We are launching a new series on our blog! The Enginuity Employee Spotlight series will share employee stories, focused on their achievements, personality, successes, challenges, and more to get to know them in and outside of work. The series will build connections among employees and boost belonging and inclusion among our larger community.
Our first employee spotlight features Liana Falcetti, a Market Enginuity Growth Strategist supporting KCRW in Los Angeles, CA. Liana started her Enginuity career as a client success manager four and a half years ago and was recently promoted to growth strategist. In her new role, Liana works with station and Enginuity stakeholders to develop new and enticing product opportunities for the sponsorship team to sell to partners. She is full of personality, and we are excited for you to get to know her better.
Tell us about one of your favorite work stories
Transforming our campus auditorium into a Hollywood ready screening theater for partner screenings as part of our KCRW Summer Nights events. At KCRW we are on the Santa Monica Community College campus and about 3 - 4 years ago we received a giant brand-new building on the campus that had a 200-seat auditorium with a theater-style projector in it. We usually do regular partner screenings at commercial theaters, but we really wanted to activate this theater for our Summer Night events. So, we had free music, food trucks, and DJs for people to enjoy in the courtyard area while we had screenings going on in the auditorium surrounding that.
When it all came down to it, there were a lot of rules in the auditorium space like what it can be used for and who can use it. I remember the first time, no one knew how to use the projector, so I need to figure out who else to hire to work the projector, what other outside sources I needed, connect all the dots, and at the same time not letting our partners know that this was going on behind the scenes. In the end of every event though, we always managed to pull it off to ensure our partners that we could deliver!
What do you like to do outside of work?
I love to cook. I’m a big dinner person and I watch a lot of the Food Network, so I love to go off the ropes of what I see and make it my own. I’m also really good at making homemade salad dressings and roast chicken, so I love to just make different stuff.
I also love to hike, and I live right by Runyon Canyon in LA which is a popular hiking trail. I go there a ton, and I will say it’s an interesting place to see interesting people! But it’s still very fun and it’s the most frequent hiking trail I use. I have attempted to get my cats to come on a leash with me, but it is not happening.
My family, friends, and I love eating and trying out new restaurants. Since my family all lives around here, we love to meet up at new places that we haven't tried before.
What is the most important thing you have learned in the last five years?
How much flexibility and attention to detail play into being good at this job. So much of what we do is neither black or white and we really live and win in the gray. Learning in this job, especially as we’ve grown as a company, we’ve worked to establish processes amongst our team to make things more established and easier.
But, at the same time as we build that and our team grows, we still take the time with each partner because every situation, every partner, and every campaign they spend with us is different. So even though you set up all these rules, a lot of the work lives in being flexible and paying attention to details in making these accommodations for our partners, and our ability to do those things makes us a stronger media organization.
What would people never guess you do in your role?
I get to work with our fabulous hosts and DJs here at KCRW as we hire them out to moderate partner events. We’ve really figured out a way to go beyond host and DJ employment with the station. We’ve learned how to monetize and advance our opportunities with partner events. So, whether it’s monitoring a conversation or DJing for a museum event, we’ve really become an outlet to where our partners can come to us. Since they’re already advertising with us for these events, we get to just amplify the station’s reach by hiring out the talent needed to participate in these events. I love how we've really grown that area.
Where would you like to go on a dream vacation?
I would love to go to the Maldives. It seems really cool, the oceans are super clear, and it looks so pretty. I’m a huge beach relaxer, so if I ever do get to go to the Maldives I would just want to lay out on the beach, go into the water, and kind of just hang out and eat food.
Liana is excited to see what the future holds for our company and herself (which hopefully includes a trip to the Maldives soon). If you’re in LA or plan to visit, Liana would be more than happy to give you her favorite restaurant recommendations, especially sushi or Mexican! Consider reaching out to her to say hello at liana.falcetti@kcrw.org.
