Meet Larry Stevens | Sales and Marketing Leader

We had the good fortune of connecting with Larry Stevens and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Larry, what do you attribute your success to?
Barista Media is a boutique firm that represents properties and platforms around specific key niches. We’ve been fortunate to work some of the most premium brands to help drive our success.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Barista Media started as a small boutique sales and marketing rep firm in 2016. We’ve always worked with premium publishers and platforms to help drive revenue (and ultimately success) for their businesses. At times our success could lead to losing accounts – if we drive enough revenue, publishers could be encouraged to hire an internal team. One of my clients in the kids and family vertical had so much success, they offered me a full time position. Although I wasn’t inclined to leave the consulting world for full time employment, the opportunity was too good to be true, so I decided to put my consulting business on hold and work full time for this company. That was back in early 2021 and after 4 years, I parted ways with the company and restarted my firm. I wanted to explore opportunities slowly, really taking my time, before moving forward with any clients. Little did I know how quickly my business would build back up – currently, my firm is on track to be bigger and better than before I had put it on pause. I feel this is only the beginning and it’s due primarily to my incredible network in the industry.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
First, I must say that a week is definitely not long enough to visit all the incredible areas and sights in our beautiful city. I would suggest on focusing within a specific area each day of the trip to avoid burnout from driving around in such a spread out and congested city.

Beverly Hills is a must for anyone visiting Los Angeles. I have to caveat this by saying I wouldn’t have recommended this area even as recently as a year ago. That said, I’ve really grown to love the area because really has so much to offer. First and foremost, it’s absolutely stunning, especially on a beautiful, sunny day (which is at least 80% of the days in Los Angeles). The restaurants are great and it’s a very nice area to walk around – of course, travel down Rodeo drive, which is the mecca for high end shopping, but also just a fun street to walk around. Afterwards, grab a reservation at Cabra LA and hop in your car for a short drive to downtown LA – Cabra LA is on the top floor of a boutique hotel in downtown, with stunning views and even better food.

Day 2 and 3, I’d recommend staying in LA and exploring the beaches – possibly taking a short drive down to Manhattan Beach, where the air just seems cleaner than the rest of the area (although that’s probably just a perception). If you get there early, go to Uncle Bill’s Pancake House, which serves up some of the best breakfasts and a great patio, where the ocean breeze hits you perfectly. If you want to stay around Manhattan Beach for dinner, I’d recommend Fishing with Dynamite for a nice dinner, or a slice of pizza, if you want to go low brow.

I’ve always said that once you go to Manhattan Beach and the entire south bay (which includes Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach), you’ll 100% want to go back the next day. If so, go back and enjoy the incredible bike path – rent a bike and travel through the entire south bay area and explore each town. Each South Bay town has a pier and the one in Redondo Beach hasn’t been updated, providing a low key, slightly dirty, but fun experience that even has great funnel cake and chocolate dip cones.

Definitely spend a couple of days at Disneyland, if your budget allows. Given the two parks and Downtown Disney, there’s so much to do out there. There are also less expensive hotel options so you don’t have to break the bank. If you’re looking at studio tours, my recommendation is the Warner Bros tour, which is fun and your back isn’t destroyed because they take you around on a tram (or basically a large golf cart) – it’s crazy to see how much has been filmed on that lot. If you do end up at the WB Tour, go to Laurel Hardware for dinner, which is a fun place in WeHo and probably the best outdoor patio in the city.

If someone’s out for a week, I would recommend a side trip for a couple of days. Spend one night in a hotel and take advantage of exploring a different area for a couple of days. A couple of options are Palm Springs/Palm Desert or Santa Barbara. Both are vastly different than the big city and congestion you get in LA, however also offer some of the best restaurants and sight seeing. We personally love Palm Springs/Palm Desert – so much so, we bought a vacation place there. The restaurants, hiking and activities keep us very busy and happily well-fed.

If you end up not flying/driving back from these other destinations and are coming back to LA, the remaining time should be exploring other areas. If you’re active, go on a hike – there’s some absolutely stunning hikes that provide great views and even waterfalls. Also take a drive down PCH – if it’s back open from all the devastating fires – drive from Santa Monica to Malibu. Stop off at Malibu and head to Broad Street Oyster Company for a lunch – great food, however also a fun outdoor mall and it’s right across the street from the ocean.

I can go on and on, however this is one itinerary that will showcase this incredible city without driving you crazy with traffic.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The media industry is relatively small and tight knit. There are some tremendous people within the community that really go out of their way to help support small business such as Barista Media. It’s a sort of “pay it forward” mentality that has helped me thrive in this very difficult world of media. I do my best to help others out as the support is very important in the success of our media businesses.

Website: https://www.baristamedia.com

Image Credits
Cara Stevens
TOTY Awards Organization