Live Your Best Life Barefoot
Live Your Best Life Barefoot
EP #4: Back-to-School with Angeli Chin: Marketing Director Edison Mall
It's back-to-school season, and what better way to prepare for the new school year than by speaking with Angeli Chin, Marketing Director at the Edison Mall, in Fort Myers.
The Edison Mall is not just a mall, it's a community resource and community partner. They will be hosting a multitude of events this school year to benefit the Southwest Florida community.
Check out their website to find out more about the events they are hosting by visiting, http://shopedisonmall.com.
To learn more:
https://barefootbungalowrealty.com/
Barefoot Bungalow Realty & Property Management
9200 Bonita Beach Rd SE, Suite 100
Bonita Springs, FL 34135
(239) 350-5535
Welcome to the live your best life barefoot podcast with your host, Mary Mourtisen and Chris McCabe of Barefoot Bungalow Realty. Welcome to episode six of Life Your Best Live Barefoot. Mary
Speaker 2:and Chris are here with you and we have a special guest Angeli Chin. She's the marketing director at Edison mall. Welcome Angeli.
Speaker 3:Thank you. It's so wonderful to be here.
Speaker 2:Tell us a little bit about what you do at Edison mall. I found it fascinating, your role and, and some of the things you're bringing to the table for them. Okay. Well,
Speaker 3:Edison mall is a premier Goodwill ambassador. That's focusing on providing a safe, diverse family oriented center that is culturally a nd economically impactful for our Southwest Florida community. So within that a nd our 1 million square foot completely climate controlled center, we have over 160 retailers, with dining and shopping and beautiful fountains with events that we put on for the community to help build relationships and become a community partner. That
Speaker 2:right there is fabulous. I hadn't really thought about that until we talked about, you would think with our deluge of rain that we get and our weather in general. That would be a huge, important thing for people looking for events and, or even just you know, an afternoon of shopping. I mean, yes, weather control. I mean, climate controlled is huge.
Speaker 3:It's huge Coastline Center and Edison mall are the only two in Lee and Collier county that are completely under air. Yeah, that's fabulous.
Speaker 2:So you've had some great events. Tell us about those.
Speaker 3:We've had the first ever Southwest Florida black expo here at Edison mall. We just completed our freedom fast, which happened on June 26th, this Saturday, this past Saturday, where we invited vehicles. We had an antique firetruck here, we had a helicopter land on property. We had different types of vehicles, live bands. We had a petting zoo, food trucks, and beer garden. We raised money for the American Legion post 38, which is the oldest post in Florida. And actually I believe was the first post to be established here in Florida, right here in Fort Myers, downtown. The Southwest Florida Black Expo, which happened in April, brought over a hundred different vendors throughout our Southwest Florida community. It was a three-day event. It was fabulous. We have lots of events were planned out all of the 2021 through 2022. We have life paintings going on. So right now I'd like to make a call for artists. If you're an artist or know one, please contact us. We have different themes. We do canvases. We do the planters within the mall and columns. So we're looking for more artists. We'd love to share case you and become part of our community.
Speaker 4:Wow. Sounds like you do so much thats impressive. Do you have a large staff or do you do a lot of this by yourself?
Speaker 3:I have my marketing coordinator and myself. We do all the marketing here, so we help our tenants market themselves. We market throughout in house to our staff, which is seven people. Each handling a different area of the mall. We also have our housekeeping and security staff here. And we just want to communicate that Edison mall is not just a mall. It is a town center, community resource and community partner. Good to know.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I'd like to take a minute and have us tell you a little, have you tell us a little bit, have you tell us a little bit about how you ended up in this position and your background?
Speaker 3:My background is I'm originally from New York. I think that I've been in marketing and public relations since I was an infant. I always l ove to tell stories, And I've been an advocate of causes for forever. And so building relationships and you know, being able to communicate a nd t ell p eople's stories has come second nature to me. I saw the ad h ere, well let me backtrack a little bit. I've worked in magazines and in print before, I've worked in agencies before I had my own business and then COVID hit, which took a toll on a lot of businesses and as you know, a very small business and, you know, having my clients, my clients to ok a really big head. So I had to refocus and do things differently. All the ad here for marketing director and on a whim said, why not? I can do it. I loved what was going on and went in for a procedure, came out. They called me, went in for the interview and it was serendipity. It's been the most perfect role. I have never worked with a more fabulous team in my life. Everyone is definitely focused. And all on the same page, we have the one goal in mind, which is being a community partner, being all inclusive and working with each other toward making this the best place ever. I love that. That's great.
Speaker 4:I know every time I drive by there always seems to be a lot of activity in the parking lot that there's a, maybe a carnival, or like you said, the artists or something going on there, right. Brings a lot of people to the
Speaker 3:area. It's a renewed sense of purpose, I believe. It's been under new management for the past couple of years and our general manager, Brad Lunn has been wonderful and leading this team to new directions i n new heights. I love it. And
Speaker 2:I would love for you to share with us some of the things on the horizon and ways that our listeners can help you with some of those things that you have planned.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Well, we are always looking for small businesses to come in. They want to expand their business. We have leasing options available, July 31st we'll have our big back to school event. We're going to stuff a bus with school supplies for our schools in the community. Mostly for the underserved communities. We have a, which also,
Speaker 2:Well, it's like, you're going to have a literal bus that you're going to stuff full of schools supplies.
Speaker 3:Yes. We will have a literal school bus that we're going to stuff full of school
Speaker 2:Supplies. Yeah, that's great
Speaker 3:It also since July 31st at the start of the free tax week it'll be a great time and it's g oing t o be a t wo w eek long event. So we actually start the stuff the bus event the week before. The back to school event will also have a fashion show. We're also bringing in the district to highlight Stem and showcase some of the Stem projects within the different schools. August 14th will be our teacher appreciation. So we're going to appreciate all of our teachers here in Lee county with a day of art and some surprises. There's lots, let's see, September, we have a food truck rally that will be happening. So we're looking forward to that. Every month we have a Farm& Flea, where we have local artisans and crafts available for sale here in th e m a ll. Is that a certain
Speaker 2:Day, each month?
Speaker 3:They're at different dates. We ask everyone to visit shop Edisonmall.com for our calendar events. They're all listed out for the ones that are already scheduled. So you can check those out f rom o ur events. We also ask that you follow us on Facebook and Instagram. You can also call the office at(239) 939-1933 and w e'll help get you more information.
Speaker 2:Well, you just answered my next question of how we get ahold of you. You read my mind. Tell us one thing you would like our listeners to know about the community, what you do, anything that you feel like is really crucial for them to know.
Speaker 3:Fort Myers is the fastest growing city in the U S, so working together with us can only help this community grow and prosper and make the changes that need to happen within the community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's huge. We have a great community.
Speaker 3:Yes, we do. And can only go higher and faster than ever.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Thank you so much, Angeli for joining us again with Angeli Chin, the marketing director from Edison mall. And you can go check out what they have in store for you at shopEdisonmall.com. And thank you. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3:Right. You know what,
Speaker 4:Angeli I really enjoyed meeting you and learn more about Edison mall. And, you've inspired me to go to some of those events a nd s pread t he word. Visit
Speaker 3:Us, check us out. Become our partner.
Speaker 2:The next question, you know, we've talked a lot about specific community and individual events. Is there something for businesses to do?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. We have annual sponsorships where you could become an annual sponsor for all of our events. We do have indoor advertising available. If you'd like to do a pop-up or to have a kiosk for a weekend or a few days or a week short-term leases, we have that available as well. We do have a diverse community walking through our mall every day. So your audience is here, right?
Speaker 4:I'd love to have, I'd love to have you as my guest at our local networking events. I know you guys met at the chamber, is that right? And then we also, I attend a couple of networking events in Fort Myers, not far from the mall. So I'll get in touch with you and perhaps we can have you come there and it's all a group of local businesses, you know, you can meet them and share what you do and possibly get some you know, some sponsorship
Speaker 3:That would be great. I would love to. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you again. We kind of diverged a little bit. You're so fascinating. There's so much.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's so easy to talk to. This was great.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you. And this is Mary and Chris with Barefoot Bungalow Realty, remember to live your best life barefoot.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the live your best life barefoot podcast, sponsored by Barefoot Bungalow Realty. To learn more about barefoot bungalow, really go to www.barefootbungalowrealty.com or call 2 3 9 3 5 0 5 5 3 5.