This is the final installment of our three-part series on Women’s Small Business Month.
LEWISTON — The glitz and glamor of Madison Avenue still excites Laura Rink and you can hear it in her voice.
But when she and husband Peter Link decided to start their own advertising agency, the lure of New York City—and even Portland—lost to Lewiston. His father, as she describes it, was “in ‘Madman’ he was on his Avenue in Madison.” This is a reference to the advertising industry centered around the iconic Manhattan streets.
Laura Link Russ Dillingham/The Sun Journal
Before diving into entrepreneurship, Laura Rinck was a teacher at Montello Elementary School for eight years before moving to Turner, where she taught talented students.
Three out of four public school teachers in the United States are women, a statistic that hasn’t changed much since the early 1900s, but Rinck says he stepped into a male-dominated scenario at Montello, but he’s not scared. said there wasn’t.
Few things threaten the president of Rinck Advertising. She said her teaching style is non-traditional, she created her own curriculum and only teaches math from her textbooks.
“I tried very hard not to teach the same lesson twice,” she said. “Advertising agency presidents do the same. increase.”
Early days of link advertising
Getting there was not easy. Her first exposure to the world of advertising was when she appeared in a health insurance company commercial with her two children and was asked to speak about her cancer experience. She said she loved the experience, despite the fact that her director Peter Link made her cry during filming.
Advertisement bites and her trademark low threshold for boredom led her, in her 30s, to take an internship in the creative department at Garrand & Company, a Lewiston-based agency that produced advertisements for insurance companies. I searched. She never returned to her teaching job and moved to the agency as a full-time writer.
Fast forward to 2001, and with the country plunged into recession in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Laura and Peter Link decide to create their own agency. They eventually decided to stay in Lewiston for the sake of their children. “We became partners in life and partners in business.”
They started in the midst of an economic downturn with no client list and no office. Still, she said there is hope. She said, “Lewiston was very receptive and let us in. Free office space was provided.”
Rinck’s first client wasn’t a paying client — L/A Arts. So they built on that one pro bono job and won the first of many awards for their work.
As the agency grew and became more successful, Rinck said each year was more difficult, but now the company is its own entity. She said it’s not just Laura and Peter Link.
work in a male-dominated industry
Laura Rinck hangs out Tuesday afternoon at her business, Rinck Advertising, in downtown Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/The Sun Journal
Laura Rinck says when she started her business, she had no idea that advertising was a male-dominated industry. However, it had a well-documented reputation for misogyny and sexism, and was perhaps most famously portrayed on the award-winning television show Mad Men. The show depicts an industry rife with smoking, drinking, sexism, adultery, homophobia, feminism and racism.
Employment data compiled by business data website statista.com shows that while women have made progress in the industry over time, they are still in the minority in 2021. Of the employees in the advertising and promotion industry, she was 42% female and 57% male.
In 2016, a female executive at J. Walter Thompson, perhaps America’s oldest and most famous advertising agency of the 20th century, filed a lawsuit against the company’s CEO, accusing her of sexism and racism. rice field. The executive resigned within a week.
Link said she’s been lucky enough to not have experienced the kind of sexism and misogyny that many other women in the advertising world have had to deal with.
“The great thing about owning your own agency is that you can choose the kind of clients you want to partner with,” she explained. This means partnering with people who share the same values.
At Rinck Advertising, women outnumber men 3 to 1, and 8 of the 10 executives on the team are also women.
“We don’t hire women, we hire the best people,” Rinck sharply said.
I have a checklist — do they align with the agency’s core values? Are they strategic, smart, creative, innovative, genius?
“That’s what I look for — can I be a leader and lead among them? He’s the perfect person for ,” she said.
Link’s advice to any woman who wants to be an entrepreneur, leader, or executive reflects much of her career.
“Be brave in your choices, have a creative vision, and aim for happiness,” she said. “Integrity guides your thinking. Respect yourself and those who come into your life to teach you a lesson…you can always change your course or change your mind. Please know that this is allowed and encouraged.”
More work to do for women’s rights
Link’s focus was further strengthened when asked about pay equity and gender equality.
“There are thousands of women who have no physical autonomy, and that is unacceptable,” Link said, referring to a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year that overturns women’s constitutional rights to abortion. “So when we talk about wage autonomy and things like that, how do we get there when we’re facing the battles we’re facing?”
Statistics on women in business certainly show progress in owning a business and getting a fair wage over the last 50 years.
“We have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go,” she said. We fight every day and not only that, we stand up and speak up. “Look what’s happening in Iran,” she offered. “Women’s rights are human rights and we all don’t enjoy the same rights. ”
Rinck also believes there is a parenting crisis in the country. She said people need to remember that every vote counts as the midterm elections approach and women should understand every candidate’s position on women’s issues and women’s rights such as childcare and health care. Her advice to women struggling to meet the challenges of being a woman today is straightforward.
“Take advantage of your education, especially community colleges in Maine. Many programs are free,” she said. “Having a growth mindset means being willing to learn. It can absolutely improve your life,” she offered. “I feel very fortunate to be in the state with Mills and I think what she has done with community colleges and tuition will inspire young women and young men.”
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