Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Victoria L. Szulc. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Victoria L. , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

One of the biggest risks I’ve ever taken was approaching Big River Steampunk Festival about starting and organizing their first fashion show. Big River is now the largest outdoor Steampunk Festival in the nation and in 2017 they had close to 22,000 people attending.

I’m a multi-media steampunk artist who has done tons of events, and so I gambled on running this show-and won. The previous organizers let me complete the whole first show, start to finish, from persuading the venue owner to participate (it was a gorgeous historical theatre), to decor, hiring models, getting other vendors to participate and even getting my stable of models to perform a choreographed section of Vogue by Madonna. I knew it was big when we were on the runway and starting vogueing in sync. People gasped aloud, whooping, clapping. It was AMAZING.

The hard work paid off. It was, however, nearly 200 hours of incredible “grinding gears” to complete the costumes, choreography, plan, etc. I am so grateful it wasn’t a disaster!

The festival scaled it back the next couple years, then Covid hit, and the festival was sold. The new owner, Tammy Riley has been a dream to work with, and 2023 marks our third year putting this fashion show on together.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I always tell people I’m a Renaissance woman leading a steampunk life. I was a talented, intelligent kid, but shy, with a lower middle class background. I was very lucky to have several teachers, even back to kindergarten, that recognized my talents, and pointed me in the right direction.

In addition to art, I really loved history, especially the Victoria era. As a kid I watched westerns with my dad, especially the Wild Wild West TV show, which was steampunk before the term was coined. I also remember going to the Missouri History Museum to learn about the 1904 World’s Fair, and I was hooked. Combine all that with 1980’s MTV, and my imagination was stoked.

By the 1990’s, steampunk was developing in to a true genre. I began writing down my ideas, I’d always loved to tell a good story, and by 2010 I was beginning my indie self-publishing journey. Around the same time, phone cameras were going high tech and I started shooting my own work. What means most to me, is people recognize my style. It’s nice to have my own niche.

I now do steampunk as a whole art form, from books to photography, costume creation, styling, fashion shows, accessories, and design. This is all coming together with the release of my Countess Collection, a steampunk/gothic high-end coffee table book, premiering at Big River Steampunk Festival in Hannibal, MO over Labor Day weekend. This will be a culmination of my best steampunk work.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

All of what I do comes from change and struggle. You really have to develop a thick skin. I’m an empath too, so I have to be watchful not to take on too much negativity from others. I learned it’s OK to be in the same boat as others, but don’t let it sink you.

In 2017, as I was developing that first fashion show? My older sister was dying. She had been in assisted living for several years and was put into hospice. I had hired people to work for me that stole ideas, took over projects in a social media group I belonged to. Had a brush with a stalker.

I also curated and participated a really good steampunk show at a now defunct gallery. I was beat up, emotionally, physically. I let negative people in. All of this within the space of six months. My sister died on Easter, 2 weeks after the steampunk show closed, and just four months later we had that first fashion show.

But I learned. I gained wisdom. I know BS when I see it. I am a better person but I definitely have the scars of hard work and trying to maintain my sanity.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social Media is a strange and ever changing animal. In marketing terms, I’m what’s called an “early adapter”, meaning I see new trends and tend to have a good sense of what’s happening, especially in media. I was on Facebook around 2006 when my school (Webster University) wasn’t even listed as a center of learning (remember this is when Facebook was kind of like a living yearbook for students, then was taking over users from MySpace). I joined new social media all the time, some apps failed, other flourished.

In 2013 I had an Etsy posting go viral – then around 2014? Facebook killed organic reach, they bought out as many competitors, including instagram, as they could. At the same time Google slayed the other search engines and Amazon became the online giant. My early growth, especially for my steampunk and gothic/paranormal books withered. I tried to make adjustments, updated book covers and re-edited my books, some 3 – 4 times over. I had a little traction with YouTube, but again it was sold to Google. And Etsy let a former CEO from EBay take over and the great handmade app turned into a shopper’s paradise!

However, YouTube did give me a small venue to do things they prepared me for the next level of social media, I made book trailers (like movie trailers, for books!) and I did live and recorded reads of my books. All this practice positioned me perfectly for Tiktok.

I’ve since had some of the craziest things go viral on Tiktok, in the hundreds of thousands of views, and started to sell more books there, organically, than anywhere else.

Although I don’t have an immense following, I’m hovering around 10k followers, I was chosen as an alpha and now a beta for Tiktok Shopping! It’s definitely early in the game, and the app is working through a lot of glitches, but I see it as a stiff competitor to Amazon, especially after TikTok has already demolished Facebook.

My advice for social media marketing would be to learn social media inside and out. Pick 2 apps and be consistent with posting your content and make it worthy of viewing. Be original and authentic. Tell engaging stories. I’ve seen the best marketing influencers comment on the days of throwing money at the old advertising ways are gone, and I completely agree.     

Contact Info: 

• Website: https://www.thecountessvictorialszulc.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steampunkcountess/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MySteampunkProject?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCountessSP
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@thespcountess3132
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thesteampunkcountess?_op=1&_r=1&_t=8dGGgCwQ55K
• WordPress: https://www.mysteampunkproject.Wordpress.com
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Victoria-L-Szulc/e/B00CDFDIBI

Image Credits
I did all the styling, shooting and editing of the 8 photos, Victoria L. Szulc The first group photo is by Kim Ackerman of Vogue Portrait Studios.