Hustler of The Week: Nicole Russodivito

In honor of The Comedy Point’s 2 year anniversary, we will spotlight a person or group of people that are pursuing their dreams and passions through running their own business. This week we are honored to feature Nicole Russodivito of EatDrinkNewJersey.com.

Check out Nicole’s Website: EatDrinkNewJersey.com/

Follow EatDrinkNewJersey on Twitter: @EatDrinkNJ

Follow EatDrinkNJ on YouTube: EatDrinkNewJersey

Like EatDrinkNewJersey on Facebook: EatDrinkNewJersey

How did you get into your business?

Nicole: After many grueling months of deciding a major in college I finally chose Public Relations because I felt that out of all the majors it showcased my personality the best. I love working with people, networking, promoting events and I have many creative ideas which are all characteristics of PR. In my studies I realized PR is much more than just those qualities, as PR can be considered for many different things, but I stuck it out in hopes that it would help me in the future. In school I had 3 internships, all in 3 different sectors of PR to see which I liked the best. Coming from a family that has owned restaurants for 26 years and being a serious fat kid, food/beverage PR was my favorite. Unfortunately I graduated in 2009, which was one of the worst years for the recession. I must have applied to over 10,000 jobs in the 2 years after graduating and only had 5 interviews, which I wasn’t chosen for any. Seeing this was going nowhere I decided that I needed to stand out from the other 1,000 people my interviewer was probably seeing so I started my own food blogs. I always loved writing and food, and from my PR classes I learned how to make websites and the social media aspect of marketing. I created www.Nikkilovesfood.com, which was a foodie blog and www.CiaoDownNY.com, which was a food critic blog. Those domains expired so I’m guessing they’re up for grabs, which is upsetting, but I can’t keep paying for websites I can’t manage anymore. EatDrinkNewJersey is my life now and I give it 100%! Landing the job at EatDrinkHoboken.com (our website before EatDrinkNewJersey) was a miracle. My boss actually opened my resume, read that I had these 2 blogs and gave me a shot! I never let him regret it since.

Was there any overlap between starting your business and working a “day” job?

Nicole:

This isn’t technically my business, but we are a very small team of 3 and freelancers. I was managing my own websites EatDrinkHoboken.com & EatDrinkJerseyCity.com while my co-worker managed EatDrinkMorristown.com & EatDrinkMontclair.com and my boss handled the technical and sales side of the website. Now that we are one, we work more together, but I did have to stop writing on my own blogs since EatDrink required so much attention!

Describe your craziest day of juggling your professional and personal life?

Nicole:

For the first month I had no personal life! We were going through a redesign and my old website had to be transferred to my new website word for word, picture for picture. It was exhausting, but we got through it! I think I was clocking 70 hour weeks for a month straight!

Many people tell me that I work all the time, but I’m passionate about what I do, so I never look at it the way people in corporate America do. Do you live to work or work to live?

Nicole:

I live to work THIS job. This is probably the only job that I’ve ever been obsessed with, where I don’t mind working all the time. I mean, wouldn’t you stay at work till 1am if you were drinking and taking pictures with the Manzos? : )

Where do you see yourself and your company in 10 years?

Nicole:

I hope in 10 years we have 100 EatDrink websites all over the world! I really want to open EatDrinkConnecticut.com and EatDrinkLongIsland.com next!

With the launch of our EatDrink VIP card our website has really taken off. You get 10% all our restaurants/bars ALL THE TIME (well, except happy hour deals) and bonus days as well. It’s pretty crazy. In 10 years I hope to be a director or president of something in the company (hint hint, Dave (my boss) cough cough)

Does your current living location have anything to do with having your own business or could you live anywhere?

Nicole:

I am the editor of EatDrinkNewJersey.com and I actually live in NY! (Not sure if I’m supposed to say that), but I live 6 miles from the NJ state line so I get my gas in NJ, buy my clothes in NJ and go to the shore in NJ. My commute from my house to Hoboken is 36 miles but I leave after rush hour, so it’s cool. Now that we are EatDrinkNewJersey I cover all of North Jersey which really isn’t bad.

Some people have an office or work from home, what is your most productive work environment?

Nicole:Both. When I’m inputting events I like to work from home because it’s a complete computer job, but when I’m writing articles on my restaurants, obviously I have to be there, and certain events I have to be there as well. We meet every Monday morning in Hoboken for our team meeting. Every day is different and that keeps me on my toes!