Apr 12, 2022
In 2018, Rachel Sagiroglu moved back to Maine to share the experiences she loved having grown up in Maine. Rachel founded Experience Maine and recently opened the Maker’s Galley, a restaurant and marketplace in Portland. In this episode, Rachel explains how she uses public relations and experiential marketing to share what she loves about Maine. Rachel also talks about scaling your business, something she had to work hard at during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
3:37 – Rachel describes how she got her start, falling in love with public relations and experiential marketing.
6:18 – Rachel explains what the Maker’s Galley is, calling it an “experiential Maine marketplace.”
10:45 – Rachel shares how she is using PR today after finding value in it early on.
13:22 – Rachel talks about her personal brand compared to her company brand.
19:43 – Rachel and Nancy discuss the Google Economic Impact Report, in which Experience Maine was included, and how to scale your business.
23:44 – Rachel describes what it was like to become a certified meeting professional (CMP).
28:50 – Rachel talks about her mom and her connection with Nancy.
Quote
“The millennials are aging into the workforce and they are more concerned with the collection of experiences versus the tangible. The baby boomers are aging out and wanting to go out and experience things, so you have these two generations that are helping regenerate the experience economy.” – Rachel Sagiroglu, owner and chief experience officer at Experience Maine
Links:
Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/
Certified Meeting Professional: https://www.pcma.org/products/cmp-prep/
Google Economic Impact Report: https://economicimpact.google.com/state/me/#experience-maine.
The Maker’s Galley: https://themakersgalley.com/
Listen to Colleen Craig’s episode to hear more about experiential marketing.
Activate the PR Maven® Flash Briefing on your Alexa Device.
Join the PR Maven® Facebook group.
About the guest:
Rachel Sagiroglu has over 20 years of experience planning meetings, travel and events and experiential marketing campaigns, and has an innate love for Maine, its culture and its natural beauty.
She is a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP), an internationally recognized certification program designated by the Events Industry Council (EIC). There are more than 11,000 meeting professionals in 55 countries around the globe holding the CMP designation. Rachel represents the standard of excellence in today’s meetings, conventions and exhibitions industry.
In 2015, Rachel was asked to join the Customer Advisory Board for Maritz Global Events, one of the largest, most respected leaders in the meetings and events industry worldwide. She has been an active member of Meeting Planners International (MPI), New England Chapter for the past 10 years.
Rachel’s professional background includes seven years overseeing marketing and events for Clean Harbors, a $3.5-billion environmental, energy, and industrial services company, where she planned and executed over 50 corporate meetings, trade shows, experiential marketing campaigns and customer events annually. Prior to this, she worked in various marketing and event planning roles, including Marketing Manager at WEX in Portland; Director of Sales & Marketing at 33 Management Group in Boston; Promotions Manager for Time Warner in Portland; and Marketing & Events Coordinator for Vreeland Marketing & Design in Yarmouth.
Rachel has lived in and experienced Maine for most of her life, she grew up on Great Pond in the picturesque Belgrade Lakes region, where she mastered boating, kayaking, canoeing, fishing, hiking and hanging out with friends. She lived for 10 years in Portland’s Old Port, where she discovered her love for food and wine, live music and the working waterfront. Rachel has an intrinsic love for the ocean. To this day, you can find her walking along low tide at one of Maine’s many beaches, collecting shells, broken sand dollars and sea glass for her collection. She’s even enlisted her five-year-old daughter to start her own treasure chest of tidal pool discoveries. Rachel most recently lived in Boston for the last 10 years, but moved her family home in 2018…back to the way life should be…to launch Experience Maine!
Looking to connect:
Email: rachel@experiencemaine.com
Website: https://experiencemaine.com/