Today we’d like to introduce you to Christie Grell.
Christie, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I felt lucky graduating college in 2009 with job paying $50K, especially when the professional prospects for my fellow high-ranking, very bright classmates at the University of Texas at Austin were hazy. I started working as a full-time traveling sales rep for an apparel brand and even though I hit my sales target, even in an incredibly challenging economic climate, I got a call while I was on vacation in Paris that I was being laid off. I took a long walk around Versailles to process the news, and decided to choose my next path and not let the fear of failure lead me to make another hasty choice for the sake of having a job.
Over the next few days, I stayed up late researching, jotting down job ideas in cafes and outlining possibilities. The conclusion? I could work an au pair (to cover my living expenses), study at the Sorbonne (complete a life aspiration to speak French fluently and grant me a year-long visa) and live in Paris to give myself more time to think about my career while the financial crisis back home settled.
After nearly 1.5 years in Europe, I was back and ready to restart my career — I was interviewing for jobs in Houston, Paris, and New York. Ultimately, I accepted a job as a Sales Assistant with a fast-growing, high-end and edgy French apparel brand called Maison Close in New York City. The US branch consisted of my manager, Aurelie Diallo-Moore, and myself, which gave me the opportunity to wear many hats from sending samples to Elle Magazine, to writing press releases, managing Social Media to cold calling every high-end boutique in the country. When the brand gained notoriety and was being featured on all the glossy magazines by the likes of Gisele Bündchen and Rihanna, we had accomplished the goal of building a brand presence from nothing — I knew then it was time for the next challenge.
I was thrilled to land an opportunity to work for Zinke as a Sales Manager. The company was a fun, colorful, bohemian women’s apparel brand owned by sisters Jessie and Arin backed by a talented, dynamic, tight knit team. I was passionate about the product, being consistently challenged, I had no sales commission cap and moreover I loved what I did. Everything was done in-house; every season I saw the cycle of sourcing inspiration, sketching, designing, production, fitting, projecting, marketing to selling — seeing a product come to life everyday that I went to work was fascinating and the best way to truly learn how to sell it.
When Zinke closed their doors in 2015, I accepted an incredible role to work for Simone Perele, a multinational corporate intimate apparel brand, as Key Account Manager. I drove a 12 million dollar retail channel, managed a large team and perfected my analytical, strategic, and collaborative partnership skills. More importantly, it was in this role that I learned what it takes to scale a business.
While at Zinke, I caught the entrepreneurial bug. I knew, at some point, at some time, I would start my own business, I was waiting for the right idea and the right time. While still in New York my older brother, Lewis Grell, and I started having a series of conversations at which we realized that we had similar points of views and visions when it came to growing and marketing businesses- on and offline. In 2018, I moved back to Austin, after which we had a pivotal meeting at a Starbucks in Houston where we pulled the trigger and I started writing the business plan. The following week, we had lunch with our father to show him the plan who gave us a loan to get started. The next day, I filed the LLC for HTX Media Group.
My professional experience in New York was a form of boot camp for starting a business. I was also fortunate enough to be in the company of some exceptionally talented professionals. From managers to interns and friends, these individuals inspired and encouraged me to improve professionally and creatively; they undoubtedly helped shape my career in some way shape or form (whether they knew it or not). Thank you to a few of those individuals: Aurelie Diallo-Moore, Jessie Zinke, Nassem Cox, Katie Girouard, Louise Schultz, Lauren Peters, Natalie Larrucia, Dustin O’Neal, Cristina Mondini, Stephanie Topp, Rohan Varavadekar and Andrew Pyo. There were also mentors that came by way of books, podcasts and media: Sara Blakley, Guy Raz, Oprah and Tony Robbins (who I was thrilled to meet this year). Nothing would have been possible without the endless support from my parents, especially my Dad who has always let me be a dreamer.
Steve Jobs said during his Stanford commencement speech that “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” It’s easy to see how one step led to the next in retrospect.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No, it hasn’t ever been a smooth ride but I learned to adapt, be resourceful and think outside the box to come up with new solutions. I never settle until I’ve solved the problem, sometimes it may take me a dozen tries. I never expect to get it right out the gate.
When I landed my dream job at Zinke, I was elated, but nearly two years later, I was helping shut down the company brick by brick. I was invested, arguably too invested. The emotional roller coaster involved in tearing down a company you helped build was heavy.
I was “fun-employed” for three months and nearly had a career change into the Tech industry. Landing final interviews with roles at Tech companies with a resume of apparel experience was frustrating to say the least.
Managing people, both up and down from board members, managers, a large remote team and interns can be challenging at times. I felt that if our goals and missions were aligned, we could move forward a lot faster. When they were out of line, you have to dissect the issue right then and there. Communication and asking for help when you need it is key. Managing time is the biggest obstacle, I always need more time.
Given almost a decade of working in New York, I am hard-wired to working in a fast paced environment, which can be a positive and a negative attribute. Our team at HTX Media Group is small and we are often remote. Trying to establish a company culture and maintain strong lines of communication and creative flow can be challenging at times. You have to have consistent check-in’s with your team and brainstorming sessions.
HTX Media Group – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are a new-age creative house. We are storytellers, designers, innovators, creators and outside-of-the-box thinkers set out to inspire, educate and encourage good, better, best social media practices. Our mission is clear, authentically tell small and medium businesses story online while creating a positive online community. This market is underserved and often put into a “box” and it really gets us fired up. There is a reason why a small business went into business and we love telling that story through visuals that we curate and create. We still feel like the new kid on the block but our clients have been incredible in trusting us with their brands and being open to new, sometimes avant garde ideas. What really separates us is our team. We have curated an incredibly talented team including the talented visual multimedia artist, Tommy D. Thompson, dynamic wordsmith Morgan Beal, our amazing social media liaisons Kayla Darensbourg and Andrea N. Mendez.
We are also passionate about social media education and empowering entrepreneurs to make educated choices about their brands. Knowledge is power. We are committed to solving the problem or working on the design until it feels right and authentic. While some campaigns or content ideas need time to percolate, our motto is post-it with passion (or not at all). There is a methodology and strategy behind every single little thing that we design and do.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Our goal is to create a thoughtful, positive, creative social media environment and community – 360 degrees and 365 days – through our clients. Spreading the word about a business unique mission, product, service or what makes them special is what we love to do. When you work with small and medium sized businesses, you have skin in the game. When a client’s business starts to grow in tandem with their online presence and they are authentically connecting with their growing audience, that’s what motivates us to do our work and that is success. Our client’s success is our success.
Contact Info:
- Address: HTX Media Group
2700 Post Oak Blvd
21st Floor
Houston, TX 77056 - Website: www.htxmediagroup.com
- Phone: 7137158125
- Email: christie@htxmediagroup.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/htxmediagroup
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HTXmediagroup/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/HTXMediaGroup
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/htx-media-group-houston?osq=htx+media+group
Image Credit:
Tommy Thompson – HTX Media Group, Christa Elyce Studio, Andrew Moher
Suggest a story: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
