Meet Liane Agbi | CEO & Magazine Publisher

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

Hi Liane, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I started BAUCE Magazine when I first moved to New York City because I was inspired by the many ambitious women of color I continued to meet while I was there. New York City is one of the few places on earth where multiple people are grinding to make their dreams come true and I was constantly curious about how relentless some people are at manifesting and making their dreams a reality. At this time, I was working as an overnight web producer for a TV station; with the odd hours I had a lot of free time on my hands and so I decided to leverage those dead hours between midnight and 4 am when there wasn’t any local news working on content for the website. For me, I truly wanted to create an online destination where women of color could learn the secrets and tips to get ahead in their careers and successfully become self-made women. At this time I was the sole content creator for the website; I wrote and edited every blog and was fixated on improving the website’s layout. In these early days, I wasn’t getting many views on the website. But with consistency and time, the website’s readership started to grow as I continued to manage BAUCE Magazine as an entrepreneurial side hustle.

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?
BAUCE Magazine is the premier lifestyle site for self-made woman. We create and curate content that helps ambitious women from multicultural backgrounds, who are often not born with a “silver spoon” or the network needed to attain access to high-profile opportunities, build their empires, achieve financial freedom, and look good while doing it. A BAUCE woman is someone who had to attain their success from the ground up; she embodies the hustler’s spirit and continuously works towards her dreams — she never takes no for an answer.

What makes BAUCE different from other lifestyle publications is our focus on the “self-made” woman. Although we understand that you do need support and advocacy on your way to the top of your industry there is still an unreliable sense of self-drive, discipline and internal motivation that is necessary to succeed in life and it is those tenets that we seek to highlight and focus on in our content. At BAUCE, our goal is to create content that helps our readers tap into a stronger mindset, inspires them to take action, strengthens their financial skills, and elevates their lifestyles so that they can become the powerhouse woman they have so long dreamt of being.

Building BAUCE Magazine has not been easy; the content space is extremely crowded and when I first started the website we were making PENNIES from display ads because there were not many readers. I also was juggling so many hats as the sole proprietor behind the brand. However, I am most proud of the commitment I maintained to the brand’s mission because that is what inspired me to not give up on growing the BAUCE brand, slowly expanding our team, and keep pushing. I credit consistency for what allowed us to boost our traffic, attract high-level sponsors for our in-person events and eventually launch an online membership community that gives our readers direct access to BAUCE women that are committed to helping them soar to new heights in their careers and businesses.

The biggest lesson I have learned from running an online magazine is to know your niche and stick to it from the beginning. You will get a lot farther as a publication that is seen as an expert in a few closely related topics than one that is trying to dabble in way too many topics. If you think about your favorite media brands they are typically known for one thing they do well: news, fashion, beauty, entertainment – the list goes on. At BAUCE, our decision to transition away from covering everything for women of color and to solely focus on career and entrepreneurial success is what really allowed us to elevate our brand and find relevance within our audience.

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?
Although I am originally from Atlanta, New York City was always my dream city and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to have experienced the rich culture of NYC (there is still so much more to see!). The city’s arts and culture scene is pretty unmatched because you can honestly find so many historical sites to explore, exhibits to see, fashions to gawk at, musical concerts to listen to, foods to try, and plays to watch. If a friend was visiting me in NYC I would have us:

Wake up early for a brisk walk through Prospect Park
Head to brunch on Saturday at Anejo in Tribeca
Sober up while shopping around Soho
Check out The Edge in Hudson Yards
Do some fine dining at Nobu
Take an uber home to The Dominick Hotel
Enjoy the starlight and city views from the penthouse hotel room

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?
BAUCE wouldn’t be where it is without the interest, support, and dedication of its contributors! Several ambitious women have written for our magazine over the years, sharing their hacks, business insights, and life advice with our readers. It is because of their internal passion to seeing other women succeed that BAUCE Magazine has existed for as long as it has. I am extremely grateful for all of the women who have contributed their content to our website and I look forward to seeing BAUCE continue to grow with the next generation of committed writers.

Website: http://baucemag.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/millianeire/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liane-agbi/

Image Credits
Photo Credit: BAUCE Magazine