Most people don’t quite understand what we do.

• “You make magazines” – Well, yes. We do. But we we also do a TON of other things! (I’ll get into that later)
• “You sponsor events”- Yes, that happens. We love being a part of the Columbia community and it brings us joy to sponsor and support our local organizations.
• “You photograph things.”- That is also part of what we do. We photograph lots of things and we have the opportunity to work with some of the best photographers ever.
• “You go to a lot of coffee shops.”- We do spend a lot of time at coffee shops. Coffee helps us be creative. But more than that, coffee shops offer us a place, outside of an office setting, to meet with clients. (see my post about how much I love coffee to reiterate this point.)
• “You have an awesome job.” – YES. We do awesome things here. And we all LOVE what we do. That’s a rare thing, people. It’s rare get 20+ people in one office and all love what you do.

So, I thought for this blog post I might give you some insight into our team. Each Wednesday, we all get together in our Columbia office and have a staff meeting. It’s a time for us to catch up on what we’re working on, what’s going on in the community and what each brand is up to. We have four divisions to our company; COMO Living Magazine, Columbia Business Times, Jefferson City Magazine and Business Times Interactive.

Over the last year, we have hired 12 people. 12 PEOPLE in 12 MONTHS. That’s crazy growth and we wouldn’t be where we are today without those people. The magical thing is how each division meshes together and how we support each other. Those of you that know some people on our team know that we have a “no gossip” rule and the coolest thing is that we really, truly mean it. We don’t talk bad about each other but instead, we care. I think I can speak for everyone on this team when I say I am lucky to work at this company.

Our fearless President is Erica Pefferman. If you want to know a little bit more about her, read her PYSK interview here.

Our other fearless leaders include Dave Baugher, Al Germond and Renea Sapp.

The rest of our team consists Amy Ferrari, Fran Elkin, Megan Whitehead, Matt Patston, Brenna McDermott, Keith Borgmeyer, Cassidy Shearrer, Jordan Watts, Deb Valvo, Tami Turner, Janelle Wilbers Haley, Kate Morrow, Heather McGee, JJ Carlson, Eileen Koppy, Jamie Patterson, Crystal Richardson and myself. Plus we have some amazing interns!

We do a lot. We take photos, we eat food that we photograph, we go to coffee shops, we sponsor things, we make magazines, we create websites, we eat doughnuts, we celebrate birthdays and workaversaries, we throw baby showers, we go to happy hour, we have a book club (well, two actually) and so much more. But what is really boils down to is this: we are passionate about creating the best content for our readers. We are passionate about supporting our community, our clients and each other. We are passionate about making sure we’re ahead of the game and that we do what we say we are going to do.

That’s The Business Times Company.