The Charleston Marketing Podcast
Welcome to The Charleston Marketing Podcast, the podcast that dives deep into the world of marketing, with a specific focus on the vibrant city of Charleston. Join us as we explore the strategies, trends, and success stories that shape the marketing landscape in this historic and captivating coastal city.
Each episode of The Charleston Marketing Podcast brings you exclusive interviews with local marketing experts, industry thought leaders and Charleston entrepreneurs who have harnessed the power of effective marketing in the Lowcountry and beyond. From strategic communication, social media, PR, digital strategy and everything in between, we uncover valuable insights and actionable tips for our listeners.
The Charleston Marketing Podcast
Christian Senger on Journalism, Community, and Charleston Culture
What drives someone to leave a stable job and build a blog that becomes a cornerstone of community engagement? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Christian Senger, the mind behind Holy City Sinner as he shares his journey from Connecticut to Charleston and how his passion for journalism and local events led to the creation of a platform that’s indispensable to Charleston residents and visitors alike. Discover how Christian’s initial hobby turned into a full-time endeavor, transforming local news and events coverage in the process.
From humble beginnings using free clip art for a logo to the blog’s integration with MyLo News media company, we uncover the evolution of Holy City Sinner. Christian discusses the exciting transition from his previous job at MUSC to focusing solely on the blog, thanks to MyLo News' support. Learn about the behind-the-scenes growth, including a dedicated team for sales, social media, and marketing, which has allowed Christian to concentrate on the creative aspects of his work. Expect insights into the mutual benefits of PR in building community awareness and the significance of supportive relationships in Charleston.
We also explore the dynamics of social media, the current landscape of news consumption, and the importance of authenticity in creating a loyal following. Christian reflects on the challenges posed by AI-generated content and the impact of platforms like TikTok and Instagram. From local incidents like the Ravenel Bridge scare to vibrant event collaborations, we cover diverse topics that highlight Charleston’s unique culture. Wrapping up, we discuss community involvement and future projects, emphasizing the ongoing commitment to supporting local nonprofits and fostering deeper community connections.
Presenting Sponsor: Charleston Radio Group
Title Sponsor: Charleston American Marketing Association
Cohosts: Stephanie Barrow, Mike Compton, Darius Kelly, Kim Russo
Produced and edited: rūmbo Advertising
Photographer: Kelli Morse
Art Director: Taylor Ion
Outreach: Lauren Ellis
CAMA President: Margaret Stypa
Score by: The Strawberry Entrée; Jerry Feels Good, CURRYSAUCE, DBLCRWN, DJ DollaMenu
Voiceover by: Ellison Karesh
Studio Engineer: Brian Cleary
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Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, powered by the Charleston American Marketing Association, broadcasting from our home base at Charleston Radio Group. Thanks to CRG, we're able to talk to the movers and shakers of Charleston, from economy to art, from hospitality to tech and everything in between. These leaders have made a home here in the Lowcountry. They live here, they work here, they make change here. Why? Let's talk about it?
Mike Compton:Hello and welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast powered by the Charleston American Marketing Association. We're here recording at the Charleston Radio Group Studios. Big supporters of camera Gotta give a shout out to Charleston's favorite DJ. Jerry Feels Good with the beats at the beginning. And thanks to all our supporters, mike Compton here, president of Roomba Advertising, goroombacom and your director of membership experience for the Charleston American Marketing Association, thanks for joining us. I'm here with you-know-who. Say what's up, steph.
Stephanie Barrow:What's up guys? I'm Stephanie Barrow. I, with you, know who say what's up, steph? What's up guys? I'm stephanie barrow. I'm the founder of stephanie barrow consulting very, very on the nose, branding their digital marketing strategy agency here in charleston and your cama past president.
Christain Senger:I'm here with a very special guest big hair singer hello, thank you for having me I'm so excited this is the fun part.
Stephanie Barrow:Yes, I say this every single time, but here we go again.
Mike Compton:You do.
Stephanie Barrow:I get to do the very awkward thing of reading all of your accomplishments Right in front of me.
Christain Senger:Okay, are you excited? I'm so excited. Okay, good, let's do this.
Stephanie Barrow:All right. Charleston resident Christian Singer is the man. The last 11 years, the residents of the city have voted the website and its associated channels as among the best in Charleston. Created in August 2011, holy City Center celebrates the many sides of the historic and lively city of Charleston From local news aggregation, helpful resources, interviews to event listings, celebrity sightings, party previews, this blog serves as a hub for the city's day-to-day happenings. As evidence of the blog's reliability and popularity, singer has been featured in USA Today, southern Living, the Post and Courier Skirt Magazine. In addition, he has appeared on the BBC and BBC Radio ABC News 4, fox 24, live 5, news Kicking 92.5, low Country Live 101.5, the Bridge, quentin's Close-Ups and Mix 95.9. In 2016, singer was named one of the Charleston's Best and Brightest by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of South Carolina. This program honors the Low Country's finest young professionals who exemplify strong leadership qualities and are active in their community and have excelled in their chosen professions.
Christain Senger:What's up? Wow, man, good job, let's give it a round.
Mike Compton:Hey, was there internet in 2011? Believe it or not, I feel so long ago, I know 13-year dzfg is August 1st for the blog.
Stephanie Barrow:So yeah.
Christain Senger:I've been around a while doing that. Yeah, that's great.
Stephanie Barrow:And it is so. One of the first things I learned about Charleston is that this is the blog that you go to. I have a background in PR and I was like you have to become friends with Christian. You're a holy city center because he has got the number one blog in the city. It is fabulous.
Christain Senger:Well, I appreciate that and people like you say that and they are then sharing it with other folks, which is amazing. You know a lot of people will that do contact me to say like, hey, I like what you do or I appreciate this. They usually say I just moved here or my friend said that I should check you out and stuff like that. So I appreciate anyone who you know has that word of mouth and sharing it with their friends and family and everything that's how it grew.
Stephanie Barrow:I'm sending it to my friends in Nashvilleashville like trying to have them come and make the move.
Mike Compton:Oh, I'm kidding, I'm kidding good old, good old.
Stephanie Barrow:So you're from charleston, no charleston?
Christain Senger:I'm not, no, no, uh, I'm currently a charleston resident, but, uh, I am born and raised in Connecticut. Okay, moved here after college in 2007.
Mike Compton:Nice.
Christain Senger:Yeah, smart. Yep, what school. I went to the University of Connecticut Okay, Home of the reigning two-time back-to-back or six-time back-to-back national champion UConn Huskies.
Mike Compton:There you go.
Christain Senger:Yawn, very proud of them. Of course, my alma mater, but yeah, so love my time there, obviously. And then, uh, I majored in uh journalism and what was we called sports communications, which was basically uh, radio tv broadcasting, but with a bend towards sports. Okay, um. And then I attempted espn for about a year, okay, after college, which was a the beast.
Christain Senger:I did. Yeah, I mean background, low to hold and pull kind of guy. But after that ended I was kind of trying to find a job. I found something there locally but I had a few friends that were teachers and got jobs down here after college and so over the course of the two years after graduating I'd come and visit them and you've heard this a million times for people I'm sure fell in love with the area. I didn't really have any job that I was like, oh, I really want to do this forever. I better not mess it up. So I decided to come on down and, yeah, it was 2007. So I've been here a while not a native, but have been here for a bit now.
Christain Senger:Now, right, when you got here, did you start right working on this blog? No, no, not at all. No. So, yeah, I got here in 07 and then 2011 is when I started it.
Christain Senger:Um, basically, once I got kind of comfortable in this area and got to know it and I did all like the big events that everybody knows about in town and slowly but surely, as I met new people and explored, I started to learn about all these smaller events, these people in the community doing amazing things that you don't hear about day to day on the news and I thought you know it'd be kind of fun.
Christain Senger:I'll start a little blog about how I moved here and all the things I like doing and try to focus on some of those smaller things. So it was really more of just like me, here's what I'm doing and what I like about the town. And then over time I started to, I got more involved in the community and started getting like PR contacts and stuff like that, sending me press releases. I started to be like oh, you know, I can kind of change this from what I do in town all the time to what's coming up in town, what's happening in town. And so after maybe like a year-ish, it kind of shifted to the focus of what it is now, which is more of here's what's happening in the city, here's what's coming up, here's what people are talking about, that kind of thing. So less of a focus on me and more just the city in general Love it, so it was a passion project.
Christain Senger:A hundred percent, yeah, because you're not making money blogging Blogging in 2011,.
Mike Compton:I didn't do my research on that, but it was probably pretty new.
Christain Senger:I'm sure there was people who could have made money or did at that time. But no, I wasn't making any money on it, it was just something I wanted to do and thought would be a lot of fun. I liked writing, I liked doing stuff in town. It scratched that creative itch that I had. That wasn't happening at my day job, which was I love it. At that time I was working for Verizon Wireless In sales, which I did not like, Not flexing your creative muscles?
Christain Senger:No, not at all. This was a great outlet for me. Over time I started to see what it could potentially be, and potentially bring in some money from it too, because Charleston is so interesting's so interesting. Yeah, exactly, there's always something going on going on, yeah, whether it's restaurant openings or something profit, galas or whatever.
Mike Compton:There's so much going on and so I loved how you saw that. And then we're like okay, we can do something better. And then what? So how? So you were literally probably everywhere at once a little bit.
Christain Senger:You know, the good thing is is time went on and I started getting people paying attention to it. Like I said, I would start getting people sending me stuff. Sure, hey, this new restaurant's gonna open and getting invited to things like you know, quote-unquote media dinners or influencer events and stuff like that in these later years, where you, you know, you get a heads up about something and you get maybe access before everybody else does. So once that started to happen, how long did that?
Mike Compton:how long until that started?
Christain Senger:uh, I think year two is when I got my first uh pr someone from a pr firm reach out to me and they're just like hey, you've got this interesting new thing. I don't really know what your goals are with it and whatnot, but I work for this firm and I work with these clients. Can I send you press releases?
Mike Compton:it's all about relationships to get you going do you remember how many, whatever followers or subscribers, whatever we call it at that point?
Christain Senger:uh, the site itself didn't have a ton of followers or visitors at that time. Twitter has been my biggest audience from the start. I kind of lucked into it where, when I started the website, twitter was pretty new, and also I lucked into the fact that this is about the time, charleston started winning all the best in the world and best city that's ever been in history, and all that I saw the list.
Mike Compton:The list is long now.
Christain Senger:And I break it up by year. It's wild, since I started the site, how many of those little accolades the city gets. I'm sure everyone's well aware because of all the people who continue to move here. So I just hit it right where it grew so fast and it was at a time when Twitter was a fun place to be A little hit or miss on that nowadays. So at that time I would venture a guess like year two, maybe a few thousand followers on Twitter, but nothing crazy. But it was just something new that they're like hey, you're not a traditional media outlet. It's tough to get stories in the local newspapers and local TV and even radio because they have a limited time to talk about news and when they do, they're going to talk about the biggest stories in town, not necessarily something a little bit smaller.
Mike Compton:So Charleston needed you, yeah, well.
Christain Senger:I think it was some creative thinking by PR firms that were like, hey, we should try to reach out to bloggers, or what's become?
Stephanie Barrow:known as influencers. Your name has always been very catchy to me.
Mike Compton:Thank you, is it the?
Stephanie Barrow:play on the fact that the tallest Christian or Holy City, holy City Center?
Mike Compton:Is it a play on the?
Stephanie Barrow:fact that the tallest building in downtown Charleston can't be taller than the steeple A little.
Christain Senger:I mean the Holy City. Obviously that's where it came from, because obviously that's the city's nickname and I was trying to play around with names and it was either going to be Holy City Saint or Holy City Sinner.
Stephanie Barrow:Okay.
Christain Senger:And I just thought Sinner was going to be a little bit more eye-catching, more appropriate for myself and also more appropriate for the city, because it has, like all the church steeples that dominate, has a very strong religious ties and its history, even into today, but also has a darker side, a more fun side.
Stephanie Barrow:Um, as far as the logo and the branding and all that yeah, thank you.
Mike Compton:You said you're not a marketer in our in our brief.
Christain Senger:Well, here, you are you just named your.
Mike Compton:that's true, that's true, that's right, I'll take it.
Christain Senger:I'll take it.
Mike Compton:But you found people smarter than yourself in design Correct and partnered with them.
Christain Senger:Yeah, I just had like a clip art thing. I found a free clip art thing at first, and then I had an idea. I reached out to someone. I was like, hey, this is what I want for a logo, can you do it? And you came up with the little Holy City Center guy with the horns and halos, and you had the same logo since 2011?.
Christain Senger:No, the first one was like a clip art thing. It was similar to that. It was just like this little devil clip art cartoony looking thing, and so I wanted something a little less cartoony and as it evolved, I also didn't want some free clip art thing. So I found someone who could work on it pretty inexpensive, and they came up with that. I mean, I gave them the idea, but that's what they created, which I really like and other people seem to too.
Stephanie Barrow:I love it. I think it's very clever.
Mike Compton:Thank you. Are you still cool with this designer? You want to give a shout-out to your person? Oh, I don't even remember. No, you don't remember.
Christain Senger:No, it wasn't anybody local, if it was local, it would be different, but I think it was off of that website, fiverr or something.
Mike Compton:Don't say that. We're not allowed to say that, yeah, we are. No, we're not Shut up Fiverr. It's like swearing.
Christain Senger:This is before I had any money to put towards a big project, so that was my only option at the time.
Stephanie Barrow:So when you were starting out building your brand. Just, I'm going to write about what is passionate to me and then eventually it just snowballed into covering a calendar of events and that type of thing.
Christain Senger:That's exactly it. It just was me being like hey, I moved to the city, you know, four years ago, five years ago, whatever it was, and this is what's so vastly different to me as someone who came from the Northeast, you know, so, check out this amazing event. So it's kind of a way to talk about stuff I liked, in case there were other people like me transplants and, as we know, there are plenty and it keeps growing but also my friends back home too, like, hey, look at all the fun stuff that we have here, come visit, maybe come move down here, uh, and and so yeah, it was more of that, just like what I had done so you're writing myself.
Christain Senger:Yeah, it was like first person. And then then I was like, oh you know, I could throw in some like newsy stuff, not like traditional news. But you know, like this, I heard this restaurant's coming or I saw this or whatever, and I would just link back to one of the traditional media outlets. But then, yeah, eventually that snowball started rolling, uh, with me getting information sent directly to me versus me seeing it somewhere else first, and it just, you know, it just grew exponentially from there.
Mike Compton:Am I seeing that you have a team of people now?
Christain Senger:Well, sort of. You know, I'm under a new company now, which is great. So after the Verizon days I switched to working at MUSC for 11 years but was still able to work on the site. It just worked out where I had the time to do both, where were you doing from USC?
Christain Senger:I was in the call center there and my last role there was as a trainer. Oh sure, and it was great. I enjoyed having that as my day job and then being able to do Holy City Center as my passion project. But this past fall, this guy approached me.
Christain Senger:He was thinking about starting a startup where it was going to be like a media company basically, and what we had envisioned at first is changing all the time, long story short, was under this company umbrella.
Christain Senger:He already had two local small newspapers, or Island Eye News and the Island Connection, which service basically all the sea islands.
Christain Senger:They're free, they come out twice a month, so he already had that under his portfolio and he saw how the people there love the paper because it's so focused on their community and he thought I was doing something similar for, like you know more of like downtown West Ashley, north Charleston Now, granted, I'll talk about anything, but that was like the focus.
Christain Senger:So basically, he pitched me this idea where Holy City Center would come under the company umbrella and we would have a sales team. So I wouldn't have to try to sell ads or anything like that, I could just focus on the site and try to grow it and, in turn, help this company grow by maybe bringing on bloggers in other places, and so we're still working through that. We also have a marketing arm where someone, if a business, is looking to market their business or create a logo or a website, we have someone who can handle that. So it's kind of this all-encompassing business that was created and I thought it was a really great idea and so decided this was the time to take the leap of quitting my day job. And oh boy.
Stephanie Barrow:Yeah, congratulations, thank you.
Christain Senger:It was certainly a few weeks of nervousness and trying to figure out what to do, but it just seemed like I just kept coming back to if I don't do this, I think I'd regret not giving it a shot, and so it's been since September. It's been awesome so far. The team that we've put together is really awesome. We have some people who do social media stuff, we have the marketing folks, we have a sales team and we're still growing and building this company and the company's called Milo News, which is my local, so M-Y-L-O for short Milo News. That's clever. That's the parent company, basically, but then we have these entities, the papers, holy City Center.
Christain Senger:And now we have Hello Low Country and this Hello brand, which is this Okay, I'm familiar with that. Yeah, okay, they did like. Hello, spartanburg, hello.
Stephanie Barrow:Yes, yes, so that's under the umbrella, that's now under the umbrella of this company as well, kelly Ferguson runs those.
Christain Senger:She had like Hello Greenville and Spartanburg first, and she did awesome there, and so we brought her brand under. And so not only do we all have our own brands, we're still constantly coming up with ideas like, hey, maybe we can do this. Hey, have we thought about that? It's been, uh, it's been a really fun ride, so far very nice.
Mike Compton:Yeah, milo, milo my local.
Christain Senger:Yeah, I didn't come up with it, but I thought that was a pretty good one too that is really clever and uh. So yeah, I have like now if I get like sales leads or whatever I people, I can pass that to. I don't have to worry about it and they can try to sell stuff.
Stephanie Barrow:Yeah, I was going to ask. So I work with a lot of clients that are local and then ones outside of this area. How do local businesses get in contact with you to advertise with these entities and or the Holy City Center?
Christain Senger:You can just email me directly, christian at holycitycentercom, and let me know what you're thinking of and I'll direct you to the right person. So thinking of, and I'll direct you to the right person. So if it's like a content thing, like hey, I'm a new business and or whatever that's going to be me, any kind of content would be me and then any sales stuff would go to one of my coworkers. It could be one of a handful of people for that. But yeah, just email me and I'll get you to the right the right person.
Stephanie Barrow:You've been really, really wonderful over the years for helping me when I was working at Trio Solutions and then when? I'm working for myself, sending you press and stuff, so thank you for that especially, you're a big supporter of non-profits yes, absolutely yeah.
Christain Senger:I appreciate you, um, sending me stuff, because without that there's a lot of things that I would miss, uh, and a lot of things the community wouldn't know about, and that's the whole point of what I'm doing. So I appreciate PR. Like some PR folks, uh, or marketing folks, are worried like am I sending you too many stuff?
Stephanie Barrow:Oh, I feel that way all the time and I'm like no, please send me.
Christain Senger:I'll try to share in some capacity. I might not be able to get a story up, but maybe I can share something on Twitter or Facebook or whatever that's huge.
Stephanie Barrow:You do a great job about that, thank you. And what I love about you is this is a small thing, yeah. A lot of times, I'll send something and I'll be like did it go out to the vast world? Of unknown. Yeah, yeah, yeah you always respond and say thank you, this is going to go up at this time and here's a link I really, really appreciate that.
Christain Senger:Yeah, I'm glad because that was my I figured. Like most news organizations which you know, they get way more press releases and stuff than I do they probably don't respond, they're just like maybe we're interested, maybe you're not.
Stephanie Barrow:A lot of times they don't.
Christain Senger:You'll never know. And there is a selfish side to it which was I could always respond and be like, hey, I covered it. Here's the link. Feel free to share, which would obviously help, which we all do, yes, which you then do. So thank you for that as well. But it just made sense to be like, oh, content, basically, you know, sure I gotta edit it or whatever, but, um, you know, I didn't have to go and get all these details myself when I'm just one person. And then, yeah, hey, here's the link. Why don't you go ahead and share it? And they, you know all these organizations always do, which then, in turn, brings more people, more eyes to me, which you know you got to have good relationships with people, um, to do stuff like this.
Mike Compton:I feel like that's the charleston way.
Christain Senger:No, absolutely For the most part. I think we were talking before about people always seem to be willing to collaborate. As long as they have the time and resources, they'll work with you and they're happy to do like partnerships on whatever it may be, and sometimes it's just as simple as sharing a link um one way or the other you know, but people yeah exactly, yeah, yeah, connecting you with someone who can help you with something you need.
Christain Senger:I can't tell you how many times I've had a random conversation at a, you know, a happy hour meetup or something like, yeah, I really I'm having a hard time with this or I don't like this. Like, oh, I know someone and you know people are super helpful, which is um appreciated and yeah, it makes just helps everybody in town. You know, if we're all working together and succeeding, that's great this is probably why we're winning all the best of exactly yes well, I mean you gave a lot to start this.
Mike Compton:I mean you gave a lot of your time, your passions, to start holy city center back in 2011 I know I was flown by and it wasn't long after you did that that you moved here, right, so you moved here. What, oh seven and you just kind of got in. You're like, yeah, fell in love with the city, somehow can you talk about that?
Christain Senger:yeah, so uh, as I mentioned, I came down to visit some friends who had gotten jobs down here. Yeah, um, it didn't hurt that one of the friends was a girl. I was like kind of seeing.
Mike Compton:Tell me her name real quick. What was that? What's her name?
Christain Senger:uh, citrina is her name. Okay, I don't know, I have some yuk that live here. Okay, gotcha she wasn't a Husky, but I met her in college.
Mike Compton:She went to a different college. Yeah, sure, I mean, you know Connecticut people from up there.
Christain Senger:Yeah, I mean yeah.
Mike Compton:There's more people than the Huskies. Yes, yes, yes, I mean apparently.
Christain Senger:I guess Maybe we have other schools, allegedly.
Mike Compton:I got you. That's why I kind of hey, it could be worse.
Christain Senger:Yawn at your window Could be like a blue devil, or.
Mike Compton:Right Could be worse. Yes, syracuse, orange, ooh, the blue devil and the sinner.
Christain Senger:Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, you know there's a story there, but yeah, no, no ties to Duke, no ties to Duke, but no, still lives here. But you know, that was kind of also part of it, but I wouldn't have done it if I was like, oh, I would want to live here. And then it helped that I did have some, uh, uconn alum down here as well, so I had like a group of like five people that I could just immediately kind of glom on to, yeah, you know, and so coming down here, and it's completely different than Connecticut, of course, for so many reasons, um, but just seeing, like the battery, and you know the, the old buildings, rainbow row south abroad yeah, it's incredible.
Stephanie Barrow:And then, I'm sure you've seen a lot of change and growth oh, yes, a lot like that.
Christain Senger:That time they you know that was the other good thing I had friends who could bring me around and be like, hey, these are the bars and restaurants we like. So I didn't have to search those out, but at that time it was East Bay Street and Market Street was like the place to be. When I moved here, you know that you really didn't go much other places as far as nightlife, obviously, plenty of other things throughout the city, and now that's still busy down there, but I feel like most people now are not just King Street but Upper King Street where you didn't go very far. When I first moved here there wasn't a lot of businesses on upper king, and now it's going even further, up king and down the side some of my favorite places are upper king yes absolutely.
Mike Compton:Here's a question is upper king uh north charleston?
Christain Senger:eventually, once you get up to what is it called the neck area yeah, the neck, that's where I was kind of like near the wanderer. Yes, yeah, that area kind of transfers to North Charleston at some point Over the tracks, yep.
Mike Compton:I'm obviously a Cumbia, but anyhow. So you step back and look at this blog that you started in 2011, and now you're a multimedia Charleston multimedia web. He's a man, basically is what Like you're the size you are now.
Stephanie Barrow:He's the man basically is what he's trying to say. I'm trying to, yeah, yeah, well, I appreciate that it's a lot right In a small amount of time.
Christain Senger:That's something I struggle with in my life in general is stepping back and appreciating things in the moment and accomplishments and you know just human nature focus on negatives, more so it accomplishments, and you know just human nature focus on negatives, more so. It's something I've tried to work on the last few years.
Christain Senger:Yeah, that old imposter, yeah, imposter syndrome and everything and like do people actually really like, is this really a thing that makes a difference? And etc. Etc. You know, and uh, so I've been trying to do better of that over the last couple years. To step back, you know, especially if I'm getting, um, stressed about a lot of work to do or whatever, or something's not looking exactly the way I want it to look. And so, yeah, I've been trying, especially these last two years and with the coming under this new company, leaving my day job for it, trying to step back and be like oh wow, this is what I would have ideally wanted, and trying to just appreciate it and enjoy the moment for however long it lasts.
Stephanie Barrow:So trying to do better about it and M, but still still struggle with it. Do you ever kind of get like a stone wall where you just know creative juices flowing Cause you have to be? You're creative every single day. I mean, your blog has new stuff go up every single day.
Christain Senger:The good thing is, if I hit a wall like that, I get so many press releases and emails on a day to day basis that I don't necessarily have to put a ton of brainpower or be creative, you know, because it'll be like you know a lot of as you know, a lot of marketers and PR folks are really good writers, you know. So I'll look at something. I'm like there's really not much I got to take out of this. Like a lot of times I'll take out like the flowery language you, you know where they're like this is the greatest restaurant to ever come to Charles, you know, whatever it is, you know and um, stuff that you know.
Christain Senger:Uh, it wouldn't seem like it'd be coming from me, especially since, if it's a place that's not open, how do I know that it's a this, that or the other?
Christain Senger:so, but they're so good that I'm having those moments I can kind of just leave it as is and just take out that stuff that is just, you know, doesn't really fit for someone coming to my site. So that helps. And the creative side now more comes from how can I grow the audience? What new thing can I cover or new angle can I go for to try to bring folks on something fun, to get interaction on social media, whatever it may be? With this team now we are bouncing ideas off each other. We just did a photo contest, which did pretty well. Anybody could submit photos and then people would vote on them. The benefit for us, besides page views, was everyone who voted had to sign up for our email newsletter Smart. So bring on people like that 're. We're doing stuff like that with each other, which is great too. To have, um to now bounce off stuff and be like is this a good idea, is this a bad idea? You know, and have someone else be like no, no, it's great, or we should do that so that's helpful.
Mike Compton:It's tough on your own right. You're on your own for a long time.
Christain Senger:Yeah, I'm sure you're just relieved as all get out about not having to deal with advertising yes, yeah that's the biggest thing to not have to put any uh, and I didn't put much towards it, which is why I wasn't doing this by myself, right with another job, because I just hated doing that stuff. Um, yeah, no, it's taking a big weight off my shoulders and you know it's great to have them go out and get these things done and also it keeps you know not that I'm a traditional news organization by any stretch what?
Mike Compton:are we calling you? That's my question. What are we calling Holy Soons? What is it?
Christain Senger:A website blog is fine. Yeah, it's news in the loosest sense.
Announcer:Yeah, it's more like entertainment and like culture. Yes, less, hard news.
Christain Senger:It's a resource, but, you know, I still think the sales side should be somewhat separate from what I do.
Stephanie Barrow:Agreed.
Christain Senger:That's hard to take all those hats, not for creatives, so that way if a business gets quoted a price and they're like that's ridiculous and they don't do business with us. Doesn't mean I'm not going to still talk about them and what they do Sure, keep it all separate. Yeah, keep it separate, so no one gets mad at me about a price or whatever it may be. So yeah, that's been great being able to kind of push that off on some other folks.
Stephanie Barrow:This is kind of evolved into like a podcast. Now, yeah, talk about your podcast.
Christain Senger:So I launched the podcast on 2021. What was that?
Mike Compton:And when are we on?
Christain Senger:What time and what radio dial. Yeah, I started in 2021, so a couple years in now. It started out as once a month, but then I expanded it to three times. Or was it once a month or once a week? I think it was once a week. Oh, I expanded it to three times a week. That's a lot, but shorter episodes and just like quick hits like here's the latest news from the last episode. Yeah, some opinion might get injected there and I still do interviews as they come up, but not every episode has one. I see, and it's been a lot of fun. I love doing it. You can find it anywhere. You find podcasts. It's on all the platforms.
Stephanie Barrow:You're producing and editing and all this stuff yourself.
Christain Senger:Actually no, I hired a producer local, Lindsay Marie Collins.
Stephanie Barrow:Shout out to Lindsay.
Christain Senger:Her business is called lmc sound system, um, so if you are interested in doing a podcast, she reach out to her. Um, she, she, I'll record it, I'll tell her it's done. She goes into like the little recording room I did it in and she edits it, adds, like you know, theme music and transition breaks and stuff like that, and then she pushes it out to all the platforms. So all I have to do is talk.
Christain Senger:Really, you know, uh, and find the stories and then she does an amazing job with producing it and she's been with me since episode one, um, and she does an amazing job. But yeah, and I love doing that because radio was my uh, was my my favorite of all the media entities growing up um and when I was in college that was my favorite thing I did was doing radio versus TV or the newspaper.
Stephanie Barrow:So I was going to ask you this is going to parlay into some kind of, you know, local news spot where you would have people kind of like, you know, aaron Kinzel or one of them.
Christain Senger:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I've been lucky enough to be brought on to different shows, whether radio or TV, to talk about events or do interviews and things. You know, who knows what we'll do in the future if we'll add like a video component or something.
Stephanie Barrow:That would be cool.
Christain Senger:Yeah, we don't have it right now.
Stephanie Barrow:The world is literally your oyster. Yeah, so much.
Christain Senger:Yeah, with this team. You know that I'm now a part of. You know I have a lot of opportunities to partner with them on different things and they have connections that I don't and you know we'll be able to um, maybe get some really fun and interesting things coming up in the future that's awesome.
Mike Compton:Yeah, wait, you don't have a um a uh youtube channel?
Christain Senger:yeah, it does I do um, and that's the podcast goes. It streams right to that, yeah but there's no. That's right, but there's no like video of yeah, there's no visuals, so it's not as big as it could be if we could get a setup, you know, with the video at the same time because it's recorded. It's not a nice studio like this. It's just my bedroom, so I gotta get ready groups the best I'm gonna have to uh dress up. You know my bedroom behind me or something.
Stephanie Barrow:I was gonna ask you where you soundproof. You got the egg crates on the walls making it soundproof.
Christain Senger:My poor neighbor hears me in there. I'm sure doing the podcast episodes, uh, but uh yeah it's very authentically you yeah, you go exactly. Uh, dyi basically.
Stephanie Barrow:Well, now you know people that can help you out yes, absolutely, charleston american association is all about that's right, and you've kind of like changed the landscape in this space. For that there's really no competition for what you do here.
Christain Senger:No, there isn't, and that's not an arrogance thing or anything. You're such a jerk. It's true, though it's so different than traditional news. It is I don't see, and I know they definitely don't see me as competition, but see me as competition. But, like you know, the post and courier, charleston city paper, uh, all the radio stations and tv stations in town every what I'm doing is different and what they're doing is so different there's space for everybody. Um, you can partner with them exactly, yeah, and they like I said they've invited me to do things.
Mike Compton:I guarantee you their producers are on your site on a daily.
Christain Senger:Oh yeah, looking for sure I'll see stuff linked, you know, because you can see in the um direct traffic to you so I can see when a local news organization has shared a link of something I did. I'll hear sometimes on radio or other podcasts people mentioned something that likely came from my site, which is great Um and and. Yeah, that certainly helps when I, when I started hearing that and all the uh local reporters would follow me on twitter, especially when a new reporter comes into town, I'll know, because all of a sudden I'll have a random follow from someone and they're they're like they'll show some tv station and they haven't updated their bio yet in a couple weeks they're on like one of the local ones. So that's kind of fun that they they are told or believe that I could be a resource.
Stephanie Barrow:Yeah, yeah, it's just awesome because you're just such a huge supporter of small businesses. Yeah, that's they don't necessarily have the resources to send out press releases and that kind of thing to the major networks and get on the air, so it's really cool what you do.
Christain Senger:That was the whole plan was to share Charleston in general. So.
Christain Senger:I still of course talk about the big, huge events that don't need my support at all. But yeah, that's always the focus is something new coming to town or the small business or the nonprofit that doesn't get as much attention from those other places. Because, number one, I just wanted to do that. But number two, that makes me a little different from other organizations in town. So, even if they don't really care what I share, like a concert announcement or something they're like, oh, but I do want to know about, you know, local non-profits and their events and stuff, that they'll come, come to the site or social media channel or whatever and stick around for that nice christian, I'm about to throw away that cup here.
Stephanie Barrow:If you put on the table and leave them on, please we we do have some listeners that aren't in the Charleston area especially because we have people from the different AMA chapters who tune? In. So what advice would you give for people who are wanting to kind of go? I know that you started your career path in 2011, so the strategy might be a little bit different than now, but what kind of key takeaways would you give to people who are starting off?
Christain Senger:in this, I feel like for back of letter, better words or influencer bloggers is like very saturated but, what you're doing is very specific niche because you're concentrating on the city yeah, it would depend, you know, because every city, of course, has its own feel and its own vibe and, and you know, some might be more open to something like this. If you're in a huge city, it would probably be hard to stick out as, like, an influencer or a blogger or whatever. Um, and yes, things have changed as far as what social media, um platforms you can use. So if someone was starting out now, I mean, tiktok of course seems to be like a must-have. Um, people like an odd I would say uh, upsetting amount of people get their news from TikTok, which is distressing.
Stephanie Barrow:A lot of people.
Christain Senger:Yeah, which is distressing for many reasons, but the point is a lot of people are on there and they're on there all day. Yes, and Instagram as well. Twitter is less important, I think, and hard to build a following now, same with Facebook, because they're both just so saturated with so many different people and their environments aren't as welcoming as they used to be, I would feel, overall. But social media will lead people to your site. If you have one, or if social media is your game, there's that. So then we have that part. The other thing is just be as authentic as you can be. Um, and people. That's what I felt. Why my base grew over time was that people were just like oh, this is just some guy who just really loves charleston and likes to talk about it. He has no real agenda outside of that.
Stephanie Barrow:You know he's not paying him to say these things no one's paying him to talk about this.
Mike Compton:We're talking about you, right?
Christain Senger:yeah, yeah yeah, uh, and so they're like, oh, okay. And then I think that's why pr firms really started to come around, not just to me, but as instagram and tiktok took off, you'll see influencers invited to like media events now, because I think a lot of people are more likely to believe an individual versus if the posted courier or one of the local TV stations or whatever writes a review.
Christain Senger:They're like they just see it as this entity and they're like all right, well, the Post and Courier said it's good, and that's not to take anything away from them. They've got great writers and they do amazing work, but for some reason, people are more willing to believe influencers or bloggers or whatever, for whatever reason. So if you stay authentic and people see that you're just doing this thing because you love it and you care about it and you don't push too hard, I think a lot of people want to just be like I'm going to quit my job and I'm going to become an influencer. No, maybe do both, for a little while See how it goes.
Christain Senger:If you don't have that desperation of I need to make money from this, if you're just doing it because you like it, you know you won't seem so craven and people seem to see. Through that fake stuff or that desperation, they're less likely to follow you. So I think that's. What really helped is that I had a job. I had no real set goal in mind. I have to turn this into X, y and Z. I was just doing it and going with the flow and that's easy for me, not easy for everybody else to do. No, it's great, right, but that would be the advice I would give is just, if you have a job, stick with it. Try to plug away at this, build your base by being yourself, being authentic, and then just make sure whatever platforms people are on or popular at the time because they're always going to change just make sure you're on them and consistently putting good content on it.
Stephanie Barrow:Yeah, I'm wondering if X is going to phase out. I don't know.
Christain Senger:That was my favorite.
Stephanie Barrow:It was my favorite for a long, long time it's great for press releases and PR. Yes, and just for me, like starting my morning off coffee looking at the news.
Christain Senger:It used to be great for live news events too. Yes, because, number one, you used to be able to tell who was verified for being a legit journalist and you used to be able to see things in chronological order before the algorithm comes in and it shows you more popular posts Stupid algorithm. So, like during hurricanes, I'll always say, like, be sure to check the timestamp on whatever tweet you're looking at, because if I send out, there's a hurricane warning and it gets a bunch of interaction five hours ago. It might be the first thing you see on your feed when you open up twitter, but it uh, it's five hours old. You know there could be more important news and stuff like that is really frustrating.
Christain Senger:And of course there's bad actors out there, putting aside trolls and all that stuff just people who will just put a completely fake, not even a story. They'll claim it's a story with no link to anywhere and people are willing to believe that stuff. So it's become a tougher place to be.
Stephanie Barrow:I just don't wonder what the new X is going to be. I guess threads is the thing now.
Christain Senger:Yeah, Instagram has threads, yeah.
Mike Compton:Shoot. I had a thought just now. Darn it, stephanie.
Stephanie Barrow:Sorry, has threads. Yeah, what uh shoot. I had a thought just now. Darn it, stephanie. Sorry, it's all right.
Mike Compton:Oh, I'm just kidding interjecting with my positivity yes, um, oh, ai, yeah, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah what you just said, all the art, you know, the non-factual, artificial yes news that are now being created by the seconds, by an artificial intelligent, you can almost always tell when something's written by ai help me out, then help the audience right now okay, that very well could change, but there always just seems to be a little something off about a sentence or two or the syntax, like something you're like.
Christain Senger:That doesn't sound like something a human would write would say yeah, it just doesn't flow right, so you can sometimes tell now that's probably not the case period, but there's always just. It also seems to use a lot of synonyms and stuff. You're like again, it's just like you don't. You didn't need to use that word there. It could have just been a much simpler word. It just seems like it's you're doing too much.
Christain Senger:They're trying to do too much, and but I so when we were talking about things that you can use if you're trying to start out, there are some good things it can do. It can answer some quick questions, which I guess Google could do too, of course, but it can. I put something in like I had forgotten. I was like is this AP style, Associated Press style? And I forgot because I was. I have it in my apartment, but I was out and I was like I didn't want to wait.
Christain Senger:So I was like is this in this AP style and it came back and it was right and so it can be helpful. And also it can create images and stuff too. If you just need like a quick image, you know I'll use it once in a while. Or I have a story and I'm like I don't have a picture of that.
Stephanie Barrow:You know AI, can you do this? And?
Christain Senger:even that's not very good either, but every once in a while they'll come up with a pretty cool uh image for a story or something, but a lot of the times it's. It's still very much a work in progress but it's just gonna get better brainstorming.
Stephanie Barrow:It's yes.
Christain Senger:Yeah, I haven't come across a good ai program right now for graphics yeah, I'm using chat gpt for that and, like I said, it's real hit or miss if you try to like. I tried to be like can you make an image for a post about a Charleston roundup, about I think it was like Christmas events and then it was like sort of look like Broad Street, but then there's like the Brooklyn Bridge in the back.
Christain Senger:Yeah, and it was snowing, which does happen, maybe once in 20 years, everyone's all bundled up and it was like, uh yeah, thinking of like ebony's or scrooge kind of times like the outfits. It was a little off and if there's any like marquees, oh my god, they don't know how to spell words and stuff like can you put holy city center on a marquee and it will be missing letters? Uh, so it's, it's, yeah, creatives in that realm, you have.
Stephanie Barrow:We're still employable friends. That's all I'm leaving with. That's funny what um?
Mike Compton:so what's? What's the future look like?
Christain Senger:I mean I know you you just kind of jumped into your future not too long ago well, uh, we've already taken some steps, you know, with um, you know, like with the, the sales team they've already sold more than I ever would have and being able to get, uh, ads on the, which I never was able to get. Yeah, still working on that here too.
Mike Compton:Yep, it's not easy.
Christain Senger:Even with the sales team, it's not easy to get people to spend money, even if you've got a professional in that field. It's tough to get especially new businesses and things.
Stephanie Barrow:So we have some-. Do you work together? Are you like a space together or all work from home?
Christain Senger:we, uh, we're mostly remote, but we meet twice a week just to make sure we're in person and be like what are you working on? Where are you on this? It's just easier than sending emails back and forth. So we, we do get together, um, and meet twice a week. That's where I just came from before here, um. But the most immediate future step is I took on a new role. Those two local newspapers I mentioned that we, um are part of our company, uh, lynn parati, who has been the publisher, and brian sherman, who's been like the editor-in-chief for the uh island eye news for, I think, 20 years sherman's the oldest man in charleston they tease him all the time in mount pleasant, to be exact
Christain Senger:and uh, they both decided to retire at the same time and so we were looking for people to fill those roles and, uh, I was asked and I'm stepping into essentially like publisher slash editor-in-chief for the island. I news very cool. This first uh issue we're working on now, um, will be out next friday, the 15th, I think. Um, you know, services those communities, but we have websites for them as well islandinewscom. Island Connection is handled by a couple other people, but I'll still be involved in that.
Christain Senger:So this is a whole new thing for me, a whole new audience, but I'm excited because it's still keeping me in the content creation content Granted, I'll have freelancers. I'm not writing all these things myself, but it's keeping me in that world but adding the newspaper aspect to it, which is kind of cool. So, looking forward to it, it's going to bring me out to the islands more. You know Isle of Palms, sullivan's, kiowa, seabrook and stuff, which is fun too, because I don't get out there that often. So that's another role that I'm taking on now, keeping me very busy. But it's exciting and you know, we'll see if, hopefully, things will continue to grow. Maybe some responsibilities.
Stephanie Barrow:You'll be very busy during the QA marathon season. Yes, yes. I think it's busy every month.
Mike Compton:Oh yeah, QA, QA. I bet One of my thoughts and questions now that you have these partners that do print, are you going to dabble in?
Christain Senger:prints at all? I don't think so. No, I mean dabble in prints at all.
Stephanie Barrow:I don't think so. No, I mean dabble in the sense that I'll just be working on the current existing papers, but bringing Holy City Center into it. No, you could be the village voice of Charleston Right exactly.
Christain Senger:I think City Papers got that market pretty well covered, but also it is. I didn't know this. It is not cheap to run these papers. I'm not doing the doing the finance side, thankfully, but I've seen them. It's expensive. The paper is expensive. Hiring a printer it's not cheap. So it'd be, we'd have to be pretty far down the line, making lots of money as the company in general. Uh, to to think of something like that.
Christain Senger:So I won't say never, but it's definitely not a priority right now horizon but there'll be some collaboration where you know some stuff that shows up on Holy City Center might show up in the paper because it's a good fit out there, you know. So stuff like that will happen. Something I learned is called co-opetition it's competition, but you're you know, who's that?
Stephanie Barrow:Was it Zach Maybe?
Mike Compton:And also Zach Giglio's podcast. His podcast is all about AI.
Christain Senger:So if you need any AI resources, listen to that podcast.
Mike Compton:He's fantastic. Speaking of podcasts, you said that you were going to do tomorrow's podcast, so right now, where are we?
Christain Senger:We're in June 6th, right now.
Mike Compton:And then, just yesterday, what happened to the bridge?
Christain Senger:Yes, yeah, this wild, scary moment scary moment thankfully turned out to be nothing. But yeah, the ravenel bridge was shut down on wednesday for I think, like 20 minutes, half hour, like completely shut down in both directions. People were freaking out people because on the heels of the bridge disaster in baltimore we potentially had a ship. I mean, there was a ship that was at full throttle. They couldn't take it back. It lost propulsion so they couldn't control it, and so local authorities they did an amazing job of getting word of that and then immediately shutting down the bridge, just in case, because it was heading towards the Ravenel. How far away was it from the wreck? It went under the bridge, it went under it literally went under.
Christain Senger:It just so happened that yeah, we're pointing the right direction yeah, yeah, a couple local news stations have posted the video on, like instagram and their websites, but, yeah, it just happened to go dead center, basically, and it was nowhere near any of the. I don't know what.
Christain Senger:You call them, pilings or what have you, um, and officials here have said that this is a completely different scenario than baltimore. This is a newer bridge. It's been, you know. It's built differently. It was built to withstand something like that possibly happening. Of course it was built to withstand hurricanes and stuff like that, but let's not chance that, no, and I'm glad they didn't. And so once that boat was clear of the bridge, it opened back up. So it was only like 20 minutes, 30 minutes. But when you see that breaking news out-of-control boat or boat who can't control whatever the headline was shuts. Out-of-control boat or boat who can't control whatever the headline was shuts down Ravenel Bridge you immediately think of what happened to Baltimore a few months ago.
Stephanie Barrow:So thankfully that didn't happen. I feel like the Charleston Police Department and all the different media outlets did a really good job covering it. Absolutely I was very nervous to leave my house because of traffic and just worried about people in general.
Christain Senger:Yeah, it was Charleston Police, Mount mount pleasant police. Uh, port was involved. Um, and yeah, local news as well, just getting that out immediately, like bridge is closed.
Mike Compton:This is why are there any resources and you don't have to give away your coolie or anything like that, but any resources that you can tell our listeners that you know, go to it's. You got to be a tough conversation when somebody says somebody says the you. Somebody says did you hear about this? Yeah, yeah, and you're probably like yeah, I did.
Christain Senger:Resources for us like where else to get? News and things or where I get stuff.
Christain Senger:So obviously I get press releases, but those tend to be the fun stuff restaurants opening, all that but for true news, which I don't really cover as far as I'm not going out and writing these stories. You know politics arrests stuff like that. Our local news here does a fantastic job. That's why I said I don't see them as competition to what I do and vice versa. Besides, they have a bigger audience than me, but that's their job. That is what they're focused on.
Christain Senger:They're the best at it in the town, so I always go to those um for the you know more traditional hard-hitting news, you know so if you need something like that, honestly, all of our local papers, uh tv stations and then any radio stations that talk about news, they all do a great job with that, um you know. So that's where I go for that kind of stuff yeah, events, events uh, you go to holy city go holy citycom slash calendar. Is that pretty much. Is that your?
Stephanie Barrow:your hot that's the biggest by far the most views and when I go honestly like don't have to lie about it, please no, it's a hand on the bible that's where.
Christain Senger:That's where I go and I learned especially when people come visit me for the weekend.
Stephanie Barrow:I look ahead of time.
Mike Compton:Does anybody ever say let me lie about it. Let me lie real quick, I didn't want to toot his horn if it wasn't the truth.
Christain Senger:I learned the hard way. When I got with this new company, we did an upgrade to my site which I think it looks better than it did, but it got rid of the calendar I had been using for years and years. There's a new calendar program and I got so many DMs and emails. Where's the old calendar? I don't like this new calendar and now the old one is back. So, but that was as much as.
Stephanie Barrow:I was like oh man, it's a huge resource for planning your month. Yeah, if you're someone like me who does a lot of events.
Christain Senger:It's just a program I use, but the way it's presented is so low key and you can see several events at a time. Yeah, that's pretty cool and it is much better, and so I'm glad that people gave me that feedback and it's back. But yeah, that's the. That's by far the most viewed page, and if someone were to compliment the site, it's almost always referring to that calendar. So that's, that's the big thing there.
Mike Compton:This is amazing.
Christain Senger:Like.
Mike Compton:I just found um. I can go see June 6th at 6 o'clock. I can go see five lesbians eating quiche. There you go.
Christain Senger:It's a comedic play at what is it? Dock Street.
Stephanie Barrow:That sounds awesome.
Mike Compton:Yeah, I love it. It's a Queen Street playhouse. Queen Street playhouse Footlight Players, I believe, is behind that one.
Christain Senger:See, you never know what you're going to find on that calendar. What a cool. We live in a cool place.
Mike Compton:There's always something that was really cool the venue. Yeah, yeah, it is really cool. Yeah, friend of mine had his uh wedding reception there. It was really cool and there's so many cool theaters down there and it's all yeah, really neat things to do, but I get a lot of that sent to me.
Christain Senger:but I also, you know, for people who are trying to search out their own businesses, still utilize facebook events quite a bit, you know. So if there, if there's a business you really like, just go to their Facebook page, click over to events and you can see all that. That's a big resource for me is seeing things there, you know, and I'll just go to each venue's calendars, you know, once a month or whatever, to just make sure I haven't missed anything, and I sign up for all the newsletters. So anytime there's a concert announcement I'm getting that. But this is all stuff people can do themselves if you have a favorite venue or whatever.
Stephanie Barrow:I bet you're aggregating data all day long.
Christain Senger:Yeah, pretty much all day every day.
Mike Compton:I wonder if.
Christain Senger:AI can help you out on that. Yeah, we've been trying to brainstorm ways that AI may be able to help with tasks like that. We haven. We haven't really quite figured all that out and obviously not a priority because we're busy with other things, but we've definitely been like, hey, I wonder how we can make this work, since it doesn't seem to work in a way that not the best way that we were hoping when it comes to graphics and writing.
Stephanie Barrow:So with the papers that you're currently running, do you have to? Are you only promoting, like Sullivan's Island, businesses?
Christain Senger:Not necessarily, or if it's like a service that that happens to also the biggest focus is going to be the islands themselves. So island I news is going to be heavily focused on isla palms and sullivan specifically, and so you're going to see like town council meeting recaps and stuff like that kind of like the daniel island news, exactly just like any other like kind of hyper local paper that services a smaller area, but that doesn't mean something that's happening in charleston or north charleston or west ashley won't end up in there right that's just like the priority and the focus is like what are the people who live here need to know?
Christain Senger:uh, that's number one, and you know we kind of have a hierarchy of articles and be like, hey, we've got some cool stuff we can put in there if we have the space. You know there's a big announcement, you know something like spoleto, which is going on now.
Christain Senger:Yeah, people on the islands want to know about that of course they do so yeah, there will be non island related stuff because obviously people travel um, but the focus is always going to be on. If there's a local issue to that town, what, what? That will always be like the top of the fold, as they say. Right, you know that'll be the focus, but inside the paper, yeah, there'll be more there's a digital version and a print version.
Christain Senger:Yeah, exactly, you go to islandinewscom or islandconnectioncom connections, excuse me. And uh, you can see. Uh, not only can you see articles posted there that don't show up in the papers, um, but also they have one. We have one of those like flipbook things, so if you don't live on the islands or you missed picking one up from one of the businesses to get them outside, or whatever, you can flip through as if you're reading the paper too, which is cool.
Stephanie Barrow:Nice, I have some businesses I want to contact you about. Yes, please.
Christain Senger:We got plenty of opportunities, plenty of advertising opportunities.
Stephanie Barrow:I know. Socials websites, newspapers, podcasts all sorts of stuff and obviously holycitycentercom and at holycitycenter everywhere, correct?
Christain Senger:Yep on all the social platforms. Yeah, that is awesome yeah.
Mike Compton:You got a lot. I mean it's like huge.
Christain Senger:It's become a multimedia entity, especially with this new project.
Stephanie Barrow:It's been really cool, it's been very impressive, and I know I said it earlier, but I think it's awesome what you're doing for smaller businesses and nonprofits and that kind of thing. I appreciate that Get the word out and the mission out and all those good things You're doing a lot of work.
Mike Compton:You've done a lot of work.
Christain Senger:Yes, yes, I put a lot of hours into this over the nearly 13 years, and now that it's the full-time job, I'm putting more into it, obviously because I don't have to go to a day job and then you know, stuff. Yeah, now, granted, I was kind of you know plugging away while at work on the site there you go.
Christain Senger:It doesn't matter, I'm not there anymore but now I have just that dedicated time to do this and now other tasks related to the, the bigger picture for us um yourself so, and for myself exactly, and so, yes, keeps, keeps it very busy and also gives me more opportunities to go to shows or check out stuff that I couldn't always do because of my work schedule. So now I have more opportunities to go to things, attend, uh, invites, you know, for media related stuff, which is good too. So, yeah, it doesn't, it doesn't stop that's awesome.
Stephanie Barrow:Well, I'm excited for you in this next venture. Thank you, we'll have to have you back on so we can see what yeah, see how we did, how we grew.
Mike Compton:Yeah, absolutely that'd be great, I mean. And then just to kind of recap here, like for our listeners, like this is a huge resource for networking events, uh, for leads, for what's going on in the islands and in charleston all over the place yeah, with the addition of those papers we have a pretty good footprint down here.
Christain Senger:And then also the social media hello, instagrams, you know, hello Charleston, hello Greenville, whatever. So we're also spreading out a little bit into the state and that's kind of what we hope to do is keep adding to our portfolio in different ways, whether it's other parts of South Carolina or maybe other parts of the country. Eventually We'll see. You know, sky's kind of the limit.
Mike Compton:We're kind of trying to figure it out, but we got a pretty good footprint down here with all our um. Different brands love it. That's awesome, very cool. What's your favorite accolade that charleston got over the years? Favorite charleston accolade because I'm on your site right now and it says who's honoring us now yeah, yeah, uh, there's been some funny ones.
Christain Senger:I'm trying to think of one off the top of my head.
Mike Compton:I'll show you the list.
Christain Senger:Here we go, let's see. No, there's some good ones that are just nice to see, like best in the city or best place to live, best city ever, all that kind of stuff. There's been some wild ones over the years, but for this year, this is just this year. Yeah, see at the top of this page, who's honoring Us. Now you can see, from 2010 to 2013 is one bundle, oh my. And then 2014, all the way to 2023. Each year, the accolades we have I'm trying to think of one of the more funny ones we have. There hasn't been one this year.
Mike Compton:At least 20, if not more Easily, just this year.
Christain Senger:For just this year. I'm going to click on 2023 so you can see everything from last year. It's even crazier on there.
Mike Compton:Oh, this is good though we're halfway through this year. Brian hospital in South Carolina number one hospital, musc there you go, there you go. Shout out there to Sean Jenkins and MUSC.
Christain Senger:There's one, a pretty good one, Number five best city for gluten free food.
Stephanie Barrow:Hey, there you go.
Christain Senger:By a website called lawn starter.
Mike Compton:So that's a pretty prestigious designation.
Christain Senger:So I'll get a lot of those. That seems to be a big thing I'm seeing now over the last few years. Are these really random websites like lawn starter, which is like a how did you even come across lawn starter?
Stephanie Barrow:They sent it to me. Okay, of course they did. That would make sense.
Christain Senger:And now, once I posted one, all these other businesses. It'll be like law firms from Wisconsin or a website like that which has nothing to do with what they offer as services, but they create these top 10 lists to try to get people to cover it. So, you link to their site.
Christain Senger:They'll even say in the email all coverage must link back to this as if they can tell you what you can and can't share. But a lot of them are silly and I know what they're going for. But at the same time, people love lists.
Stephanie Barrow:It gets clicked I like a funny list, yeah.
Christain Senger:But then there are some good ones like Big Southern Living, condé Nast, the one that we're all familiar with that are a little bit more understanding Garden and Gun and things like that. You know, of course we get like James Beard Award nominations and winners. So there are some prestigious things in that list, but a lot of them are just kind of silly.
Stephanie Barrow:Whenever I get the James Beard Award list, I'm like, oh there goes my favorite restaurant. Yeah exactly there you go.
Mike Compton:Chubby Fish. I mean there's a link just to that. New restaurants in Charleston 2024.
Christain Senger:I have new restaurants that opened this year. I've been doing that each year for the past. I don't know five, so you can also see what opened in 2017. In town, I have restaurants that closed this year. Same thing and then I can't take credit for this. Someone else gave me the name, but it's called Openings Business restaurants and bars that we are hoping are going to open, based on real information, though it's not like well, I hope a Cheesecake Factory is going to come here someday. It's like ones that have been announced.
Christain Senger:Said nobody ever. But it'll just be like ones that have been announced in some capacity when they're expected to be here and stuff like that. So those three lists are pretty popular too.
Mike Compton:Lifestyle.
Christain Senger:Yeah, that's more like you know, exercise or sometimes nonprofits, depending on their mission.
Stephanie Barrow:It's a very comprehensive website. If you obviously, Mike, I can't go, I can't go line by line here.
Christain Senger:I got one more question I'm very comprehensive also in lifestyle. We just started partnering with um nicole farina, who does this thing called charleston diaries, and for us she's doing single in the holy city she's awesome.
Stephanie Barrow:Ps I'm watching. Yeah, oh, look who got excited now see, she's that's she's. I mean, I'm obviously single, but she's very clever and cute. That's why we brought her sharp. I like her, so I like her.
Christain Senger:So she's like our Carrie Bradshaw at the moment.
Stephanie Barrow:Amen Carrie Bradshaw Doing Single in the Holy City.
Christain Senger:She's writing twice a month. You haven't seen that yet.
Mike Compton:No, I haven't seen that yet. She's on Instagram. She does a podcast. She's been a great partner with us too. So that's another. You're welcome. What about quentin I saw?
Christain Senger:I saw quentin does been partying with quentin for a long time, quentin, washington local journalist. He's been doing, uh, what's called quentin's close-ups for probably 10 plus years as well, and, uh, he just interviews everyone uh from you know uh big names like he's interviewed uh mayors and uh like the head football coach at uh south carolina there we go um, but then he'll get like down ballot races, you know, like someone running for coroner or something like that.
Christain Senger:He's really around this time, election time. He's really the only place you can get a true feel for a candidate. Uh, because it's a video interview so you're also got you.
Christain Senger:You can kind of hear them and get their mannerisms and how they respond to questions, you know, whereas you might see a blurb about some down ballot races in the paper but you don't really get a feel for the person right. Um, there's been a few candidates where I've seen their interview acquit and I'm like, oh no that's not good, I'm not voting for that person, it's very important and he's.
Christain Senger:So I asked him. I was like hey, you post these things to your YouTube, do you mind? If I post those videos on my site, you'll still get credit and he said no no, he's the nicest guy ever. I'd be shocked if he said no, but he said yes, and so I've been sharing all his interviews, which has been mutually beneficial for us. Love it.
Mike Compton:Yeah, One last thing, and this is one of Stephanie's notes here is the Foundation of South Carolina.
Stephanie Barrow:Yeah, I just think it's really amazing what you're doing for all the community and how you're so involved.
Mike Compton:There's a prestigious honor called the Foundation of South Carolina.
Stephanie Barrow:Yeah, the Charleston's Best and the Brightest by the cystic fibers oh, yes, yes, south carolina, there it is yes, I just want to hear more about because once again, I work with a lot of non-profits and you're always a big supporter, also quentin always has my non-profit clients over, which makes me super happy. Can you just tell a little bit about, like, the involvement in the community and why you give so much back? So you're not from here, so it's really even more heartwarming that you're so involved.
Christain Senger:As the site grew, I started learning more about local nonprofits that were here, whether it was from just I was paying more attention to the news, I was searching for things, or someone would contact me directly and you know. Again, we all know about the bigger national charities, but there's some that are specific to just this area and they obviously don't get the same coverage that, like, a bigger national charity does.
Christain Senger:Not that there's anything wrong with those big national charities, of course, and so I would get a better idea of the people behind it and the people that they are trying to help, versus a big national brand, because you're actually in the community with these people. And so I was just like well, I've got this site and I have people who follow it. They might want to know about these as well, and so I always wanted to share it. And as things have gone on, and especially over these last five or six years with things going on in the country, different types of nonprofits have become more important to me. That, I think, are helping groups that really need it, especially now, and so it's a little bit of that too. I see something going on and I'm like who can help in this situation? I feel helpless. Oh, here's an organization that can help with that, and maybe I can't donate money right now, or I can't donate a lot, but I can use my platform to talk about it and who knows what happens from.
Stephanie Barrow:There.
Christain Senger:Get it out there, let people at least know about it and hopefully get donations. Or um, volunteers people always ask are there volunteer opportunities in town and stuff like that. But yeah, it's just, those are the folks that are doing incredible work and they're, most of the time, these smaller local non-profits. They, you know, they get a salary perhaps, but it's not what they could be making in the private sector, right, you know. So these are people who are putting their heart and soul into something that's really important to them, that, in turn, helps other people. So I don't know, that's just is really admirable to me and I always want to share those as much as I can and support those for that reason no, you've.
Stephanie Barrow:You've been a testament of that for many, many years. Now I can speak, speak on that. Thank you for all you're doing Of course.
Mike Compton:I'm happy to what else can what?
Stephanie Barrow:can CAMA?
Mike Compton:do? What can the Charleston American Marketing Association do?
Stephanie Barrow:How can we support you?
Christain Senger:Give me all your money.
Stephanie Barrow:There you go.
Christain Senger:No but we're looking for number one marketing. Obviously, pr firms marketing continue to send me press releases letting me know about stuff that's going on in town, just like they always have. If you have a connection that you think is good for something that might help this company grow, whether it's specific to my site or the other stuff reach out to me. We are constantly interested in partnerships, whether it's hosting events we're thinking about getting into hosting a few events throughout the year Love it. So if there's someone who's like, hey, we can donate the space, or hey, we can offer a dollar off drinks or appetizers If you want to come in stuff like that. So if you ever have an idea and you're looking to partner with, like a local media type company, reach out. We'll listen to any and all pitches or ideas, as we're trying to get the the our main company's name out there and everything that's underneath it.
Stephanie Barrow:If you ever hire, send us your hiring ads so we can put it on our job.
Christain Senger:Wow that'd be awesome. Absolutely yeah, because I'm sure we'll be trying to hire people here for a couple different things and we'll definitely do that. Quick idea that's awesome. Yeah, I'm ready. Quick idea.
Stephanie Barrow:We'll talk to Margaret about this. Oh no, we I promise the Spark Awards. Yes, hosted by the Holy.
Mike Compton:Sinner. Could be done, and then we can have Quentin and Taylor Swift, the writer and you as speakers at the show.
Stephanie Barrow:Fun fact At a gala. Do you remember a couple years ago how this gentleman here was our host? That was yeah, it was the virtual Spark Awards.
Mike Compton:That was fun. It was fun, he did an the virtual Spark. Awards. Yep, that was fun. It was fun. He did an awesome job. I had a lot of fun.
Christain Senger:We were like 70 disco dancing, it was a whole situation.
Stephanie Barrow:It was great.
Christain Senger:Yeah, we were in disco attire because that was the theme, so now we can do it in person, there you go.
Mike Compton:Yeah, I love it. Hey, I think that would be great.
Stephanie Barrow:Oh, thank you.
Mike Compton:Yeah, anything that we can do to help.
Christain Senger:Absolutely. I appreciate you guys having me come on as well as as also help getting the name out there to people who might not have heard of it or um, maybe I've forgotten about it or whatever. So I appreciate y'all wanting to talk to holy city centercom.
Mike Compton:Yes, do it, look it up.
Christain Senger:Awesome, um can't thank you enough, Christian. Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate it.
Mike Compton:Stephanie, thank you for your time today.
Stephanie Barrow:You're welcome your insights. I always try to bring it. Bring it today.
Mike Compton:Thank you, kelly, for showing up today too and taking our photos. Brian, a special guest, jackson, my kid's in the studio today, probably playing Minecraft right now. I would imagine there you go. I would imagine Go Redfish. He's wearing a Rivertown Country Club t-shirt now. Anyhow, before we leave, we need to also thank our sponsors, the Charleston Radio Group Studios. Jerry Feels Good with the Beats. You know, jerry? Have you ever met Jerry Feels?
Stephanie Barrow:Good.
Christain Senger:You have probably. I don't think I've met him in person, you've heard about him, though.
Mike Compton:right, he's fun, he's DJing and stuff. Yeah, he seems like a good guy. We also interviewed him.
Christain Senger:Nice, I'll go back and listen now. I'll get a better idea of who he is as a person. There you go.
Mike Compton:Yeah, super cool. And, of course, thanks podcast at charlestonamaorg and we'll get right back to you. Stephanie got any closing comments?
Stephanie Barrow:uh, spark submissions are opening up soon, so stay tuned for that thank you for that no welcome, christian.
Christain Senger:Just thanks so much for having me on. I really appreciate it and, uh, you don't have a lot of long form talks like this. This is a lot of fun and, yeah, thanks so much for having me on and boosting my ego up a little bit.
Stephanie Barrow:I can't complain, complain.
Christain Senger:Let's go. See, I fished for that one, the presence of greatness. No, I truly appreciate you guys taking the time and supporting the site and I really, really appreciate it. Awesome. All right, listeners Till next time.
Stephanie Barrow:Bye.
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