Day 90: Angela Peabody
“… we all have the same experiences, and we all have one common bond. We are all women, and our bodies are structured the same way. We are susceptible to the same diseases and the same successes, so why not bring all of us together in one common medium, share our stories with each other so that we can inspire each other. That’s what it’s all about.”
.
.
Right click here to download…
.
Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Angela, for taking your time to be with us on the project today. Before we begin the interview, can you please introduce yourself?
Angela Peabody: I’m Angela Peabody, a publisher of Global Woman Magazine.
Toni: Well thank you. Thank you again for being here today. Angela, when you think of the word inspiration, who do you inspire and how do you do that?
Angela: When I think of inspiration, I think that through Global Woman Magazine I inspire all women in the world; women from various religious backgrounds regardless of their nationalities or their races. I inspire women from all over the world. I think that the purpose of Global Woman Magazine is to inspire women from all religions and nationalities and races, and I set out to do that.
Toni: How do you do that? How does that inspiration happen?
Angela: Well, I bring women’s stories to other women in the world. For instance, a woman in Australia, her story might inspire a woman in Japan or in Kenya, East Africa. It’s true women’s stories. It’s all about women inspiring women and women helping women, women motivating women, and that’s what the magazine is all about.
Toni: How do you think someone reading these stories or even sharing the stories with you, how does that then help others to explore their potential?
Angela: If a woman in Australia, for example, pulled herself out of … and I don’t know if I’m using the right terminology, pulled herself out … but if she was homeless, for example, and she was able to get herself out of homelessness by working and pursuing her goals and her dreams and doing something with her life productively to become successful, and we print her story in the magazine, and another woman in the United States reads it who might be on the brink of being homeless or is homeless, that is an inspiration for that woman in America or for that woman in South America or Africa or Asia.
That’s how it’s done. And it’s worked because, since the magazine has been in print, I’ve received numerous emails telling me that the stories in the magazines have inspired them.
Toni: Wow, that’s fantastic and very, very powerful. Really for me, what it shows is that it doesn’t matter where we are in the world but we all might be experiencing the same things under different circumstances but can definitely learn from each other.
Angela: Absolutely. Women, regardless of where we are, like you said, in the world, we experience, we get breast cancer, we become employed or we are dismissed from our jobs, or we have hardships. We lose our homes and we purchase homes. It’s all over the world. We get sick and we get well and we have success stories. We all get the same pain.
A woman in Dubai recently said to me when I was at a conference there, “We want American women to know that when our finger is cut, the same color of blood comes out of it like theirs.” It carried a ring to me because that is so absolutely true that we all have the same experiences, and we all have one common bond. We are all women, and our bodies are structured the same way. We are susceptible to the same diseases and the same successes, so why not bring all of us together in one common medium, share our stories with each other so that we can inspire each other. That’s what it’s all about.
Toni: And again, as I said earlier, that’s a very powerful thing. Angela, when you think about the word inspiration, what do you need to be inspired?
Angela: What inspires me? It’s so easy. It’s part of me. What inspires me really is when I receive emails from women around the world and they tell me what a story in Global Woman did for them. Their inspiration, their motivation inspires me.
Example: I ran a story about a young Liberian lady who was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 32 in one of my earlier editions of the magazine, and I received an email from a 40-year-old woman in Japan and she said “I just want to thank Global Woman for helping to save my life, because I read the story on the young woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 32.” She said “I’m 40 years old, I have never had a mammogram done, but I went out immediately and made arrangements to have my first mammogram done in 40 years.”
That story really inspired me, and since it was the early years of the magazine, it told me “Yes, Angela, you are doing the right thing” and it made me push forward and to keep the magazine in print.
Whenever I think about that woman’s story, I know that inspires me to keep going. And no matter what road block I come up against with the magazine, I know that I need to keep going because there are more of that women in Japan all around the world that need that kind of inspiration from a story in Global Woman Magazine. So that keeps me going. That keeps me inspired.
A woman in Hawaii wrote and said “I have been writing for half my life, and I’ve never been published. Nobody ever gave me the opportunity to publish my work, but Global Woman published my story in their magazine, so I became a published writer.”
Those are the stories that inspire me.
Toni: And you are moving so many people forward by presenting such a forum to share those stories. Are there other things also, Angela, maybe not things but, I don’t know, are there tools or resources that you reach for that are outside of your magazine to help you to stay inspired, when you know you need to be filled up? Do you reach for things?
Angela: Yes, absolutely, every day. Every day I’m constantly on the internet surfing and researching because we never know enough, we never have enough information. There is no such thing, especially in the media business, as you know. We’re always looking for new avenues and new ideas, new content. We have a structured type of content which our niche is geared toward women and girls; however, I’m always open to receiving more information.
For example, a couple of years after we launched the magazine, I was approached by a young man in California who wanted to write a special column in the magazine. We called it “In His Words”, and he still writes for the magazine. He’s a man, but he’s writing to women from a man’s perspective, and his column has become very popular among women because they want to hear what a man … how he feels about women and what he perceives of women from their perspective. And the “In His Words” column has become really, really popular; so we are always open to new ideas.
I’m constantly searching and looking for new ways to improve the magazine, to improve our content to win over new subscribers, new readership, always. I read books a lot just teaching myself on this business because it’s a broad range. It’s a broad industry, and you have to be on top of everything.
Toni: Well, that leads me into the fourth question of the Project, which is what do you need to explore your own potential?
Angela: What I need? I need a lot of things because Global Woman is still a baby. It’s still in its infancy stage. As my son always tells me, “We’re watching.” It’s like watching a child grow up. I still need staff. I still need more staffing. I still need a good strong sales team to take us to where we need to be, where my goal is, where my vision knows that I want to take this magazine.
Global Woman is not … I tell people whenever I’m interviewed that Global Woman is not just a publication, it’s a movement. It’s a movement among women. It’s a lifestyle. And that’s the vision that I saw when I established the magazine. I didn’t just want a publication. And so I’m always looking for tools and for more staffers to come and join this movement and help me make it happen.
Toni: That’s what you need to grow the potential and move the magazine forward, but what do you need for yourself, Angela?
Angela: For myself? I just want the success of Global Woman Magazine. I really want to see it so successful that it is a household name, that every time someone calls the name Global Woman, women will recognize it and men alike in the world will recognize it.
That’s what I want for myself, because for me, per se, I think I’ve already … I haven’t reached my highest potential personally because I’m a writer, I’m an author, and there are so many books that I have outlined that I still have to publish … I have yet to complete and publish. So for myself personally, that’s what I want to do. That’s my goal, to complete all of those books and see them out on the market.
However, for Global Woman Magazine, for me just seeing it very successful in building this empire that I envisioned is all really that I want. I want to see it done before I leave this earth so that I can leave a legacy behind that my grandchildren and children will be proud of. That’s what I want for myself.
Toni: Angela, you have been absolutely wonderful in this interview and really, I tried every which way to ask the question what’s all about you, and it’s about seeing this magazine be successful so that it can help others, and that’s who you inspire and how you go about it. So for that, you’re giving gifts all around here; actually global gifts, aren’t you?
I so appreciate that you took your time to be part of this Project, and we will make sure that the readers and listeners of this interview can reach you or get a link to your magazine so they can see what it’s all about. I can’t thank you enough for sharing your time with us today, Angela. It has meant a lot.
Angela: It was my pleasure. It means a lot to me, and thank you for having me as a guest. It’s an honor.
Toni: You’re welcome.
___________________________________________________________
For more information about Angela Peabody: www.globalwoman-magazine.com
.
Post Comment