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

Sue, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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?

I have always wanted to do a ‘show’ but could never figure out what the topic would be. I have a love for country music and I’ve been in country radio for nearly 20 years. A musician friend was over one day and was playing guitar in my “cow print” chair. I thought it would be cool to do “Cow Chair Sessions” with musicians with an interview. It was during the pandemic when my roommate and I started a livestreaming video business and so we had all the tools to start interviewing artists virtually. I randomly reached out to new artists on Instagram and surprisingly they said yes to a virtual interview and acoustic performance. I was set up at home to do radio (due to the pandemic), so I literally could live anywhere and continue to do radio….where would I want to be??? In Nashville of course – in the heart of country music! So I moved the whole operation to Music City and built a studio in my basement. Now I do interviews in person. The project is a bit of a passion project/hobby because a stream of income has not quite been set up yet. Building a following, subscribers and watch time will help elevate the value of the brand to bring in sponsors. That has been the real challenge! But we are slowly gaining that as well as being recognized in the country music industry within Nashville.

Sue, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I ended up in radio by accident. I had an events promotion company and went to the radio station to pitch an idea, part of which was being on air. They liked it and asked me to come in. That started a regular weekly feature on air. They liked me and my voice and taught me radio. Next thing I know, I have a regular show on air and I haven’t looked back.

I also have a marketing consulting business on the side. When I moved from the California Wine Country to Nashville, many of my winery clients went away, so I had to reinvent myself. I am now doing consulting and PR for new country artists. Sometimes it means starting from the ground up – creating a website, social accounts and branding. I help artists establish their brand, brand message and ‘look,’ and then implement that across all platforms including web, socials, video marketing, press releases, email marketing, appearances, performances, and any other media exposure.

What sets me apart is having a long and strong background with country radio, as well as marketing, graphic design, project management and PR.

I think I am most proud of the brand I have created for myself, that is in integrity and respect.

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

Thinking that flying by the seat of my pants was going to work was proven over and over again not to work! I was always pretty good at working within “chaos”…no systems, just slips of paper floating around my desk and a handwritten calendar which meant I was working way harder than I should be.

I had to learn that creating systems and using some technology (that had to be learned), was the only way to streamline the multiple businesses and projects I was working on. This has allowed me to easily delegate to my VA, keep track of things and prioritize, freeing up my time to take care of myself.

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

Enter the pandemic….I had my marketing clients who were mostly winery clients. They shut down wineries, so we were forced to dig deep into our creative banks to get wine lovers to buy wine without tasting it! This was challenging and fun at the same time.

I also did a fair amount of live on stage hosting for charity events, and when those too stopped, we had to figure something out. My roommate and I started our livestreaming business specifically to help non profits who had to cancel all of their fundraising events. We helped them produce virtual events and telethons to continue to raise money for their worthy charities.

Contact Info:

• Website: bonzellmedia.com and upncountry.com
• Instagram: @suebonzell and @upncountry
• Facebook: @sbonzell
• Linkedin: @suebonzell
• Twitter: @suebonzell
• Youtube: @upncountry