Today we’d like to introduce you to Denelle Smugala.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My parents were entrepreneurs, and as an only child, I often went to work with my mom, where I would do small jobs like watering the plants. By the time I was 13, I was given a sales territory—essentially under served music equipment accounts—that I developed by making sales calls. As a senior in high school, I had enough credits to attend classes for half the day and spent the other half working on administrative tasks and managing shipping and distribution. At 18, I went to the University of Missouri and earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.
Coincidentally, a few years later, I married entrepreneur and advertising photographer Thomas Smugala, and we moved to Atlanta for bigger opportunities in the advertising industry. As my husband got his photo studio up and running, I was an Account Executive at APA Color Labs, where I managed large display accounts and worked on projects for Reebok, Nike, Coca-Cola, and the National Park Service. I exceeded my ever-increasing sales quotas and earned substantial commissions.
Eventually, I grew tired of the annual renegotiating of my contract to maintain what I had earned and started working with my husband at his photography studio, Smugala Studio. There, I managed the business and marketing. With his talent and my sales skills, we worked on national advertising accounts for Delta, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, CNN, Hard Rock Cafe, Golden Bear… and eventually secured celebrity and music photography and video for Toby Keith, Jeff Foxworthy, Jack Nicolaus, Outkast, and many others. It was an exhilarating and exciting phase of my career.
After years of working and traveling for various shoots and a move to Los Angeles, we started a family and reevaluated our priorities. We decided to take a big leap and move to our vacation home 55 miles south of St. Louis, where we traveled for work for 5 straight years until I launched Image Maker Marketing in Farmington, MO.
Image Maker Marketing was and still is a great success in branding and marketing regional businesses. We went on to create 573 Magazine, a high-end regional magazine that is now 100% digital and doing very well. Thomas does most of the photography & film for the marketing clients and the magazine, and he went on to establish Motion Dog Films, making indie films from where he affectionately calls “NoWhereWood”. My role is the Line Producer for the films he creates. He has two new features releasing this year, with two other features under his belt.
About 15 years ago, we needed a place to house our businesses, and that’s when we came up with the idea of hosting a co-working space for start-ups. WorkSpace has 12 offices, open spaces, studio rentals, and dedicated desks, and we recently conducted a full makeover of the facility—it looks, Marvey darling. Please see my LinkedIn profile for dates and additional details, and visit our websites for more information.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Has it been a smooth road? Ha. There is no such thing as a smooth road in business. Every day with a small business is a battle for you to win or lose. You fight your way, solving one issue after another, and then wake up and start the war again. Fortunately, I have never seen what I do as work. I resigned myself years ago to the fact that all business is just about solving problems, never giving up, and reaping the rewards. If you can deal with that idea, you can be successful in business.
Today, I look back at all the hardships as just the price of admission to the life I have today. Like my WorkSPACE tagline says: “Get To Work.” Learn your business, love your craft, work hard every day, never quit, and you will WIN.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My husband and I have been successful working together all these years because we naturally and clearly define our roles and responsibilities. I handle all the business management alone, but with multiple successful small businesses, I wear many hats and have a wide range of responsibilities. Every day is different, but my favorite days are those with lots of client interaction, like I experienced at the start of my career. I’m very thankful and proud to have the honor of surpassing the SBA’s business failure statistics; each year represents a new milestone. There are no guarantees, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Our businesses are well-positioned to ride the wave of exciting trends, and my biggest challenge is keeping up with it all. Currently, we have five offices available, thanks to one of our longtime members who has grown her business so much that she purchased her own building. However, that’s temporary, so with remote work becoming more popular, we’ll need to innovate and develop new office spaces.
Our marketing/advertising efforts are mainly focused on digital opportunities, which continue to grow rapidly—especially with the surge of AI technology. The fast pace of change offers many opportunities, especially with Google’s E-E-A-T search quality guidelines. Our challenge is to keep up with the latest conversations and ensure our clients are well-informed and recognize the real value we deliver with digital marketing.
Film is also gaining popularity because it allows us to share information much more quickly through videos, and placing them is becoming easier. The only challenge is that the technology is advancing so fast that maintaining high-quality equipment can be costly. As we work on building our portfolio with the new, higher-resolution films, we’re also facing obsolescence, with 8K video technology on the horizon.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.573magazine.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/573magazine/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/573Magazine
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denelle-smugala-950b012b/
- Twitter: https://x.com/573Magazine
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@573Magazine
- Other: https://www.workspace573.com/
