Building a Business and Staying Inspired- with Editor of Scarlett Magazine, Mary Aho

Building a Business and Staying Inspired- with Editor of Scarlett Magazine, Mary Aho

Mary Aho started a new fabulous woman's magazine alongside of her dad Steve Barber as the Publisher, with the first issue that came out January 2021. Tune in to starting a business in 2020, working with family, staying inspired in everyday life, what makes this magazine different and so much more!

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M- I’m originally from Georgia, vacationed here in my childhood- and relocated about 17 years ago. I’m married to an amazing man with two beautiful children.

S- Touch more about this fabulous new magazine!

M- The name of the magazine is Scarlett after my daughter, it’s a women’s magazine. We decided that the area didn’t have anything like this and thought it would be a great fit and care about women and wanted something women could enjoy and connect to.

S- I’ve talked to a lot of people, and each woman has love a different piece of it.

M- We’ve gotten feedback that it’s all ages too, everyone is finding something that they enjoy and that was the goal that everyone could read it and find something they enjoy.

Our tagline is “frankly we know you give a damn” which is a play of the words from Gone with The Wind and it fits the sass and attitude we bring to the magazine. That was my dad Steve Barber, the publisher - his idea and love seeing that come to life.

S- you started during Covid, so talk about that adventure

M- There is a lot of free time, and in that time we’ve had a lot of time to think of new ideas and around mid Covid- My dad Steve came to me and said I have a great idea- i want to start a woman’s magazine but obviously i’m not a woman- but i think you’d be a great editor. I said i’m in, i love it! That’s how it got started, and then months of bouncing ideas and coming up with content and idea of what we wanted it to be and the audience and that’s how we got to the first issue. It was a great time to get going on something new

S- Was this an idea that just came about this year or was this a project you wanted to do prior to 2020?

M- Since i was old enough to know what business was- we wanted to do something together. In my adult life, i worked with my dad in PR companies and he did events and i wrote for publications in the past and things evolved and now on this perfect fit for a women’s magazine.

S- Talk about what’s in store for this magazine

M- The content is never ending- we’re so excited because we could fill 50 magazines with the ideas we’ve had. We have book clubs, women who do what typically males do, we want to keep growing and be for everyone. We currently cover from Panama city to Pensacola. We touch all along the emerald coast and we hope to grow i have national dreams. For now we’re covering all the space we can.

S- something unique is starting this with your dad, talk a little bit more about that

M- working with family can be hard, luckily for me it isn’t hard. we have a very good relationship, he’s my best friend. we have such similar ideas and sense of humor, it’s been easy. We’re just hanging out and enjoying what we love doing.

Steve Barber Publisher with daughter Mary Aho Editor of Scarlett Magazine

S- What i love seeing how of the two of you interact and see the banter and see the creative ideas.

M- Right and we have all these inside jokes and you usually can catch us in one of those which can get us in trouble at an event but that’s part of the fun of working together and it really helps with us being creative. Frankly you know you give a damn was us cutting up and joking around.

S- Even the layout is so strong and beautiful and still touches of feminine.

M-we can really thank our creative director Jessica for that. I can tell her a thought, and it’s like she’s gone into my brain and done it but better that’s how good she is. She’s a huge part of our team, and without her the magazine wouldn’t have that charm.

S- What makes this magazine stand out and decide on this one?

M- Most magazines in this area, since it’s a destination and tourist based community it’s a lot of lifestyle events, so there’s nothing like this here or women’s magazines that are active. women are statistically the money spenders and decisions makers and we wanted to show them what we thought they’d like to see. Scarlett is a little different, it’s not stuffy it’s like you’re sitting like a glass of wine having a girl talk.

S- can we jump on how amazing your ideas are and how you stay inspired?

M- i’m inspired in my daily life, along with being the editor for Scarlett and during that time i’m home with a 2 and 4 year old. I learn a lot about being a woman just by being home but by my friends, cooking dinner. I keep a pen and pad and i write down things things i’d be interested in learning about. I then pitch them to Jessica and my Dad and we go from there and it’s daily life.

S- Stranger sessions is a specific feature that’s been popular so chat about that

M- It’s something i saw on TikTok- it’s a photoshoot where it’s a blind date and they meet as they take off their blindfolds. When i saw it, i don’t know how we can convey this in a magazine but we’re going to do it! so now we’ll do 5 more for the rest of the year. we had a blast shooting it, the first couple is still seeing each other. It’s quite the social experiment but it’s been great.

S- It’s geared towards women- but there is a feature for men too

M- Yes, it’s called a few good men. we recognize 3 men each issue in the community who are doing great things, giving back, just great guys and we love having them in there.

Even though it’s a women’s magazine, men can enjoy reading it too- there’s some great content!

S- And that feature too is fun to see all the cuties around too!

How did you know it was time to start this magazine

M-2020. What a year, everyone was so over it and we needed something to look forward to too, and this gave us that. It gave us something and it was a breath of fresh air. It was overdo.

S- You talked about inclusion before we started recording, talk about that!

M- When i told my dad i’m down to do this, under one condition, we make everyone feel they belong here. I don’t care what you look like, what you weigh, who you love, but you belong here.we’ve all picked up those magazines that we can’t relate too. It was important they all could feel they were hanging out with a friend. It was really important that everyone was included in some way.

S- any advice to those listening to get started on the thing that’s on our heart?

M- to just not be afraid of failure. This is a big task and starting from scratch but just having the mindset- what do you have to lose? and here we are with the first issue and now it makes you hungry for more and work harder on the next one and just go for it.

S- How can we find you and Scarlett!

M- scarlettmag.com facebook Scarlett magazine instagram scarlett.magazine to read and subscribe issuu.com

S- i’ll link all of those too!

M- Back to stranger sessions, we take applications for that too!