach to running my business. Looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing about the timing of my start.

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.

My career has been a diverse journey as an extreme enthusiast, encompassing roles such as digital PR leader, label manager, DJ, artist, youth media instructor, art curator, event promoter, and record store nerd. I began as a genre-hyphenating fangirl and have never stopped exploring new territories.

Starting in Texas, I worked at radio stations (Trinity’s KRTU, UT’s KVRX, and pirate radio) and record stores (Hogwild, SA; 33 Degrees, Austin), which fine-tuned my musical palette. I began DJing as a teen, and over the years, I’ve shared the stage with acts like Prefuse 73, Boyracer, Otto Von Schirach, DJ Assault, Jeff Mills, and Extreme Animals.

In 2001, I joined the Austin Museum of Digital Art (AMODA) as the founding Digital Showcase Manager, delivering groundbreaking exhibitions and innovative performances, including the first US performance by mum. My appetite for public relations grew at CinemaTexas, working with talents like Miranda July, Robert Altman, and Werner Herzog. I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin’s RTF: Convergent Media department in 2003, delving into the future of digital media.

In 2003, I received my B.S. from the University of Texas at Austin’s RTF: Convergent Media department and Advanced Communication Technology Lab (ACTLab), fiercely working toward understanding what digital will mean to us in the future and how its tools are used to create limitless concepts, both in communication and art. I also worked on honing my musical skills with the E-MU and tons of patch cables at the University of Texas Electronic Music Studios.

It was the dot-com bust, and there weren’t jobs for me in Austin, so I jumped to San Francisco. My first job was teaching digital design at the Expression College For Digital Arts. I also worked with Kid606 on the Tigerbeat6 record label and collaborated with Naut Humon at Asphodel and 360 audio/visual space Recombinant Media Labs. My work at Mighty involved booking and publicity for unforgettable club nights. Beyond music, I worked with GreenCine on building a streaming movie and VOD platform, freelanced for the San Francisco Examiner, and hosted web content on Better Propaganda. I also taught digital documentary production to at-risk youth with the Conscious Youth Media Crew in San Francisco and Oakland.

I moved to Los Angeles to work as the corporate communication lead for NBCUniversal’s network for Latino youth, mun2. There, I worked with bicultural luminaries, reggaetoneros, and an innovative digital content team, handling publicity for shows featuring Pitbull, Daddy Yankee, Casa de Leones, Beyonce, and Enrique Iglesias. This role helped my dutifully indie self break into the mainstream and secure stories across various media platforms. As a Colombian-American who always wanted to see myself represented on TV/film, it was a huge honor to be there at that moment.

In 2008, I joined Bender/Helper Impact’s digital entertainment team, leveraging my digital expertise for clients like Scion, Current TV, and Paramount Digital Entertainment. My love for Hulu led me to work with them at B/HI and eventually in-house for three years, during a pivotal shift in content consumption. They let me do big things and take giant leaps for a digital content business in its infancy, playing amongst giants. My favorite project was East Los High, which continued my journey of helping showcase faces like mine on-air and online.

I then moved to Fullscreen Media to explore untethered content with social media stars, witnessing the rise of “real people” becoming celebrities. I helped usher in the insanity of parasocial relationships young people had with their favorite stars, and took a few bruises trying to calm youngsters down while they tried to rip shirts off of their heart throb of the moment.

I moved to the Annenberg Foundation, launching initiatives like Annenberg Tech and Annenberg PetSpace. As my final act in-house, I joined Survios, a leading VR gaming studio, where we were at the forefront of immersion and entertainment.

With all this experience, I started Big Smile Co., a new kind of marketing communications firm. We focus on digital content, navigating new business models, and sharing our clients’ stories with targeted media. I’ve had the thrill of working with top talent in the media business, trying out new mediums, like launching CREED boxing and HBO’s Westworld in VR, working with experiential wizards like Meow Wolf, and collaborating with major cultural leaders like the Tribeca Festival, where I helped them move the in-person festival to the web on the brink of the pandemic.

My business provides comprehensive communication and public relations services, particularly in entertainment, technology, and social good. From Warner Bros Discovery to Planned Parenthood, we work with companies and organizations dedicated to cultural transformation. Our services include strategic communication planning, media relations, content production and editorial management, strategic partnerships, and event activation.

One of the problems we solve for our clients is the challenge of standing out in a crowded media landscape. We help them craft compelling narratives that resonate with their target audience and create impactful campaigns that drive engagement and support.

I am most proud of the team and our work’s positive impact. Seeing our clients succeed and know that we’ve contributed to their mission is incredibly rewarding.

We are dedicated to using our storytelling and amplification skills and expertise to support organizations that are making a real difference. Our approach is collaborative, creative, and results-oriented. We believe in the power of storytelling to inspire action and are committed to helping our clients achieve their goals.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

I am fortunate to receive many referrals from former clients and coworkers. All the brilliant people I know and love from “past lives” are now becoming entrepreneurs! Lil Snack, Meow Wolf, Replica Studios, Rooster Teeth, Creative Juice, and others all came from referrals from beloved industry peers and friends.

While I haven’t yet ventured into cold calling, I’m excited to take it on and see how the market responds. I am in a moment where I’m hoping to scale. It’s been tough to rebuild since the pandemic, but I see so many brilliant people looking for jobs as the majors thin their workforces, and I know there’s a market need for what we offer. Storytelling, journalism, and brand relationships are changing quickly, and I’m excited to see what happens next.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

Currently, we operate with multiple revenue models to accommodate our client needs. I like working with innovative businesses, but it can be tough for those types of companies to anticipate their financial well-being a year from now. So, we are excited to offer our expertise in several new ways soon.

Traditional PR and media can be pretty fickle these days. Every business moves at its own pace: some are too early to be taken seriously, some are too innovative for their own good, and others have been slow and steady with no press, needing to shout from the rooftops to catch up in their industries. We serve all these types of companies and aim to tailor our work to their unique needs better.

Note: Ask me about the times I got hung up at Hulu when I told reporters that someday they’d watch their favorite show from their phone while on the treadmill. Oof.

We have several plans in the pipeline, including a subscription pass, a community network, on-call counsel, and DIY tips and tricks. Our goal is to make our expertise modular and adaptable, setting the pace for different types of businesses requiring varying attention levels.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bigsmile.co
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gonima
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/oonceoonce