Maria
Chrissovergis, MC PR Agency
As founder and owner of MC PR
Agency, Maria Chrissovergis has vast experience in the world of public relations through media and marketing. But before MC PR Agency was even an idea, Maria started in the news world working as a TV news reporter on the First Coast.
Tough she loved her career as a news
Renee Fields, Kennedi’s Closet
Renee Fields always dreamed of
owning her own business. In 2009, this dream became a reality when she opened Kennedi’s Closet. Tough her daughter was only a month old, she decided it was time to bring the First Coast an affordable line of children’s clothes and accessories.
Fashion had been an interest since
Renee was young, but she never expected to veer into the children’s fashion world until she had her daughter. “I started making items of my own and putting them online. Tings started selling and progressed from there,” says Renee.
Renee’s three young children have
taught her to find balance between work and family. “I try and rotate my schedule. Sometimes I work from home so I can be with the kids. I also have my kids do a program at school three days a week. My staff is great because when I do work from home I run the Facebook page and the online stores and check in with the girls during the day to see how everything is going while taking care of my kids,” says Renee. “My children teach me all the time that I can’t be too obsessive and need to go with the flow. Tere are days when I get to work and one of the kids is sick or the baby is crying. I’m a mom first, but have great customers and a great staff to help me.”
With business booming, Renee is
considering expanding to another store in the future. Trough her growing ideas, networking and traveling, Renee is quickly spreading her children’s fashions throughout the First Coast.
reporter she knew the stress level was high and she couldn’t do it forever. One of Maria’s desires in life was to become a mom. “It was hard being called in the middle of the night for a story. I was having a hard time having children and that was something my husband and I wanted,” says Maria. “I started searching for something else and got a call from North[east] Florida Builders Association. He told me he wanted to hire me as his sales and marketing director for the company.” Maria learned the real estate, and building and construction markets, and began working as a publisher for a home magazine.
After becoming a mom,
Maria decided to leave the publishing world. “I enjoyed staying at home and was keeping myself busy with other activities, nonprofits and my church, but I wanted something more,” says Maria. It didn’t take long for the vice president of Northeast Florida Builders Association to contact her. “He was selected to be the builder of the HGTV Smart Home and he knew he was going to get a lot of publicity and that it needed to be managed the right way. I thought this could be something I could do on the side, but this ended up being what started my agency—once the builders I had worked with in publishing [and] sales found out I was back in the market managing PR and advertising, and marketing again I started getting phone calls from people who were interested—so the business has been based completely off of referrals. Ten, I decided to form a company with an LLC to make it official.”
Family! | 55
Maria has learned to balance family and
work through her business. She works from home so she is able to be around her young daughter and son as much as possible. “I always make sure that I drop them off at school and that I always pick them up from school. I want to be the face they see when they are coming out of the classroom—that’s the beauty of owning my own business. I am able to build my schedule around them. I also make sure I keep everything structured and organized,” says Maria. “Sometimes this means that I work odd hours to get my projects done, but I do that so I am able to spend time with my children.” Maria feels that through creating her own schedule, deadlines and mastering multitasking, she has found balance between work and family.
Te experience Maria has gained
through working in news, sales and marketing, and publishing has given her a well-rounded knowledge of the public relations world. Maria proves that it is possible to have a business and be a mom. She hopes that her children gain interest in her business as they get older. “I hope the company is something they want to do, but I want them to follow their dreams.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76