Stacy H. Small
President and Chief Content Provider
TheWriteCrowd.com
An award-winning travel writer with a decade of editorial experience, Stacy H. Small (pictured here with her parents) spent the past six years as a senior editor with Travel Agent Magazine, the last two based in Los Angeles as the trade publication's West Coast editor. Prior, she covered the airline industry for the weekly magazine from its Manhattan headquarters, following a stint as the Caribbean editor.
Upon graduation from the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University in 1991, the Rochester, NY-native began her editorial career at Caribbean Travel and Life magazine, a bimonthly consumer travel magazine based in Washington, DC. Over the past 10 years, Small has traveled to more than 100 cities and dozens of countries worldwide, covering industry events, conducting product reviews, meeting with top travel suppliers, interviewing high-level executives, and reporting on current events. Small has written about destinations, hotels, airlines, ski resorts, spas, and travel industry news and attractions‹as well as health, fitness, real estate, business, entertainment, life style and restaurants‹for dozens of consumer and trade magazines and web sites.
Recognizing the growing demand for quality content‹on the web and in print‹Small resigned her post at Travel Agent in May 2000 to launch TheWriteCrowd.Com. She currently serves as president and chief content provider of the Marina del Rey, CA-based company and oversees a growing network of writers who are regularly tapped to provide editorial content on a myriad of subjects for magazines, web sites, and companies.
Small's work has appeared in publications including Conde Nast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler, Consumer Reports Travel Letter, Travel Counselor, Courier Magazine, Fitness Magazine, Men's Fitness, Shape, Spa Magazine, Unique Homes, Valley, Sky Magazine, Brentwood, Angeleno, Agenda NY, American Demographics, and Daily Variety. A former columnist for Worth.com and TheStreet.com, Small is the editor of FAR&WIDE News- a monthly internal newsletter published for FAR&WIDE Travel - and she oversees content development for the Travel Industry Outlook, a weekly newsletter commissioned by the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Additionally, Small is a consultant to and content provider for several travel-related firms, and speaks regularly to companies about the value of online content and how to adapt their business model in the changing world. She resides in Marina del Rey and is an active member of the Venice Interactive Community (VIC) and Women in Technology International(WITI).
1. What was your first job in technology?
2. Who has been your most significant mentor? Why?
Another mentor was a professor of mine named John Keats, who taught most of my magazine journalism classes at Syracuse University. I credit him with launching my career as he gave me a copy of a magazine called Caribbean Travel and Life upon learning that I planned to move to DC after graduation and had no solid career plan (hardly anyone did given it was 1991 and the heart of the recession!). One of his former students was an editor there. He planted the seed in my head about how cool it might be to work for a travel magazine - something I'd never considered. Called the woman a few months later, started there immediately as an intern and a few years later left as an assistant editor en route to NYC to work for one of the largest travel trade magazines.
3. What has been your greatest challenge and what strategies did you use to overcome obstacles?
4. Who has been the most influential person in your life? Why?
5. What lessons have you learned that would be valuable to women beginning their careers in technology?
6. What new technology do you believe will have the most positive impact on the world in the next 20 years? The most negative impact?
On a lighter note:
2. What was the last book you read?
3. If you couldn't do what you are doing now, what profession would you choose?
4. What is your definition of success?
My first real experience came in the form as a content provider for multiple web sites, including TheStreet.com, Worth.com, MedicinePlanet.com, IDVFitness.com, IDVSki.com, Followtherabbit.com and various others. The more sites I started writing for, the more I realized just how high the demand for quality content - on and off the web - really is, and this is what spurred me to launch my own custom content providing firm, TheWriteCrowd.com, this spring.
I have several. One is a woman named Mary Wagstaff, president of LA-based Wagstaff Worldwide, who inspired me to leave my solid, secure job as a senior editor at a travel industry magazine and break out on my own. Having recently left a high-paying job at a pr firm to start her own company, Mary had already proven that you are often rewarded for taking risks and if you are good at what you do and have a vision, you will have no problem making it work. She's offered me some great advice along the way and also served as a huge support system.
One of my biggest challenges has been making the transition from writer/editor to business owner/marketeer/sales person. For 10 years I worked with many people in the capacity as a journalist - writing about their companies and products - and now, I am targeting them from a new angle and trying to land their business. Fortunately, the relationships and trust I have developed with many of these people over the years is proving to be working to my advantage as I am not a typical sales/marketing person and I don't pretend to be. Rather, I take the approach that I really understand their company since I'd written about it for years and would love the opportunity to work with them to achieve some of their goals - via better web content, on/off-line newsletters, etc ...
There really hasn't been one sole person I'd say has been most influential in my life although I learn a lot from a lot of people and aim to do so. I've tried hard to not be influenced by what other people do and think, rather to go with my own gut instinct and learn from every experience, both good and bad. If I had to choose one person though, my grandmother would certainly top the list. She is the one person who embodied every positive quality out there and is someone I strive to emulate every day of my life.
I've learned that there are tons of opportunities to break into technology-related fields for those women who are innovative and who are willing to take risks and pursue their goals. I recently attended a major conference on travel technology and was astounded by the low number of women there compared to men. This just gives further validation to my thought that the opportunities are huge, women just need to be brave enough to break into a field that has been heavily dominated by men and look at their gender as an advantage rather than a hinderance. This is a business ripe for innovation and that will be key going forward.
I think the wireless web will be huge, and it won't take 20 years to get there. Already, people who are checking their email from their cell phones and PDAs are totally addicted. Just imagine how great it will be to turn on your computer anywhere and connect without wires. As for the most negative, I think we run the risk of invading people's privacy by being able to use technology in ways it wasn't intended for - such as personal data collection, etc.
1. If you could have dinner with any 2 people (living or not), who would they be?
Bill Gates and Richard Branson
"Hard Landing"
What books do you love to recommend?
"Losing My Virginity" by Richard Branson, the ultimate entrepeneur; "Nuts!" by Herb Kelleher, chairman of Southwest Airlines; and "9 Secrets of Woman Who Get Everything They Want," by Kate White, editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine.
My second-choice career was to go into the health/fitness profession, perhaps as an exercise physiologist or physical therapist.
Success to me means making enough money doing what you love without sacrificing your ability to enjoy the other things you love (that are not work-related).
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