Meet Roxy Garrity

Today we’d like to introduce you to Roxy Garrity.

Hi Roxy, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I was born and raised in Winston-Salem, NC, and went to The University of Florida. I studied journalism and worked in TV news for nearly a decade (markets included Tallahassee, Winston-Salem/Greensboro/High-Point, Nashville, and NYC).

While in NYC, I created a fashion/weather app and that was my first entrepreneurial endeavor. After I exited, I went back to media, but this time it was digital media at the startup LittleThings. In 2017, my husband and I had our daughter. Soon after, LittleThings was sold and my husband was offered a job based in Raleigh. We visited the city and saw it as a wonderful place to make our forever home.

While here I did notice a lack of media content for young women. So, I’ve created our website (www.theraleighdurhamgirl.com) and we’re in the process of creating content. Our content is different from other media outlets in our market. We’re not publishing any negative news, instead, we’re covering things like real estate, relationships, and lifestyle/entertainment.

We currently have more than 5,000 fans on Facebook and are working on growing our other social media platforms and email list. Raleigh is one of the fastest-growing cities in the US and this metro area ranks number 3 in a list of best locations for young adults who want to move. While building The Raleigh-Durham Girl I hope to create a business model where other women can lead.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The most significant struggles, and one that affected my previous startup, are Facebook and social media algorithms changing. That’s why we’re diversifying how we reach our audience with the email newsletter and eventually events.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
The Raleigh-Durham Girl is a hyper-local media company and helpful guide that makes it easy for entrepreneurs, young professionals, and families to connect.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term hyper-local — it’s a niche audience, in our case millennial women in a specific geographical location, and for us of course it’s the Triangle. Why Millennial women? Well, they get their news digitally first and they currently have nearly 2-hundred billion in buying power. This ad revenue-generating business model has been proven successful in other cities.

According to a Neilson study, 92-percent of millennials consume digital video news and the digital-first news shift is actually happening for all generations. I see my business becoming the first hyper-local media company in the market specifically catering to millennial/gen z women. I see Raleigh as our headquarters but will build a business model that will allow us to expand or franchise to other markets.

Since 2015, I’ve been focused on viral internet news and videos. I was one of the first to create food hack videos and shareable Facebook Live content that was even bought by Facebook and made into a World Series TV commercial. I currently have a team of local female freelancers.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
All of the leaders at LittleThings while I was there (Maia, Gretchen, Joe) and my journalism mentor and former national ESPN Sports Reporter Darren Lyn. My parents especially my mom who has been our main babysitter during COVID. The Raleigh SCORE program has been a fantastic resource too.

Contact Info:

• Email: theraleighdurhamgirl@gmail.com
• Website: https://theraleighdurhamgirl.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theraleighdurhamgirl/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theraleighdurhamgirl
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRDUGirl
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsTltKlqk6GzL30h2P_8Ttw