Meet Allie Coates | Digital Marketer & Content Creator

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

Hi Allie, why did you pursue a creative career?
I’ve always been naturally drawn to the arts. I grew up heavily involved in musical theatre with childhood hopes of being a performer on Broadway. But I think with anything, your dreams and career aspirations can change with lived experiences. My first real experience with social media and creating content was running Broadway fan pages. I think that initial dream led me to my current skill set and equipped me with a lot of curiosity and focus on the digital realm. Social media is such a new space, and I don’t think I understood the breadth of what could be accomplished by it. I’ve been afforded some amazing opportunities and experiences because of social media and have been fortunate enough to have parents that encouraged me to do whatever made me happy. I always found it funny when people would ask me in college how my parents felt about the career path I was going on, and I’d always laugh because the other option was me focusing on musical theatre, so comparatively, this seemed very stable.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ve worked in the social realm professionally since I was about 16 years old. I’ve always loved digital media and the ability to build relationships and networks across the world. I moved out to LA to go to Pepperdine and initially only wanted to work in the entertainment industry. But I ran into many roadblocks as a freshly 18-year-old up for the same internships as upperclassmen. I quickly pivoted from closing myself off to only entertainment jobs. Most of my early career experiences were heavily PR focused but coming to LA, I was presented with social media roles. I quickly excelled and realized that this was something I enjoyed and felt confident enough to pursue. The biggest lesson I learned through my early career was that working for a brand you truly believe in and want to succeed in is the best motivator. When you feel like your role and work are meaningful and impactful, it’s the ultimate reward and encourager.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
This question is kind of tough because there’s so many amazing things to do in LA! I will say however I am super biased towards the westside. I’d start the day off with a nice little beach bike ride from Santa Monica to Venice. Then grab brunch at Fig Tree while hanging out and watching the waves. I’m also a big shopper so I’d probably go to Abbot Kinney and walk up and down for a bit, I tend to that every weekend anyways, and then stop for lunch at one of the amazing restaurants over there. I’m a big people watcher and I love sitting at Intelligentsia in the afternoon to just hang out, read, and see what’s going on. Dinner of course at another stellar LA restaurant, I’ve been obsessed with Ospi recently. Then grab a few drinks at Hotel Erwin’s rooftop and head over to Winston House to complete the night. Super basic westside but honestly you can’t go wrong.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I owe my success and experiences to so many people in my life. First and foremost, my parents, who allowed me to go a less traditional route and encouraged me to have a strong work ethic, and for supporting this journey, even if there were many moments when they didn’t quite understand it. They’re at the core, the reason why I am where I am, and I’m so thankful to them for the ways they’ve pushed me to be the best version of myself. I’m also really blessed to be surrounded by a lot of creatives and people who respect the work I’m doing in social media. I think surrounding yourself with people who will uplift the work you do is super important.

Website: https://alliercoates.wixsite.com/allie-coates

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coatesallie/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coatesallie/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/coatesallie